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Source: Cinema Treasures
About the only thing this 1,000 seat neighborhood theater had in common with its New York City namesake was that it was also built in Art Deco style. It opened in 1937, as part of the RKO circuit (which in the metro Detroit area also included the RKO Downtown-originally the Oriental, and the RKO Uptown, better known by its later name, the Six Mile). It was operated by Suburban Detroit Theatres in the 60s, which remodeled the Radio City in 1964. It was closed, however, by the early 70s, and has since been razed.
The Radio City Theatre at 22875 Woodward Avenue in Ferndale appears on my uncle's Johnson Construction Company job list, and unfortunately my grandfather Al Johnson's theater project slides include none of this movie house. For such an impressive theater, its absence in his slide collection is disappointing. It's also not clear if my grandfather built the theater or if he did a later remodeling job, since there is no project date in our family's records.
The Cinema Treasures website provides this history of the Radio City Theatre: "About the only thing this 1,000-seat neighborhood theater had in common with its New York City namesake was that it was also built in Art Deco style. It opened in 1937, as part of the RKO circuit (which in the metro Detroit area also included the RKO Downtown-originally the Oriental Theatre, and the RKO Uptown Theatre, better known by its later name, the Six Mile Theatre)." "It was operated by Suburban Detroit Theatres in the 1960’s, which remodeled the Radio City in 1964. It was closed, however, by the early-1970’s, and has since been razed."