Wyandotte Theatre
102 Elm Street,
Wyandotte,
MI
48192
102 Elm Street,
Wyandotte,
MI
48192
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 29 comments
Opened with “My life with Caroline”, and “Burma cowboy”.
Multiple photos added, and the link below has even more of it’s demolition.
http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com/movietheaters.aspx?id=1233
1964 photo added via Kestrel Bird.
January 1st, 1942 grand opening as a twin ad in photo section. This was not the first twin theater in the Detroit area. The honor goes to the Duplex, which opened in 1915.
When i was a kid i remember Mr. Beaman who was the manager would come out on the stage and tell all the young teens that the that they had to leave befor 9PM that the city wanted all young people to be off the streets at that time.
Bobcat, I saw the X rated “Adventures of Emmanuelle” at the Wyandotte. However, I don’t recall if they were showing X rated movies regularly at the time.
The Three Stooges Fan Club is trying to confirm a Public Appearance by Them (Moe, Larry and Curly), possibly Friday, Saturday and Sunday September 18, 19 & 20, 1936. I saw posts that the theatre opened in 1938. If anyone can confirm dates and/or has display ads, or possibly a newspaper write-up, it will be appreciated. Thanks, Frank Reighter
I have been searching for information about the Wyandotte Theater for the past few weeks. Went to the library…didn’t find what I was actually looking for. I am trying to settle a dispute with a sibling. The Wyandotte Theater WAS a XXX theater for a short period of time…maybe a year or so. I was taken to my first XXX rated movie by friends for either my 18th or 21st birthday. Someone has to know where I could find documents and or pictures…to help settle this bet. It would have been sometime between 1977 to 1980 ish. It’s not something, I’m sure, our city wants to brag about having a XXX Theater within the city limits…but we did. The theater truly showed its age…very dingy & dirty…par for the course I guess.
I’ve dwindled my searches down to newspaper ads. The movie guide section where It listed ALL movies, drive-ins and XXX theaters and what they were showing along with show times. The X-rated & XXX movie theaters were always listed at the bottom of the page…the last ones to be listed. I dread the thought of going through property information from that long ago to see when it changed owner ship.
Proud to be born & raised here. It was my first and LAST XXX movie experience for those of you wondering. This is a bit of Wyandotte History in order to settle a dispute. Could someone please help me out here and shed a little light on the situation? I’m not crazy.
Nice looking theatre.
Boxoffice Magazine ran an item about the opening of the Wyandotte Theatre in their issue of August 20, 1938. It was a single-screen theater with 1,500 seats, and was decorated in an American Indian motif.
The earliest mention of the Wyandotte as a duplex theater I’ve found is in the August 16, 1941, issue of Boxoffice which said that National Theatre Supply had received an order for carpeting and booth equipment for the project.
The January 10, 1942, issue of Boxoffice said that the Wyandotte Theatre’s Annex had opened on New Year’s Day. The original plan for the house had been to show double bills in one auditorium with a single feature and short subjects in the other, but the policy management settled on was to have both auditoriums running the same double feature program, but on a staggered schedule.
I ran across a 1958 Boxoffice item (which I’ve now lost track of, unfortunately) which reported that a minor fire had taken place in the main auditorium of the Wyandotte Theatre during a performance. Though the fire had been quickly extinguished the auditorium smelled of smoke, and so the audience was moved to the smaller auditorium, which had not been in use that night, and the show continued there.
The item said that one or the other of the auditoriums was usually not in use by this time, and the auditorium management opened on a given night depended on how much business they were expecting for the scheduled program. I’ve not been able to find out when they began using both auditoriums on a regular basis again.
I was looking at some photos at the Bacon Library (Wyandotte) website and Majestic and Rialto were completely separate from the Wyandotte Theater, so they should be removed from the “also known as…” line. I’ll be creating new pages for these theaters.
According to this website:
http://www.daads.org/threatened02.htm
The Main was built in 1938, but the Annex was added sometime in the 40s to handle overflow crowds. They showed the same movie until 1958. If it’s true that the Main seated 1700, and the total seating was 2000, then the Annex only seated 300 — ? That’s not right.
RDtoo, I was just joking. I was born at Wyandotte General and grew up over in Southgate. Sometimes it’s easier to say you’re from Detroit because no one knows where Wyandotte (or Southgate, for that matter) is.
Don, Wyandotte is about 10 miles due south of Downtown Detroit. And yes, I was referring to Connie Kreski. Of course her last name was different when she worked at the theatre, but I will not reveal that out of respect for her and her family. I believe Connie passed away several years ago.
RDtoo, I think you mean 1969 Playmate of the Year. Connie Kreski was born in Wyandotte, appeared in the Jan 68 magazine, and was voted Playmate of the Year for 1969. Of course, IMDB lists her birth city as Detroit. Wyandotte? Where’s that?!
My father managed the Wyandotte Theatre from the early to mid 50s until he left to manage the brand new Southland Theatre in 1970. His name was Howard Denial. I am his son Robert (Bob). My mother Mary Jo managed the concession stand during those years. The theatre was a part of the Suburban Detroit Theatre chain owned by Richard and Eugene Sloan. My dad told me that the Wyandotte was the first theatre to have two screens under one roof. Many celebrities stopped by on promotional tours, like Jerry Lewis, Dwayne Hickman and the supporting cast of the Beach Party films to name a few. An Usherette from the early 60s went on to become the 1968 Playmate of the year. I have a photo of her in her usherette outfit along with alot of other photos and memorbilia that I hope to exhibit at the Bacon Library sometime in the near future. I myself worked as a ticket taker at the Wyandotte in 1972 or 73 after my father had left. I later worked for him at Southland. It was sad to see the theatre demolished.
Linda, I may have attended a few screenings while you were working there. My earliest memory of the Wyandotte is going with my family to Flipper’s New Adventure (1964). And even though I was just a little kid, I realized that there was something special about that place. I really liked the Chief Wyandotte busts, although at that time I didn’t know who he was.
Later, my dad would drop my brother and I off and when I could manage it, I would stick around and watch the movie twice. This place helped instill in me a love not only for movies, but for movie theaters.
Demolished, gone.
I also worked at the Wyandotte Theater from probably 1967 t0 1971. It was my first job and I was an usherette,then later a cashier.The best times for me were when the show was so full there was standing room only. Those were the days of James Bond movies and Clint Eastwood westerns. The manager, Mr. Robert Denial had such a loud voice, you could hear him over the entire theater, and I think most kids were afraid of him. Back then, an usherette actually seated you with her flashlight and patrolled the aisles every 15 minutes. Saturday matinees were filled with kids dropped off by their parents and we had to keep them in line. No running, feet off the seats, quiet down, etc. Anyone who didn’t behave would be kicked out. After the matinee there were popcorn boxes and spilled popcorn everywhere that had to be cleaned up by the janitor before the evening show. We often helped in picking up the popcorn boxes. I quit working when I got married and since my reception was right down the block at the old Oddfellows Hall (an old 2 story house made into a hall, now gone) I lead everyone in the Grand March down the street to the show and through the lobby to say hello to my boss Dave. Mr. Denial was no longer there as he went over to the new Southland Theater. Great memories. I went and got a brick from the demolition site.
Hyde & Williams were the architects
Here are two articles concerning renovation of the Wyandotte:
http://tinyurl.com/yw8ayx
http://tinyurl.com/2tlaxm
Three years ago I returned to Wyandotte after a thirty-four year absence. I was saddened to find that the Wyandotte Theater was closed. Since I was born and raised in Wyandotte, I have very fond memories of many Saturday afternoons and later Friday and Saturday evenings watching movies at the Wyandotte.
In 1968 I worked at the Wyandotte as a ticket taker. It was one of the few jobs that teenage boys were hired for. All the ushers and the ticket booth attendants were girls. I don’t recall who worked the concession stand.
To whom this may concern. My name is Adam, i am very interested into re opening the Wyandotte Theater, I feel that it would be a great addition to the downtown area, and bring more people to the city of Wyandotte. If anyone has any ideas how to do this or any way i can get involved in this please let me know.
-Adam
Tony Dee,
Your idea sounds very intersting. If you don’t mind elaborating, what type of television show(s) are you considering producing? Also, will they be aired on a local cable channel, or on a major network? I urge you to read my bio. Maybe I can help you endeavor in some way. Let me know. Thanks.
Thanks for the updated information…my interests run along the lines of what you are hoping for…I believe that the theatre would make a fantastic auditorium for the TV shows that I want to produce in this area…Keep it touch and maybe both of our hopes will come to be!!