20 years of politics on the Grand Lake Theatre marquee, photographed

October 9, 2020 4:09 PM

Two decades ago, a local photographer began documenting political statements placed on the iconic Oakland marquee by the theater’s owner.

“This is America, every vote should be counted,” read the marquee at the Grand Lake Theatre.… A photo of that marquee message—the first of many protest statements that Grand Lake Theatre owner Allen Michaan has placed above the theater’s entrance—is part of a Flickr photo archive curated by local photographer, musician, and radio host, David Gans. For the past 20 years, Gans has religiously photographed the now-familiar messages that regularly light up the night sky on the corner of Grand Avenue and Lake Park Avenue.

posted by Lexica (13 comments total)

The Grand Lake is one of the things I miss most about my hometown. I grew up walking distance from the place. I think I saw my first movie ever there. I know the first restaurant I went to when my family moved there was Hunan Village up the street. My family became friends with the family that owned it.

I took a girl to see the rerelease of The Exorcist there in high school and we both knew the pretext there. But when she crabwalked down the stairs it was me screaming and a ringing into her.

And through it all the political messages have been central to its mystique. It's such a great place and I really really hope it's able to pull through and remain an Oakland institution, signs and all.

Thanks for making me homesick.
posted by East14thTaco at 4:22 PM on October 9, 2020 [6 favorites]

DOUBLE FEATURE COMING SOON: THE DEATH OF THE CORONAVIRUS AND THE END OF TRUMP is my fave. Brought a smile to my face when lockdown was most dire.
posted by benzenedream at 4:43 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]

I have always appreciated the Grand Lake's signs, even when I've been pretty fucking annoyed that Michaan claims parking meters and protected bike lanes are bad for Oakland's economy. You can't win 'em all I guess.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:02 PM on October 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

Oh, this is GREAT.

It dismays me that I didn't know about these before - but I'm so delighted to learn about them now.

The archive is fabulous. I love the emphasis on paper ballots and the inclusion of local issues (Save Astro Park! Support Aimee Allison! Instant Runoff Voting!)

(I also appreciate that it's on Flickr, one of few big social sites that doesn't make it hard for me to view public content without an account.)

I'm so happy to see this. Thank you so much for posting it, Lexica!
posted by kristi at 6:12 PM on October 9, 2020

I'm so glad someone documented this - I used to love these very much.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:25 PM on October 9, 2020

Grand Lake is the best.
posted by brundlefly at 9:51 PM on October 9, 2020

We foolishly chose Bay Street to see Black Panther on its opening night, because Ryan Coogler ended up making a personal appearance at Grand Lake to introduce his film and talk to the audience about learning to love cinema there watching movies like Boyz N The Hood with his dad. Love this theater.
posted by migurski at 10:16 PM on October 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

I have two great memories of the Grand Lake: one, seeing "Freaky Friday" there, with the film preceded by "Tom & Jerry" cartoons and music played on a piano. I must have been around 10 years old. That and seeing "Star Wars" there for a friend's birthday party. Saw many, many movies there growing up, but those two stand out.

Now, I can appreciate the marquee messages!
posted by chavenet at 1:31 AM on October 10, 2020

One thing I love about our poll stations here in Britain is the fact that our voting machines consist of a ratty old half-chewed pencil tied to the booth with a length of string and a paper ballot form which you drop straight in the box yourself. Hack that, Putin!
posted by Paul Slade at 4:45 AM on October 10, 2020

I like this especially:

“People would drive by and blare on their horns in approval,” he said. “It was really something. That’s what started it all, that particular day.”

Toward the end of the Before Times I went on a walking tour in a major Canadian city. The meeting point was on the edge of a park on the downtown core, right in front of a statue of the country's first prime minister, Sir John A. MacDonald.

Sir John A's status has been a little wobbly in recent years -- sure, he did found a country that on balance is a decent place to live but he was also an alcoholic and a virulent racist. A few statues of him have been taken down in the last decade, a move which outrages exactly the people you'd expect to be outraged by it.

I learned that if you have forty people milling around aimlessly by a statue of SJAM, many passing motorists assume it is a protest. Many drivers blared their horns and gave us a thumbs-up to show their support, while as many others rolled down their windows to hurl abuse at random strangers whose only unifying interest was hearing about where an old post office used to be.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:08 AM on October 10, 2020 [2 favorites]

I saw Black Panther at the Grand Lake, and while it wasn't opening night, the theater was full and there was a lot of enthusiastic cheering that it just wouldn't have gotten at another theater. The Grand Lake is Oakland's tv room (if Lake Merritt is Oakland's living room).

... I do wish Michaan could afford to upgrade the sound system, though!
posted by suelac at 9:32 AM on October 10, 2020 [2 favorites]

The Grand Lake is one of my favorite theaters in the Bay Area, which has an embarrassment of riches for movie lovers (The Roxie, The Stanford, Niles Silent Film Museum, Capitol Drive-In, etc.).

The Grand Lake has a 70MM projector, allowing me to see the large-format version of The Master and the roadshow version of The Hateful Eight (with an intermission and a paper movie program guide!).

I have had many enjoyable experiences there; the 1999 Mummy movie fits in perfectly in the gilded, velvet-curtained main theater downstairs. Lastly, the audiences there have been excellent, especially at Avengers: Infinity War.

The marquee messages are the cherry on top. I really hope that the theater survives for future moviegoers.
posted by JDC8 at 8:04 PM on October 10, 2020

I'm hoping the Grand Lake will survive, since it's not Michaan's only revenue source -- he also owns the big antiques fair out on Alameda, and I believe the old theater on the Navy base there as well (which was gorgeously refinished and I think it's used for estate auctions and so forth).
posted by suelac at 8:26 PM on October 10, 2020