Eastown Capri Theatre

The Eastown Theatre was a post–World War II, 500-seat theatre that replaced the fire-destroyed Orpheum Theatre. Harry C. Small and his son-in-law, John Stimpson, operated it as an independent under S&S Theatres Corp., along with the Family Theatre in Jackson. Small had previously been with the W.S. Butterfield Circuit before going independent in 1944. The Eastown Theatre launched on September 5, 1947 with a double feature of “Song of Texas” starring Roy Rogers and “Born to Speed” with Terry Austin, supported by a Disney cartoon.

The Orpheum Theatre had been housed in a structure known as the Union Block built in 1848. The auditorium and a significant portion of the Union Block burned on March 21, 1943, erasing the Orpheum Theatre along with the USO Club. The USO quickly relocated to 12 Northeast Capital Avenue, only to burn spectacularly again on May 31, 1947. The Orpheum Theatre’s final operator, the Ross Theatre Circuit of Lansing, announced plans almost immediately in 1943 for a new 800-seat replacement theatre on the Orpheum Theatre site; but wartime shortages and denial by the War Production Board stalled the project.

Small and Stimpson’s S&S Corp. took on the project developing a second set of plans in 1946 for a more modest, Streamline Moderne style house seating 500. Architect Lewis J. Sarvis, who would develop the Kellogg Foundation Building later, created at least one of the two drafts. During excavation of the old Orpheum Theatre site, discovery of a mid-19th-century child’s tombstone slowed progress to ensure the site was not a burial ground. The new building was constructed by Murray Construction using large baked-enamel panels on steel, an approach considered Macotta construction at the time.

At its September 1947 opening, the Eastown Theatre was managed by Alfred Hamilton. The ticket taker was Eunice Regauer, and projectionists included James Wallace, Burton Nesbitt, and Orrin E. Anderson. The projection booth featured Simplex projectors with Peerless lamps, a McColpin Christie six-phase rectifier, a Walker screen, and American Theatre chairs. The theatre operated on a third-tier, discount double-feature grind policy. The venue closed following the December 28, 1958 showings.

Floyd G. Bloss, owner of the Hastings Drive-In Theatre, relit the venue in 1964. The newly reopened Eastown Theatre featured widescreen projection to present adult CinemaScope titles. Seating was reduced to 460, and large full-length mirrors—popular at the time—were added to the lobby. The local newspaper refused to advertise the adult films, leading to dueling lawsuits: a freedom of speech case filed by Bloss against the newspaper, and a specious obscenity case brought by the State. The theatre soldiered on into January 1967 before closing. (Bloss would win the local obscenity case in 1970 but lose the free speech case against the newspaper.)

New operator Jack Seltenreich relit the venue as an arthouse under the Eastown Cinema banner, opening with “The Mikado” on March 3, 1967. The Eastown Cinema quickly shifted to discount double features on a grind policy. The entire Eastown Cinema run lasted far longer than anyone expected —three months — closing on June 18, 1967 with “The Night of the Grizzly” and “The Man Who Cheat Death”.

Bloss then made the fateful decision to reopen the venue, rebranding it as the Eastown Capri Theatre, a move that would prove disastrous. Bloss was convicted of obscenity on a very thin case and, though the conviction was under appeal, served six months in jail before the sentence was overturned in 1968, with the case eventually reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. Everything paled, however, in comparison to October 2, 1970, when his 19-year-old daughter, Debra Lee Bloss, was stabbed to death while working at the box office. Mr. Bloss left the exhibition industry immediately afterward but was forced to revisit the 1968 obscenity case when the U.S. Supreme Court remanded it to the state.

The classy Michigan prosecutors persisted with Bloss' case until 1975, when the Michigan Supreme Court finally ruled that the 1968 obscenity charge would not stand, in part due to the landmark 1973 Miller v. California decision redefining obscenity standards at the local level. In 1977, the State Legislature issued guidance discouraging arrests based solely on dislike / opinion of a vendor’s books, magazines, or films, and required municipalities to establish clear obscenity guidelines. This reduced arbitrary enforcement until the passage of the RICO Act in 1986, which gave law enforcement stronger tools against “repeat” offenders.

Meanwhile, the Eastown Capri Theatre continued showing unrated XXX adult films after Bloss’s departure. With downtown under severe economic pressure from suburban strip centers, ample parking, and a new generation of suburban luxury cinemas, the Downtown Development Committee supported something called the “Michigan Mall” plan in the summer of 1970. It created a promenade-style shopping area that enveloped the Eastown Capri Theatre and, most controversially, closed part of the main street, Michigan Avenue. Similar projects were attempted elsewhere with mixed degrees of failure. After much debate and delays, the project officially opened with a grand opening on June 29, 1975.

In 1983, the local newspaper finally reversed its policy and began running advertisements for the Eastown Capri Theatre - an anchor of the Michigan mall. Owner Robert Cato made news in 1985 when the theatre sponsored a homemade adult film competition, made possible by the spread of home video equipment. This was year’s before the Internet fad of home adult titles. But by then, the Michigan Mall was failing, particularly after the opening of Lakeview Square Mall in 1983.

The Eastown Capri Theatre relocated in 1988 to 686 W. Michigan, six blocks away to success. The Michigan Mall was closed and the main street reopened in 1992, with the former theatre demolished in 1993. The Eastown Capri Theatre (also known as the Capri Star) survived into the 21st century before finally closing.

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