History of The Vanity Ballroom

The Vanity Ballroom was a Jazz Ballroom built in 1929 and advertised itself as "Detroit's most beautiful dance rendezvous". The owner Edward J. Strata his partner Edward J. Davis ran the Vanity Ballroom Davis owned the Grande Ballroom across town, effectively making the Grande and Vanity Ballroom sister locations to each other. Also both buildings were built by famed Architect Charles Agree, the only difference being the Art Deco designs. Both Ballrooms hosted shops below the Ballroom. By 1958 the Ballroom was closed due to declining interest in Jazz. Though the Shops below helped keep the Ballroom in good shape, due to them using the upstairs space as storage, and in 1964 the Ballroom opened for one night a week under the ownership of Strata, but by 1971 due to the Detroit Riots of 1967 the area around the Vanity had declined so much the building was forced to close. The Shops below had closed a year earlier for the same reason. Van Mineff Corp. bought the building in 1971 and used it as a smaller sized Rock Venue likewise to the Grande, but the Vanity didn’t get the shows like the Grande did, and never hosted any British bands such as Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd, Though big Rockers such as Ted Nugent and MC5 did play at the Vanity. Smaller attempts to revive the venue happened and small events happened at the Vanity until 1986. Tours of the building were held until 1995. The Vanity was used as B-Rabbit’s Venue in the iconic movie 8-Mile in 2002 though the Scenery is completely different then the actual Vanity Ballroom. Since then the Vanity has not seen any action and remains abandoned.