Galewood Theatre
1055 Burton Street SW,
Wyoming,
MI
49509
1055 Burton Street SW,
Wyoming,
MI
49509
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Located in the Galewood section in the north of Wyoming, MI. close to the corner of Burton Street SW & Godfrey Avenue SW. The New Galewood Theatre opened on January 30, 1926 with Norman Kerry in “Lorraine of the Lions”, the seating was listed at 560. This theatre was independently owned and booked by Independent Exhibitors Theater Services.
The Galewood Theatre closed on June 16, 1957 with Alan Ladd in “The Big Land” & Bud Abbott & Lou Costello in “Dance with Me, Henry”. In 1958 it became a roller skating rink. In 1965 permission was denied to convert into a dance hall. It became a church in 1965, and in 1968 permission was approved to convert into a printer/paint warehouse. It was destroyed by a fire in 1968.
Contributed by
Chuck
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
The description is inaccurate. The building burned down in the mid-60’s after time spent as a roller-rink and a couple other odd businesses. Nothing was ever built on the vacant site. The Galewood Bar next door expanded and bought the site for parking. Currently, the old theater site is the front entrance and parking lot for a new Dollar General store.
The location of this theater is currently in the city of Wyoming, not Grand Rapids. Granted, Wyoming didn’t become a city until 1959, but this theater was never inside the GR city limits.
The theater didn’t close in 1950. I grew up less than a block from it. The last title I can recall seeing there was The Beast From Hollow Mountain, which shows it was released in 1956. Given my vivid recollections of this movie and my age at the time, 8 yrs. old, I continued seeing movies there until I was at least 10 or 11 when they turned it into the skating rink. The theater and later skating rink was owned by the Fischer family. Both as a theater and later as a skating rink, the Fischer’s pretty much knew everyone in the neighborhood by name, though they didn’t live there.
Closed 1957 per newspaper listings
The New Galewood Theater opened on January 30, 1926 with Patsy Ruth Miller in “Loraine of Lions.” The Galewood converted to sound to remain viable. In 1955, it converted to a “wide-vision screen” to present CinemaScope titles.
The Galewood appears to have closed following the June 16, 1957 showing of Alan Ladd and Virginia Mayo in “The Big Land” with Abbott and Costello in “Dance With Me, Henry” supported by two cartoons.
The space became a roller rink in 1958, was denied conversion to a dance hall in 1963, became a church in 1965, and was approved for a printer / paint warehouse in 1968 which sounded like a fire risk. And that’s how the Galewood Theatre building met its demise.