New Majestic Arts and Conference Centre
150 N. Schuyler Avenue,
Kankakee,
IL
60901
150 N. Schuyler Avenue,
Kankakee,
IL
60901
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Mid `60s photo added credit Kankakee County Museum.
Official Facebook page and website below list address as 150 N. Schuyler Avenue.
https://www.facebook.com/TheMajesticTheatre
http://themajestic.events/?fbclid=IwAR13sO5OTpCAbJzMzo6Qp_NLgWzMCnemGyRIEvtHs2BOjpSwcdG_PBMwrGs
December 1930 photo & copy added credit Kankakee County Museum.
The Majestic website and Facebook page show the address as 150 N. Schuyler Avenue.
The January 11, 1913, issue of Construction News had an item saying that C.W. and George L. Rapp were drawing plans for a fireproof theater on Schuyler Avenue in Kankakee for Mrs. Julia Remington. It didn’t say anything about the house being a replacement for a burned theater, but I’ve found nothing about Mrs. Remington building any other theaters at that time, so the Rapp & Rapp project was most likely the rebuilding of this theater.
http://www.k3majestictheatre.com. The Majestic Theatre in Kankakee is back in business. This is their website, and of course they have a Facebook page, too.
Also, she was one of the best people I have ever worked for. Sarah Gerard, Ma, was a lovely lady…
hehehe. I was not allowed to call her Sarah or Ms. Gerard. Nope, I could only call her, “Ma.”
So do you rememeber Sarah Gerard
Robert, as your replacement at the Town Cinema in 1974, I must commend you on keeping the booth clean for me. HA! By the way, I did go up to the roof and popped the lock on the door at the old booth. Everything from slippers on the floor to bottles in the medicine cabinet were still in place. I also crawled around the old balcony. Pretty erie stuff, to say the least. If I had known you were still at RCMH, I would have stopped by to swap stories about Ma, Oscar, Jim, Richard, Jerry and the rest of the gang. I came to NY in 2002.
As with Meredith Rhule in the above post, my first full-time job as a projectionist was in Kankakee seven years earlier than his. I left in 1974 to go to Radio City Music Hall. When I started in Kankakee in 1967 the Majestic was closed, and the Luna was still open. In fact, I was originally told by the business agent that he wanted me for the Luna, but after the operators there saw the Meadowview, which was just about to open, they decided to stay at the Luna. A few years later, the Majestic building was converted into a mini mall, and the balcony of the Majestic was sealed and it became the Town Cinema, with the backstage space being converted to shops or offices. The theatre had a variety of projection booths. The original one, according to the B.A. was on the roof of the building next door, until the owner of the building told the Majestic management to get it off his building. Then it was moved to the roof of the Majestic, and to get to it you had to go out on the fire escape and go up a ladder. The B.A. told me that they kept a ladder in the booth, and when the weather was very bad outside, they would lower it out the spot port and climb out the window and down into the balcony. He also told me that since they were projecting through space in the ceiling beams, the theatre could never show CinemaScope films. I was in that booth once during the construction to convert the space into the Town Cinema and the equipment was still up there intact. The last booth for the Town was carved out of the former lobby access space to the balcony. The equipment was taken out of the Luna and moved over, and then the Luna was torn down.
The Majestic Theater was a second-run theater for most of its existence. The Paramount Theater, half a block to the North on Schuyler, would usually get the first-run major movies, play them for one or two weeks, then move them over to the Majestic. The Majestic would often pair the major film then with a grade-b film.
Occasionally the Majestic would score a major movie When the Paramount hung on to a huge hit movie beyond two weeks.
I spent many of my youthful years at one or the other of these theaters during the 1940s.
Admission then was 12 cents (10 cents plus 20% war-time luxury tax).
12 years old and up paid the “adult” price of 18 cents (15 + 3).
The Luna Theater 238 S Schuyler Ave. at that time ran grade-c films.
The Film Daily Yearbook,1943 has the Majestic Theatre operated by Paramount Pictures Inc through their subsidiary John Balaban.
Oh yea, it was 1974
My first real job as a full-time projectionist. After breaking-in and learning the business at various theaters in Springfield, IL, the business agent from Springfield got a message from the business agent in Kankakee that he had an opening. Wow, I had moved North and loved it. I almost married Sue Boguszewski from that town.