Page 4 - Wayne Dispatch Pages

State Wayne, Continued from page 3 upgrade of a Trinnov audio system, only the movie industry—but our
which features 3-D sound technology. world as we knew it.
L’oeil) serves as a fitting tribute to Additionally, the auditorium’s screen Jacobson remembers, “We were
Wayne’s past and present. The mural was changed over to a Harkness all excited about the launch [of the
was dedicated on October 16, 2007, micro-perforated screen, which pro- app],” Jacobson remembers…and
and re-dedicated on October 28, duced exceptional quality. then we ended up closing in March
2008. And then things got really, re- [2020] due to pandemic. It became
But unlike the theater’s pictur- ally…comfortable. readily apparent to us in about June
esque surface, the bottom line re- Back in the fall of 2014 Phoenix [2020] that this [COVID-19] was a se-
garding the theater’s finances was Theatres took the theater’s seating to rious problem that was not going to
anything but pretty. a whole new luxurious level with the resolve itself quickly.”
The theater was hemorrhaging installation of seats that fully recline. The Phoenix State Wayne would
money, and something had to be And in late fall of 2018, those seats oscillate between various levels of
done. got even better when they became openness until February of 2021
In July 2014 Wayne City Council heated. when they re-opened with full con-
voted 6-0 to sell the State Wayne The- “I think their efforts to really mod- cessions.
ater to Insight Holdings II, LLC, ernize—the new seats, the digital Then, finally, came a signal of
which was related to Phoenix The- projectors, etc.—doing that kind of hope.
atres. Phoenix Theatres had been op- stuff is really going to keep them “It all started to break this sum-
erating the theater for the city since ahead of the game and keep the the- mer, almost synonymously with the
August 2012. The sale became offi- The “Big Sleep” was the first movie ater successful,” says Moll. vaccination rate,” says Jacobson. “As
cial in September 2014. shown at the State Wayne Theater. Furthermore, in early 2020, the the rate increased, and as things re-
In 2015 Phoenix Theatres re- theater began offering reserved seat- turned to normalcy here in Michigan
placed all 1,152 incandescent mar- crisper look,” said Jacobson. ing and debuted a new mobile app, and throughout the country, we’ve
quee lamps with new LED-style, More striking enhancements which enabled patrons to order tick- seen more and more pictures be-
energy-efficient lamps on the State soon followed: new carpeting, ets online. To gain entry, patrons come released.”
Wayne Theater’s marquee, a move Christie digital projectors and 7.1 simply had to have the barcode on The theater has even seen the re-
that reduced the total wattage from Dolby Digital sound in every audito- their cellphone scanned upon ar- turn of "Rocky Horror Picture Show
12,672 watts of power to just 1,613. rium, and two auditoriums were rival. Experience,” with Wayne's live,
“Great care was taken in selecting a given larger picture sizes for a Yes, things were cruising along unique shadow cast. The show,
new style of LED lamp that was sim- markedly noticeable wall-to-wall dig- for the newly re-named Phoenix which launched in 2012, is inspired
ilar in appearance to the original yet ital image. Then, in the summer of State Wayne Theater.
give us greater efficiency and a new 2017, auditorium one received the But what followed would rock not See State Wayne, page 13

4 · December 2021 · The Wayne Dispatch