Keith's Theatre
113-21 Lyon Street NW,
Grand Rapids,
MI
49503
113-21 Lyon Street NW,
Grand Rapids,
MI
49503
2 people
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Opened in 1915 as a vaudeville theatre known as Empress Theatre. Later converted to motion pictures and was later named RKO Keith’s Theatre and finally Keith’s Theatre. It was one of the ultimates in theatre palaces. With its elaborate interior design, side boxes, huge proscenium, large balcony and plush lobbies. It was a real eye catcher. The Keith’s Theatre closed in 1962 and was later demolished.
Contributed by
Chuck Van Bibber
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
Here are some old photos of the Empress/Keith’s Theater.
Could this be an early Rapp and Rapp design? I have found the following article in the Rockford Morning Star for Sunday, February 31, 1915 which states the following in an article heralding the opening of the Palace Theatre in Rockford, Illinois: (note the end)
“…Messrs. George and C. L. Rapp have specialized in theater designing and among their latest masterpieces at the New Oprheum in Champaign, the Orpheum in Quincy, the Columbia in Davenport, Ia., the New Palace in Fort Wayne, Ind., the Hippodrome in Chicago, the Ringling Theatre in Baraboo, Wis., and the Palace in Rockford. They also have theaters under construction in Louisville, Ky. and Grand Rapids, Mich.”
A Wurlitzer theater organ opus 1048 style “D” special was installed in the Empress Theater on 4/29/1925. Status: sold.
Prior to the Wurlitzer organ, a Kimball theater organ was installed in the Empress Theater in 1914.
There doesn’t seem to be a CT listing for Grand Rapids’s Savoy Theatre, perhaps due to lack of an accurate address. The 1955 Film Daily Year Book gives “80 Market NW,” without specifying whether Market was a Street, Avenue, or whatever. A search today through MapQuest turns up a Market Avenue, but only with SW addresses (not NW). The Savoy opened as a cinema in 1930, converted from a vaudeville house that might have had a different name.
80 Market Avenue NW is the address given on other websites for the Savoy Theater. Google will also map that address as 80 Market Avenue SW. Here is some information that I found for the Savoy Theater:
The Savoy in Grand Rapids, Michigan, had been built in the 1880s and went by the prior names of Columbia and Temple. While all seven downtown palaces closed during the 1970s, having been twinned and showing an interesting mix of ethnic and adult fare, the Savoy actually held out until 1980 when “downtown redevelopment†caught up with it too. Source.
There’s a brief history of the Savoy Theatre, as well as a 1949 photo of the exterior, at www.waterwinterwonderland.com
An item in the Variety of 11/28/1914 mentioned that the architects were to be Rapp & Rapp. Also, this would logically lead to an opening year of 1915.
This house would not have opened in 1914 as RKO Keith’s, as the name RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) wouldn’t come into existence until 1928. A 1915 photo published in “Grand Rapids in Vintage Postcards” shows the name Empress on the theater’s vertical sign, so that was surely its opening name.
It was still listed as the Empress Theatre in the 1922 Grand Rapids City Directory, and a biography of Harry Houdini lists the Empress in Grand Rapids as one of the venues he played in 1926.
Savoy & 80 Market n.w.: You are not going to find it on current maps because it does not exist. During the “urban renewal” they eliminated Market n.w. The Savoy sat where the new Art Museum sits. Market was the strip of land between the Art Museum and Rosa Parks Circle on current maps.