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Rhymeswithrawk
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Username: Rhymeswithrawk

Post Number: 1528
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 3:57 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

From the LIFE magazine images, Eisenhower made a visit in 1952 and spoke at a gorgeous theater. Anyone know which one it is? I'm guessing the UA?

http://tinyurl.com/6j469f
http://tinyurl.com/5c5n59
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Rhymeswithrawk
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Username: Rhymeswithrawk

Post Number: 1529
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 4:07 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Scratch that. It's not the UA.
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Mccarch
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Username: Mccarch

Post Number: 167
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 4:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Masonic Temple
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Cman710
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Username: Cman710

Post Number: 552
Registered: 07-2006
Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 4:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Paging Gistok! I did some quick google searches, and Eisenhower actually made a famous speech in Detroit on October 24, 1952, saying that he would go to Korea to best determine how to end the war. I wonder if these pictures are from that event. There's a good chance.
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Gazhekwe
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Username: Gazhekwe

Post Number: 2739
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 4:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Masonic?
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Rhymeswithrawk
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Username: Rhymeswithrawk

Post Number: 1530
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 4:20 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yep. Dead on, Mccarch and Gazhekwe. It's definitely the Masonic. Thanks!
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Gistok
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Username: Gistok

Post Number: 7539
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 4:42 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yep, that's the Masonic alright... you can tell by the "obstructed view" pillars at the back of the theatre.

The Masonic has nearly 5,000 seats. But unlike most movie palaces that have a "fan shaped" seating configuration, the Masonic has a "horseshoe shaped" seating configuration.

Therefore there are a lot of seats that have either obstructed view (in back) or those seats close to the side walls on either side of the procenium (stage arch) that have very poor sight lines.

That's why only 4,404 seats out of the original nearly 5,000 seats are ever available for sale for events at the Masonic.
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Eastsideal
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Username: Eastsideal

Post Number: 70
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 6:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Every time I've ever been in there I wondered why they built it like that, and not more like, say, the Fox. Perhaps some ancient Masonic proportions or something? I saw the Rolling Stones there from one of those side balcony seats, or rather I heard them.
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Gistok
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Username: Gistok

Post Number: 7540
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 11:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Eastsideal,

One reason for the horseshoe shaped seating is that unlike the downtown movie palaces, the Masonic was originally built for Masonic functions. And those functions were mainly listening to speakers speak.

The movie palaces were made for film and vaudeville (live entertainment), and therefore required better sight lines for the audience.

Ironically even some of the great opera houses of Europe (such as La Scala in Milan and the Paris Garnier Opera)... while they have great acoustics, they often have poor sight lines as well. Most of the boxes are stacked horseshoe like at the back and sides of the performance hall, far away from the actual stage (which helps explain why opera glasses are so popular!).

At least with movie palaces, the balcony overhang is relatively much closer to the stage, and provides the best sound and sight lines.

And what is the worst spot for acoustics in a movie palace? Usually in the (deluxe box seating) horseshoe shaped mezzanine directly under the balcony overhang, or on the main floor underneath either the mezzanine and/or balcony overhang.

But even in giant movie palaces such as the Fox and the Detroit Opera House (formerly the Capitol Theatre), the nose bleed sections of the back of the balcony are so far away from the action, that viewing is difficult due to the great distance. One has to remember that the back of the balcony of the Fox is nearly 9 stories up.

In fact many theatre historians claim that the death of vaudeville was not caused mainly by the showing of movies, but by the ever expanding size of the "vaudeville barns" (as the big theatres for that purpose were called). Supposedly when one gets more than 75 feet from the vaudeville act, the performers lose that intimacy with the audience.

(Message edited by Gistok on November 22, 2008)
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Leob
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Username: Leob

Post Number: 12
Registered: 04-2005
Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 11:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Masonic December 2006

masonic


(Message edited by leob on November 22, 2008)

(Message edited by leob on November 22, 2008)

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