A slice of the Astoria’s marquee can be seen in this July, 1981 photo. Stripes, Escape from New York, For Your Eyes Only, and Superman II were playing.
I noticed the barricades around the parking lot with “No Trespassing – property of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Chicago” two weeks ago. The building has been donated to Chabad Lubavitch and will be renovated into their new girls' school within two years.
The video you have from the library is the film that is being shown at the Portage next Saturday. It was written and directed by Steve Samtur of Back in The Bronx. It is not the same video as the YouTube clip.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
7:30 PM Uptown: Potrait of a Palace (John Pappas & Michael Bisberg, 2006, 26 min)
8:00 PM Preserve Me a Seat (Apartment 101 Films, 2006, 144 min)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
7:00 PM The Wizard of Austin Boulevard (Louis Antonelli, 1994, 30 min)
7:30 PM Loew’s Paradise Theatre (Back in the Bronx, 2003, 30 min)
8:00 PM Memoirs of a Movie Palace (Christian Blackwood, 1980, 47 min)
9:00 PM Theatre Preservation Panel Discussion
Tickets are $9 per day, $16 for both days. For information about the films, download the flyer (requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader).
It is available on DVD at apartment101films.com. The panel discussion at the Portage will be filmed for inclusion on a 2-disc special edition DVD release in the future.
The 2003 documentary Loew’s Paradise Theatre, narrated by WPIX anchor Marvin Scott, will be shown on Saturday, September 15 at the Portage Theater as part of the “Preserving Palaces” documentary film festival, along with The Wizard of Austin Boulevard and Memoirs of a Movie Palace. The festival begins on Friday, September 14 with Uptown: Portrait of a Palace and Preserve Me a Seat (chronicling efforts to save the Indian Hills in Omaha, Gayety/Publix in Boston, DuPage in Lombard, and Villa in Salt Lake City). A theatre preservation discussion panel will follow the films on Saturday night. For complete information, visit www.portagetheater.org.
And if you don’t mind a drive of a couple hours, there’s the Oriental in Milwaukee, which I think is the only regularly-operating movie theater in the area that has a balcony.
The DuPage may have been Lombard’s only movie palace, but Lombard is pretty small. If you look at DuPage County as a whole, they have the Tivoli, York, Wheaton Grand, Paramount (Rapp & Rapp), Glen, and Bensenville; the Arcada and Catlow are both just over the county line, too. Lombard may have taken a huge step backwards, but there is no cultural starvation in the immediate vicinity.
Obama left it totally up to locals because the locals were the only ones with jurisdiction over the property. Even the Village President, who was supportive of the theater, was powerless against the trustees. Let’s hope he never runs for president, lest this skeleton come out of his closet as well.
As far as the DuPage being a Rapp & Rapp, they are probably the most well-represented architects among preserved theaters. There are 45 functioning Rapp & Rapp theaters across the country. Compare this to only three of W.W. Ahlschlager’s that are even standing – one is a church, and the other two have been mostly gutted. What’s more, the Gateway is very similar to the DuPage, but it has a balcony, is mostly intact, and is still functioning.
Back on the subject of Presidential candidates, Mitt Romney did nothing to save the Gayety, either.
Er… Barack Obama is a U.S. Senator. He has a vote in a General Assembly in Washington, D.C. He does not hold any jurisdiction over a local suburban pissing contest.
Sure, but eventually, it didn’t serve enough neighborhood folks to continue operating.
The buses wouldn’t help much, either. Let’s say 2,000 people came to an event on a Saturday evening. Half of them paired up in cars – that’s 500 cars, which would be difficult but possible to accommodate between the Mutual Bank parking lot and on-street parking around the neighborhood. The other 1,000 people have their choice of four buses that run every twenty minutes. Assuming everyone goes in each direction equally, it would take over an hour before everyone gets on a bus.
Of course, there is no shortage of cabs in the neighborhood (even though they usually have their “Off Duty” lights on today), but having that many people hail cabs at the same time comes with its own set of problems.
This is the first I’ve heard of the “structurally unsound” label. I do know that Patel initially did want to save the theater, but the cost of mechanical upgrades was prohibitive. The interior, except for the downstairs auditorium, was consmetically in good condition a year ago, though much of the ornamentation had already been removed years before.
Not only is it easier to fill a smaller venue like the Tivoli or Portage, but you need a place for them to put their cars, too. A 2,000 seat neighborhood house is an anachronism; if a theater is large, it has to be a regional destination. The Tivoli has on-site parking, and the Portage has a municipal lot half a block away. The Nortown is in the middle of arguably the worst parking mess in the City outside of Downtown. Two small screens serving the local populace will work a lot better there.
This photo shows the Loew’s Mt. Vernon in the late 1940s.
The side wall of the Prospect can be seen in this 1971 photo of a B58 bus on 41st Road.
A slice of the Astoria’s marquee can be seen in this July, 1981 photo. Stripes, Escape from New York, For Your Eyes Only, and Superman II were playing.
The Missouri Theater can be seen in the background of this photo, probably taken in the early 1950s.
Correction to the above: the panel was not filmed.
I noticed the barricades around the parking lot with “No Trespassing – property of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Chicago” two weeks ago. The building has been donated to Chabad Lubavitch and will be renovated into their new girls' school within two years.
The video you have from the library is the film that is being shown at the Portage next Saturday. It was written and directed by Steve Samtur of Back in The Bronx. It is not the same video as the YouTube clip.
Correction to the above: Preserve Me a Seat is 104 minutes, not 144.
On Friday and Saturday, September 14-15, the Portage Theater will be hosting the Preserving Palaces film festival. The program begins Friday at 7:30 PM with Uptown: Portrait of a Palace and Preserve Me a Seat (chronicling efforts to save the Indian Hills in Omaha, Gayety/Publix in Boston, DuPage in Lombard, and Villa in Salt Lake City). The festival continues Saturday, September 15 at 7:00 PM with The Wizard of Austin Boulevard, Loew’s Paradise Theatre, and Memoirs of a Movie Palace. A theatre preservation discussion panel will follow the films on Saturday night. For complete information, visit www.portagetheater.org.
The program will be:
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
7:30 PM Uptown: Potrait of a Palace (John Pappas & Michael Bisberg, 2006, 26 min)
8:00 PM Preserve Me a Seat (Apartment 101 Films, 2006, 144 min)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
7:00 PM The Wizard of Austin Boulevard (Louis Antonelli, 1994, 30 min)
7:30 PM Loew’s Paradise Theatre (Back in the Bronx, 2003, 30 min)
8:00 PM Memoirs of a Movie Palace (Christian Blackwood, 1980, 47 min)
9:00 PM Theatre Preservation Panel Discussion
Tickets are $9 per day, $16 for both days. For information about the films, download the flyer (requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader).
It is available on DVD at apartment101films.com. The panel discussion at the Portage will be filmed for inclusion on a 2-disc special edition DVD release in the future.
The documentary Preserve Me a Seat, chronicling efforts to save the Gayety (as well as the Indian Hills in Omaha, DuPage in Lombard, IL, and Villa in Salt Lake City) will be shown on Friday, September 14 at the Portage Theater in Chicago, IL as part of the “Preserving Palaces” documentary film festival, along with Uptown: Portrait of a Palace. The festival continues Saturday, September 15 with The Wizard of Austin Boulevard, Loew’s Paradise Theatre, and Memoirs of a Movie Palace. A theatre preservation discussion panel will follow the films on Saturday night. For complete information, visit www.portagetheater.org.
Preserve Me a Seat will be shown on Friday, September 14 at the Portage Theater in Chicago, IL as part of the “Preserving Palaces” documentary film festival, along with Uptown: Portrait of a Palace. The festival continues Saturday, September 15 with The Wizard of Austin Boulevard, Loew’s Paradise Theatre, and Memoirs of a Movie Palace. A theatre preservation discussion panel will follow the films on Saturday night. For complete information, visit www.portagetheater.org.
Preserve Me a Seat will be shown on Friday, September 14 at the Portage Theater in Chicago, IL as part of the “Preserving Palaces” documentary film festival, along with Uptown: Portrait of a Palace. The festival continues Saturday, September 15 with The Wizard of Austin Boulevard, Loew’s Paradise Theatre, and Memoirs of a Movie Palace. A theatre preservation discussion panel will follow the films on Saturday night. For complete information, visit www.portagetheater.org.
Memoirs of a Movie Palace will be shown on Saturday, September 15 at the Portage Theater in Chicago, IL as part of the “Preserving Palaces” documentary film festival, along with The Wizard of Austin Boulevard and Loew’s Paradise Theatre. The festival begins on Friday, September 14 with Uptown: Portrait of a Palace and Preserve Me a Seat (chronicling efforts to save the Indian Hills in Omaha, Gayety/Publix in Boston, DuPage in Lombard, and Villa in Salt Lake City). A theatre preservation discussion panel will follow the films on Saturday night. For complete information, visit www.portagetheater.org.
The 2003 documentary Loew’s Paradise Theatre, narrated by WPIX anchor Marvin Scott, will be shown on Saturday, September 15 at the Portage Theater as part of the “Preserving Palaces” documentary film festival, along with The Wizard of Austin Boulevard and Memoirs of a Movie Palace. The festival begins on Friday, September 14 with Uptown: Portrait of a Palace and Preserve Me a Seat (chronicling efforts to save the Indian Hills in Omaha, Gayety/Publix in Boston, DuPage in Lombard, and Villa in Salt Lake City). A theatre preservation discussion panel will follow the films on Saturday night. For complete information, visit www.portagetheater.org.
Uptown: Portrait of a Palace will be shown on Friday, September 14 at the Portage Theater as part of the “Preserving Palaces” documentary film festival, along with Preserve Me a Seat (chronicling efforts to save the Indian Hills in Omaha, Gayety/Publix in Boston, DuPage in Lombard, and Villa in Salt Lake City). The festival continues Saturday, September 15 with The Wizard of Austin Boulevard, Loew’s Paradise Theatre, and Memoirs of a Movie Palace. A theatre preservation discussion panel will follow the films on Saturday night. For complete information, visit www.portagetheater.org.
Groundbreaking for renovations, October 10, 2001
Providence Journal editorial on the closing of the Revival House
And if you don’t mind a drive of a couple hours, there’s the Oriental in Milwaukee, which I think is the only regularly-operating movie theater in the area that has a balcony.
See BWChicago’s post right above yours. It was the same photo.
The DuPage may have been Lombard’s only movie palace, but Lombard is pretty small. If you look at DuPage County as a whole, they have the Tivoli, York, Wheaton Grand, Paramount (Rapp & Rapp), Glen, and Bensenville; the Arcada and Catlow are both just over the county line, too. Lombard may have taken a huge step backwards, but there is no cultural starvation in the immediate vicinity.
Obama left it totally up to locals because the locals were the only ones with jurisdiction over the property. Even the Village President, who was supportive of the theater, was powerless against the trustees. Let’s hope he never runs for president, lest this skeleton come out of his closet as well.
As far as the DuPage being a Rapp & Rapp, they are probably the most well-represented architects among preserved theaters. There are 45 functioning Rapp & Rapp theaters across the country. Compare this to only three of W.W. Ahlschlager’s that are even standing – one is a church, and the other two have been mostly gutted. What’s more, the Gateway is very similar to the DuPage, but it has a balcony, is mostly intact, and is still functioning.
Back on the subject of Presidential candidates, Mitt Romney did nothing to save the Gayety, either.
Er… Barack Obama is a U.S. Senator. He has a vote in a General Assembly in Washington, D.C. He does not hold any jurisdiction over a local suburban pissing contest.
That said, what did Senator Clinton or Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg do to stop the demolition of the Regency, Marboro (a Charles Sandblom), Commodore, Beekman, or the 90-year-old and still-functioning Variety, or the total gutting of the Kingsway, Forest Hills, Kenmore, Crossbay (another Sandblom), or Loew’s Astor Plaza?
Sure, but eventually, it didn’t serve enough neighborhood folks to continue operating.
The buses wouldn’t help much, either. Let’s say 2,000 people came to an event on a Saturday evening. Half of them paired up in cars – that’s 500 cars, which would be difficult but possible to accommodate between the Mutual Bank parking lot and on-street parking around the neighborhood. The other 1,000 people have their choice of four buses that run every twenty minutes. Assuming everyone goes in each direction equally, it would take over an hour before everyone gets on a bus.
Of course, there is no shortage of cabs in the neighborhood (even though they usually have their “Off Duty” lights on today), but having that many people hail cabs at the same time comes with its own set of problems.
This is the first I’ve heard of the “structurally unsound” label. I do know that Patel initially did want to save the theater, but the cost of mechanical upgrades was prohibitive. The interior, except for the downstairs auditorium, was consmetically in good condition a year ago, though much of the ornamentation had already been removed years before.
Not only is it easier to fill a smaller venue like the Tivoli or Portage, but you need a place for them to put their cars, too. A 2,000 seat neighborhood house is an anachronism; if a theater is large, it has to be a regional destination. The Tivoli has on-site parking, and the Portage has a municipal lot half a block away. The Nortown is in the middle of arguably the worst parking mess in the City outside of Downtown. Two small screens serving the local populace will work a lot better there.