Punch & Judy Theater in Grosse Pointe: What year did it close?...

[Al Publican]

The building that housed the theater still stands as an office building. Was the other theater in GP that was on Jefferson near Alter Rd called the Esquire? What year was it torn down?

[Gistok]

This is an educated guess about the Punch & Judy... since I saw a midnight matinee of Rocky Horror Picture Show there in the late 1970s.... my guess is circa 1982-85.

[56packman]

1984, maybe very early 1985.

[bailey]

Yes. Esquire. IIRC it came down in the late 80s. by then it was the $1.00 show and attracting "the wrong element". Condos are there now.

[eno]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/17292921/P...heatre-History

According to the article above, the Punch & Judy closed in 1986 and was gutted in '87.

[GPCharles]

The only smoking loge in Detroit. Big, high back arm chairs with cigarette urns throughout. Many a beer was consumed up there.

[Al Publican]

I remember seeing Liz Taylor and Marlon Brando in Reflections In A Golden Eye at the Punch & Judy in Nov 67 a few weeks before I shipped out with the Marines for Vietnam. Funny how some movies and songs stick in one's memory for time and place.

[RYANGUARD]

I saw Sippie Wallace there and IIRC Joe Jackson in the late 70's if not the early 80's

[56packman]

After Community theatres stopped running regular movies the Punch was taken over by Lou Bitonti and Larry Lyman, they ran the Rocky Horror midnight shows, rock concerts and movies. The locals didn't like drunks coming out of the theater at 2:30 in the morning and peeing on their lawns, there was a lot of pressure to convert the building to office/medical use.

[Mikeg]

From the Grosse Pointe News archives, the Sept. 5, 1985 edition carried this front page article about the former Punch and Judy Theater [[1.5 MB PDF file):

Theater redevelopment passes first hurdle
Mayor's advisory committee recommends approval

[eastland]

Talking Heads in '78; WABX special for $3.99 a ticket.