Roseland Theatre
11331 S. Michigan Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60628
11331 S. Michigan Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60628
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 58 comments
Yep, he had a set of lungs on him. Remember the handicapped guy who sold peanuts and popcorn in window next to the Parkway Theater on 110th and Michigan? There was a great soda fountain next door too. Used to wet ends of straw paper and stick them on ceiling hehehe
John…you mentioned Two Ton Baker…I had forgotten all about him. When he went to the movies, you could hear him laughing above everyone else.
Doug
The first time I remember going to the Ridge, I was 8 years old and they played King Kong….I had to walk home in the dark and I imagined Gorillas and Monsters in every tree. What a great night.
Speaking of rats…The Verdi had it’s share too.
Doug Bruton
Ridge was on 120th Street near Union. Last time I went there the Girl in the Red Shoes was playing and a rat ran over my foot while I was watching
Does anyone remember The Ridge theater, not too far from The Normal?
It was on the fringe of my walking distance to theaters. Also, the Verdi at the bottom of the hill off Michigan Ave in Roseland? A very small theater, but always had neat give aways on Saturdays.
Doug Bruton Denison, Tx
Anyone who thinks it is safe to walk around Roseland at night (or even day time0 regardless of their race, is trying to become a statistic. I grew up there in the 1940’s, walked all over town at any hour of the night, ice skated on Scanlan School playground till late at night…yes, this is the same school that just a few years ago had a gang fight between Scanlan and Curtis..put over 40 twelve and under kids in the hospital.
When I lived on Perry Ave and later 23 EAst 118th Street, Roseland was beautiful. Great Theaters, shops, restaurants (although I never had money to go to one)…I loved going to the People’s Store and just looking aroung. The last time I was there, it looked as though a war had been fought there…boarded up windows, theaters gone, derelict cars abandoned. I don’t know who caused it, but when I lived there, it was a beautiful environment
Doug Bruton
I went to that catholic church on 118th and Indiana a couple times when I was thinking about swirching to Catholic (My father was the original Archie Bunker and hated everyone, Catholics, Pollacks, Blacks, Mexicans, etc. I think he might have hated himself too). Never converted though because my mother was a strict Luteran (German background). There used to be a corner tavern in almost every neighborhood where people got together without shooting or knifing one another and a community food store, usually a converted home where the owner lived in the back. Supermarkets drove them all out of business much like WalMart is doing today. I used to practically live in that YMCA on 11th Street. Swimming, gyn, watching basketball, lifting weights and playing pingpong. The Walgreen’s on 11th and Michigan served the best strawberry sundaes I have ever had and Gino’s pizza was the first pizza place I can remember opening right next to it on 111th. Pizza was $1.50 for a large. White Castles were 12 cents and every week in the Calumet Express there was usually a coupon for 5 cent White Castles on certain days.
I served 22 years in the Navy and during my travels (I have been in all 50 states and on every continent) I found that when hispanics start moving into a previous black area the area immediately shows improvement and civic pride. I was in LA during the last riots in early 1990’s managing Dodger Stadium. WE had 50,000 people in the stadium and suddenly you could see fires popping up all over. WE were worried we might have a riot right in the ballpark so they turned off all the TV sets around the concourses. I had to drive home through the areas and every time a car approached me I would either speed up or slow down just in case someone was out looking for “whitey” to shoot.
MY favorite movie theater was the Roseland when I was a child. I used to get 25 cents. Every Saturday morning they had 10 cartoons, a serial (like rocket man) and a cowboy movie or science fiction. I would take the street car (red colored then) pay 9 cents, leaving me 11 cents for popcorn. IF I walked I could use the nickle for a soft drink from a machine. I went to Van Vlissingen Elementary School on 110th and Wentworth until 1950 and then to West Pullman. I attended Fenger High School until 1956 in my senior year when I joined the Navy. Finshed my GED and then went to Chaminade College in Honolulu for 5 years of night classes to get my Business Degree.
I was at Chicago State a couple years ago when a close friend took his granddaughter there to register. She had a full golfing scholarship and he had never been to Chicago so was afraid to go to certain areas. I was surprised how safe the school area appeared and how caring the administration was. Unfortunately the golfing director didn’t know what he was doing and 6 months later all the female scholarships were eliminated.
Doty Avenue used to be a two lane road where I used to go fishing for bullheads in Lake Calumet. Then they put in the garbage dump and the lake started to disappear. Sherwin Williams on 115th and Cottage used to stink out all of Roseland when the wind was from the lake. There was a great soda fountain near the IC tracks at 115th and Cottage Grove. I attended JUnior Achievement in one of the Pullman Buildings at 111th and Cottage Grove. My father used to take me down by the Hotel Florence to watch the locomotives going by.
Lot of memories……..
I am so sorry your dad experienced that. I remember the last white resident on our block and he was so nice. He moved in the early 90s to a retirement village. He was very involved in the mural painted under the Metra tracks at 113th between Cottage Grove and Front Street. BTW if you ever visit again and get to see the mural, check out the south side of the mural on the Cottage Grove side. The painting shows an African-American lady with shoulder length hair and glasses who is sewing with two children looking on. That lady is my mother :–). She was very involved in the mural project as well.
I know exactly where you used to live – I go to the post office there when I am visiting. I have found through my online research in the past few days that Mendel used to be Pullman tech. That’s so interesting because I only knew it as Mendel.
I remember in the early days when we didn’t lock our outer door – we didn’t even have a lock on it. It’s unfortunate. However, it is slowly changing for the better. There is a minister who has a church at 115th and Doty (his church originally was in a former Catholic church at around 118th and Indiana, but the congregation outgrew the building) who campaigned with concerned residents several years ago to remove the liquor stores and taverns from the neighborhood. I was a part of that group while in college @Chicago State. Unfortunately that put Pullman Wine & Liquors out of business, and it was a great store that sold deli items and regular grocery/household needs. I believe the closest place to buy alcohol is at 119th and Michigan (ironically).
That is so interesting about the bushes around Palmer Park. I had forgotten all about them!
I don’t think you made up the deterioration and crime at all. I have had a different experience than you and your dad, but then again I also had a totally different experience than my younger brother who did have to deal with people in gangs harassing him (particularly because he was very involved with school) but also from police harassment as well. As a teen in the 1980s/1990s I walked around the neighborhood and felt very safe. I do still feel safe, even though most of the people I knew in childhood have long since moved.
It does make me sad that there is crime in Roseland, and I am sad that a lot of the beautiful buildings have either been torn down or are not being properly maintained.
I think that when people are economically depressed, oftentimes they don’t know that there are better options out there because they can’t even fathom achieving what they don’t see. And that attitude is passed on to their children, and so on, until you have several generations of people who don’t live well and who don’t even know they can have and do better. Unfortunately it makes the whole community look bad when there are a few bad apples. Some of the business owners have contributed to the decline. There was a store at 112th and Michigan that sold liquor and drug paraphernalia. Other restaurants sold very unhealthy fast food. The owners of many such stores were from the Middle East. I doubt that I could have opened such a store in their community selling that garbage, but they felt it was ok to sell it to African Americans who made them pretty wealthy. Once again, when people don’t know they deserve better, they accept less than they should.
I really respect you for sharing your experiences with me, and I feel bad that we both remember a Roseland that was so different than it is today. I pray that through the community projects going on and people who are working to make Roseland safer and lovely again, that it will once again be a nice place to live. I try not to despair too much because to restore Roseland even to what it was in the mid 1980s is such a daunting task. I try to stay optimistic because it is my home and I do care about the community and the people.
PS I remember the White Castle next to the YMCA very well from my childhood. I miss it! And I remember going to the Normal to see movies. The last movies I remember seeing there were:
– Cornbread, Earl & Me
– It’s Alive (it scared me to death!!)
– Adios Amigos
(the last 2 movies were a double feature)
MY family and I used to go to that Chinese restaurant about once a week in the 40’s and 50’s. Remember it well.
It actually makes me happy to hear things might be im proving in Roseland. The last time I drove through they had burned down the Normal Theater and the White Castle on 110th and State. I grew up on 110th Place between Michigan and State. Moved to 116th and Wallace about 1950. When I joined the Navy in 1956 it was a great place to live. No one ever locked their doors and all the peole in the neighborhood knew each other. When I was tarnsferred to Great Lakes in 1963 I rented a house across from the post office on 110th and State. Still a Great Area. But, when I went back in the late 70’s to visit it was like a combat zone. Buildings burnt and boarded up, punks on almost every corner along 119th Street and Michigan Avenue looked like a flea market in Istanbul. I spent a lot of time at Palmer Park and Pullman Tech area when I was a kid (Mendell SChool bought PUllman Tech). They still had bushes all the way around Palmer Park then. Had to take them out in the 70’s because of all the assaults. Driving around Roseland in the 80’s meant don’t get caught at a stop light because if you did there was a good chance someone was going to walk up to your car and try something. My father had to move out of his house on 116th and Wallace because the local punks started harrasing him and threw rocks through his front window. He was the only white left there. I saw the deterioration and crime, I don’t have to make it up. It was terrible!
Hi John! Thanks for your response. Yes I drove down Michigan a lot when I was home! I live outside of Los Angeles right now (where I am completing pediatrics residency) and can’t get good Chinese food out here, so one of my favorite haunts when I go home is The New Tea Garden restaurant which is across the street from the Roseland Theater. I last visited on Saturday night (10/7/06) at about 10:20 pm just before closing.
I hadn’t heard about proposed closing of Fenger – I will ask my mom about it as she works for CPS in the office of high school programs. That would be horrible to close it, and a sad reason to do so.
In actuality, my experience is that white people have an easier time walking through economically depressed neighborhoods. So many shootings that occur are mistaken identity (usually African- and Latino-Americans victims) in such neighborhoods. I have been followed by police when driving during the day in neighborhoods such as Beverly, the Kenwood area and Oak Park (I go there at times to look at homes for sale) – I haven’t been driving a beat up car, I am not blasting music, I am not harassing residents, and I am only 5 feet tall so I can’t look that menacing. When the white Mormon teens visit Roseland doing missionary work, they move through the neighborhood freely and no one bothers them. I am not saying that is true all the time, because of course I don’t have stats on that, but it is sad when ANY person can’t walk the streets safely. I was very young, but I remember African-American children being chased and being beaten up by white children who attended Pullman school back in the early-mid 70s. It wasn’t right then, and it isn’t right for ANYONE to be unsafe in any neighborhood.
And BTW, I do walk down the streets of Roseland during the day and night, and thankfully I have been safe. I am looking to return to Roseland to practice pediatrics after I am done with residency so that I can do my part to help uplift the community by doing outreach at schools, local youth organizations, etc.
I welcome continued dialog with you, John. Maybe I can help you understand current Roseland residents, and maybe you can share your experiences in Roseland when you were younger. Take care :–)
While you were home did you drive down Michigan Avenue? I dare you to walk the streets alone at night! It is one of the highest crime areas in the city. Of course there are nice people still living there but when they are talking about closing a major high school because of gang problems (Fenger) and a white person can not walk the streets in safety, something needs changing.
Wow – John Stitnizky seems to have a low opinion of the Roseland residents of today! Maybe I am just misreading his posts, particulary the one about Roseland residents living like animals and not likely living until they grow up (I hope I am misreading the post!). Bad people can be products of any neighborhood, race, culture, religion, etc., and the same holds true for good people. Roseland has produced doctors, computer tech whizzes, CPAs, educators (all from my immediate family I might add), as well as attorneys, nurses, corporate types, police officers, etc, etc – not just people who are economically and socially depressed.
My family moved to Roseland in 1974 after buying the home from a family named Panozzo; our home is on South King Drive (formerly South Park Drive). We still own our home today. I would love it if anyone had old photos of my street, or of the neighborhood in general, that can be shared.
FYI – I was just home. Roseland Theater bldg has been revamped and will be offices, not a strip mall (unless plans change).
Natalie Santiago, MD – I managed to grow up quite nicely :–)
There was no Roseland Theater picture shown on Mar 16 posting sight.
I heard it was being used as a strip mall
Here is a Tribune photo of it.
The camera shop was Roseland Camera. I bought my first slide projector and screen there. Still have them both. Used to bowl every Saturday night at the RoseBowl….one whole sheet every week with a close friend of mine. I worked part-time at Joe and Nick’s Meat Market at 110th and Michigan and used to blow almost my whole pay there after work on Saturday night. When I first went there they had guys spotting pins but changed to automatics. Remember several incidents of guys getting hit with pins and coming out with blood streaming down there faces. I delivered the Southend Reporter for one summer. THeir office was just down the hill on 115th and Michigan.
I remember the junk yard being just beyond the viaduct around 116th & Michigan. To the north of the viaduct and on the east side of Michigan Avenue was Panetti’s, which had fantastic Italian Beef sandwiches. I live near Washington, DC, now and occasionally order from Italian Beef from Portillos. For $50, you get the fixings for 8 large sandwiches, including meat, buns, sauce. It arrives packed in dry ice and, if you follow their instructions about defrosting and heating, it is an incredible taste treat. $50 sounds like a lot – but it comes to about $6 a sandwich and is worth every penny.
I remember selling papers to the junkyard but, later, I went there for parts. My first car was a beat-up ‘51 Ford Vic 2-dr HT with an old flathead 8 engine. I recall that the manifold cracked. I picked up a manifold from the junkyard for $5 and put it in myself. Do you remember when there was so much room under the hood of a car that you could sit on the fender with your legs hanging down next to the block as you worked on the car? Today you can’t fit three fingers in there with all of the innards!
Remember at that end of Michigan Ave there was also the RoseBowl (Carmen Salvino), a great camera shop – but I’m blocking on the name – and the Calumet Index offices? I worked for a while at the Rexall at 115th for peanuts.
Wasthe junk yard next to the railroad track? That’s where I sold my newspapers….would taken in about 50 pounds and get may a dime…however, it got me into the show. I had to drag mine…I didn’t have a wagon and I wasn’t strong enough to carry them. It seems like we are about the same age or close…I turned 69 in July of this year. I moved to Texas in 1945 right after the war.
Did you see the movie Tarzan Triumphs at the Roseland? The theme of the film was the Nazi’s invade Tarzan’s jungle…he didn’t bother them until they took boy…then he grabbed his knife and with a grimace..said…“Now, Tarzan make war”…the whole theater errupted with cheers…I met Johnny Sheffield (Boy) about 5 years ago…told him about that and he got a kick out of it.
Doug
Can’t remember for sure if the Verdi was at bottom on hill on 114th st or 115th place. I remmeber taking newspapers to the junk yard on 115th and Michigan during the war so I could go to the movies. Used to have a red wagon and they would be stackd higher than I was tall. Had to pick them up many many times between 110th Place and 115th hehehe
Right on the gang fight. They had a full scale riot between the two schools. Had to shut them down for a few days so things would quiet down. Ice skated at SCanlan a lot during the winter WE’d walk there from 116th and Wallace.
John
Doug
Can’t remember for sure if the Verdi was at bottom on hill on 114th st or 115th place. I remmeber taking newspapers to the junk yard on 11th and Michigan during the war so I could go to the movies. Used to have a red wagon and they would be stackd higher than I was tall. Had to pick them up many many times between 110th Place and 115th hehehe
Right on the gang fight. They had a full scale riot between the two schools. Had to shut them down for a few days so things would quiet down. Ice skated at SCanlan a lot during the winter WE’d walk there from 116th and Wallace.
John
Doug
Can’t remember for sure if the Verdi was at bottom on hill on 114th st or 115th place. I remmeber taking newspapers to the junk yard on 11th and Michigan during the ar so I could go to the movies. Used to have a red wagon and they would be stackd higher than I was tall. Had to pick them up many many times between 110th Place and 115th hehehe
Right on the gamn fight. They had a full scale riot between the two schools. Had to shut them down for a few days so things would quiet down. Ice skated at SCanlan a lot during the winter WE’d walk there from 116th and Wallace.
John
Yes, I remember the donut machine in the Peoples Store and I too would watch those donuts come out of the spout and into the grease..also loved the soft icecream. Sorry to hear that the White Castle burnt down. D you remember the Verdi theater? I thought it was at the bottom of the hill on 114th street? I am glad you mentioned the Ridge Theater..I rememered it as being close to the Normal. Went there around 1942 or 43 to see King Kong..got out around 8 pm, it was dark…I thought there was a monster behind every tree. I went to Scanlan School…they used to flood the playground every winter and we would skate all afternoon after school..I heard they had a big gang fight there a couple of years ago between Curtis and Scanlan…sent a lot of kids mostly around 11-12 to the hospital. I lived across the street from Scanlan for a couple of years.
Doug
I used to live in People’s Store. Loved watching that donut machine in the basement and used to terrorize Santa Claus at Christmas time. I frequented the State, Parkway and Roseland theaters mostly. Went to Ridge once on 120th Street near Union and to the Normal on corner of 119th Stret and Normal a few times.
Doug
I lived at 7 East 110th Pace and then about 1950 moved to 11650 Wallace St. I left in 1956 when I joined the Navy. My last time back there was 2 years ago. Roseland has gone through a war and still is!!!
John Stitnizky
Joe E. I am trying to remember the Ridge…was it about 4 blocks from the Normal? I remember going to a theater in that area and I thought it was the Ridge. Was the Verdi at the bottom of 114th street? A little hole in the wall, but great for Saturday features?
I left Chicago for Texas in 1945…went back several times, the last time in the 1980’s…what a terrible shame…Roseland looked like it had been through a war.
Doug Bruton Denison, Texas
John….what years were you arounmd Roseland and where did you live?
I lived on Perry across from Scanlan School and then at 23 East 118th street, between Michigan Ave and State Street I was right behind the Home Store owned by the Rosenblooms…do you remember The Peoples Store? What great smells..
Doug