Pickwick Theatre

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Now Showing: A Sprite Park Ridge Legacies Live On As Pickwick Ownership Celebrates 50th Anniversary July 06, 2017 (Anne Lunde, Journal & Topics Reporter)

A life-sized copy of a sprite, designed by Alfonso Iannelli, was installed at the Pickwick Plaza in time for June 23, the 50th anniversary that the Vlahakis and Loomos family has owned the Pickwick Theatre and office building. From left to right are: Ald. Roger Shubert (4th), Dave and Elaine (nee Vlahakos) Loomos, Historic Preservation Commission Chair Judy Barclay, Sophia and Dino Vlahakis and Ald. Gail Wilkening (3rd). The Pickwick, a national and Park Ridge city landmark, features design work by Iannelli. A life-sized copy of a sprite, designed by Alfonso Iannelli, was installed at the Pickwick Plaza in time for June 23, the 50th anniversary that the Vlahakis and Loomos family has owned the Pickwick Theatre and office building. From left to right are: Ald. Roger Shubert (4th), Dave and Elaine (nee Vlahakos) Loomos, Historic Preservation Commission Chair Judy Barclay, Sophia and Dino Vlahakis and Ald. Gail Wilkening (3rd). The Pickwick, a national and Park Ridge city landmark, features design work by Iannelli.

There’s a new sprite figure in Pickwick Plaza in Uptown Park Ridge, to commemorate some special events in the life and times of the Pickwick Theatre. Friday, June 23, was a special day for the Vlahakis and Loomos family, as they celebrated the 50th anniversary of the day in 1967 when their family began its ownership in the Pickwick Theatre, 5 S. Prospect Ave., and the block of stores and offices which surround it.

To mark the anniversary, and the efforts of local artist and designer Alfonso Iannelli, who had worked on the original building in 1928, a full-size copy of one of Iannelli’s iconic sprite statues from the 1914 Midway Gardens in Chicago has been installed by the family outside the entrance to the back theaters along the alley. It will soon be surrounded by landscaping and benches, to enhance the little plaza which was installed years ago along the back doorways of the Prospect Avenue shops.

The Midway Gardens project on Chicago’s South Side brought Iannelli to Chicago for the first time. He designed dozens of these unique concrete characters to line the balconies around the beer garden, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright claimed the credit and took custody of the original figures when the gardens closed. A few have been licensed for reproduction, including the one at the Pickwick Plaza.

James Vlahakis, now retired in Florida, and his wife Georgia, were the first generation involved with the Pickwick. James was one of four owners originally, operating the main theatre on Prospect. Their son, Dino, married to Sophia, and daughter Elaine, married to Dave Loomos, took over operations in the 1980s. By that time, many privately-owned movie houses were closing or being replaced by multiplexes.

Matt Hoffman from the Park Ridge Library stages his classic movie series in the Pickwick, bringing back surviving cast members or their relatives, film historians, and souvenirs from films. Many of these fill the main auditorium. An annual Godzilla fest in July and several foreign language film runs are also features.

The Loomos and Vlahakis children have taken their turns working at the theater, but are branching into other careers and starting their own families right now. The family estimates there may be four families who still operate theaters.

The Pickwick is one of the few Chicago area movie palaces to survive. Designed by architects R. Harold Zook and William McCaughey, with decorations and sound design by Iannelli Studios of Park Ridge in 1928, the Pickwick features Art Deco designs, a “Mighty Wurlitzer” organ, and a full performance stage, with a fly gallery for sets, to accommodate stage shows, including the vaudeville performances which were still visiting Chicago in the late 1920s.

With Park Ridge Civic Orchestra live performances over the past two decades, some live theatre and dance performances, and series of silent film festivals, the main theater auditorium has been featured beyond a movie screen. Even the marquee outside became iconic after serving as a lead in for the late Gene Siskel’s and Roger Ebert’s original movie review programs.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, former First Lady, U.S. senator and U.S. secretary of state, had her first movie dates at the Pickwick, Vlahakis said.

While one theater was enough in the old days, a back building along the alley was renovated in more recent years into several smaller showing venues, and the arched aisle at the south end of the complex was opened up for foot traffic from Prospect. Where there once was a bowling alley, offices and storage, there’s a larger theater upstairs and two downstairs: theaters 2, 3 and 4. A new Theater 5 is being developed, with about 40 seats, to be above the first floor lobby on the south end of the back building. Several years ago, the original wood 1928 seats were replaced by wider, more comfortably padded rocker seats. Some of the chairs were offered for private purchase through the Kalo Foundation. Others were donated to the Jeanine Schultz School on Oakton to create a movie viewing “theater” last fall for its special education students.

The Pickwick building was Park Ridge’s first building on the National Register of Historic Places, and the first structure to receive city landmark status from the City Council and its Historic Preservation Commission.

Commission Chair Judy Barclay and aldermen Roger Shubert (4th), Gail Wilkening (3rd) and Charlie Melidosian (5th) joined the Vlahakis and Loomos families at the sprite in Pickwick Plaza for an official anniversary recognition.

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