Adams Theater
44 Adams Avenue West,
Detroit,
MI
48226
44 Adams Avenue West,
Detroit,
MI
48226
10 people
favorited this theater
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Ilitch & Co took off those ugly tiles over the entrance to the Fine Arts this week, exposing the original stone. They sandblasted it all, making it appear brand new and original. Only thing is, the keystone originally protruded out as kind of a scroll and it was cut off when the panels were placed, so the keystone appears rough and odd. I hope the building facade is saved at the least (the interior is ROUGH), and the keystone is recreated.
Today Ilitch had a press conference that included the United Artists, Fine Arts Building, Fox Theater, and former Madison-Lenox Site and Detroit Building.
Full press release here.
Pics are under Media Room>Photo Gallery
Though a bit late, a thank you to UA80 for posting those archives.
When I was in the theater a few months ago, I noticed a little bit of police tape in the balcony. I thought back to the articles you posted, made me wonder if that is what they were from.
Detroit Free Press…
AMID VIOLENCE, 5 THEATERS \ DROP NEW RUN-DMC FLICK
Author: MICHAEL BETZOLD, GEORGEA KOVANIS, , ROBERT MUSIAL, Free Press Staff Writers
Copyright © 1988 Detroit Free Press
Record Number: 8802140312
Edition: METRO FINAL CHASER
Section: NWS
Page: 1A;
October 11, 1988
After a series of weekend shootings, beatings and fights that left one man dead and several people injured, five Detroit area theaters have canceled the movie, “Tougher Than Leather,” which stars rap music group Run-DMC.
On Friday night, a man was fatally shot at the Adams Theatre in downtown Detroit, another man was shot and wounded outside the AMC Northland 2 in Southfield, shots were fired outside the Showcase Cinemas in Dearborn, and a youth was beaten with a baseball bat at Eastland mall, near the Beacon East.
Less serious incidents occurred at some theaters Saturday and Sunday.
All four theaters and the Ford-Wyoming Drive-In in Dearborn have pulled “Tougher Than Leather.”
The movie, described by Run-DMC band member Darryl (D.M.C.) McDaniels as a “black exploitation” film, will continue at the Ann Arbor Showcase Cinemas, where fights broke out in the parking lot Friday night, said Showcase Cinema spokesman Jerry Dozier.
The film also will stay at the Showcase Cinemas in Sterling Heights and Pontiac and at the Canton Cinema-6, where no trouble has been reported.
Members of Run-DMC, on a European tour, were unavailable for comment, but publicist Bill Adler said: “We deplore this, but we have to absolutely deny any responsibility for this violence. The movie is a Clint Eastwood-style story of murder and revenge… . However, we don’t believe that there’s anything in the movie to incite people to violence.”
Adler, who grew up in Detroit and graduated from Southfield High School in 1969, said: “I’m afraid that these incidents say more about Detroit than they do about Run-DMC and their movie.”
New Line Cinema in New York, the film’s distributor, said the movie had been pulled from only two other theaters since its national opening Sept. 16.
New Line released a statement Monday saying: “We believe in Run-DMC’s anti-violence, anti-drug and pro-education messages that are clearly inherent in their music, public appearance and community services. We are sorry that a few individuals do not share these viewpoints.”
But whatever anti-violence message is contained in the movie, it apparently didn’t get through to some patrons this weekend.
At the movie’s downtown opening at the Adams on Friday night, Melvin Jackson, 20, of Detroit, was shot in the back and died a half hour later. There was no indication what prompted the shooting. The theater canceled the remaining weekend showings.
At the Beacon East, 20 police officers from four suburban departments battled 150 theater patrons Friday night after the first showing of “Tougher Than Leather,” and more disturbances broke out Saturday night.
Larry Crocker Jr., 19, of Detroit, was arraigned Sunday on a felony assault charge. Police Chief Gary Ford said Crocker and five others chased four youths into Eastland mall late Friday night and beat one with an aluminum baseball bat. He said both the victims and the suspected assailants told police they had seen “Tougher Than Leather.”
Police said the victim, a 13-year-old Detroiter, was treated for bruises at Detroit’s St. John Hospital and released Saturday.
Lt. Douglas Garascia said Maurice Davis, 20, of Detroit, was charged with disturbing the peace and released on $100 bond. Four juvenile accomplices, all from Detroit, were handed over to Wayne County youth authorities, he said.
Garascia said an usher was injured and a security guard punched in the nose at the theater Saturday night, and police ticketed two people.
On Sunday night, eight teenagers assaulted a person with bricks at a gas station at Kelly and Vernier, not far from the theater, Garascia said.
At the Northland on Friday night, a 19-year-old Detroit man standing in the parking lot was hit in the chest by a shot fired from a passing car, said Southfield Police Officer Gary Conat.
The man is in good condition at Providence Hospital in Southfield; neither the police nor the hospital would release his name.
Southfield police said two youths kicked in three plate glass windows at the theater Sunday night. Kelsey Lang Baker, 18, of Detroit, was charged Monday in Southfield’s 46th District Court with resisting and obstructing a police officer and malicious damage of property. A 17-year-old has not been charged.
Outside the Showcase Cinemas in Dearborn on Friday night, shots were fired from a passing car into a group of youths standing in the parking lot, police Lt. Raymond Wysocki said. No injuries were reported.
Wysocki said police made three arrests near the theater Friday night on concealed weapon and disorderly conduct charges. He would not give names.
In Pittsfield Township, police broke up several fights outside the Ann Arbor Showcase Cinemas on Friday and arrested one man for throwing a beer bottle, Sgt. Donald O'Farrell said. The man was released pending review, he said.
Run-DMC publicist Adler said: “Anything can touch off this kind of violence. It could have happened at a picnic, a ball game, or a church social.”
Detroit Free Press…TEEN ARRESTED IN DOWNTOWN THEATER SHOOTINGS
Author: JACK KRESNAK Free Press Staff Writer
Copyright © 1988 Detroit Free Press
Record Number: 8802200250
Edition: METRO FINAL
Section: NWS
Page: 3A;
November 19, 1988
A 16-year-old Detroit boy was being held Friday in the Wayne County Youth Home on charges that he shot two teens during an argument over a girl last weekend at the Adams Theatre downtown.
The teenager in custody after Saturday’s shootings of Dozshon Johnson, 18, and his cousin, Michael Johnson, 17, was arrested Thursday after students at Northwestern High School told police he had been involved, according to Wayne County Juvenile Court records.
The shootings followed a fatal shooting in October of a man inside the theater. The incidents apparently led operators of the movie house to close it this week.
According to court reports, the teenager in custody was a member of a group of youths involved in a fight with the Johnsons during an intermission. Friends of the 16-year-old told police one of the Johnsons had teased a girlfriend of a friend of the accused youth.
A fistfight erupted in the aisle with the two Johnsons gaining the upper hand. Security guard Willie Evans, 21, told police he was trying to break up the fight when the lights went out for the start of the second movie. Evans said he then went to call police because the situation was out of control.
As Evans was leaving, the teenager allegedly pulled a .32- caliber revolver and went after the Johnsons, firing six shots and wounding Dozshon in the leg and back and Michael in the chest and shoulder. Dozshon remained hospitalized in stable condition Friday. Michael was released from a hospital Friday.
Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Thomas Doetsch said the youth would be charged as an adult next week with two counts of assault with intent to murder and possession of a firearm during a felony.
Detroit Free Press…MAN SHOT TO DEATH AT THEATER
Author: Free Press staff and wire reports
Copyright © 1988 Detroit Free Press
Record Number: 8802140075
Edition: METRO FINAL
Section: NWS
Page: 14A;
October 9, 1988
A 20-year-old man was shot to death early Saturday at the opening of a movie starring the rap music group Run-DMC, police said. The Adams Theatre, where the shooting took place, subsequently canceled a planned two-week run of the movie, “Tougher Than Leather.”
Melvin Jackson was shot in the back at 12:04 a.m. and died at 12:38 a.m. at Detroit Receiving Hospital, police said.
Jackson was wearing a Burns security guard uniform, but was not an employe, said Lovell Pertner, theater manager. The theater was full at the time of the shooting, but there were no other injuries, she said.
“It’s pretty awful. I had just left for home when it happened,” said Pertner, who has managed the theater since 1980. “We’ve never had anything like this happen before.”
Theater officials said they anticipated trouble at the showing and had hired extra security guards.
Officers in a police scout car near the theater heard several gunshots inside the building and found Jackson on the floor when they arrived, police said.
The adams is definately very interesting-very sad to look at though.
Hey Jonathan,
shoot me an email,
More photos of the interior at http://forgottenmichigan.com/gallery/AdamsTheater
Nice comment Jonathan. I wish it could be restored but Illitch has to hold on to stuff, that idiot. He’s got the UA too….
I grew up seeing movies in this theater, im 32 now, and my father was a union projectionist here. I can remember playing “3 card molly” in the alleys of the adams wheni was just 10. I use to walk a few blocks around to get a quick bight, and was never intimidated by the surroounding enviorment. I can remember even before it was oddly converted into the tri-plex, watching the scary movies, all by myself in the balconies, of the Adams theater. Taking a break from seeing the same movie twice ina night, i’d go out onto the fire escape and take in the excitement of the life in the streets below. Growing up in the suburbs, I appriciate the exposure, helped shape me for the person i am today.. Sometimes, the show there was actually more violent then on the silver screen. I use to love to explore all the little nooks and cranies of this massive decaying structure, always wondering, what had it looked, before time has taken its toll upon it. i would love to be able to re vist this playground of my youth one day..and hope to see the Adams, re born again would be great as well.
Very interesting site. Old movie palaces in Michigan are a hobby of mine.