![]() The advance of television halved the movie attendance from 90 million in 1948 to 46 million in 1951 and the movie studios tried desperately to lure the audience back into the theatres with many innovative techniques, among which were National Vision, Cinerama and other unsuccessful 3D ventures. Although panned by the critics, the movie started a temporary 3D boom in the US film industry from 1952 to 1954. It is based on the true story of the Tsavo maneaters, a pair of lions which were responsible for the deaths of a number of construction workers on the Kenya-Uganda Railway, from March to December 1898. The film is set in British East Africa during the early 20th century. “JR Eyerman famously captured this photo of a formally-attired audience sporting 3D glasses during the opening night screening of the movie -Bwana Devil- (the first full length colour 3D motion picture) at Paramount Theatre, Hollywood. A temporary bar was housed in the building known as “Madison’s On Broadway.” A permanent bar is set to open after more work is done in the building.Watching Bwana Devil in 3D at the Paramount Theater, Hollywood, 1952, JR Eyerman Shot at the Paramount Theater in Hollywood in 1952, the image shows the. Construction began mid-2005, finishing the building with a new infill façade designed by the Kraemer Design Group. This iconic photograph by LIFE magazine photojournalist J. Though in poor shape (a victim of heavy water damage and decades of neglect), the Madison Theatre was still restorable, but nevertheless the auditorium was razed in 2001, with the marquee the only piece to show the building housed a theatre.Īfter demolition of the theatre auditorium and gutting of the building, it stood empty for a couple years before finally changing owners. It was sold to a developer in 2000 who intended to replace the theatre with loft units (though the Madison Building behind the theatre would remain). In the 1990’s, the Michigan Opera Theater, which purchased the Capitol Theatre to remake it into their new home, also acquired the Madison Theatre and announced plans to restore it for use as a performing arts center, but were ultimately unable to raise enough money. In 1984, the Madison Theatre was shuttered, its last film, ironically, was Christopher Walken in “The Dead Zone” (which remained on its marquee for a long time after it had closed). In 1960, the theatre switched over to 70mm film, with “Spartacus”, which had a long run, but nowhere near as long as the almost two-year run of “The Sound of Music” beginning in 1965.īy the late-1970’s and early-1980’s, the Madison Theatre had begun to decline, and in addition to horror and action films, was hosting rock concerts on its stage in order to help keep the theatre open. It was Detroit’s first theatre to screen a film in 3D, “Bwana Devil”, in 1952. ![]() Fortunately, the interior was left mostly intact. ![]() In the 1940’s, Kunsky sold the Madison Theatre to United Detroit Theaters, which had the theatre drastically remodeled in 1961, destroying the original Neo-Classical style facade with a drab 1960’s one. It was equipped with a Hilgreen-Lane organ.īy the late-1920’s and early-1930’s, several larger and far more ornate palaces had joined the Madison Theatre on Grand Circus Park, such as the Capitol Theatre (just across the street), the State Theatre, the Fox Theatre and the United Artists Theatre, but the Madison Theatre continued to remain a popular venue for many more years. Its features included gilded plasterwork in the auditorium and lobby spaces, including a frieze of maidens over the stage’s proscenium arch and a tiered orchestra pit. The Madison Theatre also enjoyed immediate success, opening with the film “The Poor Little Rich Girl” starring Mary Pickford. None of the Golden Age 3-D features were shown in anaglyph, they were all Polaroid. In fact, with dual-35mm, the image was higher resolution than current RealD. The top floor of the Madison Building housed the Kunksy circuit’s main offices when it first opened. BWANA DEVIL was originally shown in Polaroid 3-D, similar in quality to the 3-D movies of today. Other than a small, relatively simple marquee (removed in the 1960’s in favor of a larger and tackier one), the Madison Theatre could pass for a typical office block. ![]() The Madison Theatre was surrounded by a five story office building with a façade covered in terra cotta decoration in a classical motif. Howard Crane in an elegant, understated Neo-Classical style, it could seat over 1,800 and was then the largest of the theatres in Detroit’s former theatre district, Grand Circus Park.Īs with many theatres of the 1910’s and 1920’s, it was built along with an office tower, in case moving pictures were ‘just a passing fad’ and no longer profitable. Built for the Kunsky circuit and designed by architect C. When the Madison Theatre opened March 7, 1917, its $500,000 cost was one of the heftiest yet for a theatre in downtown Detroit. ![]()
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