Telenews Theater
1540 Woodward Avenue,
Detroit,
MI
48226
1540 Woodward Avenue,
Detroit,
MI
48226
4 people
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The Telenews opened in 1942 as a newsreel theater and could seat a little under 500. It was designed by Cyril E. Schley, who was a partner of C. Howard Crane, who designed most of the major movie houses in Detroit’s Grand Circus Park, the city’s downtown entertainment district.
Built in the Streamline style, the main feature of the Telenews was the large glass globe above the vertical marquee, which advertised the fact this was a newsreel cinema.
The facade was decorated in bright blue and orange terra cotta, separated by bands of glass block, which made for a bold and very modern looking building for the time.
In the basement, a radio station once broadcast behind large windows from behind which people could sit on benches and watch the news being read live. In the lobby, a teletype machine clicked away, giving patrons up to the minute news.
Among the March of Time headlines onscreen the theater’s opening day: ‘Singapore Under Siege’ and ‘Dorothy Lamour Sells War Bonds’.
By the 60s, people could turn on the news at home, and had no need for newsreels, and the Telenews was closed.
In 1969 it was acquired by Nicholas George Theatres and substantially remodeled by Louis Wiltse. It was renamed the Plaza Theater, and seating was reduced to about 440. By 1971, it switched to adult fare, until closing in 1987.
Reopened in 1988 as the Tele-Arts, it was now screening art and foreign features until it was shuttered in 1991.
The Tele-Arts was rented to groups on occasion during the 90s, but began to decline. (Its spectacular globe and marquees long since removed.)
A good-intentioned attempt in the mid-90s to clean the terra-cotta facade resulted in its being somewhat damaged.
In 2000, the theater was converted into a nightclub called the Bleu Room Experience, which was open briefly, closed, and has since reopened.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
Dear Filmo4,
I am very interested in learning as much as possible about the operation of the Telenews chain of theatres. To understand my interest, please read the comments below which I placed on a similar, but broader ‘message board’ for the Dallas Texas Historical Society. As you can see, my father was the manager of the Dallas Telenews during WWII. I would greatly apprecitate knowing your personal experiences being a part of the Telenews organization and what you might know about the day-to-day operation of the one-hour newsreels and other news providing aspects of the Telenews like the radio station that was in the original Detroit Telenews. From your comments you may only know this based on the scrapbook you mentioned and from talking with the long-time manager
Thanks very much.
Nick Aronson
.edu
Mobile Alabama
Posted on the Dallas Historical Society Message board:
I have been searching for people who remember the Dallas Telenews, which was an all-newsreel theatre downtown that started in 1941 and was an important visual news source, especially during WWII before the era of television. My father was the first manager of the theatre. My son and daughter and I are trying to write a professional historical article on the Telenews- my son is an Assistant Professor of film studies at the University of Oregon and my daughter is an archival librarian at the University of Mississippi. We are especially interested in personal accounts of what it was like to attend the “all news” theatre. My family (grandfather) went to Dallas in the early 1920’s and this was one of my father’s first jobs. I (and my son and daughter) would very much appreciate learning anyone’s remembrances of attending the news shows at the Dallas Telenews.
Earlier another Dallasite, Jim Stinson, posted a message here that mentioned his going to the Telenews and being fascinated with the lobby teletype. When my dad passed away in 1984, we found the teletype tape from that machine from Dec 7, 1941. It contained the announcement that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor- my father had only started as manager in November of 1941, just a few weeks before Pearl Harbor.
Large color photo of the former Telenews.
http://www.agilitynut.com/05/6/bleu1.jpg
Here is a large close-up view.
This is a 2007 view of the Telenews Theater building.
Here’s a whole page about Detroit’s Telenews Theatre, with pictures and text.
This site has a photo of this theater when it was the Plaza.
Both the Water Winter Wonderland website and this site give an aka name of the Big Star.
1979 Photo
1982 Photo
View link
A few new photos of the Telenews, Nice new paint job, real silver color and a good blue.
Looks good.