Esquire Theatre
58 East Oak Street,
Chicago,
IL
60611
58 East Oak Street,
Chicago,
IL
60611
26 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 209 comments found
In “the Sound Track Book of the Theatre” published by Motiograph in the late forties there’s an article about the Esqire’s booth and projectionist Lou Malisoff. They had Motiograph K’s, RCA 1050’s and Brenkert Enarcs.
Judgement should not be passed until they finish. But to me it looks like this is going to be an extremely clumsy-looking building.
More photos of the transformation of the Esquire into Del Frisco’s Double Eagle steak house can be seen here.
Here’s a 1944 trade article celebrating the seventh anniversary of the Esquire’s existence: boxofficemagazine
More on the conversion of the Esquire to retail space can be read here, from the June 19th Chicago Sun-Times.
Some photos of what’s left of the Esquire can be seen here.
Click here to see Broan’s pictures.
Here’s what I usually do with links; I BLUE copy it; then go to my e-mail; click “COMPOSE”; paste link onto page where I would normally type e-mail; send it to myself….and then click link and WALLLLA….there’s the link with photos of video clip….
Just copy and paste the address, David. I don’t always have time to mess with the HTML link formatting, but the URL address works and that’s what matters.
Broan, your above link is not accessable.
When CT changed their website format, they changed the manner in which links need to be embedded into comments.
Unfortunately I do not know what that requires. Therefore I only attach photos in the Photo Section.
http://calumet412.tumblr.com/post/22916050294/two-interior-photos-of-the-esquire-theater-on-oak
A similar view as in my previous comment but from the late 50s can be seen here.
A 1974 view of Oak Street and part of the Esquire can be seen here. The theater was part of the Walter Reade chain at that time.
The letters spelling out ESQUIRE from the marquee are currently for sale at Urban Remains Chicago.
A view of the interior of the gutted Esquire Theater can be seen here.
http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2011/08/25/construction-of-esquire-retail-complex-underway.php
Here is a 1955 photo of the topiary at the Esquire
Hmmm. You’re right, it does look like it might say Carnegie. Perhaps the eBay seller got it wrong, or the original newspaper photographer? (The actual caption says the Esquire on Rush, so something is wrong.)
I purchased images from this seller before, and he told me his negatives came from the Sun-Times or the Detroit News.
There’s a larger version of the picture here right now. Using a zoom function to examine the sign above the admission price, I’m pretty sure that it says “CARNEGIE THEATRE”. The turnstile could be a relic of the Carnegie’s brief early existence as a newsreel theater just a couple years before. What the 12-year-old is doing on Rush Street in the dark is another matter.
The marble looks like the Esquire though.
That’s what the original caption on the photo says…the image came from a Sun-Times archive.
Are you sure that’s this Esquire Theatre? I’m surprised to see a “deluxe” first-run house of that size with a turnstile entrance. And what about that twelve-year-old boy buying a ticket on his own at what appears to be nighttime? The posted admission price is 85 cents.
Ticket booth at Esquire, 1951: Esquire.
They still use the theatre for little things like boy scotts, and farmers market I know, becuase I live over there.
Fifty years ago today (which happened to be a Friday), Jules Dassin’s “Never on Sunday,” which made an international star of Melina Mercouri, opened its Chicago premiere engagement at the Esquire Theatre. An added attraction was “Day of the Painter,” which went on to win an ‘Oscar’ as best live action short subject of 1960. Mercouri was less successful in the race for best actress, losing to Elizabeth Taylor for “BUtterfield 8.” Both played prostitutes, but Taylor had the advantage of a “sympathy vote” for having recently survived double pneumonia and emergency surgery.