Royal Theatre

An 1888 Chicago Tribune article on Milwaukee Avenue mentions a “Star” Theater; I’m wondering if it was originally a smaller theater and was torn down and rebuilt at the same address in 1907.

From the article (Aug 4, 1888): “The Odd-Fellows, Masons, and other secret societies are well represented along Milwaukee avenue. Aurora Turnhalie is one of the institutions of the city. Milwaukee avenue has a theatre, the Star, two miles from the centre of the city. Milwaukee avenue is to have a club-house, too, unless a movement set on foot by such men as John Buehler, Fire Secretary Petrie, George Rahifs, C.H. Plautz, and W.F. Weimers results in failure, and they know no such word.”

there’re 2 definitive 8x10 BW photos of the ROYAL THEATRE—from 1958 and maybe 5 yrs later. they’re both on file for anybody to reference at the Chicago History Museum; i just saw them myself and will make request to allow them to appear here leading-off this CT theatre listing, where you might say they rightfully belong.

The earlier one is just as i remember it down to the admission prices seen.

Most piquant memories re-surface from my childhood of the ROYAL! “DINOSAURUS!”–“BRIDES OF DRACULA”–“THE COSMIC MAN”, etc. Yeah the bathroom was colored hellfire red. Cheapest place around – 35 cents for triple features. Remember the pair of timers/clocks behind the ticket booth telling ‘time getting-in / time getting-out’(when we’d leave ‘cause “this is where we came in at”)? Perfect baby-sitter place for my Mom while she went shopping at Milwaukke Ave stores, and I couldn’t have been happier. In the late '60s their fare was Mexican flix.

The Royal theatre was in operation at least through May 1963, and I suspect for another few years after. From the Chicago Sun Times movie listings on Friday, May 3,1963:“PIT & THE PENDULUM” Thriller “COLORADO”–“HIGH SCHOOL BIG SHOT”. Was never inside, but passed by on foot a few times. I recall a very wide area between the box office (which was connected to the front doors)and the ticket taker. Here you could see many “lobby cards” and other posters advertising upcoming films. The Royal had a 3 or 4 change a week policy- like the Mode and the Deluxe theatres. If you rode the CTA blue line at the time, you could see the Royal’s marquee as your train dipped into the subway after the Damen stop, heading south to Division. A friend, who was inside the Royal, says his one vivid memory is of the men’s room. “The walls were painted all red…I felt like I was in hell”.

The building at that address was torn down, probably in the 1980s; the new building houses a gas company office. No other buildings on that block appear to have been theaters.
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