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Source: Cinema Tour
Original opening was in the 1920s when it was known as the Strand. The name changed to Reed in the 1940s and the theater closed in October 1973. It was then used as a reception and bingo hall by the local Moose Lodge before being demolished in 2000 or 2001.
Our family's Johnson Construction Company records list the Reed Theatre job but do not include what year it was undertaken. It probably was an extensive 1942 renovation described in an article below. There are no slides of this theater in my grandfather Al Johnson's collection, so we'll once again need to rely on images from online sources. The Reed Theatre stood at 107 E. Upton Street in Reed City, Michigan.
The Reed City, Michigan - Then & Now Facebook page has the best quality images of the old theater, as well as several anecdotes and artifacts. I've included an entrance photo from that page, circa 1950, submitted by Sue Brearley Dalziel.
Another artifact from that page is a September 1949 article marking Norris Stafford's ten years as manager of the Reed Theatre. This article fills in some gaps in my grandfather's construction company history.
It notes that Mr. Stafford and Mr. C.H Schuckert of Caro formed the "Schuckert & Stafford" theater chain. In addition to the Reed, the chain owned theaters in Cass City (Cass), Croswell (Maxine), Millington (Capitol), Vassar (Vassar), Fowlerville (Orr) and Saginaw (Daniel). With the exception of the Vassar Theatre, our family has documented all of these as Johnson projects. With this new documentation and its "Johnson doors," it's almost a certainty that Al Johnson built the Vassar Theatre for Schuckert & Stafford.