Gayety Theatre
9205 S. Commercial Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60617
9205 S. Commercial Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60617
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From the 1950s a postcard view of the Gayety Theatre in Chicago.
Another one burnt up or down I should say.
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
After the fire:
View link
Marc, you’re thinking of the Chelten Theatre, which has a page on Cinema Treasures here.
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.
This theater is listed in a 12/1/1974 Chicago Tribune article about the Spanish-language movie houses of Chicago as the Teatro Gayety.
1960 yellow pages listing:
Gayety Theatre
9205 S. Commercial
Spanish Pictures Only
Peliculas En Espanol Solamente
SO 8-0327
Here is an undated photo when the Gayety was showing Spanish films:
http://tinyurl.com/2stbtg
The style of streetlights would place the photo in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The ice cream shop remained open for a brief time after the theatre closed. I remember going there circa 1980.
An undated exterior view of the Gayety Theatre and next door Gayety’s soda shop can be seen here.
In the 1945 Film Daily Yearbook, the Gayety is shown to have seating for 759.
During the late 40s and early 50s, the Gayety was part of the Illinois and Indiana (II) Theatres circuit.