The Vogue Theatre still stands, mute testament to an era when movie theatres were more than screening houses for new films before they hit the home market but centers of community life.
Even today, passersby along busy 52nd Street might imagine the old Vogue Theatre alive again, with several hundred excited kids in line for a 1940s Saturday afternoon double feature, each clutching his or her ten-cent admission. For twenty-eight years, the Vogue was mainly an unpretentious neighborhood theatre, never attempting to outdo the grander downtown movie palaces but fulfilling its modest role in Kenosha’s entertainment scene, until a sudden change in national trends sealed not only the Vogue’s fate but that of thousands of similar movie houses across America.
The Vogue opened its doors on September 15, 1923. In that year, Kenosha’s operating film theaters included the Rhode Opera House, the new Orpheum, the Butterfly, the Burke (later Cameo) at 618-56th Street, the Majestic on the 5700 block of Sixth Avenue, the Lincoln at 6923-14th Avenue, the Strand (later Norge, demolished in 1982) at 5611-22nd Avenue and the Columbia, 2220-63rd Street. The Kenosha, Gateway and Roosevelt Theatres were four years into the future.
Walter Schlager, who ran several taverns with his wife, Rose, was looking for a solid investment, as prohibition had effectively put a damper to his tavern business. He selected some long-vacant properties at 1820-52nd Street and had wellknown Kenosha architect Charles Augustine design a state-of-the-art theatre for the site. The Vogue’s doors opened at 6 P.M. and adult tickets were 25 cents; children paid a dime.
The opening program was modest: the Kenosha premiere of Ralph Ince’s horseracing yarn, “Counterfeit Love,” an Our Gang comedy, “The Cobbler,” an Aesop’s Fable short, a Pathe newsreel, and organ solos by an unnamed woman at the keyboard of the Vogue’s new two-manual Moller pipe organ, which Schlager had obtained through the Salak Bros. Piano Company of Racine.
The decorator, Eugene Potente of 7302-14th Avenue, selected shades of deep cream for the interior, so patrons would be “bathed in a sunshine glow.” The lofty ceiling gave a feeling of more spaciousness than there really was. Unusual cast-plaster ceiling fixtures were shaped like six-pointed stars with a bare bulb at each point and a large bulb in the center, and they had to be relamped from the floor with a clumsy long wooden pole. The stage was rather small, about 16 feet deep and 25 feet across, but it was adequate for the live acts that did play there. Mostly these included jugglers, comics, acrobats and small musical groups.
Walter Schlager ran the Vogue for two years, then leased it to the short-lived United Theaters chain, who also took over the Butterfly and Lincoln. Walter and Rose went back to operating a soft-drink tavern, but with United Theaters' demise, was back operating the Vogue by 1930. In 1934, Francis B. “Butch” Schlax and George Fischer leased the Vogue, beginning a long career in theatre management for Schlax, who ended up operating virtually every theatre in Kenosha, including the Mid-City and Keno outdoor theaters.
Many Kenoshans found employment through the years at the Vogue. Some of the better-remembered projectionists include Kenneth Hahn, Fred Sherry, Ray Bacon, Louis Goodare, Richard Schnell and Percy Garton. They were the unsung heroes, invisible souls high up in their cramped booths for which audiences gave nary a thought … except if the film broke or the arc lamp failed. Then the unseen projectionist would be roundly cursed with a hail of insults, whistles and foot-stomping until the picture would resume. Sometimes he would be pressed into part-time security duty, patrolling the balcony for overly-amorous or rowdy patrons. But there was a potentially deadly aspect of the job as well -
Until World War Two, movies were made of nitrate stock, which could burn explosively and emit toxic gases. This nitrate film passed continuously just inches from a 2,000-degree arc flame. Louis Goodare was operating the Vogue’s twin Simplex projectors one night when the film caught fire. Ever the alert operator, Goodare somehow snatched the flaming reel and pitched it from a front window in the nick of time, where it landed, blazing, atop the Vogue’s marquee. Goodare’s trousers were burned, and he later billed the Standard Theaters chain of Milwaukee, which operated the Vogue at the time. (The chain denied the claim.)
Schlax had been promoted to being Standard’s citywide manager. His son Robert recalled accompanying his father every Thursday night during the war years to the Vogue and other local theatres, watching snippets of films while his dad tallied receipts in the various manager’s offices. During this period, the Vogue’s two-rank Moller pipe organ was sold and moved (“probably to some church,” according to Fred Hermes of the Dairyland Theatre Organ Society).
By this time, the Vogue was a comfortable if unspectacular addition to the city’s entertainment scene. Many of its patrons were blue-collar families, often newly-arrived Italian immigrants. On occasion, an Italian-language film would grace the theatre’s screen, which usually drew a crowd, giving the Vogue its good-natured nickname: The Garlic Opera House. To many of these people, the Vogue was a gathering place second only to their churches. Robert Schlax recalled many Vogue employees dropping off tomatoes and other vegetables from their gardens, as well as homemade wine, for the boss.
Most neighborhood theatres encountered three major crises: the coming of sound, the great depression and the Tube. The first saw the end of several Kenosha theatres unwilling or unable to convert to sound - the Columbia, the Strand (later Norge) and the Majestic being the most notable. The Depression forced the remaining theatres to adopt concession stands as an income supplement, as well as off-night promotions like Dish Night, Bank Night, Grocery Night and Amateur Night.
The Vogue offered its Dish Nights usually on slower Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Women patrons got a coupon which, when combined with attendance at the next week’s Dish Night, got them one piece of china. A lobby display showed the entire set, which could be hers if she attended faithfully each week on Dish Night. (Today, complete sets of theatre dishes are collectors' items.)
One neighborhood resident told of the Gravy Boat Fiasco at the Vogue one night at the end of a long dish promotion, the night the Vogue would be dispensing the expensive gravy boats that would complete that particular set. Previously, the ladies had been tucking the flat dinnerware into their large and practical handbags, but the bulbous gravy boats couldn’t be stashed so easily. They sat through the double feature, newsreel, cartoons, previews and short subjects with the gravy boats balanced precariously on their laps or entrusted to some family member. The show was regularly punctuated by the loud crash of china on the painted concrete floor, accompanied by ever-louder jeers and laughter from the less-sympathetic patrons. To add to the fun, there was a lot of crunchy footwork during intermission.
Bank Night was a simple lottery: tickets were collected and one number was drawn for a cash award. The catch was, the barrel contained many tickets from weeks past, so patrons were thus encouraged to attend on every Bank Night. Weeks or months might pass with no jackpot award, so the kitty could easily surpass one thousand dollars - until a new state anti-lottery law passed during the war years outlawed Bank Night. Grocery Night was similar to Bank Night, and Amateur Night provided cash prizes or free prizes to the best singer, tap dancer, accordionist or spoon player, as determined by applause levels. Contestants were thus encouraged to pack the audience with their supporters.
All these gimmicks, and the ever-more important concession stand, proved important to the Vogue and other neighborhood theatres during the lean Depression years. And times were lean for the movies then. Every theatre in downtown Kenosha was closed by 1933 - the Kenosha, Orpheum, Gateway Cameo - but the Vogue somehow endured.
By 1939, a semblance of prosperity had returned, and the movies were now entering the peak of their popularity as patrons jammed theaters for escapism, light musicals and sentimental fare. On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Vogue abruptly halted “Life Begins for Andy Hardy”; the star-shaped ceiling fixtures came on, and the matinee audience was told that the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii had been swept in a surprise attack from Japanese planes. Stunned, many patrons quietly made their way out. The Vogue and nearly every theatre in America became the focal point for the war effort.
Hollywood stars took new roles - filmed appeals to the audiences for the sale of war bonds as ushers patrolled the aisles to sell bonds to those with raised hands. In this way, America’s theatres helped to win the war.
Throughout the 1940s, box office receipts soared. But the heavy crush led to premature wear on carpets and seats; walls and draperies grew soiled and dingy, accelerated by soot from coal furnaces used to heat theatres. It hardly slowed business; movies were “in.” Ninety million Americans attended each week (though Hollywood chose to ignore the hidden warnings in a survey in which moviegoers were asked which medium they would prefer, movies or radio. Eighty-five percent said radio.)
The Vogue never had air-conditioning, but employee Dominick Gallo said he would order truckloads of ice to be dumped into the coal chutes, and turning on the high rotary blower would cool the theater nicely. And cheaply.
Gallo recalled the Saturday matinees, where for nine cents any kid could see a one-hour western starring the likes of Hopalong Cassidy, Lash LaRue, Sunset Carson or Johnny Mack Brown (who seemed to be the local hero) plus several cartoons and one chapter of a serial thriller such as “The Clutching Hand”, “The Invisible Monster” or “Mystery Squadron”. Of course, vending revenues would zoom higher than Flash Gordon’s rocket ship during these weekend shows; no one got off spending just nine cents.
Another Vogue promotion: perforated cards of tickets sold through schools. For a dollar, any kid could see perhaps a dozen quality films such as “The Green Years,” “Destination Moon,” “Father Was a Fullback” and more on consecutive weekend matinees. The Vogue would be packed, and schools got a cut of the take. An old photo shows the Vogue with folding chairs set up in the aisles to handle the overflow. It wasn’t unusual to see late-coming kids sit on the floor to catch the show. All that was all coming to an end, however.
In 1950, television swept the nation. The novelty of free entertainment in one’s own living room was enormous. The entire movie industry at first ignored the new threat, but by 1951, the theaters began to close. The first to go dark were the smaller, shabbier movie houses in older areas.
Until 1950, business had been so good that maintenance hadn’t been top priority in many theatres. Suddenly, the audiences began to thin out and thus began a vicious circle - these theatres, physically worn out from the good years, were competing with free TV. Standard Theaters, perhaps predicting the future, gave up its lease on the Vogue, but Bill Exton, the longtime operator of the Roosevelt, picked up the Vogue (and Hollywood, which had already closed) and forged ahead with his new mini-chain of local theatres.
Bill Exton tried hard, but he didn’t have the resources to redecorate and repair the Vogue, which was visibly worn from millions of admissions over the years, and despite his best efforts, revenues now began to decline alarmingly.
One cost-cutting move Exton made was perhaps ill-advised and too obvious: rather than change the marquee letters every three days, he simply put up his longtime motto, “Always a Good Show.” But that was a clear signal the Vogue was in trouble.
By autumn, 1951, losses were mounting. Bill Exton tried cutting back the Vogue’s operation to a weekend-only policy.
I recall my last visit to the Vogue, at a weekend matinee in the autumn of 1951; “Captain Horatio Hornblower” with Gregory Peck was playing. The large preteen audience was getting noisy during the “talky” parts. Mr. Exton stopped the film, turned on the house lights and quietly addressed the audience, which sat in surprised silence. He said that some people had paid good money to enjoy the film, and although he knew we didn’t mean to, we were spoiling their fun. He expected us to respect that, and if we could show that we understood, he would reward us later by having the projectionist run an extra cartoon. And that’s exactly what happened. True to his word, Mr. Exton delivered on his promise of “always a good show.”
But the Vogue was dying, and its end was no doubt hastened by the vicious cold wave that settled over the Midwest in December, 1951.
Over the years, the Vogue had offered foreign films on occasion, usually Italian, Polish or German, and on a Sunday that December, the Vogue screened the opera film “La Traviata” by Verdi, for a final touch of class.
There’s no record of how many people left their warm living rooms and new 16-inch TV screens to attend the final double feature of “Warpath” and “Bandit Queen” on Sunday, December 15, 1951, but we do know the mercury was at 20 degrees below zero.
The Vogue never reopened. Its passing left scarcely a ripple.
By the following April, the Hollywood was gone forever, too. Bill Exton concentrated on his Roosevelt Theater until his retirement nearly two decades later.
At the darkened Vogue, the marquee still promised “Always A Good Show”, until years of wind and snow knocked enough letters off to render the phrase unintelligible. Local businessman David Korf took the building over and put up a For Sale sign. There were no takers.
The movies did make a brief comeback to the Vogue in 1970. A group of inspired youths restored the old box office (now demolished), set up folding chairs and a 16mm projector and ran classic films on weekends under the banner of the New Vogue Theatre, a tribute to the well-remembered neighborhood movie house of decades past.
There was a time when Chicago glistened with stars in its eyes. They shined within fantasy galaxies built to create resplendent heavens of imagination. As the motion pictures declared within them, they were places where dreams were born. Too spectacular to be called mere theaters, they were palaces, breathtaking, hard to believe structures more dazzling than the entertainment on their stages. The Uptown was the largest in the nation. Through decades of volunteer efforts, its sheer grandeur has fought back the march of time and it remains preserved like a buried city. The captivating images and stories in this book impel to support the efforts that will allow the UPTOWN to hold its place in Chicago’s architectural firmament.
By DON JENSEN Staff Writer, Kenosha News (3/14/1984)
The Lake Theater in downtown Kenosha will show its last film Thursday.
After 58 years as a movie theater, it will close its doors for lack of business.
It is the last remaining downtown movie house, and the largest of Kenosha’s grand old movie houses to remain in business.
Jack Belasco, executive vice president of Essaness Theaters Corp., Chicago, which owns the theater at 514 56th St., cited “terrible losses” and a generally poor business climate in the downtown area.
Essaness also owns the Keno and MidCity outdoor theaters here.
“We’d like to operate, but not at the losses we’ve suffered,” Belasco said.
He indicated the firm would try to sell or lease the building.
For many years the theater was in competition with the also-large Kenosha and Orpheum theaters for downtown’s substantial movie business, along with one or two smaller houses off Sixth Avenue. Only the Roosevelt Theater on the city’s west side, built on a smaller scale, still remains as an example of the old-fashioned movie theaters stylish before television, and now videotaped movies, came on the scene.
There has been a theater located at the Lake Theater site since 1891 when Peter Rhode built his first opera house.
In 1926, the Saxe Amusement Co. of Milwaukee purchased the old opera house, tore it down and constructed a half-million dollar movie palace, the Gateway Theater.
The theater, opulently decorated, had a reputation for having perfect line-of-sight vision of the large screen from any seat in the house, and for its near-perfect acoustics.
It remained the Gateway until a remodeling in the late 1950s, when it was renamed the Lake Theater. (Ed.: 1963)
In 1976, another renovation resulted in the dividing of the large auditorium into two smaller theaters each seating about 480 persons.
Duncanson at the Helm
The man who has never yet failed to “Put them over” (June 17, 1920)
As a matter of introducing the man upon whom the people of Racine will depend for their theatrical amusement and entertainment, much of anticipation and encouragement may be said. Mr. Duncanson, one of the men “behind the guns,” is a man well qualified by accomplishments and experience, to meet all your expectations and one who can appreciate your confidence and patronage. Mr. Duncanson was formerly Vice President and General Manager of a million dollar theatre comраnу, owning and operating a circuit of theatres. He has never failed to popularize and make a wonderfully paying proposition of any theatre he has ever taken charge of and he will popularize the “NATIONAL.” He is a man of foresight and faith in the future, and has the courage and judgment to back up his belief in humanity, with money and time. While others with equal opportunities hesitate and never “get out of the trenches,” he forges aheed. “CERTAINTIES HAVE THEIR LIMITATIONS WHILE LARGE PROFITS ARE MADE BY TAKING REASONABLE RISKS.” (June 17, 1920)
In these days of reaction from the great World War and an unheard of prosperity-theatres and the theatre business has become one of the greatest producers of un-taired wealth in the list of big businesses. Properly.con-ducted and under correct policy, the Orpheum (to be the “NATIONAL” in the future) will enter the Horor Roll of big financial and social successes. A thearre so hear tiful and comfortable, the pride of boosters of Racine, must have a policy that wil stand out as an example of culture and refinement, which the people of Racire may justly demand and which will make it possible for visit-ors and friends to carry away a good report of Racine as the amusement and social center of the state and it SHALL BE DONE, under the jurisdiction of the man who has never yet failed to do so.
New Theatre Company Forming (June 17, 1920) The new owners are organizing a new theatre company and the Orpheum will be the nucleus theatre around which will be formed a large circuit of high class theatres that will be the social and amusement center of every city where located. Some of the parties to be interested in the new Theatre Company are among the leading and public spirited people of Racine, whose civic pride prompts them, more than the large profits to be made, to associate themselves with the company. Just appreciation and credit is given Mr. John Bate for his manifest interest and public spirit in the institutions of Racine, by the building of this magnificent theatre. There are three institutions in a city from which it draws its good or bad name. The theatre, the church and the educational. Of these, the theatre is not the least important.
Pluto TV will bring back its award-winning ‘Free Movie Weekend’ program this summer to support independent theatres by offering complimentary movie tickets on select weekends. Pluto and director Sean Baker (a champion of independent theatres) celebrate the theatre-going experience as an invaluable part of the film entertainment ecosystem.
Pluto TV’s ‘Free Movie Weekend’ originated after the Covid pandemic to encourage patrons to return to theatres, now including 50 free weekends at theatres in 30 states.
Director Sean Baker (“Anora” )partnered with Pluto TV to nominate local theatres, saying “Free Movie Weekend is a meaningful initiative that shares a cause close to my heart. Local cinemas are cultural touchstones, they are gathering places where communities come together to experience stories as they were meant to be seen: on the big screen. I’m honored to partner with Pluto TV to help spotlight the independent theaters that play such a vital role in sustaining the art of cinema.”
For this year’s ‘Free Movie Weekend,' Sean Baker nominated Los Angeles local theater Gardena Cinema. Gardena Cinema is the last family-run independent single-screen indoor walk-in movie theater in South Los Angeles that was built in 1946 and has been operated by the Kim family since 1976. Daughter Judy Kim continues to manage the 800 seat cinema after the matriarch, Nancy Soo Myoung Kim died on Mother’s Day in 2022 from complications of uterine cancer.
The list for this year’s ‘Free Movie Weekend’:
Gardena Cinema, Los Angeles: June 7-8 Tara Theatre, Atlanta: June 14-15 Music Box Theatre, Chicago: June 21-22 Redford Theatre, Detroit: June 28-29 Colonial Theatre, Phoenixville, PA: July 5-6
The Owen Theatre began as the Idle Hour Theatre operated by the Collins family in the silent era, with films accompanied by young female pianists. Fire later destroyed the adjacent Griebenow-Weirich Hardware Store, damaging the theatre. Both were rebuilt in the summer of 1919, with a shared party wall and an agreement that continued almost 70 years.
In 1926, then-owner the H.E. Spaulding family sold the theatre to J. J. Schultz, who operated it for three years before selling it to Ben Krom who in 1931 redecorated the interior.
In April 1937 the exploitation studio Educational Road Show Pictures four-walled “Shame” for a midnight screening with a 35 cent admission to those over 16 years, telling of “the disappearance of 75,000 young girls yearly”. That year the name changed to Owen Theatre with a new marquee and a lighted vertical sign spelling out “Owen”.
In 1938, the Owen Theatre was purchased by George Krom, who sold it eight years later to Paul Stasek and Leonard Hamm. In 1949, the Owen Theatre was purchased by Virgil and Clarence Callahan, and the next year was taken over by Robert and Pauline Habighorst, whose family had spent thirty years with the Owen Theatre.
In 1981, family friend Judy Vollrath and her husband Phil took over the Owen through a land contract with daughter Katie Habighorst and her siblings. They painted the entire auditorium by themselves and installed a Dolby stereo sound system.
By 1986 the Vollraths were feeling the effects of cable TV and home video, and closed the doors just before that Christmas after a free Santa Claus show, the final feature, “ a terribly sad day,” said Judy Vollrath. “We took time cleaning that day and we were so sad. The time finally came to leave and we stood at the door after we locked it. I, of course, was in tears, and Phil was unbelievably sad.”
The Owen Theatre was converted to use as a shipping warehouse. The popcorn machine was donated to the school; some seats went to the Abbotsford Theatre, and some to a church.
On 2 September 1916, the Kenosha News reported that “This morning workmen laid the pick an axe to old Columbia Hall and it is to be leveled…”
The Butterfly Theatre cost Ernst Klinkert of Racine and Kenosha’s Charles Pacini a total of $45,000; Pacini would be the operator with a long-term lease. George Lindemann was general contractor and Tully as the masonry contractor. it was claimed the theater would seat 1000 people but by the time it opened that dropped to 650. Charles O. Augustine of Kenosha was the architect. Reports said the ventilation was powerful enough to completely cycle the air in the theater every six minutes, that it had separate flush toilets for gentlemen and ladies, floors that could be sanitized, a pipe organ, and space for an orchestra of fourteen.
Pacini was already operating the Majestic Theatre downtown and the Cozy Theatre a block south of the Butterfly. He would close the Cozy and transfer its equipment to the new Butterfly.
It opened 17 March 1917 to showings of Chaplin’s “Easy Street” and a 5-reel Helen Rosson drama, “The Undertow.”
(Pacini - murdered in August 1920, a case still unsolved - owned the Majestic, Butterfly, and New Strand theatres and had a lease on the land of the Eichelman Hotel at Sixth Avenue and 58th Street, where he was planning a skyscraper with a large theater.)
The Butterfly became a Collins theatre, which also controlled the Burke and Virginian. In 1929, a Movietone system was installed to allow for talkies, but closed not long after. In August 1932, the Butterfly Theatre reopened after a major redecoration, which included a larger screen.
In early May of 1941, it was redecorated again and reopened as the Hollywood Theatre.
In decline and struggling by April of 1952, the listings ended after a last offering of two 1942 East Side Kids features, “The Smart Alecks” and “The Wise Guy.” But the Hollywood Theatre reopened with renewed hopes in October 1953 with Marilyn Monroe and Joseph Cotten in “Niagara” paired with “Invaders from Mars,” a picture credited today with inspiring young Stephen Spielberg, Joe Dante, John Landis and Martin Scorsese.
By 1955, the Hollywood was home to the Kenosha Missionary Baptist Church, moving in 1959 to become the Temple Baptist Church on 47th Ave and 52nd St.
In 1963, the Auxiliary of the Polish Legion of American Veterans began raising funds to convert the Hollywood Theater into a home for the post; it remained so for 49 years until the spring of 2012 when it was sold and reopened the next year as Circa on Seventh, a meeting hall with much of it’s original glamour restored.
Atty. James Erwin represents a potential buyer who says his client “would like to see the theater preserved and returned to its use” as a showplace.
Erwin did not name his client, but he said they work in real estate and have many multi-unit buildings on the Northwest Side. Erwin did not respond to requests for comment after Thursday’s hearing. Over $228,000 in taxes on the property are due, and Chicago Neighborhood Resources Advisors LLC is to do a study on redeeming both the overdue taxes and the cost of repairs including shoring up the weakened marquee. Then, if CNRA is appointed receiver, it can stabilize the marquee. Atty. Erwin said his client anticipates working with CNRA. A tax hearing is set for 10am on May 8.
The Portage Theatre closed as a cinema in 2001 but was used sporadically, became a City Landmark in May, 2013, was abandoned in 2018, and was named one of Illinois’s most endangered historic sites.
AUDITORIUM is decorated in several shades of rose. It is isolated from the foyer by doors at the head of each aisle. The cry room is at the rear of the central bank of chairs, between the aisle doors; the party room is above, adjacent to the projection suite. Crу room accommodates 16 patrons; party room 12: each is air conditioned and each has 12 Jensen speakers with its own volume control. Trane climate changer for winter and summer air conditioning is located under the stage; a small, separate steam heating system is installed in a front basement to heat the lobby, foyer, office, projection room and wash rooms.
DESIGNED BY PEACOCK & BELONGIA, ALBERT JOHNSON’S PARK THEATRE, ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, SEATS 664, COST 580,000 TO BUILD AND $25,000 TO FURNISH AND EQUIP
A Quonset-type theatre costing $120.00 seat to build - $158.00 a seat complete with furnishings and equipment - has been erected at Loves Park, near Rockford, Illinois, according to a design by Myles E. Belongia and Urban F. Peacock, Milwaukee architects and members of STR’s Architects Advisory Council.
Core of the 664-seat structure is a Stran-Steel Quonset, completely insulated with rockwool bats and Sisalcraft insulating paper.
Despite its relatively low cost, the theatre is air conditioned, it has a cry room and a party room, and its equipment and furnishings are all of high quality.
The facade above the marquee is limestone, and below the marquee porcelain-enameled steel panels. Front lighting is by clear incandescents, with blue and rose neon trim. Marquee letters are Wagner’s, poster cases Universal alumilited aluminum. The glass-panel entrance doors are framed in wood.
Rubber tile, tan in color, constitutes the flooring of the lobby; its lower walls are finished in natural birch, and its upper walls in tan figured washable wall paper,
It is illuminated with recessed, colored fluorescent tubing. The foyer is similarly decorated, but lighted by recessed neons in selectively switched colors.
Auditorium color scheme features several shades of rose, including the upholstery of the Kroehler push-back chairs, and the rose-and-tan figured Thomas Leydham carpet. The entire surface above the plaster line, which begins five feet from the floor, is covered with 16"x22" Celotex blocks. An air duct runs down the center of the auditorium, with a false ceiling below it that extends 18" beyond each side of the duct. The two lighting troughs thus created are lamped in rose and blue neon.
The ventilating system provides either cold or warm air, according to whether the water coils carry well water, or boiler water from an oil-burning furnace. The equipment is located in a basement under the stage.
Projectors are Simplex KE-T; sound Simplex dual channel 4-Star; generators Hertner; screen Walker Plastic Moulded Washable; lamps Peerless Magnarc; speakers Altec Voice of the Theatre.
Construction was carried out by Ben B. Poblocki and Sons under the guidance of Walter G. Tolan as Supervising Architect. Equipment and furnishings were installed by the Chicago branch of National Theatre Supply.
FACADE of the Park Theatre is limestone above and porcelain-enameled steel below the marquee, with aluminum poster frames, incandescent soft lighting and rose and blue with neon trim. Entrance doors are wood with large glass panels. Small changeable letter attraction boards and Wagner letters are used below the marquee (just above the entrance doors) in addition to the larger ones associated with the name sign AUDITORIUM is decorated in several shades of rose. It is isolated from the foyer by doors at the head of each aisle. The cry room is at the rear of the central bank of chairs, between the aisle doors; the party room is above, adjacent to the projection suite. Crу room accommodates 16 patrons; party room 12: each is air conditioned and each has 12 Jensen speakers with its own volume control. Trane climate changer for winter and summer air conditioning is located under the stage; a small, separate steam heating system is installed in a front basement to heat the lobby, foyer, office, projection room and wash rooms. PROJECTION ROOM was equipped by National Theatre Supply.
No act - The Stagehands' plan is to buy area theater
By Chuck Rupnow, Leader-Telegram staff
SPRING VALLEY: It’s no act, the Spring Valley Stagehands are really trying to purchase the Spring Valley Theater.
Stagehands, a local acting coup, is staging a fund-raising drive to raise an estimated $33,000. An estimated $16,000 in pledges and donations has already been received.
Ken Kratt, a language teacher at Spring Valley High School, said the goal is realistic and would be a great benefit to the village.
“Six years ago we didn’t know how all this was going to work. But we’ve done pretty well and there’s no reason to believe it won’t get better if we own the theater. All we can do is try.”
Kratt said he and others approached Bob Richardson, co-owner of the theater, about six years ago to consider staging plays at the closed theater in the village’s business district.
“I just asked if he had any plans for the building,” Kratt said. “He said he had something tentatively in mind, but was willing to experiment with us.”
Richardson had been considering using the building for offices or as warehouse.
“We started out with a group of high school students, but advertised in the local newspaper to see if there were any others interested in helping with the play,” Kratt said.
Kratt, who was involved with a play in Menomonie, met with about 15 to 20 interested people at the local senior citizens center and plans were made for the play “Night of January 16.”
Ann Turner of Spring Valley helped with Kratt’s direction of that play. Volunteers helped build the stage, make costumes and redecorate the theater.
Theater seats had already been moved into a large pile. They were returned to their original site, but some have still not been bolted in place.
“The roof had some problems with leaks and the first show some people got wet,” Kratt said. “That’s been taken care of, but it made for some interesting comments after that first show.”
Stagehands currently pays $475 a month in rent and if enough money is donated, an agreement could be reached to put a down payment on the building and make monthly payments less than the current rent, Kratt said.
“Most of the people who came to see our first production came out of curiosity.” Kratt said. “They wanted to see what the old movie theater looked like. I don’t know if they thought we were going to be any good or not, they were just interested in being in the theater again.”
But most of the 270 seats have been full for each showing.
“There is interest in this because the actors and helpers are not only from Spring Valley, but from areas all around here,” Kratt said. “This is not just a Spring Valley production, it’s an area production.”
The various shows have included people from Elmwood, Baldwin, Menomonie, Ellsworth, Plum City and Glenwood City. The troupe has a new show about every two months, with the next one scheduled in March.
“Most of the money we’ve made over the past years has been put right back into the shows,” Kratt said. “There’s always a need to improve our props, stage or something else. We run on a pretty tight budget, so we’re pretty thankful for all the volunteer help we get.”
Kratt said donations will be used to buy the building and upgrade its heating, lighting and plumbing facilities.
“We’re always looking for more volunteers in a variety of capacities,” Kratt said. Right now, we’re also looking for tax-deductible donations to help keep us going. We’re hoping this script calls for a happy ending.“
(February 17, 1991)
(Oct 10, 1930)
At a rental of $650 per month for a term of five years, the premises at 6855 Stony Island ave. have been leased by the Royal Palm Golf Course, Inc., from Dr. M. L. Weinstein, 29 E. Madison st.
The premises consist of approximately 10,000 square feet of floor space and will be used as an indoor golf course and fountain luncheonette. This indoor course will be the only one of its kind in Chicago. It will have several chip shots, real water hazards and sand traps.
The building was formerly the South Shore theater. It is being improved on the interior with violet ray sun lamp lighting and botanical decorations.
Philip A. Weinstein, 10 N. Clark st., was the attorney for the lessor in the negotiation of the lease, while Edward I. Rothbart, of the law firm of Short, Rothbart, Wilner and Lewis, 1 N. La Salle st, represented the lessee.
The decorative scheme of the auditorium and sta foyer carries out the same air of casual simplicity, and in fact differs from that of the lobby only in that the Nu-Wood planking above the wainscot is finished with assorted pastel shades instead of white. The rustic knotty pine wainscot continued throughout the house, even along the front of the screen platform.
The Nu-Wood panels above the auditorium wainscot are the only acoustical material inatalied. Robert Zielke declares that acoustically they are perfect.
Lighting of the auditorium is carried at by means of colored fluorescent tubing along the center of sta celling with rulveed incandescents in semi-indirect fixtures along the side walls for running lights. Flush type ceiling lighting is used elsewhere in the theatre - in the lobby, the foyer, the cry room (the latter is located on an upper level, alongside the projection room) and in the lounges.
Air conditioning provides a complete change of auditorium air every three minutes. Projectors are Brenkert, sound equipment RCA. The screen is 15 feet wide, illuminated by Strong one-Kilowatt high intensity lamps drawing 40 amperes from Strong Utility rectifiers.
Peacock and Belongia, members of STIR’s Architects Advisory Council, designed the Bruce. Robert Zielke manages it on behalf of his father and himself.
From The Vault: Grand Albee Theater was a downtown treasure for 50 years (by Greg Noble, Feb 25, 2016)
For all of Cincinnati’s architectural treasures – Music Hall and Union Terminal included – the Albee Theater may have been the grandest.
Karl Topie, retired cellist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, was on the Albee stage when it opened on Christmas Eve, 1927. And he was there for the liquidation sale 50 years later, before the wrecker’s ball turned it into dust.
“It’s terrible to see it go,” he said. “It’s the most beautiful theater ever built.”
That’s what the original owners called it: the most magnificent theater in the world. It was certainly as opulent as any.
Outside, beckoning visitors through its double brass doors, was a majestic, two-story marble façade. Younger generations don’t have to imagine how that looked. Many see it whenever they come downtown, hanging on the Duke Energy Convention Center, at the side entrance at Fifth and Plum.
The five-story main lobby had lavish white Vermont marble walls, two grand marble staircases, six etched-border mirrors and a two-story stained-glass window. The three-story grand lobby was lit by nine brass and crystal chandeliers.
The ceilings were decorated with lavish rococo plasterwork accented in gold. Bet your home doesn’t have that.
The five-story, 4,000-seat auditorium had a proscenium arch, Corinthian columns and red swag drapery.
It was a theater fit for a king and it cost a king’s ransom - $4 million. Besides being one of the largest moving picture houses in the world, it had a full stage for live entertainment and hosted such greats as Fred Astaire, Jack Benny, Jackie Gleason and Ben Burnie, a renowned jazz violinist and bandleader.
Besides the façade, other theater treasures were also preserved. The Wurlitzer organ was moved to the Emery Theater on Walnut Street, then to the Music Hall Ballroom. Other pieces went to Music Hall, too. The brass doors went to the Ohio Theater in Columbus, along with some ornate, wrought-iron benches with red-velvet seats and even a porcelain drinking fountain. Nostalgic theater lovers took home hundreds of seats for $15 to $20 apiece or bought prisms from the chandeliers for $10 each.
While Columbus preservationists won their battle to save the Ohio Theater from downtown redevelopment, a handful of Cincinnatians who formed a group called Save The Albee could not.
The head of that group, Frances Vitali, operated a laundry in Corryville with her husband. The first threat came in 1972 when a Dallas group announced plans to buy the property at Fifth and Vine and build a 50-story office building and shopping arcade. Fearing that the tower would block out the sun – or at least keep Fountain Square in the dark much of the day – Vitali and others pulled together and rebuffed the threat.
But City Hall, city planners and developers were determined to rebuild the area around Fountain Square into a Central Business District. Other downtown theaters had already closed, unable to compete with the multiplex movie theaters springing up in the suburbs. The Albee’s days were numbered.
Vitali made a final appeal. She proposed a “Theater on the Square” concept open all year for the opera, ballet, touring shows, school graduations and youth programs.
“I see its value for bringing life back to the square,” she said, and at the time, the square needed it. “I’m only working on this because I think of the youth of tomorrow.”
But Vitali couldn’t block progress – or the bulldozers. In 1976, city council voted to tear down Fifth Street between Vine and Walnut for the Westin Hotel and Fountain Square South project.
The Albee was demolished in March, 1977 and that would be the end of the story, except for the marble façade. The city, which bought the building for $2 million so it could tear it down, didn’t have a use for the façade, and nobody else wanted it. So the city took it apart and stuck it away in storage for three years.
When the three-year contract was up, the city moved it to a highway maintenance lot under the Brent Spence Bridge in Queensgate. Six years passed, and the facade was no worse for no wear. It finally found a home at the Convention Center in 1986, soon to be joined by the Union Terminal murals getting evicted from CVG.
Orpheum emerges from its first year ready to take on the giants
For the 75-year-old Orpheum Theater, it has been a year of starring, supporting and waiting in the wings.
The Orpheum flickered to life at 5819 Sixth Ave, on Nov. 18, 1995 after decades of silence. Between 1,000 and 2,000 customers now pass through the building’s doors each week, depending on the movies offered and the time of year.
Since the curtain went up last year, owner Jeff Maher has steered his investment through the business climate of downtown Kenosha with a strategy of upgrades, discount promotions and old-fashioned perseverance.
The four-story Orpheum originally opened a 1,600-seat theater in March of 1922, but showed its last movie in the 1970s and had been vacant since 1990. The building survived several close calls with the wrecking ball before being designated a historic landmark in 1990.
Maher, 35, bought the building in early 1995 and divided its ground floor into two theaters, one with 218 seats, the other with 200. As a “second-run” theater, films are shown that have been out for about two months and are on their way to video.
Admission is $2 except for “dollar night”, on Tuesdays, when all films are $1. Maher and his wife, Janet, work at the theater to help supervise the larger crowds on those nights.
In its year of life the Orpheum has turned a small profit, which Maher used to upgrade the theaters' stereo surround sound and projector lenses.
Sometime next year, he plans to add two theaters upstairs, one with 120 seats, the other with 260 Eventually, as many as six theaters are possible.
Both of the new theaters will have stadium style seating, and one may be designated for classic films.
“Stadium seating will give me an advantage over the other theaters probably in a 100-mile radius,” Maher said. “It’s essentially like balcony seating, you have an unobstructed view. It’s the wave of the future, but it is expensive.”
The Orpheum Theater will soon be up against some powerful competition. Within the past two months, plans have been announced to open a 16-screen multiplex cinema at Southport Plaza and a 12-screen theater at 1-94 and Highway 20 next year.
Dallas-based Cinemark will open the 2.800-seat, 16-screen multiplex at Southport next fall, and Milwaukee-based Marcus Theatres Corp will open the 2,500-seat, 12-screen facility just four miles cast.
But Maher said if anything, multiplexes complement the Orpheum.
“I don’t feel we compete against the first-run (theaters),” he said. “People say "Star Trek' is out now, but if we wait a month we can see it at the Orpheum for $2.
Louis Micheln, outgoing president of the Kenosha Area Chamber of Commerce, said there is now enough movie business to around though cineplexes will stay popular in coming years.
“Movie theaters have cycles just like a lot of other businesses, so it’s had its ups and downs over the years”, Michelin said. “But by reading the entertainment sections of the papers, you can see there’s a resurgence in attendance. When you see these grosses being reported, you can tell people are going to a lot of movies.”
On November 30, 1969, the curtain came down for the final time at the Mondovi Theatre as the credits finished rolling for “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. Built in 1921, the theatre was razed in 1974.
In January, Celeste Holm visited Oshkosh for a benefit dinner, and while here spent a few moments giving her appraisal of the Grand Theater.
And at that time, Miss Holm expressed her desire to work in the Grand, for in her opinion it would be an excellent theater in which to give a performance, and certainly was a theater well worth saving.
Tonight Miss Holm will fulfill her desire to perform in Oshkosh when she stars in the comedy production of “Not Even In Spring” at 8:15. Асcording to sponsors of the event, a near-capacity audience is expected, although some seats should be available at the door.
Upon arrival in Oshkosh Monday Miss Holm met with the news media at an afternoon press conference at the Grand. She and her company have just finished “Not Even In Spring” in a four week engagement in Chicago, and while having a successful run with the play in Chicago the Hollywood actress devised the idea to bring the play to the Grand, donating the proceeds to the local cause.
In a final appeal to Oshkosh area residents Miss Holm told the press, “Don’t tear down what you will never be able to replace. Here is a theater where you can sit in any seat in the house and see and hear everything that goes on in the theater. In practically every playhouse today, electronics play such a large part in the performing of the show, that the true sound of the natural voice is no longer as important as it once was.
“In fact, there are very few theaters today that I would rank in the same class with the Grand. One would be the Music Box on Broadway, but there are just so few that give the actor the opportunity to display his real talent, as the Grand does.”
Explaining the importance of the small playhouses and theaters to the actress, Miss Holm said “The reason movies in Europe have such a great dramatic quality, is the fact that in Europe the actors have the opportunity to play in good playhouses at the same time they are making a movie, but in this country this is not true. By playing in these local playhouses, the actor has the opportunity to develop the dynamic qualities in his voice, which is so very important.”
“The ‘grass-root’ theaters that are springing up all over the country are worth every penny,” Miss Holm continued, “for they can be used for so much, plays, movies, concerts, almost anything. And any support that can be given to theaters such as the Grand should be given.”
Appearing with Miss Holm in the one-night performance are the other members of her cast direct from the Chicago performance of “Not Even In Spring” including Delphy Lawrence, Wesley Addy, Nelson Welch, and Herbert Nelson.
Following tonight’s show, Miss Holm will leave for Pasadena. Calif., where she will begin rehearsals for a new play, “Captain Brisban’s Conversion” which she will do at the Pasadena Playhouse. (August 30, 1966)
The Vogue Theatre still stands, mute testament to an era when movie theatres were more than screening houses for new films before they hit the home market but centers of community life. Even today, passersby along busy 52nd Street might imagine the old Vogue Theatre alive again, with several hundred excited kids in line for a 1940s Saturday afternoon double feature, each clutching his or her ten-cent admission. For twenty-eight years, the Vogue was mainly an unpretentious neighborhood theatre, never attempting to outdo the grander downtown movie palaces but fulfilling its modest role in Kenosha’s entertainment scene, until a sudden change in national trends sealed not only the Vogue’s fate but that of thousands of similar movie houses across America.
The Vogue opened its doors on September 15, 1923. In that year, Kenosha’s operating film theaters included the Rhode Opera House, the new Orpheum, the Butterfly, the Burke (later Cameo) at 618-56th Street, the Majestic on the 5700 block of Sixth Avenue, the Lincoln at 6923-14th Avenue, the Strand (later Norge, demolished in 1982) at 5611-22nd Avenue and the Columbia, 2220-63rd Street. The Kenosha, Gateway and Roosevelt Theatres were four years into the future. Walter Schlager, who ran several taverns with his wife, Rose, was looking for a solid investment, as prohibition had effectively put a damper to his tavern business. He selected some long-vacant properties at 1820-52nd Street and had wellknown Kenosha architect Charles Augustine design a state-of-the-art theatre for the site. The Vogue’s doors opened at 6 P.M. and adult tickets were 25 cents; children paid a dime.
The opening program was modest: the Kenosha premiere of Ralph Ince’s horseracing yarn, “Counterfeit Love,” an Our Gang comedy, “The Cobbler,” an Aesop’s Fable short, a Pathe newsreel, and organ solos by an unnamed woman at the keyboard of the Vogue’s new two-manual Moller pipe organ, which Schlager had obtained through the Salak Bros. Piano Company of Racine.
The decorator, Eugene Potente of 7302-14th Avenue, selected shades of deep cream for the interior, so patrons would be “bathed in a sunshine glow.” The lofty ceiling gave a feeling of more spaciousness than there really was. Unusual cast-plaster ceiling fixtures were shaped like six-pointed stars with a bare bulb at each point and a large bulb in the center, and they had to be relamped from the floor with a clumsy long wooden pole. The stage was rather small, about 16 feet deep and 25 feet across, but it was adequate for the live acts that did play there. Mostly these included jugglers, comics, acrobats and small musical groups.
Walter Schlager ran the Vogue for two years, then leased it to the short-lived United Theaters chain, who also took over the Butterfly and Lincoln. Walter and Rose went back to operating a soft-drink tavern, but with United Theaters' demise, was back operating the Vogue by 1930. In 1934, Francis B. “Butch” Schlax and George Fischer leased the Vogue, beginning a long career in theatre management for Schlax, who ended up operating virtually every theatre in Kenosha, including the Mid-City and Keno outdoor theaters.
Many Kenoshans found employment through the years at the Vogue. Some of the better-remembered projectionists include Kenneth Hahn, Fred Sherry, Ray Bacon, Louis Goodare, Richard Schnell and Percy Garton. They were the unsung heroes, invisible souls high up in their cramped booths for which audiences gave nary a thought … except if the film broke or the arc lamp failed. Then the unseen projectionist would be roundly cursed with a hail of insults, whistles and foot-stomping until the picture would resume. Sometimes he would be pressed into part-time security duty, patrolling the balcony for overly-amorous or rowdy patrons. But there was a potentially deadly aspect of the job as well -
Until World War Two, movies were made of nitrate stock, which could burn explosively and emit toxic gases. This nitrate film passed continuously just inches from a 2,000-degree arc flame. Louis Goodare was operating the Vogue’s twin Simplex projectors one night when the film caught fire. Ever the alert operator, Goodare somehow snatched the flaming reel and pitched it from a front window in the nick of time, where it landed, blazing, atop the Vogue’s marquee. Goodare’s trousers were burned, and he later billed the Standard Theaters chain of Milwaukee, which operated the Vogue at the time. (The chain denied the claim.)
Schlax had been promoted to being Standard’s citywide manager. His son Robert recalled accompanying his father every Thursday night during the war years to the Vogue and other local theatres, watching snippets of films while his dad tallied receipts in the various manager’s offices. During this period, the Vogue’s two-rank Moller pipe organ was sold and moved (“probably to some church,” according to Fred Hermes of the Dairyland Theatre Organ Society).
By this time, the Vogue was a comfortable if unspectacular addition to the city’s entertainment scene. Many of its patrons were blue-collar families, often newly-arrived Italian immigrants. On occasion, an Italian-language film would grace the theatre’s screen, which usually drew a crowd, giving the Vogue its good-natured nickname: The Garlic Opera House. To many of these people, the Vogue was a gathering place second only to their churches. Robert Schlax recalled many Vogue employees dropping off tomatoes and other vegetables from their gardens, as well as homemade wine, for the boss.
Most neighborhood theatres encountered three major crises: the coming of sound, the great depression and the Tube. The first saw the end of several Kenosha theatres unwilling or unable to convert to sound - the Columbia, the Strand (later Norge) and the Majestic being the most notable. The Depression forced the remaining theatres to adopt concession stands as an income supplement, as well as off-night promotions like Dish Night, Bank Night, Grocery Night and Amateur Night.
The Vogue offered its Dish Nights usually on slower Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Women patrons got a coupon which, when combined with attendance at the next week’s Dish Night, got them one piece of china. A lobby display showed the entire set, which could be hers if she attended faithfully each week on Dish Night. (Today, complete sets of theatre dishes are collectors' items.)
One neighborhood resident told of the Gravy Boat Fiasco at the Vogue one night at the end of a long dish promotion, the night the Vogue would be dispensing the expensive gravy boats that would complete that particular set. Previously, the ladies had been tucking the flat dinnerware into their large and practical handbags, but the bulbous gravy boats couldn’t be stashed so easily. They sat through the double feature, newsreel, cartoons, previews and short subjects with the gravy boats balanced precariously on their laps or entrusted to some family member. The show was regularly punctuated by the loud crash of china on the painted concrete floor, accompanied by ever-louder jeers and laughter from the less-sympathetic patrons. To add to the fun, there was a lot of crunchy footwork during intermission.
Bank Night was a simple lottery: tickets were collected and one number was drawn for a cash award. The catch was, the barrel contained many tickets from weeks past, so patrons were thus encouraged to attend on every Bank Night. Weeks or months might pass with no jackpot award, so the kitty could easily surpass one thousand dollars - until a new state anti-lottery law passed during the war years outlawed Bank Night. Grocery Night was similar to Bank Night, and Amateur Night provided cash prizes or free prizes to the best singer, tap dancer, accordionist or spoon player, as determined by applause levels. Contestants were thus encouraged to pack the audience with their supporters.
All these gimmicks, and the ever-more important concession stand, proved important to the Vogue and other neighborhood theatres during the lean Depression years. And times were lean for the movies then. Every theatre in downtown Kenosha was closed by 1933 - the Kenosha, Orpheum, Gateway Cameo - but the Vogue somehow endured.
By 1939, a semblance of prosperity had returned, and the movies were now entering the peak of their popularity as patrons jammed theaters for escapism, light musicals and sentimental fare. On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Vogue abruptly halted “Life Begins for Andy Hardy”; the star-shaped ceiling fixtures came on, and the matinee audience was told that the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii had been swept in a surprise attack from Japanese planes. Stunned, many patrons quietly made their way out. The Vogue and nearly every theatre in America became the focal point for the war effort.
Hollywood stars took new roles - filmed appeals to the audiences for the sale of war bonds as ushers patrolled the aisles to sell bonds to those with raised hands. In this way, America’s theatres helped to win the war.
Throughout the 1940s, box office receipts soared. But the heavy crush led to premature wear on carpets and seats; walls and draperies grew soiled and dingy, accelerated by soot from coal furnaces used to heat theatres. It hardly slowed business; movies were “in.” Ninety million Americans attended each week (though Hollywood chose to ignore the hidden warnings in a survey in which moviegoers were asked which medium they would prefer, movies or radio. Eighty-five percent said radio.)
The Vogue never had air-conditioning, but employee Dominick Gallo said he would order truckloads of ice to be dumped into the coal chutes, and turning on the high rotary blower would cool the theater nicely. And cheaply. Gallo recalled the Saturday matinees, where for nine cents any kid could see a one-hour western starring the likes of Hopalong Cassidy, Lash LaRue, Sunset Carson or Johnny Mack Brown (who seemed to be the local hero) plus several cartoons and one chapter of a serial thriller such as “The Clutching Hand”, “The Invisible Monster” or “Mystery Squadron”. Of course, vending revenues would zoom higher than Flash Gordon’s rocket ship during these weekend shows; no one got off spending just nine cents.
Another Vogue promotion: perforated cards of tickets sold through schools. For a dollar, any kid could see perhaps a dozen quality films such as “The Green Years,” “Destination Moon,” “Father Was a Fullback” and more on consecutive weekend matinees. The Vogue would be packed, and schools got a cut of the take. An old photo shows the Vogue with folding chairs set up in the aisles to handle the overflow. It wasn’t unusual to see late-coming kids sit on the floor to catch the show. All that was all coming to an end, however.
In 1950, television swept the nation. The novelty of free entertainment in one’s own living room was enormous. The entire movie industry at first ignored the new threat, but by 1951, the theaters began to close. The first to go dark were the smaller, shabbier movie houses in older areas.
Until 1950, business had been so good that maintenance hadn’t been top priority in many theatres. Suddenly, the audiences began to thin out and thus began a vicious circle - these theatres, physically worn out from the good years, were competing with free TV. Standard Theaters, perhaps predicting the future, gave up its lease on the Vogue, but Bill Exton, the longtime operator of the Roosevelt, picked up the Vogue (and Hollywood, which had already closed) and forged ahead with his new mini-chain of local theatres.
Bill Exton tried hard, but he didn’t have the resources to redecorate and repair the Vogue, which was visibly worn from millions of admissions over the years, and despite his best efforts, revenues now began to decline alarmingly.
One cost-cutting move Exton made was perhaps ill-advised and too obvious: rather than change the marquee letters every three days, he simply put up his longtime motto, “Always a Good Show.” But that was a clear signal the Vogue was in trouble.
By autumn, 1951, losses were mounting. Bill Exton tried cutting back the Vogue’s operation to a weekend-only policy.
I recall my last visit to the Vogue, at a weekend matinee in the autumn of 1951; “Captain Horatio Hornblower” with Gregory Peck was playing. The large preteen audience was getting noisy during the “talky” parts. Mr. Exton stopped the film, turned on the house lights and quietly addressed the audience, which sat in surprised silence. He said that some people had paid good money to enjoy the film, and although he knew we didn’t mean to, we were spoiling their fun. He expected us to respect that, and if we could show that we understood, he would reward us later by having the projectionist run an extra cartoon. And that’s exactly what happened. True to his word, Mr. Exton delivered on his promise of “always a good show.”
But the Vogue was dying, and its end was no doubt hastened by the vicious cold wave that settled over the Midwest in December, 1951.
Over the years, the Vogue had offered foreign films on occasion, usually Italian, Polish or German, and on a Sunday that December, the Vogue screened the opera film “La Traviata” by Verdi, for a final touch of class.
There’s no record of how many people left their warm living rooms and new 16-inch TV screens to attend the final double feature of “Warpath” and “Bandit Queen” on Sunday, December 15, 1951, but we do know the mercury was at 20 degrees below zero.
The Vogue never reopened. Its passing left scarcely a ripple.
By the following April, the Hollywood was gone forever, too. Bill Exton concentrated on his Roosevelt Theater until his retirement nearly two decades later.
At the darkened Vogue, the marquee still promised “Always A Good Show”, until years of wind and snow knocked enough letters off to render the phrase unintelligible. Local businessman David Korf took the building over and put up a For Sale sign. There were no takers.
The movies did make a brief comeback to the Vogue in 1970. A group of inspired youths restored the old box office (now demolished), set up folding chairs and a 16mm projector and ran classic films on weekends under the banner of the New Vogue Theatre, a tribute to the well-remembered neighborhood movie house of decades past.
February 27, 2015.
There was a time when Chicago glistened with stars in its eyes. They shined within fantasy galaxies built to create resplendent heavens of imagination. As the motion pictures declared within them, they were places where dreams were born. Too spectacular to be called mere theaters, they were palaces, breathtaking, hard to believe structures more dazzling than the entertainment on their stages. The Uptown was the largest in the nation. Through decades of volunteer efforts, its sheer grandeur has fought back the march of time and it remains preserved like a buried city. The captivating images and stories in this book impel to support the efforts that will allow the UPTOWN to hold its place in Chicago’s architectural firmament.
BILL KURTIS
Journalist
Last downtown picture show closes
By DON JENSEN Staff Writer, Kenosha News (3/14/1984)
The Lake Theater in downtown Kenosha will show its last film Thursday.
After 58 years as a movie theater, it will close its doors for lack of business.
It is the last remaining downtown movie house, and the largest of Kenosha’s grand old movie houses to remain in business.
Jack Belasco, executive vice president of Essaness Theaters Corp., Chicago, which owns the theater at 514 56th St., cited “terrible losses” and a generally poor business climate in the downtown area.
Essaness also owns the Keno and MidCity outdoor theaters here.
“We’d like to operate, but not at the losses we’ve suffered,” Belasco said.
He indicated the firm would try to sell or lease the building.
For many years the theater was in competition with the also-large Kenosha and Orpheum theaters for downtown’s substantial movie business, along with one or two smaller houses off Sixth Avenue. Only the Roosevelt Theater on the city’s west side, built on a smaller scale, still remains as an example of the old-fashioned movie theaters stylish before television, and now videotaped movies, came on the scene.
There has been a theater located at the Lake Theater site since 1891 when Peter Rhode built his first opera house.
In 1926, the Saxe Amusement Co. of Milwaukee purchased the old opera house, tore it down and constructed a half-million dollar movie palace, the Gateway Theater.
The theater, opulently decorated, had a reputation for having perfect line-of-sight vision of the large screen from any seat in the house, and for its near-perfect acoustics.
It remained the Gateway until a remodeling in the late 1950s, when it was renamed the Lake Theater. (Ed.: 1963)
In 1976, another renovation resulted in the dividing of the large auditorium into two smaller theaters each seating about 480 persons.
As a matter of introducing the man upon whom the people of Racine will depend for their theatrical amusement and entertainment, much of anticipation and encouragement may be said. Mr. Duncanson, one of the men “behind the guns,” is a man well qualified by accomplishments and experience, to meet all your expectations and one who can appreciate your confidence and patronage. Mr. Duncanson was formerly Vice President and General Manager of a million dollar theatre comраnу, owning and operating a circuit of theatres. He has never failed to popularize and make a wonderfully paying proposition of any theatre he has ever taken charge of and he will popularize the “NATIONAL.” He is a man of foresight and faith in the future, and has the courage and judgment to back up his belief in humanity, with money and time. While others with equal opportunities hesitate and never “get out of the trenches,” he forges aheed. “CERTAINTIES HAVE THEIR LIMITATIONS WHILE LARGE PROFITS ARE MADE BY TAKING REASONABLE RISKS.” (June 17, 1920)
Wonderful Prosperity in Theatre Business
In these days of reaction from the great World War and an unheard of prosperity-theatres and the theatre business has become one of the greatest producers of un-taired wealth in the list of big businesses. Properly.con-ducted and under correct policy, the Orpheum (to be the “NATIONAL” in the future) will enter the Horor Roll of big financial and social successes. A thearre so hear tiful and comfortable, the pride of boosters of Racine, must have a policy that wil stand out as an example of culture and refinement, which the people of Racire may justly demand and which will make it possible for visit-ors and friends to carry away a good report of Racine as the amusement and social center of the state and it SHALL BE DONE, under the jurisdiction of the man who has never yet failed to do so.
New Theatre Company Forming (June 17, 1920) The new owners are organizing a new theatre company and the Orpheum will be the nucleus theatre around which will be formed a large circuit of high class theatres that will be the social and amusement center of every city where located. Some of the parties to be interested in the new Theatre Company are among the leading and public spirited people of Racine, whose civic pride prompts them, more than the large profits to be made, to associate themselves with the company. Just appreciation and credit is given Mr. John Bate for his manifest interest and public spirit in the institutions of Racine, by the building of this magnificent theatre. There are three institutions in a city from which it draws its good or bad name. The theatre, the church and the educational. Of these, the theatre is not the least important.
Pluto TV will bring back its award-winning ‘Free Movie Weekend’ program this summer to support independent theatres by offering complimentary movie tickets on select weekends. Pluto and director Sean Baker (a champion of independent theatres) celebrate the theatre-going experience as an invaluable part of the film entertainment ecosystem.
Pluto TV’s ‘Free Movie Weekend’ originated after the Covid pandemic to encourage patrons to return to theatres, now including 50 free weekends at theatres in 30 states.
Director Sean Baker (“Anora” )partnered with Pluto TV to nominate local theatres, saying “Free Movie Weekend is a meaningful initiative that shares a cause close to my heart. Local cinemas are cultural touchstones, they are gathering places where communities come together to experience stories as they were meant to be seen: on the big screen. I’m honored to partner with Pluto TV to help spotlight the independent theaters that play such a vital role in sustaining the art of cinema.”
For this year’s ‘Free Movie Weekend,' Sean Baker nominated Los Angeles local theater Gardena Cinema. Gardena Cinema is the last family-run independent single-screen indoor walk-in movie theater in South Los Angeles that was built in 1946 and has been operated by the Kim family since 1976. Daughter Judy Kim continues to manage the 800 seat cinema after the matriarch, Nancy Soo Myoung Kim died on Mother’s Day in 2022 from complications of uterine cancer.
The list for this year’s ‘Free Movie Weekend’:
Gardena Cinema, Los Angeles: June 7-8
Tara Theatre, Atlanta: June 14-15
Music Box Theatre, Chicago: June 21-22
Redford Theatre, Detroit: June 28-29
Colonial Theatre, Phoenixville, PA: July 5-6
The Owen Theatre began as the Idle Hour Theatre operated by the Collins family in the silent era, with films accompanied by young female pianists. Fire later destroyed the adjacent Griebenow-Weirich Hardware Store, damaging the theatre. Both were rebuilt in the summer of 1919, with a shared party wall and an agreement that continued almost 70 years.
In 1926, then-owner the H.E. Spaulding family sold the theatre to J. J. Schultz, who operated it for three years before selling it to Ben Krom who in 1931 redecorated the interior.
In April 1937 the exploitation studio Educational Road Show Pictures four-walled “Shame” for a midnight screening with a 35 cent admission to those over 16 years, telling of “the disappearance of 75,000 young girls yearly”. That year the name changed to Owen Theatre with a new marquee and a lighted vertical sign spelling out “Owen”.
In 1938, the Owen Theatre was purchased by George Krom, who sold it eight years later to Paul Stasek and Leonard Hamm. In 1949, the Owen Theatre was purchased by Virgil and Clarence Callahan, and the next year was taken over by Robert and Pauline Habighorst, whose family had spent thirty years with the Owen Theatre.
In 1981, family friend Judy Vollrath and her husband Phil took over the Owen through a land contract with daughter Katie Habighorst and her siblings. They painted the entire auditorium by themselves and installed a Dolby stereo sound system.
By 1986 the Vollraths were feeling the effects of cable TV and home video, and closed the doors just before that Christmas after a free Santa Claus show, the final feature, “ a terribly sad day,” said Judy Vollrath. “We took time cleaning that day and we were so sad. The time finally came to leave and we stood at the door after we locked it. I, of course, was in tears, and Phil was unbelievably sad.”
The Owen Theatre was converted to use as a shipping warehouse. The popcorn machine was donated to the school; some seats went to the Abbotsford Theatre, and some to a church.
This mid-1950s photo shows spectators viewing the South Milwaukee Spectacle of Music parade.
On 2 September 1916, the Kenosha News reported that “This morning workmen laid the pick an axe to old Columbia Hall and it is to be leveled…”
The Butterfly Theatre cost Ernst Klinkert of Racine and Kenosha’s Charles Pacini a total of $45,000; Pacini would be the operator with a long-term lease. George Lindemann was general contractor and Tully as the masonry contractor. it was claimed the theater would seat 1000 people but by the time it opened that dropped to 650. Charles O. Augustine of Kenosha was the architect. Reports said the ventilation was powerful enough to completely cycle the air in the theater every six minutes, that it had separate flush toilets for gentlemen and ladies, floors that could be sanitized, a pipe organ, and space for an orchestra of fourteen.
Pacini was already operating the Majestic Theatre downtown and the Cozy Theatre a block south of the Butterfly. He would close the Cozy and transfer its equipment to the new Butterfly.
It opened 17 March 1917 to showings of Chaplin’s “Easy Street” and a 5-reel Helen Rosson drama, “The Undertow.”
(Pacini - murdered in August 1920, a case still unsolved - owned the Majestic, Butterfly, and New Strand theatres and had a lease on the land of the Eichelman Hotel at Sixth Avenue and 58th Street, where he was planning a skyscraper with a large theater.)
The Butterfly became a Collins theatre, which also controlled the Burke and Virginian. In 1929, a Movietone system was installed to allow for talkies, but closed not long after. In August 1932, the Butterfly Theatre reopened after a major redecoration, which included a larger screen. In early May of 1941, it was redecorated again and reopened as the Hollywood Theatre.
In decline and struggling by April of 1952, the listings ended after a last offering of two 1942 East Side Kids features, “The Smart Alecks” and “The Wise Guy.” But the Hollywood Theatre reopened with renewed hopes in October 1953 with Marilyn Monroe and Joseph Cotten in “Niagara” paired with “Invaders from Mars,” a picture credited today with inspiring young Stephen Spielberg, Joe Dante, John Landis and Martin Scorsese.
By 1955, the Hollywood was home to the Kenosha Missionary Baptist Church, moving in 1959 to become the Temple Baptist Church on 47th Ave and 52nd St.
In 1963, the Auxiliary of the Polish Legion of American Veterans began raising funds to convert the Hollywood Theater into a home for the post; it remained so for 49 years until the spring of 2012 when it was sold and reopened the next year as Circa on Seventh, a meeting hall with much of it’s original glamour restored.
Atty. James Erwin represents a potential buyer who says his client “would like to see the theater preserved and returned to its use” as a showplace.
Erwin did not name his client, but he said they work in real estate and have many multi-unit buildings on the Northwest Side. Erwin did not respond to requests for comment after Thursday’s hearing. Over $228,000 in taxes on the property are due, and Chicago Neighborhood Resources Advisors LLC is to do a study on redeeming both the overdue taxes and the cost of repairs including shoring up the weakened marquee. Then, if CNRA is appointed receiver, it can stabilize the marquee. Atty. Erwin said his client anticipates working with CNRA. A tax hearing is set for 10am on May 8.
The Portage Theatre closed as a cinema in 2001 but was used sporadically, became a City Landmark in May, 2013, was abandoned in 2018, and was named one of Illinois’s most endangered historic sites.
As a record store.
AUDITORIUM is decorated in several shades of rose. It is isolated from the foyer by doors at the head of each aisle. The cry room is at the rear of the central bank of chairs, between the aisle doors; the party room is above, adjacent to the projection suite. Crу room accommodates 16 patrons; party room 12: each is air conditioned and each has 12 Jensen speakers with its own volume control. Trane climate changer for winter and summer air conditioning is located under the stage; a small, separate steam heating system is installed in a front basement to heat the lobby, foyer, office, projection room and wash rooms.
SHOWMEN’S TRADE REVIEW, November 6, 1948
A 1948 Quonset at $120 Per Seat
DESIGNED BY PEACOCK & BELONGIA, ALBERT JOHNSON’S PARK THEATRE, ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, SEATS 664, COST 580,000 TO BUILD AND $25,000 TO FURNISH AND EQUIP
A Quonset-type theatre costing $120.00 seat to build - $158.00 a seat complete with furnishings and equipment - has been erected at Loves Park, near Rockford, Illinois, according to a design by Myles E. Belongia and Urban F. Peacock, Milwaukee architects and members of STR’s Architects Advisory Council.
Core of the 664-seat structure is a Stran-Steel Quonset, completely insulated with rockwool bats and Sisalcraft insulating paper.
Despite its relatively low cost, the theatre is air conditioned, it has a cry room and a party room, and its equipment and furnishings are all of high quality.
The facade above the marquee is limestone, and below the marquee porcelain-enameled steel panels. Front lighting is by clear incandescents, with blue and rose neon trim. Marquee letters are Wagner’s, poster cases Universal alumilited aluminum. The glass-panel entrance doors are framed in wood.
Rubber tile, tan in color, constitutes the flooring of the lobby; its lower walls are finished in natural birch, and its upper walls in tan figured washable wall paper,
It is illuminated with recessed, colored fluorescent tubing. The foyer is similarly decorated, but lighted by recessed neons in selectively switched colors.
Auditorium color scheme features several shades of rose, including the upholstery of the Kroehler push-back chairs, and the rose-and-tan figured Thomas Leydham carpet. The entire surface above the plaster line, which begins five feet from the floor, is covered with 16"x22" Celotex blocks. An air duct runs down the center of the auditorium, with a false ceiling below it that extends 18" beyond each side of the duct. The two lighting troughs thus created are lamped in rose and blue neon.
The ventilating system provides either cold or warm air, according to whether the water coils carry well water, or boiler water from an oil-burning furnace. The equipment is located in a basement under the stage.
Projectors are Simplex KE-T; sound Simplex dual channel 4-Star; generators Hertner; screen Walker Plastic Moulded Washable; lamps Peerless Magnarc; speakers Altec Voice of the Theatre.
Construction was carried out by Ben B. Poblocki and Sons under the guidance of Walter G. Tolan as Supervising Architect. Equipment and furnishings were installed by the Chicago branch of National Theatre Supply.
FACADE of the Park Theatre is limestone above and porcelain-enameled steel below the marquee, with aluminum poster frames, incandescent soft lighting and rose and blue with neon trim. Entrance doors are wood with large glass panels. Small changeable letter attraction boards and Wagner letters are used below the marquee (just above the entrance doors) in addition to the larger ones associated with the name sign AUDITORIUM is decorated in several shades of rose. It is isolated from the foyer by doors at the head of each aisle. The cry room is at the rear of the central bank of chairs, between the aisle doors; the party room is above, adjacent to the projection suite. Crу room accommodates 16 patrons; party room 12: each is air conditioned and each has 12 Jensen speakers with its own volume control. Trane climate changer for winter and summer air conditioning is located under the stage; a small, separate steam heating system is installed in a front basement to heat the lobby, foyer, office, projection room and wash rooms. PROJECTION ROOM was equipped by National Theatre Supply.
No act - The Stagehands' plan is to buy area theater
By Chuck Rupnow, Leader-Telegram staff
SPRING VALLEY: It’s no act, the Spring Valley Stagehands are really trying to purchase the Spring Valley Theater.
Stagehands, a local acting coup, is staging a fund-raising drive to raise an estimated $33,000. An estimated $16,000 in pledges and donations has already been received.
Ken Kratt, a language teacher at Spring Valley High School, said the goal is realistic and would be a great benefit to the village.
“Six years ago we didn’t know how all this was going to work. But we’ve done pretty well and there’s no reason to believe it won’t get better if we own the theater. All we can do is try.”
Kratt said he and others approached Bob Richardson, co-owner of the theater, about six years ago to consider staging plays at the closed theater in the village’s business district.
“I just asked if he had any plans for the building,” Kratt said. “He said he had something tentatively in mind, but was willing to experiment with us.”
Richardson had been considering using the building for offices or as warehouse.
“We started out with a group of high school students, but advertised in the local newspaper to see if there were any others interested in helping with the play,” Kratt said.
Kratt, who was involved with a play in Menomonie, met with about 15 to 20 interested people at the local senior citizens center and plans were made for the play “Night of January 16.”
Ann Turner of Spring Valley helped with Kratt’s direction of that play. Volunteers helped build the stage, make costumes and redecorate the theater.
Theater seats had already been moved into a large pile. They were returned to their original site, but some have still not been bolted in place.
“The roof had some problems with leaks and the first show some people got wet,” Kratt said. “That’s been taken care of, but it made for some interesting comments after that first show.”
Stagehands currently pays $475 a month in rent and if enough money is donated, an agreement could be reached to put a down payment on the building and make monthly payments less than the current rent, Kratt said.
“Most of the people who came to see our first production came out of curiosity.” Kratt said. “They wanted to see what the old movie theater looked like. I don’t know if they thought we were going to be any good or not, they were just interested in being in the theater again.”
But most of the 270 seats have been full for each showing.
“There is interest in this because the actors and helpers are not only from Spring Valley, but from areas all around here,” Kratt said. “This is not just a Spring Valley production, it’s an area production.”
The various shows have included people from Elmwood, Baldwin, Menomonie, Ellsworth, Plum City and Glenwood City. The troupe has a new show about every two months, with the next one scheduled in March.
“Most of the money we’ve made over the past years has been put right back into the shows,” Kratt said. “There’s always a need to improve our props, stage or something else. We run on a pretty tight budget, so we’re pretty thankful for all the volunteer help we get.”
Kratt said donations will be used to buy the building and upgrade its heating, lighting and plumbing facilities.
“We’re always looking for more volunteers in a variety of capacities,” Kratt said. Right now, we’re also looking for tax-deductible donations to help keep us going. We’re hoping this script calls for a happy ending.“ (February 17, 1991)
March 27, 1958.
(Oct 10, 1930) At a rental of $650 per month for a term of five years, the premises at 6855 Stony Island ave. have been leased by the Royal Palm Golf Course, Inc., from Dr. M. L. Weinstein, 29 E. Madison st.
The premises consist of approximately 10,000 square feet of floor space and will be used as an indoor golf course and fountain luncheonette. This indoor course will be the only one of its kind in Chicago. It will have several chip shots, real water hazards and sand traps.
The building was formerly the South Shore theater. It is being improved on the interior with violet ray sun lamp lighting and botanical decorations.
Philip A. Weinstein, 10 N. Clark st., was the attorney for the lessor in the negotiation of the lease, while Edward I. Rothbart, of the law firm of Short, Rothbart, Wilner and Lewis, 1 N. La Salle st, represented the lessee.
The decorative scheme of the auditorium and sta foyer carries out the same air of casual simplicity, and in fact differs from that of the lobby only in that the Nu-Wood planking above the wainscot is finished with assorted pastel shades instead of white. The rustic knotty pine wainscot continued throughout the house, even along the front of the screen platform.
The Nu-Wood panels above the auditorium wainscot are the only acoustical material inatalied. Robert Zielke declares that acoustically they are perfect.
Lighting of the auditorium is carried at by means of colored fluorescent tubing along the center of sta celling with rulveed incandescents in semi-indirect fixtures along the side walls for running lights. Flush type ceiling lighting is used elsewhere in the theatre - in the lobby, the foyer, the cry room (the latter is located on an upper level, alongside the projection room) and in the lounges.
Air conditioning provides a complete change of auditorium air every three minutes. Projectors are Brenkert, sound equipment RCA. The screen is 15 feet wide, illuminated by Strong one-Kilowatt high intensity lamps drawing 40 amperes from Strong Utility rectifiers.
Peacock and Belongia, members of STIR’s Architects Advisory Council, designed the Bruce. Robert Zielke manages it on behalf of his father and himself.
From The Vault: Grand Albee Theater was a downtown treasure for 50 years (by Greg Noble, Feb 25, 2016) For all of Cincinnati’s architectural treasures – Music Hall and Union Terminal included – the Albee Theater may have been the grandest.
Karl Topie, retired cellist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, was on the Albee stage when it opened on Christmas Eve, 1927. And he was there for the liquidation sale 50 years later, before the wrecker’s ball turned it into dust.
“It’s terrible to see it go,” he said. “It’s the most beautiful theater ever built.”
That’s what the original owners called it: the most magnificent theater in the world. It was certainly as opulent as any.
Outside, beckoning visitors through its double brass doors, was a majestic, two-story marble façade. Younger generations don’t have to imagine how that looked. Many see it whenever they come downtown, hanging on the Duke Energy Convention Center, at the side entrance at Fifth and Plum.
The five-story main lobby had lavish white Vermont marble walls, two grand marble staircases, six etched-border mirrors and a two-story stained-glass window. The three-story grand lobby was lit by nine brass and crystal chandeliers.
The ceilings were decorated with lavish rococo plasterwork accented in gold. Bet your home doesn’t have that.
The five-story, 4,000-seat auditorium had a proscenium arch, Corinthian columns and red swag drapery.
It was a theater fit for a king and it cost a king’s ransom - $4 million. Besides being one of the largest moving picture houses in the world, it had a full stage for live entertainment and hosted such greats as Fred Astaire, Jack Benny, Jackie Gleason and Ben Burnie, a renowned jazz violinist and bandleader.
Besides the façade, other theater treasures were also preserved. The Wurlitzer organ was moved to the Emery Theater on Walnut Street, then to the Music Hall Ballroom. Other pieces went to Music Hall, too. The brass doors went to the Ohio Theater in Columbus, along with some ornate, wrought-iron benches with red-velvet seats and even a porcelain drinking fountain. Nostalgic theater lovers took home hundreds of seats for $15 to $20 apiece or bought prisms from the chandeliers for $10 each.
While Columbus preservationists won their battle to save the Ohio Theater from downtown redevelopment, a handful of Cincinnatians who formed a group called Save The Albee could not.
The head of that group, Frances Vitali, operated a laundry in Corryville with her husband. The first threat came in 1972 when a Dallas group announced plans to buy the property at Fifth and Vine and build a 50-story office building and shopping arcade. Fearing that the tower would block out the sun – or at least keep Fountain Square in the dark much of the day – Vitali and others pulled together and rebuffed the threat.
But City Hall, city planners and developers were determined to rebuild the area around Fountain Square into a Central Business District. Other downtown theaters had already closed, unable to compete with the multiplex movie theaters springing up in the suburbs. The Albee’s days were numbered.
Vitali made a final appeal. She proposed a “Theater on the Square” concept open all year for the opera, ballet, touring shows, school graduations and youth programs.
“I see its value for bringing life back to the square,” she said, and at the time, the square needed it. “I’m only working on this because I think of the youth of tomorrow.”
But Vitali couldn’t block progress – or the bulldozers. In 1976, city council voted to tear down Fifth Street between Vine and Walnut for the Westin Hotel and Fountain Square South project.
The Albee was demolished in March, 1977 and that would be the end of the story, except for the marble façade. The city, which bought the building for $2 million so it could tear it down, didn’t have a use for the façade, and nobody else wanted it. So the city took it apart and stuck it away in storage for three years.
When the three-year contract was up, the city moved it to a highway maintenance lot under the Brent Spence Bridge in Queensgate. Six years passed, and the facade was no worse for no wear. It finally found a home at the Convention Center in 1986, soon to be joined by the Union Terminal murals getting evicted from CVG.
https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/72001/photos
(Kenosha News, 12/15/1996)
Orpheum emerges from its first year ready to take on the giants
For the 75-year-old Orpheum Theater, it has been a year of starring, supporting and waiting in the wings.
The Orpheum flickered to life at 5819 Sixth Ave, on Nov. 18, 1995 after decades of silence. Between 1,000 and 2,000 customers now pass through the building’s doors each week, depending on the movies offered and the time of year.
Since the curtain went up last year, owner Jeff Maher has steered his investment through the business climate of downtown Kenosha with a strategy of upgrades, discount promotions and old-fashioned perseverance.
The four-story Orpheum originally opened a 1,600-seat theater in March of 1922, but showed its last movie in the 1970s and had been vacant since 1990. The building survived several close calls with the wrecking ball before being designated a historic landmark in 1990.
Maher, 35, bought the building in early 1995 and divided its ground floor into two theaters, one with 218 seats, the other with 200. As a “second-run” theater, films are shown that have been out for about two months and are on their way to video.
Admission is $2 except for “dollar night”, on Tuesdays, when all films are $1. Maher and his wife, Janet, work at the theater to help supervise the larger crowds on those nights.
In its year of life the Orpheum has turned a small profit, which Maher used to upgrade the theaters' stereo surround sound and projector lenses.
Sometime next year, he plans to add two theaters upstairs, one with 120 seats, the other with 260 Eventually, as many as six theaters are possible.
Both of the new theaters will have stadium style seating, and one may be designated for classic films.
“Stadium seating will give me an advantage over the other theaters probably in a 100-mile radius,” Maher said. “It’s essentially like balcony seating, you have an unobstructed view. It’s the wave of the future, but it is expensive.”
The Orpheum Theater will soon be up against some powerful competition. Within the past two months, plans have been announced to open a 16-screen multiplex cinema at Southport Plaza and a 12-screen theater at 1-94 and Highway 20 next year.
Dallas-based Cinemark will open the 2.800-seat, 16-screen multiplex at Southport next fall, and Milwaukee-based Marcus Theatres Corp will open the 2,500-seat, 12-screen facility just four miles cast.
But Maher said if anything, multiplexes complement the Orpheum.
“I don’t feel we compete against the first-run (theaters),” he said. “People say "Star Trek' is out now, but if we wait a month we can see it at the Orpheum for $2.
Louis Micheln, outgoing president of the Kenosha Area Chamber of Commerce, said there is now enough movie business to around though cineplexes will stay popular in coming years.
“Movie theaters have cycles just like a lot of other businesses, so it’s had its ups and downs over the years”, Michelin said. “But by reading the entertainment sections of the papers, you can see there’s a resurgence in attendance. When you see these grosses being reported, you can tell people are going to a lot of movies.”
On November 30, 1969, the curtain came down for the final time at the Mondovi Theatre as the credits finished rolling for “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. Built in 1921, the theatre was razed in 1974.
‘Save The Grand, Urges Celeste Holm
Actress To Perform Tonight
In January, Celeste Holm visited Oshkosh for a benefit dinner, and while here spent a few moments giving her appraisal of the Grand Theater.
And at that time, Miss Holm expressed her desire to work in the Grand, for in her opinion it would be an excellent theater in which to give a performance, and certainly was a theater well worth saving.
Tonight Miss Holm will fulfill her desire to perform in Oshkosh when she stars in the comedy production of “Not Even In Spring” at 8:15. Асcording to sponsors of the event, a near-capacity audience is expected, although some seats should be available at the door.
Upon arrival in Oshkosh Monday Miss Holm met with the news media at an afternoon press conference at the Grand. She and her company have just finished “Not Even In Spring” in a four week engagement in Chicago, and while having a successful run with the play in Chicago the Hollywood actress devised the idea to bring the play to the Grand, donating the proceeds to the local cause.
In a final appeal to Oshkosh area residents Miss Holm told the press, “Don’t tear down what you will never be able to replace. Here is a theater where you can sit in any seat in the house and see and hear everything that goes on in the theater. In practically every playhouse today, electronics play such a large part in the performing of the show, that the true sound of the natural voice is no longer as important as it once was.
“In fact, there are very few theaters today that I would rank in the same class with the Grand. One would be the Music Box on Broadway, but there are just so few that give the actor the opportunity to display his real talent, as the Grand does.”
Explaining the importance of the small playhouses and theaters to the actress, Miss Holm said “The reason movies in Europe have such a great dramatic quality, is the fact that in Europe the actors have the opportunity to play in good playhouses at the same time they are making a movie, but in this country this is not true. By playing in these local playhouses, the actor has the opportunity to develop the dynamic qualities in his voice, which is so very important.”
“The ‘grass-root’ theaters that are springing up all over the country are worth every penny,” Miss Holm continued, “for they can be used for so much, plays, movies, concerts, almost anything. And any support that can be given to theaters such as the Grand should be given.”
Appearing with Miss Holm in the one-night performance are the other members of her cast direct from the Chicago performance of “Not Even In Spring” including Delphy Lawrence, Wesley Addy, Nelson Welch, and Herbert Nelson.
Following tonight’s show, Miss Holm will leave for Pasadena. Calif., where she will begin rehearsals for a new play, “Captain Brisban’s Conversion” which she will do at the Pasadena Playhouse. (August 30, 1966)
1971 photo.