Tivoli Theatre
6328 S. Cottage Grove Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60637
6328 S. Cottage Grove Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60637
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Showing 26 - 40 of 40 comments found
Here is a photo:
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From JAZZ AGE CHICAGO, here is an interesting article about a black dentist who sued the owners of the Tivoli.
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Well as a street kid of the forties and fifties I’ve probably been in every theatre on the south side includeing this one.It was kind of out of the way for me but occassionly I went there. It was a very nice theatre,but being from Englewood which had the Southtown as an example it did nothing for me! I remember taking a girl there to see A Walk in the Sun with Dana Andrews and God I hated that movie. War stories always seemed to give me a headache. It might of been the Flashing light of the cannon fire. That movie seemed like it went on for ever! She liked it.I felt like, somone please SHOOT ME!!!!
Chuckie Z.
As a younb boy from 1936 to 1940, I lived in the 63rd street area..mostly around Cottage Grove, St. Lawrence, and a few other streets I can’t recall. I was born on Dante Ave. I do recall the Tivol and attneding a movie there on at least one occasion. Most of all, I remember being on the street car and passing the Tivoli lit up in all it’s splendor. The sad thing, is it is not safe to even go to that area anymore. But for all of you who were not fortunate to be part of the great movie theater era…you can sit in front of your one eyed monsters in the living room or pay $8.00 to attend one of the 10 to 20 cracker boxes in the things they call theaters now.
Doug Bruton Denison, Texas
I looks like there is a dollar store in its place now. Can anyone confirm that?
Here is a 1923 Chicago Daily News photo of the Tivoli
The site the theatre sat on is still vacant. I drove by it a couple of years ago after visiting the Science and Industry museum and don’t recall seeing anything there. In case you’re not familiar with the area, it is a very bad neighborhood.
Does anyone know what stands in the Tivoli’s place now?
The following is from an article in Variety dated 1921:
New Tivoli Called “Finest Theatre”
Balaban and Katz’s $2,000,000 Masterpiece Opens.
Source: Variety, February 1921
“What is generally called here "the finest theatre in the world,” opened, when Balaban & Katz revealed the new Tivoli, at Sixty-third street and Cottage Grove avenue, a 4,500-seat house costing more than $2,000,000, eight miles from “the loop.” To lay eye [on] the interior of the Tivoli makes anything ever seen on this continent in the way of theatre look inferior.
The Keith Circuit sent John Royal, manager of the Hippodrome, Cleveland, and Claude S. Humphrey, local representative, to see the Tivoli and report, as the new Keith Cleveland house, is of similar model.
A 55-piece orchestra, an organist brought here from California and many individual features in film presentation were shown. Vivian Holt and Lillian Rosedale, vocal harmonists, especially engaged, appeared in a marvelously staged song creation, “Hiawatha’s Melody of Love,” and were applauded to the fartherest [sic] echoes of the huge enclosure.
There is room in the grand lobby, which is in two stories, for 3,000 waiting patrons. The promenades are vast and luxurious. There is no straight wall expanse within the whole building. Lovers' lane and lighted niches and cozy nooks are embellished with art works. The entire structure is of palace plan rather than theatre model. Thousands of lights, projected and concealed, give myriad effects. By color arrangements the entire auditorium is lighted up, yet has the necessary effects for film projection usually accomplished only in darkness.
The opening was the biggest in Chicago history, fully 20,000 people gathering at the premiere. Business started and has remained capacity".
A view of the Tivoli’s proscenium and stage can be seen here.
Here is a link to an excellent picture of the Tivoli
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Here is that link to the photo I mentioned in 11/03 (hopefully this one doesn’t expire):
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Here is a link to a photograph from 1928 showing a parade at 63rd and Cottage Grove, with the marquee of the Tivoli visible in the background, and in the foreground, the signage of the neighboring Cinderella Cafe is seen. From the Chicago Daily News collection of the Library of Congress.
Two large, magnificant chandeliers from the Tivoli auditorium now hang in The Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in Chicago, on Central Ave.
I became interested in the name TIVOLI when I worked at a Milwaukee area hotel which had a restaurant with this name; they had no idea where the name came from, so I did some research, especially since it had also become the name of a number of theatres. It was popularized in the 19th century by the famous Tivoli amusement park and gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark founded in 1843 in imitation of the famous gardens and palaces of the Italian ruling princes of the 16th century, the Estes, who built the famed Villa d'Este palace in the region of Tivoli, a popular tourist attraction to this day. Thus, the pleasure-assuring name was thought auspicious by the developers of theatres, theatres being the pleasure palaces of the masses of their day.
This is akin to the common theatre name: RIALTO, for the famous enclosed Rialto bridge of 1591 in Venice, Italy over the Grand Canal, which to this day contains many amusing boutiques and is at the heart of an entertainment district. The distinctive architecture of the Rialto bridge also inspired many latter day architects, and perhaps found its forms reproduced in some movie palaces. A monograph on the origin of theatre names was presented at the 1981 Conclave of the Theatre Historical Society of America then meeting at the PABST theater in Milwaukee, but the origins of the above names and others were not known by the author of that paper. Perhaps this will add a little bit to that quest.