I
remember the first time I saw the 2014 horror film It Follows in the theater and as the film watched it’s lead heroine
and her boyfriend go out to a movie, I was probably the only guy in the room
who couldn’t help but shout out loud ‘Hey, it’s the Redford Theater!’. One of
the longest standing, still surviving original movie palaces to open in
Detroit, Michigan in 1928, the ornate, glamourous gala movie palace located in
the heart of the old Detroit neighborhood remains an indelible landmark for
Michigan filmgoers and justly earns its tagline ‘The Way Movies Were Meant to
Be Seen’.
With
its three-story grand foyer, Japanese interior design and being the only
neighborhood theater with a still functioning original Barton theatre organ
built to accompany silent film productions as well as provide
overtures/intermissions for special event features, the 1,581-seat Redford Theater owned by the Motor City
Theater Organ Society is one of Metro Detroit’s most beloved entertainment
experiences which feels like a trip back into a bygone era.
Originally
named the Kunsky Redford Theater after
lessee John H. Kunsky Co. purchased and managed the venue, the Redford Theater was designed by Verner,
Wilhelm & Molby of Detroit as well as contracted by John H. Patterson of
Plymouth. Opening for the first time in
January 1928, the theater boasted a grand vertical sign and marquee using over
2,000 multicolored lights outside the front entrance. As you walked in through the red carpet gala
lobby into the main auditorium itself, you were then transported inside what
looked like a Japanese garden with mock pagoda-style rooftops and a ceiling
looking like a bright blue sky with miniature lights to give the illusion of
twinkling stars.
The
feeling one gets inside the massive theater is that of a traditional Japanese
Noh theater setting, except that this was designed and erected purely in
Michigan. The theater employed roughly
twenty-four patrons to manage ushering, ticket tearing, concession stands,
operating the Barton organ, the heating system and the 35mm carbon arc light
projectors. The theater was heated using four coal-burner furnaces requiring
full time management and operation until 1931 when the heating systems were
converted to oil fuel. For a short time,
Mobil Oil seized the opportunity to promote their product through the Redford Theater as the ‘largest
structure in area converts to oil fuel’.
After
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, the
decision was made to obscure all of the Japanese interior decorating and
artwork with panels either removed or painted over entirely. Also the vertical marquee sign that was in
place was taken down and scrapped for iron to contribute to the war effort
though the horizontal marquee remained untouched. Due to projectionist union guidelines, the
seating was then reduced to 1,200 to meet the rules and regulations and the
remaining rows of seating were spaced apart to make for more leg room.
Around
1964 the Motor City Organ Theater Society
was formed and after being granted permission under new ownership by the
Goldberg family were allowed to begin restoration work on the Barton organ
which found disuse over time during the 1940s.
Not long thereafter, the Redford Theater
began seeing more live performances and organ concerts following the last shows
of the day.
About
ten years later, the Community Theaters
company running the Redford Theater
deemed the venue unprofitable and began talks to sell the venue to the Motor City Organ Theater Society. As the deal was being finalized, the
projectionists at the Redford acquired the 35mm/70mm film projectors from the
then defunct Summit Cinerama Theater
and along with gaining the ability to project 70mm film prints the idea of a
classic movie revival series was born.
Throughout
the 1980s, the Redford Theater would see a gradual return to its original 1927
form with chandeliers from the defunct Oriental
Theater which shared the same design as the Redford donated to the theater.
While walls previously installed to mask Japanese décor post WWII were
being removed, in 1985 the Motor City
Organ Theater Society finally secured full ownership of the land, property,
parking lots and the theater in full itself.
Over
the next twenty years, a painstaking volunteer effort to remove the six or
seven layers of paint obscuring the original Japanese stenciling and artwork
goes underway until all of the original art is revealed. After the original designs are matched up
with the colors, efforts are undertaken to touch up the surviving artworks to
restore them to their original condition as moviegoers first saw them when the
theater first opened.
Currently
the Redford Theater is a purely
volunteer nonprofit operation still taking donations for ongoing restoration of
the lobby, the theater seating and the restrooms. While occasionally new films are screened
with the advent of a new Dolby CP-200 Cinema Processor and updated sound
readers for the film projectors, the Redford
Theater is mostly known for showing revival screenings of older films.
Booking
a number of special events including meet and greet shows with the movie stars
in the films themselves present, attendance at the Redford Theater increases
dramatically. Everyone from Tippi
Hedren, Pam Grier, Shirley Jones, Curtis Armstrong, Bruce Campbell and many
more would eventually make an appearance at the Redford for a meet-and-greet
event followed by the films prominently featuring the movie stars
themselves.
Of
the movie theaters in the Metro Detroit area including Ann Arbor’s own Michigan Theater with its own Barton
organ, the Redford Theater while
still operating as restoration work-in-progress with volunteer efforts remains
one of the few to regularly gain access to archival theatrical prints for their
screenings. Last summer, the Redford
became the only movie theater in Michigan to play the newly minted 70mm print
for 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Among
the attractions at the Redford Theater
are inside the lobby which sports a number of collectible movie-related
t-shirts as well as posters. Each show
is preceded by the skilled organists playing music as well as resuming organ
duties during a show’s intermission.
Unlike other theaters which only do intermissions for films that
originally included them, the Redford Theater
provides their own brief intermission for every film at the midpoint, giving
patrons time to refresh their snacks and drinks, purchase raffle tickets to win
free tickets and/or special collectible t-shirts.
With
ticket prices almost as low as $5 (depending on the event) with concessions in
some cases even cheaper than the movie ticket itself, the Redford Theater has also left ample room for unique volunteer food
service efforts like with the Harry
Potter film screenings which included the film’s trademark Butter
Beer. Moreover, the Redford which is
open to rentals depending on the time and event has begun to do live shows on
stage either consisting of music or stage theater.
All
in all, the Redford Theater is
proving in an ever changing marketplace it is something of a jack of all
trades, able to do just about any kind of show live or on film/video with an
affinity for involving the patrons and local communities. While occasionally
a professional cleaning crew will be hired to come through the theater to clean
the carpets and aisles, the Redford
Theater typically offers free tickets and concessions to any patron in
attendance willing to stay after a show to assist with the cleanup.
Having
been a filmgoer all of my life having attended many venues throughout the state
and country, the Redford Theater
might be the one and only ornate movie palace that truly makes you the attendee
feel like you are part of it and not just a visiting guest. In the last few years I myself enrolled in
their membership program and have assisted with a few events including working
concessions for the highly popular Bruce Campbell event. Even the projectionists are happy to say
hello to regular patrons eager to take a look behind the curtain where the
magic happens.
Though
it still has a long way to go in the restoration effort with some shows proving
to be more of an uphill battle for the theater than others, having access to the
Redford Theater is truly a gift for
Michigan filmgoers to be cherished and enjoyed.
With the far chillier multiplex venues sandwiched together in standard
theater chains, it’s gratifying to know a near century old venue like the Redford Theater still has a future
bearing many surprises ahead for Michigan moviegoers. Most of all, the Redford Theater truly lives up to its reputation as a beloved venue
providing filmgoers with, like the tagline says, ‘the way movies were meant to
be seen’.
- Andrew Kotwicki