Portage Theatre
4050 N. Milwaukee Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60641
4050 N. Milwaukee Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60641
38 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 215 comments
My husband and I went to see Svengoolie and a screening of “Son Of Dracula” last night. And we doubt we will EVER come back to the Portage for an event like this again. The audience was extremely ill-behaved during the film. They talked on their cel phones and out loud to one another. They were taking flash photos of the screen and of each other with their cel phone cameras! Kids were running up and down the aisles. People brought crying infants to the movie. Good Gravey—can’t people sit and watch a classic film anymore?
At one point I had considered finding the manager and demanding our money back. The sad thing is that this reflects poorly on the good people who worked hard to make the Portage viable again. And I’m sorry to say this, but this is why home theatre has become so popular!
Tour the Portage Theater on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsYJ8vBH4pw
Chicago Sun-Times, 8/21/08: 50 people who make Chicago a Better Place
In the book “IMAGES of AMERICA: PORTAGE PARK” by Daniel Pogorzelski, there is a nice shot of Milwaukee Ave. -looking south- on page 48. The Portage theater is on the right, with its original marquee, ornate tera-cota decor, and great vertical sign. I’m guessing the photo is from the 1930s. On page 51 is a small pic of the Patio, after it closed in 2001. On page 87- one more pic of the Portage(the marquee) plus an old advertisement for upcoming shows. According to the text, the PORTAGE PARK opened in 1920; the name was shortened to PORTAGE in 1932. I saw “POSTAL” on Sunday, May 25. A grand total of 4 people in the auditorium for the 5p.m. showing. In late January of this year, I went to a double feature at the Portage: “BRIDE OF THE MONSTER” plus “PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE”. In spite of a snowstorm that evening, it was well attended. The Portage was- and is- a great theater.
The Silent Film Society of Chicago’s Silent Summer Film Festival is coming! Six fabulous Fridays, July 18 to August 22 at 8:00 p.m.
Correction to the above: Dark Victory and Swing Time have been rescheduled to August 6 and August 13, respectively.
The Portage website is temporarily down due to server issues. In the meantime, here’s what’s coming up:
Fri-Sun, May 23, 24, 25: U.S. Premiere of Postal at 5:00, 7:00, 9:00 P.M. each day
Wednesday, May 28: Bette Davis in Dark Victory (1939) at 1:30 P.M.
Sunday, May 31: Mirosław Szołtysek i Wesołe Trio at 7:30 P.M.
Wednesday, June 4: Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers in Swing Time (1936) at 1:30 P.M.
Friday, June 13: Double Feature – Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966) at 8:00 P.M.; Vampire Circus (1972) at 9:30 P.M.
Sunday, June 15: Smart & Clever at 4:00 P.M.
Wednesday, June 18: Doris Day & Rock Hudson in Pillow Talk (1959) at 1:30 P.M.
Friday, June 20: Double Feature – House of Wax (1953) at 8:00 P.M.; King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) at 9:45 P.M.
Saturday, July 26: World Premiere of The Blind and the Dead at 12:00 P.M. hosted by Master Ron Fitzgerald; live music by Grigori3
How about a first-run movie? The controversial Uwe Boll film Postal with Zack Ward and Dave Foley premieres at the Portage this Friday, May 23.
My father grew up around the corner on Belle Plaine between Milwaukee and Cicero….and I grew up a little further west near Portage Park too…so I remember the Portage as a child and later in life.
The Portage has been doing pretty well as a specialty theater – doing weekly classic film showings, the occasional musical group (Rickie Lee Jones and Tegan & Sara have played there recently), and they’re home to a majority of the silent films playing in the Chicago area. You should check out their website (www.portagetheater.org – which seems to be temporarily down at the moment), they keep a schedule of what’s going on.
Honestly, they make pretty good coin working the specialty niches. Once the neighborhood gets back on track (namely Milwaukee Avenue), it’ll look much better. The inside is not intricately rehabbed (like the Patio Theater once was)…but it looks pretty good. Definitely serviceable now. Check it out when you can, Greene!
Hi! I grew up not far from the Portage on Belle Plaine. I’ve seen so many good second-run movies here growing up that I was wondering why it doesn’t show these types of movies now like the Logan does? Don’t get me wrong I think it’s great the Portage is renovated and open again. Since I’m still living in the area I guess I’m just curious why it doesn’t show these second-run movies instead of silent movies and old movies like it is now. Is it too expensive for the owner and just not profitable? Clearly they would make more by showing newer movies as the attendance would be higher.
Thanks
Thanks!
Paul Warshauer’s involvement in the Portage Park theater (under the Henslowe Group banner, prior to Grande Venues) took place prior to the restoration of the theater. It was only open briefly under his tenure as a theater, but he did bring a church group in which resulted in some zoning issues later. At the time of his departure the theater was still divided in two and had not been redecorated. Warshauer did upgrade some of the equipment, however, and claimed to have put 100k into the project.
Can anybody confirm if a group called the Retzler Development Group of Grand Island, Ne had any involvement in any of the reopenings or restorations of this theatre? Thanks.
Paul F – in response to your 11/9/06 comment, it’s not an all-Christopher Guest festival, but This is Spinal Tap will be at the Portage on May 5! (It’s actually a rock music film fest, with The Wall and The Song Remains the Same)
I am glad that the present owners of the Portage have been able to make a go of this place. There does seem to be a bit more work that needs to be done to the Portage. I hope that a vibrant theatre can bring back investment such as restaurants and stores to this stretch of Milwaukee Avenue.
I’ve been here for the silent movie festivals that have been here.
It appears that the Portage reopened as a twin under M&R on or near March 5, 1981.
Wow, what memories this page has given me. I was born and raised in the Portage Park area and would walk to the Portage Theatre every Saturday when I was a kid. I’ll be 65 this year but way back then, my mother would give me 50 cents each week to get out of her hair. 25 cents to get in the theatre and 25 cents to buy candy at the candy store that was to the right of the theatre. Anyone remember that place?
They’d have double features that would have us on the edge of our seats. I remember the early years where we’d sit in the front row with our necks bent back to see the huge screen. As we got older, we’d sit in the cubby hole sections at the back of the theatre with our girlfriends in the dark. I recall that I really don’t remember much of the movies I saw during that period.
I went away in 1960 when I joined the Army and haven’t been back since. But the photos and seeing that the old Portage has been brought back to life has put a smile on my face.
Thanks, Paul Mayer
The other side of Milwaukee will probably redevelop once the housing market gets better. A condo project was announced but it seems to have stalled.
I have been to the reopened Portage several times since 2006, and I’m happy there’s still a theater in my father’s old neighborhood (he lived off Belle Plaine around the corner from the theater) that’s functional, and is becoming more successful the longer it’s open. There needs to be more work done by the Six Corners Association to see what can be done about the run-down buildings on the east side of Milwaukee Avenue, where the department stores and the old Deluxe Record Store used to be (where the costume shop is now).
Only criticism I have – can they PLEASE get rid of that hot orange paint in the concession area? :)
It’s heartbreaking to see the condition of the Patio down at Austin/Irving Park Road though. I remember back in the late 1980s after a recent rehab how good it looked.
The owners of the LaGrange could take a lesson from the Portage. The Portage, it seems to me, was in far worse shape during the period it was closed compared to the LaGrange (which remains open). Was public money used in the renovation of the Portage? And who owns this theatre? Someone told me that it was run as a non-profit but couldn’t verify this.
On Friday and Saturday, September 14-15, the Portage Theater will be hosting the Preserving Palaces film festival. The program begins Friday at 7:30 PM with Uptown: Portrait of a Palace and Preserve Me a Seat (chronicling efforts to save the Indian Hills in Omaha, Gayety/Publix in Boston, DuPage in Lombard, and Villa in Salt Lake City). The festival continues Saturday, September 15 at 7:00 PM with The Wizard of Austin Boulevard, Loew’s Paradise Theatre, and Memoirs of a Movie Palace. A theatre preservation discussion panel will follow the films on Saturday night. For complete information, visit www.portagetheater.org.
P.S. left off my e-mail
am writing an article on old movie houses in or near Jefferson Park, Chicago; if anyone has any photos available inside or out of the building, either as the Times or the Holiday Ballroom please contact me. Also looking for photos of the Jefferson Nickelodeon, Gateway, PORTAGE and Patio. Were there any others nearby that I didn’t mention? I will try the Library and Historical Society files too. Roughly looking between Cicero & Austin, Irving and Bryn Mawr Ave’s.
I just found this listing for The Portage and have read all the comments. Looks like things have come a long way! The theater looks fantastic and we love working with Dennis. The theater now has a movie screen that can can easily be raised to quickly make the stage fully available. (The old screen was static and took about 4 hours to put up or to dismantle.) They have some great film festivals!
I’m one of the organizers of the Can’t Stop the Serenity charity screenings here in Chicago and we were lucky to get the theater in 2006 when it had just opened. This year, we are having our charity screening there again! Can’t Stop the Serenity – Chicago Friday, June 22, 2007 @ 7:30 PM.
I’m happy to hear the Portage is still standing and in use. I saw many movies there, and my most vivid memory of the Portage was from the premiere of “Firefox” in ‘82. The crowd was restless, having been kept outside for a long while past showtime. After finally getting in and sitting down, there were several false starts and projector problems that were resolved just before the patrons became an irate mob.
NEWS ITEM:
Chicago Daily News, Tuesday, January 6, 1942, p. 11, c. 4:
PORTAGE, DRAKE, ADMIRAL JOIN B. AND K. CHAIN
Three new theaters have joined the Balaban & Katz chain. All are locatd on the Northwest Side and have been under the B. & K. banner since the first of the year. They are the Portage at 4050 Milwaukee avenue, the Admiral at 3940 Lawrence avenue, and the Drake at 3548 Montrose avenue. All three are now undergoing minor operational transitions and will offer the latest cinema advantages to neighborhood audiences.