Harvey Theatre

Grand opening shots of the Fitzpatrick & McElroy Circuit’s Harvey Theatre on June 19, 1924 are in photos. The architect was Paul T. Haagen.

Kind of fancy marquee for a smaller theatre. A 50’s or 60’s look to it. Great box office and art deco style.

Thanks Allan, I’ve always enjoyed reading about the Dixie Square Mall too!!

How far was the Harvey Theatre from the Dixie Square Mall?

The Harvey circa 1976 (when they showed movies like “Bingo Long,” “Sparkle,” “Five on the Black Hand Side,” “Black Belt Jones,” etc.) was run by a guy named Robert Taylor. He had worked for Oscar Brotman who owned a number of Chicagoland movie houses in the 60s/70s. The walls of the auditorium of the Harvey were flocked around this time. Taylor told me it was some sort of shredded material that was wetted and then sprayed all over everything. It looked pretty strange, almost like a layer of mold was covering the walls. You could still make out details of ornament on the walls under the dried foam. Taylor later ran the Village Art Theatre in Chicago from the late 70s to the 90s.

Love the shots of the small but funky marquee. Too bad the theatre had to die but so did Harvey. I wish I could see photos of the interior.

JerryFB would you please contact me at
I am related to Lillian Edwards.

I worked at the Harvey Theatre from 1953 thru 1961 as an usher and later as the assistant manager. The manager of the theatre at that time was Walter Grometer. Mr. Grometer had been transferred to the Harvey from the Princess Theatre in Joliet, in 1937, where he was the manager there. Before that he had been the assistant manager of the Rialto Theatre in Joliet; Roy Rogan was the manager of the Rialto at thaat time. Mr. Rogan was later a District Manager for Publix Great States Theatres. His district was very large; it included Harvey, Chicago Heights, Aurora, Elgin, Rockford, Waukegan and Blue Island. Mr. Rogan was originally from Aurora and in the theatre business there. He moved to Joliet and had a major ownership in the Orpheium Theatre in Joliet. The Ruben Brothers decided to build the Rialto Theatre in Joliet and asked Mr. Rogan to manage it. The assistant manager at the Harvey Theatre when I started there was Helen Budwash. She was the only female manager/assistant manager in the theatre chain. She started work at the Harvey Theatre in 1923 as a cashier. She also, at the same time, worked at the Garden Theatre (it would be interesting if anybody has any history on the Garden Theatre) across the street from the Harvey Theatre. The Garden Theatre burned down sometime in the late twenties. It was never rebuilt or reopened. It sat and was still sitting as a burned out shell when I started at the Harvey in 1953. Helen Budwash spoke of it many times to me. She said it was nothing to compare with the Harvey Theatre. Helen was a piece of history in Harvey, Illinois. She was a Charter Member, along with Amelia Earhart, of the Ladies (aviatrix) Flying Club known as the 99s. Helen flew the first airmail out of the Southside of Chicago into Chicago I have a lot of her memorabilia in my possession. Lillian Edwards (married to Gus Edwards the big show producer from Broadway) played the organ at the Garden Theatre. She happened to live down the street from me in Harvey, Illinois, when I was kid growing up. She spoke many times of her playing the organ at the Garden. The Harvey Theatre had some remodeling done in 1940. With the remodeling the seating capacity was reduced from 911 to 876. I know that number is exact because I did the books at the theatre and that number was always reported on the manager’s weekly report. That remodeling also included moving the public washrooms from the lobby area to the basement below the lobby, which enabled one washroom to become the manager’s office and the other the ushers' room. A concession stand was placed between the two entrances to the auditorium. The lobbies of the Harvey Theatre were remodeled in 1954 and much of the original character was destroyed. There was a lot of marble, decorative plaster work, and Chrystal light fixtures removed and dumped. I have in my possession a “wedding cake” style chandelier that hung in the inter-lobby. It was scheduled to be tossed away and I managed to salvage it with permission from Mr. Grometer. The auditorium of the theatre was a “shoe box” style. It had a beautiful rectangular shaped prosecenium, an orchestra pit, wings and flies, as well as foot and over head lights on the stage. There were dressing rooms back stage and in the basement, back stage. When I started work there, it was before cinemascope, we opened and closed the curtains before and after the show. There was a grand piano in the orchestra pit as well as on the stage. There were four beutiful, lighted coves in the ceiling of the auditorium. There were white, blue and orange bulbs in those coves. When the house lights were up the white lights were on. During the showing of movies the ornage lights were on. During Halloween midnight shows, the blue lights were on. That created quite an atmosphere. The the overhead, foot lights and cove lights were controled from a large electrical light board backstage in one of the wings. I helped to replace burned out bulbs many times in those lighted coves. We had to crawl on our stomachs on boards laid over the frame work for the plaster ceiling of the auditorium to replace burned out bulbs. The original owners of the Harvey Theatre were the Bastars' (of Bastar’s Jewelry Store on 154th Street) and Billy Voss (of Voss' Market). It was later purchased and operated by the Ruben Brothers. The manager’s name was Mr Hruby.
Paramount Publix Great States took the Harvey Theatre over during the depression. Publix asked all its employees during the depression to work two weeks without pay in order to gain capital; they did and it worked. Mr. Grometer told me the theatre and the land it sat on were owned by Fitzpatrick-McIlroy. I don’t know at what time this happened.

Just added a 1968 frontal pic of the Harvey Theatre to my album noted previously. New pic is here:

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Lost Memory Post: One of my pics of the Harvey Theatre is dated 1923, so it’s the same one on 15408 Center Ave, confirmed by phone books of those years. Not certain when the theatre opened.

Pics of the Harvey, Brandt, and Era theatres are in my album below, via harvey_il_tths forum members at dephi.com:

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LOL! No I sure don’t.

Interesting. Never knew this town had a theatre. From what I hear Harvey has become a hell hole.

Here is a 1923 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/rkzb7