|
11/12/2012 - Robert E Melkvik
|
In regards to Mary Jo White's posting,(2/13/2009),I have the same memory line. Cool! Oh yeah, the ticket was huge! I'm thinking like 12x12. Yep, the walk is also memorable. You remember the JC Penney Back To School Movie Party as much as myself. Thanks for getting me to remember it again!!.
|
|
|
7/26/2012 - Nancy Shoemaker
|
|
I lived on Terry down the street before Burns School from G. R. seen alot of movies at the Great Lakes, had some good times there back in the early 60's, buying my candy at Sam's before going, loved those days.
|
|
|
7/19/2011 - Suzanne Schneider (Bala) Ross
|
I ushered at the iconic musical Hair, in the early 1970s or late 1960s. I was a wide-eyed suburban Catholic housewife and mother of five at the time. OMG, as they say today. The play was full of life and strife and happiness, and I still remember Let the Sun Shine and Easy to be Hard, anthems I took back with me to East Detroit (now Eastpointe).
|
|
|
6/5/2011 - Barb
|
I lived on Strathmoor between Lyndon and Eaton in the 60's, went to Holy Cross Lutheran School. We used to walk to the Great Lakes and saw quite a few of the Elvis movies there. I also remember a Topo Gigio movie. Every time I smell movie popcorn today it takes me back.
|
|
|
1/23/2011 - Patrick Sullivan
|
|
I saw Hair there in 1971, then called the Vest Pocket Theater. Meatloaf played the character who sang the opening Aquarius.
|
|
|
8/24/2010 - David Murray
|
I was a child of the 60''s and grew up on Coyle between Eaton & Lnydon. I also remember the Peeny''s Movie Parade, down Grand River. I aslo enjoyed buying candy at Sam & Georges next to the theatre before seeing a movie. Those3 were the days.
|
|
|
4/18/2010 - Helen
|
I grew up in this neighbourhood on Mark Twain and went to Cooley High School. The Great Lakes Theatre was a big part of my growing up in the hood back in the late 50''s and 60''s. The Penny''s Movie Parties as described previously by Linda brought back such memories. I can remember it was so magical to enter the theatre with the velvet curtains, soda fountain, the mysterious stairway to the balcony, the double features and the Elvis movies. I was so shocked to see the ruins of it now that I almost cried.
I wish there was a true picture of it as it was in our day, posted on your site,as it seems to live only in my memories.
|
|
|
12/19/2009 - Christopher Walczak
|
|
The top B&W picture in the set below is not of the former Great Lakes Theater in Detroit; it is of the Great Lakes Theater in Buffalo, NY which later became the Paramount it had other names as well). The diamond shapes in the theater''s brick facade and the columned building to the right are clearly seen in the pictures of the Great Lakes/Paramount that are within the comments for the theater''s page at Cinema Treasures: http://cinematreasures. org/theater/3701/.
|
|
|
5/21/2009 - Linda
|
I grew up on Strathmoor between Lyndon and Intervale and spent many weekends at the Great Lakes. The first movie I was allowed to see with some other neighborhood kids was the original Blob. Terrified me half to death. Actually, I wouldn''t allow my closet door to be closed for a loooong time. My very first job was at the J.
C. Penneys some here mentioned. We moved in 1967 and at that time the area was still pretty good. At that time the theater was still in good shape and was a popular place to go.
I''m amazed that it went downhill so quickly. Very, very sad.
|
|
|
2/13/2009 - Mary Jo White
|
When I was a child in the 1950s there were Penney''s Movie Parties each summer. You had to go to the JC Penney''s store near the Greenfield-Grand River intersection and reserve a ticket. I remember the tickets as huge pieces of boxboard, larger than 8. 5X11. On the day of the party, which I think was always a weekday, you would go to Penney''s, pick up your ticket, then walk on Grand River to the Great Lakes Theater with all the other kids in the neighborhood - a real parade.
I can''t remember what movies were shown. What stuck in my mind was walking to the theater in the summer sunshine with many other kids and no adults, especially since my parents didn''t usually let me go to the movies with my friends at that age. (I was between 8 and 10. ) I also remember that the tickets were free.
What a deal.
|
|
|
5/29/2008 - Bob Ross
|
I attended many a Saturday Matinee at the Great Lakes Theatre. The balcony was never opened to us youngsters. I guess the temptation to toss something over the railing was too tempting thus keeping the ushers too busy. An usher stood stage left before the cartoons started at the ready to open the grand drape once the Merrie Melodies logo spread across the curtain opening onto the screen. Oh yes, the admission was $.
25 for a regular matinee and $. 50 for a road show movie. I recall seeing Around the World in Eighty Days summer of 1960. After playing for 6 months or so at the United Artists (reserved seats) downtown then it went to the Riviera then the Great Lakes.
My favorite matinee movie at the GL was Vincent Price in House on Haunted Hill a perfect film for the cavernous dark theatre and the eerie shadows cast off the screen into the crevouses of the grand movie house.
|
|
|
12/26/2005 - Reid Johnson
|
|
This was my main movie house as a kid. The production of Hair included Meat Loaf and Stoney (she did a few albums with him around then), just before he did The Rocky Horror movie. I worked at the Great Lakes when it was the Vest Pocket Theatre.
|
|
|
3/28/2005 - Jim Johnson
|
I went to the Great Lakes Theater in the late 40s and 50s. Kids could watch two movies for 10 cents. In the 70s, I saw the musical Hair there. Generally, the Great Lakes had movies that started downtown, then to the Riviera, then the Norwest, before finally arriving there.
|
|
|
4/1/2004 - John M. Heyka
|
|
I just remembered. I remember Dick Osgood, who a long time ago did the movie reviews and listings on the news on Channel 7 listing this place.
|
|
|
4/1/2004 - John M. Heyka
|
|
I drove by this place on the way to my high school Senior Picnic in May of 1977. I never saw a bigger damn building in my entire life, up to this point.
|
|
|
1/13/2004 - Cinema Treasures
|
Opened in 1927, the Great Lakes could seat over 1795, and was host to both live stage shows and movies in its first few years of operation, though it was operated as a movie house for the majority of its existence. It was designed by George Mason, who was responsible for the Gem and Oriole Theatres in Detroit as well. After it closed as a movie house in the late 60s, it became home to the Vest Pocket theater company from 1969 to 1972. Afterwards, it was used for a number of years as a church. The theater then stood for a long time vacant, vandalized and falling apart, making quite an eye-catching ruin along Grand River Avenue, especially its rusty, semi-intact blade marquee.
It spelled out the words EAT LAKES. The Great Lakes was torn down in 1999. Cinema Treasures Link.
|
|
|
12/18/2003 - Box Office Magazine
|
|
January 1959 - Eddie Murphy, longtime film salesman ans now manager of the Great Lakes Theatre, has been hospitalized with pneumonia.
|
|