Southtown Theatre
610 W. 63rd Street,
Chicago,
IL
60621
610 W. 63rd Street,
Chicago,
IL
60621
15 people
favorited this theater
Showing 101 - 124 of 124 comments
THANKS FOR THE INFORMATION JIM. MY PARENTS ALWAYS TALKED ABOUT HOW BEAUTIFUL THAT THEATRE WAS. I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE IT.
See my comment of April 28, 2004 above for the source of many very decent photos of the SOUTHTOWN, still available as a Back Issue of their “Marquee” magazine for a mere $5 plus S&H. This is less than the price of one 8x10 print today!
I went to the Southtown one time only. I was very young and my Mom and Dad couldn’t find a sitter. All I can remember about the inside was how big and beautiful it was and of course the birds. I cannot find a decent picture of the exterior of the theater, let alone the opulent inside.
Nope. I think I might have a drawing at home though.
Brian: is there a HAARGIS photo of the Rhodes on 79th Street?
I visited the Southtown as it was being demolished. Found my way through the lobby and into a damp store room at the base of the multi-story tower. It was a hollow structure. So, from this store room you could look all the way up to the top. It was an unexpected, strange, and shocking sight.
From the looks of it, many of the design features were in relatively decent shape right up until the end. There was still cardboard poster art sitting around too.
Too bad. But I suppose the place probably needed costly renovations to function in any capacity after all those years. If I were a property owner with no interest in theatres I suppose I would have made the same decision.
Here is a profile from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency’s HAARGIS system. It includes a small picture, as Carr’s.
A May 1, 1985 Tribune article notes that Carr’s had put the Southtown up for sale. It also notes that Carr’s purchased it for 2.5 million in 1958 and the sale price in 1985 was S295,000.
Here’s another tale from the Southtown. When Dick Contino played there he came out into the east parking lot to toss a football around with some of the ushers before the first stage show of the day.His manager came out screaming and was so red I thought he was going to have a heart attack. I guess he didn’t want any jamed fingers to his star but Dick just laughed and stopped.He stayed out there for about half an hour signing autographs for the people. I have one somewhere in my memophelia from Englewood. A neighborhood that had it all,The Total Package!!!!! I seen Dick Contino in Las Vegas and he still is MR.ACCORDION.
Gerry, Skateland was on 60th and Halsted on the East side of the street. It closed and they turned it into a Schlitz beer warehouse in about 1950. Brucks bowling alley was at 61st.and Halsted about three doors south up on the second floor on the west side of the street. It had sixteen alleys and old hand rack pin spotters. It became Southtown Recreation and was still there When I moved in 1958.Spotted pins up there a few times as it was just another way of getting a little change to support my awfull habit of soda pop and theatres.We got Three cents a line as bowling was 20 cents a line.
Chuckie Z.
Chuckie,
In your post before the one above, you mentioned things that I did eight years later. You’re correct, in that there seemed to be seasons for everything. Exactly the ones you mentioned, year after year. You mentioned two skating rinks: Skateland (60th & Halsted)I think was closed when I lived there. Was it on the east side of Halsted? Same with Brucks Bowling Alley; where exactly was that? Do you remember Arrow’s Candy Store at 61st & Halsted? Penny candy heaven. I do remember the Planet Skating Rink (76th & Racine). We went there every Saturday afternoon. The organist would call “Waltzers Only” or “Couples Only” and we’d have to get off the floor or “Skating Backwards Only”, something I never mastered. As for Kershaw playground, one my brothers was on their wrestling team. They’d play against other playgrounds, just like a league. One more thing, the shop-lifting at Kresge’s. I did it too. It was so easy. I’d stand in front of the counter and stick things down my shirt. I stopped when my mother got curious about my new-found plunder. Glad she did.
I am starting to feel pesty but one other thing I forgot to mention.In the forties and fiftieswe usually had to go down town to the Chicago and State and Lake theatres to see big name entertainers such as Gene Krupa,Nat King Cole and one of my favorites Don Cornell but the Southtown and Stratford brought some down to Englewood.I remember Penny Singleton from the Dagwood movies Johnny Johnston, Johnnie Ray and for all the oldsers who remember when accordions were cool Mr.Accordion the great Dick Contino and the Horace Hight revue which by the way was a sell out. At a time when admissions were seventeen cents for an adult it always makes me wonder just how much money these entertainers made as you still seen two movies and they had a full orchestra in the pits!!!! I’m outta here,see ya!
Well sir, now you’ve hit my soft spot!The Harvard was the seventh and I went there many times. It was just a basic theatre. No frills very small.Now I don’t think you would remember that during the war years they turned the Empress into a burlesk house for a short term but it did'nt work.That was the time when admission was two cents at the Empress and a nickel at the Linden.We used to stand in line at the Linden on cartoon Saturday to see fifteen cartoons and then the regular show which was 3 full lenth features four weeks of coming attractions, a travelog, a newsreel,sometimes a comedy short all for 5 cents. we would go to the show at 12:30 and it would be dark out when we got out.Mom would get rid of us for the day! Then if you did'nt have the price there was always something to doin the neighborhood.We Ogden park with a pool, Sherman park with a pool,The YMCA where you could get a full course meal in the cafeteria for a quarter, two roller rinks(Skateland on 60th. and Halsted and the Planet on76th and Racine.We also had the pool room next to the Englwood behind the barber shop for when you got a little older and Brucks bowling alley on 61st and Halsted.And then last but not least the best,The old Kershaw school playground. it had supervised field houses where there was always something going on. You could always get a baseball or football or basketball to play with.It was flooded in the winter for ice skateing and sledding. They had crafts, Ping Pong wrestling little wooden projects and all free.Parents never worried about the kids. They new they were in the neighborhood somewhere having fun.Occasionally they might get into trouble for shop lifting something from Kresges dime store but what are ya going to do they were kids!!!Ther was a season for everthing, bean blowers, hi-li paddles Yo Yo’s, marbles, God those were good days. I could go on and on but I’ll give you a break for now and by the way I am sixty eight years old and still a kid!!!!! Stay in touch.
Chuckie Z.
Chuckie,
Great to read your post. I hope you read all the posts for the Southtown. I have two others prior to this one that you’ll find my experiences very similar to yours.
I forgot to mention the increase from nine-cent admission price to twenty-five cents to theaters in 1953 (or ‘shows’ as we also referred to them). I think that worked out to a 277% increase. No small amount for those times. Our mother used to give us fifteen cents for the show: Nine cents for admission and six cents' worth of candy from the Ace Department Store at 63rd & Halsted Sts. I felt devastated by that hike. I thought I’d never get into those shows ever again.
You mentioned the Southtown ‘was one of seven theaters in the Englewood Neighborhood …’ I remember only six (63rd St.: Southtown, Englewood, Stratford, and Linden; and Halsted St: the Empress and Kim). I know there were others in Englewood further out that had closed down earlier (the Harvard at 63rd & Harvard St. being one). What was the seventh? Speaking of the Harvard, do you remember it?
I’d like to hear more about your Englewood experiences. I have postings on all of the theaters in the Englewood district. The posting I have on the Ace Theater (you and I knew it as the Kim but it’s listed here as the Ace) that you might appreciate. I exchanged postings with a another Englewoodian named Quixote. You can read them on the Ace Theater site. His experiences were quite similar to mine.
Your last sentence reflects my feelings about Englewood exactly: ‘… remember with fondness … a neighborhood that was a kid’s dream!’ Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Tell me what else you remember about Englewood.
GerryC
You are right it was a Balaban&Katz theatre as was the Chicago.It was one of seven theatres in the Englewood Neighborhood and the grandest.As a kid I lived directly across the street and could look down on the front and ticket office.I remember it being so busy that they would have a usher out front with a drum major hat and a cape yelling 45 minute wait for all seats and there were lines all the way to the China Clipper restaurant midway between Lowe ave, and Union ave. as the Southtown was really at 63rd. and Lowe. It was the first to give up the stage shows in the forties. but two other theatres the Stratford and Englewood continued till the early fifties.They played two features newsreels coming attractions and a cartoon for the admission of 9 cents for a kid and you could watch them over in air conditioning.The Southtown was truly a master piece in decor luxury and in the stage era they always had a live orchestra in the pit.I will always remember that show as we called them with fondness in a neighborhood that was a kids dream!
Chuckie Z.
I noticed that the Southtown had “unknown” in the above notation for “Chain:”. I remember that (in the 50s) all persons working at the Southtown had “Balaban & Katz” embroidered someplace on their uniforms.
We kids (early 1950s) always went to the Southtown on Sunday; seemed like everybody in the neighborhood was there. It was beautiful. I remember the duck pond, the plush carpeting with lounging sofas, the little playroom, and the dioramas of Chicago history in the balcony foyer. That of the Chicago Fire was always the favorite diorama. Strangely, I saw the kids' playroom only opened once during that time. Maybe they only opened it during evening performances. The Southtown had a parking lot on both sides of the theater. Rarely did they have cars in it as the theater was within walking distance for most everybody.
One Sunday in 1952, I saw a kid run across the stage during a movie. About half the audience laughed and applauded him. It turned out to be my 10-year-old brother. Somebody dared him to do it for 25 cents and he was, of course, up for it.
A few little-known items about the Southtown: At the top of the exterior tower was a mooring set-up for dirigibles if the airship’s crew wanted to stop and see a movie.
However, directly across from the Southtown, a most notorious building once occupied the SE corner (where the post office now stands). In that building housed the infamous “Dr. Holmes' Murder Castle.” He had a hotel constructed there in 1893 for out-of-town tourists attending the Chicago World’s Fair of that year. It came with secret panels, hidden rooms, and trap doors that eventually led to the basement acid vats. Guests checked in but never checked out. By the time the Chicago Police Dept. uncovered his gruesome deeds, more than 100 persons had been killed. While on trial in Philadelphia (for murders he committed there), the hotel mysteriously burned down. He went to the gallows in 1896 at a Philadelphia prison. Dr. Holmes (real name: Herman Mudgett) is considered America’s first mass murderer. For more details, consult “The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson. This book was on the national best-seller list while in hard cover and remains in 3rd place on both L.A. Times and N.Y. Times current paperback best-sellers (46 consecutive weeks).
I was only in the Southtown once (in 1962) after it became Carr’s department store. Most everything was still there except the seats in the auditorium. In their place stood card tables with piles of clothes just tossed on them, not sorted or laid out. I drove by the site of the old Southtown when I visited Chicago last year. Now even the building’s gone, replaced by some sort of hardware store. What a beautiful theater that was.
—GerryC
Forty three wonderful, vintage b/w photos of the SOUTHTOWN during construction, at opening and in other views are in the special issue of Marquee magazine of the 3rd Qtr. of 1982 of the Theatre Historical Society of America. The white neon outlined fish pond with its heron sculptures is pictured along with those unique dioramas (some preserved at the THSA Museum of the American Movie Palace at their headquarters in Elmhurst, ILL.) in situ. While there are not scenes there of its days as a department store, there is a follow up story on a page of the issue of 3rd Qtr. 1996 where two unusual photos of its interior during construction are shown. The first mentioned issue also includes layout drawings as well as the auditorium photo showing faintly the patch in the ceiling where a workman in the attic had stepped off the catwalk onto the plaster ceiling and fell through it to his death. The SOUTHTOWN was a great loss, but at least it can still be relived through the many b/w and sepia full page 26 photos here. There was even an insert detailing its construction costs by item, along with several vintage ads.
PHOTOS AVAILABLE:
To obtain any available Back Issue of either “Marquee” or of its ANNUALS, simply go to the web site of the THEATRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA at:
www.HistoricTheatres.org
and notice on their first page the link “PUBLICATIONS: Back Issues List” and click on that and you will be taken to their listing where they also give ordering details. The “Marquee” magazine is 8-1/2x11 inches tall (‘portrait’) format, and the ANNUALS are also soft cover in the same size, but in the long (‘landscape’) format, and are anywhere from 26 to 40 pages. Should they indicate that a publication is Out Of Print, then it may still be possible to view it via Inter-Library Loan where you go to the librarian at any public or school library and ask them to locate which library has the item by using the Union List of Serials, and your library can then ask the other library to loan it to them for you to read or photocopy. [Photocopies of most THSA publications are available from University Microforms International (UMI), but their prices are exorbitant.]
Note: Most any photo in any of their publications may be had in large size by purchase; see their ARCHIVE link. You should realize that there was no color still photography in the 1920s, so few theatres were seen in color at that time except by means of hand tinted renderings or post cards, thus all the antique photos from the Society will be in black and white, but it is quite possible that the Society has later color images available; it is best to inquire of them.
Should you not be able to contact them via their web site, you may also contact their Executive Director via E-mail at:
Or you may reach them via phone or snail mail at:
Theatre Historical Soc. of America
152 N. York, 2nd Floor York Theatre Bldg.
Elmhurst, ILL. 60126-2806 (they are about 15 miles west of Chicago)
Phone: 630-782-1800 or via FAX at: 630-782-1802 (Monday through Friday, 9AM—4PM, CT)
Anyone have any pictures of it when it was Carr’s or a flea market? I am curious whether it could have been restored and what it would have looked like with a department store occupying it.
Hooray!…..as usual Bryan krefft places something really interesting and well worht researching. Thankyou Bryan, from the other sie of the planet! (where the sun DOES shine) PAUL B.
The links Bryan posts are really interesting (this one is) but alot of the others especially the UCLA ones are ones I can’t open; thanks anyway, but if Bryan is able to post actual address links it would make people like me here in Australia really happy. the tram link above is a wonderful diversion and supports the comment I made months ago that tram websites often have cinema photos as well as the tram stops were where the cinemas were; as a result thay are a great extra source of cinema photos but are listed as tram photos.
I managed to see the inside of the Southtown when it was operating as Carr’s department store. It was still quite beautiful because much of the theatre was still intact. The balcony was still intact and there where lots of sculptures. There was another theatre less than a block away on 63rd but I can’t remember the name.
I played in the nursery but I wouldn’t stay there without my mother. I remember live swans in the pool. I saw “Blackboard Jungle” there.
THE SOUTHTOWN WAS DESIGNED AS MOORISH CASTLE,THE LOBBY HAD A LARGE FISH POND,WITH DUCKS AND GEESE. THE ENTRANCE WAS SET IN SPANISH TILE. THE CANDY COUNTER WAS OVAL SHAPED AND COULD SERVE PATRONS 360 DEGREES. AS YOU ENTERED,THERE WAS A SPIRAL STAIR CASE TO THE LEFT. AS YOU CLIMBED THE STAIRS ,YOU COULD LOOK DONE TO THE FISH POND AND WATER FALL. THE BALCONY HAD A LONG HALLWAY. SET INTO ONE WALL WAS SEVERAL PICTURE WINDOWS DEPICTING THE HISTORY OF CHACIGO. ALL OF THE DRINKING FOUNTAINS WERE EQUIPED WITH ELECTRIC EYES. THIS IS TO SAY WHEN THE PATRON LEANED FORWARD TO TAKE A DRINK OF WATER,THE BEAM WAS BROKEN AND THE WATER WENT ON. FROM THE TIME THE THEATER OPENED TILL THE 40,S THERE WAS A LIVE STAGE SHOW DURING THE MOVIE INTERMISSION.THE SOUTHTOWN WAS LOCATED AT 63RD AND HALSTED STREETS. ON THE FIRST FLOOR WAS A NURSEY,THERE WAS A SLIDE AND A SMALL MARRY-GO-ROUND LOTS OF TOYS AND SEVERAL CRIBS FOR BABYS AND A ATTENDENT IN A NURSES UNIFORM.ALL THE USHERS WERE DRESSED IN SMART LOOKING UNIFORMS.THE USHERS TOOK THE PATRONS TO THERE SEATS.I HAVE MANY MAGNIFICENT MEMORYS OF THIS THEATER. MY FATHER WAS A PROJECTIONEST THERE AND HE RAN THE FIRST AND LAST MOVIE THAT WAS SHOWN THERE,AND ALL IN BETWEEN.I SPENT MANY HOURS WITH HIM THERE.