My mother took me to the Telenews prior to the Chicago or the Oriental when I was 5 years old. (They didn’t send me to kindergarten.) That’s where I saw my first teletype machine; and my first tv set (although there was nothing on at the time). That’s where I saw the Empire State Building crash; where I learned how to stand during the National Anthem; and where I got to see FDR declaring war. When I was at Northwestern, I went there (The Loop Theatre) and saw After Mein Kampf. It was a nudie documentary. And then in 1967, I took my new wife there to see the Graduate, with Dustin Hoffman. That theatre—inside a taxpayer—was one, classy place.
In the spring of 1960, I helped pay tuition at the University of Illinois in Chicago by working for an inventory company. We would inventory stores prior to the accountants coming in to do their own inventory. It was sort of a security measure. We usually worked from around 10 p.m. on a Friday night until 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. When our crew chief drove us down to the Southtown Theatre, I thought we were going to have to inventory popcorn. What a surprise when I saw that this art-deco theatre was now a department store. The stoves and refrigerators were in the balcony, and I spent the entire night sitting on the floor of the orchestra counting boxes of paper clips and ball point pens. That’s the only time I was ever in the theatre, but as I sat on the floor, I kept staring at the ceiling and thought what a beautiful theatre it must have been at one time.
It appears that this is where the CBS tv special featuring Miles Davis blowing with Gil Evans and big band was broadcast from in 1959. I’m currently watching “New Rhumba” from Ken Burns' jazz documentary and there are some fine long shots.
Also, didn’t the David Brenner Show originate from here in the 1980s?
My mother took me to the Telenews prior to the Chicago or the Oriental when I was 5 years old. (They didn’t send me to kindergarten.) That’s where I saw my first teletype machine; and my first tv set (although there was nothing on at the time). That’s where I saw the Empire State Building crash; where I learned how to stand during the National Anthem; and where I got to see FDR declaring war. When I was at Northwestern, I went there (The Loop Theatre) and saw After Mein Kampf. It was a nudie documentary. And then in 1967, I took my new wife there to see the Graduate, with Dustin Hoffman. That theatre—inside a taxpayer—was one, classy place.
In the spring of 1960, I helped pay tuition at the University of Illinois in Chicago by working for an inventory company. We would inventory stores prior to the accountants coming in to do their own inventory. It was sort of a security measure. We usually worked from around 10 p.m. on a Friday night until 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. When our crew chief drove us down to the Southtown Theatre, I thought we were going to have to inventory popcorn. What a surprise when I saw that this art-deco theatre was now a department store. The stoves and refrigerators were in the balcony, and I spent the entire night sitting on the floor of the orchestra counting boxes of paper clips and ball point pens. That’s the only time I was ever in the theatre, but as I sat on the floor, I kept staring at the ceiling and thought what a beautiful theatre it must have been at one time.
It appears that this is where the CBS tv special featuring Miles Davis blowing with Gil Evans and big band was broadcast from in 1959. I’m currently watching “New Rhumba” from Ken Burns' jazz documentary and there are some fine long shots.
Also, didn’t the David Brenner Show originate from here in the 1980s?
GintGotham