Shed a tear as yet another arthouse cinema closes

It is with a very sad heart that I read that The Maple Theater in Bloomfield Township has closed. This after the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak was torn down almost two years ago. It was a sad day for local cineastes then and it’s a sad day again – two major blows within two years. That leaves people in the wider metropolitan area with  just the Detroit Film Theatre at the DIA. There is of course Cinema Detroit, which has also been downsized, and now housed in Planet Ant Theatre in Hamtramck. And of course, WIFF’s monthly schedule in Windsor. But for Detroit, it’s a major blow for independent theatres and screening of arthouse movies. I have long time memories of both theatres, often attending one or the other on a weekly basis, sometimes with friends, on dates or alone. For “The Main” I’d drive from my apartment in downtown Windsor, up I-75, then take 11 Mile to Main Street and the corner parking lot in Royal Oak. Sometimes we’d frequent Royal Oak’s robust dining scene before or after. I remember one time heading home from a film on 11 Mile and being stopped by a cop for speeding. “Would you do that in your own country?” the officer said. Thankfully I didn’t get a ticket. When the Emagine Royal Oak multiplex in The Main's backward opened about a decade ago that created more parking problems with a partly shared lot. And as the commercial and condo complex built up around The Main, this increased congestion and a further strain on parking. Among the last times I attended the cinema I parked blocks away on residential streets. Meanwhile I also loved the more modern Maple (one time Maple Art Cinema), also three screens, because of its interesting suburban vibe in the Bloomfield Plaza shopping center, which often had a cool restaurant or bar, one of the city’s best known Jewish delis in Steve’s, and in recent years a Trader Joe’s. I one time got a Montreaux Detroit Jazz Festival poster by Andy Warhol & Keith Haring framed at Frames Unlimited, still at the plaza. And incredible history: What is now an Andiamo’s restaurant on the parking lot was the Machus Red Fox, the last place where disappeared Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa was seen. From Windsor, it was a long haul drive up there: the Lodge to Telegraph and several miles up to West Maple. Claim to fame: I remember seeing Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom in line once. Sometimes, I would see a film late on a Sunday night, driving on near deserted freeways back to Windsor and getting home by 1 am, when I had to be up just a few hours later for work. One of the first times I drove there, in early 1991, I remember returning on I-96 near the Ambassador Bridge, tuning into the news and learning that Operation Desert Storm, the allied repelling of Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait, had just begun. Oh, memories, memories.

I almost fell out of my chair when watching the new Ripley eight-part series on Netflix. Among the trigger warnings at the beginning of the series were “language, smoking, violence.” Smoking? Well, I never!