They had just lost their pride and joy, the Owosso Playhouse, to neglect and inattention. Over the holidays between the beginning of December and the star to the new year, a water pipe burst, flooding the property for a few weeks and ruining the foundation. It was condemned.

The players spent the next few years weighing whether  it was wroth rebuilding. This is the successful period. Finally, someone bought it, paid off the mortgage and tore it down for a new building. One of the few items salvaged from that building were the entrance doors which were used in a play now and then (Little Shop of Horrors, original version).

In those days there was a spirit of camaraderie in this tight knit group. Each person was important to the goal. The loss of the small theatre allowed the group to present shows at bigger venues, such as the Owosso Junior High (now Middle School). Instead of an audience of 60, there could be an audience of 600. And there were with the annual musicals, Annie, Brigadoon, Sound of Music, Oklahoma, Hans Christian Andersen.

About the time the theatre (Lebowsky) first  came on the market, the OCP had just moved out of the Corunna Avenue playhouse they had occupied since 1967 and had yet to enjoy the huge revenues of theater outside of Corunna Avenue. They could not contemplate how to afford a building eventually sold for $120,000 when they were used to selling maybe $2500 gross sales for a six night sellout show. The truth is they probably couldn't have afforded at that time. They were thinking small.

So the old Capital Theater went to a group calling itself a church, which offered to pay the property taxes instead of exercising a church exemption. It was probably difficult for the Jewish sellers to sell to a semi-Christian outfit, but with the only other offer from the next door bank to tear it down for a parking lot, the Lebowsky legacy could only live on if it was sold to that group.

Joe Lebowsky, the "mayor of west-town", was a clothing seller ("rag merchant") in a retail district about 6 blocks west of downtown Owosso. Back in the early 20s vaudeville was gaining importance and Lebowsky saw an opportunity to join the circus so to speak. He hired architect George Baughman, who designed a dozen theaters in Michigan, including Saginaw's Temple Theater. The theater appointments were spectacular for Owosso. With chandeliers, 1200 seats, an organ, a small lobby, and two boilers in case one broke down, the Bijou (so named for a few months before it opened) promised to be Owosso's best theater ever.

A full stage with rigging, light bars, footlights, and an older style sandbag system as well, made the state more or less state of the art for the time. On stage right were three dressing rooms stacked to the roof. The basement below the stage had 3 more along with a trap door to the stage.

All of this was celebrated on opening night in March 1926. Lebowsky, who also sometimes spelt his name Lebowski, jumped on the vaudeville bandwagon a bit late because movies were the new rage. Vaudeville was dying. Acts were disbanding and it was hard to make a profit in live theater unless you went burlesque in a big town. For those who don't know, vaudeville was a collection of acts, usually family oriented, with singers, comics, dancers and the like. Burlesque was the bawdy acts which turned into strip club type entertainment.

In any event, the Owosso vaudeville circuit did not last a year. Income was made then when Lebowsky rented the theater to Butterfield, a chain of theaters showing motion pictures. The state of the art stage was put in mothballs virtually unused.

By 1950, the movie companies had learned to squeeze more dollars from the ticket price to pay more dollars to the stars and studios. When OCP took over the theater, a local movie theater owner told of how he must sometimes pay 90% of the ticket price to the distributor. So by 1950, it was becoming apparent that for the local theaters, the money was in popcorn, not ticket sales. In Owosso at that time there were at least two other theatres competing with The Capital Theater.

To compete, Lebowsky/Butterfield, took out 200 seats to put in new style padded seats (at least on the main floor) and to expand the lobby for popcorn sales. A new marquee and a red shiny exterior were added and remain some 57 years later, being the dominant look for the old building during its 80 years.

When the golden age of Hollywood gave way to the golden age of TV, the other Owosso theaters went out of business and sooner or later became parking lots, as historical buildings in Owosso tend to become.

Meanwhile, a group which would become the Owosso Players began performances in schools & gyms around Owosso. There are references to local groups putting on performances even back to the 20s. Its hard to say when the group began. The earliest program was from 1954 (My Fair Lady).

Owosso Community Players incorporated in 1967. Its first president as a corporation was local attorney Samuel Reiter. The group bought the Corunna Ave property (also a church) and with its small board of directors renovated it for small shows (at least in terms of audience).

From 1967 until the present the group has had its ups and downs in the quality of its shows and its attendance. Usually the ups coincide with talented volunteers who spend way too much time putting on the shows. People such as Doug Jarsen and Kevin McCarthy in the early years bu8t many too numerous to mention also made contributions.

MARK VAN EPPS
Dec 15 2007