![]() In 1932, there was a "bank holiday" in Michigan and Shafer’s money was sewed up in the bank. For the Shafer family it changed the course of their lives in ways no one could have anticipated. In 1929 calamity struck the world in a way that no one had could have possibly considered. He resigned his position at the Koppin Theatre Circuit where he had been earning $25,000 a year and struck out on his own in Downtown Wayne reopening the darkened theatre. Shafer negotiated with the owner of the Wayne Theatre building to lease the closed theatre. Then came the Depression of 1929 and hit everywhere and by 1930 he was forced to close eight theatres due to "a lack of business." The next few years were to be a time of great adjustment. In 1927, Walter accepted a job offer from the Koppin Theatre Circuit and became the General Manager of 27 theatres in Detroit, Flint, Dearborn and Wayne. He witnessed his first "talkie" at the Adams Theatre on Grand Circus Park in 1927. In 1926 he helped direct the building of the new Fox Theatre on Woodward Avenue. In 1921 he was promoted and transferred once again to Detroit to the original Fox Theatre, located on Washington Boulevard as Managing Director. Louis for his new position as Manager of the Fox Theatre there. Shafer and his wife Lillian were quickly transferred to St. William Fox was expanding his theatre chain rapidly and in 1920 and Mr. Innovations in the quality of theatres, picture clarity and sound-on-film led to a great expansion in the new film business, and by the mid to late 1920’s the film exhibition industry was booming as a transition to film from live performances was beginning. The theatres were complicated and in some cases large operations with in-house orchestras, stagehands and a vast operational staff. Theatres in this era were offering a combination of live stage performances and silent films. While in Elizabeth he met a bank teller named Lillian Thiemer and soon after he proposed marriage and she became Mrs. He was hired by the Fox Theatre Circuit to operate theatres in New York City, Elizabeth, New York, and Newark, New Jersey in the new industry of the movie business. When the war ended on November 11, 1918, Shafer was free to pursue a career and his contacts in the theatres paid off. It was in New York that Walter was first introduced to the world of theatres. Army was sent to New York City at the age of 26 to give "pep talks" from the leading stages of Broadway to promote the sales of war bonds. In the spring of 1918 when Woodrow Wilson was President, Walter Shafer in the uniform of the U.S. Now celebrating 70 years as a movie theatre, we felt it was very important to preserve the photographic history, and provide a place to share personal stories of visits to this important civic place for the residents of Wayne and the surrounding communities. A place that invokes strong memories of first dates, trips to the movies with Grandparents, remembering when you first looked up and noticed the ever present dragon in the darkness of a Sunday matinee. ![]() An iconic building that everyone remembers as having always been there and always will be in Downtown Wayne. What is striking is that throughout the decades the theatre itself has become one of the constants in the Wayne community. Since the theatre opening in December of 1946, the exterior has had few noticeable modifications, with the majority of the changes occurring inside to accommodate the changing trends that have occurred to the movie industry. The Haxan Cloak) and Arca, movement choreography by Akram Khan, and martial arts choreography by Zhang Jun.We have spent the better part of 2016 obtaining a collection of photographs chronicling the history of the State Wayne Theatre from the past seven decades. Written by Kung Fu Panda’s Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise features songs by Sia remixed by Bobby Krlic (a.k.a. To do so, we created a 360-degree projection mapping that covered the entire space, floors, walls ceilings, the actors and the audience. ![]() It was important to take the audience on a journey with the actors. For this unique theater production, we created an immersive experience where the viewer felt like they were sitting in an installation – not in front of a stage. Studio Leigh Sachwitz once again teamed up with director Chen Shi-Zheng and the creative crew for a multimedia extravaganza. ![]() Fast-paced kung fu dance sequences unfold in front of, around, and above the audience in this original production designed specifically for the soaring, flexible space of The McCourt in The Shed, New York. Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise tells the story of a secret sect in Flushing, Queens, that possesses the magical power to extend human life, and the twin brother and sister caught in the struggle to control it. ![]()
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