Mariner Theater

graymatters on April 18, 2021 at 11:08 am

The Mariner Theatre is among the Johnson Construction Co. projects cataloged by my uncle Albert S. Johnson Jr., but the year of the remodeling job is undocumented. Based on the description of “1930’s mohair seats” and the appearance of the theater in the photo below, a renovation during the 1930’s is almost certain.

My grandfather Al Johnson Sr.’s June 1948 Kodachrome slide (which I’ve uploaded to this page) shows a marquee and other design elements typical of the Michigan theater renovations that he completed in the mid-thirties (e.g. the “old” Hudson Theatre and the Tibbits Theatre in Coldwater). The style of these early theater renovations pre-dated the “art moderne” doors and more streamlined marquees typical of later Johnson projects.

Joe Vogel on August 29, 2014 at 10:09 pm

The January 3, 1928, issue of The Film Daily said that a new, 800-seat theater had opened at Marine City, Michigan. The name of the house was not given, but it was probably the Mariner. In the Photo of the building at Water Winter Wonderland the building looks like it would have dated from the mid-late 1920s.