John H. Kunsky

John H. Kunsky (1875–1952) was a Detroit area businessman who made his fortune by investing in movie theaters.

Kunsky made a lot of money operating these small theaters, but decided it was time for something bigger.

John Kunsky hired architect C. Howard Crane to design the first true movie house in Detroit.

This was the start of a Detroit tradition of building movie theaters as part of an office block development.

In the lobby, there was a goldfish pond, real banana trees, and macaws which patrons could feed by hand.

Kunsky Theatres included: Kunsky was driven out of the theater business when Adolph Zukor acquired the Detroit area film exchange known as the Cooperative Booking Office and began pressuring local theater owners to sell out to Paramount.

In 1948, Paramount's monopoly became the focus of an antitrust suit initiated by the Society of Independent Motion Pictures (SIMPP).

Trendle and Kunsky formed the Kunsky-Trendle Broadcasting Company in 1929, after purchasing Detroit radio station WGHP.

WXYZ was initially affiliated with the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) but became an independent station within a year.

The King's Gateway Hotel complex included a restaurant, bowling and gambling facilities, a log beam hotel, a golf course, swimming beaches, stables, an airport, ice skating and a ski chalet with a 93-foot ski jump.

On June 24, 1947, King, then a widower, married Sarah (Sug) DeMers, a local girl he had met while visiting his resort.