Comments from LouRugani

(January 5, 1959) Modern Super Foodland Replacing Theater At Edgerton Next Monday

The curtain is down for the last time for Edgerton’s Charve Theatre, of which the town was very proud and went to almost limitless ends to keep in operation, but in its place is a brand new Super Foodland. It opens Monday, June 22, under the management of Bob Meyer, an Edgerton man who is realizing his dream of more than a year of giving his home town a place just as bright a spot in food as the theatre was in entertainment.

Conversion to a food market has been complete. The inclined floor and stage have been torn away and 77 loads of fill dirt, with equal gravel, were dumped to make a level floor of more than 3,000 square feet of spotless tile. The air conditioning now comes from wall ducts instead of the ceiling to keep the direct drafts away from the fresh vegetables and foods.

Two hundred feet of tubular lights inside and the neon lights in the marquee make it a bright spot in an already modernly lighted small town. On the big marquee in front will be posted the latest in foods instead of motion pictures. In the lobby is the nickel riding prancing horse for the kids. There will be a popcorn machine like in the theatre. The windows that had the colorful posters of shows to come will show the latest foods to satisfy the gourmet appetite. The only pictures now will be the large murals of farm scenes on the walls, as Edgerton is in the heart of a rich farm country.

Modern pastel colors of ivory, white and blue with 90 feet of gondola counters, large wall shelves and large freezer counters for service, self service meats, dairy goods, vegetables, frozen foods, and what not will tempt the house wives to fill those big bags at the checking counter. The large parking area, north of the theatre, will not come amiss. Hours will be from 9 to 9 on week days only. Five full time attendants will be of in spotless uniforms. The rest rooms are all repainted and brightened.

The Charve Theatre was opened in 1945 with a grand premiere of flood lights, band music and festivities that filled the house twice on a cold evening, with the temperature at zero. It was the latest in theatre design with push back seats, interior neon lighting, modern projection room and screen. In spite of the townspeople’s efforts in the last years, even to buying tickets for a year in advance, it could not combat T.V. and the slow death of the small town movie houses. Edgerton folks feel that they are again winning a battle of replacing a darkened theatre with a bright new super market.

Charve Closes In Mid-Weeks (March 13, 1958)

Due to the high operating costs and low box office receipts, the Charve theatre will be closed most Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, according to an announcement by Rhys Cook, manager.

As often as possible, live stage entertainment will be scheduled for Wednesday nights. Announcement of these events will be made in The Earth.

New Managers To Operate Charve (January 22, 1958)

The Charve Theatre at Edgerton, which is now under the management of Charles Lewis, will be taken over by Rhys Cook and Richard Beals, who will have their first show, “Day of Triumph,” a religious picture, on Wednesday, February 5.

Mr. Cook is a student at Tri-State College, in Angola, and Mr. Beals, who has had 15 years experience in the operation of moving picture houses, is from Sherwood. There had been rumors that the Charve might be closed, and taking over the business by the new management assures continued operation.

Charve Theatre Being Renovated, Opens Feb. 5 With Special Film

EDGERTON- The Charve Theatre is being given a complete interior renovation, including cleaning from stem to stern, readying it for operation by new management of Rhys Cook, of Edgerton, and Richard Beals, of Sherwood.

Rest rooms have been repainted and the heating plant reconditioned to give a comfortable temperature for patrons at all times. The neon lighting in the interior has been restored, which with the push-back seats and modern interior has made it one of the most beautiful small town theatres in northwestern Ohio. The giant screen has been moved back to provide ample stage for music specialties, etc.

“The Day of Triumph” a great religious picture of the adult life of Jesus, will be the opening feature of the new management Wednesday evening, Feb. 5, at 7 p.m. and this picture will continue Thursday, Friday and Saturday of that week. The picture has had advance screening for the clergy and church leaders of the area.

Edgerton is solidly back of the new operators in having the theatre kept open of which all are proud. The merchants of Edgerton are having a Saturday afternoon free matinee for the kiddies. Their elders may accompany them free. This will be a special show for the kids and will not include the feature.

A year ago a civic drive sold many advance tickets good for a year to public spirited people who were interested in keeping the theatre open. Even though these will have expired, the new management will honor the unused portions of these tickets for thirty days, starting Feb. 9, with their compliments

Other things planned for the theatre are amateur nights, special rural features and appearances of the Edgerton high school band in February. This will be a half-hour concert under the direction of L. E. McBain, director of the music department. The orchestra pit has been refurbished for this performance. The theatre will be open seven nights a week. (January 29, 1958)

CHARVE THEATRE TO OPEN SOON (1/9/1947)

The people of Edgerton have watched the beautiful new Charve Theatre go up block by block and beam by beam and have cheered the courage of the men responsible for it. In spite of hundreds of difficulties and shortages these men waded through red tape and impossible situations to bring to reality a dream that they had and which they were bound and determined to make come true. The Charve theatre will give Edgerton an amusement enterprise comparable to the biggest and best theatres in America. Every device and modern improvement known to theatre science has been incorporated in the new building. Owners and managers of the new theatre are making big plans for a regular Hollywood Premier First Night, details of which will be carried in the Earth.

It might be mentioned here that the principal comfort and service features of the New Charve Theatre will in clude the famous Push-Back seat, a revolutionary seating improvement eliminating standing to let others pass. Modern heating and air conditioning. The plastic motion picture screen, a revelation in light projection, “Voice of the Theatre” sound now being installed in the Roxy, New York. Courteous uniformed attendants, lounge room for men and women and free parking for patrons. Contracts are now being made with the leading motion picture producers for the exhibition of the finest features in the new Charve theatre. Changes of pictures and price policy will be announced later.

Charve Theatre To Close Nov. 24

The Charve theater in Edgerton will close its doors after the regular feature run Saturday, Nov. 24, Herbert Kruse, manager announced Monday afternoon.

The movie house has been in operation since Jan., 1947.

Mr. Kruse said, “We would like to thank the faithful movie goers of Edgerton for their patronage.

Kruse’s plans for the future are indefinite. He did not announce plans for the building in which the theater operated.

Edgerton’s new Charve Theater which is nearing completion is 48x130, cinder block construction, 35 feet high, modern design, finished in white with all-neon marquee sign in colors. Ceiling is acoustic soundtone, finished in pastel blue, side walls decorated with ornamental plastic and panels and neon lighting system. The walls will be decorated in positive colors in gold trim. Chairs will be of turquoise blue and Kroehler pushback type, the very latest and most modern, making it unnecessary for seated patrons to rise to make way for others entering or leaving seats during the show. The latest and best equipment in sound effect and projection is being installed. Curtains and draperies are of heavy velvet with colors to harmonize, handled mechanically, and are fire proof. Building will be heated by combination of air and low pressure steam, using oil for fuel forced air conditioning for heating and cooling. All heat and fresh air will be automatically controlled. Seating capacity is 600. The sponsors will bend every energy to live up to the slogan, “America’s Greatest Small Town Theater.” Sidewalks will extend to the curb with provision allowed for landscaping. Stage is built large enough for personal appearances with orchestra pit to accommodate an average orchestra. This outstanding theater will be open in a few weeks. Theater will provide its own well-lighted parking lot for Charve patrons. Only the best shows will be provided. (October 3, 1946)

Jun 03, 1921: BUYS THREE THEATERS.

Poplar Bluff Man Adds Cairo Playhouses to String.

POPLAR BLUFF, Me., June 2.-I. W. Rodgers of this city has secured control of practically the entire moving picture business in Cairo, Ill., adding three theaters to the string of theaters in Missouri that he now owns. The deal at the neighboring city was consummated with H. B. McFarland, owner of the Tokio Theater at Morehouse. It includes the outright purchase of the Gem Theater, Cairo’s largest moving picture and vaudeville house. Leases standing were secured on the Cairo Opera House, the largest and best legitimate stage house between Memphis and St. Louis, and the Kimmel Theater, the handsomest theater in Southern Illinois. The string of theaters that Mr. Rodgers owns controlling Interest in are the Criterion, at Poplar Bluff; the Cairo Opera House, the Gem Theater, Cairo; the Kimmel Theater, Cairo: the Fraternal, Poplar Bluff; the New Grand, Hope, Ark.; the Dixie and the Liberty, Caruthersville, Mo., and an interest from the co-partnership in Mr. McFarland’s theater in Morehouse, the Tokio. Rodgers is indeed a pioneer in the picture game. He is one of the first three men in the United States who introduced moving pictures 24 years ago.

They’re Takin' ‘Em Off Again At Chicago’s Star And Garter. (Memphis Commercial Appeal, Sept. 7, 1947)

Cradle Of ‘Burleycue’ Reverts To Type After 10 Dull Years Of Movies

Burlesque is back at the Star and Garter. After 10 years of comparative obscurity as just another Chicago movie theater, the nation’s most famous old burlesque house is again featuring the bump and the grind, four-shows-a-day, with selected shorts (on the screen only, of course).

But Burlesque has changed since the home of the strip tease and the birthplace of a number of today’s screen stars darkened its stage and went over to pictures during the depth of the depression. The girls have to wear clothes even if the audience doesn’t notice that fact because of the skimpiness of the net panties and bras insisted on by the censors. Also, a grind isn’t a grind any more at the Star and Garter. Now it has to be speeded up so that only the practiced eye in the bald-headed row can catch it.

For Mickey Hattie, confused at being out of her act, failed to follow the standard procedure of “posing” and instead of disrobing bit by bit off-stage, started dropping garments hither and yon right out where everyone could see.

The audience applauded with such enthusiasm that thereafter posing was out and stripping was in at the Star and Garter, and within a few years there wasn’t a pose to be found at any burlesque house in the country.

But the audience loves it and, according to Warren B. Irons, S. and G. manager and the Western half of the old Columbia “wheel” of burlesque houses, the family trade is coming to the theater just as it did 25 years ago. Irons is famed in the best burlesque circles as the father of the “strip tease”. Its mother was Hattie Noel, who after giving birth to the strip, went on to Hollywood with more clothes and poundage and achieved modest screen fame as “Aunt Hattie,” playing Aunt Jemima character parts.

It was during that period that a young Hattie Carter was working in the chorus and Joe Yule, her husband, was hardly wowing the cash customers as a comic. Backstage, a fellow performer, Sid Gold, a song-and-dance man, was teaching their small son to imitate his act. The small son later made Gold’s lessons at the Star and Garter to pay off - he now is known as Mickey Rooney.

It may have been then or later that Joan Crawford and Ethel Shutta worked in the 24-girl chorus at the Star and Garter. Irons, mindful that the ages press agents give for movie actresses and night club singers are not always correct, tactfully does not remember the exact years Crawford and Shutta worked for him. But from the time the theater opened in 1908 until it temporarily deserted burlesque in the ‘30s, all the big names of vaudeville played there - Fannie Brice, the Four Cohans, Harry Lauder, Abbott and Costello, Phil Silvers, Weber and Fields, Joe E. Brown and a great many others.

Irons well remembers the night the strip tease was born. Until that night, during the first World War, counterpart of the modern “stripper” confined herself to “posing”, usually ending up at the most torrid part of the “after-piece” standing nude in a cold frame.

For laughs - or for kicks, as they say nowadays - Irons suggested to Hattie, a bouncing brown woman who did a song-and-dance act in the “Olio” (the middle, or vaudeville part of old-time burlesque) that she try her hand at “posing”.

An amateur fighter named Barney Ross also used to prance around the Star and Garter stage.

Now the top performer, when not grinding and bumping way around the 14-city circuit, is Louise Lamarr, a tiny blonde who describes herself as “the fastest thing on heels.” She and her feathers are considered the top draws in first-class burlesque today.

But Irons says that patrons of the theater can look for still bigger things in the way of burlesque. Now that the Star and Garter is back on the circuit, Burlesque managers are planning to revive vaudeville, bigger and better than ever, and show the youngsters what daddy used to rave about, down at the Palace. (September 8, 1946)

Jul 16, 1930, page 10 - Wisconsin State Journal:

Milwaukee Theater Bombed in Labor War

MILWAUKEE (U.P.) A bomb dropped in the entrance to the Grace theater here early today shattered windows in nearby buildings, rolled several persons from their beds in an adjoining apartment and shook the entire neighborhood with its explosion.

The bombing is another chapter in the theater labor war here, police declared after learning that R. S. Haynes and Adolph Oresiec, Grace operators, had recently been asked to join the union but refused on grounds that they would lose their jobs.

The theater suffered least from the bombing, while windows in all nearby buildings were broken.

Star & Garter Theater - 815 West Madison Street Built 1907; demolished 1972 Architects: Dodge & Morrison

The Star & Garter Theater, one of Chicago’s largest and best-known burlesque theaters, opened in February 1908 and was located at 815 West Madison Street. Designed and decorated in the style of the city’s leading dramatic theaters, the Star & Garter aimed to legitimize burlesque as a form of elite entertainment. During its more than fifty years in operation, the theater showcased the talents of many of the nation’s best-known burlesque troupes and vaudeville comedians. Its presence near the intersection of Madison and Halsted Streets helped establish the Near West Side as one of Chicago’s leading outlying amusement centers.

The Star & Garter was owned and operated by the Hyde & Behman burlesque theater circuit. Hoping to set their new theater apart from the city’s smaller and less highly regarded burlesque houses, Hyde and Behman spared few expenses in the design and construction of the Star & Garter. Most accounts put the theater’s cost at between $450,000 and $500,000, or roughly $11 million in 2009 dollars. It was designed by the New York architectural firm of Dodge & Morrison and had a seating capacity of 1,960. When the theater opened in 1908, most observers considered it to be one of the best-designed and lavishly decorated theaters in the city. The entrance lobby measured 30 feet by 46 feet and featured marble-clad walls and dark-red tile floors. Wide aisles and bronzed stairways led patrons to their leather-upholstered seats on one of three levels. Aside from the main floor, the mezzanine boxes, and the balcony, there were six boxes on either side of the stage. The seats were upholstered in buff leather. Crimson-red draperies decorated the stage and proscenium boxes. Other features included a men’s smoking room, a ladies' parlor, a basement rathskeller, and carved marble drinking fountains in the inner lobby. The entire building was designed to be fireproof, with an automatic sprinkler system and a 18,000-gallon emergency supply of water stored in a rooftop tank. The theater was, according to Variety, “a marvel in beauty and architecture.”

The formal opening of the Star & Garter took place on Sunday afternoon, 9 February 1908. Admission prices ranged from 15 cents for the balcony to 75 cents for box seats. Charles Robinson and his burletta-performing “Night Owls” were the opening attraction, along with an assortment of vaudeville acts. Many other all-female dancing troupes performed at the theater in the months and years that followed. During the theater’s first year in business, groups like Fred Irwin’s “New Majestics,” the “Transatlantic Burlesquers,” “The Mardi Gras Beauties,” and “The Jersey Lillies” all made appearances at the theater. Among the best-known performers to step onto the Star & Garter stage were Jack Conway, Lester Allen, Don Barclay, Ethel Shutta, Watson and Cohan, Bobby Barry, Tommy “Bozo” Snyder, and Dave Marion, also known as Snuffy the Cabman.

During the theater’s early years, Hyde & Behman sought to differentiate the Star & Garter from other burlesque houses by carefully regulating the content of each act that performed there. House managers reviewed each performer’s act prior to showtime and ordered them to eliminate anything deemed too risque. “It seems that there are two brands of burlesque,” one commentator explained, “censored and uncensored.” At the Star & Garter, “Each traveling company is warned before beginning an engagement which kind will be tolerated. If the character of the theater demands a censored variety, a reasonably clean and inoffensive musical farce results. If the ‘lid’ is lifted the comedians and their women assistants are permitted to go as far as the police will permit.” As a result, the style of burlesque presented at the Star & Garter during the 1910s was decidedly less provocative and sexually suggestive than that offered by some of Chicago’s less refined burlesque houses, such as the Trocadero and Folly Theaters on South State Street. Indeed, many of the theater’s burlesque shows were more reminiscent of nineteenth-century minstrel or burlesque shows insofar as they combined leggy dance numbers with comedy routines and other vaudeville acts that skewered the “legitimate” theater and lampooned contemporary social taboos.

One reason Hyde & Behman had for placing restrictions on performers was to avoid gaining a reputation as a “down-and-dirty” burlesque house patronized by men only. With nearly 2,000 seats to fill, the theater’s managers could not rely solely on male customers to ensure profitability. Accordingly, they made a sustained and concerted effort to convice Chicago women that visiting the Star & Garter was not only safe and respectable, but also enjoyable. A 1919 advertisement, for instance, reminded potential customers that “Every Day [Was] Ladies Day” at the Star & Garter, while another one from 1921 pointed out that “10,000 Women Attend Our Shows Weekly.” Women also received a discount on their the price of admission for all performances. Additionally, several of the theater’s rules of conduct and operational policies were designed with women in mind. For example, smoking was prohibited on the main floor of the auditorium. Also, candy barkers and souvenir vendors were not permitted to sell their goods inside the theater, as was customary at other burlesque houses.

It is not entirely clear how successful Hyde & Behman were at attracting women to the Star & Garter. No reliable numbers exist, but the anecdotal evidence appears to confirm that women made up a far greater proportion of audiences at the Star & Garter than at the city’s other burlesque theaters, even if they were still outnumbered by the men. For example, a reporter for Variety wrote the following shortly after the theater’s debut: “During the two weeks the house has been open the increase in women patronage has been marked, and the audience from pit to dome are not of the customary burlesque kind. If the high standard of refinement is maintained and the attractions kept up to the inauguration level the theatre will enjoy an enviable reputation and large business all season.” A few weeks later, a second report noted, “Since the house opened the women attendance has steadily increased. At a matinee one day last week there were 280 women in the audience, the largest aggregation of femininity in the history of Chicago burlesque.” Regardless of the exact numbers, the Star & Garter did enjoy a slightly better reputation than many of the city’s other burlesque theaters. Indeed, in the eyes of many Chicagoans of the time, the mere presence of women conveyed a certain degree of moral respectability upon an establishment, owing to traditional assumptions about the supposedly innate virtuousness of women. Hyde & Behman played upon and to some extent succeeded in using these gendered notions of human behavior to boost attendance, increase profits, and maximize the return on their investment.

With the advent of the less sexually restrictive era of the flapper in the 1920s, the Star & Garter’s more conservative brand of burlesque began to lose its appeal. By 1922, Hyde & Behman discontinued burlesque shows at the theater. They were replaced by amateur boxing bouts and “professional” wrestling matches that pitted members of different ethnic groups against one another in overtly nationalistic athletic confrontations. During one wrestling match at the theater in April 1923, for example, Italian heavyweight champion Renato Gardini squared off against Greek wrestler Demetrius Tofalos. Other matches featured Irish, Turkish, Czech, Lithuanian, French-Canadian, Polish, and Jewish wrestlers and boxers, including many drawn from Chicago’s own neighborhoods. Between November 1922 and April 1926, dozens of wresting and boxing matches were held at the Star & Garter. Fans from across the west side crowded into the theater to cheer on their compatriots and jeer those boxers and wrestlers who were of different ethnic background than their own.

Burlesque shows returned to the Star & Garter in late 1927, usually in conjunction with a feature motion picture. The burlesque shows of the late 1920s and 1930s, while still far more ostentatious and skillfully produced than those at Chicago’s smaller and less pricey burlesque houses, were nonetheless more sexually suggestive than those presented at the theater prior to 1922. Each show was built around one particularly charismatic performer and her supporting cast of female dancers. Mary Sunde was the theater’s headliner for much of 1934. Promotional materials for Sunde, who was born in Norway but raised in Wisconsin, depicted her as the perfect combination—at least in the eyes of men inclined to attend burlesque shows—of exotic beauty and down-home wholesomeness. Her flowing blonde hair and youthful figure made her “the last word in feminine pulchritude,” and yet she was nonetheless “a demure lassie, who lives to sew, cook, and keep house.” Such testaments helped build up a dreamgirl image around the women who performed at the Star & Garter, reassuring male patrons that the women who performed at the theater, despite their status as women with a career of their own and a strong awareness of their own sexuality, were in actuality no threat to their power and authority as men. “In short,” read one tribute to Sunde, she “is sister under the skin to the typical American home girl.” Other headliners of the 1930s included Ada Leonard, who first appeared at the theater in September 1934, and Maxine De Shon, who arrived one year later.

In late 1935, the Star & Garter went dark and remained closed until September 1946, when Hyde & Behman sold the theater to two investors, Harold L. Clamage of Saint Louis and Harold W. Buchberger of Chicago, for the sum of $110,000. The new owners installed air-conditioning in the theater, touched up its appearance, and reopened the theater. During late 1946, it operated briefly as a combination burlesque and movie house, but quickly shifted to an all-movie policy, which remained in place until September 1971, when the adjacent Mid-City National Bank purchased the property to make way for a parking lot. Demolition of the theater took place during the months of February and March 1972. (from Jazz Age Chicago)