Once upon a time, there was a vaudeville theatre built at 913 Washington Avenue in Bay City, Michigan.
It was called The Bijou, and for a while, it was highly successful as the "small" vaudeville house in town. Later,
it began showing silent films accompanied by piano as well. After World War I, the little theatre's fortunes changed when
it became the Orpheum. With the change of name came a change of programming. There were still live acts, to be sure, but they
took on a more adult town that also reflected the risqué films they were showing. By 1930 theatres all over the country
were abandoning their stages, pipe organs and orchestra pits in favor of making room for more seats to enjoy the "talkies"
that had been invented. The Orpheum was renamed the Bay and received the attention of no less an architect than C. Howard
Crane of Detroit who created the "Mayan" temple interior we see today. Most of our current audience remembers the
theatre most fondly as the "State," a name it received in 1950.
Four
different names, four different style periods spread over a hundred years in the same building. That's a perfect subject for
our story which will be told by The Bijou and three of its favorite soloists: Scott Sowinski, Charissa Amonds and Bob Bloenk.
There are some great back stories in this show; join us for a pre-concert talk at 1pm on October 9 at the Bay County Historical
Museum which will be collaborating in this project. Join us after the show for a reception at the Museum on Saturday night.
