While an insurance claim was filed to repair the damage to the stage caused by the Calumet Theatre fire of 1918, a large copper chandelier that was also destroyed was never replaced. Jim Enrietti points to the rosette in the auditorium ceiling where the chandelier hung. (Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette)

CALUMET — For two years, Calumet native Jim Enrietti has been leading the campaign to replace the chandelier that hung in the auditorium of the Calumet Theatre.

Since the theater was opened in 1900, it has been considered by many as a Copper Country jewel. However, not many people know that it was nearly destroyed by fire in the early 20th century. All that saved it from complete loss was a fireproof stage curtain.

The village of Red Jacket was the business hub of the neighborhoods surrounding the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, which was among the biggest copper producers in the nation in the mid to late-19th century. The village was prosperous.

In 1899, the Village Council found itself with an excess of $50,000 in the treasury, which sparked the idea for an opera house. The logic was that an opera house would convey a sense of permanence and refinement to the village, separating it from the violent and lawless mining camps in the western state.

On March 20, 1900, the Calumet Opera House opened its doors for the first time with the Broadway production of The Highwaymen, by Reginald DeKoven and Harry B. Smith. The opera house was attached to the south side of the village hall.

Sadly, what no one could have predicted in 1900 was that a new form of entertainment was dawning, that of motion pictures. In fact, already as early as 1887, motion pictures were being shown in the Red Jacket Community Hall. Shortly afterward, the opera house began offering films.

On Wednesday, Nov. 28, 1918, the Theatre presented three showings of the 1918 American silent comedy drama film, Everybody’s Girl, starring Alice Joyce. The film was shown at 2:30, 7:00 and 8:30 p.m. It was shortly after the Theatre closed, at 10:20 p.m. that a pedestrian walking along Elm Street saw flames coming from the rear of the building.

The alarm was called at 10:25, with three departments responding.

According to the Nov. 30, 1918 edition of the Daily Mining Gazette, the fire had evidently started in the basement, but some distance from the furnace, suggesting it was started either by an electrical wiring short, or a carelessly tossed cigarette. The fire quickly burned upward, through the floor of the stage, destroying scenery and supports, then spread vertically into the flies and drops, eventually engulfing the rear of the building.

Fireproof stage curtain hung behind the proscenium arch for safety, were lowered, saving the auditorium from complete destruction, but the heat of the fire was so intense that it melted the solder holding a copper framed chandelier suspended from the ceiling.

“The fire curtain, which was made of asbestos, came down as it should have,” said Calumet Theatre President Dan Jamison, “but the heat got past it, and the heat is what melted the solder in the copper chandelier, causing it to fall apart.”

“The interesting thing about that fire,” said Jamison, “is that there is still evidence of it in the rafters, up in the beams above the stage.”

The damage to the beams that is evidence today, can be seen in the smoke and charring of the wood, he said.

Jamison said another aspect of the building that contained the fire to the back of the building, against the alley, is that with the exception of the proscenium arch , it is a solid brick structure, front, back, and sides.

Interestingly, as result of air flow being important to the heating of the theater, if the stage area is subject to a downdraft, even today, the odor of smoke is cast downward over the stage and into the front of the auditorium.

The damage was estimated at $10,000. The village of Red Jacket, which owned Michigan’s only municipal theater, had the building ensured for $21,000, with another $1,600 insurance policy on the fireproof curtain.

When the insurance claim was filed and the fire damage was repaired, the village, curiously, did not replace the chandelier.

Over the decades, since the fire damage was repaired, the opera house, subsequently renamed Calumet Theatre, has been renovated several times, but at no time was there an attempt made to replace the chandelier – until now..

The Calumet Theatre remains one of the few municipally owned theaters in the United States, and still remains open to the public. Over the past four years, there have been a series of projects to restore the theater as close as possible to its original appearance, including replacing the lost chandelier.