Star and Garter Theatre
815 W. Madison Street,
Chicago,
IL
60607
815 W. Madison Street,
Chicago,
IL
60607
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My family lived all over the near West Side during the 50s through the 70s: Polk, Lexington, Fillmore & Taylor Sts. So naturally, my siblings and I were frequent visitors to the Star & Garter. I think tickets during this time cost 25 cents.
Chicago History Museum album of Star & Garter demolition photos.
https://images.chicagohistory.org/search/?searchQuery=Star+%26+Garter&assetType=default
Interesting name!!
Marquee detail photo added courtesy of Janeen Rosenberg.
When the final days came for the Star and Garter, the marquee read CLEVELAND WRECKING COMPANY
THE GREATEST STRIPPER OF THEM ALL.
According to JAZZ AGE CHICAGO, the theater was closed from 1935-1946. You would think this theater would have been in demand during the war years, being that size, but I guess there were so many theaters during that time it didn’t matter. Still, I hope they salvaged the ornamentation for collectors during demolition.
From February 24, 1972, a short Tribune story on the Star & Garter’s demolition, with a murky interior picture. The story says that a calendar in the box office was turned to September 1971, an indication of a probable closing date.
I too went to St. Patrick’s grade school during World War Two just like juanabet above. After school I attended Marillac House until my mother could pick me up after work. I lived at Morgan and Polk streets in the Italian neighborhood. My name wasn’t Baggi, it was Campo and I frequently went to the Star and Garter movie theater on Saturdays for 15 cartoons and a couple of movies. In later years my friends and I attended the ROLLER BOWL on Saturdays for roller skating. I use MIKE BAGGI for this website.
The sale in 1946 was to my grandfather, Harold Huchberger and his partners. They operated it until the early 1970’s.
We lived on Halsted and Harrison. Just a stones throw from this theater. My dad used to take me there. My mom and sisters didn`t go because it was skid row. Right across the street there was this burger joint that made the best cheeseburgers and chocalate malts. I went to grade school at old st. Pats, which was in the neighborhood. The good old days.
The web site Jazz Age Chicago, to which I linked in a comment on January 25, 2010, has vanished from the Internet. Fortunately, the site’s article on the Star and Garter Theatre has been preserved by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. It can be read at this link.
I remember going to the Star & Garter on Sundays for the Cartoons Serials of Superman,Batman,Shadow,Rocket man,and lets not forget the News Reels in the Late Fifties and Early Sixties.I remember the Wine Bottles hitting the floor and guys Snoring,But all the Young kids sat towards the front and Left side of the show and Protected our selfs because of our Numbers .Its all in the past Just old Memories
Nice vintatge photo Bryan.
Here is a detailed history of the Star and Garter at the Jazz Age Chicago web site. The theater was designed by the New York architectural firm Dodge & Morrison.
I grew up in the Taylor Street area of Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s. I can remember on Saturdays walking with a half dozen friends over to Madison and Halsted to attend the Star & Garter theater for its three (3) movies and 15 cartoons. It was an old, dirty theater but what the heck we were young and just as dirty so we went.
There was a fellow in the neighborhood we called “Loouie Shoes” and he would sometimes hand out passes to the Star and Garter so half the times that we went we had passes.
The bums used to come in from skid row and sleep off a drunk. And I remember one Mexican kid who yelled out during a movie, “Hell, I saw this movie last week on television”. And he was right, it had been on TV.
Mike
A synopsis in the Chicago Daily Tribune announced that the theater had been sold on May 26, 1946 for $110,000 cash. Unfortunately the synopsis did not provide the parties to the sale.
Can anybody confirm/or deny that the lovely Anna Held appeared
at this venue? Thanks Isadore
The theater appears in the 1971 film My Name Is Rocco Papaleo. Filmed in Chicago, there is a brief scene where Marcello Mastroianni walks in front of the theater. I passed the theater daily while commuting to the U of I and saw them filming the scene.