Granada Theater
6427 N. Sheridan Road,
Chicago,
IL
60626
6427 N. Sheridan Road,
Chicago,
IL
60626
31 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 169 comments found
Here is a nice early lobby view
I heard once that it was the building owner who removed the decorative glass from the center of the grand window. The story goes that he did a poor job of packing and the window was destroyed in transit to another part of the U.S.
I had the pleaure of being in the theater in 1986 when a new owner full of high hopes took over. Reality than set in. It was an experience. Only in the US do we destroy our architectural treasures in the name of progress, Very sad.
I believe some of the glass doors now reside at the Portage.
Nice find Brian. I’ve never seen a good shot of the box office and entrance.
View link
View link
PS, I hope to bring the oldgranadatheatre.com website back soon. :)
Hey Everyone, this is the Michael Kuecker that used to have the website oldgranadatheatre.com :) I lost my original account on this site, and after months of trying to contact the webmasters – because I dumpped DSL for Cable and no longer can access the emails (long story) they never were able to assist me.
When Comcast came to install my internet, they reset all my settings to default before I could stop them which erased all my saved passwords.
Now I’m back, and please get in touch with me about my Granada Theatre love. :)
Thanks LTS for posting those. I’d completely forgotten about Aphrodite’s, the restaurant in the foreground of the 1st pic. A girl I knew called there about a job. Whoever answered the phone told her to come in person. Unfortunately it was just a dishwasher who wanted to meet girls. Management was none too happy with him.
In the 2nd B/W photo it looks like there is a miniature version in the foreground, of the then Granada blade.
I wonder if that was some type of restaurant that was tied to the Granada. Like say the Artist’s Snack Shop down by the Studebaker Theatre.
Very cool photo’s.
Never seen these before:
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A 4/20 Wurlitzer Publix1 was installed in the theatre in 1926.
This is a lttle off topic but not really. I toured the Sanfillipo Mansion near Barrington in 2005. Had I been up on my CT reading back then, I would have known to asked the more than gracious host to point out the various architectual gems saved from the Granada. There were numerous pipe organs, Victrola’s & kaliopies throughout. Even a fully equipped retro diner.
The grounds had an outbuilding that had a reconstructed 1890’s indoor fairgrounds with a working carousel from the era.
Their was white terra cotta stone work that adorned some of the building’s interior. So I wonder if that was some of it.
It was an all day affair celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Ford Thunderbird. They even allowed the number 50 to be spelled out on the sprawling lawn in parked Thunderbirds. Photographed from a helicopter no less.
Hauntingly, a playerless pipe organ that rose from a stage floor in the house gave us a concert at the end. We also toured the pipe organ mechanicals room. Like the Granada, it’s fascinating what men could build.
Hi Rick. Since the guestbook was hosted on a different site, it’s possible. However, since the email address that was on the site is no longer active, it’s unlikely that guestbook entries are reaching anyone. It also looks like the last three entries in the guestbook are probably comment spam. Too bad.
Poking through the archive.org links, I discovered that the guestbook for the oldgranadatheatre site reamins active (somebody posted there last month). Would the owner be notified when a post is made?
There was a terrific site mentioned in the thread above, written by a guy named Michael Kuecker. The domain has been taken over by different owners, but the original content is still available in the Wayback Machine. It’s not much to look at, but it’s wonderful to read:
View link
If anyone knows how to contact the author, it would be great to hear from him. I’d love to provide a new home for his site. I hate seeing good work like that disappear.
For that matter, anybody who wants to share memories of the Granada is welcome to contact me by email (). I really loved that place.
Recently I’ve been going through some of my old photos, and I’ve got a few more shots of the Granada that I’ll be adding to my gallery.
At the moment, there are about 40, starting here:
http://www.mekong.net/random/theatre-preview1.htm
Cheers,
Cam
I could swear that I read that story on another listing.
I’ll bet people would turn off their cellphones in the theater if the manager was armed. This is from the Madison (WI) Capital Times in February 1931:
CHICAGOâ€"Three Negro bandits held up the Granada theater at 6247 Sheridan Road Friday night and fled before the revolver fire of J.J. Katz, the manager, who gave chase after he had been notified of the robbery by a girl cashier. One of the holdup men was believed to have been wounded.
The chase and shooting were witnessed by hundreds of motorists and pedestrians, as it occurred about 10 o'clock, while the crowds from the first performance were still leaving the theater.
A question for thoose of you that know or remember.
Did any of the Chicago theatres have the fabulous stage machinery that Radio City Music Hall has and the the Roxy and the Center Theater had?
This is a 1975 photo.
Here are some 1982 photos:
Photo1
Photo2
Photo3
Looking at those photos is enough to make a grown man cry, felt the same way when they demolished the Ambassador and Loew’s State in St. Louis.
Here is a Historical Building Survey about the Granada that was commissioned in 1989. It’s long, highly descriptive and sure to bring back a lot of memories of the theater and that section of Rogers Park.
Part 1: http://tinyurl.com/d3d6dy
Part 2: http://tinyurl.com/czgtt9
Enjoy!
The February 5th edition of the Chicago Reader was titled The Rogers Park & West Ridge Issue. It included a column titled The Savages Of Time, which was accompanied by 3 pictures of the Granada Theater. The author dedicated a few paragraphs to his memories of the Granada. Albeit climbing onto it’s roof.
A slight correction to the column, the neighboring bar was called Huey’s. Not Baby Huey’s.
An acquaintance recently told me the 60’s “developer” who bought the Granada and a lot of these old theaters, was initially intending to convert them all into Bingo halls. If they were already shuttered at the time of purchase, he likely got the properties on the cheap. But the Bingo angle never materialized.
That was supposedly also the intention of the Devon Theatre. But it was able to live on a little bit longer as a movie house.
My father owned the popcorn and candy store next to the Granada in the late 20’s and early 30’s, before I was born. He then began to make his own popcorn machines and established the Kripy Kist Korn Machine Co. at 120 so. Halsted in 1933, eventually renamed Krispy Kist Co. manufacturing all sorts of machines for the snack food industry.
His strongest wish was that all popcorn be cooked on a gas popper without oil and that “pure creamery butter” be used as the flavoring. His company was very involved in the snack food industry in the post WWII period up until it was sold about 10 years ago.
Caramelcorn was his specialty and I still make the original recipe for the holiday season. The Karamelcorn stores in downtown Chicago were users of our machines as well as a competitor’s machines.
If anyone remembers his original store or has any further info, I’d appreciate hearing from you.
Richard Jacobson,
Granada Hills, Ca. (I just realized the coincidence of where I live)