Hudson Theatre (New)
116 S. Market Street ,
Hudson,
MI
49247
116 S. Market Street ,
Hudson,
MI
49247
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My grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson built the “New” Hudson Theatre in 1949. He shot six Kodachrome slides of the theatre during construction up to opening night on March 29, 1949 with Tyrone Power in “The Sun Comes Up”. It suffered damage by a fire on May 30, 1950.
I haven’t found any other websites with info on the “New” Hudson Theatre, although the building still stands and is being used as a bowling alley today.
This theatre was simply called the “Hudson Theatre” but because there was an older “Hudson Theatre” across town that was razed after the new movie house opened, it’s probably appropriate to create a Cinema Treasures page for each movie house.
Contributed by
Andy Gray
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Andy Gray it would be nice to see these pictures you mention. You can have them digitized and then uploaded to this site. I’ve done that many times. Thanks.
The “new” Hudson Theatre was built at 116 S. Market Street, which was around the corner from the “old” theater of the same name. Al Johnson shot two color slides during construction of the “new” venue in July 1948, and four more during opening week in March 1949. I’ve uploaded all of these images to this website.
In the two exterior shots, a brick building can be seen next to the new theatre with an “Authorized Buick Service” sign. One slide (which my grandfather labeled “the Morgans”) shows a couple standing under the marquee of the new theater while a worker touches up the front wall in the background. I’m guessing that the Morgans owned the theatre.
The marquee in another image announces that the theater’s grand opening was scheduled on “Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday March 29 - 31” (in 1949) with the film “The Sun Comes Up.” The marquees of both the old and new theaters say “Hudson” in the 1948 and ‘49 slides. Two interior shots show a pastel color scheme and elaborately styled murals similar to several other Johnson theater projects of the era. Al Johnson’s widow Ann told her grandson Scott Johnson that, to gin up interest before the “new” Hudson Theatre opened in 1949, the owners set up a temporary screen and chairs in the street in front of the theater and showed films to residents of the town. I haven’t found any online information about the “new” Hudson Theatre. The Hudson Lanes bowling alley now occupies the former new Hudson Theatre building. I’ve uploaded a Google Maps image showing a current (March 2021) view of the building.
I haven’t found a full timeline for the new Hudson Theatre, but an article in Boxoffice of June 10, 1950 said that the house had been destroyed by a fire on May 30. Manager Vern Morgan estimated the loss at about $150,000. He and his wife were forced to evacuate the apartment above the theater when they were awakened by smoke in the early morning hours. A dry cleaning establishment in the same building was also lost. The theater, owned by the William Schulte circuit of Detroit, had only been open for a bit over a year.
Water Winter Wonderland has this page which unfortunately conflates the old and new Hudson Theatres, and doesn’t have any information from after the 1950 fire, so I don’t know if the building was restored as a theater or perhaps rebuilt at that time as the bowling alley, or rebuilt for some other use.