RARE 1920s Theater Production Photographs Jessie Bonstelle Detroit Theater Plays

Description

This is a great photo album of several 1920s productions by famous producer, director, actress
Jessie Bonstelle
, who is known for giving a start to a number of well-known early entertainers.
The two shows listed by handwriting on several of the photos are "Is Zat So?", from 1927, and "Mystery Ship" probably the same year or possibly 1928. Bonstelle was known to have two casts working on shows at the same time, one in production and one in rehearsal.
There are approximately 65 photographs contained in the album and loose. There is one larger 1920s photo of the Detroit Civic Theatre, later called the Bonstelle Theatre after it was purchased by Wayne University. The former synagogue was located in Detroit, Michigan and was purchased by Bonstelle in the 20's for 0,000.
Please see below for more bio information on Bonstelle and the theatre.
In the album, there is one photograph identified as showing Bonstelle with several actors. It has several edge tears. There are also several other photos without any notation on the back but appear to show Bonstelle in different settings.
These photographs were owned by Broadway and radio actor Blaine Cordner, who appears in a number of the photographs. There appear to be doubles of some photographs. Cordner appeared in a number of Broadway production from the 1920s to 1971 when he suffered a heart attack as he was waiting to appear in a revival of "We the People."
From Wikipedia:
Laura Justine "Jessie" Bonstelle
(November 1871
– October 14, 1932) was an American
theater director
, actress, and drama company manager. Encouraged by her mother, she sang and performed in the theater from a young age; she went on to become a famous leading lady and made several performances on
Broadway
. Later she became a director, managing many stock companies, directing Broadway productions and training many young performers who went on to be famous actors. In 1925 she founded her own theater in
Detroit
. Reorganized in 1928 as the Detroit Civic Theatre, it was one of America's first civic theaters, and her methods influenced community theater projects elsewhere. She has been described as "one of the pioneering women stage directors in the early twentieth century".
The
Bonstelle Theatre
is a theater operated by
Wayne State University
, and located at 3424
Woodward Avenue
(the southeast corner of Woodward and Eliot) in the
Midtown Woodward Historic District
of
Detroit
,
Michigan
.
It was originally built in 1902 as the
Temple Beth-El
, and was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
in 1982.
As of 2019, the University plans to decommission the theatre and lease it to a private developer for inclusion in a boutique hotel.
When the Temple Beth El congregation built
another building farther north along Woodward
in 1922, they sold the building at Woodward and Eliot to
Jessie Bonstelle
for 0,000.
Bonstelle hired architect
C. Howard Crane
to convert the building into a theater, naming the resulting building the Bonstelle Playhouse.
In 1928, the Bonstelle Playhouse became the Detroit Civic Theatre, and in the 1930s became the Mayfair Motion Picture Theater. In 1951, Wayne State University rented the building as a performance space for its theater company, and purchased it outright in 1956, renaming it the Bonstelle Theatre in honor of Jessie Bonstelle.