Juliet Theatre
117 S. Main Street,
Romeo,
MI
48065
117 S. Main Street,
Romeo,
MI
48065
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Additional Info
Firms: Johnson Construction Co.
Functions: Restaurant
Previous Names: Palace Theatre
Nearby Theaters
Located in the Parker Building which was built in 1905, the Palace Theatre was opened by 1914. It was renamed Juliet Theatre in 1936 following a remodel by my grandfather’s Johnson Construction Company who remodeled the Juliet Theatre in Romeo at least once more. Based on the Kodachrome slide that Al Johnson shot in 1948.
His last remodeling job was to turn the building into an A&P grocery store after the new Romeo Theatre that he built across town in 1951 opened. By May 2019 it was a Sushi Restaurant.
Contributed by
Andy Gray
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A January 26, 1946 item in The Billboard said that Howard Paul, operator of the Romeo Theatre at Romeo, Michigan, had sold his movie house to William Schulte, owner of the rival Juliet Theatre. Schulte had opened the Juliet “a few seasons back,” and the two houses had operated in competition for several years.
My grandfather’s Johnson Construction Company remodeled the Juliet Theatre in Romeo at least once. I suspect he remodeled it twice. According to my uncle’s theater project list, the company remodeled the Juliet Theatre into an A&P store in 1951. A caption on a September 1949 Juliet Theatre photo on a Romeo History Facebook page says that the theater closed because the Romeo Theatre (another Johnson project) a block south had recently opened. The marquee of the Juliet reads “FOR RENT WILL REMODEL.” I guess my grandfather got the remodel job! Among Al’s collection is a slide that I’ve uploaded dated August 1948 showing the outside of the Juliet Theatre. This shows marquee and door styles typical of projects that he completed in the mid 1930s to early 1940s. The cream and red colored porcelain enamel tiles are identical to most of the Johnson theaters built or remodeled during that era. This leads me to think that my grandfather remodeled the Juliet Theatre during that period - possibly just updating the outside of the theater - before converting it into a grocery store in 1951. Google Maps shows the Yorokobi Sushi Restaurant in the original building today (April 2021).
The “Theater Changes” report in the June 18, 1936 issue of Film Daily listed the Juliet Theatre as a new house.
This theater was located in the Parker Building which was built in 1905 meaning the theater was carved out of existing commercial space.
From the Images of America book Romeo: Frank Parker operated the Palace Theater at 117 South Main, just in front of the alley. The first movie theater in Romeo at the time, the Palace Theater featured silent movies and vaudeville acts. It was later advertised as the Juliet Theatre, c. 1937.