Tivoli Theatre

6328 S. Cottage Grove Avenue,
Chicago, IL 60637

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Tivoli Theater

Viewing: Photo | Street View

The Tivoli Theatre opened its doors on February 16, 1921, the first of the Balaban & Katz chain’s movie palaces in the Woodlawn neighborhood, opening on the once-bustling Cottage Grove Avenue commercial corridor near 63rd Street. The theatre stood just south of the southeast corner of 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, between the still standing Strand Hotel and Cinderella Ballroom.

Earlier that same year, the chain had great success with its new Loop venue, the Chicago Theatre, and a few years earlier, opened two houses on the North Side, the Central Park Theatre and the Riviera Theatre.

The Tivoli Theatre, designed by Rapp & Rapp, was highly ornate, decorated in the French Baroque style, glittering with gold leaf and multicolored marble; its soaring two stories high lobby was supposedly based on the Sainte-Chapelle at Versailles. The Tivoli Theatre was stocked with antique sculptures and paintings, but on the other hand, the theater was also equipped with the most up-to-date modern ammenities such as air conditioning, and then-state-of-the-art projection equipment.

By the 1940’s, however, the Tivoli Theatre was just another movie house and its earlier programs of live stage shows, vaudeville, and motion pictures were a thing of the past. By the 1950’s, the theater was starting to show its age, and Woodlawn was a quickly changing neighborhood. Even a modernization during the late-1950’s by Balaban & Katz couldn’t save the huge palace and it closed in the summer of 1963 and was razed later that same year, replaced by a parking lot.

Contributed by Bryan Krefft

Recent comments (view all 38 comments)

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on April 22, 2009 at 1:32 pm

Thanks for the Trianon info. I’ll hunt down a copy.

KenC
KenC on June 17, 2009 at 3:53 am

From the Chicago Sun Times movie directory dated Saturday, May 9, 1959: Redecorated-Refurbished for Your Enjoyment! TIVOLI “THE 3 STOOGES” ON OUR STAGE- IN PERSON! Open 10:30 A.M.– Show Starts 11:30 A.M. FREE “CROONOLAS” to First 500 Kiddies! (Huh?)

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on June 17, 2009 at 4:01 am

Google has a “Croonola” as some type of “sub-musical instrument” in a December 1959 New Yorker article link.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on June 17, 2009 at 4:02 am

P.S. Given it’s the same year as the Stooges visit, a Croonola must have been the current fad.

KenC
KenC on June 17, 2009 at 4:12 am

Thanks, David. My first thought was some kind of candy bar or edible treat…guess not. I wonder how many youngsters showed up that day.Hope that beautiful palace was at least half full.

Tinseltoes
Tinseltoes on December 29, 2010 at 7:43 pm

Fifty years ago tomorrow, on 12/30/60, the B&K Tivoli started a one-week engagement of the stage revue “Smart Affairs of 1961,” with a cast of 50 topped by jazz-blues singer Nancy Wilson, the instrumental group The Three Sounds, comedian Slappy White, and limbo dancer Roz Croney. On screen was the sub-run John Wayne epic, “North to Alaska.” Doors opened daily at 1:00pm, with last stage show starting at 10:30pm.

btkrefft
btkrefft on April 25, 2011 at 10:16 pm

A 1955 exterior view of the Tivoli can be seen here.

Tinseltoes
Tinseltoes on April 26, 2011 at 2:47 pm

Thanks, Bryan! Good to see that the original vertical sign was still in place, though now supplemented at bottom by a modern attraction board that didn’t match the vertical or the marquee below it.

WayOutWardell
WayOutWardell on April 19, 2012 at 2:19 am

In the paperwork submitted to the Landmarks Commission regarding the Portage Theater, it’s mentioned that the marquee from the Tivoli was refashioned and installed on the Portage, and that doors from the Marbro were reused there as well – I assume since they were fairly new at the time.

Brad Smith
Brad Smith on May 4, 2012 at 10:58 pm

Click here for an exterior view of the Tivoli Theatre in 1930.

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