McVickers Theatre
25 W. Madison Street,
Chicago,
IL
60602
25 W. Madison Street,
Chicago,
IL
60602
19 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 100 comments
On my first visit to Chicago by myself (no parents) in the 1950s, I stumbled off the train on a cold gray winter morning with snowflakes in the air, and went walking around— came around a corner and saw the McVickers, with its majestic facade and its colorful marquee all lit up. What a grand sight! I knew that it was the sucessor to a line of historic theatres. Its facade alone made it an instant landmark in my eyes.
I would love to have that photo. My Great Grandfather performed there in the early 1900’s as a tap dancer. He won a large silver cup. He was in a Vaudeville act. He travelled to Chicago from Toledo by train. Since he was just a young man and couldn’t afford the fare,but desparetly wanted to go he found an empty car and jumped on. What an adventure for him and the reward of the silver cup was worth any trouble he encountered. We still have the cup and the number he wore on his back as he performed, along with his wooden soled tap shoes. He met his wife on the Vaudeville circuit…she was a “fortune teller” we had the crystal ball she used but my mother sold it at a GARAGE SALE!!!!
I am trying to find a home for a photograph I rec’d. The photo is prob. circa 1900-1915-ish and is glued (?) onto a cardboard frame which, at the bottom, states the following in gold lettering: :Stevens (photographer ?) Dresden Panel, an emblem looking like an artists pallet which has the word “souvenir” written on it; and then the words: McVicker’s Theatre Chicago" (apostrophe is there!).
She is wearing a very formal, puffed sleeve, high neck corsett-type jacket with formal skirt. It appears she is wearing a badge of some sort on her left breast. Are you aware if this theatre hosted any special benefits for honored women? Thanks for your terrific insight to this great Chicago landmark! I am originally from a suburb of Chicago and love this stuff!
I saw “Russian Adventure” at the McVickers and it was in 3-strip. The McVickers re-ran most of the 3 strip Cinerama travelogues in the ‘60’s, and since it was set up for the format threw in “Russian” narrated by Bing Crosby. One of my disappointments was that they didn’t show “Windjammer” in that series. It had only a limited run in Chicago originally since it had opened at the Opera House and had to make way for the opera season. At the time the McVickers was doing 3-strip, the Christian Radich, the ship in “Windjammer” docked in the Chicago River just a few blocks from the McVickers and allowed people to tour it. I waited in line for some time to do so, and thought with all of the interest in the ship it would have been a perfect time to bring the film back to the McVickers. The McVickers was also the first 70mm booth I was in. I was still in high school and was in Chicago getting clothes for school and saw a matinee of “Porgy & Bess” at the theatre. Afterwards I asked to see the booth which was at the back of the orchestra, and one of the operators was kind enough to give me a piece of 70mm film from “Oklahoma”. The last time I was in the theatre was after its legit days, and went in with an RCA service man who was setting up a video projector in the balcony for an upcoming fight. By that time the theatre was a grind house, and the 70mm projectors had been moved up to the original booth in the back of the house over another booth that had been built for spotlights during the legit days.
In its last years, they showed stage plays and movies, sometimes in alternating runs! I saw the road company of Man of La Mancha here in between movies.
I do recall the Cinerama’s Russian Adventure being shown at the McVickers in the mid 1960s, although I was away at college and unable to see it during its run there. I remember the newspaper advertising which mentioned Bing Crosby’s narrating the film. Whether or not it played anywhere else in the US, I’ll let someone else investigate.
I found this web site which confirms my recollection of the Chicago engagement:
View link
I am well aware of the Music Hall in Detroit. What I am NOT aware of is any evidence that 3-strip “Russian Adventure” played anywhere else ouside of Paris and Brussels, and, of course, Russia. YOur logic is false, btw. That the 70mm version of “TIC” played ANYWHERE is no indication of how the original film ran.
NOT SO about “Cinerama Russian Adventure” only playing here in 3-strip. IOt also had a successful run, in that format, at the Cinerama Music Hall in Detroit which, by the way, was the second Cinerama installation in the US after the first in NYC at the Broadway Theatre. The Music Hall was also the larget and most successful of the US CInerama theatre, often playing out to sold houses with bookings sometimes being extended for such a long time that a second Cinerama theatre was installed, called The Summit, which only played the single frame 70MM Cinerama movies. phillster on Feb 7,2005 at 4:25 pm
The only surviving theater by Adler and Sullivan is the Auditorium theater. This is a shame, since they where considered the best theater designers of their time.
Our eighth-grade class, St. Bernard’s School at 66th St. & Stewart Ave., took our class trip to the McVickers to see “The Ten Commandments” in 1958. Walked to the L station at 63rd & Harvard, rode it downtown, got off at Randolph St. and walked to the McVickers.
Good thing it didn’t collapse with anyone in it.
The 1984 closing date in the description sounds about right. If memory serves, the building was condemned because the facade was in danger of collapsing.
By the early seventies, the McVickers was a dump. The carpets were sticky and the seats were in disrepair. At this time, the theater was a three films for a dollar movie house. I don’t remember exactly when it closed, but I believe it was the late seventies.
Such a shame that this Chicago theatre and the Garrick are no longer with us today as they both were connected with the famous Alder/Sullivan team!
The McVickers I remember was showing Cinerama films in the sixties. I saw “How the West Was Won” there three times. My sister recalls seeing the 70mm, Todd-AO road show of “South Pacific” there in the late 1950s (I still have her program book from the show.)
I did see “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” at the McVickers when the theater had converted to 70mm, single projector Cinerama.
A very versatile venue, being Chicago’s original Todd-AO house in 1955, then a moveover location of CineMiracle’s “Windjammer” from the Opera House; and then the 26 frame-per-second Cinerama in 1962. Only venue for the 3-strip “Russian Adventure” in the U.S., the 70mm version having a number of stateside runs. There is also a possiblity that horizontal VistaVision ran there. The McVickers was certainly not among the 10-12 original VV houses literally hand-picked by Paramount in 1954. But there are press releases beginning in mid-1956 that the distrib had plans to lease/rent VV projectors to “deluxers,” as “Variety” called them, that had booked “10 Commandments.” Along with the Chicago McVickers, that list would also include the New York Criterion, the LA Beverly, and the Philly Randolph. I vividly remember the Randolph run and the screen was gigantic compared to those I had seen there prior to the DeMille epic. Am I safe in assuming that if true VV ran in NY and LA (I can’t imagine Par not having it presented in at least those 2 prime premiere cities in VV), and Philly might have, then why not Chicago? Comments?
I worked at the Mcvickers theater in the late 60’s early 70’s as a usher.During that time they had stage shows as well as movies .I remember James Earl Jones in the Great White Hope and Sherman Hemsley in Purlie.
Also here.
The Library of Congress site has this mislabeled as a shot of the Auditorium Theatre, but it clearly is not and matches the above shot.
A 1903 view of the third McVicker’s can be seen here
I knew the end was near when my feet would stick to the carpet while I was walking down the aisle and when I would see and hear rats running through the place.
I went to the McVickers during the Kung-Fu days of the 70’s and I new then that a sad end to another part of history was near
An office tower is now under construction on the site.
The first time I ever went to the McVickers was in 1962 when I was in 2nd grade to see “The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm.” In the early-mid ‘70s, it was reduced to a 3 for $1.00 kung-fu/blaxploitation movie house.
The McVickers is mentioned in the final scene of the musical “Chicago”; it’s where Roxy and Velma’s act opens. The theatre was replaced with a parking lot — the only surface parking lot within the Loop.
– pc
It was rumored that John Wilkes Booth had performed there.