BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY!
Name: Bob Goodrich
Age: 79
Occupation: shady businessman
Last Seen: Grand Rapids
Bee-otched For: not being the Cadillac of movie theater owners
Age: 79
Occupation: shady businessman
Last Seen: Grand Rapids
Bee-otched For: not being the Cadillac of movie theater owners
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Last night, my cousins and I had a nostalgic conversation on Facebook about the movie theaters we grew up with.
My cousins are from the Detroit area and reminisced about The Movies at Oakland. And yes, it was a United Artists theater. Like many old school multiplexes, it only had five screens and served its purpose throughout the 1980s and 90s until bigger and better cinemas started popping up in the area like the Star (now AMC) John R. When Star Theaters was launched in the Detroit area and started popping up in many spots, they switched over to them. Now that they're an AMC property, my cousin told me that their charm is long gone.
My Detroit area cousins had it easy in the cinema world. Growing up in northern Michigan, my choices were pretty much limited to the monopoly that was in Traverse City by the long-defunct GKC Theatres. When I was little, GKC's output in the Grand Traverse region were three twin-screeners: the State downtown, the Plaza in the Meijer parking lot and the Grand Traverse in Acme, right across from Grand Traverse Resort. However, GKC built the eight-screen Grand Traverse Cinemas (the Acme location was renamed the Traverse Bay) at Grand Traverse Mall and the Plaza was demolished for a larger parking lot at Meijer in 1992. GKC then built the 10-screen Horizon just down the street from Grand Traverse Mall a few years later at the troubled - and now demolished - Horizon Outlet Center. When the Horizon opened, the Traverse Bay and State both shuttered.
Now, the Grand Traverse Mall Cinemas - which added a ninth screen a few years later - was nice, especially for a theater built in 1992. But, the Horizon felt like a sardine can with its tiny auditoriums. Not only that, it was built right around the same time my cousins were treated into the world of stadium seating. The Horizon's floors barely sloped and if you're a 5'6" guy like me, a trip to the chiropractor was probably necessary from trying to adjust my body to see the screen properly. The extremely uncomfortable seats didn't help, either.
Since then, GKC has gone out of business. Allegedly, it was because the chain - save for the Horizon - banned Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" in 2004 because of its attacks against then-president George W. Bush. The movie made over $200 million, which led to problems within the family that owned GKC, the heirs of founder George Kerasotes. A year later, GKC was sold to Carmike Cinemas. In 2016, Carmike opened the Cherry Blossom 14 right across the parking lot from the Horizon. It was Traverse City's first movie theater with stadium seating, plus an IMAX auditorium. Sadly, the theater came 20 years too late, at least for me. The Grand Traverse Mall Cinema closed and became a Dunham's Sporting Goods Store. The Horizon also closed and was transformed into a Lucky's Market, which was kinda like a Trader Joe's. Lucky's went bankrupt and is now a locally-owned Oryana Co-Op. In 2017, Carmike was sold to AMC.
Yes, movie theaters bring as much joy as the movies themselves to so many people. There's nothing like a cinema with comfy seats and good sight lines to the screen. A kickass Dolby Surround Sound system is also mandatory.
And good owners are also a plus.
Of course, the Cherry Blossom is probably going to reopen once the COVID-19 brouhaha ends. There were rumors that AMC was going to be bankrupt because of the shutdowns. However, there are rumors that AMC is now in talks of being acquired by Amazon.
But 50 miles away in Cadillac, the lights are probably going to be dark at their cinema for a long time.
Last week, it was announced that the city's lone theater, the Cadillac 4 was closing for good. Earlier this year, their owner, Goodrich Quality Theaters filed for bankruptcy, citing financial problems that stemmed from remodeling their cinemas a few years ago. Owner Bob Goodrich claimed that the lack of major blockbusters hurt his sales, making it harder to pay off his creditors. Goodrich was hoping that he could have gotten through his bankruptcy, but then came that little bug that came from a bat sold at a Chinese wet market.
With all movie theaters in Michigan shuttered due to Governor Gretchen Whitmer's Executive Order, it has definitely put a damper on Goodrich's hopes of paying off his debtors and moving on. In March, it was reported that Gooodrich was planning to sell his chain to Detroit-based Emagine Entertainment. However, the plans might be off now thanks to COVID. Not only that, Emagine's cinemas have luxury-style auditoriums, something that's not seen in Cadillac.
The Cadillac 4 opened in 1918 as the Lyric Theatre, owned by the Fitzpatrick-McElroy Company, who also owned the Lyric in Traverse City (now the State). In the 1920s, F-M was sold to Butterfield. Butterfield also owned the Center Theatre, which was in business from the 1930s until 1955.
However, Goodrich bought the Lyric in 1978, twinned the auditorium and renamed it the Cadillac 1&2. Many years later, he bought the building next door and carved it into three more screens. In 2018, the cinema turned 100 years old. Then, the original auditorium was untwinned and was given a giant, 42-foot screen.
Despite the makeover, it wasn't worth saving the Cadillac 4, nor Goodrich's tarnished reputation. Before the bankruptcy, he fired all of his employees under 18. It wasn't because of poor performance, it was because, well, Goodrich is a prick. He also pissed off long-time listeners of his left-leaning talk radio station here in Grand Rapids, WPRR "Public Reality Radio" by firing station programmer and host Darren Gibson and several other personal a few years ago. Now under the unfortunate yoke of Tyrone Bynum, the station has been a total embarrassment for Goodrich. In the latest Nielsen ratings book, WPRR wasn't even ranked, meaning that it got its ass kicked by obscure religious stations, plus fringe stations from Muskegon. Of course, Goodrich fired Gibson for not endorsing Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, especially after what the Democratic National Committee did to Bernie Sanders.
The painful reality is that Goodrich kicked his own ass with his own overinflated ego. He fired his talkers who all had an opinion and exposed the DNC for who they were. Not only that, he had Tyrone on his leash, and according to Darren, he was the type that talked over people and gaslighted people constantly. Now, because of all this, WPRR is in the ratings doldrums, tied with another throwaway talker, iHeartMedia's WTKG 1230, Grand Rapids' home for Brian Kilmeade, Buck Sexton and the Dave Ramsey, who's also aired on sister WOOD 1300/106.9. Not only that, his right-hand bitch, Tyrone has a storied, yet poor reputation in west Michigan. After all, he ran WMFN 640 into the ground, especially when he refused to air Tiger games on Sunday in favor of religious programming.
Granted, the Cadillac 4 SHOULD have a license to print money. It's the only movie theater within a 50 mile radius. If Emagine buys them out, great. If not, I can see AMC, the convicted felons who own the cinemas in Bellaire, Petoskey, Gaylord, Cheboygan and Mackinaw City or even the Traverse City Film Festival to buy them out. I wouldn't single out somebody who wants to own his or her own cinema, either.
However and personally, I think the movie business will take a long time to heal, if at all. More and more people are staying home - even before the pandemic - instead of going through the drama of seeing a first-run movie. Yes, we're talking about the high prices of tickets and concessions, the parking, the long lines, the morons who take their screaming kids, the talkers, the.... ugh.... I can go on. Thanks to Netflix and services like this guy, why even bother going out to see a movie? Hell, some of the movies Powerstream has on their Plex account were in theaters when COVID-19 broke out!
The reality is that in the post-COVID world, businesses will have to adapt now that we're used to being home. And one of those businesses are movie theaters. Now that studios are planning to show their movies both digitally and in theaters, it may hurt not just giant chains like AMC - who already severed ties with Universal - but smaller, mom 'n pop movie houses as well.
If Goodrich sells out, good. He needs to not only sell his theaters, but WPRR, too. His reputation sucks beyond repair and the legal advice of Tyrone Bynum's not gonna help him. His theaters need new leadership and so does WPRR. I think WPRR can do well again, especially since the leftists of Grand Rapids need a real voice. Tyrone and a few "vote blue no matter who" hosts aren't the answer.
If I had a million dollars....
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Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
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