There is currently some roof top mounted scaffolding above The Vic’s East elevation. Visible from the “L” tracks, it might be for restoration work to the coping stones around the roof’s perimeter. Or possibly to haul up materials for the roof itself. Either way, great to see maintenance is ongoing.
Saw a picture of the Garden Theatre in a recent Retirement Magazine. It was included in an article full of accolades about Winter Garden as a premiere retirement city. It stated that the theater had been restored, which I first thought was a typo for remodeled. Since the exterior didn’t look too much like something from the 30's. But after seeing the various pictures posted, and the disaster it looked like in the late80’s, I’d say they did a fantastic job. The only detail I would have changed, was installing the two adjacent storefront doors at either end of their respective window treatments. Like the 1949 picture above seems to have them situated. Might have been overlooked, or not consistent with current codes.
Note the absence of cars. Mayor Byrne’s only mistake while in office, the State Street Mall. Looks like some of the old six sided paving blocks laying on the right.
Incidentally, Howard Kaylan was in attendance at the premiere & answered audience questions. He thanked the Bloor staff & the press for their reception on his official website.
Sometime in 2008, The Bloor held the premiere of “My Dinner With Jimi”. A film by Howard Kaylan, lead singer of `60’s folk rock group The Turtles. The film chronicled the night in London he met Jimi Hendrix & The Beatles.
I can only assume that the Norshore was likely a free standing structure. Unlike the Howard, which was incorporated into a much larger building that included apartments, offices and street level retail space. I agree the Norshore looked like a beautiful building that by all means should have been saved and re-purposed.
Since the Paradise appears to have had the same owners, and met it’s fate 4 years before the Norshore did, I guess the land was viewed as the better money maker. After the theater’s lived out their usefulness.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the fix was in on the Granada.
Loyola long wanted it gone, and upwards was the direction the land would give them the best return ion their money
Coincidentally the Howard Bowl (neon sign) that follows the Paradise marquee clip, was the place that was built on the former site of the Norshore Theatre. Which has it’s own CT page.
That bowling alley has also now since been torn down.
One would think the State Of Washington would offer alternative fund raising avenues, after shutting down the plan theater owners came up with. There must be some mixed use funding available, incorporating use by one of the nearby schools or something.
Just caught a brief pan of the old Paradise marquee in a YouTube clip called “Vintage Chicago Signs Part 3”. A series of 1940’s promotional pieces about outdoor billboards. “Poster signs” as they call them.
I posted a blurb about the Telegraph Drive-In over on CT’s Miracle Mile Drive-In (Toledo) page. I believe it was prior to the Telegraph getting it’s own CT page, because of the dates and I’d searched for this by name first.
Just ran across an old Chicago Tribune Magazine dated April 25, 1993, which has an article about the Uptown Theatre called “Sleeping Beauty”.(Pages 16-18)
Tribune Photographer Charles Osgood included 9 pictures and wrote the piece as well. It cites 1983 as the year it was boarded up.
Though `81 I believe was still the year of the actual closure.
The front page of the magazine has a line at the bottom that reads:
“A movie palace in search of a happy ending.”
After another 18 years on top of those first 12, how true.
Well this must be a first.
This February The Oriental will be hosting the upcoming Chicago mayoral debates and telecasting them live on ABC Channel 7.
It will be interesting to see if they do any exterior or interior panoramic shots to showcase the theatre.
Someone needs to snap a pic of the marquee advertising this event if they do so.
The Congress made the news this morning. Apparently Chuck Berry collapsed and had to be helped off stage during his show last night. But returned later to a thinning crowd.
At 84, he had supposedly done 2 New Years shows the night before in New York.
One story has him being checked out by paramedics before the Congress show. Only to fall ill during it as well.
He left in a limo though, not an ambulance.
There is a local group that offers Haunted Chicago tours of some sort. Might even be called that.
I know that the former Iroquois site & the original Chicago Historical Society (later Limelight/now Excalibur), is on their tour. The latter being where bodies were brought after the Eastland disaster.
A televsion program that aired on NBC Chicago-12/18/10 called “LX.TV 1st Look”, included a segment about the Pantages. Celebrating their 80th Anniversary and currently running a stage version of “West Side Story”.
Also mentioned was the Pantage’s history of hosting 11 Academy Awards presentations.
Plenty of nice footage showcasing the Pantage’s interior and some backstage dressing shots.
Sorry captain54, didn’t see your question until today. I’ll have to ask around about Isbells. It appears from ken mc’s 04/18/09 photo to be in the building that housed The Athenian Room in the late 60's, and later Faces in the70’s. It’s now the “new” Barney’s of New York who vacated the old Oak Tree spot across the street.
To ken mc, the Singapore Room was indeed a restaurant. I posted previously about the colorful, animated neon monkeys that adorned that very marquee. A sign that was also seen in the opening montage of WGN’s old Night Beat news program with Jack Taylor, and later Marty McNeely. Good old Carl Greyson hosted a few times as well.
The Azusa Foothill Drive In Theatre is featured in the Bloodhound Gang’s 2000 music video/remake of The Association’s “Along Comes Mary”.
The opening shot is the neon marquee at night. The rest is a bit of a mess.
Can be easily found on YouTube.
Page 13 of the December/January Reminisce Magazine, has a half page 1953 photo of Grauman’s exterior. Depicting the Cinemascope showing of “The Robe”. A special Cinemascope marquee appears to have been built spanning the front entrance.
It might be available for viewing at Reminisce.com
If not, someone would have to scan it and properly credit the owner/source.
It appears to have been sent from a personal collection.
The very first post about this theater mentions it’s placement in “The Wanderers” opening credits. Now available on YouTube, which probably wasn’t around in 2004.
An interesting observation I made is, the films advertised on the RKO Fordham marquee in “The Wanderers” are “Battle Cry” & “War Is Hell”. This was obviously supposed to be an establishing shot that it was set in 1963. JFK’s assassination plays a part later in the film.
In reality though, the two films playing at the Texas Theater when Oswald was caught were “Cry Of Battle” & War Is Hell". Oddly “Battle Cry”-1955 & “Cry Of Battle”-1963 both starred Van Heflin. Was “The Wanderes” director just going from memory, or did “Battle Cry” ring with more resonance given the films gang theme? Guess we’ll hve to rent the director’s cut.
I’d suggest posting your 12/07/41 query over on the Chicago Theatre page. More people will see it on that page than here. Some of the downtown theatre pages have lists of what played when. But only back to the `60’s in most cases as I recall.
Last night on “American Pickers”, the boys unearthed a vintage wooden lobby card display from the Brooklyn Fox Theatre.
It appeared to stand about 6 feet tall with intricately carved edges and a glass door still intact.
It was part of a massive collection of stuff abandoned in a huge Manhattan storage locker. Original Coney Island ride cars & carriages were also a focal point.
TCM ran a program titled “Brother Can You Spare A Dream” this evening. It was about the birth of the motion picture industry & moguls in California, through 1939.
One of the early black film pioneers was profiled as well, and the segment was accompanied by an old photo of a building adorned with signage that read simply “Rex Theatre For Colored People”. There was no marquee, just painted signs above the doors of a two story building.
William’s 2004 comments make it possible that this might be the same theatre.
Yeah, all of the above.
Plus I’m sure the cost of heating & cooling such a large structure year round took it’s financial toll.
The basic overhead of such utilities was less of an issue back in the day when these old palaces had full houses.
I mentioned this of some of the downtown theater pages as well.
There is currently some roof top mounted scaffolding above The Vic’s East elevation. Visible from the “L” tracks, it might be for restoration work to the coping stones around the roof’s perimeter. Or possibly to haul up materials for the roof itself. Either way, great to see maintenance is ongoing.
Saw a picture of the Garden Theatre in a recent Retirement Magazine. It was included in an article full of accolades about Winter Garden as a premiere retirement city. It stated that the theater had been restored, which I first thought was a typo for remodeled. Since the exterior didn’t look too much like something from the
30's. But after seeing the various pictures posted, and the disaster it looked like in the late80’s, I’d say they did a fantastic job. The only detail I would have changed, was installing the two adjacent storefront doors at either end of their respective window treatments. Like the 1949 picture above seems to have them situated. Might have been overlooked, or not consistent with current codes.Ah, I stand corrected. I actually did some work for Mayor Byrne. You’d think I’d remember that. Thanks.
Note the absence of cars. Mayor Byrne’s only mistake while in office, the State Street Mall. Looks like some of the old six sided paving blocks laying on the right.
Incidentally, Howard Kaylan was in attendance at the premiere & answered audience questions. He thanked the Bloor staff & the press for their reception on his official website.
Sometime in 2008, The Bloor held the premiere of “My Dinner With Jimi”. A film by Howard Kaylan, lead singer of `60’s folk rock group The Turtles. The film chronicled the night in London he met Jimi Hendrix & The Beatles.
I can only assume that the Norshore was likely a free standing structure. Unlike the Howard, which was incorporated into a much larger building that included apartments, offices and street level retail space. I agree the Norshore looked like a beautiful building that by all means should have been saved and re-purposed.
Since the Paradise appears to have had the same owners, and met it’s fate 4 years before the Norshore did, I guess the land was viewed as the better money maker. After the theater’s lived out their usefulness.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the fix was in on the Granada.
Loyola long wanted it gone, and upwards was the direction the land would give them the best return ion their money
Thanks for the thanks, and for posting the link.
Coincidentally the Howard Bowl (neon sign) that follows the Paradise marquee clip, was the place that was built on the former site of the Norshore Theatre. Which has it’s own CT page.
That bowling alley has also now since been torn down.
One would think the State Of Washington would offer alternative fund raising avenues, after shutting down the plan theater owners came up with. There must be some mixed use funding available, incorporating use by one of the nearby schools or something.
Just caught a brief pan of the old Paradise marquee in a YouTube clip called “Vintage Chicago Signs Part 3”. A series of 1940’s promotional pieces about outdoor billboards. “Poster signs” as they call them.
I just read that the Quad Cinema will soon be hosting the premiere of “Certifiably Jonathan”, a new film about Jonathan Winters.
I posted a blurb about the Telegraph Drive-In over on CT’s Miracle Mile Drive-In (Toledo) page. I believe it was prior to the Telegraph getting it’s own CT page, because of the dates and I’d searched for this by name first.
Just ran across an old Chicago Tribune Magazine dated April 25, 1993, which has an article about the Uptown Theatre called “Sleeping Beauty”.(Pages 16-18)
Tribune Photographer Charles Osgood included 9 pictures and wrote the piece as well. It cites 1983 as the year it was boarded up.
Though `81 I believe was still the year of the actual closure.
The front page of the magazine has a line at the bottom that reads:
“A movie palace in search of a happy ending.”
After another 18 years on top of those first 12, how true.
Well this must be a first.
This February The Oriental will be hosting the upcoming Chicago mayoral debates and telecasting them live on ABC Channel 7.
It will be interesting to see if they do any exterior or interior panoramic shots to showcase the theatre.
Someone needs to snap a pic of the marquee advertising this event if they do so.
The Congress made the news this morning. Apparently Chuck Berry collapsed and had to be helped off stage during his show last night. But returned later to a thinning crowd.
At 84, he had supposedly done 2 New Years shows the night before in New York.
One story has him being checked out by paramedics before the Congress show. Only to fall ill during it as well.
He left in a limo though, not an ambulance.
There is a local group that offers Haunted Chicago tours of some sort. Might even be called that.
I know that the former Iroquois site & the original Chicago Historical Society (later Limelight/now Excalibur), is on their tour. The latter being where bodies were brought after the Eastland disaster.
A televsion program that aired on NBC Chicago-12/18/10 called “LX.TV 1st Look”, included a segment about the Pantages. Celebrating their 80th Anniversary and currently running a stage version of “West Side Story”.
Also mentioned was the Pantage’s history of hosting 11 Academy Awards presentations.
Plenty of nice footage showcasing the Pantage’s interior and some backstage dressing shots.
Sorry captain54, didn’t see your question until today. I’ll have to ask around about Isbells. It appears from ken mc’s 04/18/09 photo to be in the building that housed The Athenian Room in the late
60's, and later Faces in the70’s. It’s now the “new” Barney’s of New York who vacated the old Oak Tree spot across the street.To ken mc, the Singapore Room was indeed a restaurant. I posted previously about the colorful, animated neon monkeys that adorned that very marquee. A sign that was also seen in the opening montage of WGN’s old Night Beat news program with Jack Taylor, and later Marty McNeely. Good old Carl Greyson hosted a few times as well.
The Azusa Foothill Drive In Theatre is featured in the Bloodhound Gang’s 2000 music video/remake of The Association’s “Along Comes Mary”.
The opening shot is the neon marquee at night. The rest is a bit of a mess.
Can be easily found on YouTube.
Page 13 of the December/January Reminisce Magazine, has a half page 1953 photo of Grauman’s exterior. Depicting the Cinemascope showing of “The Robe”. A special Cinemascope marquee appears to have been built spanning the front entrance.
It might be available for viewing at Reminisce.com
If not, someone would have to scan it and properly credit the owner/source.
It appears to have been sent from a personal collection.
The very first post about this theater mentions it’s placement in “The Wanderers” opening credits. Now available on YouTube, which probably wasn’t around in 2004.
An interesting observation I made is, the films advertised on the RKO Fordham marquee in “The Wanderers” are “Battle Cry” & “War Is Hell”. This was obviously supposed to be an establishing shot that it was set in 1963. JFK’s assassination plays a part later in the film.
In reality though, the two films playing at the Texas Theater when Oswald was caught were “Cry Of Battle” & War Is Hell". Oddly “Battle Cry”-1955 & “Cry Of Battle”-1963 both starred Van Heflin. Was “The Wanderes” director just going from memory, or did “Battle Cry” ring with more resonance given the films gang theme? Guess we’ll hve to rent the director’s cut.
I’d suggest posting your 12/07/41 query over on the Chicago Theatre page. More people will see it on that page than here. Some of the downtown theatre pages have lists of what played when. But only back to the `60’s in most cases as I recall.
Last night on “American Pickers”, the boys unearthed a vintage wooden lobby card display from the Brooklyn Fox Theatre.
It appeared to stand about 6 feet tall with intricately carved edges and a glass door still intact.
It was part of a massive collection of stuff abandoned in a huge Manhattan storage locker. Original Coney Island ride cars & carriages were also a focal point.
TCM ran a program titled “Brother Can You Spare A Dream” this evening. It was about the birth of the motion picture industry & moguls in California, through 1939.
One of the early black film pioneers was profiled as well, and the segment was accompanied by an old photo of a building adorned with signage that read simply “Rex Theatre For Colored People”. There was no marquee, just painted signs above the doors of a two story building.
William’s 2004 comments make it possible that this might be the same theatre.
Yeah, all of the above.
Plus I’m sure the cost of heating & cooling such a large structure year round took it’s financial toll.
The basic overhead of such utilities was less of an issue back in the day when these old palaces had full houses.
I mentioned this of some of the downtown theater pages as well.