Broadway Theatre

The 800-seat Broadway Theatre was opened in December 1920 screening Lon Chaney in “The Miracle Man. John Hileman sold the Broadway Theatre to Bert Ward of Chicago in April 1925. (Ward would later open the Ward Theater around the corner in 1937, it has its own page on Cinema Treasures) The theatre built a major interior renovation to accommodate a new air conditioning system in 1941, building internal walls featuring murals by Frederic de Lorenzo. The murals are still there today.

The Wards sold the theatre to John Loeks (later Jack Loeks Theatres chain) in the 1980’s, who operated it as a first-run theatre until June 2000, when it closed with Samuel L. Jackson in “Shaft”.

It was purchased that year by the non-profit Friends of the Broadway, who incorporated the theatre into a playhouse and performance center. Between 2001 and 2023 (with an expected break during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic), the Broadway Playhouse staged approximately 3-4 shows per season for both adult and youth productions. The theatre has also been a venue for the Central Michigan International Film Festival and since September 2022 has screened the monthly VHS night.

Recent comments (view all 7 comments)

spinninglens on November 19, 2008 at 4:59 am

It may be an urban legend that the Broadway was the Vaudette, although it did share some of the same owners. Mr. Carnahan (also known as Tip) was spelled with two “n"s. The Broadway is roughly twice the size of the previous theatre, whatever it was actually called. There was a smaller theatre there which predated the Vaudette. It’s name has so far not been proven definitively, but I’d love to see print evidence of this.

larry on June 22, 2009 at 7:23 pm

Nice to see an old theater that has survived the wrecker’s ball or is in sad shape.

This website is filled with “what used to be”

Very sad.

kencmcintyre on August 26, 2009 at 10:48 pm

Here is another 1985 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/newrdu

GeorgeStrum on June 21, 2011 at 2:42 pm

Please tell us about the ghosts. Is this place really haunted?

spinninglens on June 22, 2011 at 3:12 pm

The Vaudette Theatre was in another location; just east of the 200 E. Broadway Isabella Bank Building. Seats, curtains and switches were moved to the Broadway when it was built; with a grand opening in December, 1920. Steve Swart

Joe Vogel on September 28, 2012 at 11:19 pm

There was a house called the Vaudette in Mt. Pleasant as early as 1908, when it was mentioned in the November 14 and 28 issues of The Billboard, but as spinninglens said earlier it apparently wasn’t this house.

In 1908, the Vaudette was presenting vaudeville, but it is mentioned in several issues of The Michigan Film Review in 1917, when it was running movies.