Garrick Theatre
64 W. Randolph Street,
Chicago,
IL
60601
64 W. Randolph Street,
Chicago,
IL
60601
8 people
favorited this theater
Originally named the Schiller Theatre after Friedrich Schiller, the German playwright, poet and philospher, the theater was briefly known as the Dearborn Theatre (1898-1903) before gaining its last name, the Garrick Theatre, in 1903, when the Shubert Brothers operated the legitimate house. The Schiller Building was designed by the firm of Adler & Sullivan in 1891.
In March of 1934, movies took over from legitimate theater at the Garrick when the theater was acquired by the Balaban & Katz circuit. The firm of Rapp & Rapp was hired during the 30s to remodel parts of the Garrick, including the main entrance, ticket booth and lobby areas, in Art Deco style.
From the late 40s and into the mid-50s, the Garrick stage was used for live local (and later national) television broadcasts. In 1957, Balaban & Katz resumed showing movies at the Garrick.
When Balaban & Katz announced it was shuttering the Garrick in 1960 and it would be torn down, there was one of the earliest organized public outcries in Chicago to save an historic building, but it was to no avail, since it was demolished a few months later and replaced with a monstrously ugly multilevel parking garage (that was itself razed in the late 90s).
A large portion of the facade featuring portraits of famous Germans was saved and was later incorporated into the entranceway of the Second City Theater on North Wells Street.
On the same block as the Garrick stood a handful of other theaters, now all gone as well — the Olympic (later renamed the Apollo), the Woods, and the Harris and the Selwyn (whose facades were salvaged and incorporated into the new Goodman Theater, which occupies the former site of the Woods, Harris and Selwyn Theatres).
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft, Ray Martinez
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Recent comments (view all 83 comments)
Some of the facade from the former Garrick Theatre was re-used on the Second City Building. However, not far away, at the intersection of Lincoln Ave & the former Ogden Avenue, some of the busts from the Garrick showed up at this View link building.
Ogden Ave was removed form this area in the late 1960s.
View link
View link
http://img29.imageshack.us/f/img014n.jpg/
Great pictures local 311.Mike local 629.
This postcard view of the Garrick Theater dates from 1908. To the right of the Garrick stands the Borden Block, which was the first collaboration by the firm of Adler & Sullivan (1879-80). It was torn down in 1916 to make way for the Woods Theater.
A cornice fragment from the Garrick is at the Springold Theater Arts Center at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.
This article talks about the restoration of the orignal color scheme of a surviving fragment of Louis Sullivan-designed ornament saved during the demolition of the Garrick.
i saw the premeire of the GENE KRUPA STORY there and got sal mineo’s autograph
The Chicago premiere for the Krupa story was on Friday January 15th 1960. Trib ad mentions Mineo & Krupa would be on hand to sign “fan fotos.” Mineo also appeared at the theatre on Saturday.