Old Lincoln Park Theatre serves as backdrop for movie shoot

metromode, 1/14/2010

What was once about to become rubble is now taking center stage for downtown Lincoln Park. The historic Park Theatre, once slated for demolition, recently served as the backdrop for a film crew from the nearby Lifton Institute for Media Skills.

"That theater has just the right look to it," says Eric Cedo, director of marketing for the Lifton Institute for Media Skills and Unity Studios.

The Park Theatre, 1583 Fort Street, was designed by renowned theater architect C. Howard Crane, who also designed the Fox Theater in downtown Detroit. Today it has a Streamline Moderne marquee that is arguably the most recognizable downtown landmark. The cinema closed in the 1970s and became a porn palace for a few decades before closing a few years ago.

The city planned on razing it before a developer came in with innovative plans to turn the building into a mixed-use development of ground floor retail and affordable housing. The marquee will be preserved, saving one of the defining pieces of downtown Lincoln Park. It turned out to be just the right location for the class at the Allen Park-based Lifton Institute for Media Skills to shoot a movie, as much of it downriver as possible.

"Because there is so much history and so many layers of history and different styles of architecture, it makes Michigan and Metro Detroit a great place for filmmakers," Cedo says.

Source: Eric Cedo, director of marketing for the Lifton Institute and Unity Studios
Writer: Jon Zemke