The Chandelier Society will be hosting its 2nd Annual Fundraiser Dinner and Ball on Saturday, July 6, at 5 p.m. The fundraiser is part of an effort to raise money to replace the Calumet Theatre Chandelier that was destroyed in a 1918 fire. The fundraiser will feature catering provided by the Bonfire and a dance in the ballroom. 

All inclusive tickets are $50, and, at press time, only one ticket was left to purchase online at calumettheatre.com or by calling or visiting the Box Office between noon and 4 p.m., Tuesday-Friday. The Theatre Main Doors will open at 4:30 p.m., and a social hour in the ballroom will begin at 5 p.m. This will include a full service cash bar and musician Paul Behn on the piano. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m., followed by music in the ballroom at 7 p.m. Music will include polkas, waltzes, Big Band, swing, and more from The World’s Most Dangerous Polka Band. 

Calumet Theatre’s beautiful chandelier was destroyed in 1918, during a fire backstage that nearly claimed the entire theater. It was contained with a fire curtain, saving the rest of the building. Calumet Theatre first opened in 1900, serving as an opera house for the local community. In the 1920, it was converted into a motion-picture house. It was once again transformed in 1975, when it began operating as the theater that many of the Keweenaw’s residents know and love today.

Many of the theater’s attendees hope to encounter the alleged ghost of the theater, Madame Helena Modjeska. The story of Modjeska’s ghost began in 1958, when an actress who forgot her lines during a live performance claimed the ghost appeared to her. Since then, many people have claimed to hear music coming and feel cold air coming from nowhere. 

This legend grew so big that the Calumet Theatre was featured as a ‘haunted location’ on the 2019 TV Series ‘Most Terrifying Places’. The episode showed how Calumet and the theater are connected to the Italian Hall Massacre that claimed 73 lives on Christmas Eve at the Italian Society Hall in 1913. 

Today, the Calumet Theater is funded by ticket sales, user fees, and the State of Michigan through the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, membership dues, and fundraisers. It receives no local tax support. It has a volunteer base of over five hundred people, along with nine people on its Board of Directors and eight employees. With over fifty events a year, the theater draws almost 20,000 people total every year. A full schedule of Calumet Theatre’s upcoming events is available at calumettheatre.com.