McVickers Theater
25 W. Madison Street,
Chicago,
IL
60602
25 W. Madison Street,
Chicago,
IL
60602
18 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 98 of 98 comments found
The only surviving theater by Adler and Sullivan is the Auditorium theater. This is a shame, since they where considered the best theater designers of their time.
The McVickers' marquee, dated 1958, can be seen in this fantastic nighttime view. “South Pacific” (“In Todd-AO”) is playing.
Our eighth-grade class, St. Bernard’s School at 66th St. & Stewart Ave., took our class trip to the McVickers to see “The Ten Commandments” in 1958. Walked to the L station at 63rd & Harvard, rode it downtown, got off at Randolph St. and walked to the McVickers.
Good thing it didn’t collapse with anyone in it.
The 1984 closing date in the description sounds about right. If memory serves, the building was condemned because the facade was in danger of collapsing.
By the early seventies, the McVickers was a dump. The carpets were sticky and the seats were in disrepair. At this time, the theater was a three films for a dollar movie house. I don’t remember exactly when it closed, but I believe it was the late seventies.
Such a shame that this Chicago theatre and the Garrick are no longer with us today as they both were connected with the famous Alder/Sullivan team!
The McVickers I remember was showing Cinerama films in the sixties. I saw “How the West Was Won” there three times. My sister recalls seeing the 70mm, Todd-AO road show of “South Pacific” there in the late 1950s (I still have her program book from the show.)
I did see “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” at the McVickers when the theater had converted to 70mm, single projector Cinerama.
A very versatile venue, being Chicago’s original Todd-AO house in 1955, then a moveover location of CineMiracle’s “Windjammer” from the Opera House; and then the 26 frame-per-second Cinerama in 1962. Only venue for the 3-strip “Russian Adventure” in the U.S., the 70mm version having a number of stateside runs. There is also a possiblity that horizontal VistaVision ran there. The McVickers was certainly not among the 10-12 original VV houses literally hand-picked by Paramount in 1954. But there are press releases beginning in mid-1956 that the distrib had plans to lease/rent VV projectors to “deluxers,” as “Variety” called them, that had booked “10 Commandments.” Along with the Chicago McVickers, that list would also include the New York Criterion, the LA Beverly, and the Philly Randolph. I vividly remember the Randolph run and the screen was gigantic compared to those I had seen there prior to the DeMille epic. Am I safe in assuming that if true VV ran in NY and LA (I can’t imagine Par not having it presented in at least those 2 prime premiere cities in VV), and Philly might have, then why not Chicago? Comments?
The Mc Vickers played Cine Miracle in 3 strip Cinerama from 12/25/59 thru 5/22/60 and then played Cinerama features in borth 3 strip and 70MM from 8/8/62 thru 6/13/66. This was the only known venue that played “Russian Adventure.”
I worked at the Mcvickers theater in the late 60’s early 70’s as a usher.During that time they had stage shows as well as movies .I remember James Earl Jones in the Great White Hope and Sherman Hemsley in Purlie.
Here is a photo dated 1926 of the ticket box and main entrance of the McVickers.
The two photos Brian posted of the McVickers auditorium shows the work of Louis Sullivan, from the 1891 Adler & Sullivan designed version of the theater. The misindentification by the LOC isn’t too far off because of Adler & Sullivan’s being the architects of the much larger and far more ornate (and still surviving) Auditorium Theatre.
Also here.
The Library of Congress site has this mislabeled as a shot of the Auditorium Theatre, but it clearly is not and matches the above shot.
A 1903 view of the third McVicker’s can be seen here
A 1929 view of the McVickers' exterior viewed from the corner of State and Madison can be seen here.
I knew the end was near when my feet would stick to the carpet while I was walking down the aisle and when I would see and hear rats running through the place.
I went to the McVickers during the Kung-Fu days of the 70’s and I new then that a sad end to another part of history was near
An office tower is now under construction on the site.
The first time I ever went to the McVickers was in 1962 when I was in 2nd grade to see “The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm.” In the early-mid ‘70s, it was reduced to a 3 for $1.00 kung-fu/blaxploitation movie house.
The fourth McVicker’s actually opened in 1922, for the Jones, Linick & Schaefer circuit (which also operated at that time theaters such theaters such as the Rialto, the Orpheum, and the Randolph). When the McVicker’s opened, the corporate offices of the chain moved from the Rialto to the McVicker’s. The McVicker’s had an arrangement when it first opened in 1922 with Paramount to play that studio’s movies exclusively for some years.
The McVickers is mentioned in the final scene of the musical “Chicago”; it’s where Roxy and Velma’s act opens. The theatre was replaced with a parking lot — the only surface parking lot within the Loop.
– pc
It was rumored that John Wilkes Booth had performed there.