Terminal Theatre
3315 W. Lawrence Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60625
3315 W. Lawrence Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60625
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Ascher Brothers Inc., Balaban & Katz Corp.
Architects: John Edmund Oldaker Pridmore
Previous Names: New Terminal Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The New Terminal Theatre was one of the largest movie houses built in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood. It was opened by the Ascher Bros. on January 7, 1926 with Alma Rubens in “The Gilded Butterfly”. It boasted 4,000 seats, but in reality it had 2,456 seats. It was equipped with a Wurlitzer 4 manual, 17 ranks organ which was opened by organist ‘Larry’ Ambrose Larson. It replaced the Ascher Brother’s earlier (1915) Terminal Theatre at 3308 W. Lawrence Avenue, which became the Metro Theatre after the New Terminal Theatre opened.
The New Terminal Theatre was acquired from the Aschers by the always-expanding Balaban & Katz Corp. chain on January 23, 1933 and they ran this popular movie house into the 1960’s. It was closed on April 18, 1963 with Bette Davis & Joan Crawford in “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” & Paul Newman in “Sweet Bird of Youth”. The Terminal Theatre was demolished in the early-1970’s.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 69 comments)
This reopened on January 7th, 1926. I uploaded the grand opening ad here.
Here is a nice view of the front.
For some reason the highlighted “Here” link erases the cursor arrow, so it can’t be clicked on.
Even when Logged In to CT.
The highlighted links in the other comments still work.
Another try for a link to the nice view of the front.
For some reason that link goes to the page just before the targeted page. Scroll down, folks, I’m not messing with it any more.
Here is a nice interior view from THSA. Several more are searchable there.
1963 photo with Terminal in the background.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dpirmann/48876598102?fbclid=IwAR1r2H5bhZovlsqnICRMOadFpPXbRlh_KgK_BBaUGDmD43M6EEzaSee2KqM
Update: Closed in April 1963 with “Sweet Bird of Youth” and “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane”. Last Tribune clipping for the Terminal Theatre.
https://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/clip/71394366/chicago-tribune/?fbclid=IwAR31xTktO1ujm1p0sKvd2BK2HvELs9YOCz7ITCXQH6pn8Llx8wpwAfnpBPc
The Fox Circuit operated the Terminal until January 22, 1933 when it was taken over by Balaban and Katz.