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FOX THEATRE DETROIT – ONE OF THE LAST GREAT MOVIE PALACES

The lobby and entrance of the Fox Theatre Detroit – One of the Last Great Movie Palaces.

Elvis Presley at the Fox Theatre Detroit. 1950s.

Scott Martelle’s OP ED piece in today’s Los Angeles Times takes a look at the collapse of Detroit… asking the question whether or not the Motor City is the future of many American cities? The once great industrial capital of the world is home to the FOX THEATRE… one of the last remaining movies palace in the USA.

Hear the Mighty Wurlitzer play at the grand Fox Theatre in Detroit, Mich. The Fox is a National Historic Landmark and has hosted everyone from Frank Sinatra to Elvis to Iggy and the Stooges. The Wurlitzer used to provide sound for films and entertain guests during intermissions and before the show. Sorry for the shakiness and lack of quality; we were sans tripod and top-shelf equipment.

The Fox Theatre is a 1928 movie palace and performing arts center located at 2211 Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit, Michigan, near Grand Circus Park. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989. Located within the Detroit Theater District, the Fox has 5,048 seats, (5,174 seats if removable seats placed in the raised orchestra pit are included). It is the largest surviving movie palace of the opulent 1920s. Its seating has been exceeded by other more recent theatres, such as the 1932 Radio City Music Hall (5,900 seats), the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium (6,300 seats), the 2009 Los Angeles Nokia Theatre (7,300 seats) and others. The Fox was fully restored in 1988. The adjacent office building houses the headquarters of Olympia Entertainment and Little Caesars.

Current view of the Fox Theatre Detroit.

The Detroit Fox was the first movie theater in the world to be constructed with built-in equipment for sound films. The Fox Film Corporation’s patented sound-on-film system “Movietone” enabled the theater to present sound films from the time of its opening.

Jack Benny at the Fox Theatre Detroit.

The Fox opened in 1928 and remained Detroit’s premier movie destination for decades. Unlike many neighboring theatres, it operated continually until it was closed in the 1980s for restoration. However, by the 1960s, the venue was showing its age and maintenance of many key areas was deferred. By the 1970s mezzanine and balcony seating areas were closed.

Duncan O’Brien’s “The White Ships: A Tribute to Matson’s Luxury Liners” is a wonderful accolade to the famous pioneer California steamship company and their cruise ships that lasted into the 1970s. Focusing on the elegant steamers Malolo, Mariposa, Monterey, Lurline and Matsonia.

It’s not just the facts about some liners speed and dimensions. O’Brien’s book goes far beyond that. He has avoided the dry side of books on ships by providing a social history. The Lurline was Hawaii!

The book is a great bargain considering the wealth of material. With American President Lines closing their main offices in Oakland, Matson Lines remains the last American steamship company headquartered in the Bay Area (both lines use to be located in San Francisco).

Elvis Presley with passengers (1957) Gladys Rohr and Margaret Grove aboard the SS Matsonia.

The book was reviewed last week in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Cruise book let stay-at-homes enjoy high seas
Spud Hilton (San Francisco Chronicle)
Sunday, November 30, 2008

Anytime travel becomes more difficult (or at least less likely) in times of economic woe, there is always the refuge of books that for some are the next best thing to being there.

“The White Ships: A Tribute to Matson’s Luxury Liners,” by Duncan O’Brien (2008, hardcover, 284 pages, $65 through the publisher): When it comes to ocean liners and San Francisco, the name Matson still evokes the romance and wonder from the golden age of pre-airline Pacific voyages. To experience Hawaii on a Matson cruise was the height of luxury travel – and in some cases the only travel – to the (then) truly exotic and foreign world of Waikiki.

In what obviously is a very personal labor of love, Duncan O’Brien has compiled a history of the “white ships” – the Malolo, Mariposa, Monterey, Lurline and Matsonia – from 1927 to 1978, told through timelines, text and, most importantly, hundreds of photographs. The book’s real strength is as a scrapbook: The writing is pretty standard, but the research is solid and the images are compelling, especially for anyone who was a passenger – or who heard the stories.

Among the gems are a photo of Hilo Hattie performing a hula on the deck of the Matsonia in 1948; an advertisement for the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco offering rooms for $3.50 per night; and several pages of celebrity passengers, including Cary Grant, Eddie Cantor and Elvis Presley on his first visit to the islands.

Over the course of 248 pages, O’Brien describes the beginnings, revels in the glory years and mourns the eventual obsolescence and death of the Matson ships. The preface makes it clear that his family spent a good amount of time on these vessels. It shows in the book.