Astor Theatre
12 S. Clark Street,
Chicago,
IL
60602
12 S. Clark Street,
Chicago,
IL
60602
2 people
favorited this theater
This small Loop movie house was located on Clark Street, near Madison Street, not far from today’s First National Plaza (the site of the the Hotel Morrison, razed in 1965). It sat around 300 and opened in 1922. The Astor remained in operation into the 50s before closing and has long ago been demolished.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
Here is a link to a photo dated 1922, the year of the Astor’s opening, of the theater’s exterior. From the University of Minnesota library collection.
I noticed in Bryan Krefft’s post on the Clark/Adelphi that the Astor is visible in the background of this photo: View link
Thanks for pointing that out, Brian. I’ve seen that photo a number of times before, and had never noticed the Astor in the background before!
Here is a March 15, 1950 closeup of the Marquee, from the Sun-Times archive. View link
That is one awesome pic, thanks for sharing the link.
A case of taking censoring films into their own hands…from the Chicago Tribune Sept. 7, 1949 (in part):
VANDALS INVADE THEATER; RUIN “IMPROPER” FILM
Ruse Lures Operator Away From Booth
Three vandals gained entrace by a ruse last night to the movie projection booth of the Astor theater, 12 S. Clark st., and used an ax to destroy four reels of film which one of them said were “not the right sort of pictures to be shown."
Roland Reisch, manager of the theater, said his movie operator, Herbert Personne, 62, of 8446 Drexel av., had been lured from his booth by a telephone caller who demanded to speak with him. When Personne hung up on the caller and returned to his machine, he found the ruined film on the floor.
The films destroyed were being shown on the current program. They were "Hitler’s Love Life”, “How to Undress Before Your Husband” and “Passion’s Payment”, pictures of the Nuremberg trial. Duplicate reels were supplied to the theater by Dwane Esper, a Hollywood representative, after a call by Reisch.
I first noticed the ASTOR Theater in the 1950s. I lived just outside the Loop and spent a great many Summer days wandering around downtown. The thing that called it to my attention were posters advertising the current feature HATCHET MAN starring Edward G. Robinson as a Chinese person. I discovered that the movie was made in the 1930s before I was born and was being rerun at the cheapest rerun house in the Loop. But since I had no money I couldn’t go in to see it. I finally got to see the movie on television on Turner Classic Movies. It wasn’t bad. A few years later I saw a few movies at the Astor. I saw movies at all the Loop theaters, The LaSalle, The Clark, The McVickers, The Monroe, The Chicago, The State-Lake, The Oriental, The United Artists, The Woods, The Garrick, The Apollo, The Michael Todd, The Roosevelt, The Rialto, The Follies, The RKO Palace and the RKO Grand and that little newsreel theater next to the Chicago Theater that I can’t remember the name of.
Mike Baggi
http://chicagopast.com/post/32881141467 A bigger version of the image in Bryan’s 2003 post