Art houses & film societies / Lower Woodward / Downtown
Telenews Theater
Closed – archive entry · 1942–1991
Detroit's first full-time newsreel theatre, opened in 1942: hourly news on screen, a glass globe above the marquee, a radio studio in the basement and a teletype clattering in the lobby. It has been a nightclub since 2000.
Quick facts
- Opened
- 1942
- Closed
- 1991
- Architect
- Cyril E. Schley (1942); Louis Wiltse (1969 remodel)
- Style
- Streamline Moderne
- Seats
- 465 (about 440 after 1969)
02 / The story of this place
Make time for these
The Telenews opened on February 13, 1942, as Detroit's first full-time newsreel theatre, running continuous hour-long programs of the latest news; opening-day headlines included Singapore Under Siege. Cyril E. Schley, a partner of C. Howard Crane, designed it in Streamline Moderne style with orange and turquoise terra cotta and a glass globe above the marquee announcing world news. Radio station WJLB broadcast newscasts and baseball from a studio in its basement, and a teletype clattered away in the lobby. Television killed the newsreels: Nicholas George remodeled it as the Plaza in November 1969, it turned to adult films in the 1970s, and from 1988 to 1991 it ran foreign and art films as the Tele-Arts. It has been a nightclub since 2000.
- Detroit's first full-time newsreel theatre
- A radio studio downstairs, a teletype in the lobby
- A glass globe announcing world news
Plan your visit
The building has housed a nightclub on Woodward Avenue since 2000. For art-house and foreign films, see the cinemas in our guide that are still open.
Cinemas nearby
Back to cinemas ↗
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