Bijou Theatre
62 Monroe Street,
Detroit,
MI
48226
62 Monroe Street,
Detroit,
MI
48226
1 person
favorited this theater
The Cent Odeon opened in early 1906, as a nickelodeon, not long after the city’s first nickelodeon, just down Monroe, Detroit’s first theater row. Designed by the firm of Mildner and Eisen, it could seat just over 300.
In 1908, it was renamed the Bijou, and its auditorium moved from the second to the first floor during a remodeling of the interior.
Over the decades, as the city’s movie houses moved from Monroe to Grand Circus Park, along Woodward, the Bijou continued to thrive. It graduated to feature films, to sound films, and finally to widescreen films. In 1966, it received another new name, the New Gayety, and in two years, yet another name, the Ciné X, when it switched to pornographic films.
The theater closed in the mid-70s, having one of the longest runs of any of the downtown theaters. It has since been demolished.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
This website has a 1950s photo showing the location of the Bijou Theater. Aka names given are Cent Odeon, New Gaiety, Cine X.
A March, 1914, item in The Moving Picture World has a different address for a Bijou Theatre that was still upstairs:
Here is a picture of the building as of 1989.