User:Tom Schwallie/Wealthy Theatre

Wealthy Theatre is a historic movie theatre and performance center located at 1130 Wealthy St. SE in Grand Rapids MI. It is currently operated by the Community Media Center, a non-profit corporation. Wealthy Theatre is a mixed use facility, capable of hosting live music, film, theatre and dance.

History
Wealthy Theatre, 1130 Wealthy Street, was constructed in 1911 for vaudeville and live theater, and later became a neighborhood movie house. The original name of the venue was the Pastime Vaudette. Due to the decline in popularity of vaudeville, the Pastime closed its doors before the end of the decade, becoming a warehouse for the Michigan Aircraft Company during World War I. The Theatre was renamed Wealthy Theatre in the 1920’s after being purchased by Oscar and Lillian Varneau and resumed operation as a movie house. By the 1960’s it had shifted to foreign films and by the mid 1970’s operations ceased. The building stood empty and decaying for more than 25 years before the South East Economic Development neighborhood association launched a capital campaign to fund its restoration. The Theatre re-opened in 1998 as an independent not-for-profit community arts center. In 2005 Wealthy Theatre was acquired by the Community Media Center, a not-for-profit organization operating the local cable access channel as well as community radio station 88.1 WYCE.

Current operations
In October, 2007, Community Media Center completed its $2.4 million capital campaign, allowing the organization to finalize ownership and to introduce numerous technical upgrades. These improvements include modernizing the movie projection and sound systems, introducing a concert sound system and installing video recording capabilities. Later upgrades involved introducing an internally developed online venue booking and ticket sales system. Programming at Wealthy Theatre is primarily generated by independent community producers, resulting in a varied and eclectic range of events.