In Al Johnson’s March 1949 Kodachrome image the theater appears to be in an older brick-faced building with some newer accents on the front. Snow-covered street car tracks run in front of the theater.
The Town Theatre stood at 135 N. Front Street in Chesaning. Our family records list this Johnson Construction Co. job as a 1948 project.
Al Johnson’s Kodachrome slide, which I’ve uploaded, shows two pairs of the art moderne style “Johnson doors” in a natural color and with half-moon glass. My grandfather is said to have patented this type of door, which was a feature of several of his theaters.
In the slide image, “Angels' Alley,” a film released in 1948, appears on the marquee. The cinder block building construction suggests that the 1948 project was a new theater rather than a remodeling job.
The waterwinterwonderland.com website suggests that the theater operated until the 1960’s, after which the building housed a bowling alley and an auto parts store. A (2021) Google Maps search shows the building as a closed pizzeria with a “For Sale” sign.
The Grand (later “Washington”) Theatre shared the building with the Van Camp Chevrolet auto dealership, which can be seen in the image that Al Johnson shot in August 1948.
The Liberty Theatre, located on Van Dyke Avenue, was a 1941 new build or remodel project by my grandfather’s Johnson Construction Co. Our family’s theater and drive-in job list shows it incorrectly in Detroit, but Google Maps shows the location as Center Line. It’s shown on this (Cinema Treasures) site as Warren.
My grandfather, A.S. “Al” Johnson, shot the slide that I’ve uploaded to this website on August 1948. “Alias a Gentleman” appears on the marquee. The image shows the theater in typical “art moderne” style with period-appropriate doors, marquee and accents.
The Vassar Theatre is a venue that my uncle’s preliminary research didn’t uncover as a Johnson Construction Company project, and for which my grandfather Albert S. Johnson didn’t leave behind any Kodachrome slides.
Two clues are the basis for including it in our family theater history. The first is its similarity in art moderne/deco style with other Johnson-built theaters. This includes the trademark porcelain enamel tile red and cream exterior color scheme, and the quintessential “Johnson doors” with paired half-moon shaped glass. Those doors are said to have been patented by my grandfather.
The second clue is in a September 1949 Reed City newspaper article (see uploaded article in Photos page) which lists the locations of theaters owned by the Schuckert & Stafford theater chain. The Vassar is among the six other Michigan theaters that Johnson built for that company.
The theater, located at 140 E Huron Avenue in Vassar, opened in 1937. If the Vassar was one of my grandfather’s projects, it’s one of eleven Johnson-built theaters that is still open in 2021 (Covid-19 closures notwithstanding).
The Garden Theater, at 301 Main Street in Frankfort, opened in August 1924. My Uncle Albert S. Johnson Jr.’s theater job list shows this as a 1947 remodeling project by his father Al’s Johnson Construction Company.
The “art moderne” style of the Garden Theater is consistent with a 1947 remodel. Current images of the theater, which remains in use, show three pairs of green doors with matched half-octagonal glass panes. These are the same patented “Johnson doors” used in several of Al Johnson’s other theater projects of the era.
Unfortunately, my grandfather Al Johnson Sr. left behind no Kodachrome slides of this theater project for us to enjoy today.
My grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson’s Johnson Construction Company built the beautiful State Wayne Theatre in 1946. Though extensively remodeled since, it’s one of a handful of Johnson-built theaters that is still open today, as a luxury cinema complex with three movie screens and one live performance stage.
Al took a single exterior slide in June 1948, which I’ve uploaded to this website. The image shows the large curved entrance to the theater with three pairs of double doors in natural color. A large curved marquee wraps around a corner of the building and features a vertical neon “State” sign on top.
My uncle’s Johnson Construction Company theater job list, and most online sources, show the 1941-42 Huron Theatre as being in Pontiac, Michigan. A current (April 2021) Google Maps shows the address as being instead in Waterford Township, Michigan.
In August 1948, several years after he’d built the theater, my grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson, shot a single Kodachrome slide showing the exterior of the Huron with the film “Three Daring Daughters” listed on the marquee. I’ve uploaded a copy to this website.
In that image, the theater appears as a typical art moderne style theater with three pairs of blue doors with matching half-moon glass (Al’s patented “Johnson doors”). Multi-colored porcelain enamel tiles cover the entire front of the theater and wrap slightly around the sides.
The massive Ryan Theatre was located at 22884 Ryan Road in Warren, Michigan. The theater seated 1,400 patrons and had a 500-car parking lot, and was a lengthy project. My grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson built the theater. I’ve uploaded eleven several color Kodachrome slides that Al shot during its construction.
Two of my grandfather’s color slides, stamped by the developer in August 1948, show the theater with its walls raised and partially bricked over, and the steel rafters in place. Opening night was another sixteen months away on December 28, 1949.
Al Johnson shot the remaining nine slides in December 1949 just before the theatre opened. One image shows the marquee proclaiming “Watch Grand Opening Soon… Most Beautiful Theatre in All Michigan.” The entrance features four pairs of natural color “Johnson doors” with matching half-moon glass and elaborate push bars. Al Johnson held a patent on this style of doors, and they were used in several of his theater jobs.
The Motor City Theatre stood at 8120 E. Nine Mile Road in Warren, Michigan. My uncle’s list shows the Motor City as a 1939 Johnson Construction Company project.
One of my grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson’s slides, taken in August 1948, shows a relatively large entrance with four sets of double doors and an immense vertical Motor City neon sign above the marquee. The 1948 film “Alias a Gentleman” with Wallace Beery, and the 1937 Western “Rustler’s Valley” were showing at the time. A second slide shows the another side of the building (both images uploaded to this website).
In the same building, a drugstore can be seen to the left of the theatre. The visible sides of the building facing the two streets are done up in a nice art moderne or art deco style, and feature the porcelain enamel tiled finish which characterized several of the theaters that Johnson built and remodeled between the 1930s and 1950s.
My grandfather A.S. “Al” Johnson built the Lake Theatre in Walled Lake Michigan, but family records don’t include the year of the project. An undated newspaper advertisement for the “New Lake Theatre” lists a 1947 film “The Voice of the Turtle,” so it’s likely that the theater opened in 1947 or 1948.
The theater was located at 420 Pontiac Trail. After the theater closed, the building went on to house a variety of businesses before being demolished.
In June 1948 Al shot a Kodachrome slide from outside the theatre (see Photos page). In this image, the entrance has a pair of red double doors with half-moon glass. These are the classic “Johnson doors,” for which my grandfather was said to have held a patent.
The theater is tan with red accents and the entire front appears to be covered by large porcelain enamel tiles that characterized so many of the Johnson-built theaters. The marquee/sign is cream and maroon colored. Humphrey Bogart’s classic 1948 film “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” appears on the marquee.
Among my grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson’s Johnson Construction Company theater job slides is an April 1949 image of the Delux Theatre, which had just opened three months earlier. I’ve uploaded a copy to this site. “Rose of the Yukon” can be seen on the marquee.
The Delux stood at 45835 Van Dyke Avenue in Utica. Al Johnson’s slide shows a relatively large modern building with a beautifully curved entrance, elegant signage and three pairs of doors.
In 1940 my grandfather’s Johnson Construction Company remodeled the Strand Theatre in Tecumseh, Michigan. Al Johnson’s July 1948 Kodachrome, from eight years later, shows a building that appears to have had many iterations. I’ve uploaded a copy to this site. On the marquee in that image is Frank Capra’s 1948 film “State of the Union,” starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.
A modest modern theater entrance, including signage and a marquee, has been built onto the front of a brick structure that itself appears to have been added to an older gabled building behind it. What we can see of the front of that building includes some very ornate brick work. It would be interesting to know more about that original structure.
The cream and red color scheme of the Strand Theatre entrance was characteristic of Johnson theaters, and the three “art deco” style doors with round glass on top are similar to those in other 1940s Johnson theaters.
Saginaw’s “Daniel Theatre” was located at 2525 State Street. My uncle Bud Johnson’s theater job list dates this Johnson Construction Company project to 1942.
My grandfather Al Johnson’s theater slide collection shows a street view of the Daniel Theatre taken in October 1949. It shows three pairs of green doors having the characteristic art moderne half-moon round glass (“Johnson doors”). Elaborate three-bar curved push bars compliment the curved lines of the glass. Al Johnson held a patent on this style of doors, and they were used in several of his theater jobs.
On the marquee are two 1948 films suggesting that my grandad shot the image during a Saturday matinee: Roy Roger’s “The Far Frontier” and the Dead End Kids' “Hit the Road.” For trivia lovers, the IMDb website indicates that “the Dead End Kids” were later renamed as the better-known “Bowery Boys.”
My uncle Albert S. Johnson Jr.’s research into his dad’s Johnson Construction Company Michigan theater work shows the “Reed” theater job in Reed City, but it doesn’t include the year of the project. It probably was in the 1940s when the theater name changed from the Strand to the Reed.
Unfortunately, Albert S. Johnson Sr. left behind no Kodachrome slides of this theater for us to enjoy.
My uncle Albert S. Johnson Jr.’s research shows this as a 1948 job by Johnson Construction Company. My grandfather Al Johnson Sr.’s Kodachrome (uploaded to this page) taken in May 1948, shows a modest-sized new block building - the front of which had a clean late 1940’s look. The cream and red porcelain enamel tiled theater front was characteristic of Johnson-built theaters.
From the waterwinterwonderland.com website: “This movie theater had the amenities of the day including a cry room, which was mostly a make-out room. When it [the theater] closed, it was converted into the New Baltimore Recreation Center. In the early 1970s they featured local bands of the day, including the Frost, Iggy and the Stooges, and Toby Redd.”
Sadly, after serving as a recreation center for several years, I was told earlier this year that the building was razed in 2020.
My grandfather’s Michigan theater jobs slide collection includes a street view of the Emsee Theatre at 67 Cass Avenue in Mount Clemens. “Em-see” sounds like “M.C.” for Mount Clemens, get it?
Albert S. “Al” Johnson, founder of the Johnson Construction Company which built the theater, shot the slide in September 1948 with “The Bishop’s Wife” and “Kings of the Olympus” on the marquee. Although the marquee is of a style more typical of the late 1930s or early 40s, the Box Office magazine said it opened in 1946 (see overview above).
Another nice feature of Al’s 1948 color slide is a bright red New Era delivery van parked in front. The New Era “Scientifically Processed” Potato Chips were a Detroit-based product which were sold in round yellow tins. I’ve uploaded a copy of the slide to this page.
The 450-seat Bogar Theatre in Marshall, Michigan opened on March 2, 1939 and was another project completed by my grandfather’s Johnson Construction Company. I’ve uploaded a copy of a Kodachrome slide that Al Johnson shot from Michigan Avenue in January 1949. “Apartment for Peggy,” and 1948 release, appears on the marquee.
The image might be as notable for the lineup of automobiles and a large red truck as it is for the theater. In any case, the front of the theater has the patented “Johnson doors” with matching half-round glass panes, and the cream and red colored porcelain enamel tiles which were features of several Johnson-built theaters of the era.
The Mariner Theatre is among the Johnson Construction Co. projects cataloged by my uncle Albert S. Johnson Jr., but the year of the remodeling job is undocumented. Based on the description of “1930’s mohair seats” and the appearance of the theater in the photo below, a renovation during the 1930’s is almost certain.
My grandfather Al Johnson Sr.’s June 1948 Kodachrome slide (which I’ve uploaded to this page) shows a marquee and other design elements typical of the Michigan theater renovations that he completed in the mid-thirties (e.g. the “old” Hudson Theatre and the Tibbits Theatre in Coldwater). The style of these early theater renovations pre-dated the “art moderne” doors and more streamlined marquees typical of later Johnson projects.
My grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson’s Johnson Construction Company built the Keego Theatre in 1940.
As explained in the overview above, the original conventional marquee was replaced in the 1970s with a shallower marquee after being struck several times by passing trucks once Orchard Lake Road was widened.
I’ve uploaded a scanned copy of a June 1948 Kodachrome slide taken by Al. In that image you can see that the original marquee had already been damaged by passing traffic on Orchard Lake Road. Humphrey Bogart’s classic film “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” appears on the marquee. Two sets of red double doors have full octagonal glass in the upper portion - a unique design not seen in images of any other Johnson-built theaters.
The porcelain enamel theater front and cream and red color scheme are characteristic of Johnson-built theaters of the era.
The Ideal Theatre in Ithaca, Michigan was a 1938 remodeling project for my grandfather’s Johnson Construction Company. A newer bank building and a parking lot now occupy the site where the theater stood.
Albert S. “Al” Johnson left us with several color images that he took several years after remodeling the theater. The first is a street view taken in June 1949. A 1948 film “The Dude Goes West” appears on the marquee. He shot the next street view in June 1950 when “Key to the City” was being shown.
The last five color slides were taken inside the theater in September 1952. It’s not known who the artist was, but the elaborate pastel murals in these images are very similar to murals in other Johnson theater projects in Michigan (e.g. the Flatroc, Harbor, Rapids and the “new” Hudson Theatre).
The last slide shows a painting, perhaps by a local artist, showing a farm scene with cows, sheep and two horse-drawn sulkies.
In Al Johnson’s March 1949 Kodachrome image the theater appears to be in an older brick-faced building with some newer accents on the front. Snow-covered street car tracks run in front of the theater.
The Town Theatre stood at 135 N. Front Street in Chesaning. Our family records list this Johnson Construction Co. job as a 1948 project.
Al Johnson’s Kodachrome slide, which I’ve uploaded, shows two pairs of the art moderne style “Johnson doors” in a natural color and with half-moon glass. My grandfather is said to have patented this type of door, which was a feature of several of his theaters.
In the slide image, “Angels' Alley,” a film released in 1948, appears on the marquee. The cinder block building construction suggests that the 1948 project was a new theater rather than a remodeling job.
The waterwinterwonderland.com website suggests that the theater operated until the 1960’s, after which the building housed a bowling alley and an auto parts store. A (2021) Google Maps search shows the building as a closed pizzeria with a “For Sale” sign.
The Grand (later “Washington”) Theatre shared the building with the Van Camp Chevrolet auto dealership, which can be seen in the image that Al Johnson shot in August 1948.
The Liberty Theatre, located on Van Dyke Avenue, was a 1941 new build or remodel project by my grandfather’s Johnson Construction Co. Our family’s theater and drive-in job list shows it incorrectly in Detroit, but Google Maps shows the location as Center Line. It’s shown on this (Cinema Treasures) site as Warren.
My grandfather, A.S. “Al” Johnson, shot the slide that I’ve uploaded to this website on August 1948. “Alias a Gentleman” appears on the marquee. The image shows the theater in typical “art moderne” style with period-appropriate doors, marquee and accents.
The Vassar Theatre is a venue that my uncle’s preliminary research didn’t uncover as a Johnson Construction Company project, and for which my grandfather Albert S. Johnson didn’t leave behind any Kodachrome slides.
Two clues are the basis for including it in our family theater history. The first is its similarity in art moderne/deco style with other Johnson-built theaters. This includes the trademark porcelain enamel tile red and cream exterior color scheme, and the quintessential “Johnson doors” with paired half-moon shaped glass. Those doors are said to have been patented by my grandfather.
The second clue is in a September 1949 Reed City newspaper article (see uploaded article in Photos page) which lists the locations of theaters owned by the Schuckert & Stafford theater chain. The Vassar is among the six other Michigan theaters that Johnson built for that company.
The theater, located at 140 E Huron Avenue in Vassar, opened in 1937. If the Vassar was one of my grandfather’s projects, it’s one of eleven Johnson-built theaters that is still open in 2021 (Covid-19 closures notwithstanding).
The Garden Theater, at 301 Main Street in Frankfort, opened in August 1924. My Uncle Albert S. Johnson Jr.’s theater job list shows this as a 1947 remodeling project by his father Al’s Johnson Construction Company.
The “art moderne” style of the Garden Theater is consistent with a 1947 remodel. Current images of the theater, which remains in use, show three pairs of green doors with matched half-octagonal glass panes. These are the same patented “Johnson doors” used in several of Al Johnson’s other theater projects of the era.
Unfortunately, my grandfather Al Johnson Sr. left behind no Kodachrome slides of this theater project for us to enjoy today.
My grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson’s Johnson Construction Company built the beautiful State Wayne Theatre in 1946. Though extensively remodeled since, it’s one of a handful of Johnson-built theaters that is still open today, as a luxury cinema complex with three movie screens and one live performance stage.
Al took a single exterior slide in June 1948, which I’ve uploaded to this website. The image shows the large curved entrance to the theater with three pairs of double doors in natural color. A large curved marquee wraps around a corner of the building and features a vertical neon “State” sign on top.
My uncle’s Johnson Construction Company theater job list, and most online sources, show the 1941-42 Huron Theatre as being in Pontiac, Michigan. A current (April 2021) Google Maps shows the address as being instead in Waterford Township, Michigan. In August 1948, several years after he’d built the theater, my grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson, shot a single Kodachrome slide showing the exterior of the Huron with the film “Three Daring Daughters” listed on the marquee. I’ve uploaded a copy to this website.
In that image, the theater appears as a typical art moderne style theater with three pairs of blue doors with matching half-moon glass (Al’s patented “Johnson doors”). Multi-colored porcelain enamel tiles cover the entire front of the theater and wrap slightly around the sides.
The massive Ryan Theatre was located at 22884 Ryan Road in Warren, Michigan. The theater seated 1,400 patrons and had a 500-car parking lot, and was a lengthy project. My grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson built the theater. I’ve uploaded eleven several color Kodachrome slides that Al shot during its construction.
Two of my grandfather’s color slides, stamped by the developer in August 1948, show the theater with its walls raised and partially bricked over, and the steel rafters in place. Opening night was another sixteen months away on December 28, 1949.
Al Johnson shot the remaining nine slides in December 1949 just before the theatre opened. One image shows the marquee proclaiming “Watch Grand Opening Soon… Most Beautiful Theatre in All Michigan.” The entrance features four pairs of natural color “Johnson doors” with matching half-moon glass and elaborate push bars. Al Johnson held a patent on this style of doors, and they were used in several of his theater jobs.
Correction: this slide was shot in December 1949, not 1948.
The Motor City Theatre stood at 8120 E. Nine Mile Road in Warren, Michigan. My uncle’s list shows the Motor City as a 1939 Johnson Construction Company project.
One of my grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson’s slides, taken in August 1948, shows a relatively large entrance with four sets of double doors and an immense vertical Motor City neon sign above the marquee. The 1948 film “Alias a Gentleman” with Wallace Beery, and the 1937 Western “Rustler’s Valley” were showing at the time. A second slide shows the another side of the building (both images uploaded to this website).
In the same building, a drugstore can be seen to the left of the theatre. The visible sides of the building facing the two streets are done up in a nice art moderne or art deco style, and feature the porcelain enamel tiled finish which characterized several of the theaters that Johnson built and remodeled between the 1930s and 1950s.
My grandfather A.S. “Al” Johnson built the Lake Theatre in Walled Lake Michigan, but family records don’t include the year of the project. An undated newspaper advertisement for the “New Lake Theatre” lists a 1947 film “The Voice of the Turtle,” so it’s likely that the theater opened in 1947 or 1948.
The theater was located at 420 Pontiac Trail. After the theater closed, the building went on to house a variety of businesses before being demolished. In June 1948 Al shot a Kodachrome slide from outside the theatre (see Photos page). In this image, the entrance has a pair of red double doors with half-moon glass. These are the classic “Johnson doors,” for which my grandfather was said to have held a patent.
The theater is tan with red accents and the entire front appears to be covered by large porcelain enamel tiles that characterized so many of the Johnson-built theaters. The marquee/sign is cream and maroon colored. Humphrey Bogart’s classic 1948 film “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” appears on the marquee.
Among my grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson’s Johnson Construction Company theater job slides is an April 1949 image of the Delux Theatre, which had just opened three months earlier. I’ve uploaded a copy to this site. “Rose of the Yukon” can be seen on the marquee.
The Delux stood at 45835 Van Dyke Avenue in Utica. Al Johnson’s slide shows a relatively large modern building with a beautifully curved entrance, elegant signage and three pairs of doors.
In 1940 my grandfather’s Johnson Construction Company remodeled the Strand Theatre in Tecumseh, Michigan. Al Johnson’s July 1948 Kodachrome, from eight years later, shows a building that appears to have had many iterations. I’ve uploaded a copy to this site. On the marquee in that image is Frank Capra’s 1948 film “State of the Union,” starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.
A modest modern theater entrance, including signage and a marquee, has been built onto the front of a brick structure that itself appears to have been added to an older gabled building behind it. What we can see of the front of that building includes some very ornate brick work. It would be interesting to know more about that original structure.
The cream and red color scheme of the Strand Theatre entrance was characteristic of Johnson theaters, and the three “art deco” style doors with round glass on top are similar to those in other 1940s Johnson theaters.
Saginaw’s “Daniel Theatre” was located at 2525 State Street. My uncle Bud Johnson’s theater job list dates this Johnson Construction Company project to 1942.
My grandfather Al Johnson’s theater slide collection shows a street view of the Daniel Theatre taken in October 1949. It shows three pairs of green doors having the characteristic art moderne half-moon round glass (“Johnson doors”). Elaborate three-bar curved push bars compliment the curved lines of the glass. Al Johnson held a patent on this style of doors, and they were used in several of his theater jobs.
On the marquee are two 1948 films suggesting that my grandad shot the image during a Saturday matinee: Roy Roger’s “The Far Frontier” and the Dead End Kids' “Hit the Road.” For trivia lovers, the IMDb website indicates that “the Dead End Kids” were later renamed as the better-known “Bowery Boys.”
My uncle Albert S. Johnson Jr.’s research into his dad’s Johnson Construction Company Michigan theater work shows the “Reed” theater job in Reed City, but it doesn’t include the year of the project. It probably was in the 1940s when the theater name changed from the Strand to the Reed.
Unfortunately, Albert S. Johnson Sr. left behind no Kodachrome slides of this theater for us to enjoy.
My uncle Albert S. Johnson Jr.’s research shows this as a 1948 job by Johnson Construction Company. My grandfather Al Johnson Sr.’s Kodachrome (uploaded to this page) taken in May 1948, shows a modest-sized new block building - the front of which had a clean late 1940’s look. The cream and red porcelain enamel tiled theater front was characteristic of Johnson-built theaters.
From the waterwinterwonderland.com website: “This movie theater had the amenities of the day including a cry room, which was mostly a make-out room. When it [the theater] closed, it was converted into the New Baltimore Recreation Center. In the early 1970s they featured local bands of the day, including the Frost, Iggy and the Stooges, and Toby Redd.”
Sadly, after serving as a recreation center for several years, I was told earlier this year that the building was razed in 2020.
My grandfather’s Michigan theater jobs slide collection includes a street view of the Emsee Theatre at 67 Cass Avenue in Mount Clemens. “Em-see” sounds like “M.C.” for Mount Clemens, get it?
Albert S. “Al” Johnson, founder of the Johnson Construction Company which built the theater, shot the slide in September 1948 with “The Bishop’s Wife” and “Kings of the Olympus” on the marquee. Although the marquee is of a style more typical of the late 1930s or early 40s, the Box Office magazine said it opened in 1946 (see overview above).
Another nice feature of Al’s 1948 color slide is a bright red New Era delivery van parked in front. The New Era “Scientifically Processed” Potato Chips were a Detroit-based product which were sold in round yellow tins. I’ve uploaded a copy of the slide to this page.
The 450-seat Bogar Theatre in Marshall, Michigan opened on March 2, 1939 and was another project completed by my grandfather’s Johnson Construction Company. I’ve uploaded a copy of a Kodachrome slide that Al Johnson shot from Michigan Avenue in January 1949. “Apartment for Peggy,” and 1948 release, appears on the marquee.
The image might be as notable for the lineup of automobiles and a large red truck as it is for the theater. In any case, the front of the theater has the patented “Johnson doors” with matching half-round glass panes, and the cream and red colored porcelain enamel tiles which were features of several Johnson-built theaters of the era.
The Mariner Theatre is among the Johnson Construction Co. projects cataloged by my uncle Albert S. Johnson Jr., but the year of the remodeling job is undocumented. Based on the description of “1930’s mohair seats” and the appearance of the theater in the photo below, a renovation during the 1930’s is almost certain.
My grandfather Al Johnson Sr.’s June 1948 Kodachrome slide (which I’ve uploaded to this page) shows a marquee and other design elements typical of the Michigan theater renovations that he completed in the mid-thirties (e.g. the “old” Hudson Theatre and the Tibbits Theatre in Coldwater). The style of these early theater renovations pre-dated the “art moderne” doors and more streamlined marquees typical of later Johnson projects.
Correction: my grandfather Al Johnson remodeled (not built) the Mariner Theatre sometime in the 1930s.
My grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson’s Johnson Construction Company built the Keego Theatre in 1940.
As explained in the overview above, the original conventional marquee was replaced in the 1970s with a shallower marquee after being struck several times by passing trucks once Orchard Lake Road was widened.
I’ve uploaded a scanned copy of a June 1948 Kodachrome slide taken by Al. In that image you can see that the original marquee had already been damaged by passing traffic on Orchard Lake Road. Humphrey Bogart’s classic film “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” appears on the marquee. Two sets of red double doors have full octagonal glass in the upper portion - a unique design not seen in images of any other Johnson-built theaters.
The porcelain enamel theater front and cream and red color scheme are characteristic of Johnson-built theaters of the era.
The Ideal Theatre in Ithaca, Michigan was a 1938 remodeling project for my grandfather’s Johnson Construction Company. A newer bank building and a parking lot now occupy the site where the theater stood.
Albert S. “Al” Johnson left us with several color images that he took several years after remodeling the theater. The first is a street view taken in June 1949. A 1948 film “The Dude Goes West” appears on the marquee. He shot the next street view in June 1950 when “Key to the City” was being shown.
The last five color slides were taken inside the theater in September 1952. It’s not known who the artist was, but the elaborate pastel murals in these images are very similar to murals in other Johnson theater projects in Michigan (e.g. the Flatroc, Harbor, Rapids and the “new” Hudson Theatre).
The last slide shows a painting, perhaps by a local artist, showing a farm scene with cows, sheep and two horse-drawn sulkies.
Correction: this Kodachrome slide was shot in June 1950.
Correction: this Kodachrome was shot in September 1952, not in 1949.