The Greatest Life Moving Pictures
Downtown Kalamazoo Theater (1904–1905)
West side of Portage Street, between Michigan Avenue and East South Street (128 Portage Street).
(There were no floor plans for a site such as this except a room full of chairs and a table for the projector.) Opened in a storefront showing novelty films with published advertisements from 22 December 1904 to 4 January 1905. Likely the enterprise of an itinerant projectionist.
Portage Street, c.1906. The Portage Hotel storefront (circled left) would have housed The Greatest Life theater. Private collection.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, 1908. Library of Congress.
Kalamazoo Gazette, 22 December 1904; Kalamazoo Telegraph, 24 December 1904; Kalamazoo Gazette, 4 January 1905
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 October 2009.
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
Local History Room Files
Subject File: Theater