The Luna was right next door to the old Watlands Camera Store, indeed more or less kitty-corner from the Arcade Building (where my dad worked as an elevator operator when he was in high school, but that’s another story.) Have to admit I don’t know anything about the other five theaters you named, but I’ll ask my dad anout them the next time I see him.
What used to be the Majestic, I am told, is now used by the Kankakee Valley Theatre group for its performances and office space. (I remember those tile floors, too; my younger brothers used to pretend they were pieces on a giant chess board!) As for the drive-in on Highway 17, that was the Starlite (at least that was the name it used as far back as I recall, though I’m told it had operated under another named prior to the 1960s). Spent quite a bit of time at the Starlite as a teenager.
It was indeed the Majestic when it was originally opened from the late 1930s (I think) through the mid or late 1950s. My father spent many a Saturday at the Majestic during this period watching Flash Gordon serials and Johnny Weismuller Tarzan flicks. It was later reopened in the early 1970s as the Town Cinema (this was just a few years after Kankakee’s other theatre, the Luna, was closed down) and remained in business through the early 1990s (I forget the exact date, although the last film I remember seeing there was “Dances With Wolves” in 1991, just a few months before moving to Oklahoma). It wasn’t as ornate as the Paramount and had a smaller screen, but it was a good little theatre for much of its life; towards the end it fell on hard times, both physically (it became quite run down near the end) and in terms of the films it showed (there was a period in the mid to late 80s when it even showed porn films on a fairly regular basis, unfortunately). My favorite memory of the Town Cinema is of sitting through multiple showings of the original “Star Wars” during its initial run in 1977, when I was but a lad of 14. Spent quite a bit of my paper route money that summer on George Lucas, Coke and Lemonheads, as I recall. Those were the days…
The Luna was right next door to the old Watlands Camera Store, indeed more or less kitty-corner from the Arcade Building (where my dad worked as an elevator operator when he was in high school, but that’s another story.) Have to admit I don’t know anything about the other five theaters you named, but I’ll ask my dad anout them the next time I see him.
What used to be the Majestic, I am told, is now used by the Kankakee Valley Theatre group for its performances and office space. (I remember those tile floors, too; my younger brothers used to pretend they were pieces on a giant chess board!) As for the drive-in on Highway 17, that was the Starlite (at least that was the name it used as far back as I recall, though I’m told it had operated under another named prior to the 1960s). Spent quite a bit of time at the Starlite as a teenager.
It was indeed the Majestic when it was originally opened from the late 1930s (I think) through the mid or late 1950s. My father spent many a Saturday at the Majestic during this period watching Flash Gordon serials and Johnny Weismuller Tarzan flicks. It was later reopened in the early 1970s as the Town Cinema (this was just a few years after Kankakee’s other theatre, the Luna, was closed down) and remained in business through the early 1990s (I forget the exact date, although the last film I remember seeing there was “Dances With Wolves” in 1991, just a few months before moving to Oklahoma). It wasn’t as ornate as the Paramount and had a smaller screen, but it was a good little theatre for much of its life; towards the end it fell on hard times, both physically (it became quite run down near the end) and in terms of the films it showed (there was a period in the mid to late 80s when it even showed porn films on a fairly regular basis, unfortunately). My favorite memory of the Town Cinema is of sitting through multiple showings of the original “Star Wars” during its initial run in 1977, when I was but a lad of 14. Spent quite a bit of my paper route money that summer on George Lucas, Coke and Lemonheads, as I recall. Those were the days…