DuPage Theater

This was my neighborhood movie house when I was a kid in the late 50’s and early 60’s. When I was about five I saw SNOW WHITE from a little bench in the projection booth because a friend’s father was either the manager or the projectionist — can’t remember which. At the local Dairy Queen, if you bought a Dilly Bar and got lucky, you found a free pass to the DuPage imprinted on your Dilly Bar stick. I remember “watching” HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL in terror from under my seat while my sister narrated the action. I also seem to recall one of those glowing radium clocks down to the left of the screen.

Concerned Taxpayer is shifty. That much is certain. What is your deal, Concerned Taxpayer? I figure you are either a real estate developer…or someone who simply gains pleasure from bothering others…maybe both.

All I am saying is, keep it real guys. I have seen preservationists fail because they had great ideas, but no grounding in fundamental business principals. I would guess you have collectively spent ten hours arguing with this Taxpayer guy…even going so far as to invoke the memory of Adolf Hitler while doing it. That’s not a good use of time, nor does it make the larger community take you seriously. What if you had spent ten hours cold-calling suburban Chicago companies to solicit donations? You would have gotten some good leads out of it, and maybe a check.

I hope you succeed…but you will only succeed with a lot of intelligent action and some luck…because this place is part of a corporate business venture from the 20’s that has gone through growth, maturity and decline. There’s no arguing that. You are trying to find an intelligent place for it in today’s society.

And if you fight the good fight, and do not win…I hope the community at least sees fit to save a section of the building.

I don’t know all the details of this situation, nor do I have time to learn them. But, that’s my whole point…not that the place must be torn down.

Forget about this Concerned Taxpayer…fight intelligently…and good luck!

And your comments comparing to the Genesee simply don’t ring true- a 600 seat theatre is inevitably going to stay much closer to budget than one four times its size. It also is inevitably going to draw a completely different type of use than a 2400 seat venue; it would in fact be much easier to keep booked because there are many more events and types of events that can draw a few hundred people than events large enough to fill 2400 seats in the suburbs. Restoration arguments are likewise unfair- the Genesee went over budget because of the scope of the project. The DuPage doesn’t have all that much to be repaired, and there’s certainly no demolition and expansion to include in restoration.

I promise you that if the DuPage falls, Lombard will regret it. Clearly, if the problem is “the money isn’t there”, the logical next step is to wait for it to come. Money can come, but once the building is gone, it’s not coming back. And, looking at the opponent’s own finances page, only $1.7 million of the $4.6 million in public funds comes from TIFs; the rest is money earmarked for projects precisely like this.

To “concerned taxpayer”. Your whole story does not ring true. You come across as someone who wants to appear concerned, but has an unrevealed motive for wanting this place gone. Beats me what it could be, but you lack sincerity. Why are you even on this site? I notice the DuPage is the only theatre where you make comments. This isn’t the place to encourage theatre demolition, and no matter how you crunch the numbers you will never convince anyone, because there are a lot of theatre restoration groups who have taken on the number crunchers and won. Do you really want Lombard to be known as the community that can’t support a theatre, when even places like Schenectady and Utica can do it? That’s not a great motivation for moving to town.

Concerned Taxpayer is lying through his teeth!! He was NEVER in favor of the restoration, in fact., the anti-theatre website he speaks of bought its domain name BEFORE the Theatre obtained theirs, and from the very beginning talked about a “bulldozer parade”. That DOES NOT sound like support to me! He also illegally used pictures of the Theatre, as well as posting a private e-mail to him in order to try to sway support.
Life’s too short, THERE IS A PLAN for the project, and it is a good one and is available to be looked at. In fact, they polled other local theatres and will charge rent substantially less in order to make it economically feasible to book more nights. The theatre group will not put on events, but merely rent the facility out, placing ALL risk on the renter.

You’ve got me wrong guys. I hope you save the place…and I don’t care if tax dollars are used or not. But you need a solid plan from start to finish…how to fund the project, intelligent management plan after the job is done. These places don’t thrive nowadays without a lot of effort. If proper reuse does not materialize, these buildings decay. Teenagers and homeless people break into them. The owners barely maintain them, because they aren’t money-makers. They become a burden to the community…and a lively mall is better than having a building like that dropping terra cotta chunks on people. There were once hundreds of old-time theaters in the Chicago area. We have some great show places…the Palace, Chicago, Oriental, Auditorium, and others. But, there isn’t a place for hundreds of them in today’s entertainment business…and, it’s better to save the front of one…like the Belmont, or half of one…like the Gateway…than to tear the whole place down.

Furthermore…I think you guys could find better things to do than rip eachother on this web site. The concerned tax payer likes to aggravate you, and you play along.

Yes, and the truth of the matter is that 40 years ago in San Francisco, a bond issue to save the Fox failed, and San Franciscans (not to mention theatre fans everywhere) have been tearing their hair over how stupid they were not to vote in favor of it. If public opinion is against saving the DuPage, then the public has not been fully informed on how a restored Dupage Theatre would benefit their community. A classic example is the Loew’s in Jersey City. Nobody wanted it, but the Friends of the Loew’s talked the city into buying it, and there isn’t a person in Jersey City today who would say they’re sorry it happened. Face facts “Concerned Taxpayer”, you’re wrong, and if public opinion is the deciding factor in what is right for a community then Hitler was the best thing for Germany (after all, he was voted in). You have a unique architectural gem sitting right in your lap and all you can think to do is gut it and “creatively reuse it”. Fine, but the preservation community won’t know whether to laugh at your stupidity or marvel at your tunnel vision.

If “public opinion” was strongly in favor of this theatre restoration, supporters would have had more than $67,000 in private pledges for a $6 million public project and more than 2400 names on their mailing list given this is a suburb of 42,000+ and part of a MAJOR metropolitan area (Chicago). And thanks for the examples (it’s the Genesee by the way and the supporters are the ones that first used it as an example, not me)…most are larger than the 500-600 seat theatre project here in Lombard. And be it known that I was strongly in favor of this restoration project until doing some digging on the finances…and discovering that this would fast become a civic owned tax draining enterprise. If the “market” could fully support the theatre, then supporters should have floated “municipal or PFC bonds” or better yet had put it out to referendum to gauge public opinion. The truth of the matter is that it would not have worked as the risks were too great for the bonds to be underwritten and the referendum would have likely sent an even stronger and resounding NO GO on this project. Yes it will be a sad day to see it possibly go down but sometimes there is pain with progress.

Or the Wang Center in Boston, or the Opera House in Boston, or the Somerville Theatre in Somerville MA, or the Ohio, Palace, and Southern theaters in Columbus OH ….

And if you need to build condos and retail (or, better yet, additional movie screens) on an adjacent parcel to make the development financially successful, what’s so bad about that?

And by your own admission, “a date with the wrecking ball is planned”, sounds more like destructive reuse.

Be it known that a plan that restores the facade, retains key historic components of the theatre, and keeps away “more condos” has been put forth on many occassions. So “slash and burn” is not the solution..never was presented as the solution. The solution is creative reuse of the structure…not as a theatre but as a small scale commercial development and even a library. And don’t forget if the theatre supporters had gotten their way, their plan included more condos and retail on the “south parcel”.

Not only that, but a truly progressive town realizes the importance of saving places like this? Only towns stuck in the past still think that the “slash and burn” method of renewing a downtown actually works. People don’t come downtown to look at the latest parking lot or condo.

Bravo to Brian Wolf! Boos and hisses to Concerned Taxpayer and Life’s too Short! Take it from someone whose hometown has lost all but one of its magnificent downtown theatres. If you let the DuPage go you will be kicking yourselves over and over in the years to come. Buffalo saved the Buffalo Theatre (using taxpayer funds, oh horror!) and it has become one of downtown’s major assets. Syracuse saved the Loew’s and the citizens are, as a rule, very happy about that. Huntington is working to save the Keith-Albee because they know that it’s one of their city’s defining structures. The Ohio in Columbus is one of their major attractions. Every city has parking lots and condos, but there’s only one DuPage theatre. Brian, I’ll offer you any help I can give you from a distance. Just let me know.