Vanity Ballroom Building

The Vanity Ballroom Building is a public building located at 1024 Newport Street in Detroit, Michigan. Although the building is recorded as the last intact ballroom of the multiple Detroit dance halls that hosted big bands in the 1930s–50s, such claims ignore the abandoned yet still standing Grande Ballroom on Grand River Avenue. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The Vanity Ballroom was designed in 1929 by Charles N. Agree as a flamboyant venue in which to socialize, dance and hear music. The ballroom was a major venue for bands of the 1930s and 1940s, such as those of Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Red Nichols, Russ Morgan, Art Mooney, Woody Herman, and Pee Wee Hunt. The Vanity billed itself as "Detroit's most beautiful dance rendezvous". The ballroom was closed in 1958, but reopened in 1964 for one night a week. It was eventually completely shuttered, and although it played a bit part in the Eminem feature film 8 Mile in 2002, it remains closed and dilapidated.

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