Calumet, Michigan, USA - Calumet Theatre, Sixth Street - postcard c.1980s

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  Calumet Theatre, Michigan - built 1900 seating 700 - located at Sixth Street
• Publisher: Penrod / Hiawatha, Michigan / printed in Italy
• Postally used: no
• Stamp:  n/a
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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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The Calumet Theatre is a historic theatre located at 340 Sixth Street in the town of Calumet, Michigan. It is also known as the Calumet Opera House or the Calumet Civic Auditorium. It is integral to, but a separate unit of, the Calumet municipal building.^[2] The structure was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1971^[2] and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.^[1] It is one of the 21 Heritage Sites which partners with the Keweenaw National Historical Park.

The village of Calumet was a prosperous community at the close of the nineteenth century, primarily due to the rich vein of copper mined by the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, located just south and east of the village. In 1898, the community decided that an opera house was required to serve the people of Calumet.^[3] Local architect Charles K. Shand was chosen to design the building, and Chicago interior designer William Eckert developed a crimson, gold, and ivory color scheme for the interior.^[2]

The theatre opened on March 20, 1900,^[2] with the operetta The Highwayman, by Reginald De Koven and Harry B. Smith, on tour from Broadway.^[3] The theatre was one of the first municipal theatres in the country.^[2] It soon attracted attention from America's finest actors, actresses, and other theatre greats, such as Frank Morgan (later famous for his roles in The Wizard of Oz), Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Lon Chaney, Sr., John Philip Sousa, Sarah Bernhardt, and Madame Helena Modjeskaamong others.^[3]

As time wore on, the theatre began to lose popularity, due mostly to the decline of the local economy and the increasing popularity of movies.^[3] In the late 1920s, the theatre was converted to a motion-picture house,^[2] serving in this medium until the 1950s.^[3] Summer stock theatre was brought back to the Calumet Theater in 1958, and performed there every summer until 1968, and returned in 1972.^[3]

In 1975, the auditorium was restored for the centennial of Calumet.^[3] In 1988-89, the exterior of the theatre was restored.^[3]

In 1983, the Calumet Theatre Company was incorporated as a non-profit organization.^[4] In 2013, the theater began working on adding an elevator to improve accessibility for the second floor and balcony. The elevator was installed in 2018.^[5][6][7]

Five staff members and several volunteers help to operate the Theatre.^[4] Today, the Calumet Theatre is home to as many as 60 theatre-related events a year, with an estimated 18,000 people attending.^[3]

The Calumet Theatre is a two-story Renaissance revival structure constructed from yellowish-brown brick.^[2] The building sits on a Jacobsville sandstone foundation, and has a copper roof with copper cornices.^[2] A porte-cochere covers one entrance, and a clock tower originally rising to include a bell) stands nearby.^[2] An illuminated marquee is at the Sixth Street entrance.^[2]

The theatre itself originally held 1200 seats. With the closure of the 2nd balcony, and addition of the movie projection booth on the 1st balcony, the Theatre now holds 700 seats and features 5 fantastic murals on the proscenium arch.^[2]

Calumet (/ˌkæljʊˈmɛt/ KAL-yuu-MET) is a village in Calumet Township, Houghton County, in the U.S. state of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, that was once at the center of the mining industry of the Upper Peninsula. Also known as Red Jacket, the village includes the Calumet Downtown Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The village may itself be included within the Calumet Historic District, a larger area which is NRHP-listed and which is a National Historic Landmark District. It is bordered on the north by Calumet Township, on the south by the unincorporated towns of New Town and Blue Jacket,^[6][7] on the east by Blue Jacket and Calumet Township, and on the west by Yellow Jacket and Calumet Township. The population was 726 at the 2010 census. Calumet's nickname is Copper Town U.S.A.

What is now Calumet was settled in 1864, originally under the name of "Red Jacket",^[9] named for a Native American Chief of the Seneca tribe. Until 1895 the name "Calumet" was used by the nearby town of Laurium, Michigan; present day Calumet was not legally named so until 1929.

Red Jacket grew due to the copper mines in the area. It was incorporated as a town in 1867. The copper mines were particularly rich; the Boston-based Calumet and Hecla Mining Company produced more than half of the USA's copper from 1871 through 1880.^[10] In addition to copper mining and smelting, the region also supported the dairy industry and truck farming. Many immigrants (from Poland, etc.) settled there in the late 19th century.^[11]

The victims in rough caskets, 1913

By 1900, Red Jacket had a population of 4,668, and Calumet Township, which contained Red Jacket and nearby mining towns, had a population of 25,991. However, in 1913, Red Jacket suffered from the Copper Country Strike of 1913-1914, and the population began to decline. In the same year, the town was the site of the Italian Hall Disaster. Striking miners and their families were gathered on Christmas Eve for a party in Italian Hall, when the cry of "fire" precipitated a stampede that crushed or suffocated seventy-three victims, the majority of them children. The identity of the person(s) who started the stampede has never been determined. Folk singer Woody Guthrie's song, "1913 Massacre", is based on this event.

Loss of wartime demand caused the copper price to drop following World War I. With the decreased demand for copper, thousands left Red Jacket in the 1920s, many moving to Detroit, Michigan where the automobile industry was booming.

During the Great Depression, almost all mines were shut down. As a result, many miners and their families left to find work. In 1950, the population of Calumet was 1,256 people. Small-time mining continued in the area, particularly during World War IIuntil it was shut down completely by a labor strike in 1968.

The Calumet Historic District is another area of interest, listed like the Calumet Downtown Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1984, Calumet's name was borrowed by Hollywood. Calumet was moved from Michigan to Colorado, where it was invaded by Soviet paratroopers in the film Red Dawn. One of the film's producers grew up on the Keweenaw Peninsula.^[cita