Detroit's population exploded from 993,000 citizens in 1920 to 1.8 Million by 1930. Thanks in part to Henry Ford's 5 dollar workday and the resultant mass immigration of auto workers into town.
Primarily, two elements drove entertainment in this Metropolis:
The dawn of the Jazz age and the advent of sound in motion pictures.
With a boom economy and plenty of disposable income, Detroiters generated a huge need for bigger and better venues of entertainment.
The first acknowledged "talkie" motion picture was "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson released in 1927. Subsequently, sound on film set the demand for this type of entertainment ablaze. Detroit saw it's own "Temple of Amusement", the 5500 seatFox Theater open on September 21,1928. At the time, the Fox was the 2nd largest theater in the world and the first with built in sound equipment. The nationwide Fox theater chain, owned by 20th Century Fox President William Fox was built ultimately to exploit Movietone's "optical sound track" patent. By the peak of the building frenzy in 1929 there were over 190 movie theaters in the city with a capacity in excess of 200,000 seats. 50 million dollars were spent on Detroit theater construction between 1925 and 1930.
"Laying the Groundwork for the Grande"
Jazz in pre-swing era Detroit was largely what most today would call traditional Jazz. Swing era stars like Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey paid their dues with Jean Goldkette's Orchestra at the Graystone Ballroom on Woodward. The Charleston was all the rage at your neighborhood ballroom where dance patrons were known to acquire a little bathtub gin to loosen their inhibitions. Prohibition of alcohol was in effect from 1920-1933 in the U.S. and Detroit was a major portal for bootleggers trafficking "hooch" across the Detroit river from Canada .
Prior to World War II, most patrons of Detroit's magnificent theaters and ballrooms did not arrive at their destination by automobile. Simple folk generally did not own a car and were reliant on Detroit's exemplary network of electric streetcars.
In natural progression, entertainment venues and retail stores sprung up along the major streetcar routes such as Woodward, Michigan, Gratiot, Warren, Jefferson and, of course, Grand River.
It was in response to the high demand for easy to reach entertainment and shopping that mixed used Ballroom / Retail shop buildings like the Grande and the Vanity would be built along these thoroughfares.
Sometime in 1927, surety bond salesman Harry Weitzman contacted the offices of architect Charles N. Agree located in the Book towerbuilding on Washington Boulevard with the intent of building one or two mixed use facilities. Agree was already well known for his designs of a number of hotels and apartment buildings throughout Detroit. 1927 was a year that topped a very successful decade for the Agree firm. The 1928 - 1929 season, however, would prove to be a high point in the architect's career with the stock market crash in October 1929.
It is to be noted that both the Grande and the Vanity are very similar designs and were likely commissioned at the same time, possibly by the same owner.
The Vanity being of an Aztec Deco Design and the Grande - Moorish Deco.
Original drawings for the Grande were published May 1, 1928.
Horse drawn street cars first appeared on Grand River in 1855 and by May of 1947 the electric cars that had replaced them had also disappeared. Thanks goes in part to the men that sat on the city's transportation committees that happened to be major investors in the score of fledgling auto companies that called the motor city home.
