Eagle Theatre
13-15 S. Saginaw Street,
Pontiac,
MI
48342
13-15 S. Saginaw Street,
Pontiac,
MI
48342
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I’m amazed to find the good old Eagle is still standing. I spent all my Saturdays as a kid in the 50s watching the Saturday horror, sci fi, westerns, etc. films and reruns of the weekly serials like Flash Gordon or Jungle Jim. All the great giant bug and “I Was a Teenage…” movies. I actually just had a dream about going there. Still remember the chills from the original “TheThing” I saw with my buddies when we were in 5th grade…..with real butter on the pop corn.
The nightclub called Industry that occupied this former theater has been replaced by a nightclub called Elektricity. A very few of the photos in the club’s Facebook album show a bit of the walls in the background, but the only one I’ve found that gives a decent view is this shot of the stage, which shows some of the detail of the Moorish style proscenium arch.
No longer showing movies.
A list of theaters designed by architect George J. Bachmann published in the 1949-50 edition of Theatre Catalog includes the Eagle Theatre in Pontiac, with the design dated 1925.
The list of Bachmann’s works includes three other theaters in Pontiac: the Orpheum, dated 1920, the State, dated 1921, and the Strand, dated 1925.
Quote: “The Eagle Theatre was constructed on the site of Pontiac’s oldest movie house in 1927.” So what was Pontiac’s oldest movie house called? I ask because I have found in an old film magazine of 1926 a photograph (which is a reprint from an even older mag of 1911) of an old theatre called the Bond that was in Pontiac at that time (c1911). It is in an old wooden building and obviously a very early movie house with a group of people standing in front of the entrance in the clothes of the time. I know at the time it was showing films from the old IMP (Independent Movie Company, that was the forerunner of Universal) If anyone has any knowledge of this theatre I would be interested to hear.
Having been raised in Pontiac, Michigan in the 1930s & 40s, I was told “The Eagle Theatre Is Off Limits”, but you can go to the Stand or the grand old Oakland. I am aware the Oakland burned to the ground in the early 1960s and I muse thinking of the large sign painted on the back of the stagehouse wall, which read, OAKLAND THEATRE—OAKLAND COUNTY’S FINEST PHOTOPLAY HOUSE —ABSOLUTLY FIREPROOF. Do any photos exist of the Oakland Theatre?
Edward Millington Stout