Monroe Theater
57 W. Monroe Street,
Chicago,
IL
60603
57 W. Monroe Street,
Chicago,
IL
60603
3 people
favorited this theater
One of the more modestly-sized Loop theaters, seating 950, the Monroe’s history goes back to 1900 when the Inter-Ocean Building was constructed on the site of the Columbia Theater, which had been destroyed in a fire. About 1920, the Inter-Ocean Building was converted into a theater, which was originally operated by showman William S. Barbee and called Barbee’s Loop Theater, also known as just Barbee’s Theater.
When Barbee tried to have a stage built in the theater, the city prevented it, because of the lack of enough emergency exits.
In 1923, the theater was reopened under new management as the Monroe.
By the 50s, it was showing B-grade sci-fi and horror films. In the early 60s, the theater started to add adult films to its mix of programming.
The Monroe closed by the late 70s and was demolished not long after. Part of the Xerox Center is located on the site of the Monroe today.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft, Ray Martinez
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Recent comments (view all 30 comments)
This is from Boxoffice magazine, July 1957:
CHICAGO-According to James Jovan, owner and operator of the Monroe, even oldtime showmen who think they have all the answers for the type of films that go over with moviegoers have a struggle in meeting public taste. After running a series of old and new films, with a wide range of subject matter, his experiment with “Bride of the Monster” and “Fire Maidens from Outer Space” made the box office jingle louder than it has in many weeks.
The Monroe played many horror/monster movies from 1957 to sometime in 1960. It must have been a success- here is more proof: From the Chicago Sun Times movie listings, Thursday June 6, 1957- HELD OVER! 2nd SCARY WEEK! NIGHTMARE THRILLS BEYOND BELIEF! “HALF HUMAN” plus “MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL”. 2 NEW FIRST RUN HITS MONROE NEVER OVER 87c. The Monroe almost always changed their program weekly… on Thursdays in the late 50s;Fridays from the early 60s through the 1970s. The wild and unusual titles, the cheap admission, and the posters and MANY stills that adorned the outside of the theatre undoubtedly helped the box office!
Gone by early 1982 sounds right.
I walked up Monroe St. from State to Wacker, every evening from Sept.
82-March83 for work at the old USG building. And I would have remembered a closed or boarded up theatre along my route, had it still been standing.There was however along Monroe St., one of those old multi-level indoor parking garages, built to look from the outside like every other office building in the 1920’s.
The entrance & exit driveway doors were arched. And the upper floors had textured chicken-wire glass windows, to mask from the street that it housed cars. I believe it had an auto elevator inside too.
Sometimes I would come up early from the subway near the Chicago Theatre, and zig zag my way S/W past all the other theatres that were still standing in late `82.
Something like the Hotel La Salle garage that was at Washington and Wells? View link
Yes!, exactly. But with much less obvious parking signage. I remember the one on Monroe had just small neon arrows for In & Out. Hikers took the cars from patrons once inside.
On Tuesday, Jan.20, 1959, the Monroe had the Chicago premiere of “PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.” The co- feature was “TIME LOCK.” From the fairly large ad display in the Sun Times: 2 SCIENCE-FICTION THRILLERS Flying saucers endanger us all with their…PLAN 9 from OUTER SPACE BELA LUGOSI VAMPIRA ALL NEW Plus- A CITY PITTED AGAINST 6 HOURS OF OXYGEN! TIME LOCK.
Never got into the Monroe Theatre – again, it must have been the bookings = but worked at the Xerox Centre for a while.
A circa-1900 view of the Monroe as the Inter-Ocean Building can be seen here:
View link
Thanks for posting the vintage photo Bryan.
Yes,Bryan.thanks for taking the Time.