Mecca Theatre

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Uploaded on: September 13, 2024

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The genesis of this theater dated back to a 1914 announcement that a new 1,600 seat Hippodrome Theater would be built in town. This same scheme was run in a variety of towns and cities in the United States during World War I. A press conference announcing the Saginaw Hippodrome - complete with architectural plans - was followed by a series of large ads allowing folks to buy a “limited” number of shares of a Hippodrome Theatre.

With an opening date of August 1, 1915 the new Hippodrome wowed audiences… well… no. This project permanently stalled without even starting when the operators claimed (apparently truthfully) that there was a property holdout that prevented the new build venue.

Unlike some of the Hippodromes which produced absolutely nothing, these folks took over a printmakers' facility and jammed 1,000 seats into it creating a vaudeville house. The original concept lasted about four months and the stock valuation tanked.

Another company, the Mecca Theatre, picked up the venue and reduced seat count to make a better Mecca-Palace Theatre.