Heartland

Does anyone have information or a more up to date picture of the Detroit adult movie cinema used as a backdrop to the TSOM band photo on the inner sleeve of FALAA?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... years.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euzGDI6m-XM&NR=1

... seprate topic, but I keep telling the embattled residents of Detroit that their city was a boomtown of the industrial age... and maybe one day Silicon Valley will face the same fate if/when the electronic age becomes passe. Iggy Pop, who's from just outside Detroit, sang of the folly in 'Cold Metal' of trying to "save a tree!" in a nation whose prosperity arose from being industrialized "from sea to sea".

Not sure where the pic was taken. I have seen the Sisters twice in Detroit and was terrified both times, and I don't scare easily.

Rise891 wrote:Not sure where the pic was taken. I have seen the Sisters twice in Detroit and was terrified both times, and I don't scare easily.

BBC 4 showed a fascinating program on Detroit a few years back, think it was called Motor City's Burning? Showed how there is no longer a rush hour and that the trees/plant life are recaliming the city....

Flagg

Randall, the phenomenon you refer to is known in Detroit as 'urban prairie'. As the city's population drops, abandoned houses and buildings fall into disrepair and are looted for re-usable materials.

Houses eventually get demolished by the city when it can afford mass demolitions, but it's taking a long time. Other houses simply become overgrown with weeds and shrubs. Some get torched on Devil's Night.

Suburban areas of Detroit now look like empty Deep South rural areas and are seeing an increase in roaming wildlife not typical to Detroit or suburbia.

There's stacks of Youtube videos and 'urbex' websites that document this stuff. Here's one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTQFtNLvcl8

With a population far less than a million, Detroit has a higher crime rate than huge cities like LA or Chicago. At least houses only cost a dollar... meth fiends and nascent junkies everywhere take note... lower accommodation costs means more money for coke, crank, crack, smack... http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=GDr9II9u93s

and yet almost every bit of available property/vacant land has been bought up in just the last few years.Somebody must be expecting a resurgence in the Detroit market.

Skip Intro wrote:Does anyone have information or a more up to date picture of the Detroit adult movie cinema used as a backdrop to the TSOM band photo on the inner sleeve of FALAA?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... years.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euzGDI6m-XM&NR=1

Do you really need to find it? There's plenty of porn on the net.

Nadia81 wrote:and yet almost every bit of available property/vacant land has been bought up in just the last few years.Somebody must be expecting a resurgence in the Detroit market.

It's hard to imagine it could get much worse. There's nowhere to go but up!

stufarq wrote:

Skip Intro wrote:Does anyone have information or a more up to date picture of the Detroit adult movie cinema used as a backdrop to the TSOM band photo on the inner sleeve of FALAA?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... years.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euzGDI6m-XM&NR=1

Do you really need to find it? There's plenty of porn on the net.

Hahaha, LOL.... not looking to view any porn myself, but that cinema pictured on the inner sleeve of FALAA was a noted adult movie cinema in Detroit for many years. I've seen the cinema discussed elsewhere on 'net forums. Dunno if the venue is still there today. Probably not.

Skip Intro wrote:Does anyone have information or a more up to date picture of the Detroit adult movie cinema used as a backdrop to the TSOM band photo on the inner sleeve of FALAA?

inspired by PIB's profile photo, here's some more photos of The Sassy Cat, aka "Detriot's finest adult cinema", located in the former Garden Theatre building at 3929 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI, United States

Then:


Now: (although i think that photo is actually of the building to the right)


Apparently the building was originally known as the Garden Theatre, before it became the Sassy Cat.

According to this post on a local detroit forum:

Fury13 wrote: The Garden Theatre building holds an important place in Detroit rock 'n' roll history. As the 509 Club in the late '50s and as The Village in the early '60s, it was a showcase for talents like Nolan Strong & the Diablos, Gino Washington, the Fabulous Peps, Nathaniel Mayer, and Billy Lee & the Rivieras (later known as Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels). It was a teen hangout that musicians frequented and that resulted in the cross-pollenation of rock and soul that epitomizes the Detroit sound of the '60s. It was THE hip place to be in '62-'64.

Yes, it was the Sassy Cat porno house later in its lifetime, but it is the building's significance as a rock club that should be remembered.

Here's a link to the venue on Google Maps - looks like it was still being renovated when Street View was last updated:

http://goo.gl/maps/jyL56

I think it looks nicer before the renovation.

Pista wrote:I think it looks nicer before the renovation.

aye, the old run-down building looks like the old Ardwick area of manchester (near the Apollo venue)

The Sisters pic always makes me laugh as it reminds me of the fact that Detroit has become the centre for what has come to be know as ruin porn. Basically a million (usually very boring) photographers descend on its less desirable bits and ramble on about post-industrialism and take picture of derelict buildings and the like. This was laudable in the 1990s and some of us (ahem.) were doing the same in Ireland then and during the 'Celtic Tiger' years but it's been done to death since. A slight tangent....

and some more info about the old sassy cat/garden theatre:

http://waterwinterwonderland.com/moviet ... ocTypeID=5

Most impressive research, QB
Perhaps you could use your trusty StreetView to find the locations of other famous Sisters snaps, such as the one of the "Wake" trio against the German wall with a sign about parking for "Haus 11a", or the Ben Gunn era Philippe Carly shot outside a building with very ornate wrought-iron window bars, or ...

http://info.detnews.com/pix/photogaller ... ndex10.htm

Vaudeville, porn and death

The Sassy Cat movie house on Woodward, just south of Orchestra Hall, was targeted for shutdown by the Detroit City Council, police, Orchestra Hall officials, and the League of Catholic Women. Police say 106 arrests were made in three years at the theater, most for soliciting, indecent exposure and obscene conduct. Jan. 14, 1986.

Isn't "vaudeville, porn and death" an almost perfect tag-line for something Sisters-related?

106 sounds like a lot of arrests for one cinema in a three year period - there must have been a lot of undercover cops around ! The sign by the entrance says that it was "Always Open" - wonder if TSOM went in to see if it lived up to its boast on the main sign.

the original photographer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Polsky