Cosmo Theatre
7938 S. Halsted Street,
Chicago,
IL
60620
7938 S. Halsted Street,
Chicago,
IL
60620
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Ascher Brothers Inc., National Theaters Corp., Stanley-Warner Theatres, Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp.
Architects: Felix M. Bernham, Henry L. Newhouse
Firms: Newhouse & Bernham
Previous Names: Cosompolitan Theatre, Cosmopolitan Hippodrome
Nearby Theaters
The Cosmopolitan Theatre opened on September 6, 1913 in the North Englewood neighborhood on S. Halsted Street between W. 79th Street and W. 80th Street, originally for the Ascher Brothers circuit. It was later operated as part of the Cooney Brothers National Theaters Corp. circuit, and still later, the Warner Brothers and Stanley-Warner chains.
The Cosmo Theatre, as it was known in its later years, operated and least into the 1950’s. By 1960 it had been converted into a dance hall named the Holiday Club. It has since been demolished and a supermarket sits on the site of the Cosmo Theatre.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 13 comments)
The Aschers sold in April 1923, according to the Tribune:
THEATER, STORES SOLD BY ASCHER; PRICE, $328,000
According to the revenue stamps on the deed, Nathan Ascher, president of the Cosmopolitan Securities company, was paid $328,000, subject to an incumbrance of $90,000, for the Cosmopolitan theater, store and office building.
Here is a 1982 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/d8f6x3
Here is a January 1915 ad from the Suburbanite Economist:
http://tinyurl.com/pkdp6n
Here is a March 1915 ad from the same source:
http://tinyurl.com/n8v884
A shame the building couldn’t be saved. Wonder how The Sunset Club was? You had a theater that was turned into a nightclub, adjoining shops and offices or apts above. Englewood has no theaters left. They had a lot once. Very sad.
Here is a THSA photo. Here is another. Interesting that the windows actually opened.
I met my first wife at the Holiday Ballroom on Halsted in 1966. The same operator also ran the north side Holiday Ballroom in the old Times Theatre on Milwaukee north of Lawrence.
Records of the American Terra Cotta Company indicate that the Cosmopolitan Theatre was designed for Ascher Brothers by the architectural firm of Newhouse & Bernham (Felix M. Bernham.) An item in the August 24, 1918, issue of The Economist said that Henry L. Newhouse was preparing plans for an addition to the Cosmopolitan Theatre.
Openied September 6th, 1913
Cosmopolitan theatre opening Thu, Sep 4, 1913 – 21 · Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois) · Newspapers.com
An article about the Ascher Bros circuit in the March 10, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World had this paragraph about the Cosmopolitan: