58 | AUGUST 22 • 2024 J
N

Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 

accessible at thejewishnews.com

Historic Jewish-Owned Movie Theaters 
A

llan Gale posed this 
question. Have I written 
about Jewish-owned or 
-managed movie theaters in Metro 
Detroit?
What? Jews in the movie 
industry? You’re 
kidding me! 
Well, this did seem 
like an excellent idea 
for a cruise into the 
William Davidson 
Digital Archive 
of Jewish Detroit 
History, but it was not 
a straight-forward, 
easy search. First, just entering 
“theaters” into the Archive search 
box raised more than 33,000 pages 
where the word “theater” was 
mentioned; narrowing the search 
to just “movie theaters” raised 
more than 1,000 pages. Of course, 
one could also search for owners 
of theaters if one knew all of the 
names. 
Suffice it to say that the Detroit 
Jewish Chronicle and the JN have 
published quite a few stories 
related to movies and theaters. So 

many that I’ll provide a disclaimer 
now — this Looking Back is in no 
way a comprehensive history of 
the Detroit-Jewish movie theater 
connection. I can, however, provide 
a few highlights.
For example, movie news can be 
found in the Chronicle as early as 
the 1930s. See Helen Zigmond’s 
columns, “Our Film Folk,” for good 
old-fashioned Hollywood gossip 
(March 4, 1932).
Perhaps the primary source for 
movie and theater news is the 
vast array of Danny Raskin’s “Best 
of Everything” columns. Danny 
wrote about movie debuts, theater 
openings, encounters with actors 
and, likely, the popcorn served in 
the lobby. His columns are a bone 
fide potpourri of entertainment 
news.
One of the earliest and decidedly 
Jewish movie theaters was Littman’s 
People’s Theater. It opened in 1927 
and featured Yiddish films with 
stars such as Paul Muni and Molly 
Picon. It was also an important 
source for newsreels about British 
Mandate Palestine and Eretz Israel. 

An important Jewish institution 
in Detroit, the theater became 
Littman’s in 1938, the Abington 
(1945) and finally the Gold Coast 
(1956) before closing its doors in 
1958.
BTW — movie theaters were 
among the first businesses in 
America to be air-conditioned. On 
hot summer days, they were cool 
refuges, no matter what movie was 
playing.
There were many other locally 
famous Jewish-owned movie 
theaters. Two prominent examples 
were the “Americana” and the 
“Northland” at Northland Mall, 
both located in Southfield. And, 
there was the venerable Maple 
Theater in Bloomfield Township, 
which closed its doors this year. 
It often showed rare foreign and 
Israeli films (a lot of tears were 
shed over the demise of the Maple).
The movie business in Detroit 
also created prominent local 
Jewish-owned theater chains. For 
example, Lew Wisper and William 
Wetsman owned W & W Theatres, 
while Irving and Adolph Goldberg 

owned Community Theaters. 
Perhaps Detroit’s most prominent 
theater mogul was Richard Sloan, 
who learned the business managing 
his father’s Mercury Theater in 
northwest Detroit (April 24, 2014, 
JN). Sloan subsequently created the 
Suburban Theaters, one of the most 
successful movie theater chains in 
America. 
There is one last important 
point to be made about movie 
theaters in Detroit. There are 
hundreds of reports in the pages 
of the Davidson Archive about 
Jewish communal organizations 
and families holding fundraisers 
and business meetings, as well as 
bar/bat mitzvahs, birthday parties 
and anniversaries in local movie 
theaters.
Today, movie theaters are 
dominated by national chains. 
However, Jewish Detroiters have 
had a deep influence on the history 
of our local movie business. 

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN 
archives, available for free at 
thejewishnews.com.

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

