If you look at the photo posted on July 1, 2005 by Lost Memory it looks to me like one of the names of the theater that should be listed at the top should be “BASIL’S LAFAYETTE”.
The seating should be changed to 3542.
The Mighty WurliTzer Theater Pipe Organ was/is Opus 501 and as of April 7, 2000 was still “OK” in a residence it was installed in 1973 in Stratford, Connecticut.
The “REAL” Mighty WurliTzer Theater Pipe Organ for this theater was Opus 585, a 3 Manual/15 Rank organ, shipped on September 29, 1922, a whole 17.9 miles, from the WurliTzer Headquarters in North Tonawanda, New York. The last anyone knows, in May of 1957, the organ went to a residence in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada and was still playable.
Speaking of film cans does anyone know how many floors up the projection booth was at the Clark? One good thing about working in the booth is you never got real bored with the same movie (say “The Sound of Music” for over a year), but hauling 2 movies every day up and down could get hard on the back. How high up did did they have to go?
Anyone know if they didn’t get the films sometimes or got mixed up reels?
I never saw films in the middle of the night, did many homeless folks spend the night at the Clark in cold weather?
“I don’t sell tickets to movies. I sell tickets to theatres.” Marcus Loew
The Mighty WurliTzer Theater Pipe Organ mentioned above is Opus 1206, a 4 Manual, 32 Rank monster shipped all the way from the WurliTzer Headquarters at 908 Niagara Falls Boulevard, North Tonwanda, New York, less then 18 miles away from the theater. It was shipped on November 30, 1925. As best as I can tell about 17 theaters in Buffalo had WurliTzers installed in them and this is the only theater that still has one. In fact this is one a the very few theaters that still has the original organ still installed in the original theater! Buffalo should be very PROUD.
REndres-Break my heart and mention the McClurg Court. Not exactly a movie palace, but technically a great place to screen a film. I looked back at the CT McClurg Court site and it lists “Fiddler” as the first movie and I did see it at the McClurg, GREAT SOUND. I do however seem to remember (at a previous movie that I saw at the McClurg) a womem employee all excited talking about “Fiddler” coming soon to the McClurg. Of course this was all over 35 years ago, I could have it mixed up. Pehaps they had a sneak preview or something? Not much to do with the McVickers, well they both start out with Mc!
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas September 30, 1952
KenC-thanks for your help, I remember that song, but that’s not the tune I remember from the CLARK. It seems to me they only played one song in the intermission, I don’t remember it being that one. Perhaps they started Delicado after I went into the Navy. I can’t remember did they show previews and did they show them between each film or after the double feature? Did a cartoon get shown? Sorta hard to remember after 45+ years. Anyway thanks for trying to come up with the song.
CHARLES BOOS
Please pass this on to Bruce Trinz. In the late 50’s and early 60’s my first job in high school was as a soda jerk at the Walgreens Redwood Inn Cafeteria at State and Madison. That had been the old Boston Store and is now a Sears. I had never seen many movies as I grew up so every chance I got I went over to the CLARK to see all those movies I had missed. I made up for lost time, what a film education I got! Thank you so much. In the early 60’s at intermision one instrumental song was played, I think it was on blank film, do you or anyone else recall what that tune was? It’s my one memory of the CLARK I can hum every place I go. Again, I can’t thank you enough.
I got distracted by Henry Plitt. I thought some dates might be helpful on when Plitt was here and when Cineplex Odeon was here. So here are those dates and for the fun of it all the important dates for Chicago theaters. Lets start at the very begining and see if I’ve got this sorta right?
1916 Balaban and Katz (B&K) Corporation formed.
1926 Famous Players Lasky Corporation buys a controlling interest in B&K.
1949 B&K becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of United Paramount Theatres.
1953 United Paramount Theatres mergers with American Broadcasting Company (ABC).
1970 B&K now a subsidiary of ABC is officially dissolved.
1974 Henry Plitt aquires from ABC Paramount the 123 northern division theaters for 25 million dollars.
1985 Cineplex-Odeon acquires Plitt Theaters.
1998 Lowes and Cineplex merge.
2006 AMC acquires Lowes.
Did I make any mistakes?
Life’s too short
Henry Plitt would be 90 if he is still around. I know he was a General in the U.S. Army Reserves. During World War II he captured a Nazi arch-antisemite which is sorta ironic seeing that Henry Plitt was Jewish, an interesting fellow. You can see his picture and hear/read his war story at the site below. http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/hps0055m.htm
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
September 30, 1952
SPearce
The only non full length CINERAMA movie that I know of was an 18 minute 360-degree screen film “To the Moon & Beyond” shown at the 1964 & 1965 New York Worlds Fair. The first full length CINERAMA movie was “This is CINERAMA”. An interesting site all about the CINERAMA movies and the CINERAMA theaters is http://cinerama.topcities.com/
To perhaps bring back some memories of “CINERAMA Holiday” go to http://www.imdp.com/title/tt0047939/
I notice that Cinema Treasures no longer lists any Chains or Styles as CINERAMA, which is how it should be.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas, September 30, 1952
The Lans Theater now Beggars Pizza is a building that is now 61 years old which means the Lans Theater must have opened in 1947. Lansing was settled by a lot of Dutch folks and those Dutch Reformed are pretty strict so it’s understandable what kind of movies the Lans showed. It’s a wonder they allowed the theater to be open on Sunday!
When it was Pipes and Pizza, Roger Triemstra, the WGN AM720 Radio, Superstation WGN TV9, Meteorologist from 1965 to 1998 was one of the owners. As far as I know a theater pipe organ had never been installed in the theater and the owners installed a 4 manual Barton Theater Pipe Organ. I don’t remember how many ranks and I don’t recall where it came from, but it’s a safe to say it came from Wisconsin cause all Bartons came from Oshkosh.
I don’t know about now, but as of last year Glenn Tallar was playing the Barton each Tuesday and Saturday night for Beggars Pizza. He’s 20, lives out southwest of Chicago in Homer Glen, is a Lockport Township High School graduate and goes to Columbia College. He sure makes it a fun place to eat pizza!
It’s diffucult to read, but as best as I can make out from this newspaper article www.flickr.com/photos/lastpictureshow/2184149247
The theater was built in the mid 1940’s by Don George. I think it had marble from Rome on the outside? It had nealy 1300 seats. Gulf State Theaters bought the theater in 1958. I think it closed in 1983? It sat empty for 3 years. It was diffucult to tear down and was torn down to make a parking lot.
Status needs to be changed to CLOSED/DEMOLISHED
Seats 1300
Bryan, thanks, I think those are both errors, or at least have a logical explanation, but I will check that all out with the Manteno Historical Society and some of the old timers here in town. Thanks for making the entry which is sorta forcing me to check into this.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
Bryan Krefft, What do you think of a guy who adds theaters on the Atlantic Coast but dosen’t add a theater that’s just a mile away from his house? That’s me. Shame on me! Course I’ve known about the Darb Theater but always wanted to get more facts before I added it to CT. I volunteer for the local community cable TV station and have taped over 80 programs (not counting sports) in the last 4 years and I want to do one with the Manteno Historical Society and some old timers talking about the businesses on Main Street and especially the Darb Theater but haven’t got to it yet. I think another theater was over near the American Leigion parking lot. Of course you always get a good argument going whenever they start talking about what business was in what building, which I think is a riot. Alas I haven’t got to it yet so I have never made an entry yet and you so to speak beat me to the punch, so let me add what I do sorta know.
This is what I know from talking with a former long time Manteno mayor and life long resident of Manteno whose son is President of the Manteno Historical Society and form my own observations. Although some think the theater burned down it did not and I can’t remember for sure (the former mayor is in Florida right now), but after it closed someone else was going to remodel the theater but after about 10 years never did finish and finally I think a Mr. Owens took the building over, put a “new” front on the building which is 2 storefronts wide, made offices on the first floor and appartments on the second floor. An addition was added to the back of the building. A stone in the brick in the front of the building states “OWENS BUILDING 1972”. 2 lawyers (including mine)and a CPA are in the offices. I understand that Mr. and Mrs. Owens had moved to Florida and that Mr. Owens has died.
The address is 33 North Main. I’m sure this was the theater because when you look at the roof from the alley you can still see the big vents up at the front of the building up on the roof for the projectors.
In the Manteno office of the Kankakee Daily Journal they have a nice photo on the wall labeled “St. Aubin Hardware Fire January 1951” (no mention of a Darb Theater Fire)
which shows this hardware store on fire, but to the south of it is the DARB it’s marquee reads
“MR MUSIC WITH BING CROSBY (release date 28 Dec 1950)
ALSO DALLAS IN TECHNICOLOR (release date 30 Dec 1950)
WITH GARY COOPER"
The flames are blowing to the north so the theater seems to be safe?
The address 417 Chestnut Street is located 4 miles east of "downtown” Manteno out in the “country” at the former Manteno State Hospital which at one time was an over 8,000 patient psychiatric hospital. It closed in 1985. Now it’s called Diversatech, part of it is Illinois Veterans Home at Manteno, an industrial park, housing developments, a resdential treatment center and good buildings just deserted or demolished. http://www.urbanlens.com/files/msh/msh.html
the building at 417 Chestnut Street the Mitchell Cottage was a 1 story brick H shapped building that took up an entire block and was built in the early 1930’s and would never have been a theater. It was torn down about 2 years ago. I have thought about listing Hinton Hall out at the hospital as a theater, but I have to check into that alot more.
It’s possible Main Street used to be Chestnut Street, but 417 would put it in the grain elevators of the Farmers Elevators Company of Manteno. Perhaps sometime ago the streets and numbering system in town got changed all around?
I would be interested to know where you got the address and that it was demolished.
Alas, the story can no longer be read at the Daily Journal unless you subscribe, but the complete story, but without pictures is on the CT Watseka Theater site on January 5, 2008.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
Well as you know if you now click the above you now can no longer read the article or see the photos. I don’t really expect anyone to subscribe to the Journal just to read this one article. I guess there must be some some way to scan the article and photos, but I don’t know how to do that so I will just type it out. Is that legal? My typing isn’t the greatest, sorry for any mistakes, wish we had spell check. Sorry about the photos.
From the Kankakee, Illinois, Daily Journal, Friday, December 28,2007
Local couple restores an art deco theater
Watseka—On New Year’s Eve, when the restored Watseka Theatre will reopen to the public after nine years, guests won’t get popcorn and a movie.
Instead they will get a look at what a former Cissna Park music teacher has been daydreaming about for 30 years—a hub for art and culture.
That former teacher, Chuck Gormez, and Debra Liddell, a dentist, will reopen The Watseka Theatre not as a movie house, but as a performing arts center available to rent.
The 1931 structure, which Gomez called an art deco treasure, is much more than a theater now. The building has a new bar, cafe, lounge and banquet room complete with closed-circuit television to watch the acts next door.
So far, the only other event (besides the New Year’s Eve Party) nailed down is a March 29 (2008) benefit by the Iroquois County Historical Society that will feature a singing act called the Sweethearts of Branson, Mo. But Gomez says that many local organizations are interested in bringing performers to Watseka or in using the building for their own dances, concerts and recitals.
The restoration has even attracted the attention of a filmaker who is working on a documentary about the project and will include interviews with local people, Gomez said.
A ‘brutal’ job
Gomez makes a living as a special events producer and produces the Columbia College graduation in Chicago each year. However, he has never restored a theater.
This isn’t just any theater, though. Gomez said that Louis Skidmore (1897-1962), the architect for the Hancock Center and the Sears Tower, designed the building.
It’s also seeped in local history. Gomez has heard stories from local couples who met and fell in love there, and even of a small group of men who pledged to enlist after hearing the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor moments before the movie started.
Liddel and Gomez, who live in Watseka, bought the theater last spring and began cleaning it out. The basement was practecally filled with debris.
“We spent two month just cleaning,” Gomez said, “It was brutal.”
Since then. the theater partners have used “ever contractor in Watseka”
While he had copies of the original blueprints, some elements were too expensive to restore. Take the crowns and sconces inside the theater. The original crowns were made from horsehair and plaster and were mounted atop columns of black-painted brick on either side of the theater. They would have been prohibitively expensive to replace, so FP Fiberglass' Fred Cahoe and Scott Burdick turned out replicas of these and other plaster decor that had fallen victims to water damage.
Cahoe said it was a challenging job because the goal was to make the fiberglass look like plaster, not a smooth, contemporary looking surface. “You want to make sure the flaws are back in it,” said Cahoe. “Plaster doesn’t have a certain design.”
Painting a new era
The theraer has been downsized from more than 600 seats to 425 new, wider theater chairs.
The auditorium originally had a shallow stage in front of the movie screen for vaudeille acts. The theater was built as the movies were eclipsing the older style of live entertainment. In a way, the renovation project is a throwback because the movie screen has been relocated to the rear wall of the stage area opening up a much larger space for singer, dancers, actors and musicians.
Several original murals are also in the process of being redone. Watseka artist Kathy Blunk created an impressionistic vision of the princess Watch-e-kee (after whom Watseka is named) for the lobby. Liddell painted a new Native American warrior to replace the faded one on the right-hand side of the stage. The image has been emlarged to about 20 feet high and is being hung this week. Originally, there was another male on the left hand side of the stage. However, Liddell is replacing him with a female Native American bearing a dream catcher, instead of a weapon.
In the lobby, art deco touches can be seen in the original terazzo floor, original floor-to-ceiling columns and in the original houndstooth crown moulding, which meets a scalloped design around the edge of the ceiling. The lobby color scheme is teal, nougat and rust — an art deco color scheme, according to Gomez.
The houndstooth is reminiscent of arrows, a design element that was present on the sconces and on the valance over the stage. The black vlance had to be mostly reconstructed, although it’s ready to to put up. In addition to arrowheads, it bears images of large water birds native to this area, which migrate in arrow formations.
And while the marquee still awaits transformation into a white-on-black neon sign, Gomez said Monday that 90 percent of the planned restortation will be finshed by New Year’s Eve.
Photo: Both the original chandelier and scoces survive in the lobby of the Watseka Theatre. An even larger, original chandelier hangs in the auditorium.
Photo: Debra Liddell holds up some of the artwork she had hand crafted for the Watseka Theatre.
Photo: Mike Brubach, of Bradley, and Dave Gudeman, of Dave’s Carpentry in Watseka, hang the crowns above the columns in the Watseka Theatre on Monday morning.
Another photo of the North Park
http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=7198
“THE SHOW STARTS ON THE SIDEWALK” S. Charles Lee/Maggie Valentine
If you look at the photo posted on July 1, 2005 by Lost Memory it looks to me like one of the names of the theater that should be listed at the top should be “BASIL’S LAFAYETTE”.
The seating should be changed to 3542.
The Mighty WurliTzer Theater Pipe Organ was/is Opus 501 and as of April 7, 2000 was still “OK” in a residence it was installed in 1973 in Stratford, Connecticut.
“Gee Dad, it "IS” a WurliTzer"
I think at one time this theater was used as a church??
“I don’t sell tickets to movies. I sell tickets to theatres.” Marcus Loew
Who explaines the rules? Are they listed someplace? I don’t want to make any mistakes! My computer makes enough for me!
“I don’t sell tickets to movies. I sell tickets to theaters.” Marcus Loew
The “REAL” Mighty WurliTzer Theater Pipe Organ for this theater was Opus 585, a 3 Manual/15 Rank organ, shipped on September 29, 1922, a whole 17.9 miles, from the WurliTzer Headquarters in North Tonawanda, New York. The last anyone knows, in May of 1957, the organ went to a residence in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada and was still playable.
“Gee Dad, it’s a WurliTzer!”
That WurliTzer Theater Pipe Organ was a 2 Manual 4 Rank. It is not known what happened to the organ.
“Gee Dad, it "WAS” a WurliTzer!"
Speaking of film cans does anyone know how many floors up the projection booth was at the Clark? One good thing about working in the booth is you never got real bored with the same movie (say “The Sound of Music” for over a year), but hauling 2 movies every day up and down could get hard on the back. How high up did did they have to go?
Anyone know if they didn’t get the films sometimes or got mixed up reels?
I never saw films in the middle of the night, did many homeless folks spend the night at the Clark in cold weather?
“I don’t sell tickets to movies. I sell tickets to theatres.” Marcus Loew
The Mighty WurliTzer Theater Pipe Organ mentioned above is Opus 1206, a 4 Manual, 32 Rank monster shipped all the way from the WurliTzer Headquarters at 908 Niagara Falls Boulevard, North Tonwanda, New York, less then 18 miles away from the theater. It was shipped on November 30, 1925. As best as I can tell about 17 theaters in Buffalo had WurliTzers installed in them and this is the only theater that still has one. In fact this is one a the very few theaters that still has the original organ still installed in the original theater! Buffalo should be very PROUD.
“Gee Dad, it "IS” a WurliTzer!"
REndres-Break my heart and mention the McClurg Court. Not exactly a movie palace, but technically a great place to screen a film. I looked back at the CT McClurg Court site and it lists “Fiddler” as the first movie and I did see it at the McClurg, GREAT SOUND. I do however seem to remember (at a previous movie that I saw at the McClurg) a womem employee all excited talking about “Fiddler” coming soon to the McClurg. Of course this was all over 35 years ago, I could have it mixed up. Pehaps they had a sneak preview or something? Not much to do with the McVickers, well they both start out with Mc!
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas September 30, 1952
Lost Memory-that’s why I wrote “a” Columbia Theater. I wasn’t sure. It’s the missing LINK! Sorry I had to add that.
This theater was at one time the Columbia and a Link Theatre Organ was installed in a Columbia Theatre in Buffalo in 1924.
“Gee Dad, it was a Link!”
See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_G-jzEFK4k
“Gee Dad, it was a WurliTzer!”
KenC-thanks for your help, I remember that song, but that’s not the tune I remember from the CLARK. It seems to me they only played one song in the intermission, I don’t remember it being that one. Perhaps they started Delicado after I went into the Navy. I can’t remember did they show previews and did they show them between each film or after the double feature? Did a cartoon get shown? Sorta hard to remember after 45+ years. Anyway thanks for trying to come up with the song.
CHARLES BOOS
Please pass this on to Bruce Trinz. In the late 50’s and early 60’s my first job in high school was as a soda jerk at the Walgreens Redwood Inn Cafeteria at State and Madison. That had been the old Boston Store and is now a Sears. I had never seen many movies as I grew up so every chance I got I went over to the CLARK to see all those movies I had missed. I made up for lost time, what a film education I got! Thank you so much. In the early 60’s at intermision one instrumental song was played, I think it was on blank film, do you or anyone else recall what that tune was? It’s my one memory of the CLARK I can hum every place I go. Again, I can’t thank you enough.
Ah yes, Marcus Loew would never forgive me, thanks.
I got distracted by Henry Plitt. I thought some dates might be helpful on when Plitt was here and when Cineplex Odeon was here. So here are those dates and for the fun of it all the important dates for Chicago theaters. Lets start at the very begining and see if I’ve got this sorta right?
1916 Balaban and Katz (B&K) Corporation formed.
1926 Famous Players Lasky Corporation buys a controlling interest in B&K.
1949 B&K becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of United Paramount Theatres.
1953 United Paramount Theatres mergers with American Broadcasting Company (ABC).
1970 B&K now a subsidiary of ABC is officially dissolved.
1974 Henry Plitt aquires from ABC Paramount the 123 northern division theaters for 25 million dollars.
1985 Cineplex-Odeon acquires Plitt Theaters.
1998 Lowes and Cineplex merge.
2006 AMC acquires Lowes.
Did I make any mistakes?
“Gee Dad, it was a WurliTzer!”
Life’s too short
Henry Plitt would be 90 if he is still around. I know he was a General in the U.S. Army Reserves. During World War II he captured a Nazi arch-antisemite which is sorta ironic seeing that Henry Plitt was Jewish, an interesting fellow. You can see his picture and hear/read his war story at the site below.
http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/hps0055m.htm
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
September 30, 1952
That second one is a typo, it should be
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047939/
Sorry.
“Gee Dad, it was a Wurlitzer!”
SPearce
The only non full length CINERAMA movie that I know of was an 18 minute 360-degree screen film “To the Moon & Beyond” shown at the 1964 & 1965 New York Worlds Fair. The first full length CINERAMA movie was “This is CINERAMA”. An interesting site all about the CINERAMA movies and the CINERAMA theaters is
http://cinerama.topcities.com/
To perhaps bring back some memories of “CINERAMA Holiday” go to
http://www.imdp.com/title/tt0047939/
I notice that Cinema Treasures no longer lists any Chains or Styles as CINERAMA, which is how it should be.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas, September 30, 1952
The Lans Theater now Beggars Pizza is a building that is now 61 years old which means the Lans Theater must have opened in 1947. Lansing was settled by a lot of Dutch folks and those Dutch Reformed are pretty strict so it’s understandable what kind of movies the Lans showed. It’s a wonder they allowed the theater to be open on Sunday!
When it was Pipes and Pizza, Roger Triemstra, the WGN AM720 Radio, Superstation WGN TV9, Meteorologist from 1965 to 1998 was one of the owners. As far as I know a theater pipe organ had never been installed in the theater and the owners installed a 4 manual Barton Theater Pipe Organ. I don’t remember how many ranks and I don’t recall where it came from, but it’s a safe to say it came from Wisconsin cause all Bartons came from Oshkosh.
I don’t know about now, but as of last year Glenn Tallar was playing the Barton each Tuesday and Saturday night for Beggars Pizza. He’s 20, lives out southwest of Chicago in Homer Glen, is a Lockport Township High School graduate and goes to Columbia College. He sure makes it a fun place to eat pizza!
“Gee Dad, it’s a Barton!”
It’s diffucult to read, but as best as I can make out from this newspaper article
www.flickr.com/photos/lastpictureshow/2184149247
The theater was built in the mid 1940’s by Don George. I think it had marble from Rome on the outside? It had nealy 1300 seats. Gulf State Theaters bought the theater in 1958. I think it closed in 1983? It sat empty for 3 years. It was diffucult to tear down and was torn down to make a parking lot.
Status needs to be changed to CLOSED/DEMOLISHED
Seats 1300
“Gee Dad, it was a WurliTzer!”
Bryan, thanks, I think those are both errors, or at least have a logical explanation, but I will check that all out with the Manteno Historical Society and some of the old timers here in town. Thanks for making the entry which is sorta forcing me to check into this.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
Bryan Krefft, What do you think of a guy who adds theaters on the Atlantic Coast but dosen’t add a theater that’s just a mile away from his house? That’s me. Shame on me! Course I’ve known about the Darb Theater but always wanted to get more facts before I added it to CT. I volunteer for the local community cable TV station and have taped over 80 programs (not counting sports) in the last 4 years and I want to do one with the Manteno Historical Society and some old timers talking about the businesses on Main Street and especially the Darb Theater but haven’t got to it yet. I think another theater was over near the American Leigion parking lot. Of course you always get a good argument going whenever they start talking about what business was in what building, which I think is a riot. Alas I haven’t got to it yet so I have never made an entry yet and you so to speak beat me to the punch, so let me add what I do sorta know.
This is what I know from talking with a former long time Manteno mayor and life long resident of Manteno whose son is President of the Manteno Historical Society and form my own observations. Although some think the theater burned down it did not and I can’t remember for sure (the former mayor is in Florida right now), but after it closed someone else was going to remodel the theater but after about 10 years never did finish and finally I think a Mr. Owens took the building over, put a “new” front on the building which is 2 storefronts wide, made offices on the first floor and appartments on the second floor. An addition was added to the back of the building. A stone in the brick in the front of the building states “OWENS BUILDING 1972”. 2 lawyers (including mine)and a CPA are in the offices. I understand that Mr. and Mrs. Owens had moved to Florida and that Mr. Owens has died.
The address is 33 North Main. I’m sure this was the theater because when you look at the roof from the alley you can still see the big vents up at the front of the building up on the roof for the projectors.
In the Manteno office of the Kankakee Daily Journal they have a nice photo on the wall labeled “St. Aubin Hardware Fire January 1951” (no mention of a Darb Theater Fire)
which shows this hardware store on fire, but to the south of it is the DARB it’s marquee reads
“MR MUSIC WITH BING CROSBY (release date 28 Dec 1950)
ALSO DALLAS IN TECHNICOLOR (release date 30 Dec 1950)
WITH GARY COOPER"
The flames are blowing to the north so the theater seems to be safe?
The address 417 Chestnut Street is located 4 miles east of "downtown” Manteno out in the “country” at the former Manteno State Hospital which at one time was an over 8,000 patient psychiatric hospital. It closed in 1985. Now it’s called Diversatech, part of it is Illinois Veterans Home at Manteno, an industrial park, housing developments, a resdential treatment center and good buildings just deserted or demolished.
http://www.urbanlens.com/files/msh/msh.html
the building at 417 Chestnut Street the Mitchell Cottage was a 1 story brick H shapped building that took up an entire block and was built in the early 1930’s and would never have been a theater. It was torn down about 2 years ago. I have thought about listing Hinton Hall out at the hospital as a theater, but I have to check into that alot more.
It’s possible Main Street used to be Chestnut Street, but 417 would put it in the grain elevators of the Farmers Elevators Company of Manteno. Perhaps sometime ago the streets and numbering system in town got changed all around?
I would be interested to know where you got the address and that it was demolished.
“Gee Dad, it was a WurliTzer!”
Alas, the story can no longer be read at the Daily Journal unless you subscribe, but the complete story, but without pictures is on the CT Watseka Theater site on January 5, 2008.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!” Lowell Thomas
Well as you know if you now click the above you now can no longer read the article or see the photos. I don’t really expect anyone to subscribe to the Journal just to read this one article. I guess there must be some some way to scan the article and photos, but I don’t know how to do that so I will just type it out. Is that legal? My typing isn’t the greatest, sorry for any mistakes, wish we had spell check. Sorry about the photos.
From the Kankakee, Illinois, Daily Journal, Friday, December 28,2007
Local couple restores an art deco theater
Watseka—On New Year’s Eve, when the restored Watseka Theatre will reopen to the public after nine years, guests won’t get popcorn and a movie.
Instead they will get a look at what a former Cissna Park music teacher has been daydreaming about for 30 years—a hub for art and culture.
That former teacher, Chuck Gormez, and Debra Liddell, a dentist, will reopen The Watseka Theatre not as a movie house, but as a performing arts center available to rent.
The 1931 structure, which Gomez called an art deco treasure, is much more than a theater now. The building has a new bar, cafe, lounge and banquet room complete with closed-circuit television to watch the acts next door.
So far, the only other event (besides the New Year’s Eve Party) nailed down is a March 29 (2008) benefit by the Iroquois County Historical Society that will feature a singing act called the Sweethearts of Branson, Mo. But Gomez says that many local organizations are interested in bringing performers to Watseka or in using the building for their own dances, concerts and recitals.
The restoration has even attracted the attention of a filmaker who is working on a documentary about the project and will include interviews with local people, Gomez said.
A ‘brutal’ job
Gomez makes a living as a special events producer and produces the Columbia College graduation in Chicago each year. However, he has never restored a theater.
This isn’t just any theater, though. Gomez said that Louis Skidmore (1897-1962), the architect for the Hancock Center and the Sears Tower, designed the building.
It’s also seeped in local history. Gomez has heard stories from local couples who met and fell in love there, and even of a small group of men who pledged to enlist after hearing the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor moments before the movie started.
Liddel and Gomez, who live in Watseka, bought the theater last spring and began cleaning it out. The basement was practecally filled with debris.
“We spent two month just cleaning,” Gomez said, “It was brutal.”
Since then. the theater partners have used “ever contractor in Watseka”
While he had copies of the original blueprints, some elements were too expensive to restore. Take the crowns and sconces inside the theater. The original crowns were made from horsehair and plaster and were mounted atop columns of black-painted brick on either side of the theater. They would have been prohibitively expensive to replace, so FP Fiberglass' Fred Cahoe and Scott Burdick turned out replicas of these and other plaster decor that had fallen victims to water damage.
Cahoe said it was a challenging job because the goal was to make the fiberglass look like plaster, not a smooth, contemporary looking surface. “You want to make sure the flaws are back in it,” said Cahoe. “Plaster doesn’t have a certain design.”
Painting a new era
The theraer has been downsized from more than 600 seats to 425 new, wider theater chairs.
The auditorium originally had a shallow stage in front of the movie screen for vaudeille acts. The theater was built as the movies were eclipsing the older style of live entertainment. In a way, the renovation project is a throwback because the movie screen has been relocated to the rear wall of the stage area opening up a much larger space for singer, dancers, actors and musicians.
Several original murals are also in the process of being redone. Watseka artist Kathy Blunk created an impressionistic vision of the princess Watch-e-kee (after whom Watseka is named) for the lobby. Liddell painted a new Native American warrior to replace the faded one on the right-hand side of the stage. The image has been emlarged to about 20 feet high and is being hung this week. Originally, there was another male on the left hand side of the stage. However, Liddell is replacing him with a female Native American bearing a dream catcher, instead of a weapon.
In the lobby, art deco touches can be seen in the original terazzo floor, original floor-to-ceiling columns and in the original houndstooth crown moulding, which meets a scalloped design around the edge of the ceiling. The lobby color scheme is teal, nougat and rust — an art deco color scheme, according to Gomez.
The houndstooth is reminiscent of arrows, a design element that was present on the sconces and on the valance over the stage. The black vlance had to be mostly reconstructed, although it’s ready to to put up. In addition to arrowheads, it bears images of large water birds native to this area, which migrate in arrow formations.
And while the marquee still awaits transformation into a white-on-black neon sign, Gomez said Monday that 90 percent of the planned restortation will be finshed by New Year’s Eve.
Photo: Both the original chandelier and scoces survive in the lobby of the Watseka Theatre. An even larger, original chandelier hangs in the auditorium.
Photo: Debra Liddell holds up some of the artwork she had hand crafted for the Watseka Theatre.
Photo: Mike Brubach, of Bradley, and Dave Gudeman, of Dave’s Carpentry in Watseka, hang the crowns above the columns in the Watseka Theatre on Monday morning.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!”