Comments from Krawlspace

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Krawlspace
Krawlspace commented about Duplex Theatre on Jan 12, 2012 at 4:11 pm

Nice work, Joe. I was thinking about checking the project #’s to see if they were in date order but somehow it slipped my mind amongst a pile of papers on my desk. With the bit from the Music Trade Review it seems that Claflin would have reason to take over in 1918 if the ship was indeed sinking and the $100K matches the advertisement for investors as well as the description in the Feb 12, 1916 Moving Picture World article.

Krawlspace
Krawlspace commented about Duplex Theatre on Jan 11, 2012 at 7:21 pm

While doing research on the Duplex Theater in Detroit, I came across this item mentioned in the Michigan Manufacturer and Financial Record of Jan 22, 1916, and the same ad in Moving Picture World Feb 12, 1916:

“C. Howard Crane, architect, Dime Bank building, will ask for bids on a new theater for the Boulevard Theater company at 1537 Gratiot avenue, to cost $50,000.”

I wonder if this is the Cary Duplex Joe mentioned? Subsequent research has provided no further info on that address or theater in Detroit. Perhaps the design was commissioned and therefore in Crane’s records, but never completed? The Mar 19, 1918 edition of The Moving Picture World mentions that Fuller Clafin had charge of the Duplex, and was trying to spin the bad news of the theater only using both auditoriums on weekends. If he had charge of the theater as opposed to H.M Payne (who was touted as a theater operator of high quality) by 1918, and the Duplex closed in 1922, perhaps the financial situation of the Boulevard Theater Co. was too shaky to complete the Crane design on Gratiot. Clafin might have invested too heavily on his own and was forced to take over the daily operations.

These are all just guesses of course, but the pieces seem to fit.