Irving Theatre

It did have a balcony but I don't remember much else about it.

The Irving showed movies into the late 50's and maybe even the early 60's. It stood empty for a few years and I'm almost positive was not torn down until the mid 1960's. It's exterior was either a very light brick or a white terra cotta. It had a nice marquee and an impressive vertical which only spelled "Irving". My first unofficial date was spent at a Saturday matinee in the Irving in 1958. I believe it was the only time I was in the theatre.

I remember seeing "Night of the Living Dead" when it first came out at the Irving - Im guessing around 1968?

My friends and I went to Saturday matinees at the Irving at least twice a month. Admission was a quarter, ice cream bars a dime. One Saturday we were disappointed that "Hunchback of Notre Dame" with Charles Laughton wasn't a football story. ... I thought the Irving was torn down when the Expressway was built in the late '50s.

he Irving was torn down and replaced by a Mobile gas station around 1970.

I went there many times, but I only remember "Night of the Living Dead", which cost me a quarter. Adults were 90 cents at that time.

I flew back there last month for the first time in 35 years. This was one of the first places I went...to see the ghost of the Irving and the ghost of the Buffalo. I took a picture of the Mobil station as it is now. If anyone cares, I'll send you a copy of it.

I remember going to see 'Trog' there on a Saturday matinee. The movie is Joan Crawford's sad ending to her career in 1970. The theater quietly disappeared and a Mobil replaced the entire corner right off of the Kennedy Expressway. I don't remember much of the facade except seeing the 'IRVING' sign from far away on the Irving bus. Across Irving Park Blvd. was the famous Buffalo's Ice Cream, also gone.

Here is a circa-1928 flyer from the Irving Theatre advertising "Woman to Woman" and "4 Devils" ('Janet Gaynor's First Talking Picture').

The Irving was always the Irving. The Irving Park was a nickelodeon at 4835 W Irving Park Road, at Six Corners.

Ad in the Chicago Tribune for Saturday, September 1, 1917, announces the new Irving, Irving Park Boulevard at Crawford--Opens Tonite--with first exclusive showing in Chicago of Mary Miles Minter, "Charity Castle" Irving---the new theater of comfort and luxury, presenting the utmost in photoplays with proper musical accompaniment, etc.

Here's a recent photo!
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i207/jhicko/IM000747.jpg
It was zero degrees... no wonder I left.

Next door to the North on Pulaski is a small green & black, art deco apartment building. As I remember it has a pointy almost crown like overhang above it's entrance.
A friend of mine lived there around 1989. It still had the original built-in drop down Murphy beds & ironing boards.
Cool place. A surviving Irving Theatre would have been cooler though.

Here is part of a Tribune article dated 4/13/21. I don't see that anyone has discussed Race as an AKA for this theater.

IRVING THEATER PROPERTY SOLD FOR $450,000

One of the northwest side's large movie properties, the Race Theater building at the southwest corner of Irving Park boulevard and Crawford avenue, was sold yesterday by Charles O. Race of Charles O. Race & Co.

It says "IRVING THEATER PROPERTY". So obviously the building was named after the owner, and not the theater.

Where is Irving Park boulevard and Crawford avenue? Were the streets renamed?

Pulaski was Crawford, I think. It does say "Race Theater building". I guess the Irving was in the Race Theater building, which is kind of odd.

Okay, thanks.

Just to confirm, Pulaski becomes Crawford Ave. in Lincolnwood, North of Devon Ave. I think Pulaski is 3600 West.
The City of Chicago is who renamed Crawford Ave. after Casimer Pulaski. So it remained Crawford Ave. North of the city.
Irving Park Road or Blvd. is 4000 North.

This site has a number of programs for the Irving Theater from 1929 and 1930.