Coral Theatre
4710 W. 95th Street,
Oak Lawn,
IL
60453
4710 W. 95th Street,
Oak Lawn,
IL
60453
7 people
favorited this theater
The Coral Theatre opened in 1942 for the Lucas Theaters Corporation on 95th Street at Cicero Avenue in Oak Lawn. In 1963, the theater was totally remodeled both inside and out.
The Coral Theatre closed in 1984, and was razed that same year, for the construction of the Coral Plaza shopping center.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 27 comments)
A small color photo can be seen near the bottom of this page.
1983 Photo
the coral theater i remember didn’t but up to 95th it sat back from 95th—-it was all white i believe——on the corner of 95th was a frozen custard shop with a huge stone polar on it’s hind legs——i’m embrassed to say the custard place is more fresh than the theater—-we lived on 63rd and went to the lawn,colony,hi-way,and downtown——i left the city——in 1957—-then went in the army——so much has changed——-does any one remember the custard place? p.s.——add bear after polar——polar bear
The Coral Theatre and its sister house the Arlington were the subject of this article in Boxoffice of April 25, 1942. The scan of the magazine is a bit blurry, but two photos of the Coral show the original appearance of the facade and the auditorium. Judging from the 1983 photo linked in Lost Memory’s comment of May 16, 2009, the building was later expanded (as was the Arlington, in 1962.) Originally, both houses had almost identical exteriors.
The Boxoffice article identifies the architect of the Coral Theatre as Frederick Stanton, and says that theater consultant David N. Sandine was the supervisor of the design on both projects. Both houses were decorated by the Hanns Teichert Studio.
Roy B. Blass, currently identified by Cinema Treasures as the architect of the Coral, did design a theater for Oak Lawn in 1941, but I don’t think it was ever built. It was to be called the Camera Theatre, and a rendering of it appeared in Boxoffice’s “Just Off the Boards” feature for June 21, 1941.
Playing B movies in 1983 photo,too nice of a theatre for that.
Two for the price of one though.
I too worked as an usher at the coral in 1963. The manager at that time was Mr.Kay and he was a hard man to work for. I was there for the remodel and was involved in mostly clean up. We came in and worked all night on that detail. I remember the narrow stairs up to the dressing room and our new uniforms. Black tux with cardboard dickie and collars. Red cumberbun with red stripe down the side of the legs. There was a White Castle across the street. Some of the movies we ran were: The longest day, The nutty professor, Bye bye Birdie, Mutny on the Bounty, The Frankie and Annete beach movies, The great escape and many more. Pay was no good but great memories.
Always good to hear stories from people who worked the theatres.
An exceptionally unusual artifact from Mr. Kehe:
View link
Worked as an Usher for Mr. Kehe, in 1964 he taught me to say Yes Sir. I had a big crush on a girl named Wilma, she worked as a Candy Girl we called here Willy. The popcorn had real butter! When a Hard Days Night came out girls would scream and several passed out. We where so innocent then. After graduating from OLCHS, I was off to Nam.