State-Lake Theatre
190 N. State Street,
Chicago,
IL
60601
190 N. State Street,
Chicago,
IL
60601
25 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 169 comments found
Excellent State-Lake photos here:
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I just happened to rebrowse the State-Lake page. BWChicago’s 06/09/05 post with has a link to a Stanley Kubrick picture from 1949. It looks like Kubrick may have applied a little bit of primitive “photoshop” techniques to enhance the State-Lake marquee.
The film “He Walked By Night” although released in 1949, while possibly playing there at the time, may or may not have been added with a little artistic license by Kubrick. To better convey the gritty street feeling he was trying to capture as a photo journalist. The story was based in L.A., but is/was known for it’s film noir photography style at the time.
In the book “DOWNTOWN CHICAGO IN TRANSITION” by Eric Bronsky and Neal Samors, there are many pics of the State-Lake. On page 13, there is a nice shot from Sept. 14, 1953. “THE ROBE” is playing;a long line of ticket buyers and the entrance to the subway can be seen. Page 14- two views of the theatre, one from the 1920s, and one from the 1960s(Walt Disney’s “SON OF FLUBBER” is playing). On page 94- great shot from March 2, 1950- “BATTLEGROUND” with Van Johnson is showing; on the street-fire trucks-there is a fire on the 11th floor of the building!(Smoke can be seen coming out a window). A few more pics can be seen- page 177 from Sept. 22, 1965"ONCE A THIEF" is showing, and page 193- “FADE TO BLACK” is on the marquee on a Sunday in 1980.
Good ideas, Chicago229. Thanks for posting them.
It’s too bad that the former State-Lake Theatre space has not been converted into a modern, live theatre. It would certainly be a welcome addition to the Loop theatre district. The ABC studio is fine, although the video marquee is dwarfed by the gigantic marquee of the Chicago Theatre across the street.
It could still happen, someday. Of course, it would be up to the current owners and occupants of the space. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see a re-design of old State-Lake marquee? They could call it “The New State-Lake Theatre.”
Not to mention the presumed cost of heating & air conditioning a giant space, whether it had much of an audience or not. I remember some cold days at the State-Lake and a few others. Alienating what little audience you did have, was the next to last step to closing.
I don’t remember the State-Lake becoming as run down cosmetically as say the McVicker’s in the end. But no vandals is no people, either way.
I can well relate, JRS40, having enjoyed the films I have at the State Lake, and theaters like it.
David – If you look at my booking lists for most of the palace theaters downtown you will notice it was quite rare for a movie to play too long from the late 70s until my list ends. The palaces were too expensive (at least more expensive then the suburbs), you had to pay to park and there was an inherent fear of crime – especially at night. That’s why it really sucks that many of these theaters are gone now and those that survive are either badly in need of extensive repair or don’t show movies anymore. But I guess I shouldn’t complain as long as they survive. This beautiful theater has no signs it ever existed – and that is the saddest thing of all.
Here are a whole bunch more at the State-Lake: Life
I just noticed a bit of a trend, that mught have been signaled by the introduction of the VCR. If you look at JRS40’s movie list from 4/28/07, basically after “Apocolypse Now” (fitting), The State Lake must have began struggling to keep an audience. As most of everything after that, was there for less than a month.
Thanks, BWChicago. I agree with you about stuff getting posted, for all to enjoy, and learn from.
The link to the Life magazine photo was originally found by a new member named “misterboo” I’m sure that “misterboo” would have been very happy to post the photo had he been given the opportunity to do so. Your thanks should go to “misterboo” for the photo.
Here is an October 1950 Life magazine photo, from a new collection of images on Google:
http://tinyurl.com/56hd3v
Version of history I have always heard is that Rapp & Rapp did the office building, while Lansburgh was responsible for the theatre design.
G. Albert Lansburgh was evidently also an architect here:Photos
Thanks for your post, David Zornig. That’s good to know about “With Six You Get Eggroll”.“The Warriors” had similar trouble in NYC. I think either a policeman or a theatre employee was pistol-whipped.
It reads like CCBB was a cliffhanger serial in the bargain.
Had I known the State Lake was soon to close, I would have seen “Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom” there when I was on vacation in Chicago May 18-25 1984.
I have many memories of the State-Lake. Including seeing the original Casino Royale, Poseidon Adventure & The Warriors. But most memorable was when I went with my family to see “With Six You Get Eggroll”. Once we were inside the door, my mother was handed a box of frozen eggrolls by an usher. Every sixth group of patrons apparently got the same, as part of the film/theatre’s promotion.
I thought I had seen “Where Eagles Dare” & “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” there, but don’t see them on the list. So they must have been somewhere else. Or they were undocumented limited runs.
The latter actually had an intermission, when CCBB drives off of a cliff. Pleated curtain closing and all. We don’t learn CCBB can fly until after the intermission. Truly thrilling for an 8 year old.
I also remember the general unease at the theatre, when we went to see “The Warriors”. It had already been pulled in Boston and elsewhere, after gang related shooting deaths at other theatres. We were all 19. So we kinda got the once over at the door.
I too think ABC could have done more to save the State-Lake heritage. Or at least expounded on it’s history.
Or somehow incorporating the old marquee into things. But it’s possible the marquee had come down long before the rest of the major renovations.
P.S. I wish the Esquire developer would take they’re lead from the Selwyn/Michael Todd/Goodman. Save the front, build what you want/need inside. Since the interior was all destroyed when converted to multi screen anyway.
Saw many films over the years myself at STATE-LAKE, earliest I can remember being BON VOYAGE (a real yawner from Disney I think), maybe ending w/ J.Carpenter’s THE THING. Always top-notch projection—you couldn’t go wrong.
Perusing the above posts I can’t seem to find mention of one thing though (is it true?). That, entrance to the S-L projection booth was gained through a penny.
A friend of mine who worked there (early ‘70s) described a inconspicuous bit of wall ornamentation in the theatre lobby, where if one dropped in a regular U.S. cent, contact was made and a concealed doorway slid open! That led up a stairwell to the booth(s).
Can anyone confirm/refute this? Sounds neat.
The article I cited above does not make “a big mistake by assuming that this first Natural Vision process is 3D”. Although the whole article is about 3D, in the section referring to the first use of the term Natural Vision, it clearly indicates that when Spoor and Bergren first announced that they were working on it, it was “alleged” to be a 3D process, but the article also explicitly states that when the first feature length film presented in it was shown (at the State-Lake – “Danger Lights”), it had become a name for a wide-gauge film process promoted by RKO.
There are a number of brief references to this first use of Natural Vision in a book by John Belton called “Widescreen Cinema” published in 1992 by Harvard University. (A book that also is not error free). Belton quotes some ad copy for RKO used for “Danger Lights” that strongly implies that Natural Vision produced a 3D-like effect, however that term is not actually used.
Apparently, there was a period of experimentation in the 1920s with wide-gauge film by several studios; RKO was promoting this Natural Vision, Fox had a 70mm process called Grandeur, Paramount had something called Magnafilm. According to Belton, nothing much came of these primarily because of the relatively high conversion costs for theater owners who, by the end of the decade, were installing sound equipment at considerable expense, and because of an agreement with the Hays Office to limit the exhibition of these experimental widescreen films and processes to just ten cities. This fact limited the intial audience exposure to widescreen, and provided little challenge to standard 35mm presentation. Wide screen would not come into wide use until the 1950s when the introduction of Cinerama and the challenge of television forced studios and theaters to take another look at these processes and invent some new ones.
Well that paper dates from 1994 and was last revised in 2004.
There are a few problems with facts from the book “Wide Screen Movies”. Daniel Sherlock wrote a paper on the many corrections for that book back around 2004. That book can be used as a guide but not true facts. Some problems are in reseaching vs. fact. You would have to read to document “Wide Screen Movie Corrections” to see the problems. It’s about 60 pages long.
I believe this article makes a big mistake by assuming that this first Natural Vision process (not the 50s one) is 3D. I don’t think it ever was. It was always a wide screen process using 63mm (or 63.5mm to be more correct) wide film. The ‘Wide Screen Movies’ book I made reference to earlier is renowned for its mistakes and inaccuracies too.
Just found some new info on the in70mm.com website, which I imagine is more correct.
“RKO´s ”Danger Lights“ [was] presented in Natural Vision at the State Lake Theatre in Chicago on November 15, 1930. The 63,5mm picture film ran at 20 f.p.s. while the sound was carried on a separate 35mm film at 24 f.p.s. The screen was 46x27 ft.
The only other showing of “Danger Lights” in wide format was a few weeks later at the Mayfair, NYC from December 12, 1930 using the same projection equipment."
If you go this website: http://widescreenmovies.org/WSM11/3D.htm
you will find an article from “Widescreen Movies” magazine. In “The 1900s” section, this 63mm process is credited to a George K. Spoor and Paul J. Bergren.
In the book ‘Wide Screen Movies’ by Robert E. Carr & R.M. Hayes they mention that State-Lake was the only cinema in the country ever set up with projection equipment to screen the 63mm wide gauge film process Natural Vision.
They state that the short ‘Campus Sweethearts’ played from 12th February 1929 at the cinema in 63mm. Also that the RKO feature film ‘Danger Lights’ screened in large format from 14th December 1930. This is the only source I know of that mentions about these 63mm performances. Other sources state that these films were shot on 63mm but were only exhibited on regular 35mm, not in widescreen. Does anyone know further about this or any otherwise?
Natural Vision projected a 63mm wide picture film with no soundtrack and was synchronized with a separate strip of 35mm film with optical sound using the RCA Photophone system.
Plenty of times? Show me where I have posted duplicates and where it was MY fault and not the websites.