Raue Center for the Arts
26 N. Williams Street,
Crystal Lake,
IL
60014
26 N. Williams Street,
Crystal Lake,
IL
60014
5 people
favorited this theater
Opened July 25, 1929 as the El Tovar Theatre, this theatre was a welcome addition to northern Illinois as a movie and vaudeville theatre.
The interior, complete with dressing rooms and an orchestra pit, was designed in the Mission style and a spectacular pipe organ occupied its own loft close to the stage.
The El Tovar Theatre reopened in 2001 as the Raue Center for the Arts. The renovation included expanding the stage and completely re-doing the stage house. The Mission style decorations have been retained.
Contributed by
Dave Wiegers
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
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I worked at this theater from 1993-1996 when it was known as Showplace 8. It was affiliated with Showplace 1-7 located on Rt 14, which was rebuilt in the mid 90’s as a 16 screen modern megaplex. My teenage career as an usher began with “The Firm” and ended with “Twister”. Often priding myself on pursuing 80 work weeks in the summer, I spent more time in the building than I did at home. Who could pass up the draw of $4.75/hour? The theater was one screen and could seat close to 900 when the balcony was open for big shows.
I think this might’ve been from Elmer Behrens, plans originally for an unbuilt Lombard cinema look relatively close to the Raue, although different (cheapened?) in a few ways. See the Chicago Tribune, “Cinema for Du Page County Suburb”, July 24, 1927. This was part of the Polka Brothers circuit in the 1930s.
It was indeed an Elmer F. Behrns theater. Note, his name is properly spelled ‘Behrns’, not ‘Behrens’. Also notable is that Behrns was with Rapp & Rapp from 1917-1923. He also lived in Crystal Lake. In addition to the theaters listed at this site, he built St. Luke’s Church in Chicago (http://www.elca.org/archives/chicagochurches/stluke_gc.html) and apartments which no longer stand on W. Washington Blvd. Chicago Tribune, August 19, 1928, B3
Also, the Crystal Lake historical society notes that it was also named the Lake at one point and includes more info at View link
I think it was called the Lake in the 1950’s and 1960’s during a span when it only showed movies. Sometime in the 1970’s Rhyne Management bought the building and named it Showplace 8, which was a sister theater to the old Showplace 1-7 on Rte 14 near Rte 31.
I have an employee pay logbook from the 1950’s that I took out of one of the basements while I worked there in the mid-90’s. I also have part of the marquee that was hung out front “Downtown Showplace” in white and black letters, which was the incarnation before the massive renovation.
I was in the building this year and went up into the control room above the balcony. The original movie projector and film platters were still up there and functional, so perhaps they are still considering movies from time to time.
In the early 1950’s, the organ from this theater was purchased by Leon Berry and installed in his basement. One of the very first stereo album releases was “Leon Berry at the Giant Wurlitzer Pipe Organ, volume 3” released March 31, 1958 on Audio Fidelity records – AFSD, 5844.
I am a volunteer with the Raue Center and working on the theatre’s history. If anyone is willing to share photos, stories, etc., please let me know. And in reply to an old post by Warren Harris asking about the pronunciation – the name rhymes with “wow”
Thankss, Bruce C. Actually gave their group a tour and got some info from them. Just looked like some of the people on here had personal memories/info they might want to share.
The El Tovar Theatre opened on July 25th, 1929.