Lansing's early pioneers had no time for theater. Such luxuries were largely a product of the post-Civil War Era.
Michigan historian Willis Dunbar notes that few communities could afford theatres until then, since developing land and establishing churches and schools took priority. Besides, Protestant churches often didn't approve of theater.
But slowly, attitudes began to change. Downer's Hall opened in 1860 in what is now Old Town. It offered space for meetings and for amateur theater. Capital Hall, which opened on South Washington Avenue in 1862, served a similar purpose. It was a large room, located above two stores at 109 and 111 South Washington Ave.
Then, in 1865, Lansing businessman James Mead opened Mead's Hall. This room sat above two stores on the southeast corner of Washington Avenue and Ottawa Street. Mead's Hall later came to be known as the Star Theatre, which many consider the Star to be Lansing's first real theater.
It paled, however, compared to the grand 1,100-seat Buck's Opera House. One observer commented that “If there is anywhere in Michigan, outside of Detroit, a finer building than the Opera House, we have not seen it.” Daniel W. Buck, a future store owner and one-time Lansing mayor, owned the building on the corner of Washington Avenue and Ionia Street.
Buck's Opera House opened in 1872 with a celebratory performance of Macbeth. Edwin Booth, younger brother of John Wilkes Booth, starred in the production. In 1890, Buck sold his house to James J. Baird, who renamed it the Baird House, and he in turn sold the property to Frank Stahl and Fred Williams.
Stahl and Williams combined the names of their children – Gladys Williams and Merritt Stahl – to form the name “Gladmer.” The building was known as the Gladmer Theatre from that point forward.
Vaudeville, a style of theatre stressing variety and multi-act performances, came to Lansing in 1905. That year, Dwight Robson, a former performer in minstrel shows, leased a room on East Ottawa. He built a stage there and named his theater the Bijou. Stars who appeared there include Al Jolson (at a lavish salary of $35 per week) and Marilyn Miller, who later became a star of the famous Ziegfeld follies.
The Bijou filled to capacity nearly every night and Robson realized that he'd need more room. In 1907, he opened the new Bijou in the Oakland Building, located at the corner of Capital and Michigan avenues. This theater was later renamed the Regent, and performances ended when the building burned down in 1923.
Live theater continued to boom in Lansing, reaching its heyday in the 1920s when Washington Avenue alone had 10 live performance theaters that featured, among others, Jolson and Duke Ellington. Imagine strolling from Kalamazoo Avenue to Shiawassee Street along Washington and being able to choose from such a variety of entertainment.
By the 1920s, of course, the age of motion pictures also was well underway. The Mead Block — where the Star was — became a movie hub, with small movie houses opening all along it. The Star itself became the Vaudette, a movie theater that opened sometime before 1910. Sheridan Wall was the original manager.
One of Wall's successors was Claude Cady, who soon developed his own theatrical empire. While managing the Vaudette, he also took over the Colonial Theatre (later renamed the Lansing Theatre) on 122 East Michigan Ave., and the Empress on 204 North Washington St.
He took over the Gladmer and showed movies there, as well as plays. He also bought theatres in Battle Creek and Jackson.
Cady eventually sold his holdings to Colonel W. S. Butterfield, a theater chain owner from Holland, Mich. In 1921, Butterfield opened the Strand Theatre and Arcade (later renamed the Michigan Theatre) on 215 South Washington Ave. The Lansing State Journal called the Strand “an innovation in luxurious and practical utility.” More than a mere theatre, the Strand also included a ballroom, nursery, bowling alley, billiard room and 14 separate stores.
Opening night festivities were grand, with the State Journal reporting that “everyone was there.” For the next twenty years, both vaudeville acts and motion pictures played at the Strand.
Then, in 1941, the building received a makeover. The ballroom and nursery were eliminated and the bowling alley became storage space. Seating capacity was reduced and the Strand then reopened as the Michigan Theater. Business, however, continued to decline. Despite efforts to save the historic building, it was demolished in 1983.
Lansing's once-grandest theater was no more. Its destruction marked the end of an era — an era when an opulent theater carried a special mark of civic pride.
