Marbro Theatre

I think one of the Marks Brothers are entombed at Rosehill Cemetery.

corvetteguy1963,
You are correct. That used to be a McDonald’s Restaurant. The movie palace was replaced by something that claims to have killed over a billion cows to serve a nation’s indigestion. I had forgotten that it’s an insurance agency now. Today the site of the old movie palace is covering people’s personal “assets”

The Garfieldian announced the appointment of Ed O'Donnell as Marbro manager in August 1940. Can you imagine any paper making that announcement today?

Emmet “Ed” O'Donnell was recently appointed manager of the Marbro theater. Mr. O'Donnell was born and raised on the west side and lives at 4810 Washington Blvd. He has had many years of experience in managing theaters, and was in charge of the McVickers theater when the first vitaphone movie was snown in Chicago in 1927.
Mr. O'Donnell started as an usher at the Central Park showhouse on Roosevelt road in 1919, was promoted to assistant manager, and then transferred to the Chicago theater as assistant manager.
He then managed the Oriental, McVickers and Roosevelt theaters downtown, and was manager of the Paradise theater when it opened in 1928, and again when it reopened in 1934.

The Marbro was actually the blond haired twin sister of The Grandada How I’d love to see interior pictures. :)

That is an incredible pic of the Marbro!! Was it an actual photo or an artful composite of technology?
I don’t remember that many people ever being on Madison Ave. at one time.
Wow, it is really good to see the Theatre alive and well!! Thanks for the look back!

Hey everybody

I am a Michael LeVan. I have lived in the city of Chicago my entire life. I am a filmmaker and a attendee of Columbia College, heading into my final year. I love all the old movie palaces of Chicago. It has been my intent for sometime to Make a documentary on the history, and the ongoings of these historic theaters in the present. The means to make this documentary are finally in my grasp. I planned on featuring 3 theaters, the Copernicus Center(formally The Gateway), The Patio(Formally The Avalon), and The Uptown. While the Documentary will focus on the entire history, These are the three that will be visual examples, and the ones i would like to film in. I have spoken with the People at The Gateway Theater, and they are estatic that i am doing this. The only problem now is The Uptown and the The Patio. These two theaters seem to have ghosts of owners , or even managers. If somebody could help me in finding someone to talk too, i would be very appriciative. Also, this documentary will require interviews, and finding old information as well. If anybody would be kind enough to do either that would be fantastic. My somewhat set date to start filming is June 10 ,2006. My goal with the entire project is to help and benifit these theaters. Help alot more people to gain interest, and all the profit that i attain, if any, will be donated to help with these theaters. I am going to submit it to Wttw(Pbs Chicago) , and also the History Channel. So if anyone would like to help in anyway, they can contact me at my email.

or by phone (773)-656-5821

Well i appriciate if you read that entire thing, and hopefully i will be hearing from you

Michael Levan of Bleeding Chicago Productions

The cook county assessor’s office changed their system. To access pages there now, change the ‘/filings/searchnew/’ in the url to ‘/ccaosearch/’.

I came across an article saying that a copy of the Marbro was to be built near the Tivoli in Woodlawn, presumably before the Granada deal popped up.

P.S. Do you remember the Martinique? It was the Ice Cream parlor on the northwest corner just down the block to the west of the Marbro. It served the famous “Tummy Buster” creation. I always thought that combo of theatre and restaurant was heaven. Great to go to after a date. I’ll see if I can scare up a pic of a date there.

I also worked the Marbro between 1957 & 1959. Ed Konradt was the manager. Mr. Russo’s relief ticket taker was Sam Weiss, a retired bowling ball salesman (no kidding). One of the Projectionist’s was Henry Gussenberg. His brothers were both shot dead in the St. Valantines Day Massacre. I loved working there so much, I landed up managing movie theaters for over 25 years. Those were great days on Madison Street.
Stuart Swanson

The Marbro theatre was actually the twin sister of The Granada Theatre :) Please if anyone has photos of it, exterior or interior I’d like to do a piece on it on my website which is a tribute to The Granada http://www.oldgranadatheatre.com

Sam_e: Thanks for sending me that lovely email and informing me of this former Chicago theatre. Great reading!

The MARBRO had many unusual features, the lobby’s ‘flying’ staircase being perhaps the most memorable, but the auditorium had at least one notable feature too: the illuminated giant discs. These four gilded sheet metal discs were about three feet in diameter and contained cut out spaces filled with dyed isinglass panels that allowed the incandescent lights mounted behind them to show through in jewel-like colors. There were some of the trimmings made for the Grand Drapery against which they hung to cast halos of light upon the shimmering satin drapery cloth. They were probably wired in to the proscenium lights circuit and went on whenever the front wall was illuminated. They are shown in perhaps the only good photos of the area in the catalog of the E.L. Mansure Co. of 1928 as examples of some of the more unusual decorations made by that prominent firm, which still exists as a small division of the Joanna Western Mills div. of the Crown Henry conglomerate, in Joanna, S. Carolina. The same designs of convex discs were also used in the late lamented GRANADA in Chicago, and these were removed before demolition and stored in the nearby UPTOWN. The Mansure catalog is preserved at the Theatre Historical Soc. in Elmhurst, Ill. and they can be contacted at: www.HistoricTheatres.org