Michigan Theater
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Michigan Theater Michigan Building |
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| Michigan Theater 2010 | |
| Basic data | |
| Place: | Detroit, Michigan |
| Opening: | 1926 |
| Renovation: | 1977 |
| Status : | open |
| Architectural style : | French Renaissance |
| Architects : | Cornelius W. and George L. Rapp |
| Use / legal | |
| Usage : | Parking garage |
| Owner : | Bagley Acquisition Corp. |
| Client : | Detroit Properties Corp. |
| Technical specifications | |
| Rank (height) : | previously 4035 seats, today 160 parking spaces |
| Building-costs: | $ 5 million |
The Michigan Theater is part of a 13-story office building on Bagley and Cass Avenues and a former movie theater in Detroit , Michigan , USA. The Michigan interior, designed in the style of the French Renaissance , opened in August 1926 and had a capacity of 4035 seats. It was designed by architects Cornelius W. and George L. Rapp and cost $ 5 million at the time (equivalent to $ 62 million in 2008). The Michigan Theater closed in 1976 and converted into a parking garage in 1977.
Emergence
Originally the office building was to be called the Metropolitan Building and the movie house was to be named Chicago . However, these names were discarded in March 1925. At the same time, the St. Denis Hotel, gas station, restaurant, blacksmith shop, employment agency, Detroit Creamery Co warehouse, Mantle Tile & Grate Co, and other buildings were demolished. The theater owners, Detroit Properties Corp., decided to use the more appropriate names Michigan Building and Michigan Theater.
The Michigan complex was the first piece of an ambitious program for Bagley Avenue and was sponsored by the Stromfeltz Loveley real estate company. The other two key buildings were the United Artists Theater Building and the 22-story Leland Hotel .
The film house was operated by the Chicago-based Balaban & Katz Group in conjunction with Detroit's first theater magnate , John H. Kunsky. It was the showpiece of his theater empire. The Michigan Theater opened on August 23, 1926 with the film You Never Know Women, starring Florence Vidor and Lowell Sherman.
The interior
Kunsky wanted the Michigan Theater to be the greatest venue in the Midwest, a theater for the whole world.
The playhouse was overloaded with extravagant details. The 100 square meter grand lobby was paneled with mirrors and had a checkered black and white floor. The foyer was furnished with pillars and red velvet curtains, marble arches, flower baskets and large crystal chandeliers. A wide staircase with carved balustrades and red carpet led to the upper floor. A large grand piano was used to entertain the guests while they waited for the film to begin. Between each pair of pillars were National Academy oil paintings such as Thomas Hovenden's The Story of the Douglas Volk 's Puritan Girl . With all its sculptures, busts, elaborately crafted furniture, and paintings, the Michigan's foyer looked more like a museum than a movie theater.
The mezzanine floor was initially reserved for invited guests in evening attire. It had gilded foyers, dim lighting, and was decorated with paintings. There were luxurious lounges and cosmetic rooms for the women, and relaxation rooms for the men. Eye-catchers were the replica of a Roman charioteer from the 5th century, the copy of a sculpture from the Sala della Biga in the Vatican Museums and a copy of Amor and Psyche Antonio Canovas .
The theater hall had six rows of corridors on each level, side boxes, three-meter-tall crystal chandeliers , a stage with an orchestra pit and a 5/28 Wurlitzer organ ( cinema organ ) that could be raised onto the stage. Since the films were silent until 1928 , the Michigan Symphony Orchestra and its conductor Eduard Werner accompanied the films together with the 2500-pipe Wurlitzer.
history
Motion picture theater
The theater started with five shows a day, the first in the morning at 10:30 a.m. The usual show consisted of an orchestra concert, two 20-minute stage shows, with singers and dancers, and a film. Depending on the time, the admission price was between 35 and 75 cents with free seating.
Stars like the Marx Brothers , Frank Sinatra , Jack Benny , Louis Armstrong , Red Skelton , Glenn Miller , Artie Shaw , Benny Goodman and Doris Day appeared on the Michigan stage. Kunskys theater chain failed during the Great Depression and the Michigan became part of the United Detroit Theaters. From the 1940s onwards, films were mainly shown.
movie theater
With the triumphant advance of the sound film , the orchestra became dispensable, as did the Wurlitzer organ. In 1953, the Michigan was one of the twelve theaters in the country that 3D films like House of Wax by Vincent Price was. In 1954 a large screen was installed, but the stage portal was damaged. In 1955 the Wurlitzer was sold to Fred Hermes , who installed it in the basement of his house and still plays it today.
With the advent of television and the massive migration of the urban population to the suburbs, the number of visitors to Detroit's theaters fell dramatically, and many cinemas were closed. In the mid-1960s, Michigan also became unprofitable. United Detroit Theaters sold the movie theater and office building in 1967 for $ 1.5 million (approximately $ 9.7 million today). The new owners were only interested in the Michigan Building, so the theater was closed four days later.
That same year, Nicholas George bought the Michigan Theater and tried to revive it. But even with his investments he could not keep it afloat and so it closed again on December 3, 1970, and although it reopened a month later, it was finally closed in June 1971.
Great club
In 1972, Sam Hadous signed a 16-year lease with the owners of the Michigan Building. He wanted to invest $ 500,000 in the renovation work to turn the cinema palace into a huge supper club with 1,500 seats. Work began on January 19, 1972. The seats were torn out, the sloping floors were converted into flat levels. The mezzanine was restored, but the balcony remained closed. A kitchen was also installed. The Supper Club opened on March 17th under the new name Michigan Palace . Duke Ellington , who had been a guest at the Michigan Theater in 1934, gave the opening performance. The concept failed after just a few months.
Night club
In 1973, rock promoter Steven Glantz turned the house into a concert hall. He kept the name Michigan Palace. Many of the top rock acts of the 1970s performed, David Bowie , The Stooges , The New York Dolls , Kiss , Aerosmith , Bob Seger , Rush , Iron Butterfly , Blue Oyster Cult, and Badfinger .
The rock shed era marked the final decline of Michigan. Marble, furniture, brass and glass have been vandalized or heavily soiled. Michigan Palace was also not profitable as a nightclub and was closed in 1976. The interior destruction sparked a $ 175,000 dispute between the building owners, Bagley Associates Ltd, and Glantz.
Parking garage
The Michigan Building's tenants needed parking, so the derelict theater was to be replaced with a parking garage. Static calculations showed that the office building and the theater are constructively connected. Because the theater could not be completely removed, the consulting civil engineer suggested using the building envelope for a secure, covered garage. The requirements for the new multi-storey car park corresponded to the existing building. The main entrance, through which thousands of people used to pass, was spacious enough to allow cars to drive in and out. The long foyer with its curved staircase could easily be converted into a driveway to the curved ramp of the parking garage. The 60 meter long and 40 meter wide auditorium offered enough space to accommodate the required 160 cars on three levels.
In 1977 the theater was gutted. The removal of the interior and the subsequent construction work were carried out appropriately. A hole was made in the side of the auditorium and the interior fittings were torn down as far as it was necessary for the construction of a simple steel and concrete parking structure.
Press coverage
Quote from Detroit's Michigan by Kent Kleinman and Leslie Van Snoozer:
“You are literally stunned by the rawness of the result. Everywhere the viewer sees signs of brutal violence: sawn off beams, amputated balconies, severed electrical lines, ventilation systems dangling down into the room, the torn plaster of the canopy, the tattered curtain. This does not look like a work of architecture to which the properties of completeness and stasis belong; it works like a transition in permanence. The work has been replaced by something that is at work. This is where the legitimate fascination of this interior lies: it openly displays the mechanics and technology of architectural fabrication. It's the same fascination that drives viewers to construction sites and ruins. At a glance you can see the bare skeleton of the building and the thin cladding that was once the limit of the tangible space. "
feature
The theater or parking garage serves as a backdrop for films such as 8 Mile , Die Insel , Alex Cross and Only Lovers Left Alive , but also for music videos such as Lose Yourself by Eminem and My Little Birdie by Nice Device .
Trivia
The theater was built on the square where Henry Ford ran a small workshop and built his first car, the Ford Quadricycle, in 1896 . The place that was the birthplace of the Ford automobile was replaced by a movie theater and then occupied again by the automobile.
Web links
literature
- Hauser, Michael and Marianne Weldon: Downtown Detroit's Movie Palaces (Images of America) . Arcadia Publishing, 2006, ISBN 0-7385-4102-8 .
- Hill, Eric J. and John Gallagher: AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture . Wayne State University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8143-3120-3 .
- Meyer, Katherine Mattingly and Martin CP McElroy with Introduction by W. Hawkins Ferry, Hon AIA: Detroit Architecture AIA Guide Revised Edition . Wayne State University Press, 1980, ISBN 0-8143-1651-4 .
Coordinates: 42 ° 20 '4.9 " N , 83 ° 3' 12.2" W.