Wayside Theatre
3020 Washtenaw Avenue,
Ypsilanti,
MI
48197
3020 Washtenaw Avenue,
Ypsilanti,
MI
48197
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Closed by GKC Theatres on January 25, 1989.
Two screens on February 24th, 1984. Grand opening ad posted.
Opened on January 12th, 1968. Grand opening ad posted.
I remember seeing the original Terminator movie there, and I think Gremlins, while a student at nearby EMU back in the mid-1980s. I remember it in this era as being somewhat cheap & run-down.
Lets go for the brew and veiw idea.
Kerasotes quickly became notorious in Ann Arbor because the first thing they did was to sack all of Butterfield’s union projectionists and replace them with lower-paid employees. While there was a certain business logic in this (I don’t think the other chains in town used union projectionists, and the projectors were more automated than before) it caused a huge backlash. Picketers were a regular site at the State theater more than a year later. I’ve wondered if this happened at other locations…I mean, Ann Arbor is a liberal town in Michigan, but Michigan is a union state…
The theatre actually never housed a supermarket. It was torn down and replaced by a Farmer Jack supermarket and oil change store. The sign remained up for years. When the theatre was torn down I kept bricks from it as memories of the times I spent at the movies with my dad as a small child in the early 70’s.