Search results
Dec 7, 2018 · It started life as a Ziegfeld playhouse, and then became home to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from 1939-1953. The name changed when Wilson sold the theater in 1944.
Apr 23, 2023 · The Wilson Theater opened on December 9, 1928 with a production of Florenz Ziegfeld’s “Rosalie.” Matilda’s vision went beyond these four walls, as her original mission specified welcoming men and women of all ethnicities to the theater’s audience and its stages.
Dec 6, 2015 · The Avenue Theatre on Woodward began in 1859 as the Merrill Recital Hall, then was known from 1886 to 1901 as the Wonderland Theatre. Finally it became a 1,000-seat burlesque house called the ...
The Wilson Theater opened on December 10, 1928 with a production of Florenz Ziegfeld’s “Rosalie.” Matilda’s vision went beyond these four walls, as her original mission specified welcoming men and women of all ethnicities to the theater’s audience and its stages.
- The Majestic Michigan
- Second Fiddle to A Chimp
- The Curtain's Rise and Fall
- The Show's Over
- Dinner and A Movie - Minus The Movie
- Parking in A Palace
The original plan was for the office tower to be called the Metropolitan Building, not to be confused with the Neo-Gothic gemon John R. Street. The theater was to be named the Chicago. These names were tossed out in March 1925, about the same time that wreckers were beginning demolition to make way for the Michigan. Razed were the St. Denis Hotel, ...
One of the more memorable stories involving the Michigan and its stars involved Bob Hope. On one of Hope's early visits to the theater, he said he thought he was headlining. He said he walked around to the front of the theater and found himself second-billed on the marquee to an actor named Joe Mendi. That might not have been a huge shock at the ti...
After Kunsky's chains of theaters failed during the Depression, the Michigan became part of the United Detroit Theaters, where it spent most of its theater life. United Detroit had 25 theaters in the city in the days before government monopoly-busters forced the chain to divest itself of some of its theaters. While United Detroit hung onto its gem,...
By the mid-1960s, the Michigan was among those that had become unprofitable. United Detroit Theaters sold the theater and office tower on March 1, 1967, for $1.5 million (about $9.7 million today). But the new owners cared only about the Michigan Building and had little interest in running a movie house. The theater would close four days later, on ...
Sam Hadous took out a 16-year lease on the theater with the owners of the Michigan Building and set out on a $500,000 renovation to transform the movie palace into a giant super club. "I'm not a rich man," Hadous told the Detroit News in January 1972. "I can't afford to have any doubts at all about the location. The suburbs may now have all the (fi...
Tenants in the adjoining office building, including the Charge Card Association, needed secure parking, and were threatening to leave for another office building if something was not done. The theater, now in tremendous disrepair and silent, was considered a waste of space, and its owners looked at razing the theater for parking. "According to Pala...
The Fox Theatre is a performing arts center located at 2211 Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, near the Grand Circus Park Historic District. Opened in 1928 as a flagship movie palace in the Fox Theatres chain, it was at over 5,000 seats the largest theater in the city.
Located on Monroe Street at Farmer, near Greektown, the National opened Sept. 26, 1911, as a vaudeville house. It was located in Detroit’s old theater district -- before the movie palaces near Grand Circus Park were built.
