Joy Theatre
1611 W. Roosevelt Road,
Chicago,
IL
60608
1611 W. Roosevelt Road,
Chicago,
IL
60608
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Located on the Near West Side, on Roosevelt Road at the intersection of Ashland Avenue, the Orpheus opened in 1913.
The movie house was later operated by the Marks Brothers circuit, and still later, by the Essaness circuit. By the 1940s, the theater was renamed the Joy. In 1952, the Joy was acquired by the Gomez family, who renamed it the Tampico, for their home town in Mexico. It was still in operation as a Spanish-language movie house by the mid-1970s.
A drive-up bank is located today where this movie theater once stood.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
A Kimball theater organ size 2/7 was installed in a Joy (Orpheus)(Tampico) Theater. Is Tampico another aka name for this theater?
I think so. Listed as Cine Tampico in 1960 yellow pages.
Nice find.
The Joy Theater is listed in a 12/1/74 article in the Chicago Tribune about the Spanish-language movie houses of Chicago. The article says the Gomez family purchased the Joy Theater in 1952 and renamed it the Tampico for the birthplace of the new owner’s wife. It also says that as of the date of the article, the Gomez family also owned and operated the Atlantic I & II, the San Juan, the Gayety and the Congress). This theater is actually listed as the Joy, however, and not the Tampico, in the Dec. 1974 Tribune story, which could just be an oversight.
That makes sense, because the Cine Tampico was also listed in the 1953 yellow pages.
This item from the Art Institute of Chicago might depict the Joy Theatre soon after its construction.
The above is almost certainly this Joy Theatre. Compare it with the photo linked to on the page of the other Joy Theatre, which is of the Roosevelt Road cinema.