WYOMING, Mich. (March 25, 2014) — Hundreds stopped by the Studio 28 parking to honor the theater’s legacy while it was being torn down.
Crews began demolishing the iconic movie theater early Tuesday morning. Within minutes people began showing up.
“It’s a little bitter-sweet,” Betsy Pierson, who grew up in Wyoming said.
A community who once gathered as they parked their cars in front of the drive-in movie screenm along 28th street, was brought back together once more as they watched their memories fall to the ground.
“It was such an icon on 28th Street here and now it’s gone,”Dan Hoogerhyde, a Kent County man said.
The studio shut down back in 2008. It was built in 1965 and started with a single movie screen. But, by 1988 it had become the biggest movie theater in the world.
“My brother and sister and I, once we were big enough, used to ride our bikes over here with our friends,” Pierson said.
For many people growing up in Wyoming the theater was a childhood hang out.
“I’d come here in the summer with friends our parents would drop us off and tell us to watch for strangers…watch for creepy guys and then we’d go catch our movie, go to the payphone (and) make our parents come pick us up,” another onlooker said.
But, once the building’s gone those memories that took place inside the walls of the theater will live on. Most of the rubble will be recycled.
The building is expected to be completely torn down within two weeks.
