Outside the Michigan Theatre, a gusty wind blew as the lights from its brightly-colored neon sign brought attention to the words "Terminator 2."

The marquee looked as if it were from a bygone era, a time of the Ford Model A, fedora felt hats and Clarence Williams & His Jazz Kings. Films such as "Casablanca," "The Searchers" and "It Happened One Night" were shown here during their box-office reigns.

Today, the marquee still shines brightly. The theater at 124 N. Mechanic St. in Jackson is still here, but the Model A is gone. Instead, there is a teal Ford Taurus parked across the street. Fedora hats have been changed to ball caps and a former weight lifter turned California governor is on the big screen instead of the Duke.

Movie houses of the past are disappearing, becoming parking lots or office buildings. The multiplex theaters control the market, with upgraded facilities, plush reclining chairs, IMAX screens and stereo sound. During the infancy of the film industry, movie theaters usually had only one screen, but much of the inside looked like a palace.

Cities such as Lansing, Detroit and Grand Rapids had theaters adorned with bright lights, intricate designs and architecture to give audiences the feeling they were a part of Hollywood royalty.

At one time, Lansing had seven different movie theaters. But little remains of these buildings except for photographs of a time period that grandparents tell their grandchildren about.

"They are part of history and they are part of a community," said Michael Doyle, author of "Michigan Movie Theatres: A Pictorial History" and a consultant for theater preservation.

Doyle also is an MSU associate professor of agriculture and the instructor for Agriculture Extension Education 212, which focuses on the western genre of film.

He works with groups to ensure these buildings don't become parking lots or used as office space. Movie palaces, such as the Michigan Theatre in Jackson, are some of the few left in the state that still stand and have people working to restore their grandeur, he said.

"The cost of repairing all the plaster and the ornate kinds of things, it is quite expensive," Doyle said.

Lansing's own movie palace, the Strand (Michigan) Theatre, has been converted into an office building. Doyle said only the atrium remains, and a marker indicates the building was once used for movies.

East Lansing didn't have a movie palace, so students and residents had the State Theatre. In 1950, the Art Deco-inspired Lucon, also known as the Campus Theatre, was built. The two buildings only had one screen and were smaller in their seating capacity and lobby area.

Both closed their doors when the multiplex theaters began to open in the surrounding areas. The State Theatre is now a parking lot and the Lucon is part of the Student Book Store, 421 E. Grand River Ave.

"We have the Hannah Center that is an old junior high school that was converted for a community center, (and) that is where the East Lansing film festival is," Doyle said. "Wouldn't it have been nice to have it housed in the State or the Campus? I feel real bad that we don't have a movie theater."

Had it not been for the work of some concerned people in Jackson, the Michigan Theatre would be no more, too.

Behind the large glass doors at the Michigan Theatre is the newly restored lobby. Spiral columns line the walls. The floor tiles and columns are painted in a combination of burgundy, yellow and green. Golden statues of a cupid-like child have been brought back to life in the Spanish-style, interior plaster work. The carved walnut furniture has cushions, which aren't ripped or dirty, but have a look of age to them.

At the immediate right is the ticket booth, where theater operations manager George Davis sits on a stool, pushing the tiny black button on a machine that has been spitting out tickets since 1930.

"To get a part for this thing is quite an adventure," he joked.

Popcorn is freshly popping at the stand, enticing moviegoers to take in the Hollywood experience of buying a bag of buttered popcorn and a couple of soda-pops. The concession stand is stocked with the usual treats, such as Junior Mints and Goobers.

In the projectionist booth, a rusty relic of a projector sits in one corner - a reminder of the past. In another corner is a desk where the film is still spliced together by hand.

Standing in line to get some popcorn was Mark Novitsch of Jackson.

"I grew up in Jackson, I've been coming here since I was a kid," Novitsch said. "It's a full-size theater, and I can sit in the balcony. I'm glad they are saving it. There is not another theater like this."

The theater's survival has depended a lot on the people of Jackson who have taken pride in the city's largest movie theater. Davis is in charge of the theater's operations and talks about the theater with seriousness and pride.

"There is a lot of love and feeling here," he said. "There has been a wrecking ball in front of this building several times."

The building was owned by a theater chain called Butterfield Theatres until 1978 and remained in limbo until 1993 when it was acquired by a nonprofit organization, the Michigan Theatre of Jackson. Since the purchase, the group has made plans on restoring and operating the theater for films, concerts and live theater productions.

And while the lobby has been refurbished with a top of the line sound system installed, the rest of the theater is in the middle of being brought back to its original beauty. Inside, the plaster walls have chips and the red carpeting isn't as soft as it once was. The seats in the theater show their age with rips and patches. Wood trim has nicks and scratches but still has its dark, stained color. Its balcony still has a bit of romance mixed despite the red velvet ropes blocking off sections that are being repaired.

Jon and Linda Park of Jackson didn't care about the building's signs of wear. Instead, they sat in the theater waiting for the movie to start, chatting and eating popcorn.

To celebrate the individuals who have made sizable donations, gold stars with their names are placed on a wall just inside the entrance to the theater.

Linda recalled one particular moment when a bat had managed to get into the theater and flew over the heads of some patrons.

"It's a nice theater. It hasn't changed a bit, it's just showing its age," she said.

Just to the left of the massive screen was an old pipe organ from the silent era. The organ was donated to the theater when a group of people saved it from another theater in Jackson just before the wrecking ball hit the building.

"I call it the world's largest, heaviest coffee table," Davis said.

The cost of restoration

Sometimes, restoration has been deemed either too expensive or not worth the theater owner's time. This is the case of some smaller hometown theaters, where the facilities have been updated to reflect a more modern era of film while still keeping the small-town movie house.

Chris Fernandez is project engineer for the Christman Company, which is working at the Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan, a building used for live entertainment. He said renovating that project is at about $29 million. He projected the Michigan Theatre to be about $10 million cheaper to repair.

Some restoration projects can be three to four times more than that just to bring the building up to code.

"The hardest part is trying to update the mechanical and electrical. The things that are unseen - that has been the challenge on the Hill," he said. "You are trying to put modern technology under a skin which wasn't built to accommodate it."

The company will install new plumbing, electrical and acoustical changes, modern systems and - depending on what the theater will be used for - elevators in the stage for moving instruments. But just as much work goes into researching the building and the restoration process. Old photographs and drawings are examined to see what the original building looked like when it opened. Investigative paint techniques are used to uncover and peel back the old layers of paint to reveal the original paint scheme.

"We will do microscopic studies of what the original paint scheme was in order to piece it back," Fernandez said. "It is like investigating a crime. You are trying to find the fingerprints of the past and we get pretty close I think."

Bob Moles is the executive director of the organization that runs the Michigan Theatre and said they are looking at doing a capital campaign to raise the money necessary to bring back the theater to its natural state. He estimates the finished product to cost between $5 and $6 million. So far, about $2 million has been spent on the building, and there is estimation that most of the restoration will be completed in two years.

"The things that have been done have been done to the infrastructure or behind the scenes, things that don't affect the audience," Moles said. "The roof has been repaired and the electrical has been updated. These aren't visible projects (that) the community can see."

Old theaters, new look

The Howell Theater, 315 E. Grand River Ave. in Howell, was built in about 1927 and could seat about 539 people. In 1999, the city took ownership of the building and found a private company willing to renovate the building, said Debbie Mikula, executive director of the Michigan Association of Community Arts Agencies in Howell.

Mikula also served as the chair of the Howell Theater Committee, which worked to find a buyer for the theater.

"It was in pretty bad shape, the carpeting was 80 years old and the seats were 80 years old," she said. "Before it closed, it was a dollar a seat, and the theater was gross."

Since then, the theater has been updated by dividing the building in half to have two screens, new seats, refurbished bathrooms and to show first-run films.

"As a resident of Howell, I am thrilled that it is open and operating and part of the downtown," Mikula said.

The Sun Theatre, 150 W. Grand River Ave. in Williamston, is another much more intimate and family-themed theater. Very little remains of the theater from when it first opened in the 1940s and '50s other than the marquee, seats and ash trays. The theater is owned by Dan and Lisa Robitaille of Williamston. Dan's parents bought the theater from another family in the late 1970s and said it has been family-owned since the day it opened.

"If we can, hopefully we can pass it down to our kids," Lisa said.

The carpeting shows no sign of wear, its wood trim has a contemporary, light stain color and the countertops, while a little dated, still have a vibrant pattern.

Felt letters are placed on a black, felt backing to inform people of the movie that is showing. Framed drawings of Frank Sinatra and Clark Gable hang in the lobby along with a sign with the phrase, "Remember television does not count as a night out."

Four years ago, the theater invested in a new projector that uses a platter system. The new camera is like what the multiplexes of today use. Instead of splicing the film together and replacing the reels by hand, several platters hold the film reels in place and don't require as much work from the projectionist.

There also are plans in the works to install a new screen and seats.

The theater seats 500 people and has a bigger screen than most theaters, except those with an IMAX. But probably the most useful and least thought-of feature is a small cry room for mothers with young children.

"Most people today don't even know what a cry room is," Dan said.

A cry room is a area where parents with children who are too young to understand being quiet in a movie theater, or are upset, can be taken so as not to disturb the other guests.

A few weeks ago, "Secondhand Lions" played to 390 people. In a town where everyone knows everyone else, friends and family greeted one another and chitchatted in line for their ticket or refreshment.

With ticket prices at only $3, patrons commented often on the hometown appeal and price value of the theater.

Ten-year-old Williamston resident Molly Maynard was in line with friend Liz Stowers, a 10-year-old from Okemos.

"I usually come here once every two weeks," Maynard said. "It's, like, cheap and they show good movies."

A little further down the line was Jane Kirby of Dansville, who said she tries to come at least twice a month.

"I like it because it's family-oriented and it's not commercial like the ones in Lansing," she said. "And the price is better. Sometimes bigger isn't better."

To donate to the Michigan Theatre in Jackson, log on to www.michigantheatre.org or call (517) 783-0962 for the business office.