Tiffin Theatre

Does anybody remember the Dave clark Five making an appearence at there movie?

(Community Publications, January 17, 1973)

Tiffin launches 60th anniversary fete

In 1913 when most neighborhood movie houses were simply converted stores with folding chairs to accommodate patrons and the price of admission was five cents, the newly opened 800-seat Tiffin theater on North avenue just east of Karlov, was regarded as one of the finest outlying movie theaters in the entire city. This week, beginning Friday, Jan. 19, the Tiffin theater is celebrating its 60th anniversary and is turning the clock back many, many years by offering moviegoers a rare bargain, an admission price of just 60 cents for a double feature. Two excellent films, “Butterflies are Free” and “The Burglar,” will be shown during the anniversary week beginning Friday and continuing through Thursday, Jan. 25. Partners in the building of the Tiffin theater 60 years ago were William J. Clark, realtor and attorney; George Kappus, a Northwest Side druggist and Vincent T. Lynch, who served as manager of the theater. Right from the start business boomed and movie goers flocked by the hundreds to the “showplace of the Northwest Side.” It was soon apparent that the building was too small to adequately serve the growing numbers of movie fans, so owners Clark, Kappus and Lynch made plans for a bigger theater. A new partner, Joseph joined the group and they acquired property at the corner of North Karlov, just west of the original theater building. Taking their cue from the grandiose movie palaces then being constructed in the Loop, the partners built the present Tiffin theater with seating for more than 2,200 patrons. It was a beautiful building, tastefully decorated and furnished and from the day it was opened in 1923, business flourished. This was in the heyday of the movie industry. Radio was in its infancy and television was yet far in the future. No one had heard of x-rated movies and all theaters offered film fare for the entire family. Looking back over the years, owner Jack Clark, son of William J., one of the original partners in the enterprise, said “The Tiffin, since the day it opened in 1913 has continued to operate through wars, the big depression, recessions, inflation, the advent of radio and television and lastly, x-rated movies and has survived it all. The reason the Tiffin survived when many others went down the drain has been our policy of offering the best in family movie entertainment at the lowest possible prices. Also, we never gave in to the current fad of showing pornographic, x-rated movies. Our patrons feel they can come to the Tiffin and not be offended by the movies on our screen.” Asked why the preponderance of films made in the past few years have been x-rated movies, Clark, who has served as president of the Motion Picture Theater Owners association of Illinois in the entire city, said “If people said the lives of the saints should be filmed, that’s what the movie producers would film – if that’s where the money was.” Since that isn’t likely, that part of the movie-going public with no desire to see pornographic films will continue to attend the Tiffin theater where Clark is doing his best to maintain the 60-year-old policy of showing the best available movie films suited to family entertainment.

I loved going to movies at the Tiffin in the later 50’s and early 60’s. It was “air cooled”, actually sort of like being in a fridge in the summer. My Mom always made me bring a sweater! It was a HUGE place, especially to a kid. The cartoons and double features were the draw. I always asked for a box of Jujubes as my treat. They were usually hard and took forever to chew, so they lasted the whole show. My mom had the idea that sitting too close to the screen was bad for our eyes, so we often sat in the very back row on the main floor. I now think it was more about her fear of being stuck in such a large place, in case of fire. Sometimes we walked all the way to the theater (we lived near Cicero & North Ave) but more often, my dad would drop us off and pick us up. (Mom didn’t drive!)

I remember an organ playing before the show began.

I also loved going to the nearby pubic library, the Crawford Dept store, the two dime stores (Woolworth’s and Kressge’s), the record store (I still have the 45’s I bought there) and so many other stores. We actually had very little money, so mostly we window-shopped, but we sure had fun.

Thanks for the nice photo of the Tiffin Theatre, spent many a Friday evening there and I really enjoyed their popcorn.

To enjoy a photo gallery of magnificient theaters, go to: chicagotribune.com/chicagotheaters

I remember living on Kostner Avenue across from Helene Curtis and Zenith. Was at school(Nobel) the morning Helene-Curtis blew up. I was in second grade. I remember going to the movies but don’t know if it was the Tiffin or not although it must have been.

Like Shirlban commented there was a lot of activity around the two factories and when the explosion happened a lot of news crews way up into the early morning hours. I would love to see video of the neighborhood during that time but probably doesn’t exist anymore. Sorry for getting off topic a bit butthe old memories just came rushing back when I read Shirlban’s comment.