State-Lake Theatre
190 N. State Street,
Chicago,
IL
60601
190 N. State Street,
Chicago,
IL
60601
31 people
favorited this theater
Showing 126 - 150 of 163 comments
I posted on april 9 links showing the design that ABC is using for their new sidewalk studio out of the old lobby space. It looks really silly, uninspired, and postmodern to me. Granted, the flashy marquee was somewhat out of place too, but deco would look more in place. Maybe if the postmodern design for block 37 goes in, it will look better, but I would agree that the marquee would be more eye-catching and interesting.
I think it would be great if they restored the State Lake theatre marquee. ABC could advertise on it and it would add a lot of color to State Street and a great addition to the Chicago Theatre marquee across the street. It would look great on television when they were broadcasting. Someone in the Chicago area should suggest this to ABC.brucec
Cool ! Thanks, Bryan. I know that street corner very well, albeit only since June 1981.
Opening date was March 17, 1919.
Rapp & Rapp designed the office building.
Albert Lansburgh designed the theatre.
Seating capacity was 2626.
the State Lake opened as a Balaban and Katz house on December 24th 1938. They had live stage shows until october 24th 1941. It went into a straight movie policy without shows until january 14th 1948. The shows came back until June 23rd 1948,
email DBalaban@BalabanandKatzfoundation
for more info as to who played this theater and when.
Some 1953 views of the United Artists and several other loop theatres are available at Real Chicago: Chicago in the Fifties.
I managed the State Lake summer of 1982 while we were showing An Officer and a Gentleman and The Thing. What a cool place, the best screen and sound you can find. And a very loyal staff, the place almost ran on it’s own. I used to walk across the street to The Chicago and chat with Stanley Hightower, then when he went on vacation, I took his place for a few weeks. I also manged River Oaks 1 and 2 for a year (1981) before covering for vacatining managers.
We used to pour carpet freash on the aisles every monring at the State Lake to take care of pine sol odor. Also, the State Lake had a huge side staor case that no one ever used. It went all the way up to the top balcony and only exited outside in the alley, never into the lobby. My guess is this was a famous “colored people” entrance and exit back before 1960 or so?
Here is a 1949 photo of the Chicago and State-Lake by Stanley Kubrick
Ground-breaking on the new sidewalk studio in the former lobby space began today:
click here and and here
The youngest of the Balaban brothers,my uncles Harry and Elmer had their offices in the state lake building. Their company was named H and E Balaban. They owned many theatres themselves including the esquire
David Balaban
email
Brian, B&K and (later, Plitt) had their offices in the Chicago Theatre, directly across the street. I can’t say they didn’t have offices in the State Lake Building too – it was a large operation after all. The other details you mention do ring true.
I seem to remember that the State Lake had a very early closed circuit television process inwhich TV images were projected directly into a 35mm film camera and run directly into a film processor and then directly into the theatre’s projectors and thus onto the screen. The delay between live action and projection onto the screen being something like 7 minutes. A couple of prize fights were presented “closed circuit” at the State Lake in this manner during the early 1950’s.
As you said, the State Lake has a significant role in mass entertainment history.
I suspect there’s an interesting story behind the way the State-Lake ended up today, and I believe it has carried an important historical role in the development of television. I’ve heard it said that this was Balaban & Katz' home office. Now, Balaban & Katz was purchased by the nationwide Paramount chain, which in 1949 spun off its theaters into the United Paramount chain as a result of the consent decrees. Under Paramount’s ownership, Balaban & Katz had started the early Chicago television station WBKB Channel 4 in 1939, the second electronic television station, and Chicago’s first commercial station (http://www.chicagotelevision.com/WBKB.htm). This operated out of studios in the State-Lake building. In 1951, ABC merged with United Paramount, creating the ABC Theatres chain, and getting ABC off the ground as a television station. Now, since Paramount owned WBKB 4 and ABC owned WENR 7 in Chicago, FCC regulations forced the sale of WBKB, which was aquired by CBS and renamed WBBM, and soon moved to Channel 2. Subsequently, ABC dropped the WENR call sign and renamed to WBKB 7, which moved back to the State-Lake despite the fact that it was actually a different station (the old WBKB talent stayed with WBBM, which broadcast from the State-Lake until 1956, after which WBKB returned to the State-Lake, retaining the original WBKB management, and getting much of its programming back. As far as I can surmise, in the interim WBKB operated out of its other studios at the Garrick Theatre). (http://www.chicagotelevision.com/WBKBX2.htm, http://www.chicagotelevision.com/frazier.htm)) During this time, Henry Plitt was president of ABC’s syndication and production arms (http://print.google.com/print/doc?articleid=pWCxwY097eF) and in 1973 he bought the northern ABC Great States theaters, renaming them Plitt, and absorbing the southern ABC theaters in 1978. As a building housing both television studios and a movie theatre, the state-lake provides an interesting look at the shift from movies to tv.
It should be noted that Plitt was the successor corporation to ABC Great States, so the only real transfer of ownership as a theatre was from RKO to B&K.
At one point this was part of the ‘ABC Great States’ theatre chain. Did it stay continuously under ABC ownership from the time it was a cinema to its conversion into a television studio?
I noticed that no one answered the Feb. 12, 2004 question of Meredith Rhule, Whatever happened to Larry Lujack?
Answer: You can hear him Mon-Fri, 5 a.m. to 10 a.m (Chicago time) on WRLL, 1690-AM.
In the 1950s, the State Lake was THE theater for first-run films in Chicago. As good as the other theaters were in the Loop, it always seemed they got second pickings on first-run films.
In June 1958, after graduating from 8th grade the night before, I treated myself by going to the State Lake to see “The Vikings,” which starred Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, and Ernest Borgnine. A bonus was that Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh appeared in person that day for a publicity tour of the film. They had a temporary platform set up at the curb outside the State Lake with Irv Kupcinet acting as emcee, asking the usual innane questions, e.g., ‘Did you enjoy doing the picture?’ It was the first time I’d ever seen a movie star live. I wormed my way to the front. While Kupcinet was interviewing Curtis, I got Janet Leigh’s attention. I had to ask her something, so I asked: “What happened to your hair?” (It was much shorter than in the movie.) She responded, in a very friendly way, “Oh, I cut it.” I was thrilled. From then on, she was always my favorite actress.
After that, I was only in the State Lake once, in November 1968. It showed a reprise of “West Side Story.” It was starting to go downhill even then.
I saw “Cleopatra” in 1963 (or ‘64?) at the State Lake during the first week of its 70mm road show engagement. Aside from being a rather long and boring story the image was very sharp and impressive with great sound coming from the screen, but I noticed there was no surround track (or maybe the projectionist failed to throw a switch.) There were plenty of crowd scenes, parades, storms, etc. that looked as though they might have benefited from the surround effect, but it just wasn’t there.
The theater itself was impressive in size and accommodation. It was obviously a grand old dramatic/vaudeville theater at one time and looked as though it could be used for live shows again if needed.
I did see Mary Poppins at the State Lake Theater when it first came out back in 1964. I recall a strange audio problem. The film was one of the first standard 35mm frame (not ‘Scope) movies to be presented in stereo sound. So the left and right channel speakers, behind the screen, were covered by the screen’s black masks and stage curtain which muffled the sound. The dialog volume (center speaker) seemed fine but the music level seemed way too low. Funny effect. Maybe they corrected it later in the run.
Visited the State Lake only a few times, all from the standpoint of a visiting usher in the middle sixties during their “Mary Poppins” run. B&K often swapped their ushers about downtown when one of their theatres were short. I normally worked at the Roosevelt, but did manage to work for a day or two at all the “Big Four” B&K theatres downtown. (UA, Chicago, S-L, and of course, Roosevelt)
Five channels instead of four ? “Tommy” would have benefited from that ! The expression “quadrophonic sound” in regard to The Who has always interested me, because of their 1974 album entitled “Quadrophenia”, which was not, however, to the best of my knowledge, in quadrophonic sound.
I saw and heard “Tommy” at the Ziegfeld in Manhattan, NYC, in March 1975, and it sounded great. I think the sound there was quad. I know it was quad sound there for “Ladies And Gentlemen The Rolling Stones” in late April 1974.
The sound system installed in the State Lake for the engagement of “Tommy” was called Quintaphonic Sound. I have never heard of this sound system before or since but, apparently, it was quite effective for this film. Interestingly, when “Tommy” moved over to the Michael Todd to continue its engagement, the quintaphonic sound system was NOT installed at the Todd.
JOhn
Add me to the list also. My e mail is
John:
I would like that list as well 1963-1980
Thanks
Terry Brejla
San Francisco
John here is my e-mail .I really appreciate sending the list to me from 1963-1980.It tells me a lot about an exlusive run theatre.brucec
Actually, B&K installed that phenominal sound system just for “Tommy.” The story goes that the State Lake needed a new system anyway, but with “Tommy” booked, they actually went all out and installed the best system possible. It sure left an impression on everyone who heard it. And of couse, Tommy did make them a ton of money.