- [Chris] On Detroit's east side, the nonprofit Friends of the Alger Theater has worked to save their idle movie house for decades, which serves as a community billboard.

- We put on our marquee messages weekly.

And we make enough money from that to pay our water bill and our electric bill.

- [Chris] Alger friend Jackie Grant says this movie house formally showed its last feature film nearly 40 years ago.

She found proof up in the projection booth.

- "Friday the 13th part 5" in 1985.

It's right there.

- [Chris] They didn't come back to get the real, huh?

- Apparently not.

- [Chris] The Alger opened in 1935.

In more recent years, the plan, create a community center and maybe show some movies again, but not likely with these projectors.

- We are in my favorite place.

This is the lobby of the Alger Theater.

I know you're thinking it's just a mess, but that's changing as we speak - [Chris] Overhead, the lobby's getting a new roof, but there's so much more work to do.

Meanwhile, on Detroit's northwest side, the Redford, one of the few independent movie theaters in southeast Michigan is also owned by a nonprofit and has been since the late 1970s.

Here I'm meeting film writer and theater volunteer John Monaghan.

- The fight always seems to be like, how do you get people to come to a theater instead of staying at home and watching Netflix?

- That's been a challenge, you know, about what to show.

And certainly our content has changed quite a bit in the last 20 years as our audiences kind of aged out.

- Thank you.

- [John] Nobody is paid at the Redford Theater.

We're all volunteers.

It is a good business model.

The nonprofit business model is very good for a theater like ours 'cause it's hard to make money in the theater business.

So it takes a lot of pressure off certainly when you don't have a big payroll.

We really do try to create an experience here as much as we can going to the movies like you would've in the 1940s or '50s.

And part of that for a lot of us is the ability to show actual film on film, which we do quite regularly on our old late 1950s Norelco projectors that project both 70 millimeter and 35 millimeter with carbon rods that make a spark between them like they would've used back in the day.

- Is finding the carbon rods and sourcing those like a problem itself.

- That's a whole other element.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's only a finite amount of those around and we're always trying to find somebody who's got a stash of them.

And sometimes when we do find the carbon rods, they're not exactly the right size.

So I've been stockpiling some of those for trades.

You know, maybe we'll find somebody who needs those and has the ones we need.

And of course, the film prints too are not being newly struck the way they were.

So we're working with antique film prints too, many of which are found through local collectors who have been very generous in letting us use their prints.

- [Announcer] This is Radio KSIK.

You've been listening to Music for Old Invalids.

- [John] But there's nothing like seeing, like recently "American Graffiti" for instance, we had a technicolor print of that, which looked just stunning.

Upcoming we're showing "Clockwork Orange" on film.

Heck, we even have a print of "Home Alone" that we're showing a 35 print of.

And we of course, we don't just show 35 millimeter.

We have state of the art a digital projection, which looks quite good.

As much of a purist as I am on film, we have really, really nice digital projection here too.

- [Chris] When you enter the Redford, you'll encounter some ways it raises money to keep running.

- Often people will come over here to the counter where Larry, the T-shirt guy design shirts for the different programs.

We have a 50/50 raffle counter over here where folks walk away with maybe a hundred dollars in cash prizes.

Over here is the wall where kind of paying tribute to the famous folks that have been through the theater.

Probably most famously, you know, Bruce Campbell from "The Evil Dead."

He was here.

- And one of the reasons why this theater is iconic to a lot of horror fans is of course where "The Evil Dead" premiered.

- [John] Yeah, we're really proud of that.

The fact that both the first two "Evil Dead's" and the short film that you know, was that they got seed money to make the feature with also premiered here.

- Right there.

- [John] And we're also really proud that the more recent horror classic it follows, you know, has its opening sequence that was filmed right here in the theater too.

And we're showing that this year for its 10th anniversary.

- [Chris] At the Redford, more sites to behold, not just on the screen.

The decor considered exotic back in the day, adorns many walls throughout.

- [John] That Asian motif that it was designed with originally in the '20s became out of fashion during World War II.

And the entire theater was painted a battleship gray.

And it really wasn't until the Motor City Theater Oregon Society purchased the theater in 1977 that that restoration began.

And it's ongoing.

- [Chris] The Bartola Instrument Company built the organ that has been here since the theater opened.

It remains virtually unchanged today.

- [John] But as you can see, it's back, it's back to its original grandeur.

There's not a bad seat in this house and it's pretty large screen.

Some people like to sit right here at the edge.

It's a nice vantage point.

- What do you hear from other people who run independent theaters in the state?

Do you talk much with other theater owners?

- That's a good question.

I have great interest in the other theaters that are doing similar to what we're doing.

Certainly the Detroit Film Theater, which is still just so wonderful.

And the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor and the Penn Theater and what they're doing, which is also, you know, on that volunteer model.

That's a huge success story, the way they were able to save that neighborhood theater and keep that going.

- [Chris] Then there's the Senate Theater in southwest Detroit, also built in the 1920s and still operating.

- That's another organ society that actually runs the Senate.

Believe it or not, there's two organ societies in our city.

- When you're hearing those stories of other theaters and what they're doing, how many are continuing to make a go of it as a for-profit and how many are kind of embracing the nonprofit model?

- Yeah, the nonprofit model seems to be pretty predominant.

I mean, look at the profit model certainly didn't work for the Main Art theater or the Maple Theater, which, you know, both of those are gone which is really sad.

Something's gotta take the place of those venues because we don't in Detroit right now, have a proper art house that's showing the modern stuff, and that's gotta happen too.

- [Chris] The Howell Theater in Livingston County, another old movie house.

A couple of decades ago it was split into two screens.

The lobby was a diner for a while.

It became the Historic Howell Theater when Toledo native Tyler DePerro bought it 10 years ago.

Tell me a bit about the history of the theater.

You said it's 96 years old?

- Yeah, it'll be turning 96 December 11th of this year.

So it was built in 1827.

It opened December 11th, 1828.

It was the first talkie theater of Livingston County.

The first movie that played to was called "Show People" directed by King Vidor.

- [Chris] It wasn't silent, but no audible dialogue.

This one featured technology called synchronized sound.

So there was music that came in on queue.

- Back then.

It was just one screen and they had actually like vaudeville acts that would play, that would like go on before the movie started.

- Were you scared or apprehensive buying like a small town independent movie theater in 2014?

- Yeah, I mean, totally a big risk.

I moved to Howell, moved to Michigan for the theater.

I mean, I had done this research like making a list of like what makes a good downtown.

If that's local shops, walkable downtown, different activities throughout the year.

Having people in the community wanting this movie theater space to reopen.

There isn't like a how to operate a movie theater guidebook and like there isn't a website where you can go and find that out.

And like hiring employees and running the Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the projectors.

There are people that certainly come into the theater that are like, man, like I wish I had your job.

Like it's the dream job of like operating a theater and you have to love it.

Like it's all the time, it's all day, it's all night.

You take it home with you.

People come in, like they went on their first date here, they met their wife here.

Talk about the nostalgic memories of it, that kind of appreciation and like connection with like a downtown movie theater.

It's like over like a chain where like there's not really that nostalgia for like a big theater chain.

This is theater two.

- [Chris] DePerro is finding ways to better engage the community, find revenue streams by hosting weddings and other things.

- We've had concerts, improv comedy, we have church here every Sunday.

The stage I'd put in in 2014, but the original stage that was here like in 1928, that's actually behind the screen here.

Those vaudeville acts had performed on when the theater first opened.

You can tap dance a little bit or do a little dance or something.

- I don't think I'll do either of those things.

DePerro has made other smaller additions to the historic Howell.

Some it seems just for people like him.

- This red light's kind of like the movie magic, like we're going up to where the projectors are at.

Like all the magic happens.

This is kind of, yeah, this is kind like the Willy Wonka terror tariff tunnel of it all.

- [Chris] Upstairs, more remnants of the past.

Some original art deco seats, an idle 35 millimeter projector along with more modern technology to take its place.

- The movies come on a hard drive like this.

The DCP, Digital Cinema Package.

This is for "Lost Boy."

It's not like film where it's on a film reel, but it's on a drive like that.

- Wow, that's 173 gigabytes for "The Lost Boys."

- Here's our vintage marquee letters.

They actually stopped making these letters, so they're very vintage.

- [Chris] Oh wow.

- [Tyler] Put those up by hand on a rod outside, the pincher claw.

You could see like the sides, there's little hooks on there.

So when they hook onto the slotted slots on side of the marquee.

- [Chris] How old are these?

Did these come with the theater?

- [Tyler] Yeah, some of these came with the theater and then some I did buy additional letters, but over the last couple years they actually stopped making, producing these letters altogether.

So we have to like tape the backs or glue them when they break.

- DePerro is getting by in this for-profit enterprise by building a following.

Howell has become a destination for independent moviegoers from places like Lansing, Ann Arbor and Detroit.

- On social media they'll put out like a list of all the cities that's opening and it's like, you know, like New York, LA, Powell, Michigan, why is it playing there?

Like why are they the only theater that's showing this movie?

And then they come out and they discover us and they love the space and who else would be showing this movie other than us?

- Yeah, well I mean that's definitely how I discovered you guys is when you were the only theater in Michigan showing "The Babadook" at first.

- Ba ba-ba dook, dook, dook.

- [Tyler] Yeah, yeah, like The Babadook like after the movie was done, like when audiences kind of come out and they just talk to like other people in the theater about the movie.

Like that's kind of the other rewarding thing about it, it's like when I see a movie at like a chain theater, it's like, go in, see the movie and you leave.

And there's not really any connection or appreciation or discussion after.

- [Chris] While the Historic Howell Theater has its community of film enthusiasts, Detroit's historic Alger Theater engages its community, but that has little to do with the movies.

- [Jackie] Right now we are doing HOPE applications with the city for property tax exemption.

We are the leaders in HOPE applications for all the community partners around the city.

So we're doing that good work and we've been doing it for a number of years here.

- [Chris] Here, the coming attraction, an overlook along East Warren Avenue.

- We are on the upper deck of Alger Theater, a great outdoor space that we'll be using for events very shortly.

We haven't used it much because we haven't had a bathroom for about 30 years, but that's changing as we speak.

We've probably put right now into this building, which the public doesn't really know close to half a million dollars.

It doesn't show because you don't see plumbing outside, you don't see electrical, you don't see taking asbestos out.

Those are not the sexy items in any of this.

- [Chris] More money needed.

A few million dollars, Grant said to keep restoring a place to serve the morning side, East English Village and Cornerstone Village Neighborhoods.

Volunteers here, like the Redford on the other side of town, just trying to hold onto their historic structures by bringing people together.

- Film especially is a real like a social art.

I think it's sad that people are watching "Casablanca" on their phones.

I think to see it in an auditorium, there's nothing like it.

- Oh, you must be kidding.

- So the event kind of is its own reward.

(suspenseful music)