Stages of Decay

Unfolding

2011-06-18T11:55:00.002-04:00

Carpet in the lounge of a deteriorating Midwestern Art Deco theater.

The Cameo

2011-06-17T18:42:00.003-04:00

"Are you sure you don't want to take my picture too?" said the owner of the electronics store when I asked for permission to photograph his storage room. Most people wouldn't be exactly thrilled about strangers wandering between their stacks of merchandise, taking photos. But perhaps the employees here are used to sight-seers, since no one paid the least attention when he pointed the way to the back of the building. A generous man, even if he didn't let me take his portrait after all.

Hardly a stage of decay, this theater has been kept in excellent shape since its closure. Opened in 1910, it was California's longest running theater until it folded in the 1990s. Like several other original Broadway theaters in Los Angeles, it's hanging on as a warehouse space. This site has a few dramatic night-time postcards and other information on the former Cameo Theater, also known as Clune's Broadway.

Lingering Stars

2011-06-15T23:39:00.003-04:00

Wallpaper remnants inside the coat check room of a decaying theater in Missouri.

The Rivoli

2011-06-14T15:51:00.000-04:00

The Rivoli Theater in Indianapolis, or - as the owner called it - the "Home of Happiness". Currently awaiting renovation.

Blue Lights in Alabama

2011-06-11T18:32:00.000-04:00

Philadelphia Palace

2011-06-10T14:02:00.000-04:00

The Boyd Theater in downtown Philly.

Tuo

2011-06-08T12:35:00.001-04:00

Pink Peppermint

2011-06-07T16:41:00.000-04:00

Alpine Follies

2011-06-06T10:14:00.001-04:00

The setting: an Alpine sanatorium, a dining room where the tables would sometimes be pushed aside for a waltz. The patients tended to be portly and inflated by clean mountain air, while the violinist and clarinet player looked as if they too could benefit from a stay at this modest retreat. Watching the patients slurp down the sauerkraut and cider to the tune of Telemann, the musicians braced for the round of belching that would precede the first awkward attempts at social dance. Sometimes, when things got really riotous, one of the ceiling lamps would end up on the kitchen floor. Afterwards no one really knew how it got there; what mattered was that there was always an attendant who would know just how to make it all better again.

Cavern of Many-Colored Jewels

2011-06-02T13:12:00.002-04:00

As one person who saw the above photo has said, "it looks like a huge outer space jewel has crashed through the ceiling". It's not just the overall view that reminds of gemstones. A closer look shows a level of ornamentation that must have really dazzled the theater's visitors when it first opened its doors.

The Michigan Theater in Detroit was built by the architecture firm Rapp & Rapp, which employed a French Baroque style to assist in transporting wonder to the audience. George Rapp didn't consider the lavish design elements of his theaters to be overly pompous, but rather the necessary "part of a celestial city -- a cavern of many-colored jewels, where iridescent lights and luxurious fittings heighten the expectations of pleasure." Famous as the historic theater that was eventually gutted and turned into a parking garage, its ceiling continues to retain some of this former opulence.

Occupancy 400

2011-06-01T17:15:00.001-04:00