Follies Theater
450 S. State Street,
Chicago,
IL
60605
450 S. State Street,
Chicago,
IL
60605
1 person
favorited this theater
The Gem Theater opened in 1905, originally named the London Dime Museum. It was renamed Gem Theater from 1908 through to 1949. By 1929, it had changed from showing movies to burlesque. It stood directly across the street from the landmark Second Leiter Building, later the first Loop home of the flagship Sears, Roebuck, & Co. department store (now located at Madison and State Streets).
In early 1950, the name of the theater was changed to the Follies Theater, staging burlesque. It lasted until 1972, when the management refused to start showing hard-core pornography in order to keep in operation. It reopened in 1974 for legitimate theatrical use, but after one performance, the theater was closed again. The Follies Theater was destroyed in a fire in 1978.
Today, the enormous Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago’s main library building, is located on the site of the theater.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft, BWChicago
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
The Gem opened around 1910. By 1929 it had gone burlesque, along with many of the theaters in the immediate area, when a patron disgruntled with the inability to locate a seat on the floor shot and killed a doorman and wounded another patron. This also indicates that there was a balcony, so the original seating was probably greater. The marquee burned down in October 1946. The name change to Follies, in reference to Zeigfeld’s famed burlesque, came in the early 50s. In 1972 the Follies closed, saying they refused to show hardcore pornography but that soft-core would not sustain them, and dismissed its last strippers; it reopened soon, however, and in 1974 even a legitimate stage production appeared there, a 1920s show called “Shanghai Gesture”, an exotic production from an eccentric Lincoln Avenue producer named Eleven. The show only lasted one act, victim of a bomb scare. Its demise came in 1978, as it burned.
Yes, it’s true, Red Skelton did play the Gem!
NEWS ITEM:
Chicago Tribune, Tuesday, May 19, 1959, s. 3, p. 10, c. 6:
RED, ONCE FIRED, BOUNCES BACK
SKELTON TELLS OF CHANGE, by Stephen Harrison
Richard Skelton, also known as Red and once fired here by popular request, returned Monday to the scene of the crime—rehired by popular request.
Can’t Vie with Legs
Having abandoned Vincennes, he was playing vaudevile in such landmarks as the Haymarket, the State & Congress, and the Gem, where aficionados paid a lot more attention to burlesque girls' legs than they ever did to Skelton.
[At the time of this item Skelton was headlining at the famed Chez Paree.]
I have a 1909 photo which puts the Gem at 312 State Street. I will post the photo after I get it on a disk. Perhaps it’s a different theater.
Here is the photo of 312 State:
http://tinyurl.com/3dm82a
http://tinyurl.com/3bdfmq
The Chicago Tribune has the old Follies burning down early Wednesday morning, January 4, 1978. Cause unknown but not believed to be arson. The address shown in the newspaper is 450 So. State St.
I found a reference to a magician playing the Gem in Chicago in 1907 so the age may be greater.
Steve
In the book “DOWNTOWN CHICAGO IN TRANSITION” by Eric Bronsky and Neal Samors, there’s a nice photo of the Gem theatre-in 1941- on page 107. On the marquee: BURLESQUE ON STAGE ON SCREEN “I’LL SELL MY LIFE”.
By the time I discovred the FOLLIES THEATER it was a burlesque joint that also showed one short movie between the girlie acts. I guess that I was about 13 or 14 when I first saw the show. It was everything that a cheap old burlesque house should be. The bored chorus line of over-aged hard looking ladies, the pitchman sellling candy and “a picture booket of naked ladies that’s only supposed to be sold to doctors. But I can’t tell if you’re a doctor or not”. The movie that week was a documentary on “How To Shrink A Human Head”. And let me say that it was both graphic and accurate. It could never pass any censors of any kind today.
Next door to the theater was a penny arcade where the ladies of the chorus could catch a quick lunch or dinner of hot dog sanwiches. I saw several of them in there on several occasions.
For me in those days it was an adventure!
Mikebaggi
The Follies was actually known for its burlesque as early as 1916. There was an organization entitled the Political Equity League, headed by Mrs. Guy Blanchard, that studied the immoral nature of moviehouses and made recommendation to the censors. She had publicly made comments about the dancing girls at the theater, complaining that they were “drug fiends.” She claimed that there were small rooms under the stage where the girls would get high. In the Chicago Tribune, Feb 1, 1916, one of the dancers shot back at Mrs. Blanchard, saying that the “girls who dance at the Gem theater work there and do the dances they do because by doing so they can make a living.” (pg. 11)
A 1978 view of the Follies Theater can be seen here. According to the photographer’s notes, the theater burned down the next day.