Steve Neavling reports on Motor City Muckraker that scrappers with torches have brought down the ornamental ceiling in the long-abandoned Eastown Theatre in Detroit.
The collapse opened a gaping hole in the former movie palace.
A photographer spotted scrappers with torches cutting down beams Saturday, causing the collapse. The scrappers returned Monday afternoon.
The 2,500-seat theater at Harper and Van Dyke opened in October 1931 in what was then a middle- and working class east-side neighborhood. In an era of large and opulent theaters throughout Detroit, the Eastown stood out for its size and decorations.
In 1969, with the Grande Ballroom packing in rock fans with its celebrated concerts, the Eastown became a rock venue and attracted the Kinks, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, Yes, Fleetwood Mac, Steppenwolf, King Crimson, MC5 and the Stooges. The Eastown became notorious for the open drug use, drinking and sex that took place during concerts.
Dan Austin writes on HistoricDetroit.org:
While the Grande had a hippie vibe, the Eastown was all blue-collar — and it was rough. “I remember stepping over a body that had overdosed in front of the backstage door on my way in to talk to Alice” Cooper, Bill Gray recalled in the Free Press in 1976. “Decadence was treated casually at the Eastown. I also recall coming back to my car after the show, reaching for an eight-track tape and finding air where the tape deck had been two hours before. That was the Eastown.”
The Eastown was “a veritable drug supermarket” and major nuisance for then-Mayor Roman Gribbs.
The theater has been the site of fires, wall collapses and previous scrapping. The neighborhood today is heavily blighted.
