The Bella Union Theatre is seen several times in background scenes in “Impact” (1949) which caught my eye and I researched its identity. See our photo gallery.
Pretty Prairie saves small town theater for the future
(by Kathy Hanks, Jun. 12, 2018)
The Blue Shoes Theatre in Pretty Prairie is now fully restored and renovated, Wednesday, June 6, 2018, after two storms caused significant damage to the building in July, 2013. Five years after the roof of Pretty Prairie’s theater blew off in a storm, it’s back in business and operated by local high school students.
For more than 30 years it was known as Pretty Prairie Civic Theatre but has been renamed the Blue Shoes Theatre because the words “Blue Shoes,” were painted on the bricks above the Collingwood General Merchandising store and spotted by Cliff Wray in a historic photograph. It was Wray, from Hutchinson, who restored the building before handing it over to the high school’s entrepreneur, career, and technical management classes.
“When I saw that picture I wanted to name it Blue Shoes,” Wray said. Blue Shoes were a brand of footwear sold back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Doc Martens of their day, Wray said.
Two back-to-back storms blew through Pretty Prairie during the summer of 2013 causing extensive structural damage to the 1890s buildings housing the Civic Theatre. It left the carpet in the lobby saturated and covered with chunks of plaster.
After the storm, Wray with Wray Roofing, was in town repairing the roof at Pretty Prairie Middle School. He heard about the damage to the theater which occupies the former Collingwood General Merchandising and Coal building and the State Bank, both once owned by the Collingwood family, early settlers of Pretty Prairie.
Wray was concerned when he heard talk that it might have to be torn down because the city couldn’t afford the repairs. So he went to the city council to see if he could buy the buildings and prevent an empty gap appearing on Main Street.
“I’m not from Pretty Prairie, but they always talked about the theater,” Wray said. “And tearing it down would be like pulling up roots underneath a tree.”
He was prepared to pay up to $500 for the buildings. However, the city sold the theater for $1.
It took several years, but with the help of the city, family, volunteers and his crew with Wray Roofing, the job was completed.
After giving it some thought, Wray, who has served on the Buhler School Board for 23 years, handed the theater over to the Pretty Prairie School District to use as an extension of their classrooms.
“Kids don’t have a lot of opportunities, and I thought what a great idea for them to run the theater,” Wray said.
It’s now their theater; they are invested, said Randy Hendrickson, superintendent.
Managing a theater fits into the high school’s entrepreneur, career, and technical management classes. They applied for and received a movie license. Then they were trained to be projectionists by Darrell Albright, who operated the Civic Theatre on a volunteer base for more than 30 years.
Students have already operated the theater on different occasions, including after-school movies on Fridays.
“I know the high school kids can do a good job,” Hendrickson said. “They will learn how to deal with people, showing up on time to work. They will learn about advertising and marketing. They’ll get a lot out of it.”
Already they have selected and ordered movies, others operate the projector while some get the popcorn ready, and others sell tickets in the original ticket booth. After the show, there is clean up detail including windows and bathrooms.
Hendrickson said the gift of the theater opens up a variety of learning opportunities with everything from entrepreneurial theater management and business to technology and theater classes.
Meeting in the lobby of the small theater on a recent morning with Hendrickson and Albright, Wray said that Darrell the former proprietor of the theater represented the past, while the school was the future.
In the 1920s the store was known as Grace Graber’s Dry Goods, then in 1936, the two stores and the bank were converted into the Civic Theatre. By 1955, television had killed the small town’s theater business, said Albright.
For the next few decades, the building was used for special town gatherings. Then in April 1981, Albright and his family re-opened with the movie “High Noon.”
Before the storm hit this town of 600 people, the Civic Theatre was the place to go for classic Saturday night movies. An “Our Gang” episode played before the feature film. That’s because Carl Switzer, who played Alfalfa in the series, briefly lived in Pretty Prairie while he was married to Dian Collingwood.
On a good year, about 3,000 people would come from around the area to see an old movie at the theater. It has also been used as a spot for class reunions and wedding receptions, especially popular with couples who met and fell in love at the theater.
This summer the Blue Shoes Theatre will host “Stage 9: On Broadway” at 2 p.m., June 24. All the proceeds will go to the career and technical education program for the entrepreneurial theater management
“If not for Cliff this would be a bare lot,” Hendrickson said. “We’re indebted to him for his work, time and for our kids to have this opportunity.”
The building dated to about 1910. The theatre proprietor remains unknown at this date. No ads were placed in 1913, and the 1914 Wright’s Kenosha Directory listed the space as occupied by tailor Ernest Gianantonio. Germano opened the Central Pharmacy on the corner space and it’s believed that for decades thereafter the former theatre space hosted a tavern. It’s now a parking lot. (Thanks to Al Westerman for his research on the West Side Theatre.)
he Plaza Theatre announced plans to offer drive-in movies in the Reineman’s True Value parking lot across from the theatre. The Plaza had offered classic pictures at the lot every August for years on its two-story inflatable screen. This year, owner Shad Branen said they plan to screen new pictures outdoors as well.The lot will be limited to 50 vehicles. Audio will be broadcast through an FM radio frequency.
Studios delayed the release of new pictures and suspended production for those slated to come out later this year. For this Saturday, the Plaza plans to screen the Disney and Pixar animated film “Onward,” which was what was showing at the Plaza when it closed in March. Patrons will pay $25 per vehicle which will include a $5 certificate for concessions either delivered to their vehicle or picked up themselves, though masks and social distancing is requested. The Plaza’s restrooms will also be available.
The show starts at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. Reservations will be taken only through plaza4.com and the Plaza Theatre’s Facebook page.
The Milky Way Drive-In Theatre opening at 6 p.m. on Friday evening, May 22, 2020 began a season of entertainment through Labor Day. “Onward” heralded its grand opening, followed by “Fast & Furious” and “Hobbs & Shaw” at 8:45 p.m. Tickets are $35 per car, limited to the number of seatbelts.
The theatre’s selection of food and drink includes hamburgers, Impossible burgers, hot dogs, French fries, popcorn (of course) and candy. Soft drinks available are Coke/Diet Coke, Sprite, and Mellow Yellow; adult beverages are Miller Lite, Coors Lite, Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy, Lakefront Riverwest Stein, Lakefront Brewery IPA and White Claw Raspberry & Mango. Bottled water is also available. Concession orders are made and paid for via app and delivered to your car via car-hop.
Adjacent stadium lavatories are open for use.
Mike Zimmerman is the CEO of ROC Ventures, developer of the Ballpark Commons mixed-use development and owner of the Milwaukee Milkmen baseball team.
Old Nortown Theater Lot on Western Avenue To Become a Wendy’s – by Linze Rice, January 28, 2016
WEST RIDGE — The site where the old Nortown Theater was built in 1931 along Western Avenue will soon become a Wendy’s fast food restaurant, according to records. In December, city officials approved a building exception for the drive-through restaurant, sponsored by Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th), and the Wendy’s website lists a new location coming to 6324 N. Western Ave.
Officials with the burger chain did not respond to requests for comment.
The property at 6324-46 N. Western Ave. was the home to the Nortown Theater from 1931-90 and was known for its nautical architectural themes — complete with mermaids on its facade — before trying to transition into the multiplex movie theater scene in 1984. The theater even housed a Wurlitzer organ before it was demolished in September 2007. The lot almost became a six-story condo building with retail and parking, property records show.
In January 2007, property owner and Dunkin' Donuts mogul Amrit Patel hired VOA Associates for work on the lot. By December 2008 VOA said in court documents it had “satisfactorily performed services” — but was still owed $90,746 by Patel. Patel also built the Monsoon Plaza across the street, which he planned to develop before the market crashed in 2008. The plaza was recently bought by BMW dealership owner Joe Perillo, though it’s not expected to become a car lot.
In May 2012, the property was foreclosed upon (in 2009 alone Patel faced 14 foreclosures and more than $28.4 million in owed fees — including $8.8 million for Monsoon Plaza’s construction) and by October it was bought by developer Adrian Tudor. Tudor was sued by the city in February 2013 for various code violations at the site, and in April he signed the building over to the city.
In October 2013, the city settled with Tudor, who agreed to pay $748 in fines and litigation fees, and legal documents show Tudor admitted to storing and parking vehicles at the property since December 2012.
The new blade sign was installed this week. Here’s a video on the project, coincidentally a good in-depth report on how it was accomplished. (Links vanish quickly here; it’s advised you copy the video.)
I’ve always been a fan of blade signs. These to me exemplify the presence of their host theatres in cities and demand our attention to them. So it’s especially rewarding to see the Warner getting a recreation of its blade sign back after 54 years. Here’s a video link to this job and perhaps the best documentary on their construction that you’ll find. (Links have a way of quickly going inactive, so it’s advised that you record the video quickly if it’s of interest.)
NEW ROXY THEATRE HAS GALA OPENING; Its 6,200 Seats Filled, While Throng in Streets Tries in Vain to Get In.
NOTABLES IN THE AUDIENCE
Good Wishes From Coolidge, Smith and Walker Are Flashed on Screen
(Mordaunt Hall, March 12, 1927)
The new Roxy Theatre, at Seventh Avenue and Fiftieth Street, which was opened last night amid a blaze of lights, is another monument to those story-telling shadows that started less than thirty years ago in dingy stores with tin-pan pianos and borrowed chairs. This new addition to New York’s great chain of entertainment houses seats 6,200 persons and was erected at a cost said to have been close to $10,000,000. Less than eighteen months ago on the site where this majestic building now stands were the old car barns. It is a fulfilment of the cherished ambition of S. L. Rothafel, better known as “Roxy,” whose first job in New York was that of a cash boy in a Fourteenth Street department store.Long before the hour set for the formal opening of the Roxy’s doors an imposing throng gathered. They were eager to see Gloria Swanson, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and other notables who were expected to be present. And judging by the many distinguished persons one noticed in the grand rotunda, everybody who was able to come was there. Miss Swanson, whose production, “The Love of Sunya” had the distinction of being the first presentation in this new theatre, arrived about 8:30, and she would have been earned off her feet had not several men gathered around her and escorted her to her seat in one of the orchestra rows. Other screen celebrities had similar experiences, and it was not the people on the sidewalk who forged around them but those who had gained admission to the building.
A Building of Distinction.
The Roxy Theatre has already been described in THE NEW YORK TIMES, and it lives up to all the eulogies written about it. It is a building of distinction with a pleasing color combination of old rose and dull gold to greet the eye. There are entrancing windows in the auditorium which are so lighted that it seems as if the sun were streaming through them. Looking back from the eighth or tenth row of the orchestra last night, there was an impressive sea of faces. It was a striking sight just to watch the packed auditorium from the rear rails, for this is a theatre that might be the home of opera, with its lofty proscenium arch, its comfortable seats, its striking loges and its roomy balcony. The aisles are unusually wide, and through them the uniformed attendants hurried back and forth knowing exactly the seats called for by the tickets. Yet with all its tremendous size there is, as Mr. Rothafel has explained, a certain feeling of intimacy about the structure.
How Roxy Got Idea for First Scene.
It was while Mr. Rothafel was leaning over the rail of a steamship bound for Europe that he obtained his idea for the opening scene in this theatre. It happens to be a burnt-orange sunset with the stars just visible in the sky. This was gradually transformed through streaky clouds into the American flag. It was accomplished with marked artistry, and the audience arose as the 110 men in the orchestra, guided by H. Maurice Jacquet, played “The Star-Spangled Banner. "Just before this impressive sight a man garbed as a monk appeared, and at the last words of his brief talk — "Let there be light” — a flood of light revealed the great band of musicians. Everything was done on a scale suitable to the size of the theatre. At first the ballet numbered about twenty, then more and more girls were added to the array of dancers until more than a hundred were on the stage at one time. There were old Southern melodies, including “The Suwanne River,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” sung by more than a hundred voices in a compelling setting.
Coolidge Letter on Screen.
Instead of having speeches Mr. Rothafel decided to use the screen, and so one read a letter from President Coolidge to Mr. Rothafel. It ran: “I wish to express my appreciation of what you have done to give real pleasure to the veterans in the Walter Reed and other hospitals through securing radio equipment for their use. And I am glad to learn that you are continuing your interest in this charitable work. "Secretary Wilbur’s communication read:"I wish through the good offices of the International News Reel to extend you very good wishes, for the navy appreciates the interest you have taken in the patients in our hospitals and the pleasure they have derived from the radios installed largely by reason of your efforts. Mayor Walker’s letter was as follows: "In wishing you every possible congratulation upon the occasion of the opening of the Roxy Theatre I feel that I am only one of the tremendous multitude of those who regard you with similar sentiments. The splendid entertainments which under your direction have been sent over the air into the homes of the nation have made millions of friends for you."I feel confident that the Roxy Theatre will win for you a comparatively great host of admirers. The dedication of the proceeds for the opening night for the purchasing of radio stations for institution for war veterans is only consistent with your many benevolences of the past. "I wish you every good fortune for years to come.
Telegram from Governor Smith.
Governor Alfred E. Smith sent a telegram which read: "You are soon to realize your ambition in furtherance of the pleasures of the public and I send hearty congratulations on the opening of the new Roxy Theatre together with the very best of good wishes for its future success."Vice President Charles G. Dawes sent the following message:"The new theatre, I am informed, is a splendid testimonial to Mr. Rothafel’s energy and business enterprise and I congratulate him."The orchestra had descended to a level below the stage during the screening of these documents, when it came up again (on the elevator platform), Erno Rapee officiated as conductor. Airs from the opera "Carmen” were played as a prelude to the screening of a Vitaphone feature, a scene from the second act of Bizet’s masterpiece. The efforts of the musicians were greeted with hearty applause and then Giovanni Martinelli and Jeanne Gordon were heard and seen (on the screen) in this scene from “Carmen.” Signor Martinelli’s rendition was as fine as his initial presentation, “Vesti la giubba,” from “I Pagliacci.” His voice burst from the screen with splendid synchronization with the movements of his lips. It rang through the great theatre as if he had himself been on the stage. Miss Gordon’s part in this performance was also striking.
Miss Swanson’s Skillful Acting.
Miss Swanson’s picture, “The Love of Sunya,” based on Max Marcin’s play, “The Eyes of Youth,” is an intriguing picture, with pardonable exaggerations, but none the less skillfully directed by Albert Parker, who was responsible for the direction of Douglas Fairbanks’s prismatic feature, “The Black Pirate.” And Miss Swanson herein gives a far better performance than in any other of her films in the last two years. This picture was started somewhat abruptly, for there was no main title flashed on the screen or a list of players and characters. Despite this omission the audience evidently became interested in the film story, which is one concerned with crystal gazing and seeing the future. The heroine, Sunya (Miss Swanson), has the chance to marry three men, and through a Hindu clairvoyant she is permitted to learn all that may happen to her as the wife, first of the impresario, then of the banker and finally of the diligent, handsome young hero.Mr. Parker has worked out expertly the idea of impressing on the audience the journey into the future. First Sunya is beheld sitting before the crystal; then there appear on the screen peculiar shapes and transparencies until one sees Sunya as the mistress of the impresario, impersonated by Andreas de Segurola. Sunya, toward the end of the episode, becomes tired of the bickering and recrimination between the impresario and herself and one night she seeks relief in wine. There is a stirring scene in which the heroine gives way to her temper, flinging everything, from from flowers to furniture, about the room, and finally, after causing the impresario to flee, she throws his hat and cane after him.Miss Swanson’s impersonation of the intoxicated singer in this chapter is excellent. She expresses sarcasm, anger, and gives a clever portrayal of the luxury-loving prima donna. Mr. Parker introduces effective ideas in telling this story, and the photographing and lighting are most artistic. Whether it is a scene of a revel in a drawing room or a talk between two men in the stage wings, Mr. Parker pictures it with originality, and he carefully keeps to the trend of the story, never permitting cinematics to interrupt the interest in the narrative.
Official List of Guests.
The official list of invited guests, which did not by any means include all of the well-known New Yorkers who were present, follows: Major Gen. Lejeune, Mayor Walker and Mrs. Walker, Gov. Moore of New Jersey, Gloria Swanson and the Marquis de la Falaise de la Coudraye, Mr. and Mrs. John Boles, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Parker, Mr. and Mrs. Allen Moore, Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Bedard, Count de Margoenant Rene Guetta, Gen. and Mrs. Stewart, Gen. Summerall, Senator Copeland, Senator Edwards, Senator Wagner, Senator Capper, Charles Chaplin, Irving Berlin, Mrs. Otto Kahn, Mrs. P. Kochanski, Will Hays, J. J. and Lee Shubert, Col. Fred'k Pope, Philip Russell, Harold Roberts, Charles Richardson, Mr. and Mrs. W. Atkinson, Herbert Lubin, Police Commissioner McLaughlin, John J. Dorman, John Kenion, John H. McCooey, K. F. Sutherland, Judge Edward Reigelman, Harold Lloyd, Joseph M. Schenck, Adolph S. Ochs, Mr. and Mrs. R. Rowland, May Allison, James R. Quirk, Keats Speed, Herbert B. Swope, Maj. H. C. Woodward, William T. Dewart, Walter Wanger, Sol Bloom, Theodore E. Burton, Jesse Lasky, Nathan Burkan, Paul Block, Lowell Sherman, Phil Payne, Pauline Garon, Lois Moran, Sam Katz, Lois Wilson, Mary Brian, Thomas Meighan, Hope Hampton, Ralph Pulitzer, Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Wright, Herbert J. Krapp, Dr. A. H. Gianinni, Magistrate Eliperin, Ben Bernie, Judge Mitchell May, Bor. Pres. Byrne, S. W. Straus, Alexander Lambert, A. Hammerstein, Joseph Plunkett, Texas Guinan, Bor. Pres. Miller, Gov. Trumbull of Connecticut, K. Binzausas, The British, Italian and Austrian Consuls General.
Highway 18 Outdoor Theatre near Jefferson to open June 19
Rob Thomas | The Capital Times
Lee Burgess, owner of the Highway 18 Outdoor Theatre in Jefferson, is shown here in this 2011 photo. Gov. Tony Evers announced Monday that drive-in theaters can open with proper restrictions.
Two weeks ago, Leo Burgess would have bet that the big screen at his drive-in theater, Highway 18 Outdoor Theatre near Jefferson, would stay dark for the entire summer because of coronavirus restrictions.
So Burgess was caught by surprise by Gov. Tony Evers’ order on Monday that allowed drive-in theaters in Wisconsin to operate.
“It actually came quite suddenly,” Burgess said Wednesday. “I’d been working with our industry reps and our lobbyists. But given how government usually works, I didn’t expect quick action.”
Executive Order #36 allows drive-ins to open, provided that they do not offer outdoor seating, reservations and payments are handled online if possible, and that patrons only leave their cars to pick up food and drinks or use the restroom. Food and drink sales have to comply with other “Safer at Home” restrictions, and theater employees may deliver food and drinks to their car.
“A semblance of normalcy returns,” George Rouman, president of the National Association of Theater Owners of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, said in a statement. “Based on the drive-in theater business model, this will enable guests to find some enjoyment and normalcy outside of their homes in a safe environment.”
Because he was unsure if the theater was even going to be able to operate this summer, Burgess said he is just this week starting to prepare the Highway 18 facility for opening. So the theater, located about 30 miles east of Madison, won’t open until Friday, June 19.
“It’ll be a short, flat season,” he said. “But a little bit’s better than nothing.”
The other big challenge facing drive-in theater operators is what movies to show. Movie studios have been pushing back all their releases, such as “Black Widow,” “No Time To Die” and “F9,” to the fall or next year because there are so few theaters open.
So for the first few weeks, Highway 18 will play classic retro films, Burgess said. He’s not announcing yet what those movies will be, but said that film distributors have been helpful. “They’ve been pretty good, making a lot of great titles available to us at reasonable terms.”
Right now, the first summer blockbuster set for theatrical release is the Christopher Nolan time-travel spy thriller “Tenet” on July 17, followed by Disney’s “Mulan” on July 31 and “Wonder Woman 1984 on Aug. 14.” If those movies don’t get delayed further (a big if), Burgess said Highway 18 will screen them.
Burgess said that with that vast majority of movie theaters closed, he doesn’t fault the studios for delaying those big tentpole films. But losing them will hurt business.
“I am just sitting here hoping against hope that they don’t pull those titles off the schedule,” he said. “If they do, that leaves the drive-in just showing old movies for the rest of the summer.”
Burgess said he’s not sure what kind of business the drive-in will see when he opens in June. But in addition to his regulars who come each summer, he does think new customers who have been “stir crazy” for several months and just want to go see a movie will show up as well.
“I think we’ll get some crowds,” he said. “How long that will last with retro titles is up in the air. It’ll be something of an experiment.” (Madison Capitol Times, May 15, 2020)
The Milwaukee Symphony hung a 50' recreation of the original Warner Theatre blade sign on its new home on the Saturday morning of May 9th. The original sign was removed in August of 1966 and its new replacement was created and installed by Milwaukee’s Poblocki Sign Company, which had created many of Milwaukee’s original theatre marquees and vertical signs. The Warner Theatre had been renamed the Centre in 1964. The original’s whereabouts are unknown and most likely it was not saved. The Symphony announced in February that its new home and performance venue would be named the Bradley Symphony Center, but the blade sign will say “Warner” as a tribute to the Art Deco movie palace.
Co-owner Shad Branen was determined that the Geneva Theatre would survive the coronavirus shutdown and re-emerge as a cultural center. He and his staff used this downtime to complete cleaning and interior renovation work. Damaged seats were repaired, computer software upgraded, and walls that needed touchup were painted.
“We will be opening up better and cleaner,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity to do cleaning and improvements throughout the buildings.”
At the Plaza Theater, Branen said they have stripped and epoxy sealed the floors, a process that typically requires 24 hours to dry, something near impossible when the theater is operational. They have also taken the opportunity to work on cleaning projects and update computer software.
The Plaza Theater originally opened in 1928, the same year as five other theaters opened in the Racine area. “All these theaters have a history dating back to the vaudeville era,” Branen said.
The Geneva Theatre was closed and dormant for years before Branen acquired the property and reopened it in March 2017 following an estimated $2 million restoration. The city extended a $900,000 loan for the effort, to be forgiven if Branen owns the theater for at least five years. It’s home to the Geneva Theatre Actors Guild, a group that presents live stage productions and contributes the proceeds to area charitable organizations. The Geneva Theatre Actors Guild planned to resume operations in the fall.
Branen said he had to throw away concession items such as pizza ingredients, and he is no longer ordering soft drinks or beer. He had planned to order a new movie screen, but the manufacturer is temporarily closed.
Branen said that he has approximately 20 employees total between two theaters, with a dozen who work at the Plaza in Burlington and some at work at both facilities.
While the theatre offers curbside concessions during limited hours on Friday and Saturday, Branen said the COVID-19 has forced him to furlough “virtually the entire staff.” Branen was recently approved for a paycheck protection program which allowed him to bring back some of his staff, but he looks forward to resuming normal operations as soon as possible. Movie studios currently are not releasing any new movies to theaters. “The biggest challenge theaters will face when reopening is what products will be available from the studios,” said Branen. Some studios have released films instead to online streaming services, but Branen said “I think there will always be a place for movie theaters, because people like to go out.”
Co-owner Shad Branen is determined that the Plaza Theater and Geneva Theater in Lake Geneva will survive the current coronavirus shutdown and will re-emerge as cultural centers. Branen and his staff are using this downtime to complete some cleaning and interior renovation work on the theatres, repairing damaged seats and more. The lobby floor has been seal-coated. Computer software has been upgraded. Walls that needed touching up were painted.
“We will be opening up better and cleaner,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity to do cleaning and improvements throughout the buildings.”
The Plaza Theatre floors have been stripped and epoxy-sealed, a process that typically requires 24 hours to dry, something near impossible when the theater is operational. The Plaza was fourplexed, closed briefly due to bankruptcy, and reopened approximately 20 years ago to its previous owner. Branen has owned the theater for 11 years.
Branen also owns Mercantile Hall, a wedding venue located at 425 N. Pine St., in Burlington. He said that he has approximately 20 employees total between the two theatres, with a dozen who work at the Plaza, and some employees at work at both facilities.
While the Plaza offers curbside concessions during limited hours on Friday and Saturday, Branen said the COVID-19 has forced him to furlough “virtually the entire staff.” Luckily, Branen was recently approved for a paycheck protection program which will allow him to bring back some of his staff. But he looks forward to resuming normal operations as soon as possible. “It’s all a waiting game,” Branen said. “Everyone is anxious to get back to work.”
Movie studios currently are not releasing any new movies to theaters. “The biggest challenge theaters will face when reopening is what products will be available from the studios,” Branen.
Some studios have released films instead to online streaming services, but Branen said he is not worried about it. “I think there will always be a place for movie theaters,” he said, “because people like to go out.”
Federal inspectors found multiple safety violations by a Kenosha-based subcontractor at the Fox Theater demolition site in February, according to citations issued to the company.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations to Recyclean, a demolition company, in March totaling $5,205 after observing electrical hazards and a lack of proper demolition plans on Feb. 5, which the company said in a statement it immediately fixed.
Recyclean worked as a subcontractor on the Fox Theater demolition and specializes in sustainable deconstruction and recycling of building materials, particularly those from historic properties. Urban Evolutions of Appleton served as the primary contractor on the project as contracted by Stevens Point.
The 126-year-old theater in downtown Stevens Point closed permanently in April 1986 and remained unused for decades despite efforts to reopen the building as a theater, performance space or a business incubator. The city took control of the building in late 2019 and tore down the back two-thirds with the goal of using the land and the remaining facade to attract a developer to build on the property.
Recyclean failed to use a ground fault circuit interrupter, a type of circuit breaker meant to protect against ground faults, when workers used extensions cords to power equipment, according to the citation. OSHA inspectors said they saw extension cords missing ground pins that workers used on lifting equipment and that other cords were not protected against sharp objects.
OSHA observed that the Kenosha company started demolition work before it had developed a demolition plan, which should include an engineering survey of the building’s condition and the possibility of unplanned collapses, according to the citation. The company said in a statement that it had not properly posted its plans at the site.
“These issues were immediately corrected and our employees will continue to practice industry leading safety standards in the growing deconstruction field,” according to a statement from Recyclean.
The final outcome of the case is pending corrective action on the violations, according to OSHA’s inspection database.
OSHA inspectors visited the Fox Theater demolition site in February as part of a planned inspection that observed the hazards affecting five workers, according to the citations. The visit from federal inspectors was not complaint-based and Recyclean was not given advanced notice, according to OSHA’s inspection database.
OSHA last fined the Kenosha company in 2014 for issues related to aerial lifts and asbestos abatement, which resulted in Recyclean paying $2,800 and $4,400 respectively in informal settlements with the regulatory agency.
The end of Chicago’s majestic rat-ridden movie palace (Mitch O'Connell)
Short story first- I heart movie palaces.
Now for the long story – I moved to Chicago in 1979 right after high school to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For a film lover, it was perfect time and place. I got to relish the last days of the cavernous decaying grindhouses where you could just lose the day watching action and horror schlock, and catch the evening screenings of the classic and cult at the revival theaters such as The Parkway, Varsity and Sandburg (among others). I’d have my first time exposure to so many great films as they should be seen, on the big screen with an appreciative audience. Double features of Hitchcock to Marx Brothers, to John Waters and David Lynch.
This is a story about one of the former, the majestic rat-ridden wonderful centers of entertainment that weren’t long for this earth. In its heyday, downtown Chicago was the place to catch a flick with dozens and dozens of downtown movie palaces projecting away day and night, but by 1989 only the Woods was left standing as the last surviving operating Loop movie theatre. Opened in 1940 with a yearlong showing of Gone With the Wind, for it went out with “I’m Gonna Get You Sucka” and “Hellraiser Hellbound 2” (not a pithy judgement call, I like ‘em all!). I went there for the first time when visiting my dad and happily stood in a line around the block to watch the James Bond flick “Diamonds Are Forever.”
Back then I was doing weekly drawings for a Chicago Tribune column titled “Around Town” where I’d illustrate whatever reporter Rick Kogan wanted to write about. I was also researching the history of Chicago theaters for a never-realized graphic novel (which, 34 years later, will finally turn into blog postings). This time I thought I’d slightly fudge the facts and let the tail wag the dog using the press phrase “I’m from the Chicago Tribune” to get an all-access pass to the Woods’ last day. The manager, who was around my age, lets me, my camera and note-taking yellow legal pad right in.
Today’s crowd for the 9am first showing consisted of three teens already caught up in talking back to a 40-foot-tall Isaac Hayes on the screen. The sleepy candy counter girl just seemed to be there out of habit. The popcorn machine is unplugged, there are no cups for soda and only 3 packs of candy are available under the glass display. I snapped away and worked my way up the 2 flights of stairs, stepped around the “Balcony Closed” sign, to the projectionist’s room door and knocked. Morton Krugman, projectionist for the Woods Theatre since 1953, lets me in. As soon as I get off my “I’m from the Tribune” greetings, a buzzer goes off warning that it’s one minute before the cue appears in the upper right hand corner of the screen to signal the reel change. When that shows, he has another 2 minutes before the next reel starts. Morton starts to rewind the wheel on the table which quickly spins until the last bit of celluloid feeds through, turning off the machine. Today’s films have been duly written on the pages he keeps secured to a clipboard chronicling the last 10 years of movies shown there.
I pester and photograph away for the next half hour asking every unprepared question that pops in my head.
I find out that normally his door is locked and chained to keep out the curious and intoxicated, but I just lucked out. Today was a late start since the manager didn’t get in until 8:50am but he still had to spend a half hour getting the machines ready. He’ll be able to get everything back to showtime schedule by just dropping out the coming attractions.
He can watch the movie through the glass panel in the room, but since he doesn’t like much of what’s being screened, prefers to watch the TV (channel 5 comes in great but he can’t get in channel 2). Right next to the TV is a tape player where he puts cassettes management supplies of “urban” music to pipe in during intermission, which he also doesn’t like and doesn’t listen to.
I ask to take a picture of him in his red chair that’s perched front of the viewing window. He objects.
“A projectionist sitting down! Are you crazy?!”
His long career has had him working at most of the Loop theaters. It’s in the blood as his father owned a chain of theaters all down Milwaukee Avenue. He remembers as a tot spending the day riding in a limo with dad to check on all the movie houses. It’s still a family affair since to get in the union you’ve got to already be related to a member. It’s also a strong union (the highest paid in the nation in fact). He started out at $60 a week and now he earns enough to easily retire. If fact, enough to have traveled to 30 countries over the years and, next week, has tickets to fly to Bora Bora with the wife. He started out like his father, acquiring second-run theaters that changed double features every three days, but ending up with an almost 40 years projectionist’s career. Along with two side businesses running a collection agency (including all Marshall Fields' accounts) and owning an “active seniors” complex, Mr. Krugman seems to be doing well.
Hobbies? Bridge every week.
He starts to tell me a story about projectionists who would have loud conversations in the booth and disturb the patrons. I keep on talking for another 10 minutes before it dawns on me that that was my cue to leave.
I chit-chat with some other staff, and former employees who are hanging out and reminiscing.
Within a month, the East West corner of Chicago and Randolph is an empty lot.
A GESTURE TO THROW NEW LIGHT ON THE GRANADA (Paul Gapp, Architecture critic, Chicago Tribune, 1987)
When this city saved the Chicago Theatre, it earned no right to turn its back on the three other major movie palaces of the 1920s surviving here. Those are the Uptown, the Avalon and the Granada—and among them, the Granada is perhaps the grandest of all.
You have probably seen the elaborately ornamented and arched terra cotta facade of the now-threatened Granada, which stands on a prominent site at 6433 N. Sheridan Rd.
But if youve never been inside the theater (which has been dark for several years except for a few rock concerts), you may wish to visit one of two photo exhibitions that will continue through July 31. One is on the fourth floor at the south end of the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.; the other at the Rogers Park Branch Library, 6907 N. Clark St.
The recently shot black and white photos of the Granada by Mike Williams are part of a suddenly escalating, last-ditch public effort to find a new use for the theater to prevent its demolition by developers who have talked about building an apartment tower in its place.
Architect Daniel D. Watts curated the photo exhibits. He also organized the Save the Granada Theater Committee, which is working in league with the Rogers Park Community Council and the Theater Historical Society.
Williams photographs show the exterior of the Granada, some of the more sweeping expanses of its interior and a number of its decorative details. The pictures also convey impressions of desolation and incipient decay in the 3,447-seat house, which opened in 1926.
The Granada is nominally Spanish baroque in style, although it manifests many of the other eclectic, whimsical and deliberately overblown twists and turns of form and ornamentation found in big urban stage-and-screen venues of the time. Its grand staircase, crystal chandeliers, stained glass, use of marble and bronze, coffered ceilings and acres of ornamented plaster give it a marvelously gaudy quality.
Cleveland-born Edward E. Eichenbaum designed the Granada while working for the architectural firm of Levy & Klein in Chicago. He had begun his career in Detroit with the distinguished Albert Kahn and at another point was associated with the Chicago-based design firm of A. Epstein & Sons.
Other Chicago theaters credited to Eichenbaum include the Regal and Diversey. He also designed the Palace in South Bend, Ind., and the Regent in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Eichenbaums love of legitimate theater originated during his student days at the University of Pennsylvania, and he even understudied the great George Arliss in ''Disraeli'' for a year when the play was running in Philadelphia.
Eichenbaum once called the Granada ''the greatest design I have ever been privileged to make,'' according to a 1983 article by Sharon Lindy published in Marquee magazine. Film palaces were being built so rapidly in the 1920s that Eichenbaum sometimes used the same terra cotta molds on different theaters, ingeniously assembling them into fresh configurations to save time and money. When the Granada was still on the drafting boards, Eichenbaum told an interviewer: ''I want this building to be paradise, so that the common man can leave his meager existence at the door and for a few hours feel that he, too, is among the very rich class that he reads about in the paper.''
Fifty years after he designed it, Eichenbaum returned to the Granada for a visit to receive a 1976 Marquee magazine award from Joseph DuciBella of the Theater Historical Society. Eichenbaum detested the plainness of modern theaters. ''Theyre nothing but barns,‘’ he said. Eichenbaum died in 1982.
The present effort to save the Granada is supported by DuciBella, a theater historian, and by preservationists. Early this month, a representative of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency said the Granada was a ‘'very good candidate’‘ for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Architect Watts, spearheading the Granada campaign, points out that most of the theater is unaltered and in good condition: Its original marble floor is sound, its organ intact, and even its original stage lighting is in working order.
The Granada does not have Chicago municipal landmark status as does the Chicago Theatre on downtown State Street, now a busy venue for live entertainment. Yet it doesnt necessarily make sense to compare the strategy or business rationale for saving the Granada with the scenario that led to the Chicagos salvation after a slide to the brink of demolition. The location, economics and re-use factors are disparate, after all.
Still, neither can such differences be used as alibis for shrugging off the Granada. The old North Side movie palace is part of the citys sociocultural fabric and its brilliant architectural heritage.
There is no doubt, then, about the Granadas credentials. And so we are left with the basic question about any major preservation effort: How many people care, and how hard are they willing to work?
In 1983, after the last devastating flood, the municipality bought the Electric Theatre building and contents, minus two projectors, from the Larson family for $12,600.
The Warner Grand Theatre will bear the name of late Allen-Bradley co-founder Harry Bradley and Peg Bradley. The Bradley family gave a combined $52 million to the MSO’s $139 million project. Donations came from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, David and Julia Uihlein, and Lynde Uihlein (the grandchildren of Harry and Peg Bradley and the children of philanthropist Jane Bradley Pettit). The Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation also made a significant gift to the project. The 1,650-seat auditorium will be named Allen-Bradley Hall to honor of the builders of the Allen-Bradley Company, founded in 1903 by Lynde and Harry Bradley. David and Julia Uihlein led the campaign which has raised over $128 million to date. The theatre is scheduled to open in the fall.
The last remaining funds needed for the Uptown Theatre should be available soon, we’re hearing. Ald. James Cappleman (46th) said so in an email to residents. Work on the building could begin shortly after that, and today Cappleman said funding will likely be in place by late spring.
The Uptown Theatre since 1981 has largely been maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers who spent their own money to make sure the theatre didn’t deteriorate.
The Bella Union Theatre is seen several times in background scenes in “Impact” (1949) which caught my eye and I researched its identity. See our photo gallery.
The Nob Hill Theatre is seen briefly in the 1948 feature “Impact”.
The Gate Theatre is seen in the distance briefly towards the beginning of “Impact” (1948).
Pretty Prairie saves small town theater for the future (by Kathy Hanks, Jun. 12, 2018)
The Blue Shoes Theatre in Pretty Prairie is now fully restored and renovated, Wednesday, June 6, 2018, after two storms caused significant damage to the building in July, 2013. Five years after the roof of Pretty Prairie’s theater blew off in a storm, it’s back in business and operated by local high school students.
For more than 30 years it was known as Pretty Prairie Civic Theatre but has been renamed the Blue Shoes Theatre because the words “Blue Shoes,” were painted on the bricks above the Collingwood General Merchandising store and spotted by Cliff Wray in a historic photograph. It was Wray, from Hutchinson, who restored the building before handing it over to the high school’s entrepreneur, career, and technical management classes.
“When I saw that picture I wanted to name it Blue Shoes,” Wray said. Blue Shoes were a brand of footwear sold back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Doc Martens of their day, Wray said.
Two back-to-back storms blew through Pretty Prairie during the summer of 2013 causing extensive structural damage to the 1890s buildings housing the Civic Theatre. It left the carpet in the lobby saturated and covered with chunks of plaster.
After the storm, Wray with Wray Roofing, was in town repairing the roof at Pretty Prairie Middle School. He heard about the damage to the theater which occupies the former Collingwood General Merchandising and Coal building and the State Bank, both once owned by the Collingwood family, early settlers of Pretty Prairie.
Wray was concerned when he heard talk that it might have to be torn down because the city couldn’t afford the repairs. So he went to the city council to see if he could buy the buildings and prevent an empty gap appearing on Main Street.
“I’m not from Pretty Prairie, but they always talked about the theater,” Wray said. “And tearing it down would be like pulling up roots underneath a tree.”
He was prepared to pay up to $500 for the buildings. However, the city sold the theater for $1.
It took several years, but with the help of the city, family, volunteers and his crew with Wray Roofing, the job was completed.
After giving it some thought, Wray, who has served on the Buhler School Board for 23 years, handed the theater over to the Pretty Prairie School District to use as an extension of their classrooms.
“Kids don’t have a lot of opportunities, and I thought what a great idea for them to run the theater,” Wray said.
It’s now their theater; they are invested, said Randy Hendrickson, superintendent.
Managing a theater fits into the high school’s entrepreneur, career, and technical management classes. They applied for and received a movie license. Then they were trained to be projectionists by Darrell Albright, who operated the Civic Theatre on a volunteer base for more than 30 years.
Students have already operated the theater on different occasions, including after-school movies on Fridays.
“I know the high school kids can do a good job,” Hendrickson said. “They will learn how to deal with people, showing up on time to work. They will learn about advertising and marketing. They’ll get a lot out of it.”
Already they have selected and ordered movies, others operate the projector while some get the popcorn ready, and others sell tickets in the original ticket booth. After the show, there is clean up detail including windows and bathrooms.
Hendrickson said the gift of the theater opens up a variety of learning opportunities with everything from entrepreneurial theater management and business to technology and theater classes.
Meeting in the lobby of the small theater on a recent morning with Hendrickson and Albright, Wray said that Darrell the former proprietor of the theater represented the past, while the school was the future.
In the 1920s the store was known as Grace Graber’s Dry Goods, then in 1936, the two stores and the bank were converted into the Civic Theatre. By 1955, television had killed the small town’s theater business, said Albright.
For the next few decades, the building was used for special town gatherings. Then in April 1981, Albright and his family re-opened with the movie “High Noon.”
Before the storm hit this town of 600 people, the Civic Theatre was the place to go for classic Saturday night movies. An “Our Gang” episode played before the feature film. That’s because Carl Switzer, who played Alfalfa in the series, briefly lived in Pretty Prairie while he was married to Dian Collingwood.
On a good year, about 3,000 people would come from around the area to see an old movie at the theater. It has also been used as a spot for class reunions and wedding receptions, especially popular with couples who met and fell in love at the theater.
This summer the Blue Shoes Theatre will host “Stage 9: On Broadway” at 2 p.m., June 24. All the proceeds will go to the career and technical education program for the entrepreneurial theater management
“If not for Cliff this would be a bare lot,” Hendrickson said. “We’re indebted to him for his work, time and for our kids to have this opportunity.”
The building dated to about 1910. The theatre proprietor remains unknown at this date. No ads were placed in 1913, and the 1914 Wright’s Kenosha Directory listed the space as occupied by tailor Ernest Gianantonio. Germano opened the Central Pharmacy on the corner space and it’s believed that for decades thereafter the former theatre space hosted a tavern. It’s now a parking lot. (Thanks to Al Westerman for his research on the West Side Theatre.)
he Plaza Theatre announced plans to offer drive-in movies in the Reineman’s True Value parking lot across from the theatre. The Plaza had offered classic pictures at the lot every August for years on its two-story inflatable screen. This year, owner Shad Branen said they plan to screen new pictures outdoors as well.The lot will be limited to 50 vehicles. Audio will be broadcast through an FM radio frequency. Studios delayed the release of new pictures and suspended production for those slated to come out later this year. For this Saturday, the Plaza plans to screen the Disney and Pixar animated film “Onward,” which was what was showing at the Plaza when it closed in March. Patrons will pay $25 per vehicle which will include a $5 certificate for concessions either delivered to their vehicle or picked up themselves, though masks and social distancing is requested. The Plaza’s restrooms will also be available.
The show starts at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. Reservations will be taken only through plaza4.com and the Plaza Theatre’s Facebook page.
The Milky Way Drive-In Theatre opening at 6 p.m. on Friday evening, May 22, 2020 began a season of entertainment through Labor Day. “Onward” heralded its grand opening, followed by “Fast & Furious” and “Hobbs & Shaw” at 8:45 p.m. Tickets are $35 per car, limited to the number of seatbelts.
The theatre’s selection of food and drink includes hamburgers, Impossible burgers, hot dogs, French fries, popcorn (of course) and candy. Soft drinks available are Coke/Diet Coke, Sprite, and Mellow Yellow; adult beverages are Miller Lite, Coors Lite, Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy, Lakefront Riverwest Stein, Lakefront Brewery IPA and White Claw Raspberry & Mango. Bottled water is also available. Concession orders are made and paid for via app and delivered to your car via car-hop.
Adjacent stadium lavatories are open for use.
Mike Zimmerman is the CEO of ROC Ventures, developer of the Ballpark Commons mixed-use development and owner of the Milwaukee Milkmen baseball team.
Under construction in May, 2020.
Installed in May, 2020.
Old Nortown Theater Lot on Western Avenue To Become a Wendy’s –
by Linze Rice, January 28, 2016
WEST RIDGE — The site where the old Nortown Theater was built in 1931 along Western Avenue will soon become a Wendy’s fast food restaurant, according to records. In December, city officials approved a building exception for the drive-through restaurant, sponsored by Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th), and the Wendy’s website lists a new location coming to 6324 N. Western Ave. Officials with the burger chain did not respond to requests for comment.
The property at 6324-46 N. Western Ave. was the home to the Nortown Theater from 1931-90 and was known for its nautical architectural themes — complete with mermaids on its facade — before trying to transition into the multiplex movie theater scene in 1984. The theater even housed a Wurlitzer organ before it was demolished in September 2007. The lot almost became a six-story condo building with retail and parking, property records show.
In January 2007, property owner and Dunkin' Donuts mogul Amrit Patel hired VOA Associates for work on the lot. By December 2008 VOA said in court documents it had “satisfactorily performed services” — but was still owed $90,746 by Patel. Patel also built the Monsoon Plaza across the street, which he planned to develop before the market crashed in 2008. The plaza was recently bought by BMW dealership owner Joe Perillo, though it’s not expected to become a car lot.
In May 2012, the property was foreclosed upon (in 2009 alone Patel faced 14 foreclosures and more than $28.4 million in owed fees — including $8.8 million for Monsoon Plaza’s construction) and by October it was bought by developer Adrian Tudor. Tudor was sued by the city in February 2013 for various code violations at the site, and in April he signed the building over to the city.
In October 2013, the city settled with Tudor, who agreed to pay $748 in fines and litigation fees, and legal documents show Tudor admitted to storing and parking vehicles at the property since December 2012.
https://www.newsbreakapp.com/n/0P4olLc3?s=a99&pd=03KtvuNZ
The new blade sign was installed this week. Here’s a video on the project, coincidentally a good in-depth report on how it was accomplished. (Links vanish quickly here; it’s advised you copy the video.)
https://www.newsbreakapp.com/n/0P4olLc3?s=a99&pd=03KtvuNZ
I’ve always been a fan of blade signs. These to me exemplify the presence of their host theatres in cities and demand our attention to them. So it’s especially rewarding to see the Warner getting a recreation of its blade sign back after 54 years. Here’s a video link to this job and perhaps the best documentary on their construction that you’ll find. (Links have a way of quickly going inactive, so it’s advised that you record the video quickly if it’s of interest.)
NEW ROXY THEATRE HAS GALA OPENING; Its 6,200 Seats Filled, While Throng in Streets Tries in Vain to Get In. NOTABLES IN THE AUDIENCE Good Wishes From Coolidge, Smith and Walker Are Flashed on Screen (Mordaunt Hall, March 12, 1927) The new Roxy Theatre, at Seventh Avenue and Fiftieth Street, which was opened last night amid a blaze of lights, is another monument to those story-telling shadows that started less than thirty years ago in dingy stores with tin-pan pianos and borrowed chairs. This new addition to New York’s great chain of entertainment houses seats 6,200 persons and was erected at a cost said to have been close to $10,000,000. Less than eighteen months ago on the site where this majestic building now stands were the old car barns. It is a fulfilment of the cherished ambition of S. L. Rothafel, better known as “Roxy,” whose first job in New York was that of a cash boy in a Fourteenth Street department store.Long before the hour set for the formal opening of the Roxy’s doors an imposing throng gathered. They were eager to see Gloria Swanson, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and other notables who were expected to be present. And judging by the many distinguished persons one noticed in the grand rotunda, everybody who was able to come was there. Miss Swanson, whose production, “The Love of Sunya” had the distinction of being the first presentation in this new theatre, arrived about 8:30, and she would have been earned off her feet had not several men gathered around her and escorted her to her seat in one of the orchestra rows. Other screen celebrities had similar experiences, and it was not the people on the sidewalk who forged around them but those who had gained admission to the building. A Building of Distinction. The Roxy Theatre has already been described in THE NEW YORK TIMES, and it lives up to all the eulogies written about it. It is a building of distinction with a pleasing color combination of old rose and dull gold to greet the eye. There are entrancing windows in the auditorium which are so lighted that it seems as if the sun were streaming through them. Looking back from the eighth or tenth row of the orchestra last night, there was an impressive sea of faces. It was a striking sight just to watch the packed auditorium from the rear rails, for this is a theatre that might be the home of opera, with its lofty proscenium arch, its comfortable seats, its striking loges and its roomy balcony. The aisles are unusually wide, and through them the uniformed attendants hurried back and forth knowing exactly the seats called for by the tickets. Yet with all its tremendous size there is, as Mr. Rothafel has explained, a certain feeling of intimacy about the structure. How Roxy Got Idea for First Scene. It was while Mr. Rothafel was leaning over the rail of a steamship bound for Europe that he obtained his idea for the opening scene in this theatre. It happens to be a burnt-orange sunset with the stars just visible in the sky. This was gradually transformed through streaky clouds into the American flag. It was accomplished with marked artistry, and the audience arose as the 110 men in the orchestra, guided by H. Maurice Jacquet, played “The Star-Spangled Banner. "Just before this impressive sight a man garbed as a monk appeared, and at the last words of his brief talk — "Let there be light” — a flood of light revealed the great band of musicians. Everything was done on a scale suitable to the size of the theatre. At first the ballet numbered about twenty, then more and more girls were added to the array of dancers until more than a hundred were on the stage at one time. There were old Southern melodies, including “The Suwanne River,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” sung by more than a hundred voices in a compelling setting. Coolidge Letter on Screen. Instead of having speeches Mr. Rothafel decided to use the screen, and so one read a letter from President Coolidge to Mr. Rothafel. It ran: “I wish to express my appreciation of what you have done to give real pleasure to the veterans in the Walter Reed and other hospitals through securing radio equipment for their use. And I am glad to learn that you are continuing your interest in this charitable work. "Secretary Wilbur’s communication read:"I wish through the good offices of the International News Reel to extend you very good wishes, for the navy appreciates the interest you have taken in the patients in our hospitals and the pleasure they have derived from the radios installed largely by reason of your efforts. Mayor Walker’s letter was as follows: "In wishing you every possible congratulation upon the occasion of the opening of the Roxy Theatre I feel that I am only one of the tremendous multitude of those who regard you with similar sentiments. The splendid entertainments which under your direction have been sent over the air into the homes of the nation have made millions of friends for you."I feel confident that the Roxy Theatre will win for you a comparatively great host of admirers. The dedication of the proceeds for the opening night for the purchasing of radio stations for institution for war veterans is only consistent with your many benevolences of the past. "I wish you every good fortune for years to come. Telegram from Governor Smith. Governor Alfred E. Smith sent a telegram which read: "You are soon to realize your ambition in furtherance of the pleasures of the public and I send hearty congratulations on the opening of the new Roxy Theatre together with the very best of good wishes for its future success."Vice President Charles G. Dawes sent the following message:"The new theatre, I am informed, is a splendid testimonial to Mr. Rothafel’s energy and business enterprise and I congratulate him."The orchestra had descended to a level below the stage during the screening of these documents, when it came up again (on the elevator platform), Erno Rapee officiated as conductor. Airs from the opera "Carmen” were played as a prelude to the screening of a Vitaphone feature, a scene from the second act of Bizet’s masterpiece. The efforts of the musicians were greeted with hearty applause and then Giovanni Martinelli and Jeanne Gordon were heard and seen (on the screen) in this scene from “Carmen.” Signor Martinelli’s rendition was as fine as his initial presentation, “Vesti la giubba,” from “I Pagliacci.” His voice burst from the screen with splendid synchronization with the movements of his lips. It rang through the great theatre as if he had himself been on the stage. Miss Gordon’s part in this performance was also striking. Miss Swanson’s Skillful Acting. Miss Swanson’s picture, “The Love of Sunya,” based on Max Marcin’s play, “The Eyes of Youth,” is an intriguing picture, with pardonable exaggerations, but none the less skillfully directed by Albert Parker, who was responsible for the direction of Douglas Fairbanks’s prismatic feature, “The Black Pirate.” And Miss Swanson herein gives a far better performance than in any other of her films in the last two years. This picture was started somewhat abruptly, for there was no main title flashed on the screen or a list of players and characters. Despite this omission the audience evidently became interested in the film story, which is one concerned with crystal gazing and seeing the future. The heroine, Sunya (Miss Swanson), has the chance to marry three men, and through a Hindu clairvoyant she is permitted to learn all that may happen to her as the wife, first of the impresario, then of the banker and finally of the diligent, handsome young hero.Mr. Parker has worked out expertly the idea of impressing on the audience the journey into the future. First Sunya is beheld sitting before the crystal; then there appear on the screen peculiar shapes and transparencies until one sees Sunya as the mistress of the impresario, impersonated by Andreas de Segurola. Sunya, toward the end of the episode, becomes tired of the bickering and recrimination between the impresario and herself and one night she seeks relief in wine. There is a stirring scene in which the heroine gives way to her temper, flinging everything, from from flowers to furniture, about the room, and finally, after causing the impresario to flee, she throws his hat and cane after him.Miss Swanson’s impersonation of the intoxicated singer in this chapter is excellent. She expresses sarcasm, anger, and gives a clever portrayal of the luxury-loving prima donna. Mr. Parker introduces effective ideas in telling this story, and the photographing and lighting are most artistic. Whether it is a scene of a revel in a drawing room or a talk between two men in the stage wings, Mr. Parker pictures it with originality, and he carefully keeps to the trend of the story, never permitting cinematics to interrupt the interest in the narrative. Official List of Guests. The official list of invited guests, which did not by any means include all of the well-known New Yorkers who were present, follows: Major Gen. Lejeune, Mayor Walker and Mrs. Walker, Gov. Moore of New Jersey, Gloria Swanson and the Marquis de la Falaise de la Coudraye, Mr. and Mrs. John Boles, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Parker, Mr. and Mrs. Allen Moore, Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Bedard, Count de Margoenant Rene Guetta, Gen. and Mrs. Stewart, Gen. Summerall, Senator Copeland, Senator Edwards, Senator Wagner, Senator Capper, Charles Chaplin, Irving Berlin, Mrs. Otto Kahn, Mrs. P. Kochanski, Will Hays, J. J. and Lee Shubert, Col. Fred'k Pope, Philip Russell, Harold Roberts, Charles Richardson, Mr. and Mrs. W. Atkinson, Herbert Lubin, Police Commissioner McLaughlin, John J. Dorman, John Kenion, John H. McCooey, K. F. Sutherland, Judge Edward Reigelman, Harold Lloyd, Joseph M. Schenck, Adolph S. Ochs, Mr. and Mrs. R. Rowland, May Allison, James R. Quirk, Keats Speed, Herbert B. Swope, Maj. H. C. Woodward, William T. Dewart, Walter Wanger, Sol Bloom, Theodore E. Burton, Jesse Lasky, Nathan Burkan, Paul Block, Lowell Sherman, Phil Payne, Pauline Garon, Lois Moran, Sam Katz, Lois Wilson, Mary Brian, Thomas Meighan, Hope Hampton, Ralph Pulitzer, Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Wright, Herbert J. Krapp, Dr. A. H. Gianinni, Magistrate Eliperin, Ben Bernie, Judge Mitchell May, Bor. Pres. Byrne, S. W. Straus, Alexander Lambert, A. Hammerstein, Joseph Plunkett, Texas Guinan, Bor. Pres. Miller, Gov. Trumbull of Connecticut, K. Binzausas, The British, Italian and Austrian Consuls General.
Highway 18 Outdoor Theatre near Jefferson to open June 19 Rob Thomas | The Capital Times
Lee Burgess, owner of the Highway 18 Outdoor Theatre in Jefferson, is shown here in this 2011 photo. Gov. Tony Evers announced Monday that drive-in theaters can open with proper restrictions.
Two weeks ago, Leo Burgess would have bet that the big screen at his drive-in theater, Highway 18 Outdoor Theatre near Jefferson, would stay dark for the entire summer because of coronavirus restrictions.
So Burgess was caught by surprise by Gov. Tony Evers’ order on Monday that allowed drive-in theaters in Wisconsin to operate.
“It actually came quite suddenly,” Burgess said Wednesday. “I’d been working with our industry reps and our lobbyists. But given how government usually works, I didn’t expect quick action.”
Executive Order #36 allows drive-ins to open, provided that they do not offer outdoor seating, reservations and payments are handled online if possible, and that patrons only leave their cars to pick up food and drinks or use the restroom. Food and drink sales have to comply with other “Safer at Home” restrictions, and theater employees may deliver food and drinks to their car.
“A semblance of normalcy returns,” George Rouman, president of the National Association of Theater Owners of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, said in a statement. “Based on the drive-in theater business model, this will enable guests to find some enjoyment and normalcy outside of their homes in a safe environment.”
Because he was unsure if the theater was even going to be able to operate this summer, Burgess said he is just this week starting to prepare the Highway 18 facility for opening. So the theater, located about 30 miles east of Madison, won’t open until Friday, June 19.
“It’ll be a short, flat season,” he said. “But a little bit’s better than nothing.”
The other big challenge facing drive-in theater operators is what movies to show. Movie studios have been pushing back all their releases, such as “Black Widow,” “No Time To Die” and “F9,” to the fall or next year because there are so few theaters open.
So for the first few weeks, Highway 18 will play classic retro films, Burgess said. He’s not announcing yet what those movies will be, but said that film distributors have been helpful. “They’ve been pretty good, making a lot of great titles available to us at reasonable terms.”
Right now, the first summer blockbuster set for theatrical release is the Christopher Nolan time-travel spy thriller “Tenet” on July 17, followed by Disney’s “Mulan” on July 31 and “Wonder Woman 1984 on Aug. 14.” If those movies don’t get delayed further (a big if), Burgess said Highway 18 will screen them.
Burgess said that with that vast majority of movie theaters closed, he doesn’t fault the studios for delaying those big tentpole films. But losing them will hurt business.
“I am just sitting here hoping against hope that they don’t pull those titles off the schedule,” he said. “If they do, that leaves the drive-in just showing old movies for the rest of the summer.”
Burgess said he’s not sure what kind of business the drive-in will see when he opens in June. But in addition to his regulars who come each summer, he does think new customers who have been “stir crazy” for several months and just want to go see a movie will show up as well.
“I think we’ll get some crowds,” he said. “How long that will last with retro titles is up in the air. It’ll be something of an experiment.” (Madison Capitol Times, May 15, 2020)
The Milwaukee Symphony hung a 50' recreation of the original Warner Theatre blade sign on its new home on the Saturday morning of May 9th. The original sign was removed in August of 1966 and its new replacement was created and installed by Milwaukee’s Poblocki Sign Company, which had created many of Milwaukee’s original theatre marquees and vertical signs. The Warner Theatre had been renamed the Centre in 1964. The original’s whereabouts are unknown and most likely it was not saved. The Symphony announced in February that its new home and performance venue would be named the Bradley Symphony Center, but the blade sign will say “Warner” as a tribute to the Art Deco movie palace.
Co-owner Shad Branen was determined that the Geneva Theatre would survive the coronavirus shutdown and re-emerge as a cultural center. He and his staff used this downtime to complete cleaning and interior renovation work. Damaged seats were repaired, computer software upgraded, and walls that needed touchup were painted.
“We will be opening up better and cleaner,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity to do cleaning and improvements throughout the buildings.”
At the Plaza Theater, Branen said they have stripped and epoxy sealed the floors, a process that typically requires 24 hours to dry, something near impossible when the theater is operational. They have also taken the opportunity to work on cleaning projects and update computer software.
The Plaza Theater originally opened in 1928, the same year as five other theaters opened in the Racine area. “All these theaters have a history dating back to the vaudeville era,” Branen said. The Geneva Theatre was closed and dormant for years before Branen acquired the property and reopened it in March 2017 following an estimated $2 million restoration. The city extended a $900,000 loan for the effort, to be forgiven if Branen owns the theater for at least five years. It’s home to the Geneva Theatre Actors Guild, a group that presents live stage productions and contributes the proceeds to area charitable organizations. The Geneva Theatre Actors Guild planned to resume operations in the fall.
Branen said he had to throw away concession items such as pizza ingredients, and he is no longer ordering soft drinks or beer. He had planned to order a new movie screen, but the manufacturer is temporarily closed. Branen said that he has approximately 20 employees total between two theaters, with a dozen who work at the Plaza in Burlington and some at work at both facilities.
While the theatre offers curbside concessions during limited hours on Friday and Saturday, Branen said the COVID-19 has forced him to furlough “virtually the entire staff.” Branen was recently approved for a paycheck protection program which allowed him to bring back some of his staff, but he looks forward to resuming normal operations as soon as possible. Movie studios currently are not releasing any new movies to theaters. “The biggest challenge theaters will face when reopening is what products will be available from the studios,” said Branen. Some studios have released films instead to online streaming services, but Branen said “I think there will always be a place for movie theaters, because people like to go out.”
Co-owner Shad Branen is determined that the Plaza Theater and Geneva Theater in Lake Geneva will survive the current coronavirus shutdown and will re-emerge as cultural centers. Branen and his staff are using this downtime to complete some cleaning and interior renovation work on the theatres, repairing damaged seats and more. The lobby floor has been seal-coated. Computer software has been upgraded. Walls that needed touching up were painted.
“We will be opening up better and cleaner,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity to do cleaning and improvements throughout the buildings.”
The Plaza Theatre floors have been stripped and epoxy-sealed, a process that typically requires 24 hours to dry, something near impossible when the theater is operational. The Plaza was fourplexed, closed briefly due to bankruptcy, and reopened approximately 20 years ago to its previous owner. Branen has owned the theater for 11 years.
Branen also owns Mercantile Hall, a wedding venue located at 425 N. Pine St., in Burlington. He said that he has approximately 20 employees total between the two theatres, with a dozen who work at the Plaza, and some employees at work at both facilities.
While the Plaza offers curbside concessions during limited hours on Friday and Saturday, Branen said the COVID-19 has forced him to furlough “virtually the entire staff.” Luckily, Branen was recently approved for a paycheck protection program which will allow him to bring back some of his staff. But he looks forward to resuming normal operations as soon as possible. “It’s all a waiting game,” Branen said. “Everyone is anxious to get back to work.”
Movie studios currently are not releasing any new movies to theaters. “The biggest challenge theaters will face when reopening is what products will be available from the studios,” Branen.
Some studios have released films instead to online streaming services, but Branen said he is not worried about it. “I think there will always be a place for movie theaters,” he said, “because people like to go out.”
Federal inspectors found multiple safety violations by a Kenosha-based subcontractor at the Fox Theater demolition site in February, according to citations issued to the company.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations to Recyclean, a demolition company, in March totaling $5,205 after observing electrical hazards and a lack of proper demolition plans on Feb. 5, which the company said in a statement it immediately fixed.
Recyclean worked as a subcontractor on the Fox Theater demolition and specializes in sustainable deconstruction and recycling of building materials, particularly those from historic properties. Urban Evolutions of Appleton served as the primary contractor on the project as contracted by Stevens Point.
The 126-year-old theater in downtown Stevens Point closed permanently in April 1986 and remained unused for decades despite efforts to reopen the building as a theater, performance space or a business incubator. The city took control of the building in late 2019 and tore down the back two-thirds with the goal of using the land and the remaining facade to attract a developer to build on the property.
Recyclean failed to use a ground fault circuit interrupter, a type of circuit breaker meant to protect against ground faults, when workers used extensions cords to power equipment, according to the citation. OSHA inspectors said they saw extension cords missing ground pins that workers used on lifting equipment and that other cords were not protected against sharp objects.
OSHA observed that the Kenosha company started demolition work before it had developed a demolition plan, which should include an engineering survey of the building’s condition and the possibility of unplanned collapses, according to the citation. The company said in a statement that it had not properly posted its plans at the site.
“These issues were immediately corrected and our employees will continue to practice industry leading safety standards in the growing deconstruction field,” according to a statement from Recyclean.
The final outcome of the case is pending corrective action on the violations, according to OSHA’s inspection database.
OSHA inspectors visited the Fox Theater demolition site in February as part of a planned inspection that observed the hazards affecting five workers, according to the citations. The visit from federal inspectors was not complaint-based and Recyclean was not given advanced notice, according to OSHA’s inspection database.
OSHA last fined the Kenosha company in 2014 for issues related to aerial lifts and asbestos abatement, which resulted in Recyclean paying $2,800 and $4,400 respectively in informal settlements with the regulatory agency.
The end of Chicago’s majestic rat-ridden movie palace (Mitch O'Connell)
Short story first- I heart movie palaces. Now for the long story – I moved to Chicago in 1979 right after high school to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For a film lover, it was perfect time and place. I got to relish the last days of the cavernous decaying grindhouses where you could just lose the day watching action and horror schlock, and catch the evening screenings of the classic and cult at the revival theaters such as The Parkway, Varsity and Sandburg (among others). I’d have my first time exposure to so many great films as they should be seen, on the big screen with an appreciative audience. Double features of Hitchcock to Marx Brothers, to John Waters and David Lynch. This is a story about one of the former, the majestic rat-ridden wonderful centers of entertainment that weren’t long for this earth. In its heyday, downtown Chicago was the place to catch a flick with dozens and dozens of downtown movie palaces projecting away day and night, but by 1989 only the Woods was left standing as the last surviving operating Loop movie theatre. Opened in 1940 with a yearlong showing of Gone With the Wind, for it went out with “I’m Gonna Get You Sucka” and “Hellraiser Hellbound 2” (not a pithy judgement call, I like ‘em all!). I went there for the first time when visiting my dad and happily stood in a line around the block to watch the James Bond flick “Diamonds Are Forever.” Back then I was doing weekly drawings for a Chicago Tribune column titled “Around Town” where I’d illustrate whatever reporter Rick Kogan wanted to write about. I was also researching the history of Chicago theaters for a never-realized graphic novel (which, 34 years later, will finally turn into blog postings). This time I thought I’d slightly fudge the facts and let the tail wag the dog using the press phrase “I’m from the Chicago Tribune” to get an all-access pass to the Woods’ last day. The manager, who was around my age, lets me, my camera and note-taking yellow legal pad right in. Today’s crowd for the 9am first showing consisted of three teens already caught up in talking back to a 40-foot-tall Isaac Hayes on the screen. The sleepy candy counter girl just seemed to be there out of habit. The popcorn machine is unplugged, there are no cups for soda and only 3 packs of candy are available under the glass display. I snapped away and worked my way up the 2 flights of stairs, stepped around the “Balcony Closed” sign, to the projectionist’s room door and knocked. Morton Krugman, projectionist for the Woods Theatre since 1953, lets me in. As soon as I get off my “I’m from the Tribune” greetings, a buzzer goes off warning that it’s one minute before the cue appears in the upper right hand corner of the screen to signal the reel change. When that shows, he has another 2 minutes before the next reel starts. Morton starts to rewind the wheel on the table which quickly spins until the last bit of celluloid feeds through, turning off the machine. Today’s films have been duly written on the pages he keeps secured to a clipboard chronicling the last 10 years of movies shown there. I pester and photograph away for the next half hour asking every unprepared question that pops in my head. I find out that normally his door is locked and chained to keep out the curious and intoxicated, but I just lucked out. Today was a late start since the manager didn’t get in until 8:50am but he still had to spend a half hour getting the machines ready. He’ll be able to get everything back to showtime schedule by just dropping out the coming attractions. He can watch the movie through the glass panel in the room, but since he doesn’t like much of what’s being screened, prefers to watch the TV (channel 5 comes in great but he can’t get in channel 2). Right next to the TV is a tape player where he puts cassettes management supplies of “urban” music to pipe in during intermission, which he also doesn’t like and doesn’t listen to. I ask to take a picture of him in his red chair that’s perched front of the viewing window. He objects. “A projectionist sitting down! Are you crazy?!” His long career has had him working at most of the Loop theaters. It’s in the blood as his father owned a chain of theaters all down Milwaukee Avenue. He remembers as a tot spending the day riding in a limo with dad to check on all the movie houses. It’s still a family affair since to get in the union you’ve got to already be related to a member. It’s also a strong union (the highest paid in the nation in fact). He started out at $60 a week and now he earns enough to easily retire. If fact, enough to have traveled to 30 countries over the years and, next week, has tickets to fly to Bora Bora with the wife. He started out like his father, acquiring second-run theaters that changed double features every three days, but ending up with an almost 40 years projectionist’s career. Along with two side businesses running a collection agency (including all Marshall Fields' accounts) and owning an “active seniors” complex, Mr. Krugman seems to be doing well. Hobbies? Bridge every week. He starts to tell me a story about projectionists who would have loud conversations in the booth and disturb the patrons. I keep on talking for another 10 minutes before it dawns on me that that was my cue to leave. I chit-chat with some other staff, and former employees who are hanging out and reminiscing. Within a month, the East West corner of Chicago and Randolph is an empty lot.
A GESTURE TO THROW NEW LIGHT ON THE GRANADA (Paul Gapp, Architecture critic, Chicago Tribune, 1987) When this city saved the Chicago Theatre, it earned no right to turn its back on the three other major movie palaces of the 1920s surviving here. Those are the Uptown, the Avalon and the Granada—and among them, the Granada is perhaps the grandest of all. You have probably seen the elaborately ornamented and arched terra cotta facade of the now-threatened Granada, which stands on a prominent site at 6433 N. Sheridan Rd. But if you
ve never been inside the theater (which has been dark for several years except for a few rock concerts), you may wish to visit one of two photo exhibitions that will continue through July 31. One is on the fourth floor at the south end of the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.; the other at the Rogers Park Branch Library, 6907 N. Clark St. The recently shot black and white photos of the Granada by Mike Williams are part of a suddenly escalating, last-ditch public effort to find a new use for the theater to prevent its demolition by developers who have talked about building an apartment tower in its place. Architect Daniel D. Watts curated the photo exhibits. He also organized the Save the Granada Theater Committee, which is working in league with the Rogers Park Community Council and the Theater Historical Society. Williamsphotographs show the exterior of the Granada, some of the more sweeping expanses of its interior and a number of its decorative details. The pictures also convey impressions of desolation and incipient decay in the 3,447-seat house, which opened in 1926. The Granada is nominally Spanish baroque in style, although it manifests many of the other eclectic, whimsical and deliberately overblown twists and turns of form and ornamentation found in big urban stage-and-screen venues of the time. Its grand staircase, crystal chandeliers, stained glass, use of marble and bronze, coffered ceilings and acres of ornamented plaster give it a marvelously gaudy quality. Cleveland-born Edward E. Eichenbaum designed the Granada while working for the architectural firm of Levy & Klein in Chicago. He had begun his career in Detroit with the distinguished Albert Kahn and at another point was associated with the Chicago-based design firm of A. Epstein & Sons. Other Chicago theaters credited to Eichenbaum include the Regal and Diversey. He also designed the Palace in South Bend, Ind., and the Regent in Grand Rapids, Mich. Eichenbaums love of legitimate theater originated during his student days at the University of Pennsylvania, and he even understudied the great George Arliss in ''Disraeli'' for a year when the play was running in Philadelphia. Eichenbaum once called the Granada ''the greatest design I have ever been privileged to make,'' according to a 1983 article by Sharon Lindy published in Marquee magazine. Film palaces were being built so rapidly in the 1920s that Eichenbaum sometimes used the same terra cotta molds on different theaters, ingeniously assembling them into fresh configurations to save time and money. When the Granada was still on the drafting boards, Eichenbaum told an interviewer: ''I want this building to be paradise, so that the common man can leave his meager existence at the door and for a few hours feel that he, too, is among the very rich class that he reads about in the paper.'' Fifty years after he designed it, Eichenbaum returned to the Granada for a visit to receive a 1976 Marquee magazine award from Joseph DuciBella of the Theater Historical Society. Eichenbaum detested the plainness of modern theaters. ''Theyre nothing but barns,‘’ he said. Eichenbaum died in 1982. The present effort to save the Granada is supported by DuciBella, a theater historian, and by preservationists. Early this month, a representative of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency said the Granada was a ‘'very good candidate’‘ for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Architect Watts, spearheading the Granada campaign, points out that most of the theater is unaltered and in good condition: Its original marble floor is sound, its organ intact, and even its original stage lighting is in working order. The Granada does not have Chicago municipal landmark status as does the Chicago Theatre on downtown State Street, now a busy venue for live entertainment. Yet it doesnt necessarily make sense to compare the strategy or business rationale for saving the Granada with the scenario that led to the Chicagos salvation after a slide to the brink of demolition. The location, economics and re-use factors are disparate, after all. Still, neither can such differences be used as alibis for shrugging off the Granada. The old North Side movie palace is part of the citys sociocultural fabric and its brilliant architectural heritage. There is no doubt, then, about the Granadas credentials. And so we are left with the basic question about any major preservation effort: How many people care, and how hard are they willing to work?In 1983, after the last devastating flood, the municipality bought the Electric Theatre building and contents, minus two projectors, from the Larson family for $12,600.
The Warner Grand Theatre will bear the name of late Allen-Bradley co-founder Harry Bradley and Peg Bradley. The Bradley family gave a combined $52 million to the MSO’s $139 million project. Donations came from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, David and Julia Uihlein, and Lynde Uihlein (the grandchildren of Harry and Peg Bradley and the children of philanthropist Jane Bradley Pettit). The Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation also made a significant gift to the project. The 1,650-seat auditorium will be named Allen-Bradley Hall to honor of the builders of the Allen-Bradley Company, founded in 1903 by Lynde and Harry Bradley. David and Julia Uihlein led the campaign which has raised over $128 million to date. The theatre is scheduled to open in the fall.
The last remaining funds needed for the Uptown Theatre should be available soon, we’re hearing. Ald. James Cappleman (46th) said so in an email to residents. Work on the building could begin shortly after that, and today Cappleman said funding will likely be in place by late spring.
The Uptown Theatre since 1981 has largely been maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers who spent their own money to make sure the theatre didn’t deteriorate.