Royal Oak Music Theatre - Royal Oak, MI
N 42° 29.243 W 083° 08.866
17T E 323487 N 4706127
Former single screen theater in Art Deco Style, now a performance arts center & concert hall. The marquee is mostly chasing lights, but there is neon tubing around the letters spelling out "Royal Oak".
Waymark Code: WM6KRA
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 06/16/2009
Views: 8
The Royal Oak Theatre was designed by Rapp and Rapp, it is an excellent example of true art deco, with stylized floral relief work and geometric shapes.
It is of the "shallow balcony" that many late R&R houses featured. Built for the Knusky Chain, it was part of a suburban Detroit "holy trinity" of like-sized houses, the Birmingham, the Royal Oak and the Redford. They all had identically equipped Barton 3-10 organs, the consoles varied to match the theatre interoirs, and they were sold on the same contract, and had sequential opus numbers.
The Royal Oak was operated by the community theatre chain until the mid 70's. The lobbies suffered from dropped ceilings during this time. The first concert held at the newly re-christened "Royal Oak Music Theatre" was Maria Muildar, in 1975. Various promoters have operated the theatre as a mainly rock concert venue for the last 30 years. The Barton organ was brought back from the brink of death (it was badly water damaged and thought by some to be beyond salvage) by the local ATOS chapter in 1968, led by crew chief Mert Harris.
Many organ/silent film concerts were presented in the Royal Oak by the Motor City ATOS, including two performances of "Queen Kelly" with a personal appearance by it's star, Gloria Swanson. The theatre changed hands again, and in the early 90's the organ was "evicted" by the owners, who felt it didn't fit in to what they want to do. The outer lobby was wonderfully restored, and the Royal Oak area today is a thriving area of clubs,restaurants, galleries and shops.
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