Neo, the Shubert was built as the Orpheum, and would have been the Detroit outpost for the famed Orpheum vaudeville circuit. It was later renamed the Lafayette, then the Shubert. As Bryan’s post indicates, the reopening of the Fisher rendered the Shubert redundant. Now as for the Gayety, I assume we’re talking about the Gayety burlesque. I don’t have Much on the building, but according to architecture historian Andrew Craig Morrison it stood at 100 Cadillac Square, sat 1,362, was designed by Fuller Claflin, it opened 9/15/12 and closed 4/10/58. I have talked to many old timers (my 82 year old dad being one) and they all had fond memories of the Gayety, and the resident comedian, Scurvey Miller. Burlesque was not at all like a strip club, but rather a form of entertainment that included music, comedy and attractive ladies, doing striptease. This is not “stripping” (oh hell, I just realized you are only 14!) Striptease is just that, teasing. I’m sure the average network TV viewer sees more sexually explicit content in a nights viewing than the Gayety burle-Q shows. The rule of thumb about the burlesque is that everyone went, but didn’t talk about it.
The RCMH Christmas spectacular has been running at the Detroit Fox since 1997, and has done very well. It shows no sign of ending within this decade. The Ilitch family, who owns the Fox (and the Little Caesar’s Pizza chain, the outfit that paid for the restoration of the Fox) truly believes that the Fox should be doing that show every December (we run from 11/26-12/26) and have stated that they are not bottom line sensitive on that show. That hasn’t been a problem, as the show has really caught on, and does very well. The RCMH people are enlarging the number of franchises they operate. I believe the Ohio theatre in Columbus is new this year with the show. John
A note to DavidDavid, was/is your father Dr. Steve Glantz? if so, the operation of rock concerts was a HUGE box of nails in the coffin for the Michigan. The 70’s spoiled brat rock and roll turds that attended those concerts trashed the place beyond the point where anyone would consider saving it. Their damage was mostly cosmetic, but the damage to the regional perception of the theater was lethal. It just attained a “dirty” image that was unshakable. The people in SE Michigan knew of the demolition of the interior before it happened, and they just didn’t care. “those kids ruined it”— I heard that many times over. Shame, because it all could have been restored, and would have been cheap to restore compared to what was spent on the Grand Circus/Opera house (another place cheapened, and almost lost by a nickle and dime, 0% reinvestment promoter). I was there before those concerts and I was there after, and brother, the wanton destruction was gut-wrenching. I was part of the crew hired to remove the movie projectors in 1977, right before the bulldozers took to the interoir to create the carnage we see today. It hurt to see the theatre in one piece, despite the rock-wrecking, knowing I was one of the few to see it whole for the last time. There is some poetic justice in Emenem’s use of the building for his empty-vee video and movie. He represents the spawn of the baby boom “rock and roll is the only music” generation, and his “artistry” probably elicits the same reaction amongst the aging 70’s rockers that their music did to their (big band-raised)parents. I’ll be writing a column of my Michigan story for www.waterwinterwonderland.com for my column, “John’s notes on a youth mis-spent in old movie houses” look for it sometime in 2005. John
In that sense, yes. NY still has a (ever shrinking) live orchestra, and the full 36 Rockette troupe. The set pieces are pretty much the same, we have 2 camels, 2 donkeys and 4 sheep for the finale. No, it’s not exactly like New York, but we’re not exactly in New York. It’s still a lot of spectacle.
Patsy, Yes I will be seeing lots of that show. I will be playing the Moller lobby organ and the auditorium Wurlitzer (both original to the theatre) before 13 of the sixty-some shows. We are the only “live” musical act in the show, the orchestral accompaniment being pre-recorded. The “review” nature of the RCMH Christmas show is a great fit for the Detroit Fox, and is remarkably like the live entertainment that preceded the movies during the halycon days. Thousands upon thaousands see this show every year, get to experience the magic of a movie palace (and what a palace!) and hear one of the last remaining all original, as built, still in it’s original home—Wurlitzer theatre pipe organs. The Fox Wurlitzer is one of five made of the largest stock model Wurlitzers, only the Radio City Music Hall one-off organ in manhattan being larger.
I would like to ad a word of correction to the previous comments regarding style. the offical style of the Detroit and St. Louis Fox theatres is “Siamese Byzantine” as described by it’s architect, C. Howard Crane. It is not Rococo, as that term is properly used to describe Italian and French styles of the 17th and 18th century (many movie palaces were decorated this way). The term “Eve Leo” (not Eva) was a bit of 20’s advertising ballyhooy (it was, after all a decade of intense ballyhoo) that was playing up on Mrs. Fox’s habits in acting as purchasing agent for decorative items for the theatres. She had some descretion in what to buy, but many of the furnishings were specified by the architect/decorator. Her barganing powers were legendary. An often told story is where a supplier of furniture told her if she ordered what they had discussed they wold give her a very expensive piece for her home (which they would be pointing to at the moment) her reply was “how much is that table worth?” the salesman would reply with a grossly inflated figure. Her response: “fine,if you can afford to give me that table you can keep your table and subtract that amount from our bill!"
The "oriental” description on this site is adequate, and far more accurate than many I have seen in print and in cyberspace (the great un-editied library). I have been associated with the Detroit Fox since 1975, in one way or another. I have been on the theatre’s staff since the 1988 re-opening. John
The style of this theatre really should say Atmospheric/French renaissance. The term “atmospheric” is important, as it classifies the auditorium as having a “open sky” effect, the French element being secondary, but no less important. Architect John Eberson (who designed the Paradise) is the inventor and best proponent of this style.
Neo, the Shubert was built as the Orpheum, and would have been the Detroit outpost for the famed Orpheum vaudeville circuit. It was later renamed the Lafayette, then the Shubert. As Bryan’s post indicates, the reopening of the Fisher rendered the Shubert redundant. Now as for the Gayety, I assume we’re talking about the Gayety burlesque. I don’t have Much on the building, but according to architecture historian Andrew Craig Morrison it stood at 100 Cadillac Square, sat 1,362, was designed by Fuller Claflin, it opened 9/15/12 and closed 4/10/58. I have talked to many old timers (my 82 year old dad being one) and they all had fond memories of the Gayety, and the resident comedian, Scurvey Miller. Burlesque was not at all like a strip club, but rather a form of entertainment that included music, comedy and attractive ladies, doing striptease. This is not “stripping” (oh hell, I just realized you are only 14!) Striptease is just that, teasing. I’m sure the average network TV viewer sees more sexually explicit content in a nights viewing than the Gayety burle-Q shows. The rule of thumb about the burlesque is that everyone went, but didn’t talk about it.
The RCMH Christmas spectacular has been running at the Detroit Fox since 1997, and has done very well. It shows no sign of ending within this decade. The Ilitch family, who owns the Fox (and the Little Caesar’s Pizza chain, the outfit that paid for the restoration of the Fox) truly believes that the Fox should be doing that show every December (we run from 11/26-12/26) and have stated that they are not bottom line sensitive on that show. That hasn’t been a problem, as the show has really caught on, and does very well. The RCMH people are enlarging the number of franchises they operate. I believe the Ohio theatre in Columbus is new this year with the show. John
A note to DavidDavid, was/is your father Dr. Steve Glantz? if so, the operation of rock concerts was a HUGE box of nails in the coffin for the Michigan. The 70’s spoiled brat rock and roll turds that attended those concerts trashed the place beyond the point where anyone would consider saving it. Their damage was mostly cosmetic, but the damage to the regional perception of the theater was lethal. It just attained a “dirty” image that was unshakable. The people in SE Michigan knew of the demolition of the interior before it happened, and they just didn’t care. “those kids ruined it”— I heard that many times over. Shame, because it all could have been restored, and would have been cheap to restore compared to what was spent on the Grand Circus/Opera house (another place cheapened, and almost lost by a nickle and dime, 0% reinvestment promoter). I was there before those concerts and I was there after, and brother, the wanton destruction was gut-wrenching. I was part of the crew hired to remove the movie projectors in 1977, right before the bulldozers took to the interoir to create the carnage we see today. It hurt to see the theatre in one piece, despite the rock-wrecking, knowing I was one of the few to see it whole for the last time. There is some poetic justice in Emenem’s use of the building for his empty-vee video and movie. He represents the spawn of the baby boom “rock and roll is the only music” generation, and his “artistry” probably elicits the same reaction amongst the aging 70’s rockers that their music did to their (big band-raised)parents. I’ll be writing a column of my Michigan story for www.waterwinterwonderland.com for my column, “John’s notes on a youth mis-spent in old movie houses” look for it sometime in 2005. John
In that sense, yes. NY still has a (ever shrinking) live orchestra, and the full 36 Rockette troupe. The set pieces are pretty much the same, we have 2 camels, 2 donkeys and 4 sheep for the finale. No, it’s not exactly like New York, but we’re not exactly in New York. It’s still a lot of spectacle.
Patsy, Yes I will be seeing lots of that show. I will be playing the Moller lobby organ and the auditorium Wurlitzer (both original to the theatre) before 13 of the sixty-some shows. We are the only “live” musical act in the show, the orchestral accompaniment being pre-recorded. The “review” nature of the RCMH Christmas show is a great fit for the Detroit Fox, and is remarkably like the live entertainment that preceded the movies during the halycon days. Thousands upon thaousands see this show every year, get to experience the magic of a movie palace (and what a palace!) and hear one of the last remaining all original, as built, still in it’s original home—Wurlitzer theatre pipe organs. The Fox Wurlitzer is one of five made of the largest stock model Wurlitzers, only the Radio City Music Hall one-off organ in manhattan being larger.
I would like to ad a word of correction to the previous comments regarding style. the offical style of the Detroit and St. Louis Fox theatres is “Siamese Byzantine” as described by it’s architect, C. Howard Crane. It is not Rococo, as that term is properly used to describe Italian and French styles of the 17th and 18th century (many movie palaces were decorated this way). The term “Eve Leo” (not Eva) was a bit of 20’s advertising ballyhooy (it was, after all a decade of intense ballyhoo) that was playing up on Mrs. Fox’s habits in acting as purchasing agent for decorative items for the theatres. She had some descretion in what to buy, but many of the furnishings were specified by the architect/decorator. Her barganing powers were legendary. An often told story is where a supplier of furniture told her if she ordered what they had discussed they wold give her a very expensive piece for her home (which they would be pointing to at the moment) her reply was “how much is that table worth?” the salesman would reply with a grossly inflated figure. Her response: “fine,if you can afford to give me that table you can keep your table and subtract that amount from our bill!"
The "oriental” description on this site is adequate, and far more accurate than many I have seen in print and in cyberspace (the great un-editied library). I have been associated with the Detroit Fox since 1975, in one way or another. I have been on the theatre’s staff since the 1988 re-opening. John
The style of this theatre really should say Atmospheric/French renaissance. The term “atmospheric” is important, as it classifies the auditorium as having a “open sky” effect, the French element being secondary, but no less important. Architect John Eberson (who designed the Paradise) is the inventor and best proponent of this style.