UA Cinema

Fifty years ago today THE EXORCIST opened here. UA Cinema I was among only two-dozen cinemas in twenty-one North American markets to play the film at release launch.

Better quality grand opening ad at:

Cinema 150 opening · Wed, Jun 19, 1968 – 44 · Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois) · Newspapers.com

A great theatre for a big film like OLIVER!

As noted in the article to which Lost Memory linked above, the UA Cinema 150 in Oak Brook, like its counterparts in Dallas and in Santa Clara, California, was designed by San Francisco architect George Raad, George Raad & Associates. However, the Boxoffice article also lists the firm of Keys & Hestrupp alongside Raad for the Oakbrook project only. This was probably a local firm that supervised the construction for Raad’s distant office.

Also, I have a suspicion that Boxoffice might have misspelled one of the names (Hestrupp might actually have been Hestrup) but I’m not positive. What I can find is a .pdf about architectural resources in the village of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, which mentions a firm called Keys & Hestrup, and an error in Boxoffice seems more likely than an error in a local architectural survey.

I used to go there a lot as a kid. My mom took us every Tuesday because it was the cheap day. I saw “The Spy Who Loved Me” and they had the Lotus “submarine” car on display. I remember when it was demolished and was sad to see it go.

You can see the property if you exit I-88 after the Oakbrook toolbooth. It’s the parking garage on the right.

To DON KINSTALLO, the photo no longer shows up on this site, but I remember when it did. I thought that the photo from the air was taken when the theatre was being built because if I remember right the photo shows the parking lot has not been paved. I don’t remember anything about a fire.
To CHITOWNGUY, if you thought this theatre was “wonderful/elegant” when it was twined, you should have seen it before it was twined. This was a DIMENSION 150 (D-150) theatre (the only other D-150 theatre around Chicago was/is the River Oaks in Calumet City, it is now closed but I hope it will open again). I have always felt that these two theatres were the finest “modern” theatres around. Both theatres were built from the ground up as D-150 theatres. They had huge curved solid sheet screens (Does anyone know how they would compare to a CINERAMA screen), they could show non-scope, scope, 70mm and D-150 movies, the sound was great and the projectionist could control the maskings for all four types of movies with a push of some buttons. Only two D-150 films were made THE BIBLE: IN THE BEGINNING… and PATTON. Does anyone know if either of these movies played in D-150 at either of these theatres. At the Oak Brook thatre they had an open house before movies started playing. I went and got a book on D-150 (I hope I have it in my vast archives but I think it got destroyed by accident). They showed a demo film on D-150, I dont remember much about it, but I guess it started with a roller coaster ride. Anyone fill me in on more of the demo movie? I have often wondered if any D-150 theatre ever showed a non D-150 movie useing the full screen and the D-150 Super Curvulon Projection Lens. It is my understanding that the full screen and the D-150 lens was only to be used for D-150 films and not other 70mm. Anyone know anything about this? Of course it was never the same after it was twined, but alas it was torn down and I think of it often and it’s sad to drive by!

I don’t know if anyone remembers but I think that it burned down around 1982. I was going through the Oak Brook historical societys page and found this picture. View link

This was a wonderful/elegant theater. I never went there while it was a single auditorium…only after it had been twinned. I saw several “special presentation” movies here: Apocalypse Now in 70mm, All the President’s Men, Black Hole, Fame, Barry Lyndon, and The Exorcist (my father mistakenly took me to see this a couple days after it opened when I was only 12…big mistake!). The theater had great sound and projection. Obviously, the property it sat on became very valuable and was removed to make way for an office building. I miss stand alone theaters like this (such as the OakBrook which was across the street, the Edens, Golf Mill, Woodfield, Arlington, Coral, etc.)

The UA Cinema may be best known as one of only two (the other being the Gateway) theaters to premiere “The Exorcist” in its original run on Christmas Day, 1973. The film played for 8 months as people from all over Illinois and Indiana attended. And, yes, there were reports that customers at the UA were fainting and getting sick while watching it. As is the case with most theaters there is absolutely no indication on the site that a theater was ever there.