The Observation Deck

I was not able to spend a lot of time at the Detroit Theater this morning, but I was able to get some
shots of both inside and outside when it started. I also have some amazing images that I will post later
as the Lakewood Observer Print Edition is on deadline. But I think these will be good for now.


The last photo inside the theater before the tear down.


One of them was going to Mickey Krivosh over at Around the Corner.


and there it goes.






And that is just about it for day 1.

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Maybe it's just me, but those pictures seem to caption themselves, as "Another part of my home town lost forever".
Great photo work Jim.



Mark Crnolatas Sr.
In God I trust

Yes, great shots for posterity Jim.

It's also nice that someone with a business in Lakewood will get one of the signs. Wonder if all the seats got trashed? Seems the city could have made some money on memorabilia if they put their thinking caps on.

The architecture in the back shot is very interesting. Almost like it had two back facades. One with the original that has arched windows and another where it seems walled in. Those window arches were a bitch to build back in the day. Sort of odd that they'd go to the trouble for just an interior window.

I still wish it had been renovated, but you know what they say, wish in one hand...

Dustin - "Seems the city could have made some money on memorabilia if they put their thinking caps on."

I'm pretty sure this was a private real estate transcation between McDonald's and Norman Barr (the theatre owner). I don't think The City was in any position to make any $$$.

There goes the old 70mm screen.

Dustin

They had sales, and they sold seats, which I still think is slightly amusing, as I would have to
imagine most of them could have been listed as some form of bio-hazard. It was well publicized
here in Lakewood, and it looked to me like maybe they sold 15-25 of them.

What got me on the last tour before it became unsafe to crawl around in was the other items left
behind. I have to believe there was at least 10,000 paper cups of various sizes still in the box. At
least one nearly new industrial mop bucket with new mop. Water fountains, pop corn boxes, and
fixtures everywhere.

With that in mind, everything is being recycled. I was talking with the site boss and he was saying
that just ten years ago it would have all gone to a landfill, and now he thought maybe 5 dumpster
might make it to the landfill. Even the broken bricks get reused again. Which strikes me as thinking
had any of us had known back in the 1900s, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, what we were
actually doing, we would be so much better off today.

But I guess that is why it is called growing and learning.

More images later.

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Day 3



End of Day 4

I will be starting to trickle out some of the amazing videos we shot, later today and this weekend.

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