Patio Theatre
6008 W. Irving Park Road,
Chicago,
IL
60634
6008 W. Irving Park Road,
Chicago,
IL
60634
44 people
favorited this theater
Showing 126 - 150 of 267 comments
http://members.fortunecity.com/patioman1/
The above website has a nice interior view of the Patio.
Good luck to all of you down there. Hope they re-open the Patio Theatre for you.
How cool, MK49er! Thanks for the sweet little story about your mom, you and the Patio Theatre.
My mother was born in 1921 and lived most of her first 35 years or so a few blocks from the Patio on Mason Ave.—including, probably, when the theater opened! She always called it the PAY-show. I remember my dad taking me there to see Disney’s Peter Pan. I would have been about 4 at the time (yes, it was a VERY big deal!).
It looks like a gorgeous theatre, both inside and out. Sure hope you guys can save it, for your own sake, although I’m not a resident of the Chicago area, or the State of Illinois, generally.
I am trying to reach Patiomike from above posts. We are interested in forming a Save the Patio neighborhood group to raise money for the restoration and preservation of this beautiful theater. Anybody with info please contact me at e mail below.
“LETS SAVE AND REOPEN THE PATIO THEATER”
Thanks
Dan
Maybe because the marquee, itself, was getting so beat up that it, too, is now in need of renovation. ;–)
Does anyone know why the “renovation” on the marquee was taken down?
Quadrama: May I make a suggestion? If you’re going to post very long posts like the one you’ve posted, you might wish to break them up into individual paragraphs to make the posts easier to read. Hope I’ve been of some help here.
After a few months of reading postings here and there on this forum I finally created an account =P. I grew up around this neighborhood. I guess I was fortunate enough to be able to enter the doors of the Patio (pat-ee-oh) while Mr. Alex and Mr. Antonelli were running things. I attended St. Ferdinand Elementary School K-8 and I would go to the Patio with my family and/or friends pretty often. You can’t beat $2 (when the price was raised I remember being confused, haha)!
From reading the other posts it seems I’m one of the youngin’s on here. Just once, even if it were just one more time (although, I would be very happy, along with everyone else here, to see it open again), I would like to step through those doors and have that “feeling.” It’s a feeling you can’t get going to Crown Village or an AMC; the grandeur is lost there.
If someone were to hold a special event to celebrate the magnificence that is the Patio theater, I would be at that event in a heart beat; standing in line underneath the flashing marquee, $2 in hand (or $3 haha).
I just want that “feeling” back.
Well, I hope someone does something with it. I’d love to have a tour of the inside. Can we arrange it? Pretty please? :)
Drop me a note:
Patiomike,
As I mentioned above, I am in real estate development. I have had a conversation with Alex and am working with a group seriously interested in the revitalization of The Patio. I would like to write to you with a few questions off this sight and if you would be so kind as to consider that, please contact me at
My thanks,
Michael
To anyone with some insider info…
I am a photographer based in Chicago and am looking for neglected locations throughout Chicago to host a photo shoot. I am looking to use a beautifully surreal space as a backdrop for an interior design catalogue and think The Patio would be a great place.
If anyone has any information about making this a reality, please get in contact with me at your earliest convenience. Thanks in advance.
Carey Primeau
Another classic I never got to go to (or if I did, I’m too young to remember). Truly a shame. I drive by this theater all the time and the marquee unfortunately looks like it’s collapsing. Looks like there may be too many roadblocks to reopen it. Really too bad in light of the Portage’s success and judging from some of the pictures, the inside of the theter looks to still be in pretty good shape-
The monsignor is somewhat mistaken. The business licence had not expired and the owner was not on vacation. A complicated dispute over the number of useable seats played a much larger part. The number of seats, among other things, determines the Public Place of Amusement License fee. Instead of resolving the dispute, the city chose to force our closure. There is only one nearby business with a parking lot. In early days, it was available to us. After a change of ownership, requests for access were refused. It always seemed strange to us, when discussing parking, to see empty buses roll by.
This just in: According to my friend who claims to know the Montsenior at St. Pascal’s Church – just up the road from The Patio: The owner went on vacation, and the business license expired. When he tried to get it renewed, the City of Chicago said “To run a movie theatre, you need to have parking space for at least 25 cars.” Because the license already expired, he missed the grandfather clause. Now I’m sure if that’s the case: There are several businesses with ample parking just a block from the theatre that for the right price would love to hire out 25 spots, and would probably do it for the advertising alone. They should be approached. Anyone know how to Mowemy Po Polsku? :)
I know someone who is familiar and experienced with maintenance of old theaters. I think it would be worthwhile for Alex to ask him to walk through and take a look at things sometime. Perhaps he could advise the owner on what really needs to be done to get those matters up to snuff. He might even have a decent idea about how to do something about repairing that A/C.
In the early 1960’s, my grandparents lived on Dakin and Marmora..about a block away from the Patio. I was about 4 years old at the time, and my grandfather took me to see “The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.” I remember looking up at the starry ceiling. It was a humid summer night, and after the movie, he carried me home. I am 48 now and that memory will always be with me.
>>>If anyone knows how to repair the cooling units used on WW2 Liberty Ships, we could get the A/C working again.<<<
Patiomike, I’m on a quest for this now!! :)
I have Navy people at my disposal that will try to go through their archives and find any blueprints, schmatics, or manuals on this type of thing. :)
Well, its nice to know the theater has been maintained to the point that it could be opened rather quickly. BIG kudos to the owner for that. Too many movie palaces have been left to fall apart after the doors are closed and then the place is picked apart and anyone that would want to reopen it at a later time is left with an overwhelming task just to open the doors, much less show movies or have stage performances.
The Music Box’s location plays a large part in it’s success. It’s much closer to a market more interested in small, independent films. Don’t forget, before video, they were strictly a revival house and teetered on the brink many times. The second screening room is a help. Plus, parking is available. The Patio’s neighbors preferred a more mainstream offering. Family friendly films made money. Anything ambitious left the room empty. The Portage is an entirely different animal. The Patio was run like a conventional movie theater. The Portage is run more like a cultural foundation. Although its present operator has made a significant personal investment similar to Alex, the theater is rented by exhibitors who are responsible for marketing their product. That shields the theater from risk somewhat. And the Silent Film Society was a going concern before moving there. The Portage Park/6 Corners area is also a darling of local politicians interested in its rebirth. They’ve provided assistance not available in the Patio’s neighborhood. Once again, available parking helps. And a first class A/C and a large stage. I’ve often wondered, if we had an unlimited supply of money and did everything we could for the Patio, would people come? Would we recoup the investment? As Alex has often said, “I bought an apartment building and the theater was thrown in for free.”
Patiomike, thanks for the explanation. Do you have any insight as to how other theaters, such as the Music Box or the Portage, seem to be profitable?
There are many reasons why we closed. In short, the fixed costs were just too high. Print rentals plus the box office take for the studio for one. Heating and electrical costs in the hundreds per night, no A/C, high costs for concessions, lighting, licenses… I don’t know how he was able to stay open as long as he did. We averaged about 50-60 people per night. Alex agonized over raising the box office price to $3. We had to in order to get films before they went to video. Attendance fell anyway. We tried more esoteric films but there was no interest. Studio restrictions prevented us from going first run. Local newspapers would often print incorrect schedule info so we gave up on that. Organ concert attendance began to dwindle as the audience aged. Inspite of dedicated volunteer labor, maintenance was needed constantly and was still costly. I would love nothing more than to say hi to Alex and step into the booth again. The reality of running a theater make that impossible.
It puzzles me as to why this theatre closed in the first place. I know the area somewhat, and I believe it’s fair to say that this is a densely populated neighborhood, solidly middle class, and not over-flowing with movie theatres. The Music Box Theatre on Southport, which I would say is a similar theatre in a similar neighborhood, seems to do very well. And as has been stated by others here, the nearby Portage is successful. The Patio doesn’t have much parking as I recall, but neither does the Music Box. What is working against the Patio?
I spoke to the owner last September. He keeps the theater heated in winter and does a bit of cleaning. The place is just as we left it. We could have a movie on the screen in no time at all. If anyone knows how to repair the cooling units used on WW2 Liberty Ships, we could get the A/C working again. It’s the same type of unit used to keep food cold aboard ship. A Navy vet used to keep it going but when he died he took the secrets with him.