LaGrange Theatre

Funny, the ‘1983’ photo above features my aunt in the box office, and my grandfather in the suitcoat at the front door.

Chicago Tribune story about restoration April 24, 2009.

According to this article (http://cinematreasures.org/news/20189_0_1_0_M/),
the La Grange is now owned by David Rizner and John Rot, who have just received $1,000,000 from the city (through the tax increment financing system) for infrastructure repairs, including plumbing and electrical, and will use $650,000 of their own money for interior and business upgrades. In addition, the La Grange Business Association has pledged $50,000 to build a replica of the original marquee.

The above links to a Chicago Tribune article which also says the theatre was constructed in 1925 and the architects were Rapp & Rapp.

Yeah, it’s pretty sad…

The place is far from an abortion, but certainly when you consider what has been done to it, facade irreversibly painted over, perfectly good irreplacable trimwork torn out… essentially an incomplete shell of a building that hasn’t seen added work in almost a year now, it really is depressing.

I think about the flack I used to give my grandfather, “Why don’t you replace this”, “why don’t you change that”– the problem was, LaGrange ALWAYS gave my family flack about repairing the building, so anything done to it was patchwork. If you wanted to tear a wall out and expand an area, they wanted you to replace irrelavent electric in the other side of the building. Absurd, and now that Hortons has proven incapable of forming a sound business plan for the organization, the village wants nothing to do with it, and having jumped the gun, Hortons is finding themselves “stuck” with a partially destroyed building. Stupidity.

It’s pathetic really, I have such passion for that building; I want so very much to see the building improved, restored, and preserved… $3M of work, and you’d have one HELL of a theatre! Yeah, in this economy, I’m sure banks will be lining up around the corner!

I went here with my husband to see “Tropic Thunder”, which was playing in theatre #3. The others on this site are correct. The renovations are very tacky. The above person who said “the former wooden beltline below the wall curtains having been raised to approximately 6' with what appears to be a florecent backlighting over the murals.” is absolutely correct.

Having the curtains at a hieght of over 6' is detrimental in many ways:

1) Your eye now gravitates upwards.
2) The glare from the screen bounces off these murals. Having the belt rail closer to the floor used to give the place a more pleasing subdued tone.
3) The sound now bounces off the walls. Again, having the curtains lower was acoustically beneficial because they absorbed the sound better.

They would have been better off cleaning and repairing the place. The curtains should have remained as they were, either cleaned or replaced, but at the same level.

This is really a shame because I like this theatre. The staff is very friendly, the prices are good and the LaGrange books good 2nd run films. I’ve even seen “Letters From Iwo JIma” and “The Counterfeiters” here. I’ll probably still patronize the place, but I wish someone like Classic Cinemas would take it over.

It may have cost me my job there, but this is exactly what I was trying to get across to the owners the whole time. Not only do they not know—or, seemingly, care—what they’re doing, they wouldn’t even listen to the suggestions of someone who spent 5 years in the industry. Scott, you’re not overreacting. That theater was doomed the day Horton’s obtained it. I say it’s time to give the Johnson family a call and have Classic Cinemas buy the theatre and restore it the right way (ironically, most people think the LaGrange is part of the Classic Cinemas family anyway).

…they need to step in to offer their guidance and assistance. The Hortons people are clearly in over their heads, they can’t even form a long-term business plan with which to obtain additional funding from the village of LaGrange for continued restoration. Come to think of it, considering what’s been done, maybe that’s a good thing.

My point is, they need someone with the right head about them, someone with the right experience, managing this project of theirs.

That sounds distressing. What do you mean by defaced? Where are the murals?

It must have been tough on the residents of LaGrange when the price went from $1.75 to $2.00 in 1998.

The La Grange will be raising it’s admission prices to $3.50 to help cover the costs of renovations. I wonder if that will affect the attendance at this second run house.

From the theatre’s website:

‘Remember When…

The Blues Brothers were on a “Mission from God"
"ET Phone home” made you cry
You were shocked that Vader was Luke’s Father

These were playing the last time La Grange Theatre raised ticket prices! Starting April 2nd, we will be raising our ticket price to $3.50, to help in the continued renovation of our theatres.'

Please continue to patronize this theatre everybody. The owners are making an earnest attempt to stay in business.

I was at this theatre only once, and that was to see “Letters From Iwo Jima”. As I pointed out on the page for the Music Box, I’m deaf but I enjoy watching movies just as much as everybody else does. I also enjoy going to the movies, but I’m limited to films with subtitles. So when this film was showing, my husband and I went out here to see it. Incidentally, it was one of the few theatres in Chicagoland that showed it.

Unfortunately, what we didn’t realize was that the first several minutes of the film are in English, with no subtitles! So my husband, who is a “hearing person” tried “signing” for me so I could follow it (I can talk and lip-read, but I mainly use American Sign Language)! No matter, the rest of the movie is in Japanese with English subtitles (whew!) and quite frankly, it is one of the best movies I have ever seen.

The theatre seems a little run-down, but it looks like they are trying to do renovations. Unfortunately, we were in one of the un-renovated auditoriums! The seats are at a weird angle to the screen and they are very unforgiving. My rear-end was sore after almost three hours of sitting there, but it was a fine film. The people that work there seem very pleasant too!

If you haven’t seen “Letters From Iwo Jima”, rent it or buy it! It is great. We bought the DVD about a week after we saw it in the theatre. I was able to put the closed-captioning on so that I could better understand the English part.

OK, so who is in charge now?

Tom, how about a report on the progress of the renovation? Will there be an open house?
Gary