Hollywood Theatre - Petoskey MI

Address: 325 E. Lake St.
City: Petoskey
State: MI
Zip: 49711
County: Emmet
Open:
Capacity:
Owner History:
Theater Type: Small Town Movie Palace
Number of visits to this page: 12977
Disclaimer:

Please note that location entries may feature older photos or post card views that may not represent the current appearance, features, addresses, phone numbers, or contact names of the attraction. This site is intended to be a historical as well as current record of various attractions but it is not always possible to have up-to-date information due to the vast number of locations featured here. We ask you consult the propietor for current information.

General Information:

Source: Frederick Nelson

The Hollywood Theatre in Petoskey operated from 1925 until 1972. It was a summer-only operation showing first-run films and catering to the Petoskey areas large summer-resort population. The buliding at 325 E. Lake began life as a department store in the 1870s, owned by the Levinson family. The store ceased operation in 1925 and the building was converted to a theater by removing most of the second floor (except a small area near the front, which became the managers office and the projection room).

The main (first) floor was let down in back to provide an inclined surface. The theater was small, with only about 225 seats. Rest rooms were in the basement. Interestingly, the third floor of the old store was left intact and a lot of the unsold merchandise from the 20s was still there when my father (Fred Nelson) bought the place in 1964 from Al Stein, an absentee owner from Illinois. The Temple Theatre down the block was also included in the purchase. Nelson installed a concession stand, the first the theater had ever had, and briefly operated a sidewalk cafe in front of the building. In 1973 the building was converted to an indoor shopping arcade, which is still operating.

Info Updates:
5/10/2017 - George Colburn
Documentary filmmaker George Colburn is moving this week into the Hollywood Arcade in the Gaslight District of downtown Petoskey, MI (known as the Hollywood Theatre until 1973, the year Colburn built a vacation home nearby). He is now a fulltime resident of the area, producing his films locally with the help of local talent. He is the only filmmaker with space in the former movie house. An Open House is scheduled for Thursday, May 11, 2017, from 4 to 6 p. m. Colburn's films since 1981 include 11 nationally distributed documentaries on the military and political careers of Dwight D. Eisenhower. A new special, IKE: The Making of An American Hero, 1941 - 1945, is in production and is scheduled for release on the 75th anniversary of D-Day. He is currently finishing post-production on Young Hemingway & His Enduring Eden, a two-hour special that will have its American premiere on July 21, 2017, Hemingway's birthday, in the Perry Hotel. The premiere will be preceded by the dedication of a young Hemingway statue in downtown Pennsylvania Park. His one-hour special on the return of six Navajo Code Talkers to the battlefields of the Pacific in 2005 - 2006 will begin public screenings nationwide in November of 2017.
10/1/2003 - WaterWinterWonderland
All that remains of this theatre is the nice vertical sign, the rest has been converted to retail.
 Photos:3
Hollywood Theatre - Recent Pic
Recent Pic
Hollywood Theatre - Recent Pic
Recent Pic
Hollywood Theatre - 04 Aug 1965 Ad
04 Aug 1965 Ad
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