Post #14875 by tikifish on Tue, Nov 26, 2002 1:16 PM

And here's a little info on some Michigan Tiki of days gone by... we drove by this place but there's really not much left to see....

Mai Kai Livonia (Detroit)
George Burns Theater
33330 Plymouth Rd
Livonia MI

Opened 1963
Closed 1993
Capacity: 1400 seats Architectural Style: Polynesian
Some other names this theater has been known as: Mai Kai, Omni Star
The Mai Kai opened on April 10, 1963, with the Disney film Son of Flubber. Stars Annette Funicello and Tommy Kirk attended the opening of the $1.5 million Polynesian-style theater built by Nicholas George. When it closed in 1987, the Mai Kai was one of the last large single-screen neighborhood theaters in the area.
The theater reopened in 1988 as a live event theater and was renamed the Omni Star. The theater closed just two months later, and in 1990, the manager plead guilty to selling $70,000 worth of tickets to a concert that never took place.
The theater was sold to Stuart Gorelick, who remodeled it at a cost of $1 million and renamed it the George Burns Theatre. The theater reopened in 1992, with Burns himself in attendance, but closed again the next year. The marquee now advertises new Ford automobiles for the dealership using the lot.