AUDITORIUM is decorated in several shades of rose. It is isolated from the foyer by doors at the head of each aisle. The cry room is at the rear of the central bank of chairs, between the aisle doors; the party room is above, adjacent to the projection suite. Crу room accommodates 16 patrons; party room 12: each is air conditioned and each has 12 Jensen speakers with its own volume control. Trane climate changer for winter and summer air conditioning is located under the stage; a small, separate steam heating system is installed in a front basement to heat the lobby, foyer, office, projection room and wash rooms.
DESIGNED BY PEACOCK & BELONGIA, ALBERT JOHNSON’S PARK THEATRE, ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, SEATS 664, COST 580,000 TO BUILD AND $25,000 TO FURNISH AND EQUIP
A Quonset-type theatre costing $120.00 seat to build - $158.00 a seat complete with furnishings and equipment - has been erected at Loves Park, near Rockford, Illinois, according to a design by Myles E. Belongia and Urban F. Peacock, Milwaukee architects and members of STR’s Architects Advisory Council.
Core of the 664-seat structure is a Stran-Steel Quonset, completely insulated with rockwool bats and Sisalcraft insulating paper.
Despite its relatively low cost, the theatre is air conditioned, it has a cry room and a party room, and its equipment and furnishings are all of high quality.
The facade above the marquee is limestone, and below the marquee porcelain-enameled steel panels. Front lighting is by clear incandescents, with blue and rose neon trim. Marquee letters are Wagner’s, poster cases Universal alumilited aluminum. The glass-panel entrance doors are framed in wood.
Rubber tile, tan in color, constitutes the flooring of the lobby; its lower walls are finished in natural birch, and its upper walls in tan figured washable wall paper,
It is illuminated with recessed, colored fluorescent tubing. The foyer is similarly decorated, but lighted by recessed neons in selectively switched colors.
Auditorium color scheme features several shades of rose, including the upholstery of the Kroehler push-back chairs, and the rose-and-tan figured Thomas Leydham carpet. The entire surface above the plaster line, which begins five feet from the floor, is covered with 16"x22" Celotex blocks. An air duct runs down the center of the auditorium, with a false ceiling below it that extends 18" beyond each side of the duct. The two lighting troughs thus created are lamped in rose and blue neon.
The ventilating system provides either cold or warm air, according to whether the water coils carry well water, or boiler water from an oil-burning furnace. The equipment is located in a basement under the stage.
Projectors are Simplex KE-T; sound Simplex dual channel 4-Star; generators Hertner; screen Walker Plastic Moulded Washable; lamps Peerless Magnarc; speakers Altec Voice of the Theatre.
Construction was carried out by Ben B. Poblocki and Sons under the guidance of Walter G. Tolan as Supervising Architect. Equipment and furnishings were installed by the Chicago branch of National Theatre Supply.
FACADE of the Park Theatre is limestone above and porcelain-enameled steel below the marquee, with aluminum poster frames, incandescent soft lighting and rose and blue with neon trim. Entrance doors are wood with large glass panels. Small changeable letter attraction boards and Wagner letters are used below the marquee (just above the entrance doors) in addition to the larger ones associated with the name sign AUDITORIUM is decorated in several shades of rose. It is isolated from the foyer by doors at the head of each aisle. The cry room is at the rear of the central bank of chairs, between the aisle doors; the party room is above, adjacent to the projection suite. Crу room accommodates 16 patrons; party room 12: each is air conditioned and each has 12 Jensen speakers with its own volume control. Trane climate changer for winter and summer air conditioning is located under the stage; a small, separate steam heating system is installed in a front basement to heat the lobby, foyer, office, projection room and wash rooms. PROJECTION ROOM was equipped by National Theatre Supply.
No act - The Stagehands' plan is to buy area theater
By Chuck Rupnow, Leader-Telegram staff
SPRING VALLEY: It’s no act, the Spring Valley Stagehands are really trying to purchase the Spring Valley Theater.
Stagehands, a local acting coup, is staging a fund-raising drive to raise an estimated $33,000. An estimated $16,000 in pledges and donations has already been received.
Ken Kratt, a language teacher at Spring Valley High School, said the goal is realistic and would be a great benefit to the village.
“Six years ago we didn’t know how all this was going to work. But we’ve done pretty well and there’s no reason to believe it won’t get better if we own the theater. All we can do is try.”
Kratt said he and others approached Bob Richardson, co-owner of the theater, about six years ago to consider staging plays at the closed theater in the village’s business district.
“I just asked if he had any plans for the building,” Kratt said. “He said he had something tentatively in mind, but was willing to experiment with us.”
Richardson had been considering using the building for offices or as warehouse.
“We started out with a group of high school students, but advertised in the local newspaper to see if there were any others interested in helping with the play,” Kratt said.
Kratt, who was involved with a play in Menomonie, met with about 15 to 20 interested people at the local senior citizens center and plans were made for the play “Night of January 16.”
Ann Turner of Spring Valley helped with Kratt’s direction of that play. Volunteers helped build the stage, make costumes and redecorate the theater.
Theater seats had already been moved into a large pile. They were returned to their original site, but some have still not been bolted in place.
“The roof had some problems with leaks and the first show some people got wet,” Kratt said. “That’s been taken care of, but it made for some interesting comments after that first show.”
Stagehands currently pays $475 a month in rent and if enough money is donated, an agreement could be reached to put a down payment on the building and make monthly payments less than the current rent, Kratt said.
“Most of the people who came to see our first production came out of curiosity.” Kratt said. “They wanted to see what the old movie theater looked like. I don’t know if they thought we were going to be any good or not, they were just interested in being in the theater again.”
But most of the 270 seats have been full for each showing.
“There is interest in this because the actors and helpers are not only from Spring Valley, but from areas all around here,” Kratt said. “This is not just a Spring Valley production, it’s an area production.”
The various shows have included people from Elmwood, Baldwin, Menomonie, Ellsworth, Plum City and Glenwood City. The troupe has a new show about every two months, with the next one scheduled in March.
“Most of the money we’ve made over the past years has been put right back into the shows,” Kratt said. “There’s always a need to improve our props, stage or something else. We run on a pretty tight budget, so we’re pretty thankful for all the volunteer help we get.”
Kratt said donations will be used to buy the building and upgrade its heating, lighting and plumbing facilities.
“We’re always looking for more volunteers in a variety of capacities,” Kratt said. Right now, we’re also looking for tax-deductible donations to help keep us going. We’re hoping this script calls for a happy ending.“
(February 17, 1991)
(Oct 10, 1930)
At a rental of $650 per month for a term of five years, the premises at 6855 Stony Island ave. have been leased by the Royal Palm Golf Course, Inc., from Dr. M. L. Weinstein, 29 E. Madison st.
The premises consist of approximately 10,000 square feet of floor space and will be used as an indoor golf course and fountain luncheonette. This indoor course will be the only one of its kind in Chicago. It will have several chip shots, real water hazards and sand traps.
The building was formerly the South Shore theater. It is being improved on the interior with violet ray sun lamp lighting and botanical decorations.
Philip A. Weinstein, 10 N. Clark st., was the attorney for the lessor in the negotiation of the lease, while Edward I. Rothbart, of the law firm of Short, Rothbart, Wilner and Lewis, 1 N. La Salle st, represented the lessee.
The decorative scheme of the auditorium and sta foyer carries out the same air of casual simplicity, and in fact differs from that of the lobby only in that the Nu-Wood planking above the wainscot is finished with assorted pastel shades instead of white. The rustic knotty pine wainscot continued throughout the house, even along the front of the screen platform.
The Nu-Wood panels above the auditorium wainscot are the only acoustical material inatalied. Robert Zielke declares that acoustically they are perfect.
Lighting of the auditorium is carried at by means of colored fluorescent tubing along the center of sta celling with rulveed incandescents in semi-indirect fixtures along the side walls for running lights. Flush type ceiling lighting is used elsewhere in the theatre - in the lobby, the foyer, the cry room (the latter is located on an upper level, alongside the projection room) and in the lounges.
Air conditioning provides a complete change of auditorium air every three minutes. Projectors are Brenkert, sound equipment RCA. The screen is 15 feet wide, illuminated by Strong one-Kilowatt high intensity lamps drawing 40 amperes from Strong Utility rectifiers.
Peacock and Belongia, members of STIR’s Architects Advisory Council, designed the Bruce. Robert Zielke manages it on behalf of his father and himself.
From The Vault: Grand Albee Theater was a downtown treasure for 50 years (by Greg Noble, Feb 25, 2016)
For all of Cincinnati’s architectural treasures – Music Hall and Union Terminal included – the Albee Theater may have been the grandest.
Karl Topie, retired cellist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, was on the Albee stage when it opened on Christmas Eve, 1927. And he was there for the liquidation sale 50 years later, before the wrecker’s ball turned it into dust.
“It’s terrible to see it go,” he said. “It’s the most beautiful theater ever built.”
That’s what the original owners called it: the most magnificent theater in the world. It was certainly as opulent as any.
Outside, beckoning visitors through its double brass doors, was a majestic, two-story marble façade. Younger generations don’t have to imagine how that looked. Many see it whenever they come downtown, hanging on the Duke Energy Convention Center, at the side entrance at Fifth and Plum.
The five-story main lobby had lavish white Vermont marble walls, two grand marble staircases, six etched-border mirrors and a two-story stained-glass window. The three-story grand lobby was lit by nine brass and crystal chandeliers.
The ceilings were decorated with lavish rococo plasterwork accented in gold. Bet your home doesn’t have that.
The five-story, 4,000-seat auditorium had a proscenium arch, Corinthian columns and red swag drapery.
It was a theater fit for a king and it cost a king’s ransom - $4 million. Besides being one of the largest moving picture houses in the world, it had a full stage for live entertainment and hosted such greats as Fred Astaire, Jack Benny, Jackie Gleason and Ben Burnie, a renowned jazz violinist and bandleader.
Besides the façade, other theater treasures were also preserved. The Wurlitzer organ was moved to the Emery Theater on Walnut Street, then to the Music Hall Ballroom. Other pieces went to Music Hall, too. The brass doors went to the Ohio Theater in Columbus, along with some ornate, wrought-iron benches with red-velvet seats and even a porcelain drinking fountain. Nostalgic theater lovers took home hundreds of seats for $15 to $20 apiece or bought prisms from the chandeliers for $10 each.
While Columbus preservationists won their battle to save the Ohio Theater from downtown redevelopment, a handful of Cincinnatians who formed a group called Save The Albee could not.
The head of that group, Frances Vitali, operated a laundry in Corryville with her husband. The first threat came in 1972 when a Dallas group announced plans to buy the property at Fifth and Vine and build a 50-story office building and shopping arcade. Fearing that the tower would block out the sun – or at least keep Fountain Square in the dark much of the day – Vitali and others pulled together and rebuffed the threat.
But City Hall, city planners and developers were determined to rebuild the area around Fountain Square into a Central Business District. Other downtown theaters had already closed, unable to compete with the multiplex movie theaters springing up in the suburbs. The Albee’s days were numbered.
Vitali made a final appeal. She proposed a “Theater on the Square” concept open all year for the opera, ballet, touring shows, school graduations and youth programs.
“I see its value for bringing life back to the square,” she said, and at the time, the square needed it. “I’m only working on this because I think of the youth of tomorrow.”
But Vitali couldn’t block progress – or the bulldozers. In 1976, city council voted to tear down Fifth Street between Vine and Walnut for the Westin Hotel and Fountain Square South project.
The Albee was demolished in March, 1977 and that would be the end of the story, except for the marble façade. The city, which bought the building for $2 million so it could tear it down, didn’t have a use for the façade, and nobody else wanted it. So the city took it apart and stuck it away in storage for three years.
When the three-year contract was up, the city moved it to a highway maintenance lot under the Brent Spence Bridge in Queensgate. Six years passed, and the facade was no worse for no wear. It finally found a home at the Convention Center in 1986, soon to be joined by the Union Terminal murals getting evicted from CVG.
Orpheum emerges from its first year ready to take on the giants
For the 75-year-old Orpheum Theater, it has been a year of starring, supporting and waiting in the wings.
The Orpheum flickered to life at 5819 Sixth Ave, on Nov. 18, 1995 after decades of silence. Between 1,000 and 2,000 customers now pass through the building’s doors each week, depending on the movies offered and the time of year.
Since the curtain went up last year, owner Jeff Maher has steered his investment through the business climate of downtown Kenosha with a strategy of upgrades, discount promotions and old-fashioned perseverance.
The four-story Orpheum originally opened a 1,600-seat theater in March of 1922, but showed its last movie in the 1970s and had been vacant since 1990. The building survived several close calls with the wrecking ball before being designated a historic landmark in 1990.
Maher, 35, bought the building in early 1995 and divided its ground floor into two theaters, one with 218 seats, the other with 200. As a “second-run” theater, films are shown that have been out for about two months and are on their way to video.
Admission is $2 except for “dollar night”, on Tuesdays, when all films are $1. Maher and his wife, Janet, work at the theater to help supervise the larger crowds on those nights.
In its year of life the Orpheum has turned a small profit, which Maher used to upgrade the theaters' stereo surround sound and projector lenses.
Sometime next year, he plans to add two theaters upstairs, one with 120 seats, the other with 260 Eventually, as many as six theaters are possible.
Both of the new theaters will have stadium style seating, and one may be designated for classic films.
“Stadium seating will give me an advantage over the other theaters probably in a 100-mile radius,” Maher said. “It’s essentially like balcony seating, you have an unobstructed view. It’s the wave of the future, but it is expensive.”
The Orpheum Theater will soon be up against some powerful competition. Within the past two months, plans have been announced to open a 16-screen multiplex cinema at Southport Plaza and a 12-screen theater at 1-94 and Highway 20 next year.
Dallas-based Cinemark will open the 2.800-seat, 16-screen multiplex at Southport next fall, and Milwaukee-based Marcus Theatres Corp will open the 2,500-seat, 12-screen facility just four miles cast.
But Maher said if anything, multiplexes complement the Orpheum.
“I don’t feel we compete against the first-run (theaters),” he said. “People say "Star Trek' is out now, but if we wait a month we can see it at the Orpheum for $2.
Louis Micheln, outgoing president of the Kenosha Area Chamber of Commerce, said there is now enough movie business to around though cineplexes will stay popular in coming years.
“Movie theaters have cycles just like a lot of other businesses, so it’s had its ups and downs over the years”, Michelin said. “But by reading the entertainment sections of the papers, you can see there’s a resurgence in attendance. When you see these grosses being reported, you can tell people are going to a lot of movies.”
On November 30, 1969, the curtain came down for the final time at the Mondovi Theatre as the credits finished rolling for “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. Built in 1921, the theatre was razed in 1974.
In January, Celeste Holm visited Oshkosh for a benefit dinner, and while here spent a few moments giving her appraisal of the Grand Theater.
And at that time, Miss Holm expressed her desire to work in the Grand, for in her opinion it would be an excellent theater in which to give a performance, and certainly was a theater well worth saving.
Tonight Miss Holm will fulfill her desire to perform in Oshkosh when she stars in the comedy production of “Not Even In Spring” at 8:15. Асcording to sponsors of the event, a near-capacity audience is expected, although some seats should be available at the door.
Upon arrival in Oshkosh Monday Miss Holm met with the news media at an afternoon press conference at the Grand. She and her company have just finished “Not Even In Spring” in a four week engagement in Chicago, and while having a successful run with the play in Chicago the Hollywood actress devised the idea to bring the play to the Grand, donating the proceeds to the local cause.
In a final appeal to Oshkosh area residents Miss Holm told the press, “Don’t tear down what you will never be able to replace. Here is a theater where you can sit in any seat in the house and see and hear everything that goes on in the theater. In practically every playhouse today, electronics play such a large part in the performing of the show, that the true sound of the natural voice is no longer as important as it once was.
“In fact, there are very few theaters today that I would rank in the same class with the Grand. One would be the Music Box on Broadway, but there are just so few that give the actor the opportunity to display his real talent, as the Grand does.”
Explaining the importance of the small playhouses and theaters to the actress, Miss Holm said “The reason movies in Europe have such a great dramatic quality, is the fact that in Europe the actors have the opportunity to play in good playhouses at the same time they are making a movie, but in this country this is not true. By playing in these local playhouses, the actor has the opportunity to develop the dynamic qualities in his voice, which is so very important.”
“The ‘grass-root’ theaters that are springing up all over the country are worth every penny,” Miss Holm continued, “for they can be used for so much, plays, movies, concerts, almost anything. And any support that can be given to theaters such as the Grand should be given.”
Appearing with Miss Holm in the one-night performance are the other members of her cast direct from the Chicago performance of “Not Even In Spring” including Delphy Lawrence, Wesley Addy, Nelson Welch, and Herbert Nelson.
Following tonight’s show, Miss Holm will leave for Pasadena. Calif., where she will begin rehearsals for a new play, “Captain Brisban’s Conversion” which she will do at the Pasadena Playhouse. (August 30, 1966)
Brothers J.A. Hamlin and L.B. Hamlin bought the Foley’s Billiard Hall property in January 1872 and erected the ornate building with an additional building at the east end as a garden with fountains, waterfalls and stages, reconstructed in September 1878 as Hamlins’ Theater, soon sold to John Borden in 1880, then to his son William Borden, who after more reconstruction opened it on September 6, 1880 as the Grand Opera House under the management of John A. Hamlin. It opened by Hoey & Hardy’s Company in an adaptation of the play “A Child of the State,” followed by Tom Keene in a Shakespearian repertory, and hosted the first production of two hit musicals aimed at children and in June of 1902, the original production of The Wizard of Oz premiered there. In June 1903 came the premiere of Victor Herbert’s “Babes in Toyland”.
The Grand Opera House was built as a legitimate theatre and had seating for 1,750 in an orchestra floor, balcony, and gallery. The interior was lit by gas and described by the Chicago Daily Tribune as having “the beautiful blending of rich colors, and the graceful elegance of the designs charms the eye at every point."
On March 3rd, 1912, George M. Cohan and partner Sam H. Harris leased the theatre and renamed it “George M. Cohan’s Grand Opera House”. In 1926 the façade and auditorium were reconstructed by Andrew Rebori, and it reopened as the Four Cohans. Later the Shuberts took over and it became the Shubert Grand Opera House, but it soon returned to its original name Grand Opera House. When films began, the theatre was renamed the RKO Grand. In March, 1958 the RKO Grand closed, and was demolished a month later.
The Chicago Civic Center was later constructed on the site, now the Richard J. Daley Center.
Among those who played the Grand over the years: Lionel Barrymore, Arthur Byron, Mady Christians, George M. Cohan, Constance Collier, Katharine Cornell, Dudley Digges, Robert Edeson, Leon Errol, Douglas Fairbanks, Walter Hampden, Miriam Hopkins, Allan Jones, Bert Lahr, Eva Le Gallienne, Canada Lee, the Marx Brothers, Chester Morris, Mildred Natwick, Effie Shannon, and Ethel Waters. (Thanks to Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.)
Roy Bogan, 39, of 8918 Blackstone av., assistant manager of the RKO Grand Theater at 119 N. Clark st., was shot above the heart by a holdup man late yesterday afternoon.
The bandit escaped in a gun battle with police during the evening rush hour in the Loop.
Bogan was taken to St. Luke’s hospital, where physicians said his condition is not serious. A 32 caliber bullet which passed thru Bogan’s body was found imbedded in the door of the ticket cage, fronting on the sidewalk where the shooting occurred.
Dares Bandit to Shoot
Bogan had relieved a woman ticket seller at the window only a few moments before the gunman walked up and demanded all the money in the cage.
“No.” Bogan told him.
“I’ll shoot you,” the gunman threatened.
“Go ahead,” Bogan told him.
The gunman fired and fled. Bogan turned sidewise as the shot was fired, the bullet passing diagonally thru the upper part of his chest.
Patrolman Joseph Ostermann, riding a three wheeled motorcycle, heard the shot at Clark and Washington sts. He arrived at the theater just in time to see the gunman dart into an alley north of the theater and run east.
Gunman Fires at Cop
As Ostermann reached the mouth of the alley, the gunman turned and fired two shots at him. Ostermann fired two shots in return, abandoned his motorcycle, and took up the chase on foot.
The gunman fled east to Dearborn st., south to Washington, and then turned east. He was reported to have fled into the basement of the Hillman store, but a search there by police disclosed no trace of him.
Miss Betty Talbott, an usherette at the theater, was the first to reach Bogan after the shooting. He was taken to St. Luke’s hospital by Detectives James Nihill and Harry Gazzola of the cartage detail in their squad car.
Wrecking Crews Give Final Show at RKO Grand Theater
CHICAGO - Chicago’s RKO Grand theater is having its grand finale at the hands of a wrecking crew.
The site on Clark Street, across from the County Building, will become a parking lot. Thus ends a theater tradition that dates back to 1860 when Thomas Barbour Bryan built an auditorium.
Known as Bryan’s Hall, it was taken over by R. M. Hooley in 1870 for minstrel shows.
In 1871, it was partly destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire.
Rebuilt, it became the Grand Opera House. Then in 1873 it became Hamlin’s beer garden and in 1878 Hamlin’s Opera House.
In 1903, just around the corner on Randolph Street, the Iroquois Theater fire claimed 602 lives.
George M. Cohan and Sam Harris bought the theater in 1912 and named it Cohan’s Opera House. In 1926, it became Four Cohans' Theater.
This era in the 20’s brought Katherine Cornell to its stage.
Ziegfield’s Follies, Earl Carroll’s Vanities and George M. Cohan made seasonal appearances.
By 1942, the legitimate theater - Chicago’s first of any consequence - was converted into a movie house.
It then became The RKO Grand until a few weeks ago when the Harvey Wrecking Co., was billed on the marquee as the Grand’s last act and swiftly went about the business of turning the theater to rubble and memories. (4/25/58)
The new Juno Theater, located in the former Zwieg Store building on the corner of Oak and South Main streets, will open Sunday, according to Carl F. Neitzel, owner.
The new establishment enterprise will open at 2 pm with a matinee, and the movie program will be shown continuously until the night closing. The first feature scheduled for the Juno Theater is “Deep Valley”, starring Lupino, Dane Clark, Wayne Morris and Fay Bainter. A newsreel and cartoon will be included.
The building housing the theater has been completely remodeled and redecorated. An inclined flоог offers a clear view of the screen from each of the 400 seats on the main floor. A 12-set “cry room” for mothers with very small children is an added feature of comfort. A separate speaker and large window enables occupants to see and hear as well as from the main floor.
Considerable alteration of the building was necessary in order to comply with requirements of the State Industrial Commission. The entrance will be from the southwest side of the building, with the projection room at the south end. The Juno Sweet Shop will occupy the north end of the building, fronting on Oak Street.
The building was purchased by Neitzel more than a year ago, and he and his family have been residents of Juneau since October, 1946. Before coming here, they lived in Hartland where they owned and operated the Victor Theater for several years.
When this city saved the Chicago Theatre, it earned no right to turn its back on the three other major movie palaces of the 1920s surviving here. Those are the Uptown, the Avalon and the Granada - and among them, the Granada is perhaps the grandest of all.
You have probably seen the elaborately ornamented and arched terra cotta facade of the now-threatened Granada, which stands on a prominent site at 6433 N. Sheridan Rd.
But if you’ve never been inside the theater (which has been dark for several years except for a few rock concerts), you may wish to visit one of two photo exhibitions that will continue through July 31. One is on the fourth floor at the south end of the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.; the other at the Rogers Park Branch Library, 6907 N. Clark St.
The recently shot black and white photos of the Granada by Mike Williams are part of a suddenly escalating, last-ditch public effort to find a new use for the theater to prevent its demolition by developers who have talked about building an apartment tower in its place.
Architect Daniel D. Watts curated the photo exhibits. He also organized the Save the Granada Theater Committee, which is working in league with the Rogers Park Community Council and the Theater Historical Society.
Williams' photographs show the exterior of the Granada, some of the more sweeping expanses of its interior and a number of its decorative details. The pictures also convey impressions of desolation and incipient decay in the 3,447-seat house, which opened in 1926.
The Granada is nominally Spanish baroque in style, although it manifests many of the other eclectic, whimsical and deliberately overblown twists and turns of form and ornamentation found in big urban stage-and-screen venues of the time. Its grand staircase, crystal chandeliers, stained glass, use of marble and bronze, coffered ceilings and acres of ornamented plaster give it
a marvelously gaudy quality. Cleveland-born Edward E. Eichenbaum designed the Granada while working for the architectural firm of Levy & Klein in Chicago. He had begun his career in Detroit with the distinguished Albert Kahn and at another point was associated with the Chicago-based design firm of A. Epstein & Sons.
Other Chicago theaters credited to Eichenbaum include the Regal and Diversey. He also designed the Palace in South Bend, Ind., and the Regent in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Eichenbaum’s love of legitimate theater originated during his student days at the University of Pennsylvania, and he even understudied the great George Arliss in “Disraeli” for a year when the play was running in Philadelphia.
Eichenbaum once called the Granada “the greatest design I have ever been privileged to make,” according to a 1983 article by Sharon Lindy published in Marquee magazine. Film palaces were being built so rapidly in the 1920s that Eichenbaum sometimes used the same terra cotta molds on different theaters, ingeniously assembling them into fresh configurations to save time and money.
When the Granada was still on the drafting boards, Eichenbaum told an interviewer: “I want this building to be paradise, so that the common man can leave his meager existence at the door and for a few hours feel that he, too, is among the very rich class that he reads about in the paper.”
Fifty years after he designed it, Eichenbaum returned to the Granada for a visit to receive a 1976 Marquee magazine award from Joseph DuciBella of the Theater Historical Society. Eichenbaum detested the plainness of modern theaters. “They’re nothing but barns,” he said. Eichenbaum died in 1982.
The present effort to save the Granada is supported by DuciBella, a theater historian, and by preservationists. Early this month, a representative of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency said the Granada was a “very good candidate” for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Architect Watts, spearheading the Granada campaign, points out that most of the theater is unaltered and in good condition: Its original marble floor is sound, its organ intact, and even its original stage lighting is in working order. The Granada does not have Chicago municipal landmark status as does the Chicago Theatre on downtown State Street, now a busy venue for live entertainment. Yet it doesn’t necessarily make sense to compare the strategy or business rationale for saving the Granada with the scenario that led to the Chicago’s salvation after a slide to the brink of demolition. The location, economics and re-use factors are disparate, after all.
Still, neither can such differences be used as alibis for shrugging off the Granada. The old North Side movie palace is part of the city’s sociocultural fabric and its brilliant architectural heritage.
There is no doubt, then, about the Granada’s credentials. And so we are left with the basic question about any major preservation effort: How many people care, and how hard are they willing to work?
The Save the Granada Theater Committee is based at 1637 W. Morse Ave.
A woman named Deborah Nerness wants to save the Granada Theater, so it is understandable why she has named the organization fighting toward that goal the “Save the Granada Theater Committee.” It is also, from this seat, understandable why she would care to preserve this glorious building.
We last visited the 3,417-seat movie house in 1981, at the tail end of its decade-or-so fling as a rock concert hall. We saw Cheap Trick. And we also saw the dusty but still unmistakable signs of beauty.
Built in 1922, the Granada, at 6427 N. Sheridan Rd., was one of more than 20 opulent movie palaces that once dotted the city. It was one of the flashiest, with 80-foot ceilings, elaborate hand-carved stone work, painted ornamental ceilings, columns, statues and stained-glass windows.
We haven’t seen the Granada’s interior for so long that we don’t feel like getting in the middle of a battle between those who would save the building and those who seek to raze it - such struggles and their attendant arguments are best left to lawyers and architects. But after thinking about the Save the Granada Theater Committee, 1637 W. Morse Ave., we walked over to the lobby of the Chicago Theatre and wondered: Could it happen here?
Curtain falls on hopes to save theater
(By Peter Kendall)
The curtain has apparently been brought down down on efforts to save the interior of Rogers Park’s historic Granada Theater.
A developer debuted a plan Thursday to keep only the building’s facade as part of a 24-story apartment tower.
Local developer SLC Corp. brought its plans for Granada Centre to Ald. David Orr (49th) and a neighborhood meeting that had little enthusiasm and plenty of empty seats. Granada Centre would include the tower, storefronts and a parking garage.
Preservationists' efforts to save the 1926 Spanish baroque theater at 6433 N. Sheridan Rd. apparently ran its course after several years of unsuccessful attempts to find a developer who would keep intact the building and restore its grand lobby and stage.
“I thought people would be jumping up and down talking about architecture and the importance of history, but all they are talking about is traffic and parking,” said Milwaukee preservationist Fred Jahnke, who walked out of the meeting early.
If the developer wins city approval, the building will be razed but the ornate terra cotta facade will be left intact. The marquee, which was added years after the building went up, will be stripped off, and the facade restored to form a front for the apartment building’s parking garage.
Wilbert R. Hasbrouck, an architect who has been involved with past efforts to save the theater, received applause when he told audience members that they should be happy getting as much much of the old Granada as they will.
“It will continue to be a local landmark, it will be recognizable, and it will be far more usable than what we have there now,” Hasbrouck said.
Although Orr said he has not yet taken a position on the new building, he paid the developers tribute. “I’m excited that we have some responsible developers socking millions of dollars into our neighborhood,” Orr said.
The effort to save the historic building peaked last year with the formation of the Save the Granada Theater Committee.
Last summer, the committee sponsored exhibitions of current photographs inside the theater, showing that the marble floors, sweeping staircases and crystal chandeliers remained intact in the 3,447-seat movie palace.
But the committee was weakened by internal dissention and could not find a developer to take over the plans.
Committee founder Daniel Watts found little satisfaction Thursday in SLC Corp.’s proposal. “It’s eyewash,” he said after looking over the drawings. “The best they can do with the theater is to put a parking garage in it.”
Unimpressed with what the developers called “economic realities, preservationist Jahnke left the meeting remarking "In 15 years, we will look back on this and say, How did we let this happen?” (May 20, 1988 - Chicago Tribune)
Racine’s North Side is losing its two movie Screens
The final shows at Rapids Plaza Cinema I and II, 2200 Mount Pleasant St., will be presented Sunday, said Mark Gramz, Marcus Theatres vice president of operations.
“We just find that operating 13 screens in three buildings isn’t as efficient as 11 screens in two buildings,” he said.
Milwaukee-based Marcus Theatres also operates the six-screen Regency Mall Cinemas, 5230 Durand Ave., and the five-screen Westgate Cinemas, 5101 Washington Ave.
Gramz said the two-screen Rapids Plaza operation doesn’t encourage the kind of movie patron traffic that Marcus gets from complexes with more film offerings. Marcus added thrée screens to Westgate last year and remodeled the lobby and concessions area at Regency Mall.
“We feel 11-screens is a sufficient number for the Racine market, but we’ll monitor the situation,” he said. “We would possibly add screens at Westgate or Regency or both if it becomes necessary.”
The manager at Rapids Plaza will transfer to Marcus South Shore Cinemas in Oak Creek and the company will try to find jobs for other employees at its remaining Racine outlets.
Marcus opened the Rapids Plaza Cinema in 1976. The twin-screen complex has about 900 seats. Gramz said Marcus will keep the seating and equipment for other ventures and put the building up for sale. (9/25/1992)
Yesterday, the City Council finance committee once again extended the Fullerton/Milwaukee TIF district to help protect the Congress Theatre against the oncoming winter and easing the path toward its full $87.8 million restoration. Last year, Ald. Daniel LaSpata asked the commissioners to extend the TIF district to 1/1/2027.
December 3rd, 2024 marks 20 years since the Genesee Theatre reopened to the public after a 15-year closure. The 5-year $23 million renovation included a Broadway-sized stage and rigging system, the addition of 600 seats (1,799 to 2,403), a reproduction of the 1927 marquee with over 2,000 lights, new lighting and sound systems, and more. https://www.geneseetheatre.com
As a record store.
AUDITORIUM is decorated in several shades of rose. It is isolated from the foyer by doors at the head of each aisle. The cry room is at the rear of the central bank of chairs, between the aisle doors; the party room is above, adjacent to the projection suite. Crу room accommodates 16 patrons; party room 12: each is air conditioned and each has 12 Jensen speakers with its own volume control. Trane climate changer for winter and summer air conditioning is located under the stage; a small, separate steam heating system is installed in a front basement to heat the lobby, foyer, office, projection room and wash rooms.
SHOWMEN’S TRADE REVIEW, November 6, 1948
A 1948 Quonset at $120 Per Seat
DESIGNED BY PEACOCK & BELONGIA, ALBERT JOHNSON’S PARK THEATRE, ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, SEATS 664, COST 580,000 TO BUILD AND $25,000 TO FURNISH AND EQUIP
A Quonset-type theatre costing $120.00 seat to build - $158.00 a seat complete with furnishings and equipment - has been erected at Loves Park, near Rockford, Illinois, according to a design by Myles E. Belongia and Urban F. Peacock, Milwaukee architects and members of STR’s Architects Advisory Council.
Core of the 664-seat structure is a Stran-Steel Quonset, completely insulated with rockwool bats and Sisalcraft insulating paper.
Despite its relatively low cost, the theatre is air conditioned, it has a cry room and a party room, and its equipment and furnishings are all of high quality.
The facade above the marquee is limestone, and below the marquee porcelain-enameled steel panels. Front lighting is by clear incandescents, with blue and rose neon trim. Marquee letters are Wagner’s, poster cases Universal alumilited aluminum. The glass-panel entrance doors are framed in wood.
Rubber tile, tan in color, constitutes the flooring of the lobby; its lower walls are finished in natural birch, and its upper walls in tan figured washable wall paper,
It is illuminated with recessed, colored fluorescent tubing. The foyer is similarly decorated, but lighted by recessed neons in selectively switched colors.
Auditorium color scheme features several shades of rose, including the upholstery of the Kroehler push-back chairs, and the rose-and-tan figured Thomas Leydham carpet. The entire surface above the plaster line, which begins five feet from the floor, is covered with 16"x22" Celotex blocks. An air duct runs down the center of the auditorium, with a false ceiling below it that extends 18" beyond each side of the duct. The two lighting troughs thus created are lamped in rose and blue neon.
The ventilating system provides either cold or warm air, according to whether the water coils carry well water, or boiler water from an oil-burning furnace. The equipment is located in a basement under the stage.
Projectors are Simplex KE-T; sound Simplex dual channel 4-Star; generators Hertner; screen Walker Plastic Moulded Washable; lamps Peerless Magnarc; speakers Altec Voice of the Theatre.
Construction was carried out by Ben B. Poblocki and Sons under the guidance of Walter G. Tolan as Supervising Architect. Equipment and furnishings were installed by the Chicago branch of National Theatre Supply.
FACADE of the Park Theatre is limestone above and porcelain-enameled steel below the marquee, with aluminum poster frames, incandescent soft lighting and rose and blue with neon trim. Entrance doors are wood with large glass panels. Small changeable letter attraction boards and Wagner letters are used below the marquee (just above the entrance doors) in addition to the larger ones associated with the name sign AUDITORIUM is decorated in several shades of rose. It is isolated from the foyer by doors at the head of each aisle. The cry room is at the rear of the central bank of chairs, between the aisle doors; the party room is above, adjacent to the projection suite. Crу room accommodates 16 patrons; party room 12: each is air conditioned and each has 12 Jensen speakers with its own volume control. Trane climate changer for winter and summer air conditioning is located under the stage; a small, separate steam heating system is installed in a front basement to heat the lobby, foyer, office, projection room and wash rooms. PROJECTION ROOM was equipped by National Theatre Supply.
No act - The Stagehands' plan is to buy area theater
By Chuck Rupnow, Leader-Telegram staff
SPRING VALLEY: It’s no act, the Spring Valley Stagehands are really trying to purchase the Spring Valley Theater.
Stagehands, a local acting coup, is staging a fund-raising drive to raise an estimated $33,000. An estimated $16,000 in pledges and donations has already been received.
Ken Kratt, a language teacher at Spring Valley High School, said the goal is realistic and would be a great benefit to the village.
“Six years ago we didn’t know how all this was going to work. But we’ve done pretty well and there’s no reason to believe it won’t get better if we own the theater. All we can do is try.”
Kratt said he and others approached Bob Richardson, co-owner of the theater, about six years ago to consider staging plays at the closed theater in the village’s business district.
“I just asked if he had any plans for the building,” Kratt said. “He said he had something tentatively in mind, but was willing to experiment with us.”
Richardson had been considering using the building for offices or as warehouse.
“We started out with a group of high school students, but advertised in the local newspaper to see if there were any others interested in helping with the play,” Kratt said.
Kratt, who was involved with a play in Menomonie, met with about 15 to 20 interested people at the local senior citizens center and plans were made for the play “Night of January 16.”
Ann Turner of Spring Valley helped with Kratt’s direction of that play. Volunteers helped build the stage, make costumes and redecorate the theater.
Theater seats had already been moved into a large pile. They were returned to their original site, but some have still not been bolted in place.
“The roof had some problems with leaks and the first show some people got wet,” Kratt said. “That’s been taken care of, but it made for some interesting comments after that first show.”
Stagehands currently pays $475 a month in rent and if enough money is donated, an agreement could be reached to put a down payment on the building and make monthly payments less than the current rent, Kratt said.
“Most of the people who came to see our first production came out of curiosity.” Kratt said. “They wanted to see what the old movie theater looked like. I don’t know if they thought we were going to be any good or not, they were just interested in being in the theater again.”
But most of the 270 seats have been full for each showing.
“There is interest in this because the actors and helpers are not only from Spring Valley, but from areas all around here,” Kratt said. “This is not just a Spring Valley production, it’s an area production.”
The various shows have included people from Elmwood, Baldwin, Menomonie, Ellsworth, Plum City and Glenwood City. The troupe has a new show about every two months, with the next one scheduled in March.
“Most of the money we’ve made over the past years has been put right back into the shows,” Kratt said. “There’s always a need to improve our props, stage or something else. We run on a pretty tight budget, so we’re pretty thankful for all the volunteer help we get.”
Kratt said donations will be used to buy the building and upgrade its heating, lighting and plumbing facilities.
“We’re always looking for more volunteers in a variety of capacities,” Kratt said. Right now, we’re also looking for tax-deductible donations to help keep us going. We’re hoping this script calls for a happy ending.“ (February 17, 1991)
March 27, 1958.
(Oct 10, 1930) At a rental of $650 per month for a term of five years, the premises at 6855 Stony Island ave. have been leased by the Royal Palm Golf Course, Inc., from Dr. M. L. Weinstein, 29 E. Madison st.
The premises consist of approximately 10,000 square feet of floor space and will be used as an indoor golf course and fountain luncheonette. This indoor course will be the only one of its kind in Chicago. It will have several chip shots, real water hazards and sand traps.
The building was formerly the South Shore theater. It is being improved on the interior with violet ray sun lamp lighting and botanical decorations.
Philip A. Weinstein, 10 N. Clark st., was the attorney for the lessor in the negotiation of the lease, while Edward I. Rothbart, of the law firm of Short, Rothbart, Wilner and Lewis, 1 N. La Salle st, represented the lessee.
The decorative scheme of the auditorium and sta foyer carries out the same air of casual simplicity, and in fact differs from that of the lobby only in that the Nu-Wood planking above the wainscot is finished with assorted pastel shades instead of white. The rustic knotty pine wainscot continued throughout the house, even along the front of the screen platform.
The Nu-Wood panels above the auditorium wainscot are the only acoustical material inatalied. Robert Zielke declares that acoustically they are perfect.
Lighting of the auditorium is carried at by means of colored fluorescent tubing along the center of sta celling with rulveed incandescents in semi-indirect fixtures along the side walls for running lights. Flush type ceiling lighting is used elsewhere in the theatre - in the lobby, the foyer, the cry room (the latter is located on an upper level, alongside the projection room) and in the lounges.
Air conditioning provides a complete change of auditorium air every three minutes. Projectors are Brenkert, sound equipment RCA. The screen is 15 feet wide, illuminated by Strong one-Kilowatt high intensity lamps drawing 40 amperes from Strong Utility rectifiers.
Peacock and Belongia, members of STIR’s Architects Advisory Council, designed the Bruce. Robert Zielke manages it on behalf of his father and himself.
From The Vault: Grand Albee Theater was a downtown treasure for 50 years (by Greg Noble, Feb 25, 2016) For all of Cincinnati’s architectural treasures – Music Hall and Union Terminal included – the Albee Theater may have been the grandest.
Karl Topie, retired cellist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, was on the Albee stage when it opened on Christmas Eve, 1927. And he was there for the liquidation sale 50 years later, before the wrecker’s ball turned it into dust.
“It’s terrible to see it go,” he said. “It’s the most beautiful theater ever built.”
That’s what the original owners called it: the most magnificent theater in the world. It was certainly as opulent as any.
Outside, beckoning visitors through its double brass doors, was a majestic, two-story marble façade. Younger generations don’t have to imagine how that looked. Many see it whenever they come downtown, hanging on the Duke Energy Convention Center, at the side entrance at Fifth and Plum.
The five-story main lobby had lavish white Vermont marble walls, two grand marble staircases, six etched-border mirrors and a two-story stained-glass window. The three-story grand lobby was lit by nine brass and crystal chandeliers.
The ceilings were decorated with lavish rococo plasterwork accented in gold. Bet your home doesn’t have that.
The five-story, 4,000-seat auditorium had a proscenium arch, Corinthian columns and red swag drapery.
It was a theater fit for a king and it cost a king’s ransom - $4 million. Besides being one of the largest moving picture houses in the world, it had a full stage for live entertainment and hosted such greats as Fred Astaire, Jack Benny, Jackie Gleason and Ben Burnie, a renowned jazz violinist and bandleader.
Besides the façade, other theater treasures were also preserved. The Wurlitzer organ was moved to the Emery Theater on Walnut Street, then to the Music Hall Ballroom. Other pieces went to Music Hall, too. The brass doors went to the Ohio Theater in Columbus, along with some ornate, wrought-iron benches with red-velvet seats and even a porcelain drinking fountain. Nostalgic theater lovers took home hundreds of seats for $15 to $20 apiece or bought prisms from the chandeliers for $10 each.
While Columbus preservationists won their battle to save the Ohio Theater from downtown redevelopment, a handful of Cincinnatians who formed a group called Save The Albee could not.
The head of that group, Frances Vitali, operated a laundry in Corryville with her husband. The first threat came in 1972 when a Dallas group announced plans to buy the property at Fifth and Vine and build a 50-story office building and shopping arcade. Fearing that the tower would block out the sun – or at least keep Fountain Square in the dark much of the day – Vitali and others pulled together and rebuffed the threat.
But City Hall, city planners and developers were determined to rebuild the area around Fountain Square into a Central Business District. Other downtown theaters had already closed, unable to compete with the multiplex movie theaters springing up in the suburbs. The Albee’s days were numbered.
Vitali made a final appeal. She proposed a “Theater on the Square” concept open all year for the opera, ballet, touring shows, school graduations and youth programs.
“I see its value for bringing life back to the square,” she said, and at the time, the square needed it. “I’m only working on this because I think of the youth of tomorrow.”
But Vitali couldn’t block progress – or the bulldozers. In 1976, city council voted to tear down Fifth Street between Vine and Walnut for the Westin Hotel and Fountain Square South project.
The Albee was demolished in March, 1977 and that would be the end of the story, except for the marble façade. The city, which bought the building for $2 million so it could tear it down, didn’t have a use for the façade, and nobody else wanted it. So the city took it apart and stuck it away in storage for three years.
When the three-year contract was up, the city moved it to a highway maintenance lot under the Brent Spence Bridge in Queensgate. Six years passed, and the facade was no worse for no wear. It finally found a home at the Convention Center in 1986, soon to be joined by the Union Terminal murals getting evicted from CVG.
https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/72001/photos
(Kenosha News, 12/15/1996)
Orpheum emerges from its first year ready to take on the giants
For the 75-year-old Orpheum Theater, it has been a year of starring, supporting and waiting in the wings.
The Orpheum flickered to life at 5819 Sixth Ave, on Nov. 18, 1995 after decades of silence. Between 1,000 and 2,000 customers now pass through the building’s doors each week, depending on the movies offered and the time of year.
Since the curtain went up last year, owner Jeff Maher has steered his investment through the business climate of downtown Kenosha with a strategy of upgrades, discount promotions and old-fashioned perseverance.
The four-story Orpheum originally opened a 1,600-seat theater in March of 1922, but showed its last movie in the 1970s and had been vacant since 1990. The building survived several close calls with the wrecking ball before being designated a historic landmark in 1990.
Maher, 35, bought the building in early 1995 and divided its ground floor into two theaters, one with 218 seats, the other with 200. As a “second-run” theater, films are shown that have been out for about two months and are on their way to video.
Admission is $2 except for “dollar night”, on Tuesdays, when all films are $1. Maher and his wife, Janet, work at the theater to help supervise the larger crowds on those nights.
In its year of life the Orpheum has turned a small profit, which Maher used to upgrade the theaters' stereo surround sound and projector lenses.
Sometime next year, he plans to add two theaters upstairs, one with 120 seats, the other with 260 Eventually, as many as six theaters are possible.
Both of the new theaters will have stadium style seating, and one may be designated for classic films.
“Stadium seating will give me an advantage over the other theaters probably in a 100-mile radius,” Maher said. “It’s essentially like balcony seating, you have an unobstructed view. It’s the wave of the future, but it is expensive.”
The Orpheum Theater will soon be up against some powerful competition. Within the past two months, plans have been announced to open a 16-screen multiplex cinema at Southport Plaza and a 12-screen theater at 1-94 and Highway 20 next year.
Dallas-based Cinemark will open the 2.800-seat, 16-screen multiplex at Southport next fall, and Milwaukee-based Marcus Theatres Corp will open the 2,500-seat, 12-screen facility just four miles cast.
But Maher said if anything, multiplexes complement the Orpheum.
“I don’t feel we compete against the first-run (theaters),” he said. “People say "Star Trek' is out now, but if we wait a month we can see it at the Orpheum for $2.
Louis Micheln, outgoing president of the Kenosha Area Chamber of Commerce, said there is now enough movie business to around though cineplexes will stay popular in coming years.
“Movie theaters have cycles just like a lot of other businesses, so it’s had its ups and downs over the years”, Michelin said. “But by reading the entertainment sections of the papers, you can see there’s a resurgence in attendance. When you see these grosses being reported, you can tell people are going to a lot of movies.”
On November 30, 1969, the curtain came down for the final time at the Mondovi Theatre as the credits finished rolling for “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. Built in 1921, the theatre was razed in 1974.
‘Save The Grand, Urges Celeste Holm
Actress To Perform Tonight
In January, Celeste Holm visited Oshkosh for a benefit dinner, and while here spent a few moments giving her appraisal of the Grand Theater.
And at that time, Miss Holm expressed her desire to work in the Grand, for in her opinion it would be an excellent theater in which to give a performance, and certainly was a theater well worth saving.
Tonight Miss Holm will fulfill her desire to perform in Oshkosh when she stars in the comedy production of “Not Even In Spring” at 8:15. Асcording to sponsors of the event, a near-capacity audience is expected, although some seats should be available at the door.
Upon arrival in Oshkosh Monday Miss Holm met with the news media at an afternoon press conference at the Grand. She and her company have just finished “Not Even In Spring” in a four week engagement in Chicago, and while having a successful run with the play in Chicago the Hollywood actress devised the idea to bring the play to the Grand, donating the proceeds to the local cause.
In a final appeal to Oshkosh area residents Miss Holm told the press, “Don’t tear down what you will never be able to replace. Here is a theater where you can sit in any seat in the house and see and hear everything that goes on in the theater. In practically every playhouse today, electronics play such a large part in the performing of the show, that the true sound of the natural voice is no longer as important as it once was.
“In fact, there are very few theaters today that I would rank in the same class with the Grand. One would be the Music Box on Broadway, but there are just so few that give the actor the opportunity to display his real talent, as the Grand does.”
Explaining the importance of the small playhouses and theaters to the actress, Miss Holm said “The reason movies in Europe have such a great dramatic quality, is the fact that in Europe the actors have the opportunity to play in good playhouses at the same time they are making a movie, but in this country this is not true. By playing in these local playhouses, the actor has the opportunity to develop the dynamic qualities in his voice, which is so very important.”
“The ‘grass-root’ theaters that are springing up all over the country are worth every penny,” Miss Holm continued, “for they can be used for so much, plays, movies, concerts, almost anything. And any support that can be given to theaters such as the Grand should be given.”
Appearing with Miss Holm in the one-night performance are the other members of her cast direct from the Chicago performance of “Not Even In Spring” including Delphy Lawrence, Wesley Addy, Nelson Welch, and Herbert Nelson.
Following tonight’s show, Miss Holm will leave for Pasadena. Calif., where she will begin rehearsals for a new play, “Captain Brisban’s Conversion” which she will do at the Pasadena Playhouse. (August 30, 1966)
1971 photo.
As the Auditorium Theatre.
Brothers J.A. Hamlin and L.B. Hamlin bought the Foley’s Billiard Hall property in January 1872 and erected the ornate building with an additional building at the east end as a garden with fountains, waterfalls and stages, reconstructed in September 1878 as Hamlins’ Theater, soon sold to John Borden in 1880, then to his son William Borden, who after more reconstruction opened it on September 6, 1880 as the Grand Opera House under the management of John A. Hamlin. It opened by Hoey & Hardy’s Company in an adaptation of the play “A Child of the State,” followed by Tom Keene in a Shakespearian repertory, and hosted the first production of two hit musicals aimed at children and in June of 1902, the original production of The Wizard of Oz premiered there. In June 1903 came the premiere of Victor Herbert’s “Babes in Toyland”.
The Grand Opera House was built as a legitimate theatre and had seating for 1,750 in an orchestra floor, balcony, and gallery. The interior was lit by gas and described by the Chicago Daily Tribune as having “the beautiful blending of rich colors, and the graceful elegance of the designs charms the eye at every point."
On March 3rd, 1912, George M. Cohan and partner Sam H. Harris leased the theatre and renamed it “George M. Cohan’s Grand Opera House”. In 1926 the façade and auditorium were reconstructed by Andrew Rebori, and it reopened as the Four Cohans. Later the Shuberts took over and it became the Shubert Grand Opera House, but it soon returned to its original name Grand Opera House. When films began, the theatre was renamed the RKO Grand. In March, 1958 the RKO Grand closed, and was demolished a month later. The Chicago Civic Center was later constructed on the site, now the Richard J. Daley Center.
Among those who played the Grand over the years: Lionel Barrymore, Arthur Byron, Mady Christians, George M. Cohan, Constance Collier, Katharine Cornell, Dudley Digges, Robert Edeson, Leon Errol, Douglas Fairbanks, Walter Hampden, Miriam Hopkins, Allan Jones, Bert Lahr, Eva Le Gallienne, Canada Lee, the Marx Brothers, Chester Morris, Mildred Natwick, Effie Shannon, and Ethel Waters. (Thanks to Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.)
BANDIT SHOOTS
THEATER MAN, FIRES AT COP
Loop Crowd Sees Gun Battle
Roy Bogan, 39, of 8918 Blackstone av., assistant manager of the RKO Grand Theater at 119 N. Clark st., was shot above the heart by a holdup man late yesterday afternoon.
The bandit escaped in a gun battle with police during the evening rush hour in the Loop.
Bogan was taken to St. Luke’s hospital, where physicians said his condition is not serious. A 32 caliber bullet which passed thru Bogan’s body was found imbedded in the door of the ticket cage, fronting on the sidewalk where the shooting occurred.
Dares Bandit to Shoot
Bogan had relieved a woman ticket seller at the window only a few moments before the gunman walked up and demanded all the money in the cage.
“No.” Bogan told him.
“I’ll shoot you,” the gunman threatened.
“Go ahead,” Bogan told him.
The gunman fired and fled. Bogan turned sidewise as the shot was fired, the bullet passing diagonally thru the upper part of his chest.
Patrolman Joseph Ostermann, riding a three wheeled motorcycle, heard the shot at Clark and Washington sts. He arrived at the theater just in time to see the gunman dart into an alley north of the theater and run east.
Gunman Fires at Cop
As Ostermann reached the mouth of the alley, the gunman turned and fired two shots at him. Ostermann fired two shots in return, abandoned his motorcycle, and took up the chase on foot.
The gunman fled east to Dearborn st., south to Washington, and then turned east. He was reported to have fled into the basement of the Hillman store, but a search there by police disclosed no trace of him.
Miss Betty Talbott, an usherette at the theater, was the first to reach Bogan after the shooting. He was taken to St. Luke’s hospital by Detectives James Nihill and Harry Gazzola of the cartage detail in their squad car.
Wrecking Crews Give Final Show at RKO Grand Theater
CHICAGO - Chicago’s RKO Grand theater is having its grand finale at the hands of a wrecking crew.
The site on Clark Street, across from the County Building, will become a parking lot. Thus ends a theater tradition that dates back to 1860 when Thomas Barbour Bryan built an auditorium.
Known as Bryan’s Hall, it was taken over by R. M. Hooley in 1870 for minstrel shows.
In 1871, it was partly destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire.
Rebuilt, it became the Grand Opera House. Then in 1873 it became Hamlin’s beer garden and in 1878 Hamlin’s Opera House.
In 1903, just around the corner on Randolph Street, the Iroquois Theater fire claimed 602 lives.
George M. Cohan and Sam Harris bought the theater in 1912 and named it Cohan’s Opera House. In 1926, it became Four Cohans' Theater.
This era in the 20’s brought Katherine Cornell to its stage.
Ziegfield’s Follies, Earl Carroll’s Vanities and George M. Cohan made seasonal appearances.
By 1942, the legitimate theater - Chicago’s first of any consequence - was converted into a movie house.
It then became The RKO Grand until a few weeks ago when the Harvey Wrecking Co., was billed on the marquee as the Grand’s last act and swiftly went about the business of turning the theater to rubble and memories. (4/25/58)
☺️Opens Sunday
The new Juno Theater, located in the former Zwieg Store building on the corner of Oak and South Main streets, will open Sunday, according to Carl F. Neitzel, owner.
The new establishment enterprise will open at 2 pm with a matinee, and the movie program will be shown continuously until the night closing. The first feature scheduled for the Juno Theater is “Deep Valley”, starring Lupino, Dane Clark, Wayne Morris and Fay Bainter. A newsreel and cartoon will be included.
The building housing the theater has been completely remodeled and redecorated. An inclined flоог offers a clear view of the screen from each of the 400 seats on the main floor. A 12-set “cry room” for mothers with very small children is an added feature of comfort. A separate speaker and large window enables occupants to see and hear as well as from the main floor.
Considerable alteration of the building was necessary in order to comply with requirements of the State Industrial Commission. The entrance will be from the southwest side of the building, with the projection room at the south end. The Juno Sweet Shop will occupy the north end of the building, fronting on Oak Street.
The building was purchased by Neitzel more than a year ago, and he and his family have been residents of Juneau since October, 1946. Before coming here, they lived in Hartland where they owned and operated the Victor Theater for several years.
A gesture to throw new light on the Granada
(Paul Gapp, Architecture critic; July 20, 1987)
When this city saved the Chicago Theatre, it earned no right to turn its back on the three other major movie palaces of the 1920s surviving here. Those are the Uptown, the Avalon and the Granada - and among them, the Granada is perhaps the grandest of all.
You have probably seen the elaborately ornamented and arched terra cotta facade of the now-threatened Granada, which stands on a prominent site at 6433 N. Sheridan Rd.
But if you’ve never been inside the theater (which has been dark for several years except for a few rock concerts), you may wish to visit one of two photo exhibitions that will continue through July 31. One is on the fourth floor at the south end of the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.; the other at the Rogers Park Branch Library, 6907 N. Clark St.
The recently shot black and white photos of the Granada by Mike Williams are part of a suddenly escalating, last-ditch public effort to find a new use for the theater to prevent its demolition by developers who have talked about building an apartment tower in its place.
Architect Daniel D. Watts curated the photo exhibits. He also organized the Save the Granada Theater Committee, which is working in league with the Rogers Park Community Council and the Theater Historical Society.
Williams' photographs show the exterior of the Granada, some of the more sweeping expanses of its interior and a number of its decorative details. The pictures also convey impressions of desolation and incipient decay in the 3,447-seat house, which opened in 1926.
The Granada is nominally Spanish baroque in style, although it manifests many of the other eclectic, whimsical and deliberately overblown twists and turns of form and ornamentation found in big urban stage-and-screen venues of the time. Its grand staircase, crystal chandeliers, stained glass, use of marble and bronze, coffered ceilings and acres of ornamented plaster give it a marvelously gaudy quality. Cleveland-born Edward E. Eichenbaum designed the Granada while working for the architectural firm of Levy & Klein in Chicago. He had begun his career in Detroit with the distinguished Albert Kahn and at another point was associated with the Chicago-based design firm of A. Epstein & Sons. Other Chicago theaters credited to Eichenbaum include the Regal and Diversey. He also designed the Palace in South Bend, Ind., and the Regent in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Eichenbaum’s love of legitimate theater originated during his student days at the University of Pennsylvania, and he even understudied the great George Arliss in “Disraeli” for a year when the play was running in Philadelphia.
Eichenbaum once called the Granada “the greatest design I have ever been privileged to make,” according to a 1983 article by Sharon Lindy published in Marquee magazine. Film palaces were being built so rapidly in the 1920s that Eichenbaum sometimes used the same terra cotta molds on different theaters, ingeniously assembling them into fresh configurations to save time and money.
When the Granada was still on the drafting boards, Eichenbaum told an interviewer: “I want this building to be paradise, so that the common man can leave his meager existence at the door and for a few hours feel that he, too, is among the very rich class that he reads about in the paper.”
Fifty years after he designed it, Eichenbaum returned to the Granada for a visit to receive a 1976 Marquee magazine award from Joseph DuciBella of the Theater Historical Society. Eichenbaum detested the plainness of modern theaters. “They’re nothing but barns,” he said. Eichenbaum died in 1982.
The present effort to save the Granada is supported by DuciBella, a theater historian, and by preservationists. Early this month, a representative of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency said the Granada was a “very good candidate” for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Architect Watts, spearheading the Granada campaign, points out that most of the theater is unaltered and in good condition: Its original marble floor is sound, its organ intact, and even its original stage lighting is in working order. The Granada does not have Chicago municipal landmark status as does the Chicago Theatre on downtown State Street, now a busy venue for live entertainment. Yet it doesn’t necessarily make sense to compare the strategy or business rationale for saving the Granada with the scenario that led to the Chicago’s salvation after a slide to the brink of demolition. The location, economics and re-use factors are disparate, after all.
Still, neither can such differences be used as alibis for shrugging off the Granada. The old North Side movie palace is part of the city’s sociocultural fabric and its brilliant architectural heritage.
There is no doubt, then, about the Granada’s credentials. And so we are left with the basic question about any major preservation effort: How many people care, and how hard are they willing to work?
The Save the Granada Theater Committee is based at 1637 W. Morse Ave.
A pitch for the Granada
By Rick Kogan (July 22, 1988)
A woman named Deborah Nerness wants to save the Granada Theater, so it is understandable why she has named the organization fighting toward that goal the “Save the Granada Theater Committee.” It is also, from this seat, understandable why she would care to preserve this glorious building.
We last visited the 3,417-seat movie house in 1981, at the tail end of its decade-or-so fling as a rock concert hall. We saw Cheap Trick. And we also saw the dusty but still unmistakable signs of beauty.
Built in 1922, the Granada, at 6427 N. Sheridan Rd., was one of more than 20 opulent movie palaces that once dotted the city. It was one of the flashiest, with 80-foot ceilings, elaborate hand-carved stone work, painted ornamental ceilings, columns, statues and stained-glass windows.
We haven’t seen the Granada’s interior for so long that we don’t feel like getting in the middle of a battle between those who would save the building and those who seek to raze it - such struggles and their attendant arguments are best left to lawyers and architects. But after thinking about the Save the Granada Theater Committee, 1637 W. Morse Ave., we walked over to the lobby of the Chicago Theatre and wondered: Could it happen here?
Curtain falls on hopes to save theater (By Peter Kendall)
The curtain has apparently been brought down down on efforts to save the interior of Rogers Park’s historic Granada Theater.
A developer debuted a plan Thursday to keep only the building’s facade as part of a 24-story apartment tower.
Local developer SLC Corp. brought its plans for Granada Centre to Ald. David Orr (49th) and a neighborhood meeting that had little enthusiasm and plenty of empty seats. Granada Centre would include the tower, storefronts and a parking garage.
Preservationists' efforts to save the 1926 Spanish baroque theater at 6433 N. Sheridan Rd. apparently ran its course after several years of unsuccessful attempts to find a developer who would keep intact the building and restore its grand lobby and stage.
“I thought people would be jumping up and down talking about architecture and the importance of history, but all they are talking about is traffic and parking,” said Milwaukee preservationist Fred Jahnke, who walked out of the meeting early.
If the developer wins city approval, the building will be razed but the ornate terra cotta facade will be left intact. The marquee, which was added years after the building went up, will be stripped off, and the facade restored to form a front for the apartment building’s parking garage.
Wilbert R. Hasbrouck, an architect who has been involved with past efforts to save the theater, received applause when he told audience members that they should be happy getting as much much of the old Granada as they will.
“It will continue to be a local landmark, it will be recognizable, and it will be far more usable than what we have there now,” Hasbrouck said.
Although Orr said he has not yet taken a position on the new building, he paid the developers tribute. “I’m excited that we have some responsible developers socking millions of dollars into our neighborhood,” Orr said.
The effort to save the historic building peaked last year with the formation of the Save the Granada Theater Committee.
Last summer, the committee sponsored exhibitions of current photographs inside the theater, showing that the marble floors, sweeping staircases and crystal chandeliers remained intact in the 3,447-seat movie palace.
But the committee was weakened by internal dissention and could not find a developer to take over the plans.
Committee founder Daniel Watts found little satisfaction Thursday in SLC Corp.’s proposal. “It’s eyewash,” he said after looking over the drawings. “The best they can do with the theater is to put a parking garage in it.”
Unimpressed with what the developers called “economic realities, preservationist Jahnke left the meeting remarking "In 15 years, we will look back on this and say, How did we let this happen?” (May 20, 1988 - Chicago Tribune)
Curtain will close on Rapids Plaza Cinema
PAUL J. MOLLEY
Racine’s North Side is losing its two movie Screens
The final shows at Rapids Plaza Cinema I and II, 2200 Mount Pleasant St., will be presented Sunday, said Mark Gramz, Marcus Theatres vice president of operations.
“We just find that operating 13 screens in three buildings isn’t as efficient as 11 screens in two buildings,” he said.
Milwaukee-based Marcus Theatres also operates the six-screen Regency Mall Cinemas, 5230 Durand Ave., and the five-screen Westgate Cinemas, 5101 Washington Ave.
Gramz said the two-screen Rapids Plaza operation doesn’t encourage the kind of movie patron traffic that Marcus gets from complexes with more film offerings. Marcus added thrée screens to Westgate last year and remodeled the lobby and concessions area at Regency Mall.
“We feel 11-screens is a sufficient number for the Racine market, but we’ll monitor the situation,” he said. “We would possibly add screens at Westgate or Regency or both if it becomes necessary.”
The manager at Rapids Plaza will transfer to Marcus South Shore Cinemas in Oak Creek and the company will try to find jobs for other employees at its remaining Racine outlets.
Marcus opened the Rapids Plaza Cinema in 1976. The twin-screen complex has about 900 seats. Gramz said Marcus will keep the seating and equipment for other ventures and put the building up for sale. (9/25/1992)
The early 1950s.
Yesterday, the City Council finance committee once again extended the Fullerton/Milwaukee TIF district to help protect the Congress Theatre against the oncoming winter and easing the path toward its full $87.8 million restoration. Last year, Ald. Daniel LaSpata asked the commissioners to extend the TIF district to 1/1/2027.
December 3rd, 2024 marks 20 years since the Genesee Theatre reopened to the public after a 15-year closure. The 5-year $23 million renovation included a Broadway-sized stage and rigging system, the addition of 600 seats (1,799 to 2,403), a reproduction of the 1927 marquee with over 2,000 lights, new lighting and sound systems, and more. https://www.geneseetheatre.com