Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1919 Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Adams Theatre occupied much of my time during the month of February.” The Adams Theatre opened in March 1919 and was located at 22 West Adams Avenue in Detroit, Michigan.
The president and treasurer of the Adams Theatre Company was John H. Kunsky. By the summer of 1919, Moses wrote, “A number of drops and a large picture set for Kunsky of Detroit was completed in June with success. This is the first work that we have done for him.” If he hadn’t written, “this was the first work we have done for him,” I might have thought it was a second delivery to the Adams Theatre. It is also possible that Moses worked with another Adams Theatre representative on the Adams Theatre project, just not Kunsky. However, it was likely that successful delivery of scenery to the Adams Theatre caused Kunsky to contact him directly for another job. Kunsky also owned the Madison Theatre in Detroit, a venue that opened on March 7, 1917. Moses mention of drops and large picture set delivered were possibly for that theater. The Madison Theatre was a sizable house with a seating capacity of 1800. The top floors of the building housed the Kunsky circuit’s main offices.
Kunsky was a mover and shaker in Detroit by this time. Kunsky was integrally linked to the movie theatre industry in the town, having brought a motion picture machine to Detroit in 1905 and opened the Royal theatre in 1908. The “Detroit Press” cited Kunsky’s history in Detroit in relation the Royal Theatre. The article reported, “John H. Kunsky started in business as Michigan’s first exhibitor in 1905, in the Casino theater, in Monroe avenue, remodeled from a store, and having a seating capacity of 125. Encouraged by the success of this venture, in company with others he gained a lease on the property at Monroe avenue and Farmer street, demolished the building and erected a new structure that was christened the Royal theatre and contained 200 seats. At the time it was said to be the largest and finest motion picture house west of New York, a statement that sounds strange in these days when seating capacity is counted in thousands, and the entire original equipment of the Royale would not inventory enough to give a modern house a fair start in the matter of decorations. Nevertheless, Detroiters marveled at so large a place devoted to a new-fangled idea that. It was predicted, was only a fad, and not a few local wiseacres predicted speedy failure for the enterprise. Mr. Kunsky had the true showman’s idea of giving the public plenty for its money. He promptly installed and “orchestra” consisting of a piano and drums. As an added attraction there was a singer who warbled ballads to the accompaniment of colored lantern slides. Detroiters used to go to the Royale to scoff and remain to marvel, for they not only found lavish appointments, as those things were reckoned then, but pictures that were worth watching. Gradually the business grew, and soon the house was firmly established, with seats at a premium most of the time. The Royal was one of the first, if not the first, picture houses to stage a longtime run. It screened ‘The Passion Play’ at an advanced price, admission being raised from 5 to 10 cents, and for eight weeks, with the aid of a special lecturer, it drew crowds. This helped to make the Royals the talk of the town, and to put the theater on a well-paying basis, even if its clientele came chiefly from the meek and lowly, the upper classes remaining skeptical. After a while it overcame this early prejudice, but it never was particularly conspicuous, because it was shortly followed by other and larger houses. Nevertheless, its career was a steady and profitable one, and from this modest little beginning on Monroe avenue came the Kunsky Theatre Circuit embracing 14 houses, that finds its highest expression in the magnificent new Capitol and the others circling Grand Circus park, to say nothing of the thousands of private houses scattered about the city and throughout the state, many of which drew their inspiration from the tiny place that is so soon to pass from existence.”
In the fall of 1919, Kunsky he announced plans for a new theatre on the northeast corner of Hamilton Boulevard and Highland Avenue. On Nov. 9, 1919, the “Detroit Free Press” announced, “Work is to be started almost at once on the erection of a handsome theatre on the northeast corner of Hamilton boulevard and Highland avenue, for John H. Kunsky. The building is designed by C. Howard Crane, architect, and Elmer Kiehler, associate, who in the last few years have designed more than 2oo theaters in the United States and Canada, their latest work having been Detroit’s new Orchestra hall. The new theater will cost approximately $250,000, will have capacity for 2,800 persons and will be the largest residential theatre in or near Detroit. It is announced that it will also surpass any other local theater in the attractiveness of its appointments. The front of the building, with length of 180 feet, is renaissance. The furnishing and appointments will be most luxurious, in many respects, its aid, surpassing those of Mr. Kunsky’s downtown theaters, the Madison and the Adams” (page 85).
To be continued…
