Broadway Theatre

Joe Vogel on November 12, 2010 at 2:00 pm

The Broadway-Strand Theatre was designed by architect Arland W. Johnson. It opened January 26, 1913, with 1,488 seats, according to Andrew Craig Morrison’s book Theatres. A drawing of the house as the Broadway, by artist Anthony F. Dumas, was dated 1931, but I’ve been unable to find a copy of it on the Internet. I don’t know if the theater was still in operation at the time the drawing was made.

I found this house listed as the Broadway-Strand Theatre in a book published in 1922, and an ad for the Broadway Strand appeared in the January 30, 1924 issue of the Pinckney Dispatch, a suburban Detroit newspaper. The Cass City Chronicle, another suburban paper, mention the Broadway-Strand in its issue of July 10, 1925. The Lowville, New York, Journal-Republican of September 29, 1927, ran an item welcoming a new manager to the local Bijou Theatre. L.E. Slawson’s previous post had been as manager of the Broadway-Strand in Detroit. The Bijou was a Schine house, so perhaps the Broadway-Strand was being oeprated by Schine at this time, too.

In the first comment at the Strand Theatre (Detroit) page, ken mc mentions finding a reference to a lawsuit involving the Broadway-Strand in the late 1920s. I think this theater might have been called by its original name until only a year or two before it closed. I’ve been unable to find any period references to a Broadway Theatre in Detroit other than the 1931 drawing by Dumas, and I’ve found only retrospective references to the Broadway-Strand after 1927.

I did find a 1922 reference saying that the Broadway-Strand Theatre had been built by Max Bartholomaei, Son & Company, building contractors.

There is also this photo from Wayne State University’s Virtual Motor City collection. It had a very nice Beaux Arts-Renaissance Revival facade.

rivest266 on November 3, 2015 at 12:23 am

An Broadway Strand opened on April 11th, 1915 at 35-41 Broadway. Grand opening ad in photo section as well as

http://freep.newspapers.com/clip/3544168/broadway_strand_opening/

Joe Vogel on November 3, 2015 at 4:42 am

I’ve come across a couple of references to burlesque shows running at the Broadway Strand in 1928. That may be why I’ve found no references to the house in movie industry trade journals after 1927. The theater probably closed as a burlesque house.

Two decent photos of the Broadway Strand can be found on this page at Water Winter Wonderland.

BobHollberg on April 23, 2016 at 5:05 pm

Klaus, that’s a great article, but it looks like it is about the Strand theater at Grand River and 14th: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/4120