coppertalk

Photo Courtesy of Michigan Tech Archives

By Kris Palmer, CDA communications consultant

Kris Palmer is a communications consultant for the CDA. She and her family toured the Quincy Mines and visited the Calumet Theatre in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in July.  She shares her adventures and insights about the copper industry in Coppertalk.

The Calumet Theatre, located in the city of Calumet in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula “Copper Country,” opened in March 1900 and was one of the first municipal theatres in the country.  Taxes on Calumet’s numerous saloons helped make the project possible while theatre patrons enjoyed years of first-class entertainment by famous Broadway Actors.  The Calumet Theatre has been restored to its former glory, and is now only missing its beautiful electric copper chandelier (which fell and broke years ago).  The interior has been re-painted using rich colors to recapture the original proscenium murals.  In 1900, there was a second-story ballroom built over the village offices for use as a dinner and dance venue.  This space is still in active use today.  Tourists come from across the country to not only see the beautifully restored theatre but to experience what life was like during the boom years of the early copper mining industry in northern Michigan.  Although Calumet is no longer a bustling city as it once was, the copper mines from the turn of the century have left a legacy of elegance and beauty found in the historic Calumet Theatre.             

Photo Courtesy of Michigan Tech Archives

While touring the old building the floorboards creak beneath your feet and one can not only imagine but see the backstage dressing rooms once used by Sarah Bernhardt, Douglas Fairbanks, Madame Helena Modjeska, Lillian Russell, John Phillip Sousa, Lon Chaney, Sr., Jason Robards, Sr., James O’Neill, William S. Hart, Frank Morgan, Wallace and Noah Beery, and Madame Schumann-Heink. 

In the late 1920’s with the decline of the economy and copper mining in the area, stage productions became less common.  From the depression era through the late 1950’s the space was used as a movie theatre.  Summer stock returned in 1958 and the auditorium was renovated for the village’s centennial in 1975.  The exterior was restored in 1988-89 while technical and code improvements and backstage construction have been completed.  Today the old and beautifully restored theatre is incorporated as an independent non-profit cultural organization that hosts between 60-80 annual events.  A variety of performing arts disciplines are represented.  To learn more, check out the Calumet Theatre website at http://www.calumettheatre.com/