Southtown Theatre
610 W. 63rd Street,
Chicago,
IL
60621
610 W. 63rd Street,
Chicago,
IL
60621
15 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 124 comments
To: GerryC-ChuckieZ-FLICKCHICK-GoodlanderGirl & everyone out there
Please read above notes~~~>Pat
`Gerry C (and everyone else)
Where the Southtown stood there are several buildings. From west to east, six new storefronts, Walgreen’s and a supermarket. Those people at the Post Office were probably too young to remember the theater or Carr’s. That supermarket has been there for a long time.
Where the wonderful shopping center once was they are building a new City College. There are already classes in session. On the corner of 63rd & Halsted, where Sears once stood, they have built the studio for the WYCC PBS tv station (channel 20), There have been over a hundred new homes built and dozens of new businesses have opened. Of course, we both know that the neighborhood we grew up in is gone forever.
Back in 1980 I drove to 63d & Green & parked in the old Wieboldts parking lot under the “L”, just like the old days. With no doors, you could look thro' Wieboldts from Green to Peoria (very dark & trashy inside). That site and the nearly vacant streets bro’t to mind newsreels of ‘45-46 showing what was left of the cities in Germany. Very different from '48-49 when I had a Times route 63d to 65th Peoria to Halsted, and never a concern making cash collections after dark. I presume the neighborhood has since been improved upon.
The trouble with growing up in a neighborhood like Englewood is that you find yourself always looking for something like it. I moved back to Englewood because after decades and decades, my family still had property there. Believe it or not, there is one thing about Englewood that has not changed, there are still good people there. I know it does not and never will look the same, but there are people there with good hearts. You can find neighbors that still care about each other. There are still young men that will shovel an old lady’s snow, whether she can pay him or not. It works the same way with the grass in the summer.
I had been living in the south section of the new loop for a while. They seem to be trying to similate an old Chicago neighborhood, but the caring part is missing.
Oh, I left a message on one of the other theater pages, there are people of European descent in Englewood.
Flick,
Yeah, I agree: The place looks pretty drab. I’m just thankful I had the opportunity to live there.
I think every few blocks there were little mom-and-pop grocery stores. If they were around a school, they were called ‘school stores’ because they carried a lot of school supplies that grocery stores wouldn’t. When we lived at 65th & Stewart, kitty-corner from us were five stores: one dry cleaners, one shoe repairman, and three (3!) mom-and-pop grocery stores—-all contained within a strip of 60 feet and all making money. The one chain-mom-and-pop store was Royal Blue. I can’t ever remember seeing one right in Englewood but on the outskirts of it, e.g., 53d & Union Ave. Always remember those strange lights in front with the blue haze. Anybody remember them?
By the way, that smell of popcorn came from two department stores: Kresge’s 5 & 10 Cent store at 63d & Halsted and W.T. Grant’s, just down the street at 63d & Green. The odor of popcorn from Grant’s was quite strong.
You’re correct. The sounds of clanging streetcars, honking horns, and those green buses that belched great amounts of odorous exhaust when they pulled away from 63d & Halsted—-wonderous memories, all of them. And yes, I remember the junk wagons driven by a horse that came down the alleys: “Rags and iron!” (I always thought they were saying ‘Rags and lions.’ Never figured that one out.) Like Chuckie Z. says: “God! It was great!”
Flickchick –
Leo was (and is) at 79th and Sangamon – almost closed a few years ago but it was saved. I haven’t been to the old neighborhood in years but I went thru the Google maps a few weeks ago and was amazed – I recognized practicaly nothing. What a shame – it’s gone from what I remember as a vibrant, pulsing area to what appears to be a drab, look-alike urban landscape. Other than the sounds of traffic and the streetcars, one of the things I remeber the most was the smells of candy and popcorn that eminated from the 5 and 10 cent store (was it a Woolworth’s or a Grant’s?)as you walked down 63rd St.
My mother didn’t have a car back then so we walked everywhere. There was a tiny, neighborhood grocery store at the alley on 61st Street between Green and Halsted where all of us kids would go to get a nickle Coke and a gumball from the machine and sit in the alley to have a drink on a hot summer day. The owners name was Marge and she became a friend of the family. When we moved to 85th and California, my Dad would occassionally pick her up after work and bring her out to the “sticks” for dinner.
I often regret that my kids (who were raised in the suburbs of Indianapolis) never got to be exposed to the kind of childhoods we had – it seems like they missed a lot.(By the way , do you remember the “Rags, old iron” cart that used to come down the alleys collecting junk?)
Flickchick (and anyone else)
You seem to get into the old neighborhood periodically. I have a question: What replaced Carr’s department store after it was torn down. I’ve tried looking at it through Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth but the image isn’t clear enough. I’ve even telephoned the post office across the street (I live in Southern California). They, however, didn’t understand what I was talking about. Anybody?
jayw-
You didn’t live too far from us just on 61st and Green. That put you a little closer to 63&Halsted. I loved going up there to have lunch, shop or go to the movies. It was great. So you went to Leo. I knew several boys that went there. It was on 78th not too far from Halsted, right? Speaking of Halsted, have you seen 63rd and Halsted lately? If it weren’t for the bank building I don’t think I could recognize it. Chicago City Colleges is building the new Kennedy-King College there. On the corner where Sears Roebuck was there’s a studio for WYCC, the PBS station that broadcasts on channel 20. It’s all quite different.
I lived at 73rd and Harvard from 1940 when I was born, to 1953, when we moved away. We went to Yale Elementary at 70th and Princeton. There is a very active Yale alumni group if anyone is interested. My older brother and sister went to Parker High; I went to Morgan Park High much further south. My siblings and I went to the Southtown on special occasions; I remember the pond most of all. I was very impressed, and would feed the ducks popcorn, although I think we weren’t supposed to. Our neighborhood movie theaters were the E.A.R. at 68th and Wentworth and the Sun, which were closer to our home, so we didn’t get to the Southtown all that often. I remember visiting the neighborhood many years later, in the late 50s I guess, when it was the department store, and remember being saddened. Those were great days to grow up in.
FLICKCHICK –
We moved away from 61st and Green when I was about 6. Moved further south to 85th and California. Even after we moved I was still back in the area very often, my grandmother lived at 69th and Sangamon and my parents continued to bank at 63rd and Halsted. Went back to the area for high school tho. I went to Leo.
jayw
Nice to see someone new on the site. I grew up on normal blvd down the street from kelly library. What school did you go to? Did you graduate from Englewood High?
I’m new to the site and think it’s amazing. I lived at 61st and Green till I was about 6 and some of my fondest childhood memories are of the neighborhood and it’s theaters. There was nothing like 63rd and Halsted in the early 50’s. The apartment building we lived in had about 3 or 4 other kids about my age (one of the girls was about 3 years older) and our parents would let us go to the “show” as a group by ourselves. (Since it was usually to the Empress, it was just around the corner. We’d head off with (I think) 35cents each- 25 cents to get in and a dime for popcorn. What a treat that was on a hot summer day because it was “Cool Inside” and our apartment sure wasn’t. Once in awhile we were allowed to go to the Englewood but only on Saturdays. The real treat came when our parents would take us to the Southtown (we wren’t allowed to go ourselves, it was too far.) When you’re 5 or 6 years old, the Southtown was like magic. The pond in the lobby and what seemed like the largest candy counter in the world. (If I remeber there was also a nursery where the adults could leave their real little ones during the movie) I may be mistaken about the nursery but I seem to remember it. I do definitely remeber being overwhelmed by the sheer size and opulence of the place – nothin like it in todays mall boxes.
I still miss the sounds of the street cars and the fire engines at nite. When we 1st moved away to the boondocks (almost Evergreen Park) I wasn’t able to sleep at nite because it was so quiet.
ChuckieZ, I have read your postings on all the englewood theater sites and thank you for providing such detail to my long-ago memories. And you are so right about GerryC. Turns out we graduated from St. Bernard’s together. His recall is amazing…
Patrick c, I realize that this is a cinema treasure web site but I get so excited when I see a new Englewood person on board from my era.Gerry C. is well informed and a great person to communicate with.He has great stories.I also have postings on all the theaters in Englewood. check them out.
Chuckie Z.
I don’t remember Big Jim, but I do remember the ushers and their strict codes, but we were just kids and innocent, as were the times.I have read your earlier postings and I can relate to your feelings about Englewood. I think most of us who were there at that time feel the same. We didn’t have much to speak of,but were rich in so many other ways. It’s nice to connect with those who remember how lucky we were. You are so right about that.
It seems to me that Englewood and its vitality is overlooked and forgotten. 63rd Halsted was known to be the most vital shopping and entertainment area outside the Loop. Yet on the “Remembering Chicago” series it wasn’t even mentioned—-no photos-nothing….that I can recall. Most books about Chicago’s past don’t seem to focus on it either. Only in books specifically about Englewood is it recognized. Has anyone else noticed this?
Wasn’t that great! Stairs on one side and ramp on the other side.And there was big Jim The fat cop that had the beat there. he was such a tyrant sometimes.He used to chase us when we sat on the parking lot wall and watched the fights in the taverns across the street.And he would watch us when we tried to sneak in the theater. Other times he would take us in to see the movies free.If you read my early postings you know my feelings about Englewood.I’m so glad I was a kid there in that era. It was magical!!
Chuckie Z.
Chuckie Z,
Yep…Kershaw always had activities. The whole neighborhood was a playground…wasn’t it? Even the Southtown Show-remember how the balcony tiered down on both sides with steps to the main auditorium…so you could play “it” and never get trapped?
Patrick C. Ever spend any time at the Kershaw School Playground? I think every kid in the neighborhood went there occasionally to play some sports or the annual Holloween festival.
Chuckie Z.
A thought just occurred to me:
The Southtown opened Christmas Day in 1931 and closed as a theater sometime in 1958.
It became a department store in 1958 and was closed down in 1985.
They were each opened for 27 years.
Sad.
ChuckieZ,
I sure do remember Lorreto…it was next to St. Bernard’d school. My sister went to Lorreto 1949-1953. She and I talk often about the old neighborhood. My sister and brother usually come over for sunday dinner, then I turn on an old film and we can pretend for a little while…
PatrickC
Once upon a time many years ago I had a beautiful little girl friend that went to Lorreto Academy at 65th and Stewart. Remember?
Chuckie Z.
Patrick,
Glad to see another ex-Englewood on the board. I ALSO went to St. Bernard’s (1954-1958); in fact, I graduated from there in 1958. Do me a favor: give me your e-mail address and we’ll talk more about this St. Bernard connection. We lived at 65th St. & Stewart Ave.
My e-mail is
The memories that have stayed so long. Englewood/63rd halsted- what a feast for the eyes and senses.We lived at 68th east of Halsted (Emerald) and would walk to 63rd. Remember all the “shows” especially the Southtown. We lived on a high 3rd floor and in the winter could see the lights ablaze all the way down to 63rd. Went to St. Bernard’s (1950-1958) as did my older siblings. Remember the beautiful Wilson College campus at 68th Normal, the parks, the “L”…all of it. And yes I do remember the photographer at the Southtown…the only picture I have of my Dad and I was taken there. It all seemed so permanent back then and changed so quickly.
posted by Patrick C on Aug 31, 2007
The pic of the Southtown is at http://davesrailpix.com/cta/htm/cta0350.htm I lived at 227 W. 61st Place and went to Lewis Champlain and often went to the Southtown. I’ll post more later.