Grand Theatre
Downtown Kalamazoo Theater (1933-1936)
Northeast corner of Kalamazoo Avenue and North Burdick Street (402 North Burdick Street).
Opened as a budget film theater on 2 July 1933 by Richard P. Early, a Kalamazoo realtor (R.P. Early & Sons.), possibly as an attempt to fill otherwise empty retail space during the Great Depression. The same proprietor opened a similar theater on Portage Street in October 1933 called the Royal. In operation at least until April 1936 (Spade’s Second Hand Store occupied the space after December 1936).
North Burdick Street at Kalamazoo Avenue c.1910. Storefront (circled left) later housed the Grand Theatre. Private collection
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, c.1932. Local History Room
Storefront Movie Houses
The Grand Theatre and Royal Theatre were neither grand nor royal, but storefront movie houses with flat floors and no balconies or stage.
Claiming to seat 200 each, mostly showing westerns and serials.
Sources
Information originally compiled in 1995 by J.P. Jenks. Additional information was later added by library staff. Information compiled from Kalamazoo City Directory listings, details obtained in researching newspaper reports published at the time by the Kalamazoo Gazette and Kalamazoo Telegraph Press, Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, Kalamazoo County Warranty Deeds and numerous other sources.
Updated March 2019.
Additional Resources
Books
A history of theater in Kalamazoo
Pixley, Jorge V., 1958
H 792 P694
Theater in Kalamazoo from 1860–1890
Johns, Marion, 1955
H 792 J65
Articles
“Jottings: Today, opening of Grand Theatre, Burdick at Kalamazoo”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 2 July 1933, p.18
Local History Room Files
Subject File: Theater