mw wW w ww qw. IRW w w e tures Show Place The Michig n Theater 601 E. Liberty By Crystal Duncan I T'S A BRISK and starry winter night, 1928. President Coolidge has just ended a national address releasing thousands of Americans from their hypnotic trance at the family "talking" radio. Elsewhere, on the newly coeducational University of Michigan campus, a group of carefree students dressed in the highest fashions of the day hop into dad's Model T and make their way to the premiere of the latest vaudeville act at the new, most talked- about spot in town - the Michigan Theater. According to the media of the day, Angello Polous, a, first generation Greek immigrant and a successful Ann Arbor entrepreneur, always had a dream of building a magnificent theater palace complete with all the grandeur of the silent film and vaudeville palaces of the 1920s. And when the opportunity presented itself, Polous inaugurated the construction of the monumental theater, and on opening night, January 5, 1928, his lifelong dream became a reality. The Michigan Theater, ownedby Polous, was the "flagship" of the But- terfield Theater Corporation, a large management circuit owning and run- ning several other Ann Arbor theaters then and today - 55 years later. They spared nb expense in making the MichiganTheater into the premiere movie house for silent film stars and vaudeville acts of the 1920s. Its features included floors and lush maize and blue carpeting, sparkling chandeliers, full- length mirrored lobby (complemented throughout with ornamental gold trimmings), two majestic staircases with rich wooden banisters, and last but certainly not the least, the domed ceiling. These are the accessories that gave the 1800-seat auditorium an opulent palace-like atmosphere. "It was definitely the, premiere auditorium from the time it was opened well into the 1940s," says Russ Collins, the Michigan Theater manager and director. "Originally these theaters were built to invite the average person in when movie palaces, in the early part of the century, had the reputation of being a type of "low-brow" entertain- ment. Thus they were built to prove to the public that vaudeville and silent flims were indeed entertaining." Ultimately the originators of silent film-vaudeville acts and theater builders succeeded in acquiring a large following of their productions, and to ensure that these silent films were en- tertaining, they were accompanied by live vaudeville-type shows. "These silent films, live vaudeville-type shows," explains Collins, "in addition to the architectural detail florid designs of those theaters made silent films and theaters, like the Michigan, suc- cessful." However, this silent film-vaudeville success was short-lived in the history of the Michigan Theater - by the 1930s both silent films and vaudeville acts became virtually nonexistent due to the introduction of the "talkies." Thus, with the "death" of silent film and live acts, the Michigan Theater from the 1930s on,primarily ran first-run movies and broadway shows. The theater's marquee sported such big names as Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Ethel Barrymore and Helen Hayes, while the most prestigious show to ap- pear was William Shakespeare's Othello, starring Paul Robeson. That's not to say, however, that all of the Michigan Theater's success has been solely in the past, only to be recor- ded in history books. It stillhas an im- pact on the community today. In 1978, when the Butterfield Theater Cor- poration chose not to renew its lease, there was an outbreak of tremendous community involvement to save the 0 moppr cents. it Reason To Eat~ 0 x7 -c as .. r , a,. Owl- u Y a . ... ,lLt .a