Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre
24 West Randolph Street,
Chicago,
IL
60601
24 West Randolph Street,
Chicago,
IL
60601
36 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 207 comments found
Longtime Oriental Theatre manager Mickey Gold, who ran the place for the last 30+ years as a movie theatre, shared great stories about his work lunches with some of the stage performers (big band leaders and The Three Stooges, for example).
Navigate to Memory Lane pages on this site to look up a 02/19/1971 LIFE issue (P58) in order to see a sharp color photo of the Oriental auditorium.
http://www.classmates.com/feature/t/tpcSearch?q=02-19-1971+LIFE
Here is 1958 view of Randolph Street, with the Oriental in the background and Allgauer’s Heidelberg restaurant in the foreground.
A pre-restoration view of the exterior of the Oriental can be seen here.
I can recall seeing one of the last combination stage/movie performances at the Oriental. Can’t remember the year but i do remember the star singing on the stage was a man named Don Cherry.
Here is a 1951 view of Randolph Street showing the Oriental Theater marquee. The massive vertical sign has been taken down by this time, but the steel support beams can still be seen sticking out of the facade of the building (as are those of the United Artists Theater across the street).
Here is a nice overall view of the building
Here is a view of the ornament.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jarchie/3553050290/in/set-72157618596556846/ 1964 view
Thanks for posting that picture btkrefft. My father worked as a musician at the Sherman House Hotel in the background, right around this same time after WWII. First as a trombone player, then on upright bass after big band faded out. He played in the Del Rainy Trio, and once played with Stan Kenton. He met my mom in 1954. She was a showgirl at the Silver Frolics at Kinzie & Wabash. He later went on to compose the Miller High Life theme, which got his foot in the door of Chicago industrial film.
Here is a 1945 night view of the Oriental seen from the corner of State and Randolph Streets.
A circa-late 70s view of the Oriental can be seen here.
On this day in 1943, the Oriental Theatre opened an exclusive one-week engagement of Billy Rose’s traveling road show, “Diamond Horeshoe Revue,” featuring showgirls and performers from the producer’s famous New York City nightclub. Staged by John Murray Anderson, the revue claimed 12 spectacular scenes and a cast of 50, including some of “America’s Most Beautiful Girls” and veteran entertainers like Charles King, Tess (“Aunt Jemima”) Gardella, and Walter Wahl. On screen, the Oriental offered the Chicago premiere of Republic’s B&W spy thriller, “The Purple V,” with John Archer and Mary McLeod.
Heres a photo of the organ
View link
I wonder if some of those old kung-fu movies are on DVD. I’ve always been curious about them.
I hope so, too (ghosts not invited – ha!).
Well this must be a first.
This February The Oriental will be hosting the upcoming Chicago mayoral debates and telecasting them live on ABC Channel 7.
It will be interesting to see if they do any exterior or interior panoramic shots to showcase the theatre.
Someone needs to snap a pic of the marquee advertising this event if they do so.
The Oriental presented its final kung-fu triple on this date, 30 years ago, and closed its doors. The theatre finally re-opened in 1998 as a live stage venue.
Yes, that must be it. I have never been at the Limelight/Excalibur either for the same reason.
There is a local group that offers Haunted Chicago tours of some sort. Might even be called that.
I know that the former Iroquois site & the original Chicago Historical Society (later Limelight/now Excalibur), is on their tour. The latter being where bodies were brought after the Eastland disaster.
When the open house was held after the rehab in the 1990s attendees were not allowed backstage or in the orchestra pit (we were allowed in most of the public areas), so I can’t add anything about it.
Concerning hauntings, or “hauntings” at the Oriental Theatre/Ford Center for the Performing Arts, usually a news piece or radio spot will pop up about the alleyway in back of the Theatre being the spot of ghostly activity over the years (they usually are broadcast or written about around Halloween). You may wish to check the archives of the Chicago Tribune or Chicago Sun-Times on that story.
The stories are good enough for me – I stay out of that alleyway just in case.
Am writing a paper on fires that led to changes in fire codes, and of course must include Iroquois Theater and Our Lady of the Angels school, both in Chicago. Re: Iroquois Theatre, I spoke to someone in THS who insisted that remains of the charred south and west stage walls still existed until the 1970’s. Can anyone confirm that? Was also told that the manager at the time (Mickey Gold) believed the Oriental was haunted.
Considering this theatre – and its predecessors' – tragic histories, this theatre has to be haunted!
I take it back – I was in the lobby of the Oriental/Ford Center for the Performing Arts on a first-day-of-ticket-promotion for “Ragtime” where I received all sorts of gifts for attending. The lobby/ticketing area was ornately carved wood (or so it appeared), no coloring, very aged-looking. Unless it was utilized elsewhere, I don’t remember seeing it again once the rehab job was completed.
I went to see “Billy Elliot” last night. Great show if anyone is wondering. It’s the third time I’ve seen a show at the Oriental.
To those who were in the theatre pre and post-renovation, how different is the interior? The decor is way over-the-top. I mean, it almost hurts to look at there’s so much to take in. But, some of the carvings look like they’re not plaster but moulded resin or plastic like they would make a theme park set out of. Was a lot of the ornamentation damaged/destroyed over the years? How much of what’s there now is reproduction and how much is original?