Esquire Theatre
58 East Oak Street,
Chicago,
IL
60611
58 East Oak Street,
Chicago,
IL
60611
26 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 209 comments found
The sad part is that as another plan bites the dust, the Esquire could have been still open and showing movies as one plan after another comes along. I still wish that Landmark or someone similar could come along and run the six screens, it just seems to fit in to the neighbourhood.
It’s not over yet Bryan. That statement is code for, “the project fell apart and we don’t know what the hell is going on.”
Of course no businessman is going to come right out and say that.
If someone felt like being an organizer, I bet an energetic preservation group could get the facade saved.
From today’s Chicago Tribune, M Development has cancelled its plans to construct a 100-room boutique hotel along with retail shops. Instead, the developer will just construct a “few story” retail building on the site of the Esquire instead. The project is supposed to get underway at an unspecified time in 2009.
It’s too bad that at least the facade and signage of the Esquire can’t be saved and incorporated into the new structure, much like the facade of the Art Deco McGraw-Hill Building on North Michigan Avenue was saved and reused for the Shops at North Bridge mall which was built on its site after it was demolished.
Interesting tale of the Esquire’s last day: View link
Being a 1930s theater, constructed well after it became clear that talkies were here to stay, the Esquire would not have had an organ. A few theaters were equipped with organs after the advent of talkies in the US, such as at Radio City Music Hall, the RKO Roxy (Center) in New York, the Paramount in Oakland, and the United Artists in Berkeley (the latter a move-over from an older theater), but these are exceptions. In Great Britain, organs continued to be put in theaters for a while longer, but clearly for the music being part of the show package, not as possible film accompanimant.
Did the Esquire ever have an organ?
Why should I tone down my rhetoric? I thought your comment regarding an unadvertised early-afternoon matinee warranted a knee-jerk reaction.
Why would I need to double-check my ad photocopy? I stated in my previous post that I had the ad in my possession while making the post, so it is not a matter of me misremembering. I think it is you who is simply misremembering, just as you misremembered the duration of the engagement.
I don’t think there’s anything unusual or abnormal about misremembering details of an event that happened more than 30 years ago. And I’m not holding anything against you; I just think you’re going about proving your case in an unconvincing manner.
I’m willing to continue debating the matter, though (because I’d like to know definitively myself), but I do think that if any discussion regarding the “Star Wars” run at the EDENS is to continue, it should probably take place on the EDENS page instead of creating any more unnecessary drifting off topic on this ESQUIRE page.
M. Coate: tone down your rhetoric.
I believe the SW display ads did omit the matinee Edens showtimes; check again.
Most of us can tell a 70mm screeining vs. an anamorphic one, simply by virtue of circular vs. elliptical cue marks for reel changeovers.
This is how one verifies, despite what the advertising may claim. Or you can just peer into the ptojection booth opening(s), if possible.
“Generally unadvertised matinee”
“5/27 matinees weren’t common knowledge”
What the hell do you mean??? As I write this reply, I’m staring at my photocopy of the Chicago Tribune’s opening-day ad, and the EDENS was clearly advertising an early-afternoon matinee.
The EDENS' showtimes were 1:30, 3:40, 5:50, 8:10, 10:15 (and a midnight show on Fridays & Saturdays). And they were NOT promoting a 70mm presentation on opening day or at any point in its seven-month run.
M.Coate;
Me +2 buddies are one of the few who can truthfully say we saw SW before it was a hit—specifically about 2-3 hrs before.
At the EDENS they had generally unadvertised matinee SW shows Fri. 5/27, and at the very first reel changeover point of the 1:15 pm show the 70mm print broke and the screen went dark until they fixed it. About 30 secs. of film was lost at this point, and the EDENS never in their entire run bothered to replace it, 70mm replacement footage being non-existent. This gap became well-known in these parts, a kind of an in-joke about where you last saw the film. When the EDENS closed its doors, a magazine article explained something relating to this, that their deal w/ FOX for this film was unique among local theaters in that they technically owned the print, which is why their exibition of it was of a maverick nature.
Back to me and my 2 buddies, because the 5/27 matinees weren’t common knowledge that day the EDENS had just us handfull for the 1:15 show, and a slightly bigger audience for the 3:45 show (which I stayed for). For the 6pm SW show however the floodgates did open, and it was ‘swimming against current’ just to exit the EDENS.
G. Feret:
Regarding you post of Nov. 6, 2007, I do not believe your details are correct. Are you posting from memory, or can you cite any documentation?
Anyway, here’s what I have been able to research for the original “Star Wars” bookings in the Chicago area:
05.27.1977 … Calumet City – River Oaks 1-2-3 (29 weeks)
05.27.1977 … Chicago – Esquire (18 weeks) Dolby Stereo
05.27.1977 … Lombard – Yorktown Cinema I-II-III-IV (30 weeks)
05.27.1977 … Northbrook – Edens 1 & 2 (29 weeks) Dolby Stereo
06.15.1977 … Waukegan – Genesee (13 weeks)
06.17.1977 … Norridge – Norridge 1-2-3-4 (27 weeks)
06.17.1977 … Orland Park – Orland Square 1-2-3-4 (26 weeks)
07.08.1977 … Joliet – Jefferson Square Cinema I-II-III (18 weeks)
07.13.1977 … Carpentersville – Meadowdale Cinema I-II-III-IV (16 weeks)
07.13.1977 … Crystal Lake – Showplace I-II-III (22 weeks)
07.22.1977 … Aurora – West Plaza Cinema 1-2-3 (13 weeks)
07.22.1977 … Chicago – Ford City I-II-III (22 weeks)
07.22.1977 … Chicago – Nortown (21 weeks)
07.22.1977 … Merrillville, IN – Y&W Drive-In (5 weeks)
07.22.1977 … Mount Prospect – Mt. Prospect (22 weeks)
07.22.1977 … Naperville – Ogden 6 (#1: 22 weeks)
07.22.1977 … Naperville – Ogden 6 (#2: 13 weeks)
07.22.1977 … Wheeling – Twin Drive-In (12 weeks)
07.29.1977 … Chicago – United Artists (21 weeks)
12.21.1977 … Vernon Hills – Hawthorn 1-2-3-4 (26 weeks) Dolby Stereo
12.23.1977 … Oak Brook – Oakbrook (30 weeks) 70mm-Dolby Stereo
This is another recent photo of the Esquire.
Here is a blog with some photos of the Esquire:
http://tinyurl.com/249upt
My mistake; that was in fact a Sun-Times article.
The Esquire appears to remain doomed, but the plans for the site have again changed. Chicago Tribune article
Correction re. above post – 70mm STAR WARS here in Chicago area: the EDENS in NorthBrook ran it in 70mm right from the (May ‘77) start. Also they seemed to be the very last house to play it – a total of about a year.
as late as early summer, the marquee was still lit up at night too.
So I was on Oak Street last week and I noticed that demolition has not yet begun on the Esquire. The marquee is still being used for public service announcements and Citibank is still occupying the first floor. I thought that demolition would begin in April or May, 2007.
Great looking building but inside- cold as ice. Shouldnt be makeing way for redevelopment tho.
Thanks for the info, folks.
I was the manager at the Esquire during the initial Star Wars run in Chicago, Memorial Weekend 1977. It did premier here (and at 3 other theaters in the outlying areas) and it was a 35mm print. It was also craziness on steroids.
It wasen’t in 70MM. I have the ad from 5/27/77. In fact, there wasn’t a 70MM engagement of Star Wars in the Chicago area until 12/23/77 when Oakbrook played it 70MM.
It did open at the Esquire. Not sure whether it was 70 or not.
Loss of memory cells here. Can anybody either verify or disprove the notion that a 70mm print of “Star Wars” played here either from the opening in May, 1977 or beginning at some point thereafter? Thanks
Here is a rather artistic interpretation of the Esquire Theater Marquee.