Acdtually the Portage is slated to reopen in early February- thew Chicago Silent Film Society will open a six-week series with a concert by my friends the West End Jazz Band, who will return March 10. They have supposedly taken down the partition and restored it to a single theater.
The site is currently occupied by a Walgreen’s Drug Store- it was on the SW corner of Kilpatrick & Belmont- I remember that one of the papers ran something about childrens' shows and obviously did no fact-checking- they listed the Luna as a place that frequently showed family movies- during the time I lived nearby that was the one thing they NEVER showed- the Daily News was obviously talking about the Will Rogers.
Remember the place well-there were two restaurants, a coffee shop on the 1st fl and the Hollywood Crystal Room upstairs. It was an attempt to bring in fine dining- WCCO even put an antenna on the roof and broadcast Your Reserved Table Fri nites; the 13th ward was dry, however, and you couldn’t have fine dining without liquor. Had a companion theater, the West Twin in StPaul. Used to see the owner W R Frank eating in the coffee shop- was in awe of him as he’d actually produced a movie- he made a movie about Sitting Bull that he ran for a week every year. Saw it for sale on video but didn’t buy it- I’m sure it was terrible- but it was neat that one of our locals had made good.
Acdtually the Portage is slated to reopen in early February- thew Chicago Silent Film Society will open a six-week series with a concert by my friends the West End Jazz Band, who will return March 10. They have supposedly taken down the partition and restored it to a single theater.
The site is currently occupied by a Walgreen’s Drug Store- it was on the SW corner of Kilpatrick & Belmont- I remember that one of the papers ran something about childrens' shows and obviously did no fact-checking- they listed the Luna as a place that frequently showed family movies- during the time I lived nearby that was the one thing they NEVER showed- the Daily News was obviously talking about the Will Rogers.
Remember the place well-there were two restaurants, a coffee shop on the 1st fl and the Hollywood Crystal Room upstairs. It was an attempt to bring in fine dining- WCCO even put an antenna on the roof and broadcast Your Reserved Table Fri nites; the 13th ward was dry, however, and you couldn’t have fine dining without liquor. Had a companion theater, the West Twin in StPaul. Used to see the owner W R Frank eating in the coffee shop- was in awe of him as he’d actually produced a movie- he made a movie about Sitting Bull that he ran for a week every year. Saw it for sale on video but didn’t buy it- I’m sure it was terrible- but it was neat that one of our locals had made good.