Gayety Theatre
9205 S. Commercial Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60617
9205 S. Commercial Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60617
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The Gayety opened in 1908 as a vaudeville and motion picture theater, later changing over to movies only.
The Gayety was located on Commerical Avenue, the South Chicago neighborhood’s main retail district. Next door to the theater was the equally-popular Gayety Soda Shop.
In 1957, the Gayety switched from first-run features to Spanish-language films, reflecting the change in the populace of the neighborhood from heavily Eastern European to mainly Latino. It was from then on called the Teatro Gayety.
A fire gutted the Gayety in May of 1982, and the theater was demolished not long after, replaced by a fast food restaurant.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
Here is an undated photo when the Gayety was showing Spanish films:
http://tinyurl.com/2stbtg
1960 yellow pages listing:
Gayety Theatre
9205 S. Commercial
Spanish Pictures Only
Peliculas En Espanol Solamente
SO 8-0327
This theater is listed in a 12/1/1974 Chicago Tribune article about the Spanish-language movie houses of Chicago as the Teatro Gayety.
Was there another Gayety Theater at 82nd & Exchange? I remember walking there with my sisters when we were very young in the mid/late 1960’s. We would go to the Sunday matinee and then stop at the Pepe’s taco stand on the way home. It changed to an all Spanish format in the 70’s. I could swear it was named Gayety’s but I could be wrong.
Marc, you’re thinking of the Chelten Theatre, which has a page on Cinema Treasures here.
After the fire:
View link
I remember watching several movies in Spanish with my friends and girlfriends at the Gayety Theater on Commercial Avenue. Mr. Henry Mendoza, whose mother worked there as a cashier, was the manager of my band, The Tellstars, and he got us a gig performing at the theater.
I was sad to see that an arson fire gutted the theater in May 1982, and it was demolished soon thereafter to make way for McDonald’s Theater. The only remaining area theater at that time was the Chelten Theater on South Exchange Avenue, which eventually suffered the same fate.(The Commercial Theater, located one block north of the Gayety Theater, had already been torn down to make way for a mini-mall in 1969.)
For additional comments/stories regarding these theaters, please visit [url=http://www.tellstars.com.
(Click players.)
Mike Roman, Esq.
Chicago, Illinois
Another one burnt up or down I should say.
From the 1950s a postcard view of the Gayety Theatre in Chicago.
What a great candy colored postcard pic. Sign and cartoons are classic.