The Michigan Theater

The Michigan was the third largest of the Rapp & Rapp theatre designs with 4050 seats (1926). The Brooklyn Paramount had 4084 seats and the Chicago Uptown had 4381 seats. The building was on an irregular plot on Bagley Avenue, Grand River, Clifford and Middle Street. The building replaced two former hotels, a restaurant, blacksmith shop, gas station, parking lot, employment bureau, a warehouse for the Detroit Creamery Company, the Mantle Tile and Grate Company and a Vacated alley.

The theater was loaded in extravagant details, from its auditorium to its four-story, 1,000-square-foot, mirror-paneled, black-and-white checkered-floor Grande Lobby. The lobby was complete with columns and red velvet hangings, marble archways, lavish towering columns, baskets of flowers and large crystal chandeliers. A lovely wide staircase with carved balustrades and covered in lush red carpet stood at the other end. A grand piano entertained guests waiting for the movie to start. Between every pair of columns was an oil painting, works of art by the National Academy, such as Thomas Hovenden’s “The Story of the Hunt,” Douglas Volk’s “Puritan Girl” and Edwin Blashfield’s “A Modern Rebecca.” All of the sculptures, busts, intricately carved furnishings, paintings and onyx pedestals filling the Michigan’s lobby made it seem as much a museum as a movie theater.

Our History

  • 1980 - Present
  • The Michigan theater did not do well as a nightclub. The owners of the building decided to make some use of the vast space, albeit destroying forever the possibility of theater use. Entry was made into the former lobby space adjoining the boxoffice for a parking garage. The stepped concrete surface of the balcony, and much of its framing was removed, so as to allow a driveway ramp through the auditorium, and a few level floors were added for parking. Because of the way the building is framed in steel, the side pillars of the proscenium arch remain, and there are still a few things hanging from the grid of the immense stage. Holes were made in the various outer walls to ventilate the exhaust fumes, but much of the plaster remains suspended over the parking areas, to the surprise of many.

    In this disastrous condition, it has served a grotesque purpose by encouraging proper reuse of the few remaining theatres of this size. Now the theatre is the only Italian Renaissance garage in the state of Michigan.

  • January 20, 1972
  • The Michigan Theater is on its way to becoming the Michigan Palace-a super supper club. The transformation of the 46-year-old showplace in downtown Detroit from a movie palace to a nightclub began yesterday as workmen removed the first of the theater's 4,400 seats to make way for the table and chair setup. The club will open Mar. 27 under the new banner of "Michigan Palace" and will feature Duke Ellington on its first bill, according to owner Sam Hadous. During its heyday the Michigan was one of the country's most elaborate movie houses. Besides major films, it presented stage shows featuring such stars as Frank Sinatra, Red Skelton, the Marx Brothers and most of the big-name orchestras. Ironically, as work started on Hadous' new club yesterday, the remains of his former club, Lofy's in Plymouth, were being torn down. Lofy's was destroyed by a fire Sept. 19.

    Hadous has a 16-year lease with the owners of the Michigan Building on Bagley at Grand River. He said the transformation would cost more than $500,000, a healthy investment in a location that some feel offers shaky prospects. But Hadous doesn't consider the project risky. "I'm not a rich man," he said, "and I can't afford to have any doubts at all about the location. The suburbs may now have all the (firstrun) movie houses, but I'm going to have something that nobody else has in the state -a 1 ,500-seat club offering the biggest name talent available." Hadous claims his club will be the largest in the country and because of its huge size he will be able to attract such superstar entertainers as Johnny Carson or Tom Jones. His closest competition will be the 900-seat Elmwood Casino in Windsor. "Anyway you look at it, I've got 600 seats on him (Elmwood owner AI Segal), which is a big factor in bidding for talent," Hadous said. The movie seats will be removed by next week. At that time will begin what Hadous calls "the real job." The biggest project will be leveling the inclined floor and transforming it into four flat sections , each one elevated above the other. The mezzanine will be restored but the balcony will remain closed. Meanwhile, work will begin on constructing a kitchen in a corner of the present lobby. Employes will be hired, and tables, fixtures and 50,000 yards of carpeting will he ordered. All is expected to be ready for the March 27 Ellington' s show. The Duke's early career included a Detroit stop in 1934-at the Michigan Theater.

  • December 3, 1970
  • Its official, the Michigan Theater is gone- this time surely forever. Tuesday at 12:13 (l mean Wednesday at 12:13 AM) the Theatre closed for good. I was there earlier in the day to take some photos. I had intended to go on Wednesday, but for safety I called Monday to make arrangements and the manager said they would be closed on Wednesday and to come Tuesday. I did and was graciously given a tour of the entire house, from Orchestra pit to the top of the stage housing. l started out in the lobby, viewing the Austrian piano, the sculpture and the many chandeliers, The lobby has been redecorated, not in its grand style of 1926, but very similar and tasteful. I went into the auditorium, up to the main balcony and took a good look.

    The last day was something special. All the lights and coves were lit. Several areas were lit that in 3 years of bi-weekly movie going I had never seen before. The original paint job is still in the upper areas of the auditorium and is in rose, creme and old gold and despite the fact that it is slightly soiled it still looked impressive. The loge and mainfloor areas are repainted tastefully and the "diamond" horseshoe of the loge was all lit in royal blue. Well, the worst is yet to come. It will really hurt when I drive downtown and see a parking garage within the space where the theater was, I imagine the huge window will remain, and I hope the Marquee stays, but I fear it will go. The entrance is part of the building itself and the theatre is separate. What about an article in Marquee sometime next year? I have some wonderful pictures, I hope and would love to do some research on the Michigan and possibly write an article.

    Best wishes,
    Bob Warsham

  • November 29, 1970
  • “Live Dangerously”
    If the Michigan Theater had a motto carved on its lofty proscenium arch, that should be it. Today the danger is from the wrecker's ball. Nick George, who bought it three years ago when lack of business threatened the Michigan with oblivion, is giving up. Regretfully, George has announced the playhouse must close at the end of the current engagement.

    From the day it opened, suspense was its life blood - off screen as well as on. The very site it occupied had built-in adventure. Not so many years before, Henry Ford made his first automobile there. John H. Kunsky, Detroit's first movie tycoon, was a man.

  • September 1, 1968
  • Large full-page articles with many photos announced the re-opening of the Michigan Theater as a first-run operation under the management of Nicholas George. George was the new owner who had stayed the wrecking ball and restored the theater to a creditable semblance of its former glory. Nicholas George, and his son Louis, were operators of 11 theaters in metropolitan Detroit. The opening attraction for the revived and renewed Michigan was "Valley of the Dolls" which proved to be a successful money-maker and the future looked good.

  • February, 1927
  • The grand old man of American music John Philip Sousa, brought his musicians then in 1927. The great dance bands came, Paul Whiteman, Vincent Lopez, Jimmy Dorsey Ben Bernie, Benny Goodman, Harry James. Vaudeville and movie greats came-the Man Brothers, Ted Lewis, Jackie Cooper, the OUJ Gang Kids , Betty Grable, Rudy Vallee, Marthe Ray, Joe E. Brown. Or you could get on the MICHIGAN stage b)o swimming the English Channel-GertrudE Ederle made it that way. Bob Hope came, and the MICHIGAN lived up to its reputation of living dangerously by giving Hope second billing. Hope almost flipped when he learned the name ahead of his on the marquee was that of a chimp. It was Jo Mendi, star of the Detroit Zoological Park's troupe of performing chimpanzees.

  • August 23, 1926
  • For opening day, Kunsky scheduled "You Never Know," with Florence Vidor and Lowell Sherman. It was the weak sister among the pictures available that week. Kunsky put the week's sure-fire hit, "Son of the Sheik," with Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Banky, into the smaller Adams. That way, a lot of customers would come to Kunsky houses twice. To the Adams, to see the screen's greatest lover. To the Michigan, to see an eye-popping playhouse.

    The Michigan's glamour had been well advertised. Kunsky and his associates, Barney Balaban and Morris [sic] Katz, of Chicago, had laid $3,500,000 on the line to build a cinema palace. It epitomized a fantastic success story that paralleled Valentino's. A penniless gardner when he came to America 13 years before, Valentino had become the idol of more women than anyone in history.

    The Michigan, built just 20 years after Detroit's first nickelodeon was opened with 200 folding chairs in a storefront, had 4,000 plush seats. But for all the nation's movie fans-and for Kunsky-there was shocking news the morning of Aug. 23. The big headline on page one of The Detroit News that day told the story: Stricken by a sudden attack of peritonitis, Valentino was dead at 31 in a New York hospital. If there were misgivings about the effect on his opening behind Kunsky's poker face, however, they soon vanished. Long before the doors opened at 12:30 p .m. the crowd gathered around the big Bagley avenue marquee, talking about Rudy.

    The lobby, four stories high and with 1,000 square feet of space for "holdouts"-patrons waiting for seats-soon was tested. The elevator whisked lucky ones to the last empty seats, seven flights up. The marble stairways accommodated customers succumbing to the lure of "shortest wait for seats in the balcony." And the velvet ropes went up. The standees didn't seem to mind. Piano entertainment was provided. And there was a profusion of decor to take in-the carved balustrades on the marble staircases, the baskets of flowers everywhere, and a variety of objects d'art that suggest a museum rather than a theater.

    Between every pair of columns was an oil painting. They were works of National Academy, such as Thomas Hovenden's "The Story of the Hunt," Edwin Blashfield's "A Modern Rebecca," and Douglas Yolk's "Puritan Girl."

    There was an array of Sevres sculptures and much court furniture , including a "Louis" table. Filling a mezzanine alcove was a replica of a Roman sculpture, a horse and chariot. The mezzanine boxes, reserved for black-tie invited guests including moguls from Hollywood headed by Eugene [sic] Zukor, filled up by 7:15 p.m. and a drape of cloth-of-gold came down on the brilliantly lighted stage.

    Then 1O-ft. -tall crystal chandeliers were dimmed. The house blackened out except for a spotlight on Eduard Werner in the orchestra pit, and he led an unseen orchestra in "The Star Spangled Banner." Kunsky's chain became the United Detroit Theatres, with 25 houses at the peak, but none surpassed the Michigan.