Studebaker Theater & Playhouse Theater
410 S. Michigan Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60605
410 S. Michigan Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60605
19 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 113 comments
Charles Teitel, who operated the World Playhouse until it closed in 1971, died on April 4, according to the Los Angeles Times. The obituary says that he succeeded his father, Abraham Teitel, who opened the cinema in 1933, and that he fought many battles with Chicago’s film censorship board, culminating in a victory in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1968. Full obit (including a picture with Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert) here.
Reactivate Notification Status.
This is from Boxoffice magazine, May 1960:
Superior Court Judge Grover Niemeyer has ordered the sale of the Fine Arts building, which houses the World Playhouse, at 400 S. Michigan Ave., and the proceeds divided among the owners, Bessie Simon and Arnold Schwartz. Mrs. Simon brought the court action. The building is valued at about $1,300,000, by Mrs. Simon’s attorney.
Yes, it’s been there since 1961.
Google photo shows “George Mitchell’s Snack Shop” on the first floor, as best as I can make out. Some of those photos are a few years old, though.
Typo.
Another photo here. Says architect is Solon S. Berman, as opposed to Beman in the description.
http://tinyurl.com/5erfqx
any information on the renovation project? They had said they were looking for a New Years Eve 2008 reopening?
Another Chicago tragedy….
Granada – RIP
Nortown – RIP
Adelphi – RIP
400 – RIP
Uptown – RIP
Howard – RIP
United Artists – RIP
Oriental – RIP
State & Lake – RIP
Michael Todd – RIP
Woods – RIP
Studebaker – RIP
Playboy – RIP
the list goes on and on………
Does anyone know where to find good pictures of these theaters in their heyday?
David,
FYI – The Sayles film you are referring to is “Lone Star,” a terrific film. I saw it there as well.
I’d completely forgotten about the Studebaker Theatre.
For some reason I remember seeing Pearl Baily perform there, in about 1969 or 70 with my family. We then met her backstage and I shook her hand. Being all of 10, I wore a glove on the one hand at school the next day so I could tell the story. So I guess Michael Jackson owes me something for intellectual property.
The last film I saw there was maybe 1992 or so, a John Sayles film set in Texas or something. Kris Kristofferson was a sheriff & Elizabeth Pena a waitress maybe.
I also helped move some drafting tables & equipment out of The Fine Arts building around 2000 when the Harrington Design school vacated their space.
The elevator operator was still there, and they had a plaque on the wall about his 50+ years of service, etc.
There was also a freight elevator behind the theatre space at the alley.
The floor of the passenger elevator was concave it was so worn.
My mother had several singing coaches & pianists that rented space there as well. There were some small performance type rooms on upper floors that faced Michigan Ave.
I thought that The Art Institute had bought it at one time.
I can’t believe there is still an elevator operator. I remember seeing that ten years ago and thinking it wouldn’t last much longer.
I’ll bet there can’t be more than 100 elevator operators left in the entire U.S.
I wonder if the theatre will be called The Studebaker or renamed. I regret never going there when it was showing films. I remember when it was showing “Hilary and Jackie,” but for some reason I chose not to see the film there.
The Fine Arts building is really a treasure. I used to take music lessons there when I was a kid. I love the old elevators, which still require manual operation and a live operator. I still go to The Artists Cafe sometimes before or after classes at Roosevelt University.
I think downtown Chicago needs a smaller theater for showing more intimate dramas and comedies. The Oriental is perfect for musicals and extravagant entertainment.
View link A recent interior shot of the Studebaker is shown on a project website.
Here that with a picture.
View link
Life’s too short: thanks for the itinerary of the American Conservatory. How sad to hear that it is no more. I wonder if my piano teacher Charlotte Berguson is still alive.
Serious overwhelm of nostalgia for me when contemplating this area of S. Michigan Ave.
I think Smart Bar and the Artists Snack Shop are the only two places from that story that remain open, maybe the ballet studio too.
I lived in Chicago from 1983-91 and just discovered this week that the Fine Arts had closed, years ago. So sad. Though I worked in a number of theatres, from Water Tower Place to McClurg Court while in college, my favorite to actually see films was the Fine Arts. I befriended one of the managers and we’d let each other into screenings at our respective film houses. I still remember seeing everything there from Stop Making Sense (after I moved to NY, I lived two blocks away from David Byrne and would see him regularly riding a bike with his kids and always thought of him in that film) to Sid and Nancy to Manon of the Spring. Would take ballet classes upstairs, catch a flick on my way out, then a quick bite and cup of coffee to perk me up for a night out at Exit (when it was still on Wells), Smart Bar or 950. Damn fine memories.
Ballet at Madison Square Garden.
The American Conservatory is gone now. I hadn’t known that they were in the Fine Arts building at one time. I took piano lessons there in grade school. But they were a little further north on Michigan at that point in time in a very narrow, old, white terracotta office building roughly across from the Art Institute. After that home they moved into the Charles Stevens building (early 90’s). Several years into that location the Conservatory closed down.
How sad to discover here that the Fine Arts is no more! While an undergrad at U of Chicago (82-86), I had my first experience of “art” film here…Wenders Paris Texas, Lynch Blue Velvet, and of course the Talking Heads! If not mistaken, I saw Ghost Dog here during a visit sometime in 2000. Is that possible?
As a fourth grader, I took piano lessons at the American Conservatory upstairs. Is it still there?
The last movie I saw there was the restored “Rear Window.” It was a late-evening showing, and there couldn’t have been more than a dozen people in the theater. About midway through the movie, I caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye—something had shot across the aisle close to the front row. “No. That couldn’t have been…” I stopped watching the movie and stared at the aisle. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, a rat darted back across the aisle. I held my popcorn close for the rest of “Rear Window” and never went back again.
I saw the Queen-enhanced version of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” at this lovely theater. I was really impressed with the interior and exterior design.
For the two years I lived in Chicago, attending Columbia College (1993-1995), this was my favourite place to watch films. Perhaps it was the fine old building it was in or the romance of its crumbling interior (even then), but I liked it even better than the very fine Music Box. Plus, it was much closer.
Among the films that made an impact on me there, my fondness for them being inextricably tied in with my fondness for the place itself, were Jane Campion’s “The Piano” and Krzysztof KieÅ›lowski’s “Blue.” Whenever I reflect on those films, I also vividly recall the comfort and satisfaction of watching them from my favourite perch in the front row of the balcony. It was just the right distance from the screen for my tastes and allowed plenty of space for all the contortions necessary to sustain good circulation, stave off a bathroom break, and maintain intense focus on the film itself.
Recent nostalgia for the Fine Arts building itself led me to find photographs which suggested that the theatre might be gone and now, tonight, I find that that is sadly the case. Lousy deal.
It may have been a crumbling relic, even in 1993, but it is still my favourite theatre yet.
As far as i know the Artist`s Snack Shop is still open i used to work at the Auditorium Theatre and we would go their all the time.