Sheridan Theatre
4036 N. Sheridan Road,
Chicago,
IL
60613
4036 N. Sheridan Road,
Chicago,
IL
60613
3 people
favorited this theater
The Sheridan Theatre was built in 1927, by Chicago-based architect J.E.O. Pridmore, who later designed the Nortown (1931), in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood.
The Sheridan sat a little over 2600 in its balconied auditorium, which featured, like San Francisco’s Castro, a mock-tented ceiling, ringed by a Roman-style freize depicting a procession of gods. The Sheridan also had a small stage, an orchestra pit and organ. Unlike Pridmore’s other theaters, which were mostly atmospheric in style, the Sheridan was a neo-classical/Italian Baroque combination, complete with Corinthian columns, Roman statuary, and a proscenium arch topped by golden lions supporting a crowned shield.
After the Sheridan was closed in 1951, it was acquired by a synagogue which used the former theater for their house of worship for fifteen years, until moving to another home. In the early 1970s, the Sheridan was reopened again for movies, this time Spanish-language, and renamed the Teatro El Palacio. It lasted into the early 90s, when the theater again closed and was demolished.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft, Ray Martinez
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Charles1954, sorry it took so long to post back. I must not have checked the “Notify Me” box. Yes Arnolds is on the N/E corner of Irving & Broadway.
I think you are right also about the name Barritz, but it might have also been Biaritz. Which was later an option/name of the fancier model of the Cadillac Eldorado.
It is truly amazing that you mentioned that old juke box at Arnolds.
Those were actually 8mm film juke boxes, and sadly short lived.
Here’s why I know.
My father Chuck Zornig worked at the Seeburg Juke Box Company here in Chicago in the early `60’s. It was located near North Ave. & Clybourn. Where John M. Smyth/Homemakers Furniture was years later.
Across and down the street from the tavern Weeds. The owner of Weeds should still remember Seeburg.
My father was one of three men instrumental in the design of the juke boxes that played an 8mm sound film of the artist singing their song. Done in specially shot, musical vignettes. Sometimes not by the original artist. This was the start up phase, so they needed films. The plan was to go nation wide with those models.
According to my father, Seeburg was constantly analyzing the possible success of it all. If not enough original artists would go along and film their own songs. Plus the potential legal stuff if other artists did them instead.
Which would have been necessary to fill up a juke box in order to sell the idea to a place with a regular juke box.
Supposedly one model was going to have both 45’s & sound films to fill the gap.
Then the powers that be at Seeburg abruptly scrapped the whole thing. Citing that no one was going to stand in front of a juke box to watch a performer sing, in a bar.
In hindsight, it’s possible Seeburg may have also been leery of a certain “organizational involvement” that already had it’s influence in Chicago’s coin-op/juke box distribution at the time.
The juke box itself was clearly ahead of it’s time to say the least. MTV anyone?
As my brother & I played around my father’s office, we’d sometimes screen those small reels on a Bell & Howell projector because they were just like watching cartoons. “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”, stands firmly out in my mind. I wish he/we had saved all of those films.
Actual video juke boxes did make a brief appearance in the late `80’s under another name, but didn’t catch on. Coincidentally a place called Arnie’s Outdoor (now Dublin’s) at State & Maple behind the Carnegie Theatre, had one. I stopped by once and watched “Walk That Dinasour” by the band Was Not Was, on that evening.
The box was gone before I could get my father into Arnie’s to see it.
Sorry if this was all off topic. But whose lookin' up the Sheridan Theatre that often.
Thanks for wakin' up the memories.
To David and charles 1954: If memory serves, the club on the corner of Irving and Sheridan was BERLITZ. It did have a vertical sign with a black background and green neon letters.On the Sheridan Rd. side, it had a horizontal sign- facing west, of course.
The El Palacio Teatro is listed in a 12/1/74 article in the Chicago Tribune about the Spanish-language movie houses of Chicago.
Ah, BERLITZ. I did recall it right on 8/22. I remember often seeing their bright, vertical neon from the “L” in the `70’s. Ironic that it went from being a bar to a clinic.
Reactivate Notification Status.
Here is a 1982 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cpsuc8
I remember how big this building looked when you stood right in front of it. Driving by the lot today it doesn’t seem like the theatre would fit on it.
Photos of the Sheridan from the 1930s: Sheridan Theater.
This opened on February 12th, 1927. The grand opening ad is in the photo section for this theatre.