Coral Theatre
4710 W. 95th Street,
Oak Lawn,
IL
60453
4710 W. 95th Street,
Oak Lawn,
IL
60453
8 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Lucas Theaters
Architects: Frank Neubek, Donald Thomas Smith, Frederick Stanton
Firms: Smith & Neubek
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Nearby Theaters
The Coral Theatre opened in 1942 for the Lucas Theaters Corporation on 95th Street at S. Cicero Avenue in Oak Lawn. In 1963, the theater was totally remodeled both inside and out.
The Coral Theatre closed in 1984, and was razed that same year, for the construction of the Coral Plaza shopping center.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 33 comments)
I loved the Coral. Saw many films there as a kid and teenager. It didn’t look like much from the outside, but I recall a lobby with a red leather couch and chairs and a fireplace, an attached courtyard/garden where you could walk around while waiting for the movie to start, and huge murals of Polynesian scenes (people building canoes, etc.) painted on the interior side walls of the auditorium. It was a great building, so of course it had to go. The strip mall that replaced it is half empty.
If anyone has interior photos of the Coral, I’d love to see them.
knadles: The second page of the Boxoffice article I linked to in my previous comment has a black and white photo of the Coral’s auditorium (here) though it is small and the scan is rather blurry.
Yes, Smith & Neubek was the architecture firm, but the Coral Theater was designed by Frank Neubek, who designed many landmarks in the Chicago area. Mr. Neubek has retired from practice and lives in Naples, Florida.
Smith & Neubek also handled the remodeling of the Arlington Theatre in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Circa 1980 photo added courtesy of the Chicago’s Extinct Businesses Facebook page.
Here are fresh links the the April 25, 1942, Boxoffice article about the Coral and Arlington Theatres (illustrations are on the first two pages, with text only on pages three and four):
Page one
Page two
Page three
Page four
I have been casually searching for the name of the Ice Cream stand on the corner of 95th and Cicero near the Coral theater for a number of years. My wife and I grew up in Oak Lawn and our earliest dates were at the Coral and ended at this Ice Cream shop. In searching recent Oak Lawn Library photo history I found photos of two sisters (Wettergren children) sitting on a bear and the photo identifies the location as Harold’s Custard Stand located on the Northeast corner of Cicero Ave and 95th St, near the Coral Theater. The photo is from 1950 and a bit before our time there but this is the closest that I have come to finding hard evidence of the Ice Cream stands name.
The Coral Theatre was not operated by Cineplex Odeon. C-O didn’t enter the Chicago market until December, 1986. They did take over operation of the Chicago Ridge Mall Theatres nearby.
Cineplex-Odeon came to the Chicago market in the Fall of 1985.
12/06/52 photo added courtesy of the Chicago’s Extinct Businesses Facebook page.