The 1-½ story 24x125' LION Theatre was built by Gust Tompary (3004 S. Park Ave) for owner Louis A. Katsera 0f 1708 W. 18th Street. The architect was A. B. Mills of 2341 Milwaukee Ave.
The July 20, 1912 CONSTRUCTION NEWS lists a 1-story 100x60 theatre under construction at 6906-14 N. Clark owned by Tagney and Hudson with Edward Benson of 3204 N. Clark as architect and a seating capacity of 288.
The July 20, 1912 CONSTRUCTION NEWS said the building measured 24x138, the owner was Max Nichol at 1170 Milwaukee Ave., and the architect was M. F. Strauch of 1435 Diversey Parkway. G. C. Schmitt was the general contractor, of 5825 Henry St., Austin.
The July 13, 1912 CONSTRUCTION NEWS said the 4-story 130x160 AVENUE Theatre building was built by scrap-iron dealers Israel and Samuel Lanski of 2117 S. Jefferson St. to also include a pre-leased Chinese restaurant, Turkish bath and bowling alleys. The architect was Bishop & Co. Seating was listed at 1,500.
Chicago Tribune, October 27, 2015: “When Richard S. Stern talked about movies, it was clear to anyone who listened that he was in love with everything about them; their history, their stars, their distribution, and the art of knowing when a film would be a hit with moviegoers, son Mark Stern remembered Oct. 26. The passion Stern brought to his chosen profession extended to Academy Awards nights, when his family would sit in front of the television to see if the movies he predicted as winners would take home Oscars, said Mark Stern, himself a theater owner in Seattle. "We would watch the Oscar telecast, and when they would announce the winners and my dad’s predictions were right, we would jump up and high-five each other,” Mark Stern said. The elder Stern used that acumen for 40 years to make the Wilmette Theatre, 1122 Central Ave., in downtown Wilmette, a destination for both Wilmette residents who saw the venue as their neighborhood theater, and for lovers of art and foreign films, Mark Stern said.
Stern, 84, a 52-year resident of Niles, was killed Oct. 23 after being struck by an SUV while walking across West Golf Road in Niles shortly past 6 a.m. that day.
Without Richard Stern’s four-decade long stewardship of the theater – and his decision to sell it to four community activists instead of a furniture store owner who had put in an earlier offer – downtown Wilmette would be a less artistically rich place, said his son and two of the people who succeeded Stern as the theater’s owners. “My father had a great impact on Wilmette, by bringing really good quality cinema to a sleepy little downtown,” Stern said. “There were high times and low times, but when you would see the lines on many nights, one of the exciting things would be to say ‘Sold out!’ and to know your choice resonated with the theater goers.” “He really saved it,” Wilmette resident Carole Dibo said Oct. 26, as she remembered the man who bought the Wilmette Theatre in 1966 and sold it to her and three other community investors in 2006. “He was one of a kind. He believed with every cell in his body in what he was doing. Not many of us can say we love what we’re doing the way he did.”
Richard Stern, who grew up in Oak Park, was born into a family of movie theater owners, Mark Stern said. Richard’s father, Henry Stern, was credited with making the Cinema Theater, at Michigan and Chicago avenues, the first art film theater house in Chicago, he said. Richard Stern was already the owner and manager of other Chicago theaters when he starting eyeing the Wilmette market in the 1960s, Mark Stern said. When he learned that the shuttered Wilmette Theatre, then owned by Encyclopedia Britannica Films and used by that company for film shoots, was for sale, he made an offer and was told he had a week to come up with more than $100,000. He asked his father for a loan, and bought the property, Mark Stern said.
Stern was as generous with others as Henry Stern had been with him, Mark Stern said: “He’s the type of guy that would literally get food sent to your door if he knew you were hungry. He’d give you money, not lend you money. He was big-hearted and generous.”
After renovating the theater and turning it into a two-screen operation, Stern decided to sell the business, Dibo said. He had a prospective buyer when she, her husband David Dibo, and two others, Sam and Judy Samuelson of Evanston, approached him, David Dibo said Oct. 26. Stern eventually sold to the foursome, who later turned the building’s operation into a nonprofit organization. “He was a very tenacious businessman and he wanted the highest price for sure,” David Dibo said. “On the other hand, he really loved the art of the film. …The appreciation of the artistic side really drove him, maybe almost against his basic business instincts.”
“When he wiggled out of that (furniture store) deal, he did it so he could sell it, and it would still would be an entertainment destination,” Carole Dibo said. She said Stern continued to visit the theater, talk about the film business, and even give advice, which she said often proved useful.
In addition to his son Mark, Stern is survived by a second son, Scott, of Evanston, and a brother, Laurence, of Glenview, as well as three grandchildren. His wife, Marlene C. Stern, died in 2011. His funeral service was set for 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4 at Chicago Jewish Funerals Chapel, 8851 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie, with burial in Shalom Memorial Park. Memorial donations can be made to the Hadassah organization, 60 Revere Drive, Suite 800, in Northbrook and at www.hadassah.org/chicago-northshore, Mark Stern said."
The ROOSEVELT Theatre was built as a portion of a larger business block erected by Einar Dahl. Original plans indicate that the overall building design was drawn by August Wolff of the Milwaukee firm of Wolff & Ramsthal. Revisions to the theater proper were noted as having been done by Kenosha architect Charles O. Augustine. The theater opened to the public on Christmas Day, 1927. The last movie was shown in mid=March, 1985 and the building was vacant since 1997.
Bibliographic References: Kenosha City Directory; tax assessors records; “New Roosevelt Theater Is a Monument to Einar Dahl,” Kenosha Evening News, 24 December 1927, 22/1; “No Plans to Reopen Roosevelt,” Kenosha News, 14 March 1985. “Architecture/History Survey.” WHS project number 03-1016/KN. October 2003. Heritage Research, Ltd.
It was built for $20,000 for the Mississippi Valley Eastern Amusement Company, 804 Times Building, St. Louis. The president and architect was F. L. Hopkins.
From CONSTRUCTION NEWS, September 28, 1912: “Two theaters, one at Racine and the other at Madison, Wis., each bearing the name of Orpheum (1), have recently been completed and opened to the public. … The building at Madison is a theater building exclusively, while that at Racine is much larger and contains a number of offices as well as the theater. While differing widely in general plan the two buildings are of the same type of construction, the theater interiors are designed along similar lines, and a description of the construction and architectural treatment of one applies generally to the other. … These theaters are similar to the Class 5 theater, as defined by the building ordinance of the city of Chicago, and each has a total seating capacity of about 1,500.
The walls are of brick, resting on reinforced concrete spread foundations. Floors are of reinforced concrete. They are finished in most part with a cement surface, but a liberal use is also made of marble tile for this purpose. Roofs are of flat arch construction supported on steel trusses. The buildings are fireproof throughout with the exception of the cantilever supports of the mezzanine floor and balconies, which are of the slow burning mill construction. The interior finish generally is in ornamental plaster. … The mezzanine floor, containing eleven divisions or compartments, is a distinctive feature of these theaters, suggested by the latest practice in London and on the continent of Europe. This practice is unusual in America. … This arrangement of the mezzanine floor, where adopted, has been found to be a popular feature, since each division of the mezzanine floor has many of the advantages of a box without the corresponding expense. Four proscenium boxes are provided. The mezzanine floor is reached by stairways from the foyer on the main floor.
The balcony is so arranged as to provide practically both a balcony and a gallery, but without a sharp division between the two. The lower section is entered through tunnels, while the upper section is entered at a higher level from the rear. The two sections are separate only as to means of entrance and exit, the aisles of one section, as is common in larger theaters, being offset in location with reference to those of the other section. The architectural treatment of both buildings is in the style of Louis XIV. … The general contractors of the Racine theater were the Geo. J. Hoffman Company of South Bend, Ind.”
It was exactly sixty years ago this afternoon that Anton Schuessler, Jr., John Schuessler and Robert Peterson saw “The African Lion” at the LOOP Theatre.
Opening ceremonies were recorded by WLIP for rebroadcast on Sunday from 5:30 to 6 PM with Jerry Golden announcing. Kenosha County Board Chairman Peter Harris met Racine County Board Chairman Martin Herzog to cut the ribbon. Jay Rhodes welcomed the MID-CITY to Somers, and the Kenosha VFW Post 1865 Jr. Drum and Bugle Corps performed. The program began at 6:50 with short subjects including the Popular Science feature “Stocking Yarn”, Screen Song cartoon “Readin', Ritin' and Rhythmatic”, and Warner Pathe World News. The second show began at 9:40.
Builders and suppliers included Brimeyer, Grellinger and Rose, Architects (Milwaukee); Holger Pahl, General Contractor and Builder; Ruffalo Decorating Company, Kenosha and Racine; Dave Speaker Electric Company; Victor Manhardt, R.C.A. Equipment; Kenosha Lumber and Coal Company; Theatres Candy Company; Consumers Company Building Materials; Kenosha Boiler and Structural Company; Martin Petersen Sheet Metal Works; Thompson Concrete Block Company; Bouterse and Sons Excavating and Grading; Bill Brittle Well Drilling; Dominick Tirabassi; Rosko Sign Service; Kenosha Glass Company; Industrial Roofing Company; Motiograph Projection and Sound; Krump Construction Company, Milwaukee; White Way Electric Sign Company, Chicago; Cyclone Fence Company, Milwaukee; and Unit Structure, Incorporated.
When the COLONIAL’s Barton organ was removed and its pipes were being carried out, the police were summoned by a passerby who thought the pipes were some sort of missiles. I’m told this scenario has happened elsewhere.
The GENEVA Theatre was the effort of several prominent area industrialists including chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr., Nash Motors division superintendent Robert N. Lee of Kenosha, Nash Motors vice-president Walter Alford of Kenosha, cartoonist Sidney Smith of “Andy Gump” fame, brewer William Pabst, Jr. of Milwaukee, and several others. The first operating company was Community Theatres, of which Pabst was president.
The ANTIOCH Theatre was originally to be called the NEW MAJESTIC Theatre. It began as a co-partnership between Lyman B. Grice of Antioch and William C. Bryant of Bristol, Wisconsin (in neighboring Kenosha County). The theatre, with seats for 400 patrons, had a projected cost of $40,000.
Groundbreaking began on Wednesday, September 26, 1923. Soon after, Grice and Bryant sold a half-interest in the venture to James P. Johnson (a local proprietor of a resort hotel and the father of Oliver G. Johnson, who was managing the MAJESTIC Theatre in Antioch) and Albert L. Fell.
In January 1924, Oliver Johnson announced he was closing the MAJESTIC to move into the new ANTIOCH Theatre under construction and would be ending his lease with Barney Naber on Main Street, where the MAJESTIC had been since April 27, 1919, and that Naber would be leasing the former theatre to William Ross for a restaurant. Oliver G. Johnson brought in his brother Frank Johnson to co-manage the theatre.
The motto of the ANTIOCH Theatre was “The Public is Right.” The first feature presentation was Zane Grey’s “The Wanderer of the Wasteland.”
Fred B. Swanson, who began managing the ANTIOCH by December, 1925, was most associated with the success and improvements of the theatre, and remained as manager until May 21, 1941 when he purchased the building to become sole owner. He also owned other movie houses in the Midwest.
In October 1947, Swanson announced he had completed the remodeling of the ANTIOCH, which gave the theatre an additional 100 seats in the balcony.
On October 31, 1957, Swanson sold the ANTIOCH to William Goeway of Antioch, who took control on November 4. He also owned the nearby LAKES (nee CRYSTAL, now PM&L) Theatre. Goeway announced a new deluxe concession department and extensive remodeling of the theatre.
On May 31, 1962, Goeway sold the ANTIOCH to Henry C. Rhyan of the FAMILY Outdoor Theater in Grayslake and moved to Jacksonville, Florida where he intended to continue in the theatre business.
The ORPHEUM’s owners since 2013 Gus and Mary Paras plan to do a $200,000 historic replication of its original six-story 63-foot 1926 vertical sign designed by Rapp and Rapp. The current steel face will be replaced with an aluminum replica using energy-efficient point lights in the original configuration. It’s still uncertain whether there will be chasers. In the 1930s the word “NEW” was removed from the top, and then it was “dumbed down” to what’s seen today.
The Paras family has already done restoration on the facade, marquee, ticket booth, roof, plaster, downstairs lavatories, dressing rooms, and HVAC. He said the community excitement was encouraging. Paras got a city facade restoration matching grant of up to $20,000 last year.
Save `The Dupe' …
… and save those memories of Main Street
(July 29, 2005, by John McCarron, who teaches, consults and writes on urban affairs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Remember?
Remember the scary sword fight between Sinbad the Sailor and the skeleton man? Or Sinbad’s face-off with the cyclops on the island of Colossa, where he had to go to break the spell cast over his beloved princess Parisa, who had been reduced to the size of a pocket knife by the evil sorcerer Sokurah?
I didn’t think so. Neither did I before I tweaked my memory on the Internet. What I do remember, like it was yesterday, is that sweet feeling of independence, walking down Main Street, Lombard, with my 12-year-old buddies, chores finished, fancy-free on a Saturday afternoon, off to see “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” at the DuPage Theatre.
As always, the 1959 action movie was only part of the show at “The Dupe.” Some of my older classmates had begun to hang out with (groan) girls, so first we’d cruise the balcony to see who was necking with whom. Next we’d go down to the long, glassy candy counter for an obligatory box of Milk Duds, maybe even a roll of caramel bull’s-eyes—if the lawn-mowing money held up. Then it was time to settle into the red velour seats, under a fake black sky with twinkling stars, and trip away with Sinbad, or Hercules or Jason and the Argonauts. Loved those sandal flicks.
Ah, The Dupe. Say it ain’t so. Say they’re not going to tear her down.
They can’t tear her down. Not after more than a decade of civic efforts to save her. Not after those efforts secured charitable contributions, plus federal and state pledges, worth $5.5 million. Not after one of the nation’s top restoration architects—Daniel P. Coffey, the guy who helped restore the Chicago and the Oriental and the Palace theaters in the North Loop—has drawn up a sensational plan, not just to save the old theater as a performing arts center, but to infuse Lombard’s anemic downtown with a $30 million wrap-around development of luxury condos and lively storefronts.
Most curious of all, how can they knock down The Dupe when powerful DuPage County politicians are pleading with the Lombard Village Board to give preservation one last chance? U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), state Sen. Dan Cronin (R-Elmhurst) and former Illinois Senate President James “Pate” Philip (R-Wood Dale)—none previously known as gargoyle-hugging preservationists—are urging the Village Board to reconsider its June vote authorizing demolition.
In some ways you can’t blame the Village Board for losing patience with the project. Ten years ago the volunteer Friends of the DuPage Theatre said a developer was lined up to convert the building into offices and a studio for making educational videos. When that deal fell through the village took title to the 77-year-old theater and its attached offices and storefronts. In 2001 the board appointed a blue-ribbon committee to come up with a plan, but it was slow going.
Seems the “new urbanism” that has inspired towns like Elmhurst, Downers Grove and Arlington Heights to rejuvenate downtowns around restored train stations and theaters has been, well, slow to catch on in the lilac village. It’s still tough to compete there with the big-box discounters on Roosevelt Road and the 18-screen cinema at the Yorktown mall. And public-private partnerships of the kind needed to save The Dupe remain a tough sell politically. It’s still a tax-a-phobic town, even if the John Birch Society long ago closed its anti-communist “library” off St. Charles Road.
Still, there was excitement earlier this year with the unveiling of Coffey’s plan for preservation and redevelopment. His client, developer Richard Curto of RSC & Associates, would restore the theater’s “Spanish courtyard” interior a la the 1928 design by Rapp & Rapp, including those twinkling stars of my youth. In the parking lot south of the theater would rise a five-story condo-over-stores structure of compatible design (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). Behind the stores, out of sight under the condos, would be two levels of parking for 237 cars, including spaces set aside on weekdays for commuters using the Metra station across the street.
In short, the project would catapult Lombard into the forefront of new urbanism and transit-oriented design. Who knows, the town might even snag a Starbucks. Best of all, contends Coffey, the property and sales taxes from the development, plus the state and federal grants already pledged, would cover the $8.5 million cost of restoring the theater.
But it may not happen. There is bad blood between preservationists and certain members of the Village Board. Deadlines have been missed. Harsh words have been exchanged in public. Other condo developers likely are standing by to pay Lombard serious money for the site—so long as they don’t have to save the theater. Why take a chance on preservation?
“It seems to have come down to plain old personality problems,” said Coffey.
That may be. But for this son of Lombard, this long-ago marcher in the Lilac Parade, it’s also about memories. And the faint hope that some Saturday afternoon in the not too distant future, a 12-year-old and his buddies will be able to walk, not ride, down Main Street, buy some Milk Duds and slip into another world—to the island of Colossa, perhaps—under the stars at the good old Dupe.
This isn’t the KENOSHA Theatre …
The 1-½ story 24x125' LION Theatre was built by Gust Tompary (3004 S. Park Ave) for owner Louis A. Katsera 0f 1708 W. 18th Street. The architect was A. B. Mills of 2341 Milwaukee Ave.
This was a 50x150' 1-story theatre building built for owner C. J. Moe by Grossman & Proskauer of 117 N. Dearborn Street.
The architectural firm was Hall and Westerlind of 179 W. Washington Street. The builder/owner was a Mr. Edelman. Cost of construction: $15,000.
The July 20, 1912 CONSTRUCTION NEWS lists a 1-story 100x60 theatre under construction at 6906-14 N. Clark owned by Tagney and Hudson with Edward Benson of 3204 N. Clark as architect and a seating capacity of 288.
The July 20, 1912 CONSTRUCTION NEWS said the building measured 24x138, the owner was Max Nichol at 1170 Milwaukee Ave., and the architect was M. F. Strauch of 1435 Diversey Parkway. G. C. Schmitt was the general contractor, of 5825 Henry St., Austin.
The July 13, 1912 CONSTRUCTION NEWS said the 4-story 130x160 AVENUE Theatre building was built by scrap-iron dealers Israel and Samuel Lanski of 2117 S. Jefferson St. to also include a pre-leased Chinese restaurant, Turkish bath and bowling alleys. The architect was Bishop & Co. Seating was listed at 1,500.
Chicago Tribune, October 27, 2015: “When Richard S. Stern talked about movies, it was clear to anyone who listened that he was in love with everything about them; their history, their stars, their distribution, and the art of knowing when a film would be a hit with moviegoers, son Mark Stern remembered Oct. 26. The passion Stern brought to his chosen profession extended to Academy Awards nights, when his family would sit in front of the television to see if the movies he predicted as winners would take home Oscars, said Mark Stern, himself a theater owner in Seattle. "We would watch the Oscar telecast, and when they would announce the winners and my dad’s predictions were right, we would jump up and high-five each other,” Mark Stern said. The elder Stern used that acumen for 40 years to make the Wilmette Theatre, 1122 Central Ave., in downtown Wilmette, a destination for both Wilmette residents who saw the venue as their neighborhood theater, and for lovers of art and foreign films, Mark Stern said.
Stern, 84, a 52-year resident of Niles, was killed Oct. 23 after being struck by an SUV while walking across West Golf Road in Niles shortly past 6 a.m. that day.
Without Richard Stern’s four-decade long stewardship of the theater – and his decision to sell it to four community activists instead of a furniture store owner who had put in an earlier offer – downtown Wilmette would be a less artistically rich place, said his son and two of the people who succeeded Stern as the theater’s owners. “My father had a great impact on Wilmette, by bringing really good quality cinema to a sleepy little downtown,” Stern said. “There were high times and low times, but when you would see the lines on many nights, one of the exciting things would be to say ‘Sold out!’ and to know your choice resonated with the theater goers.” “He really saved it,” Wilmette resident Carole Dibo said Oct. 26, as she remembered the man who bought the Wilmette Theatre in 1966 and sold it to her and three other community investors in 2006. “He was one of a kind. He believed with every cell in his body in what he was doing. Not many of us can say we love what we’re doing the way he did.”
Richard Stern, who grew up in Oak Park, was born into a family of movie theater owners, Mark Stern said. Richard’s father, Henry Stern, was credited with making the Cinema Theater, at Michigan and Chicago avenues, the first art film theater house in Chicago, he said. Richard Stern was already the owner and manager of other Chicago theaters when he starting eyeing the Wilmette market in the 1960s, Mark Stern said. When he learned that the shuttered Wilmette Theatre, then owned by Encyclopedia Britannica Films and used by that company for film shoots, was for sale, he made an offer and was told he had a week to come up with more than $100,000. He asked his father for a loan, and bought the property, Mark Stern said. Stern was as generous with others as Henry Stern had been with him, Mark Stern said: “He’s the type of guy that would literally get food sent to your door if he knew you were hungry. He’d give you money, not lend you money. He was big-hearted and generous.”
After renovating the theater and turning it into a two-screen operation, Stern decided to sell the business, Dibo said. He had a prospective buyer when she, her husband David Dibo, and two others, Sam and Judy Samuelson of Evanston, approached him, David Dibo said Oct. 26. Stern eventually sold to the foursome, who later turned the building’s operation into a nonprofit organization. “He was a very tenacious businessman and he wanted the highest price for sure,” David Dibo said. “On the other hand, he really loved the art of the film. …The appreciation of the artistic side really drove him, maybe almost against his basic business instincts.”
“When he wiggled out of that (furniture store) deal, he did it so he could sell it, and it would still would be an entertainment destination,” Carole Dibo said. She said Stern continued to visit the theater, talk about the film business, and even give advice, which she said often proved useful.
In addition to his son Mark, Stern is survived by a second son, Scott, of Evanston, and a brother, Laurence, of Glenview, as well as three grandchildren. His wife, Marlene C. Stern, died in 2011. His funeral service was set for 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4 at Chicago Jewish Funerals Chapel, 8851 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie, with burial in Shalom Memorial Park. Memorial donations can be made to the Hadassah organization, 60 Revere Drive, Suite 800, in Northbrook and at www.hadassah.org/chicago-northshore, Mark Stern said."
Bas-relief of President Theodore Roosevelt on south façade over stairway entrance to upstairs offices.
The ROOSEVELT Theatre was built as a portion of a larger business block erected by Einar Dahl. Original plans indicate that the overall building design was drawn by August Wolff of the Milwaukee firm of Wolff & Ramsthal. Revisions to the theater proper were noted as having been done by Kenosha architect Charles O. Augustine. The theater opened to the public on Christmas Day, 1927. The last movie was shown in mid=March, 1985 and the building was vacant since 1997.
Bibliographic References: Kenosha City Directory; tax assessors records; “New Roosevelt Theater Is a Monument to Einar Dahl,” Kenosha Evening News, 24 December 1927, 22/1; “No Plans to Reopen Roosevelt,” Kenosha News, 14 March 1985. “Architecture/History Survey.” WHS project number 03-1016/KN. October 2003. Heritage Research, Ltd.
It was built in 1912 for $6,000 for Mrs. W. H. Hendricks, and the architect was W. H. Garns.
It was built for $20,000 for the Mississippi Valley Eastern Amusement Company, 804 Times Building, St. Louis. The president and architect was F. L. Hopkins.
From CONSTRUCTION NEWS, September 28, 1912: “Two theaters, one at Racine and the other at Madison, Wis., each bearing the name of Orpheum (1), have recently been completed and opened to the public. … The building at Madison is a theater building exclusively, while that at Racine is much larger and contains a number of offices as well as the theater. While differing widely in general plan the two buildings are of the same type of construction, the theater interiors are designed along similar lines, and a description of the construction and architectural treatment of one applies generally to the other. … These theaters are similar to the Class 5 theater, as defined by the building ordinance of the city of Chicago, and each has a total seating capacity of about 1,500. The walls are of brick, resting on reinforced concrete spread foundations. Floors are of reinforced concrete. They are finished in most part with a cement surface, but a liberal use is also made of marble tile for this purpose. Roofs are of flat arch construction supported on steel trusses. The buildings are fireproof throughout with the exception of the cantilever supports of the mezzanine floor and balconies, which are of the slow burning mill construction. The interior finish generally is in ornamental plaster. … The mezzanine floor, containing eleven divisions or compartments, is a distinctive feature of these theaters, suggested by the latest practice in London and on the continent of Europe. This practice is unusual in America. … This arrangement of the mezzanine floor, where adopted, has been found to be a popular feature, since each division of the mezzanine floor has many of the advantages of a box without the corresponding expense. Four proscenium boxes are provided. The mezzanine floor is reached by stairways from the foyer on the main floor. The balcony is so arranged as to provide practically both a balcony and a gallery, but without a sharp division between the two. The lower section is entered through tunnels, while the upper section is entered at a higher level from the rear. The two sections are separate only as to means of entrance and exit, the aisles of one section, as is common in larger theaters, being offset in location with reference to those of the other section. The architectural treatment of both buildings is in the style of Louis XIV. … The general contractors of the Racine theater were the Geo. J. Hoffman Company of South Bend, Ind.”
January 24, 1936.
As seen in May, 1983.
It was exactly sixty years ago this afternoon that Anton Schuessler, Jr., John Schuessler and Robert Peterson saw “The African Lion” at the LOOP Theatre.
Opening ceremonies were recorded by WLIP for rebroadcast on Sunday from 5:30 to 6 PM with Jerry Golden announcing. Kenosha County Board Chairman Peter Harris met Racine County Board Chairman Martin Herzog to cut the ribbon. Jay Rhodes welcomed the MID-CITY to Somers, and the Kenosha VFW Post 1865 Jr. Drum and Bugle Corps performed. The program began at 6:50 with short subjects including the Popular Science feature “Stocking Yarn”, Screen Song cartoon “Readin', Ritin' and Rhythmatic”, and Warner Pathe World News. The second show began at 9:40.
Builders and suppliers included Brimeyer, Grellinger and Rose, Architects (Milwaukee); Holger Pahl, General Contractor and Builder; Ruffalo Decorating Company, Kenosha and Racine; Dave Speaker Electric Company; Victor Manhardt, R.C.A. Equipment; Kenosha Lumber and Coal Company; Theatres Candy Company; Consumers Company Building Materials; Kenosha Boiler and Structural Company; Martin Petersen Sheet Metal Works; Thompson Concrete Block Company; Bouterse and Sons Excavating and Grading; Bill Brittle Well Drilling; Dominick Tirabassi; Rosko Sign Service; Kenosha Glass Company; Industrial Roofing Company; Motiograph Projection and Sound; Krump Construction Company, Milwaukee; White Way Electric Sign Company, Chicago; Cyclone Fence Company, Milwaukee; and Unit Structure, Incorporated.
When the COLONIAL’s Barton organ was removed and its pipes were being carried out, the police were summoned by a passerby who thought the pipes were some sort of missiles. I’m told this scenario has happened elsewhere.
The GENEVA Theatre was the effort of several prominent area industrialists including chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr., Nash Motors division superintendent Robert N. Lee of Kenosha, Nash Motors vice-president Walter Alford of Kenosha, cartoonist Sidney Smith of “Andy Gump” fame, brewer William Pabst, Jr. of Milwaukee, and several others. The first operating company was Community Theatres, of which Pabst was president.
The ANTIOCH Theatre was originally to be called the NEW MAJESTIC Theatre. It began as a co-partnership between Lyman B. Grice of Antioch and William C. Bryant of Bristol, Wisconsin (in neighboring Kenosha County). The theatre, with seats for 400 patrons, had a projected cost of $40,000.
Groundbreaking began on Wednesday, September 26, 1923. Soon after, Grice and Bryant sold a half-interest in the venture to James P. Johnson (a local proprietor of a resort hotel and the father of Oliver G. Johnson, who was managing the MAJESTIC Theatre in Antioch) and Albert L. Fell.
In January 1924, Oliver Johnson announced he was closing the MAJESTIC to move into the new ANTIOCH Theatre under construction and would be ending his lease with Barney Naber on Main Street, where the MAJESTIC had been since April 27, 1919, and that Naber would be leasing the former theatre to William Ross for a restaurant. Oliver G. Johnson brought in his brother Frank Johnson to co-manage the theatre.
The motto of the ANTIOCH Theatre was “The Public is Right.” The first feature presentation was Zane Grey’s “The Wanderer of the Wasteland.”
Fred B. Swanson, who began managing the ANTIOCH by December, 1925, was most associated with the success and improvements of the theatre, and remained as manager until May 21, 1941 when he purchased the building to become sole owner. He also owned other movie houses in the Midwest.
In October 1947, Swanson announced he had completed the remodeling of the ANTIOCH, which gave the theatre an additional 100 seats in the balcony.
On October 31, 1957, Swanson sold the ANTIOCH to William Goeway of Antioch, who took control on November 4. He also owned the nearby LAKES (nee CRYSTAL, now PM&L) Theatre. Goeway announced a new deluxe concession department and extensive remodeling of the theatre.
On May 31, 1962, Goeway sold the ANTIOCH to Henry C. Rhyan of the FAMILY Outdoor Theater in Grayslake and moved to Jacksonville, Florida where he intended to continue in the theatre business.
(Research: Al Westerman.)
The ORPHEUM’s owners since 2013 Gus and Mary Paras plan to do a $200,000 historic replication of its original six-story 63-foot 1926 vertical sign designed by Rapp and Rapp. The current steel face will be replaced with an aluminum replica using energy-efficient point lights in the original configuration. It’s still uncertain whether there will be chasers. In the 1930s the word “NEW” was removed from the top, and then it was “dumbed down” to what’s seen today.
The Paras family has already done restoration on the facade, marquee, ticket booth, roof, plaster, downstairs lavatories, dressing rooms, and HVAC. He said the community excitement was encouraging. Paras got a city facade restoration matching grant of up to $20,000 last year.
This vertical sign was kept lamped and fully operational until its removal in 1981.
Save `The Dupe' … … and save those memories of Main Street
(July 29, 2005, by John McCarron, who teaches, consults and writes on urban affairs. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Remember?
Remember the scary sword fight between Sinbad the Sailor and the skeleton man? Or Sinbad’s face-off with the cyclops on the island of Colossa, where he had to go to break the spell cast over his beloved princess Parisa, who had been reduced to the size of a pocket knife by the evil sorcerer Sokurah?
I didn’t think so. Neither did I before I tweaked my memory on the Internet. What I do remember, like it was yesterday, is that sweet feeling of independence, walking down Main Street, Lombard, with my 12-year-old buddies, chores finished, fancy-free on a Saturday afternoon, off to see “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” at the DuPage Theatre.
As always, the 1959 action movie was only part of the show at “The Dupe.” Some of my older classmates had begun to hang out with (groan) girls, so first we’d cruise the balcony to see who was necking with whom. Next we’d go down to the long, glassy candy counter for an obligatory box of Milk Duds, maybe even a roll of caramel bull’s-eyes—if the lawn-mowing money held up. Then it was time to settle into the red velour seats, under a fake black sky with twinkling stars, and trip away with Sinbad, or Hercules or Jason and the Argonauts. Loved those sandal flicks.
Ah, The Dupe. Say it ain’t so. Say they’re not going to tear her down.
They can’t tear her down. Not after more than a decade of civic efforts to save her. Not after those efforts secured charitable contributions, plus federal and state pledges, worth $5.5 million. Not after one of the nation’s top restoration architects—Daniel P. Coffey, the guy who helped restore the Chicago and the Oriental and the Palace theaters in the North Loop—has drawn up a sensational plan, not just to save the old theater as a performing arts center, but to infuse Lombard’s anemic downtown with a $30 million wrap-around development of luxury condos and lively storefronts.
Most curious of all, how can they knock down The Dupe when powerful DuPage County politicians are pleading with the Lombard Village Board to give preservation one last chance? U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), state Sen. Dan Cronin (R-Elmhurst) and former Illinois Senate President James “Pate” Philip (R-Wood Dale)—none previously known as gargoyle-hugging preservationists—are urging the Village Board to reconsider its June vote authorizing demolition.
In some ways you can’t blame the Village Board for losing patience with the project. Ten years ago the volunteer Friends of the DuPage Theatre said a developer was lined up to convert the building into offices and a studio for making educational videos. When that deal fell through the village took title to the 77-year-old theater and its attached offices and storefronts. In 2001 the board appointed a blue-ribbon committee to come up with a plan, but it was slow going.
Seems the “new urbanism” that has inspired towns like Elmhurst, Downers Grove and Arlington Heights to rejuvenate downtowns around restored train stations and theaters has been, well, slow to catch on in the lilac village. It’s still tough to compete there with the big-box discounters on Roosevelt Road and the 18-screen cinema at the Yorktown mall. And public-private partnerships of the kind needed to save The Dupe remain a tough sell politically. It’s still a tax-a-phobic town, even if the John Birch Society long ago closed its anti-communist “library” off St. Charles Road.
Still, there was excitement earlier this year with the unveiling of Coffey’s plan for preservation and redevelopment. His client, developer Richard Curto of RSC & Associates, would restore the theater’s “Spanish courtyard” interior a la the 1928 design by Rapp & Rapp, including those twinkling stars of my youth. In the parking lot south of the theater would rise a five-story condo-over-stores structure of compatible design (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). Behind the stores, out of sight under the condos, would be two levels of parking for 237 cars, including spaces set aside on weekdays for commuters using the Metra station across the street.
In short, the project would catapult Lombard into the forefront of new urbanism and transit-oriented design. Who knows, the town might even snag a Starbucks. Best of all, contends Coffey, the property and sales taxes from the development, plus the state and federal grants already pledged, would cover the $8.5 million cost of restoring the theater.
But it may not happen. There is bad blood between preservationists and certain members of the Village Board. Deadlines have been missed. Harsh words have been exchanged in public. Other condo developers likely are standing by to pay Lombard serious money for the site—so long as they don’t have to save the theater. Why take a chance on preservation?
“It seems to have come down to plain old personality problems,” said Coffey.
That may be. But for this son of Lombard, this long-ago marcher in the Lilac Parade, it’s also about memories. And the faint hope that some Saturday afternoon in the not too distant future, a 12-year-old and his buddies will be able to walk, not ride, down Main Street, buy some Milk Duds and slip into another world—to the island of Colossa, perhaps—under the stars at the good old Dupe.
ANTIOCH Theatre; April, 2015.