The State Theatre

For decades, the State Theatre was caricaturized around Ann Arbor as the red-headed step-sister of the Michigan Theater, our home town’s opulent movie palace. By the time I was in college at the University of Michigan, half of the theater was gone and the place had the reputation of the grungy student hangout where you would go watch "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" on a Saturday night in between stops at the local bars near campus. Not mincing words, if you went there to actually watch the movie, it was awful. And half of it really was gone. The orchestra level was lost to history in the 1980s, when its historic interior was torn out and converted into retail space. It is no surprise that the old Art Deco gem had been threatened many times throughout its history. However when I think of the State Theatre, I think of a history of lucky breaks. The first one came before the place even opened.