Alex Theater
3828 W. Madison Street,
Chicago,
IL
60624
3828 W. Madison Street,
Chicago,
IL
60624
No one has favorited this theater yet
This theater was originally known as the Hamlin Theater and was located close to Garfield Park on Madison Street at Hamlin Boulevard in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. It opened in 1910 as a vaudeville house with 1,200 seats. It later turned to movies as the primary entertainment. It was closed in 1934.
In 1938, the theater was remodeled in an Art Moderne style and also received a new name, the Alex Theater. It continued to operate until closure in 1976.
A parking lot is on the site of the former Alex Theater.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft, Ray Martinez
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 46 comments)
Always amazed me how the church said it was ok to see a monster attacking & eating & killing people, but a no no for Monroe to suggest something a little more tame. Especially what we know today..
i checked myself back then, i wasn’t looking up anything but ‘monster movies’, they all came up Condemned. I went regardless
The more condemned they were, the more interesting the movie was…..and the ALEX was THE place to see them.
To GFeret- Growing up Catholic in the 1950s, and a big fan of monster/horror/ sci fi movies, I not only read the movie listings in the Sun Times, but also The New World. They had the Legion of Decency ratings: A1, A2, A3, B (Morally Objectionable In Part For All), and the most severe rating C (Condemned). To my knowledge, no monster movie was ever condemned. Most got an A2 or A3 rating. But a few were were rated B, and these come to mind (along with , I’m guessing, the reasons): “INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN” (teenagers making out in lovers lane), “NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST” (a pregnant man!), “THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST” (Reincarnation- can’t have little kids and teenagers questioning their faith- and a not so subtle suggestion of woman and ape mating), and “I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN” (more lovers lane scenes and man playing god). The C rating went to mostly foreign films- virtually all of Brigitte Bardot movies were condemned, along with a few American films. If memory serves, viewing a C rated movie was a mortal sin, but seeing a B rated film was only a venial sin(?).Anyway, that’s the way it was back then. Fun times- with only a SLIGHTLY guilty conscious!
Oops- that last word should be conscience. It’s late, time for bed.
I was a Lutheran so I didn’t have this problem. But then, my mom had her own Legion Of Decency system that she enforced rather strictly. I grew up not far from the Alex but only recall going there 2 or 3 times. I spent more time at the bowling that was a block or so from there – Cascade Lanes was the name I think?
HI SCOTT. Kids have it made today if they wish to see a “condemned” movie. With so many screens under one roof, they can just buy a ticket into a “safe” film and just walk into the film of choice. I have never seen anyone checking. So much of it is on TV & the web, its really a farce. Morals in this counrty have been on the slide down for years. The Alex was never my first choice. Only remember it as the last resort. I had more fun at the Byrd.
Hi Bobby. Yes, we’ve sunk pretty low morally and I don’t see us turning back anytime soon. The commercials I see during a televised baseball game today would have been rated “condemned” when we were kids. It’s all out there in the open now. I do remember the Byrd Theatre – vaguely. It seems most of my memories from the 50s are vague now. The Paradise made a much bigger impression on me, despite the poor acoustics that supposedly did it in.
i don’t mind repeating myself that the old monster movies i looked up @ legion of decency were rated CONDEMNED. a slight disappoinment at my age then but also irrevelant i confess, and looking back it now it made its own kind of sense, those things could be condemned for any number of reasons by any right thinking person, which viewpoint is comfortably irrelvant.
i had no guilty conscience even slight about seeing monster movies, who would? i saved my guilt for more important, or at least expensive things.