Bijou Theatre

Info Updates:

5/28/2011 - Jeff Chapman

Look on the Columbia Theatre page, the Bijou can be seen just left of the Columbia.

3/17/2008 - Sean Fitzgerald

In response to the last sentence in the last comment. Actually Detroit does have a future and I and other people are it. Keep in mind the cost of restoring many old buildings containing lead and asbestos is staggering. Many places have been restored and people are investing themselves in the city. I know many people, doing such things as urban farming, fighting for justice against crooks like Kwami, owning, operating, patronizing and opening businesses and institutions such as the Cass Cafe, Lager House, The GemTheatre, Ciff Bells ( a restored and fully operational 40''s jazz club behind the FOX featuring Big Bands and True 40 burlesque, Slow''s Barbecue on Mich. There are places such as the DIA, The DSO, the Opera House, where the Joffrey Ballet performed last week, or 1515 Broadway, an independent theatre going strong for 10 years now, the Old Redford Theatre ( a 30''s movie palce ), completely restored, still going strong. It only doesn''t have a future for those who don''t look for it or fear to tread. Nothing worth doing is easy, least of all helping to save a city. Yes there has been much lost, due to self destruction, abandonment and racism on the parts of folks on both sides of the 8 mile divide. If you really care that much you need to get involved, spend sweat time and money. It''s Kinda like voting, if you don''t, you can''t complain. Yes, Detroit can be a dangerous place, full of pot holes and panhandlers, where human life sometimes seems to have little value to a few bad apples, but also good, honest hard working people. And make no mistake, Detroit is the sneeze, not the disease. That title goes to racism, perpetrated by blacks and whites alike, and the poverty and violence it spawns. I myself spend 80% of my night times at many wonderful places with many wonderful people in the city I love. Detroit. In or out....

3/17/2008 - Steve D

Remember stopping in occasionally to peek at some stripper on stage while working as a Detroit Police Officer. Cannot believe the city tore down the theatre . I always thought they would keep it around since it was one of the first or the first theatre in the city. What a shame, this city has no history to fall back on and to tell stories about the past. Sorry to say this city has no future either.

1/10/2004 - Cinema Treasures

The Cent Odeon opened in early 1906, as a nickelodeon, not long after the city's first nickelodeon, just down Monroe, Detroit's first theater row. Designed by the firm of Mildner and Eisen, it could seat just over 300. In 1908, it was renamed the Bijou, and its auditorium moved from the second to the first floor during a remodeling of the interior. Over the decades, as the city's movie houses moved from Monroe to Grand Circus Park, along Woodward, the Bijou continued to thrive. It graduated to feature films, to sound films, and finally to widescreen films. In 1966, it received another new name, the New Gayety, and in two years, yet another name, the Ciné X, when it switched to pornographic films. The theater closed in the mid-70s, having one of the longest runs of any of the downtown theaters. It has since been demolished.

12/18/2003 - Box Office Magazine

July 1959 - The Bijou Theatre on Monroe Avenue has been closed by Milton Jacobson, who has operated it for the past few years, and is being dismantled. This marks the passing of of what is probably Detroit's oldest motion picture theatre, dating back to the nickelodeon period. It was operated for several decades by Wesley Schram. Jacobson will continue to operate the Stone Theatre, another old-timer downtown on Woodward Avenue, with a stage-show-picture policy. According to a history of the motion picture industry of Detroit, compiled by this reporter and published in the trade press in 1935, based on interviews with veterans of the industry then living, the Bijou was actually the second theatre opened specifically for motion pictures in Detroit, by the late William Klatt. It followed closely the opening of the Casino a few doors away in 1905. The Casino was established by the late John Kunsky and Adolph Caille, marking the start of what is now the United Detroit Theatres circuit.

12/18/2003 - Box Office Magazine

July 1959 - Robert Wetherell, operator at the just-closed Bijou, will vacation to recuperate from arthritis.

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