Admiral Theatre
3940 W. Lawrence Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60625
3940 W. Lawrence Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60625
5 people
favorited this theater
The Admiral opened in 1927 as a showcase for both vaudeville and motion pictures. In 1942, the theater was acquired by the Balaban & Katz chain.
By the mid-50s, the Admiral was closed due to declining business. In 1969 it reopened its doors, strangely enough, screening only cartoons, with admission for a quarter. Predictably, this venture didn’t pan out, and within a couple months, closed.
In 1971, the Admiral reopened again, this time showing pornographic films. In the late 80s, the theater received a makeover, and restored some of the original decor. About the same time, the focus of the Admiral went from films on the screen to live entertainment, and received the more proper designation as a “gentleman’s club”, as it remains today.
Contributed by
Ray Martinez
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
In 1985, the theater’s mob-figure owner, Patsy Riccardi, turned up dead in a car trunk. At the time, it was still a porno theater and had been open since 1969, so I would assume the interior was intact. However, in 1958 the theater completely flooded over 10 days, so much that water was flowing out of the doors following a bad water main disconnection, so much of the interior was probably badly damaged then. It was remodeled to switch to a strip club in 1991
The theater building was or is owned by Lou Wolf, one of the city’s most notorious slumlords, who is behind the destruction by neglect of many Chicago theaters and buildings.
As I understand it the mini-golf epdisode was in the 60’s. The story I heard is that by the time it reopened as an adult theatre the interior had been substantially altered. I also understand that it sat in this condition for some years (as the mini-golf thing never came to pass).
NEWS ITEM:
Chicago Daily News, Tuesday, January 6, 1942, p. 11, c. 4:
PORTAGE, DRAKE, ADMIRAL JOIN B. AND K. CHAIN
Three new theaters have joined the Balaban & Katz chain. All are locatd on the Northwest Side and have been under the B. & K. banner since the first of the year. They are the Portage at 4050 Milwaukee avenue, the Admiral at 3940 Lawrence avenue, and the Drake at 3548 Montrose avenue. All three are now undergoing minor operational transitions and will offer the latest cinema advantages to neighborhood audiences.
I have seen the behind the scenes at this theatre extesnivly. I worked for a stage lighting compnay that installed some rigging and lighting to the current owners. The main auditorium plaster has been gutted, with the super structure supporting a drop ceiling type system. The stage house grid is still intact upstage of the proceienum, and many of the grid blocks are still there. The stage proper houses dressing rooms, with the “t” stage being Downstage of the proscenium. The balcony concrete is still intact and house the private DVD viewing rooms, in fact there are many of the older chairs are stored where the lighting and audio controls are. Some of the proscenium work and plaster is still there and it has a goofy way of terminting the orginal arch at the drop ceiling: the aluminum is just cut to fit around with the orginal arch being able to be seen when we were walking the high steel…
Cheers!
I’ve heard, from an employee of the Admiral, that there are still projection machines sitting way up at their station in the back of the house.
Recent photos are HERE
We were here in 1991. A rare appearance by Rockford Illinois' own Ginger Lynn. (It’s important to support hometown talent ya know).
The first floor had a DVD & “toy” store behind a rather large raised ticket & cashier counter. It had turnstyles to access that area. The DVD sales area was raised up a few feet higher than the initial lobby floor.
Behind that was a giant showroom, obviously the old auditorium. Accessed by hallways on either side. Though management steered patrons to the right as recall.
You could see original plaster work up around the 2nd floor windows in the lobby. Areas that were painted purple & silver. Those windows faced Lawrence Ave. Supposedly there were video booths on the 2nd floor.
The showroom was mostly black or purple as I recall. So the stage was really the focal point. You could tell a lot of money was spent whenever they had remodeled previously.
I was just helping a good friend of mine organize all of the Admiral Theater’s 35mm film prints in their projection booth (yep, the booth and projectors are still there…as are the 70+ 35mm porno films ranging from 1969 through 1983). It was a blast! There are about twenty balcony rows still there before a wall begins (which is where the balcony video booths are). Beyond that, down below, is the showroom with the strippers, which takes up a large portion of the auditorium. It’s amazing for me to write this, but when looking out of the windows in the projection booth, over the ceilings of the video booths and showrooms, at the very end of the theater in darkness is the curtains and presumabely the movie screen…completely intact! I’m going back soon to snap a few pictures which I will gladly post for anyone who is interested to see!
My porno filter at work did not like that website. Have to wait until I get home.
Drove by yesterday, the Admiral has re-done its entrance in a more sympathetic way – more of the terra cotta is now exposed and a lot of that EFIS stucco is gone.