
Lakeside Theatre
4730 N. Sheridan Road,
Chicago,
IL
60640
5 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Ascher Brothers Inc., Balaban & Katz Corp., Lubliner & Trinz
Architects: Ralph C. Harris
Functions: Youth Center
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Opened with Harry Mestayer in “The House of a Thousand Candles” on September 4, 1915. It was built and operated by the Ascher Brothers circuit (two years later taken over by the Lubliner & Trinz circuit) in the once-fashionable Uptown neighborhood. The 1,000-seat Lakeside Theatre was located on N. Sheridan Road at Lakeside Place, not far from Lincoln Park. Originally, the theatre sat well over 1,000 and was equipped with a large pipe organ. On September 20, 1933 it was taken over by the Balaban & Katz Corp and they operated it as a discount house.
The Lakeside Theatre closed around late-1966 or the beginning of 1967, and was acquired by the Dance Center of Columbia College in 1970.
Thirty years later Columbia College vacated the building for a larger, new home in the South Loop. The former Lakeside today houses a youth center.

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Recent comments (view all 20 comments)
Photos of the Lakeside from 1936: Lakeside Theater.
All 5 photos of the Lakeside as a functioning movie house were taken in 1961. I worked there as an assistant manager when I was an art student in Chicago.
Thanks for those great photos of the Lakeside, Jon. Love that triple feature! The auditorium- more beautiful than I recall. Most unusual thing about the Lakeside- the location of the mens room. Literally just a few steps away from the exit doors and the sidewalk.
Thank you Ken. Glad you like the photos. Truth be told, I probably spent more hours at the Lakeside than I did in class.
Nice photographs Jon. I love the one of the candy lady with the old-fashioned BUTTER MAT!! Those old fashioned BUTTER SERVERS had a bowl that would rotate and lights that were animated and would flash on and off. That picture is a real beauty. You were very lucky to work at a place like that! I too worked at Famous Players Jon, maybe you remember my name! Cheers!
Dave, yes I do remember you. Bye the way, I’m still in touch with Don Beelik who was a theatre manager at Famous. If I’m not mistaken, you knew Don. I still have fond memories of working at the Lakeside and it helped prepare me for running the Roxy theatre in Toronto a few years later. And as much as I enjoyed working at the Lakeside, I really loved seeing movies at the massive Uptown theatre which was located just a few blocks away from us. What an astounding theatre! I can’t believe that it’s still sitting there abandoned and slowly disintegrating… one of the most spectacular theatres ever built.
Lakeside Theatre 1936 IDOT photo added.
Early `60’s photo added to Photos Section, credit Uptown Historical Society. Via their below Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/uptownhistoricalsociety/timeline
Reopened by Balaban & Katz on September 20th, 1933 as a discount theater. Grand opening ad posted.
Here is a description of the Lakeside Theatre from an article about Ascher Bros. in the March 10, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World: