Lincoln Village 7-9
6101 N. Lincoln Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60659
6101 N. Lincoln Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60659
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I believe this theatre, the original Lincoln Village, went up in the 50’s. It was built at the same time as the Lincoln Village shopping center. Wieboldt’s department store anchored the plaza from it’s opening until the 80’s. Some say that this was the first modern shopping center built in Chicago.
Like many theatres of it’s time, the Lincoln Village started off as one large theatre. I would estimate original seating around 1,000-1,100. It was a plain stadium style auditorium. But it had an attractive, spacious lobby and plenty of parking. It was split into three cinemas at some point in the 70’s or 80’s. This is how I came to know the buildling, going with my friends and family to enjoy such great films as “Back to the Future”.
In the late 80’s Cineplex Odeon added six more screens in a new building on the north end of the plaza, as part of their wave of Chicago construction. At this point the building took on the “7-9” name. At some point in the 90’s the 7-9 was closed and demolished during a remodeling of the entire plaza.
The plaza as a whole is doing well now. There is an Office Depot taking the anchor store that was long-vacant after Wieboldt’s went bankrupt. But the only remaining cinema operation is the “1-6” constructed by Cineplex Odeon (though it is no longer associated with Cineplex or any of it’s merger-related successors). By most accounts it is poorly managed.
In the near future it is likely that the long history of movies at Lincoln Village will come to an end. Ironically, with it’s stadium seating, the 7-9 might have fared better today than the 1-6 had it survived. The traditional seating found in the newer building is certainly not a selling point to modern movie audiences.
Contributed by
Eric Ellis
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
When it opened in 1968, it was a Brotman & Sherman theater. Esssaness took over in the early 80’s, possibly 1981. I’ll be going to the library next week, so I’ll look into that.
Oh, I believe that after the balcony was split into two screens, the main floor screen sat about 778 people. That’s 28 more seats than the McClurg Court, whose main screen sat about 750 after their balcony was split.
I don’t recall that the theater had a balcony, although I may be wrong. I do recall that there was a platform-type of seating on the main floor which provided quite a viewing angle. I saw “Raiders of the Lost Ark” there in July of 1981. I was working at the Nortown Theater at the time, which was a Plitt Theater. The LV (as some of us called it) was a Brotman and Sherman house. I remember that I would call over to the manager at the LV to get Nortown employees passed in for free. And the manager at the LV (who had worked at the Nortown at one time) would do the same. One benefit that the LV had over the Nortown was free, plentiful parking.
I grew up less than a mile from the Lincoln Village in the 1970’s and early 80’s and was probably the most visited by my family along with the Nortown and later the Plaza Theatre after it opened down the street.
I remember specifically that it remained a one screen theatre until the winter of 1982 when it re-opened as a tri-plex with the balcony split in two. The first movie I remember seeing after it was split was To Be or Not To Be, which I believe was one of the first to play at re-opening.
I remember that through the 70’s it was a clean and very modern looking theatre with a huge open lobby with a large working fireplace fronted by a sunken seating area which gave it a very comfortable feel, especially in the winter. I also remember that they used to place billboards outside the theatre which ran the height of the building, Saturday Night Live ran for months with John Travolta staring down on the Parking Lot through much of the year it was released.
Holly !@#$ it’s gone too! Jeez move away for 10 years and they tear the city down. Please post pic of the outside if anybody has some. Thanks.
clyde1988,
This building is now a “Border’s” Book store.
Borders is in a new building, not the theater building.
I have a poster 8 ½" x 14" showing the Lincoln Village Theatre. The “Pistoleros” are doing a live fast draw shootout show during the the film “John Wayne & The Cowboys” It indicates a date starting March 31st but no year. Does anyone know what year this took place?
Thank you Carol
I believe “The Cowboys” w/John Wayne came out in 1972. You can check on IMDB.
I also just realized that by the above address and info, that all my posts to the Lincoln Village 1-6 page, belong on this Lincoln Village 7-9 page instead. This being the one where the Borders building is now. This would have been the furthest South of all the theaters ever built in this mall.
“The Warriors” opened here, and the ill-fated “Cocktail” outdoor bartending promotion took place here as well.(No one checked ID’s) Saw “Hearts of Dixie” here too.
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I remember the Pistoleros, they were at the Hillside Theater too. That was the summer of 1971.