Norshore Theatre

Designed by the firm of Rapp & Rapp

The Norshore closed in 1957 and was demolished in 1960.

Was in Barnes and Noble today; came across the book "LOST CHICAGO" by David Garrard Lowe. Pages 204-209 will be a treat for all theatre lovers.Pictures of the Tivoli, Marbro, Paradise, and Diversey are shown...all great. However, pics of the lobby and auditorium of the Norshore (page 207)are...well... two words: Beautiful! Fantastic!

This is a page from the Chicago Daily Tribune dated August of 1928. There are many Chicago theaters listed on the page. The Norshore Theater is just one of them.

A friend of mine's father worked as an usher here when he was young. The story he related is that when B&K vacated the building they had to clean and repair it extensively per the terms of the lease. The idea was that the theatre had to be returned in the same condition it was received in. Then it was demolished not long after. Tragically humorous.

Another note: there was an office building constructed on the site. The bank was in an older building on the east end of the block. The office building, bank, and most everything else (including the very cool Howard Bowl) were demolished to make way for a multi-use plaza. In all fairness I think that the plaza is not a bad place at all.

Another sad irony is that the Gateway Plaza development there was supposed to contain multiplexes in two different iterations of the plan, but both fell through, leaving the Far North Side with only the Village North.

My guess is that, with all the changes taking place in the business, potential investors are much less likely to embrace the idea of a theatre complex than they were ten years ago.

ONLY the Village North is right man. Last time I was there it was still called the 400 and was a single-screen dump. As a matter of fact I think they started to twin it and then ran out of money. So it was half torn apart. Has it improved at all under Village management?

LTS,

It has been awhile since I was at the Village North. It was okay. The floors were clean, as were the rest rooms. The Village North gets significant walk-in trade from the community.

Once when I was there, circa 1997-1998, there was a petition being circulated protesting the proposed multi-plex. So, perhaps indirectly, Village Theatres won on that one.

This site when it was the "Howard Bowl" as well as the Howard "El" station was the gateway to what my friends and I effectionately referred to as "The Jungle". I'm hoping the Gateway Plaza(Thats what that strip mall is called now right?) helped clean the area up at least alittle. Although a movie theater would've been nice to put in there. I actually remember when it was in development and how excited everyone was that there would be movie theater closer to the neighborhood instead of having to trek over to the Adelphi.

In the book "IMAGES of AMERICA- ROGERS PARK" by Jacque Day Archer, there are some nice pics of the Norshore, in its early years,on pages 66 and 67. Also in the book: the Granada theatre on page 68 and 78, and the Adelphi on page 69.

A somewhat melancholy article from the Chicago Tribune dated December 15, 1960 about the Norshore's demolition:

MOVIE PALACE LATEST GIFT TO PROGRESS

"A joyous, gorgeous dream come true," were words used in a June 18, 1926 Tribune movie advertisement to describe the Norshore theater, which had opened the day before.
The premiere program at the movie palace, 1751 Howard st., featured Esther Ralston and Jack Holt in "The Blind Goddess" on the screen. On the stage J. Walter Davidison conduction the Norshore symphony orchestra in several selections and "The Marvelous Lackfords", a Parisian dancing team, performed.
Today, the "gorgeous dream" of 1926 is becoming a wreckage of broken stone and plaster and twisted steel. The once beautiful movie house is being torn down to make way for a more profitable building, or possibly, a parking lot.
The Norshore was one of the largest theaters built in Chicago during the 1920s, the great decade of cinema construction. With a seating capacity of 3,000, an ornate, three story, domed lobby, the far north side theater was one of the prides of the Balaban & Katz movie chain for more than 30 years.
"A lack of attendance forced us to shut down the Norshore in 1957," a Balaban & Katz spokesman said. "The building is being demolished because rentals from apartments and stores in the building weren't paying maintenance costs," he added.

While drawing plans for the Norshore interior the brothers Rapp borrowed several design elements from their (1922) Akdar Theatre, Tulsa.

The story I have heard several times over is that the Norshore was demolished with light fixtures still installed. Apparently you could watch the chandeliers fall to the rubble and shatter.

This exterior image was copied from a 1926 trade magazine. I can't quite make out the message on the marquee, but I think that it says:
WELCOME TO THE GALA PREMIERE PERFORMANCE 3,000 SEATS
A DISTINCTIVE THEATRE FOR THE ENTIRE NORTH SHORE
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/norshore26.jpg

I found the same photo on another site, Warren. Since it's a little larger, I will post it here. You're right about the marquee.
http://tinyurl.com/ysbutg

Thanks! I'm removing mine, since there's no need for duplication.

Oh, I get it. It's where the Howard Bowl ended up being built.
This theater came down, while I was just blocks away in the hospital after being born. Sorry I missed out on it's beauty. This must be the closest two theatres were ever built next to the "L" tracks.

There is also a long time cab company in Evanston called Norshore. Their taxi's used to line up directly across Howard Street from where this place stood. Waiting to take "L" patrons into Evanston where the "L" and buses couldn't, and at night before the Evanston line ran 24 hours.
I found this page after checking Lost Memory's most recent post to the Howard Theatre page. That post's second link has a clearer picture of the above picture.

Reactivate Notification Status.

FYI. There's a great b&w daytime shot of the Norshore, within that "American Classic Images" site where everyone's pulling pictures from as of late.
It has a towering presence that must have been awe inspiring at the time.

I can't post anything from my WebTV server except comments. So if anyone can do the honors, it would be appreciated.

OK, David. Here ya go: http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=norshore&ProductID=26187