Comments from LouRugani

LouRugani commented about Park I & II Theatre on Jan 8, 2021 at 5:49 am

On December 15, 2020, the low bidder was not awarded the raze contract because the Common Council sent it to committee for review. The vote was 11-3. This creates a brief opportunity to save the Capitol Theatre.

There are other options besides razing:

1. Defer (table) the raze contract approval.
2. Debate the need to spend $200,000 of taxpayer money to end up with an empty lot while citizens want to acquire the building.
3. Verify the original inspector’s report for specifics vs. hearsay before making a decision.
4. Review the licensed architect’s report provided by the Capitol Theater Friends which sets out the building’s actual conditions from on-site evaluations showing that it is stable and can be restored. (The Chief Building Inspector said it is repairable at the Commission meeting, Oct. 28, 2020.)
5. Pause the raze order and work out a plan with citizens to protect, repair, and restore the theater as a historic landmark, public venue, and economic benefit to the City. The Public Works Commission Alders voted YES for Landmark status and to send the raze contract to committee. The Public Works Commission meets again on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021. The City of Racine Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CityOfRacineWI/

The Capitol Theater Restoration Committee is affiliated with the West Racine Alliance (501-c-3 non-profit).

The Public Works Commission meeting is 5:30 pm, Jan 12, 2021. Members include: Edwin Santiago, Jr. (262) 822-8302 Henry Perez (262) 676-2364 Mollie Jones (Chair)(262) 634-2971 Mary Land (262) 456-6585 Jennifer Levie (414) 364-2192 Mayor Cory Mason (262) 636-9111

https://capitoltheaterracine.com/contact

https://facebook.com/friendsofthecapitoltheater

LouRugani commented about Capitol Theater on Jan 2, 2021 at 12:26 am

A Capitol idea - Local preservationists hope to restore historic South Rockford theatre It had a Spanish appearance, even though it was located in an Italian neighborhood. The interior was ornate with Spanish décor and stunning overhead effects. Stars were cut out of the ceiling and a cloud machine was installed to give patrons a real sense of being in a Spanish garden. It featured a wide stage with a large orchestra pit – used often in the early days for vaudeville shows – a Kilgen pipe organ and Rockford-made Haddorff Grand Piano. When the Capitol Theatre opened on February 4, 1928, it was 35 cents for adults and 10 cents for children to see the silent film “The Sky Raider.” The first tickets were sold by 18-yearold Catherine Domino, who is Shirley Fedeli’s mother. “Anthony Domino was my mother’s uncle, and when the Capitol opened, she was the first cashier,” Shirley said. That’s not all, Shirley said, “That’s where she met my father, Peter Martignoni.” When it opened, the Capitol had dancing and singing contests, as well as vaudeville acts. One talented dancer was Jo Martignoni, who won several contests there and went on to compete in places like Detroit. Her brother Peter drove her and his mother to the theater, and, well, you can guess what happened.“ (My mother) probably said, ‘Hey, Peter, I’m glad your sister won.’ My mother wasn’t afraid to talk to anybody,” Shirley Fedeli said. Its heyday was a time well before TV when theaters were commonly found in Rockford neighborhoods, including the Rex on Seventh Street, the Family on Broadway, and, later the Auburn on Auburn west of North Main and the Park in Loves Park. South Rockford had two neighborhood theaters – the Capitol and the Rialto, which opened a few months earlier on the same block at the corner of Morgan and South Main Streets. The Rialto was built by Jasper St. Angel and Paul Latino with a similar Spanish motif and seating for 1,200. For years, the two held similar gimmicks to draw customers, such as give away nights with the prizes being dishes or volumes of an encyclopedia. Guy Fiorenza recalled walking to the Capitol with his mother from their home on the 700 block of Montague Street. “To promote off-nights, you would get a plate or a part of a dish set if you bought admission,” he said. “The funny thing is that, often, when the movie was going on, someone would make a wrong move, and they dropped the dish. And all of us would say, ‘ohhhhh,’ in sympathy.” He still has one of those dishes. The Capitol’s ownership changed hands over the years and closed for good in 1958. In time, the front portion was used for businesses, including the Capitol Cleaners, and, more recently, the Latin Billiard Club and Taco Loco restaurant. Although its exterior is not much to look at, many believe the space is salvageable, including noted Rockford architect Gary Anderson, whose firm specializes in adaptive reuse and historical preservation projects. Among his projects is the Prairie Street Brewhouse. Asked if the building could be renovated, he said, “I think so. (In addition to the front), there are apartments upstairs. If you can get this into the right hands, it could work.” Alderman Hervey is hopeful but also aware of the building’s code issues. “There are places where there is water coming in,” she said. “The structure needs an environmental cleanup.” To that, the architect Anderson says, “All of these things are cleanable. There is still a lot of original detail inside that you can re-purpose and recreate. I think the building is definitely worth retaining and restoring.” While aware of the serious code issues, Mark Williams, economic development manager for the City of Rockford said, “We’re actually trying to do an evaluation of South Main Street and determine its cultural value. It is in the new TIF district that encompasses the Barber-Colman Village Block.” (TIF or tax increment financing is a public financing method used as a subsidy for development in community improvement projects). Many of the artifacts from the Capitol are in other places. The theater’s organ is in private hands; the cloud machine is at the Coronado. But many original items are still inside, including signs, wall decorations, aisle markers. Alderman Hervey’s dream is of a multi-purpose facility that, when re-purposed, could become a centerpiece of the neighborhood. “I know it takes money,” said Hervey, who is planning to create a committee to tackle the project. “I want to start a fund-raising campaign. We’re calling it ‘Capital for the Capitol.’ I think there are opportunities to do it. I’m also not expecting it to happen tomorrow. It’s not going to be like the Coronado Theatre. But, as part of the South Main Street revitalization, I think this will resonate with a lot of people.” (Sources: Rockfordreminisce.com; Illinois Digital Archives; cinematreasures.com; Rockfordpubliclibrary.org/local history )

LouRugani commented about Loyalton Theatre on Dec 30, 2020 at 9:04 am

The Sierra Theatre is featured in the Warner Bros. picture “Beyond the Forest” as the “Regal Theatre”.

LouRugani commented about Portage Theatre on Dec 12, 2020 at 5:57 am

Today is its Centennial birthday.

LouRugani commented about Park Theatre on Dec 5, 2020 at 12:17 am

(continuing) “Just because the area is currently in an economic decline, which the mayor and the City Council are trying to turn around, is no reason to change the zoning laws that have been around for years to include a church,” he said. And the parade of city developers and planners who testified for the city all agree. “Any downzoning of uses, particularly spot zoning, would be a step backward in the revitalization of the area,” said urban planning consultant Nicholas Trkla. City officials argue that there are about 500 vacant lots already in areas zoned for residential use where the church could build with a special permit. “Under current business zoning the property could have some 50 to 60 uses, and if it is rezoned to residential it would only have one,” said Jeff Meyer, director of planning and community development for North Chicago. “Anytime you start violating the principles of zoning, you open up the possibility for uncontrolled growth.” But Tepper said, “What growth?” Pointing out the signs that say: “Welcome to North Chicago-A City of Vision,” Tepper said the city is suffering from nearsightedness. “This area has been dead for 20 years. It is dead now, and will remain dead unless the city lets projects like this go forward,” he said.

LouRugani commented about TELENEWS (Esquire) Theatre; Milwaukee, Wisconsin. on Dec 4, 2020 at 11:48 pm

Actually June 10, 1946.

LouRugani commented about Park I & II Theatre on Dec 4, 2020 at 4:26 pm

ood and bad news for the former Capitol Theater, 3017 Washington Ave. in Racine: despite getting landmark status this week, it’s still under a demolition order. (Bobby Tanzilo, Senior Editor/Writer, OnMilwaukeel - On Tuesday, the City of Racine bestowed landmark status on the theater, designed by architects Dick and Bauer – who designed Milwaukee’s Oriental, Tower and Garfield Theaters, too – and built in 1928 (the year after the Oriental opened). However, there is still a raze order in effect for the property, which means it could be torn down, depriving Racine of another vintage movie house. A website has been created to raise awareness and funds to help preserve the theater. The theater was built as a cinema and Vaudeville venue and was twinned in 1976, when much of the interior plasterwork was covered over and the Wurlitzer organ removed. In 1981, it was purchased by Marcus Cinemas and renamed the Park, due to its location across the street from Washington Park. It closed six years later. “The Capitol Theater was opened May 30, 1928 as a neighorhood vaudeville and movie theatre the interior was beautifully finished with ornate plasterwork and stencilling,” according to Cinema Treasures (from which we share the photo below). “A large indirectly light oval covers three quarters of the auditorium ceiling. The proscenium is decorated with plaster ropes flowers and twists. Two pipe chambers complete with false boxes are located on either side of the stage. At one time the theater boasted a 2/8 Wurlitzer pipe organ. … it has since been allow to suffer much decay and water damage.” According to the website, funds raised will help with much-needed exterior work to keep the building watertight. “If we can gather enough pledges for immediate repairs to the roof and tuckpointing ($110,000) maybe we can convince the city to pause the raze order,” reads the site. You can make a pledge. If the goal is not reached, your pledge will not be collected. “The Capitol is a part of Racine’s history,” the site notes, “with silent movies, talkies, vaudeville, newsreels, festivals, contests, radio broadcasts, comedy, performances and many memories.”

LouRugani commented about Comet Theatre on Dec 4, 2020 at 2:26 am

300 Patrons Walk Out Safely In Milwaukee Theater Blaze (Dec. 5, 1942) - MILWAUKEE - Three hundred persons escaped injury Friday night when fire caused an estimated $5,000 damage at the Comet theater, 3324 W. North avenue. The fire, a second alarm, was discovered by the theater manager, Albert Hothaner, when smoke shot up the stairs from a basement washroom. Hothaner sent an assistant to the stage to inform the 300 patrons the projection equipment had broken down and ask them to leave. Fire Chief Peter Steinkellner, who answered the second alarm personally, praised Hothaner’s actions. He said only a few patrons were aware the building was on fire until they were outside. Steinkellner and Deputy Chief Charles Tremains assessed the damage at about $5,000. Fifteen pieces of fire apparatus answered the alarms. The feature picture was one starring the late Charles (Buck) Jones, who lost his life in the fire which destroyed a Boston night club Saturday.

LouRugani commented about COMFORT Theatre; Milwaukee, Wisconsin. on Dec 4, 2020 at 2:11 am

Erin Dorbin photo.

LouRugani commented about PARK Theatre; Milwaukee, Wisconsin. on Dec 4, 2020 at 1:33 am

Stage area, 2020.

LouRugani commented about Park Theatre on Dec 3, 2020 at 12:11 am

Urban spelunking: Mitchell Street’s former Park Theater & Bilt-Rite facade (By Bobby Tanzilo, Senior Editor/Writer, Urban Milwaukee, Dec. 1, 2020)

Almost like magic it appeared and then, voila!, gone again. “It” is a 1940s two-tone pigmented structural glass facade on an 1890s building at 723 W. Mitchell St. Added when Bilt-Rite Furniture opened a second location there in 1946, the stunning Art Moderne facade – made of a product called Vitrolite – was covered with drab steel panels 40 years later. Back in March, after artist Shane McAdams, whose gallery Real Tinsel Gallery is nearby at 1013 W. Mitchell St., bought the building in 2019, the City of Milwaukee Historic Preservation Commission wondered aloud at a meeting whether or not the panels survived, though it sounded pessimistic about the possibility. Instead, in mid-November, workers spent three days removing the steel to find that the George Zagel-designed facade had, in fact, survived in, if not all, then at least much of its glory. The problem, however, is that many of the glass panels were broken. “It has to come down,” McAdams told me on Friday, as a crew prepared to remove it. “It’s dangerous. But I’m going to recreate it as closely as possible.” And, so, when I returned on Monday, the facade was completely gone, giving us a glimpse of how the building looked when it was built in 1890 (although not entirely, as the former window openings were blocked up and replacing with new fenestration). The three-story building and its two-story neighbor – designed by architect Henry Lotter – at 725 have, it seems, always been owned in tandem, connected as they are by an internal staircase at the back. While the taller structure has spent most of its life as a furniture store, it did have Amsterdam Tea, which also sold coffee and “holiday goods” as a tenant at the turn of the 20th century. The location was an outpost of a Downtown business that had two locations in the city center. This arrangement was quite common for many years, when Mitchell Street was second only to Downtown when it came to retail corridors in Milwaukee. In fact, when Amsterdam closed, the spot became a Mitchell Street branch store of the Milwaukee Green Stamp Trading Company, though by 1906 it was home to the Propkop & Szatkowski Furniture Company. The following year, Julius Wasniewski, who had been selling furniture, stoves and crockery in the two-story building, converted it into a theater for live Vaudeville performances, calling it the Park. But Wasniewski didn’t appear to stay long at the Park, perhaps because of the fire. On Sept. 9, 1907, a three-alarm fire broke out in the rooms at the back of the building above the theater, which were occupied by vaudeville performers. There, a gasoline stove used for cooking was believed to have exploded, sending flames into the back staircase (pictured below) and into the second floor of the adjacent furniture store. Once there, it destroyed everything on the second floor, and most everything on the floor below was ruined by water. Wasniewski denied that the fire started inside the Park, but, reported the Journal, “It is said by neighbors living on the third floor of the adjoining building, however, that the rooms on the second floor to the rear of the theater (two photos below) are occupied by the show people and that they frequently use a gasoline stove there to prepare their meals. Mrs. Steven Mendowicz, who occupies the third floor rear of the furniture store was the first to discover the fire. She was in the kitchen with Mrs. Prokop, who lives in the front part. Shortly after the smoke was discovered the room was in flames and it was thought that the two women perished, but they got out safely.” By January 1908, newspapers carried classified ads, offering for sale or lease, a 400-seat Vaudeville theater, and four months later, the Park Theater manager A. Bartell placed an ad seeking, “a good hustling partner,” claiming, “I have a chance to make some money.” For a while, ambitious theater man Edward Wagner operated the Park Theater, perhaps after he left a smaller nearby theater in 1908. With his wife Martha, Wagner had opened The Emporium, a nickel theater at 626 W. Mitchell St., in 1906. According to Larry Widen and Judi Anderson’s “Silver Screens,” the Wagners quickly renamed the 175-seat Emporium the Imperial 5¢ Theater to highlight its admission cost. In addition to the Park, Wagner would go on to operate the Happy Hour at 1814 S. Muskego (1910-24, 590 seats) and the Wagner at 1636 W. Forest Home (1913-17, 371). By 1912, Wagner also had acquired theaters in Waukesha, Hartford and Racine. He gave them all up by 1919 to run the Garden Theater on Milwaukee Avenue in South Milwaukee, which he did until his passing in 1930. An early view of the Park, perhaps from a postcard, shows a flag-draped entrance with hoardings announcing performers and a man standing out front. Perhaps that was one of the barkers, the men who would coax patrons into the theater by touting its array of attractions. Anton Tardick was a barker at the Park in 1909 and had the misfortune that February of being among four arrested at local theaters for breaking the city’s anti-noise ordinance, which hemmed in the barkers and could lead to fines as hefty as $25 or 30 days in jail. But Tardick and the others argued that the ordinance was unreasonable and, therefore, illegal. When he was found guilty and fined $1 plus court costs, he appealed. Whether or not Tardick returned is unclear, but the Park continued on and in March 1909 it advertised for a steady position for a singer. That November it sought an “illustrated song singer,” warning, “no boozer,” suggesting the folks tapped to sing along – often to piano accompaniment – to a series of projected slides that illustrated the lyrics could be less than upstanding. The following March, the Park sought violinists. Though already by 1909, the Park is referred to as a nickelodeon, suggesting it was already screening moving pictures. As vaudeville faded, the theater, like most such venues, transitioned entirely to film. A 1914 building permit shows the Park being run by Joseph J. Schwartz and described as a “picture theater.” Schwartz had been at the theater since at least 1911. In 1916, it was running matinee films at 2 p.m. and advertised its content as “refined high class pictures.” In 1930, the Park found itself embroiled in a dispute between rival projectionists unions that many believed had led to a series of bombings, more stinky than deadly nature, though one was more sinister. In May of that year, while patrons watched the 1927 silent picture “The Rose of Kildare,” starring Helene Chadwick, Pat O'Malley and Henry B. Walthall, on a Wednesday night, they were forced out when a “tear gas bomb” went off in an auditorium air vent. Theater manager Cyrus J. Roddy couldn’t explain what happened, but noted in a newspaper article that there had been “some difficulty with labor,” lately, adding that, “on two occasions the front of the place was smeared with paint.” Detectives Leroy Gittens and Ralph Hostettler, according to a Milwaukee Sentinel report, “braved the heavy atmoshpere to investigate. Some of the chemical was also found in a newspaper near the rear exit.” Similar bombs were ignited in about 50 theaters over the course of the next two years, and in August 1932, it was discovered that at least some were made by a pair of teens who made the bombs using the chemistry skills they learned during their studies at Boys Tech High School. The boys admitted to setting off the devices in the Avalon and the Mirth on Kinnickinnic Avenue, and the Granada on 11th and Mitchell. They said they also attempted one at the Park that didn’t explode. It’s possible other bombs did figure into the union battle and the entire thing culminated in a dynamite bomb that exploded at the Parkway Theater on 35th and Lisbon, injuring six people, in October 1932. The Park was the scene of yet another projectionists union spat in 1953 and that may well be what led to the demise of the theater. That summer, William J. Schmitt took over the Park after it had closed in June and said he was running it, according to a Journal article at the time, “on a shoestring” and was “taking in very little money.” That’s why, he said, he refused to pay his projectionists, who went on strike, leading to a union picket line out front. Schmitt said he couldn’t afford to pay union rates of $92.74 a week for 43.5 hours of work, plus $3.71 for the pension fund. Before it closed the theater had been a member of the Allied Independent Theater Owners Association of Wisconsin and thus had a contract with the union. When Schmitt reopened it, the Park was entirely independent and had no contract with projectionists. The action marked the first time in about 20 years that the union had picketed a theater, according to the article. Ten days later, the Journal reported that Schmitt had closed the theater on Sept. 13, not, he claimed due to the union action, but rather due to “other adversities,” including his inability to pay the rent, the arrival of a film that was in poor condition and therefore presumably unplayable, plus a series of demands from the health department, including that he paint the auditorium as well as the lobby, “because of damage caused by high spirited children who threw ink on the lobby walls.” And he still owed the projectionists their pay. Schmitt said he planned to continue in the business, but not likely at the Park. He also claimed he’d run his own projector, bellowing that “the union won’t stop me,” though the union promised to picket any theater at which Schmitt worked as his own projectionist. It was at this point that the theater appears to have been absorbed into the furniture business next door, where Prokop and Szatkowski had operated for 25 years, closing in 1931. (Notably, Prokop and Szatkowski listed the building for sale in 1923, but ultimately stayed on, although at that point it appears Propkop was on his own. An advertisement offers a glimpse of the pre-vitrolite facade.) While Mitchell’s Salon opened an outpost of its original Downtown location there for a time, the building appears to have continued its run as a furniture retailer and in 1946, Bilt-Rite Furniture became the latest business to add a Mitchell Street location. An October 1946 ad boasted that Bilt-Rite was, “opening a beautiful new furniture store to serve you. The entire interior of our store has been brightened and newly decorated into a completely modern, colorful, brilliant shopping center designed to make your shopping enjoyable, convenient and efficient.” Bilt-Rite had been founded on 3rd and Garfield by Irwin Kerns and his son-in-law Sol Forman. It’s now owned by the fourth generation of the same family. At the time it opened the Mitchell Street location, Bilt-Rite tapped architect George Zagel to design the eye-catching pink and mint green vitrolite Art Moderne facade that covered nearly the entire front of the building. The old, more traditional fenestration was replaced with a pair of circular openings that flanked a two-story rectangle of glass block in the center of the wall. Born in Milwaukee in 1893, Zagel had studied both engineering and architecture by the time he arrived in the practice of John W. Menge Jr. During World War I, Zagel served in the Army Corps of Engineers and then stayed on in Europe to study the architecture of France and Germany. Returning to Milwaukee, he became one of the most in-demand architects in the city, designing more than 1,500 buildings over his long career. Zagel’s facade endured for four decades before it was covered up with the steel panels, perhaps because some of the vitrolite was already failing. In 2006, Bilt-Rite moved to a new, larger home – having long since closed its 3rd Street store – on 54th and Layton in Greenfield. In 2010, the Robles Self-Service Center, the first social services office focused on assisting the South Side Latinx community, opened on the first floor, and has been there ever since. Next door, in the vacant Park Theater space, McAdams – who bought the building in 2019 – plans to open a cafe and is considering naming it Bilt-Rite, if the furniture dynasty will allow it. On the upper levels – where you can still see the old theater office in the front and the old performers quarters at the back – he’s working on plans for either artist studios, apartments or some combination of both. At the back of the building at 723, on the top floor where there will be a large loft space for rent, he envisions a two-story apartment with access to the roof, where the views are quite spectacular. Though there are very few traces left of the theater – a sloping space where the lobby was, for example – McAdams hopes he may find more when he begins work to remove a dropped ceiling and wall-covering panels in the former auditorium. “I’d like to preserve anything I find,” he says. “I want Mitchell Street to thrive,” he says. “But also we want to be sensitive to maintaining its character.”

LouRugani commented about Uptown Theatre on Nov 23, 2020 at 11:54 am

(From ArchitectureChicago PLUS: Sunday, December 18, 2011) On the 30th anniversary of its closing, Andy Pierce reminds us what’s so magical about the Uptown Theatre. —

Today, December 19th, marks the 30th anniversary of the day Chicago’s famed Uptown Theatre closed its doors. By the time I got around to it in the 1960s, the 4,300 seat former movie palace designed by Rapp & Rapp was past its prime. Apart from the John Frankenheimer masterpiece The Train, most of the films I saw there were unmemorable - The Ballad of Josie? The Dave Clark Five in Having a Wild Weekend? - but I was always blown away by the grandeur, beauty, and sheer scale of the place.

Since its closing, the Uptown has suffered the indignities of being owned by some of the city’s most infamous slumlords, leaks, floods, freezes, neglect and decay. In 2008, it was acquired by Jam Productions, which already books the Riviera across the street. Last October, representatives from JAM, mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office and freshman Chicago alderman Harry Osterman and James Cappleman met to discuss how a revived Uptown could anchor a new vision for an Uptown Entertainment Center.

In 2006, the price tag bandied about for fully restoring the Uptown was $30 to $40 million. Today, it’s more like $70 million. If hope is to be had, it might be found in the examples of two New York City theaters, the 1929 2800-seat Beacon, which withstood bad times and attempts to “improve” it into a disco to emerge as a beloved and active concert venue despite being far from the Mid- Manhattan Theatre district. Even more striking is the comparison to the 3,200 seat Loew’s Kings Theater in Brooklyn, designed by the famed Chicago movie palace architects Rapp & Rapp, left to rot ever since its 1977 closing. Like the Uptown, those who cherished the theater battled to keep it alive for revival, and their efforts were rewarded in a project, launched last year for a 2014 completion, to restore the Loew’s Kings to its former glory as the centerpiece of the renewal of the Flatbush shopping district. The city of New York has committed $50 million to the project’s expected $70 million cost.

This week’s edition of Time Out Chicago has an excellent article by Andy Pierce, one of the people most instrumental in Friends of the Uptown who have been tireless in championing saving the theater. We’re privileged to have Andy provide us his overview of the history, importance and future potential of the Uptown …

What makes a theater a movie palace? At some point, almost any surviving vintage theater is referred to by fans or reporters as a “movie palace.”

The long-closed Uptown Theater, 4816 N. Broadway, is truly an early example of the very large movie palaces of the mid-to-late 1920s. It is also one of the last great movie palaces to not yet be restored, renovated, radically altered or demolished. Chicago’s remaining open and operating movie palaces – used for live performances – are the Riviera, Chicago, Congress and Oriental theaters. The Central Park has survived as a church since 1971 and the restored New Regal (originally Avalon) has been closed intermittently since 2003. [Note: Our Palace Theater was not a movie palace. Rather, it was built for Big-Time Orpheum Vaudeville.] Arguably the most profitable themed entertainment of the day, Balaban & Katz “presentation houses,” such as the Uptown, featured continuous performance of three or more shows daily; stage shows with themes, costumes and sets planned in consideration of the feature film; a full orchestra rising and falling on multiple stage lifts, with a conductor at the helm of projector speeds and tempos to keep on schedule and massive theatre organs to accompany the orchestra and provide the aural environments and voices for the early and yet-still-silent stars of the screen.

In B&K’s deluxe presentation houses such as the Uptown, a system of colored cove lights controlled the accent lighting of the auditorium such that the audience was entirely encapsulated in the mood of the moment on screen; for example yellow for sunrise, red for war, blue for night, purple for love.

Most of America’s movie palaces carried a Neo-Classical theme cohesively throughout their public spaces and were lavishly decorated not only with plaster relief but also with fanciful polychrome paint schemes, damask, drapes, elaborate chandeliers, antique oil paintings, marble sculpture groups and fountains. Patron comfort and service were augmented in the Uptown for example with amenities such as hat racks beneath seats, a parcel check, luxurious men’s and women’s lounges and a fanciful playroom with storybook themes for children.

Grand entrance lobbies gave standees a place to wait behind ropes while the previous audience exited through other lobbies and ambulatories. A full, working stage with scenery, a theater pipe organ, and multiple thousands of seats in floor, mezzanine and balcony areas completed the movie palace formula over tens of thousands of square feet of real estate.

Baptized in oil, labor and love, friends of Chicago’s historic Uptown Theater, 4816 N. Broadway, are recognizing a peculiar anniversary for one of the world’s largest and most lavish surviving movie palaces today, Monday, Dec. 19, with a letter-writing campaign. Please see the Uptown Theatre, Chicago, Facebook page for details:

While the Uptown has been closed for 30 of its 86 years, demolition by neglect was held at bay largely through the work of volunteers who kept the theater graffiti free as high as they could reach, who stoked her shopworn boiler and who kept the landmark interior as dry as possible, using patches upon patches of hydraulic cement to seal cracks in steel roof drains that had been pushed open by ice. Uptown’s 12 different roof surfaces drain through this system of pipes. The failure of this system in the arctic winters of the early 1980s allowed water to damage to some interior areas of ornate plaster ceilings and walls.

This less-than-glamorous anniversary comes as both Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Ald. Harry Osterman (48th) are avowed boosters of the Uptown Square business and entertainment district and have voiced their cooperation and support for renovating the Uptown.

The theater was built at a cost of $4 million between 1924 and 1925 by the local, family-owned company of Balaban & Katz, following the success of their Central Park, Riviera, Tivoli and Chicago theaters. “Built For All Time,” its over-the-top, neo-Spanish Baroque design by the Chicago architectural firm of C.W. and George L. Rapp was touted as “An Acre of Seats in a Magic City.” The Uptown has a marquee bigger than a yacht, three lobbies as big as train stations, and boasts more than 4,300 seats in its vast floor, mezzanine and balcony.

The opening of the Uptown was commemorated in the August 17, 1925 edition of Balaban & Katz’s weekly magazine. It’s a fascinating snapshot of both the Uptown and 1920’s Chicago. You can download the entire issue courtesy of the Compass Rose Cultural Crossroads website. Many historians note how the popularity of television in American homes curtailed the tremendous number of movie patrons. However, the late Bro. Andrew Corsini Fowler was quick to remind me that our fascination with radio programs took the first cut out of movie palace receipts. [Note: Bro. Andrew was a cofounder of Theatre Historical Society of America in 1969 alongside impresario and theater organ enthusiast Ben Hall, the Time-Life Editor and author of “The Best Remaining Seats."

As entertainment tastes and choices changed through the years, the Uptown was operated by successors to B&K before it was leased by the local Rabiela family in the late 1970s for Spanish-language films and special ticketed events. Interestingly, Jerry Mickelson, of Jam Productions, the Chicago music promoter who booked the Uptown for years and staged the last public concert there in 1981, is part of the LLC that owns the Uptown today.

“It was a very sad day for me on Dec. 19, 1981, when I told Rene Rabiela Sr. after Jam’s concert with the J. Geils Band that the theater was uninhabitable for the public use without repairs,” Mickelson recalled in an interview. “The washrooms were barely functioning and Jam had to pay for the oil to heat the theater.”

Mickelson credits local officials and longtime volunteers for the Uptown surviving decades of deferred maintenance and neglect through a succession of owners and receivership. Also, the City of Chicago invested in more than $1 million in court-ordered stabilization work and repairs, which removed and stored decorative terra cotta and replaced the system of pipes through which the rain and snow melt from 12 roof surfaces drains. It was this system’s failure in the arctic winters of the early 1980s which caused water damage to some interior areas of ornate plaster ceilings and walls.

While there is no shortage of public sentiment for the theater, the riddle of the Uptown is how to fund a restoration in the tens of millions of dollars such that the historic, block-filling movie palace will serve the entertainment and special events needs of the ticket-buying public of today.

“There is a new energy that has been infused by Mayor Emanuel, whose vision is to create an entertainment district that will provide an unprecedented economic and cultural development opportunity for this great neighborhood,” Mickelson said. He added that both Ald. Osterman and Ald. James Cappleman (46th) are also working hard to see the Uptown reopen and be a catalyst for enlivening the district.

Being closed 30 years means that most of the Uptown’s friends on Facebook, its persistent advocates and its letter-writing activists are not old enough to have seen a show there.

This 40-year-old writer became attuned to the dedication and resolve of Uptown’s volunteers during a frigid winter day sometime in 1998. We were getting the theater ready for a special event rental such as the Hearts Party, a commitment ceremony or a chamber of commerce dinner. I recall pulling down a rotten 1950s curtain that was hanging in shreds from its hoisted frame atop the grand lobby window facing Broadway and asking if it we should save it. “No. It will be replaced when the restoration happens,” Mangel said matter-of-factly without a hint of “if” in his tone.

At first, it struck me as very sad to think of how he and other volunteers would feel crushed if the building were not saved. Then, after seeing the entire building and working until I was exhausted and could no longer feel my feet or hands, I knew in my heart that the Uptown was too valuable and too extraordinarily beautiful to not save for some future use.

There was a time during my early work for the Uptown when I was ushering on alternate nights for the Auditorium, Chicago and Oriental theaters. I would come and go at times from their carpeted and well-lit spaces to the almost-forgotten Uptown. The disparity of attention and investment was palpable.

I also have a clear memory of sweeping the Uptown’s basement one day in preparation for a tour, listening to President Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky hearings being broadcast from Capitol Hill. I thought: What if we had the money being spent on this ridiculousness? Turns out the $30 million Kenneth Starr spent on the investigation could have renovated the Uptown at that time.

Preparing for working within the Uptown was like going on a long, winter hike in the woods. I dressed in layers and packed water, snacks and flashlights. Aside from doing a good deed for the sake of preserving the building, the reward for a day’s work was usually a big, hot meal at Fiesta Mexicana Restaurant or a cocktail at the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, both of which are on this historic block.

During rare special events, banner days, really, for the Uptown, I’ve heard the Uptown pulse with incredible dance music for events and seen every Spanish Baroque detail lit up in brilliant color by the industry’s best rented lights, disco balls and lasers. I also had a glimpse of a lost era when I saw the Uptown lit by candles and caressed in the music of a jazz trio. These are precious memories that make the work worthwhile. Together with the two community portraits I have organized in front of the theater for the 75th and 80th opening day anniversaries, I feel as if I have done everything I can do within my means and abilities as a volunteer for and with the Uptown.

On most days, the only performance one can hear in the Uptown is a small jam box tuned to WDCB or WFMT, the distant rhythm of the “L,” and the occasional shrill call of the resident peregrine falcon aerie. Time is at a standstill and the countless griffins, maidens, fascia brutes and laughing kings who populate the Uptown’s walls are simply waiting mutely for their next audience.

Some of the Uptown’s many friends who have said to me “I hope to live to see it restored” over the past 18 years have since passed away. I too had hope that they would be here to celebrate its reopening day. We stay positive as volunteers and have faith that the project will happen.

My trusted friend and mentor Joe DuciBella, the noted theatre historian and designer who succumbed to cancer in 2007, was one of the Uptown’s most tactful and respected advocates. Late at night following Theatre Historical Society of America events, our heady conversations in Joe’s National Register home on Caton Street in Wicker Park would always drift to the Uptown and its chances for revival. Deep down inside, Joe hoped that the Uptown would be restored in her entirety. However, he was a realist and would concede that perhaps it would survive in some repurposed form. Privately, the closest Joe would come to how he truly felt about the Uptown’s odds was to say the matter was “soft territory.”

In addition to DuciBella, who gave countless tours and chronicled its importance in Marquee magazine, the Uptown’s patron saints include Don Lampert, who had the building listed on the National Register and designated as a City of Chicago landmark; Bob Boin, who stored its bronze and crystal chandeliers and is in his third decade of volunteering; Curt Mangel, the restoration consultant who gained the confidence of owners Ken Goldberg and Lou Wolf (notorious tax-sale buyers) so that he could go in, thaw out, dry out and revive the Uptown’s systems in the 1980s; David Syfczak, the volunteer security guard since 1996, who checks all 110 doors and who does plaster repairs, paints and sweeps miles of floors and sidewalks; Jimmy Wiggins, manager of the Riviera Theatre, who oversees operations, maintenance and repairs; and many more unsung friends.

Despite being dark for three decades, the Uptown still has several mature professionals in its corner that did experience it alive with music and audiences. Time will tell if Chicago’s powerbrokers, elected officials, financiers and entertainment industry leaders will find a creative, collaborative and altruistic way to re-lamp the nation’s best closed theater.

(Andy Pierce, a volunteer who helped found Friends of the Uptown in 1998, is a member of the Theatre Historical Society of America.)