Loop Theater
165 N. State Street,
Chicago,
IL
60601
165 N. State Street,
Chicago,
IL
60601
11 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 79 comments found
First 3-D movie shown in Chicago was at the Telenews, here’s the ad from Chicago Tribune, Thursday, January 22, 1953, s. 3, p. 7, c. 1:
There is Only 1 perfect Tri-Opticon 3 Dimension motion pictures, color by technicolor—-5th dazzling week! “Adventure in Space” “The program marks a milestone in motion picture history!”—Chicago Tribune; “brilliant visibility!”—Sam Lesner, Daily News; Telenews, State and Randolph.
Here is a shot of the building when it was new and considerably less ugly.
Video clips of the Telenews Marquee from 1951 are available at http://www.wttwdigitalarchives.com/searchres.php by searching for 25327 or 25328. 1954 views of the Loop marquee are found by searching for 26438 or 26439.
I remember seeing a film at the Loop called “Equinox.” Truly awful. Not even sure how to categorize it (monster movie? sci-fi/horror flick?). I see someone in a previous post referred to it as a grade z thriller—that captures it perfectly. But my friends and I had a ball making fun of it. I also saw “The Sting” there when it first opened. Don’t recall going there too often…it was a smaller venue on a boulevard of cavernous movie palaces.
Here are two similar views of the former Capitol Building site which once housed the Loop Theater, taken in December 2003 and December 2005.
I walked by this site today, and all that was left were parts of the first-floor walls on State and Randolph Streets, the rest was gone already. It gives a new perspective on the Chicago Theatre with the Capitol Building gone now, at least until MoMo rises on the site.
The Loop is presently being demolished. Also, during the 1950s it briefly reverted to the Telenews name and format before returning to the Loop name.
I believe that the Walgreens has already closed.
Not quite on topic, but the Walgreens is due to be shut: I believe that the one recently opened on Washington (the old Woolworth’s) was to replace that location. Gap signed most of the ground floor retail at MoMo.
The history of this 1939 “taxpayer” building is covered pretty extensively in “Here’s the Deal”—Arthur Rubloff at one point wanted to move the Greyhound terminal to this location.
Here is a 1964-dated postcard view of State Street viewed from Randolph Street. The Loop is playing “Mondo Cane” while across the street at the State Lake, the James Bond film “Dr. No” is playing. Paul Newman is starring in something at the Chicago, but the Loop Theater’s marquee is blocking the view.
My parents took me here in the late 60’s to see the god-awful “Equinox.” The audience was unlike what we were used to seeing in the neighborhood theaters at the time. We felt a little “unsafe.” I guess this was the turning point in the Loop’s decline in the 70’s. I saw a couple live shows at the “Loop” theater on Randolph in the past year. I was hoping to see the old theater but as stated above, the live theater was not a part of the old auditorium (even though the information in the lobby leads one to think that the live theater was the same space as the movie theater). When the building is demolished later this year to make way for the new condos, I’d love to see if any hints of the former movie theater are visible in the rubble.
Some 1953 views of the Loop and several other loop theatres are available at Real Chicago: Chicago in the Fifties. The Capitol building was actually rather attractive in its original design, before it was modernized.
This article, which appeared in the March 27th Sunday Tribune, describes the new 32-story condo tower that will be taking the place of the mostly-vacant Walgreens Building on the site after that building is demolished this coming October. The first two floors will be retail (including, undoubtedly, a new Walgreens) and there is talk that the Joffrey Ballet may be getting the third and fourth floors. I wish that the computer-generated photo that accompanied the article could be shown because it’s such an incredible building with its four-story cut-out in the middle of the glass covered exterior. Plus to see something occupying the airspace above that highly busy corner of Randolph and State Streets again after decades of that ugly building squatly taking up that corner where the great Masonic Temple once stood will be great when it’s done. Of course, the Loop/Telenews was located in this building and will also be no more in October.
Gerry, the off-track betting parlor is in the Page Brothers Building, which is the 1870s-era building on the corner of State and Lake Streets, which the Chicago Theatre wraps around. Betting may not be around much longer there, according to this story from the 1/11/05 Sun-Times: “TheatreDreams Chicago, owner of the Chicago Theatre at 175 N. State, is in talks to purchase the Page Brothers Building next door, at 179-181 N. State. The principals at TheatreDreams want to put a restaurant in the Page Brothers building, displacing the off-track betting parlor there now, according to an informed source. A spokeswoman for TheatreDreams declined to comment, saying negotiations are under way.” The Loop was in the building on the other side of the Chicago Theatre, across the alley where the Farmer’s Market is during the summer months. The main tenant of that building is now Walgreen’s.
While in Chicago last summer, I looked for the old Loop Theater site and found a State of Illinois Off-Track Betting facility, not a retail shop in its place. Correct me if I’m wrong. (I even went in and put down a few bets—and lost.)
Here is a night time view of the marquees of the Loop and Chicago Theatres, dated 1959. The Mort Cooper Store next to the Loop Theatre is long gone too, but the store’s name is still visible in the terrazzo entranceway to the now-vacant store.
Upon slightly closer examination, the marquees date this as a May 1963 photo. The movies booked seem to bespeak a great deal about each theater, indeed, excellent representations of each theater’s clientele. At the Chicago, Bye Bye Birdie is showing. At the State-Lake, the Ian… indicates that Dr. No is showing, and the Loop is showing Mondo Cane.
http://www.geocities.com/boc2400/thchicago1970.jpg An excellent shot of the State-Lake, Chicago, and Loop theatre marquees is visible in this 1970s Postcard
Sorry, wrong link above…this is the correct one: http://206.103.49.193/cta/htm/cta1356.htm
In this undated circa-1950s photograph, the top of the marquee of the then-Telenews is just visible behind the bus, just to the right of the Chicago Theatre’s marquee.
Geall-
The live theatre which you refer to is actually not the theatre described above (the former Loop/Telenews) which is located on State Street next to the Chicago Theatre (see my comments above). What’s now being called the “Loop Theatre” is actually a former retail space on Randolph Street, around the corner from the Walgreens and across the street from Marshall Field’s. The old Loop Theatre was up until recently used as an electronics store, but is now vacant. The entire building is due to be demolished next year to make way for a new residential/retail development.
Here’s some a press release on the theaterical programs currently located in the LOOP THEATER –
THE CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS
ANNOUNCES EXTENSION OF 2004 SEASON AT THE LOOP THEATER
Programs Feature Mix of Chicago Premieres and Remounts May-Dec. 2004
The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs proudly announces the extension of programs at the Loop Theater, 8 E. Randolph St., from May â€" Dec. 2004. Originally scheduled for demolition in June 2004, the City now anticipates selling the land to a developer by Jan. 2005 and will continue programming until that time.
“Since we opened in August 2003, the Loop Theater has both provided performing space to nomadic theater companies and drawn diverse audiences,†says Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lois Weisberg. “We’re excited to continue to make good use of this transitional space and strengthen our contribution to the vibrant theater district.â€
Featured performances for 2004 include: CIF Sketch as part of the Chicago Improv Festival, May 7-8; two performances presented by Hook and Mouth Productions, BASSPROV and the Chicago premiere of The Humperdink Family Reunion, May 13-22; Nomenil Theatre Company’s Love Pollution: A Tekno-popera, May 29 â€"
June 27; National Showcase of New Plays 2004, July 16 â€" 21, featuring the best new American plays from national theater companies; greasy joan & company’s production of Antigone, Sept. 10 â€" Oct. 10; 500 Clown Frankenstein, Oct. 15 â€" Nov. 13; and Hell In A Handbag Productions’ farcical holiday programs Rudolph the Red Hosed Reindeer, Dec. 2 â€" 31, and A Very Special Fa La La This Christmas, Dec. 10 – 18.
Tickets can be purchased by phone at 312-744-LOOP (5667), on-line at www.ticketweb.com, or in person at the Loop Theater box office, 8 E. Randolph St. Box office is open one hour before performance time. For more information, visit www.chicagoculturalcenter.org
The Loop Theater is an extension of the Studio and Storefront Theaters currently operated by the Department of Cultural Affairs on Randolph Street. The Loop Theater’s mission is to create an interim theater complex in downtown Chicago by maximizing city resources and utilizing unused space; provide space and marketing support to theater companies for free to encourage the growth of new creative talent; bring performances of cultural and artistic merit to downtown audiences; keep ticket prices low; and provide day and evening rehearsal space to various emerging theater companies at an inexpensive rate.
According to this article in the Daily Southtown, the building that houses the space that used to be the Loop/Telenews Theatre is not being demolished around now as once announced, but will now be razed in Janauary of 2005 instead, for a developer. The two-story Moderne-style building at the corner of State and Randolph Streets (next door to the Chicago Theatre and across the street from the Gene Siskel Film Center) also houses a Walgreens (its sole original remaining tenant), a number of empty retail spaces, and a new live Loop Theatre, in a former storefront on the Randolph Street side of the building, which will now be able to operate for at least a few months longer than initially expected.
This isn’t the same Loop Theater as the one above. The temporary space now being called the “Loop Theater” is in the same building, but it’s a former storefront, now being used as a live theater venue until the whole building (which basically only houses a Walgreen’s now) is demolished in spring, to make way for a mixed residential/retail tower which will be constructed on the site. The Loop Theater (former Telenews) was located on State Street, close to the Chicago Theater, seperated by a wide alley. The current “Loop Theater” is located on the Randolph Street side of the building, around the corner from Walgreen’s, across the street from Marshall Field’s.
The loop theater has been operating as a live theater venue as of last fall as i saw a play there “Judgment at Nuremburg”. There is
information on the history of the theater in the small lobby.