McHenry Outdoor Theater celebrates 75 years of movies under the stars
Just like they have on most every summer night for the past three quarters of a century, drivers make their way down gravel paths, kicking up dust and passing rows of speaker poles as they look for the perfect spot to watch a movie at the McHenry Outdoor Theater.
While the name has changed since that first car pulled into the Skyline Drive-In on July 20, 1951, to see “Rogues of Sherwood Forest,” the feeling of excitement when images start to flicker on the six-story screen hasn’t.
“It’s very unique, and I think it’s very important to preserve it,” owner Scott Dehn said.
The screen at the McHenry Outdoor Theater is roughly six stories tall and 100 feet wide. The theater opened as Skyline Drive-In on July 20, 1951, with a showing of “Rogues of Sherwood Forest.” Rick West/
The theater in Lakemoor (the property the theater is situated on was annexed from McHenry in 2020) is celebrating 75 years since first opening at 1510 Chapel Hill Road.
Open during the golden age of outdoor theaters, the McHenry is the only remaining drive-in in the suburbs.
Dehn purchased the theater 26 years ago. He said his earliest childhood memory was seeing a movie with his parents and sister at the very drive-in he now owns.
“I know exactly where we were parked, and I remember the two movies I saw were ‘Star Trek III’ and ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,’” he said. “I already loved movies at that point. But this was the biggest building I’d ever seen at that young age, and I was like, ‘Wow! They show a movie on there?’ I was just captivated.”
The experience of being able to get out of the car and run around before the movie, and seeing people together in groups, stuck with him.
“I became infatuated with the whole communal movie experience,” Dehn said.
While they’re still there, the drive-in speakers at the McHenry Outdoor Theater don’t emit sound anymore. Sounds are broadcast over loudspeakers throughout the site and simulcast on FM radio. Rick West/
People are still embracing that experience. Dehn said they’ll get 600 to 700 cars on weekend nights to the theater, which is generally open from April to December.
Charles and Anna Ellis of Woodstock said they’ve had season passes for their family for two years and come every Wednesday for “subtitle night,” or any time a new movie comes out.
“I grew up going to drive-ins,” Charles Ellis said. “It was a whole family affair every summer. We like that it’s passing on to the next generation.”
Their experience showed.
Not only was the bed of their truck covered in cushions and pillows, but a hammock attached to a stand on the tow hitch allowed Charles to gently swing and pass the time before the movie started
“We’ve got it set up now so it’s almost as comfortable as sitting on our couch at home,” he said.
A few spaces over, Mason Snider and Chloe Schadle of Belvidere perched in the back of a pickup truck, eating popcorn and getting ready to take in their first drive-in movie. Both 17, they were the target audience when the industry was thriving.
“Seeing it in movies has kind of made it nostalgic for me, even though I’ve never been to one,” Schadle said. “When you see it, it always brings a vibe, and it looks cool.”
Dehn said he’s tried to make the theater a destination for families and has made a variety of improvements to the property over the years to enhance the movie-watching experience, including replacing the screen and renovating the concession stand three years ago.
“Everything’s as upgraded as it can be right now,” he said.
While only about 300 drive-ins still operate in the United States, Dehn said there were “thousands” when he bought the McHenry Outdoor in 2000.
Most closed because they couldn’t afford new equipment when the movie industry switched from traditional 35 mm film to digital projection.
Dehn faced the same dilemma, but saw an opportunity when Honda offered an online contest called “Project Drive-In” in 2013, which the company described as “a national effort to save as many of America’s remaining drive-ins as possible” by supplying them with free digital projection setups.
Dehn got the word out about the effort, which required people to vote online for the theater they wanted to receive the equipment. Moviegoers rallied, and they were one of nine theaters nationally chosen.
“What saved the theater is what I love most about it; it’s that the community comes together,” he said. “I mean, they come here because they want to see ‘Moana’ or ‘Toy Story,’ but they want to share that experience together, and it becomes like a block party where there just happens to be a couple of movies playing.”
To celebrate the anniversary, the theater will give the first 75 cars free admission on Tuesday, July 21, and Thursday, July 23, to showings of the live-action “Moana” and “The Odyssey.”
As part of the theater’s “golden ticket” promotion, one winner will receive a ticket good for every movie, every season, for the next 75 years. To sign up for the giveaway, visit goldenagecinemas.com/goldenticket.
Dehn said he still finds it hard to believe that the theater is turning 75 and that he’s been a part of it for over a third of its history.
“There’s not that many (drive-ins) that can say that,” he said. “I love movies. I love what you get out of seeing movies with your friends, your family, the community, your neighbors. It’s my job to take care of it and leave it better than I found it. I hope that whoever comes after me can keep that going for another 75 years.” (by Rick West)
Former Egyptian Theatre Executive Director Barbara Kummerfeldt passes away
DeKalb, IL – The Egyptian Theatre is saddened to announce that former Executive Director Barbara Kummerfeldt passed away on January 20th at the age of 87.
Kummerfeldt’s multi-decade history with the Egyptian Theatre started during the late 1970’s when she, along with her husband Irv, were part of the original steering committee that was instrumental in saving the Egyptian Theatre from the literal wrecking ball. She along with a group of concerned citizens worked to get the building listed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1978 and formed the non-profit organization, Preservation of Egyptian Theatre, which continues to own and operate the Theatre to this day.
“Barb dedicated an impressive number of years to the Egyptian Theatre. There is no doubt she has left a lasting imprint on the history of the Theatre,” stated Alex Nerad, Egyptian Theatre Executive Director.
Thanks to Kummerfeldt’s efforts, she, along with many dedicated community members, were able to secure a $2.3 million grant from the State of Illinois in 1982. This money was used to restore the Theatre to its original 1929 splendor.
“Barb never wearied in her passion for the preservation of the Egyptian Theatre,” said DeKalb City Manager Bill Nicklas. “From the preservation campaign that she and her late husband, Irv, successfully led to renovate the historic theatre in the 1980s to the present, she thought about and talked about what might be done to make it better every day.”
When the Theatre reopened in 1983 after its restoration, she became the first Executive Director of the non-profit serving until 1988 where she helped to see that it was host to dozens of events a year including robust film programming.
“Without Barb Kummerfeldt there most likely would be a parking lot at 135 N. Second St. instead of the historic landmark Egyptian Theatre,” stated former Egyptian Theatre Board Member Barb Josh. “She not only cleared the initial hurdle of saving the Theatre from the wrecking ball, but the even larger one of funding its restoration and making it financially viable. She, along with her husband Irv, and a handful of others made the building operational so it could be open to the public during its restoration. In all aspects, she was always hands on.”
Many community members who worked with Kummerfeldt during her tenure at the Egyptian Theatre have begun to share their memories of Barb following her passing.
“It’s very possible that we would have never seen the revitalization of the Egyptian Theatre if it had not been for Irv and Barbara Kummerfeldt. As a matter of fact, this community treasure might not even be intact had it not been for the dogged determination of the Kummerfeldt’s over 40 years ago. Now, we share in the sadness in Barb’s passing, but we celebrate her stewardship that continued for many years following the establishment of the Preservation of Egyptian Theatre organization. We will continue the celebration of Barb Kummerfeldt’s life later this year, as we look forward to a gala grand opening of the Egyptian Theatre,” stated City of DeKalb Mayor Jerry Smith.
“The City of DeKalb has lost a champion. The dedication of Barb Kummerfeldt, as Director of the Egyptian Theatre merits a chapter in the community’s history,” stated charter P.E.T. members Roger and Mary Keys. “Barb championed the Egyptian as a cultural arts center for the city when the building was filled with snow and falling apart. Beginning in the late 1970’s as a charter member of Preservation of Egyptian Theatre she opened her home for meetings, helped keep the lights on during trying times and supported fellow volunteers. With grateful hearts we mourn her passing.”
“When I first came to NIU/DeKalb, Barbara Kummerfeldt was one of the first people to welcome me and got on the bandwagon of supporting the NIU Show Band. The method to her madness was getting me to support her and Irv’s efforts in saving the Egyptian Theatre. DeKalb will forever be indebted to Barbara Kummerfeldt for her love, commitment, and preservation of the theatre – a DeKalb Treasure.” stated Michael Embrey who presented shows at the Egyptian Theatre during Kummerfeldt’s tenure.
Her longstanding impact on the Egyptian Theatre will forever be a part of its rich history.
Additional memories and tributes will continue to be shared on the Egyptian Theatre social media and website: www.egyptiantheatre.org.
(April 19, 1930)
Theatre Deal Goes In Effect At Midnight
Warner Brothers To Take Over Sheboygan Theatre And Other Theatres In Wisconsin
It was unofficially announced today that Warner Bros, one of the leading film companies in the United States, has taken over the Wisconsin branch of the Universal Theatrical Enterprises chain of theatres, and that the concern will assume ownership at 12 o'clock midnight tonight and will start operating these theatres Sunday.
Theatres included are the Sheboygan theatre, which was erected at a cost of $600,000 and which was opened to the public in 1928; Venetian theatre at Racine, Kenosha theatre at Kenosha, and all the Universal theatres in Milwaukee except the Alhambra. Among the Milwaukee theatres are the Lake, State, Downer, Juneau, Nation and Kosciuszko.
The deal, which has been in the course of consummation during the past week, involves millions of dollars in theatre values.
Manager K. G. Wood of the Sheboygan theatre today would not make official comment as to the completion of negotiations, but admitted that he was notified late Friday to take a complete inventory of his theatre, and to check meters at the close of business tonight.
Family aims to restore old movie theater -
Granada was constructed in Racine in 1928
(By Michael Burke, The Racine Journal Times)
In the late 1920s, people of this city were constructing lavish movie theaters as fast as Walgreens were built in two years, and most neighborhoods had one nearby.
But by the 1970s, another generation of residents was demolishing the old movie houses like they were rat-infested eyesores.
Today it’s nearly impossible to find an old theater here that’s both semi-intact and feasible to restore. However, one comes close.
The Namowicz family of Warren Industries has bought and wants to restore the former Granada Theater, 1921 Charles St. “We want to bring back the glamour” of the 1928 theater, said David Namowicz.
Given acceptable restoration costs, the owners envision possibly turning the building into a banquet hall and/or events center.
It was Namowicz who first explored the old building - last used by its Illinois owner for storage and saw its potential. Steven, Thomas, Carolyn and Michael Namowicz went along with the idea, and the family bought the structure for $150,000.
David Namowicz indicated the theater lobby’s ceiling and said, “That’s what caught my eye.”
Its considerable architectural detail is all there - just as much of the plaster work throughout the building remains. The main original features missing are the stage and the sloping floor. A poured, level concrete floor forever obscures the original floor.
However, much of the stage house remains, including the large proscenium arch and the fly loft, just under the ceiling, which is 48 feet tall there. From the loft, workers would haul away scenery used in the vaudeville plays, said theater historian Fred Hermes of Racine.
Hermes said five local theaters were built in about 1927-28: the Granada, Capitol, Majestic, Crown and Venetian. “There was a tremendous interest in silent films,” he said, and vaudeville was still popular entertainment.
The Granada Theater, which operated until 1961, differentiated itself from other local theaters with its Spanish theme, “so it was kind of gaudy,” Namowicz said.
In the early years, for 15 cents a person, one could go to one of those grand theaters “and be treated like a queen,” Hermes said. “It was just as much a treat to see the inside as it was to see the movie.”
Among local movie theaters. the Granada wasn’t one of the most opulent. It was “a little bit below the middle,” Hermes said. However, by today’s standards, it’s a delight, with 24-foot ceilings in the seating area, terrazzo floors, and intricate plaster work adorning the walls and ceilings.
“It’ll never be like the Venetian and Rialto, Namowicz said, "but it’s definitely gorgeous.”
The building even has the original fireplace in the lobby. “I found (it) last week Namowicz said, hidden behind one of the walls that was added later to carve up the theater for later uses.
The Granada fared better in its decades of disuse than most local theaters. Most obviously, it wasn’t razed. Second, its domed roof undoubtedly helped ward off water damage. Finally, whoever erected interior walls did so respectfully, causing very slight damage to the structure.
“We got lucky here, because so far the damage is nominal,” Namowicz said.
When the old theater went on the market, he said, other bids came from a print shop and an auto repair business. Namowicz and his family didn’t think either one came close to realizing the Granada’s potential.
In addition to the theater itself, they bought the adjacent building at 1925 Charles St. All their plans are predicated on a restoration cost they can afford but if it does happen, that next-door building will play a part.
To run a banquet hall/events center they’d need a large kitchen, and to meet present building codes they’d need new bathrooms. They could put the kitchen and bathrooms in the adjacent building with a doorway in between, “so we don’t damage the theater, Namowicz explained.
“What I really need right now,” he said, “I need someone with some pictures” from the Granada’s early years.
If the costs aren’t prohibitive and the restoration can be done, the Granada will become a tangible link to a bygone era In Racine.
Namowicz said “It’s definitely going to give the city of Racine the feeling for what we have lost.”
Family aims to restore old movie theater -
Granada was constructed in Racine in 1928
(By Michael Burke, The Racine Journal Times)
In the late 1920s, people of this city were constructing lavish movie theaters as fast as Walgreens were built in two years, and most neighborhoods had one nearby.
But by the 1970s, another generation of residents was demolishing the old movie houses like they were rat-infested eyesores.
Today it’s nearly impossible to find an old theater here that’s both semi-intact and feasible to restore. However, one comes close.
The Namowicz family of Warren Industries has bought and wants to restore the former Granada Theater, 1921 Charles St. “We want to bring back the glamour” of the 1928 theater, said David Namowicz.
Given acceptable restoration costs, the owners envision possibly turning the building into a banquet hall and/or events center.
It was Namowicz who first explored the old building - last used by its Illinois owner for storage and saw its potential. Steven, Thomas, Carolyn and Michael Namowicz went along with the idea, and the family bought the structure for $150,000.
David Namowicz indicated the theater lobby’s ceiling and said, “That’s what caught my eye.”
Its considerable architectural detail is all there - just as much of the plaster work throughout the building remains. The main original features missing are the stage and the sloping floor. A poured, level concrete floor forever obscures the original floor.
However, much of the stage house remains, including the large proscenium arch and the fly loft, just under the ceiling, which is 48 feet tall there. From the loft, workers would haul away scenery used in the vaudeville plays, said theater historian Fred Hermes of Racine.
Hermes said five local theaters were built in about 1927-28: the Granada, Capitol, Majestic, Crown and Venetian. “There was a tremendous interest in silent films,” he said, and vaudeville was still popular entertainment.
The Granada Theater, which operated until 1961, differentiated itself from other local theaters with its Spanish theme, “so it was kind of gaudy,” Namowicz said.
In the early years, for 15 cents a person, one could go to one of those grand theaters “and be treated like a queen,” Hermes said. “It was just as much a treat to see the inside as it was to see the movie.”
Among local movie theaters. the Granada wasn’t one of the most opulent. It was “a little bit below the middle,” Hermes said. However, by today’s standards, it’s a delight, with 24-foot ceilings in the seating area, terrazzo floors, and intricate plaster work adorning the walls and ceilings.
“It’ll never be like the Venetian and Rialto, Namowicz said, "but it’s definitely gorgeous.”
The building even has the original fireplace in the lobby. “I found (it) last week Namowicz said, hidden behind one of the walls that was added later to carve up the theater for later uses.
The Granada fared better in its decades of disuse than most local theaters. Most obviously, it wasn’t razed. Second, its domed roof undoubtedly helped ward off water damage. Finally, whoever erected interior walls did so respectfully, causing very slight damage to the structure.
“We got lucky here, because so far the damage is nominal,” Namowicz said.
When the old theater went on the market, he said, other bids came from a print shop and an auto repair business. Namowicz and his family didn’t think either one came close to realizing the Granada’s potential.
In addition to the theater itself, they bought the adjacent building at 1925 Charles St. All their plans are predicated on a restoration cost they can afford but if it does happen, that next-door building will play a part.
To run a banquet hall/events center they’d need a large kitchen, and to meet present building codes they’d need new bathrooms. They could put the kitchen and bathrooms in the adjacent building with a doorway in between, “so we don’t damage the theater, Namowicz explained.
“What I really need right now,” he said, “I need someone with some pictures” from the Granada’s early years.
If the costs aren’t prohibitive and the restoration can be done, the Granada will become a tangible link to a bygone era In Racine.
Namowicz said “It’s definitely going to give the city of Racine the feeling for what we have lost.”
(August 28, 2005)
“A mighty enemy of the darkness is this electric theatre sign of 1,800 lights. It is one of the recent the erections of the Milne Electric Sign Company, Milwaukee. It is 34 feet high and six feet wide. The letters measure 24 inches in height and are of the gold bevel edge channel type. There are three channel borders all along the sign.”
Park Ridge ordinance protects Pickwick Theatre structure, though its future as a movie-viewing venue is in question (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune, December 10, 2022) - News that the Pickwick Theatre would show its final picture in January sparked a flurry of local discussion about what would happen to its 1928 art deco-style building, but its owner — and a local ordinance — will ensure that the historic structure remains as it is.
Less than a day after co-owner Dino Vlahakis announced the final showing would take place early next year, a “Save the Pickwick” Facebook page sprang up and area residents expressed worry about the future of the vintage theater, which many consider a symbol of Park Ridge and a jewel in the area.
Now, a cadre of interested operators and a jump in ticket sales have its owners optimistic about the future of movies in the space — but whatever happens, the building itself will stay intact, Vlahakis said.
Vlahakis explained that local law ensures the Pickwick’s facade will be preserved regardless of who owns the building or what its use is.
“Now, the actual auditorium, believe it or not, can be destroyed,” he said. “Well, under my watch, that’s not going to happen.”
In fact, Vlahakis said, the local Park Ridge preservation ordinance has more teeth to preserve the Pickwick than does its status on the National Register of Historic Places.
Register status “just gives you the title; there’s some tax benefits,” Vlahakis said.
The city of Park Ridge designated the theater a landmark under a city ordinance that created the Historic Preservation Commission, Community Preservation and Development Director Drew Awsumb told Chicago Tribune/Pioneer Press. The ordinance passed in January 2010, and the Pickwick became the first landmark in September of that year, Awsumb said.
Awsumb noted that local landmark rules are the backbone of enforcing community preservation — more so than placement on the National Register.
“A local landmark has a lot of regulatory control … behind it. The local landmarking is a very powerful tool.”
Under the ordinance, “no alteration may be performed on any site designated as a landmark” without a “certificate of appropriateness” or in response to cases of severe damage.
To issue a certificate of appropriateness to alter a landmarked site, the Historic Preservation Commission must consider a battery of architectural and aesthetic concerns.
By the time James Vlahakis, Dino Vlahakis’ father, applied for status for the Pickwick on the National Register of Historic Places, art deco’s day had passed and changes were occurring in building styles by the 1970s.
Notes on the paperwork accompanying the 1974 application for the register deem the theater an “unusually well-preserved example of Art Deco Theater Architecture.”
Attached photographs show the Pickwick Fountain Service was operating where Pazzi di Pizza restaurant is now located.
An “statement of significance” in the application notes: “The Pickwick Theater is an important cinema locally and perhaps regionally in the Art Deco style. … It has come down to us with few changes so that its art and architecture can still be appreciated directly without the need for interpretation.”
The application observes that the building, as it stood in 1974, had undergone some minor changes. “These include the modernizing of the office and store spaces, usually in the form of new lighting and dropped ceilings,” the report states. “The originally two story high lobby was fitted with a false ceiling dropping its height to one story.”
But, the application stated, the theater was “largely unchanged” from the way it was built in 1928 for local leading citizen and former Mayor William H. Malone, who had named it the Pickwick after the “The Pickwick Papers” by Charles Dickens, according to Vlahakis. Malone died in 1956. About two decades later, it was clear that a different type of architecture had risen to prominence in Park Ridge and that the theater he commissioned could be altered to fit the new style. “The tastemakers in Park Ridge have succeeded in imposing ‘colonial’ design on new construction and remodeling,” the 1974 application states before going on to predict that “it will not be long before the owner of this great Art Deco theater begins to think of remodeling in a colonial style.”
The theater was granted status on the register in 1975. However, Awsumb noted the National Register of Historic Places doesn’t have the practical weight that people often think of it as having. “You hear national and you think, ‘Oh, Washington DC, powerful stuff,’ but it doesn’t have a lot of protections,” he said.
Amy Hathaway, a survey and National Register specialist at the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office, echoed this. “The National Register of Historic Places is an honorific program and does not afford additional protection to resources in and of itself,” she said. “As long as private property owners follow local laws and there is no state or federal involvement, they can do whatever they want to their property.”
Frank Butterfield of Landmarks Illinois added that “in most cases, (for) a private homeowner with a private home, (or) private business owner with their own building, the National Register does not have any say on alterations or demolition.” As a Park Ridge native, though, Butterfield noted Vlahakis’ commitment to preserving the appearance and function of the building. And he saw reasons beyond the theater’s ownership to be optimistic as well, he said: “For a building as valued by the community and the region as much as the Pickwick Theatre, finding a creative solution is absolutely worth it.”
(MINNEAPOLIS STAR-JOURNAL Thurs., April 18, 1946) - THE SHOW WINDOW By Bob Murphy -
Movies Every Night for Milltown -
WISCONSIN VET TO OPEN NEW THEATER BEACHHEAD -
TONY PAULSON, having returned from three years service, this week-end will open up a new beachhead at Milltown, Wis.
Paulson, a marine lieutenant on his discharge, is operator of the Amery theater at Amery, Wis. Saturday, however, he will stage the grand opening of his new theater at Milltown.
The new house, which seats 350 persons, cost $35,000 and is acclaimed as the model of a small town theater.
Milltown had movies just one night previously. Some years ago, an operator moved in, showed pictures one night, then moved out. From now on, it’s every night.
Saturday, May 10, 1941:
New Theater Will Open Tonight
With the gala opening of the new Hollywood theater tonight, Kenosha will welcome her eighth motion picture house. Michael Lencioni, who has been the manager of the Lincoln theater for the past three years, is owner and manager of the new Hollywood. The Hollywood is located at 4902 Seventh Avenue, where the Butterfly theater once operated. However, for the opening tonight, the building has been completely renovated and redecorated. The interior is done in maroon, cream and orchid, and the sidelights are rainbow colored fixtures. which may be changed to any color desired.
Self-rising seats will be another innovation, chosen by by Mr. Lencioni for the comfort and convenience of patrons, and a new mirra-phonic sound system is a feature of the new theater. Motion pictures will be unreeled upon a new processed screen with a highly reflective surface, which has the added virtue of being exceptionally easy on the eyes.
A modernistic canopy will greet movie patrons as they approach the Hollywood, and new draperies and carpets will add to the attractiveness of the interior.
The new theater will be open every evening and for Sunday and holiday matinees.
Mr. Lencioni, who was born in Kenosha, made his home here until he moved to Sheboygan Fails to manage a theater. Three years ago he returned here to manage the Lincoln. During the past week his many friends in the city have extended their best wishes for success In his new venture.
Urban spelunking: Racine’s Majestic / Uptown Theater By Bobby Tanzilo - Feb 23, 2021
While all eyes in Racine are on the future of the 1928 Capitol/Park Theater, which is currently hanging precariously in the balance, a few folks are focused on the future of the old Majestic/Uptown Theater, also built in 1928, 16 blocks further east on Washington Avenue.
One of them, of course, is the current owner, Tom Paschen, who purchased the 10,400-square-foot Gothic theater in December 2019.
Paschen, who in his own words, “owns more than a handful of properties but fewer than a dozen” – including one a block east where his wife runs a doggie day care and grooming business – has been working to clean out the long-vacant theater and plans to convert it into a Viking-themed food hall with apartments above.
Pointing to a number of thriving recent business additions to the neighborhood, Paschen – who has a workshop in a building adjacent to the theater – is bullish on Uptown, about a mile south of downtown, and says that it suffers from a poor public image.
“The perception is that it’s not as nice as downtown, that it’s not as safe as other places,” he says, “but when I say perception problem, I mean just literally that. It’s actually fine. Uptown is nice, it’s safe. We don’t have big problems here.”
The theater is located at a bend in Washington Avenue that is lined for a number of blocks with vintage retail building stock that seems like prime territory for a renaissance. Squint a little and you can see it lined with restaurants, shops, galleries and brewpubs.
And, a revitalization of the Uptown Theater – if all goes according to Paschen’s plan – could provide just the spark the area needs.
The history of the Majestic / Uptown
Designed by Racine architect Wade B. Denham, the theater was built as the Majestic by German immigrant brewer and real estate investor Ernst C. Klinkert, whose name can also be seen on an adjacent part of the building that has always housed retail space and apartments above.
Along with the Capitol/Park and the Granada, the Uptown is one of three survivors of four movie palaces that opened in Racine in 1928, a golden age of theater building that came crashing down with the stock market in 1929.
The Venetian was demolished in 1977.
As was common, the 1,292-seat theater was built to accommodate both live performances provided by traveling vaudevillians and the screening of moving pictures.
The Majestic – operated by “veteran amusement man” Frank Wolcott – opened on May 2, 1928, showing “Dress Parade,” a Cecil B. DeMille co-production with William Boyd and Bessie Love, as well as an Our Gang comedy and “other features.”
“When the doors of the new Majestic in ‘Uptown—the Heart of Racine’ swing open tomorrow afternoon,” wrote the Racine Journal News on May 1, “there will be revealed one of the most beautiful of sights. Artists and artisans have for weeks worked on this most gorgeous place of amusement.
“Unqualified charm of design embellished by exquisite decorative treatment which accentuates its architectural features elevates the new Majestic from the ordinary theaters. Done in pure Gothic style with daring employment of detail … the treatment of the entrance is unusually fine. Three columns carrying Gothic arches give access to the permanent open vestibule. There is a deep ceiling in gold and bronze, curved down in an interesting way to rest upon a beading of grotesque Gothic heads. The 82-foot-long lobby is in English Gothic overspread with a delicately-hued blue ceiling into which a series of arches have been groined.”
The newspaper continued on in this effusive manner, detailing the art work, the “Granitex” pulverized granite lobby trim created by Milwaukee’s Christoffel Art Stone Co.; the large Marr and Colton 10-stop, three-manual organ built in Wausau; the 150 tons of cast stone on the exterior; and even the ticket booth – now gone – which was described as “An exquisite bit of craftsmanship is portrayed by the mahogany and marble ticket booth which commands the entrance to the Majestic, a gem of creative workmanship. possessing a quiet elegance.”
Sometime around the 1940s, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, the facade of the theater was altered, with the theater portion covered in red brick, making it appear to be a separate building than the two retail and apartment buildings that flank it. They are, in fact, all the same structure, which you can see more easily in a pre-alteration photo.
Interestingly, once inside, the theater appears to have been snuck in between its neighbors, oozing through them and and exploding out the back into the big auditorium space.
From the street it would appear the theater frontage is far too narrow to fit such a large venue, but you enter through a long, narrow passage into the lobby, which sits behind the western part of the building, while the larger eastern section continues further back, sharing a wall with the theater. Then, the large auditorium opens up mostly behind the other wings, with a basement and sub-basement that have garage doors leading in from the alley, called Maiden Lane.
The Uptown had a relatively short run as a live performance venue and cinema, however, and 31 years after opening, it closed for good. While the retail spaces and apartments remained in use, the theater has moldered for considerably longer than it ever hosted audiences.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Area tavern owners Peg and Lou Larson bought the building around 1998 and used it to store items related to their bars – Peg & Lou’s Bar & Grill and the Brass Monkey – as well as their collections of antiques, furniture and other objects. They continued to rent out the eight apartments upstairs and to lease the two storefronts, but, says Paschen, when Lou passed away, Peg decided to sell.
“Peg is a really nice lady,” says Paschen. “She doesn’t want to be a landlord.”
Paschen says the Larsons had hoped to gather financing to rehab the theater, but nothing came of that effort.
“It quite literally was just storage for them,” Paschen says. “In the main hallway, there was a path about body-width wide all the way down. It was full to the brim with building materials, doors, windows, furniture … you name it, just all packed in here.”
Even though Paschen says the folks at the city dump know him by name now, since he’s been running load after load of junk out there from the building, he says he’s still nowhere near done with that task, and it’s plain to see he’s right.
There are multiple cars abandoned in the basements, plus stuff literally everywhere. And the place is open to the elements, and has been for decades. When we entered, the part of the stage that hadn’t caved into the backstage area below was covered in snow. The aisle into the auditorium from the lobby was a sheet of ice. The seats were already gone, save for a few here and there, when Paschen arrived on the scene, and a lot of plaster and decorative elements inside the extremely ornamental auditorium had already crashed to the floor. Vandals have left their marks and their destruction scattered around the building, too.
Looking up at the stunning mural above the proscenium – “a very Greek tragedy with the severed head and everything,” Paschen observes, “and from the best I can tell, if you look at the globe up there, the center point of the globe looks to be about where Racine is” – and all of the decoration that either remains in situ or in pieces on the ground, this was a glorious movie palace.
But it’s also obvious that there’s little hope of it ever being that again.
“If you look at it you can see what it was,” echoes Paschen. “With imagination and probably $20 million, it could be that again.”
But considering Racine hasn’t had an operating movie theater since 2009, there’s no way any theater could recoup that kind of investment anymore.
“My plan is to convert this into a food hall and apartments,” he says as we stand on the stage, gazing out into the darkness as vaudevillians once did (though they were blinded by the footlights, which now run in an unlit row along the front of the stage). “You’ll enter from either the street or the parking lot. You’ll have a lobby which will go up to the apartments and given the height, I can get anywhere between two and three levels of apartments. It’s all going to come down to talking with the engineers when I get around to it.
“This (main) level will be a food hall. A handful of restaurants, a big communal dining area, exit onto the parking lot. Everybody can have something different (to eat); it’ll be a nice experience.”
The basement and sub-basement already have vehicle access and are perfect for providing underground parking for tenants and perhaps customers. He’s also eyeing a shared commercial kitchen down there that could be rented to food trucks, which could enter the basement spaces for loading, storage, etc.
Paschen says that even if the interior has decayed in the 60-plus years since the theater ceased operation, the bones of the building are solid. “It’s all this internal structure that sort of crumbles,” he says. “And that’s what would all go away. As beautiful as it was it just can’t be saved.”
But, he says, he will work with architectural salvage experts who can help determine which bits of original decoration and other elements can be saved and reused in the project. “I want to keep it the soul of the building,” he says.
Gazing around at everything that still needs to happen, Paschen estimates the project will take 3-5 years to complete. “I have to get all of this down to, ‘what do I have, what needs to get out of here and what will I keep’,” he says. “Then I can go into the first phase, which is building the skeleton (for the upper floors).”
It’s on that skeleton that he hopes to hang not only the “soul of the building,” but its future, too.
How a Single-Screen Theater on a Remote North Carolina Island Keeps Movie Magic Alive
Classic films, clever owners, and a leg up from Andy Griffith have kept the lights on at Manteo’s Pioneer Theater for 108 years
By Andrea Cooper
March 11, 2026
The Pioneer Theater in Manteo, North Carolina.
In the historic photo, a local actor stands on a ladder outside the Pioneer Theater in Manteo, North Carolina. He smiles and waves at the camera. His other hand rests on the marquee boasting his name: ANDY GRIFFITH. The burgeoning star was there to promote the East Coast premiere of his 1957 film debut, A Face in the Crowd.
Visitors can see the ladder in the theater’s lobby today, an artifact of the self-proclaimed “oldest independent, family-owned theater in the country.” The Outer Banks landmark on Roanoke Island, first built in 1918, has survived the advent of “talking pictures,” fires, world wars, and a pandemic. “We raised a lot of generations,” says former owner Buddy Creef, whose great-grandfather founded the theater. “As my dad always said, we were the cheapest two-hour babysitter in town.”
The story goes that Buddy’s great-grandfather, boat builder George Washington Creef Jr., stopped by a nickelodeon theater on a trip up north and saw a couple of short films. He came home with projector equipment and began showing movies to friends at the boat shop. As word spread, he thought, “I can probably start charging people.”
By the 1930s, “talkies,” or movies with sound, were growing in popularity. Herbert Creef Sr., Buddy’s grandfather, knew the theater didn’t have space for the modern technology it needed, so he constructed a new Pioneer Theater downtown. What some might view as a risky business decision, given the greater economic tumult, Buddy sees as a masterstroke. “The movie industry was one of the few that thrived during the Depression and through World War II,” he says.
It didn’t hurt that the theater was the first place in Manteo with air conditioning, according to Michael Basnight, who co-owns the Pioneer today with his sister, Jamie Hatchell. (In the late 1940s, air conditioning replaced “swamp coolers,” which chilled air through evaporated water.) The building expanded its utility and appeal in the 1950s by adding a stage for beauty pageants, historic plays, and sock hops.
Manteo’s children spent their weekends at the community mainstay through the 1960s and 1970s under the watchful eye of Buddy Creef’s dad. “Everybody knew H.A. Creef,” Hatchell remembers. “The parents knew the kids were safe. He was not going to let them leave.”
Showing flicks like Jaws and Star Wars, the Pioneer provided date night for most of Manteo’s teens. “They would come here to get away from their parents,” Buddy recalls. With his own father on site nearly every night and his mom there often, being at the Pioneer for Buddy “was like having a couple of friends over and hanging out in the living room with my parents.” He found other places for dates.
Along with many downtown buildings, the theater got an English Tudor makeover in the early 1970s when the town attempted to entice Queen Elizabeth to Manteo for a celebration of the first colony. Liz didn’t show, but she sent her people. A fire later that decade—one of several to threaten the theater over the years—burned the neighboring hardware store. The Creef family mopped the water in the theater, aired out the smoke, and opened the Pioneer that night.
Covid-19 could have been the Pioneer’s undoing. When the town allowed takeout restaurant sales, Buddy Creef saw his chance. He offered drive-up concessions of candy, soda, and popcorn from the 1950s popcorn machine outside the theater. The first night, Manteo’s town manager, county health inspector, and chief of police arrived together. Buddy began explaining why he thought the sales were allowed. “We’re here to get popcorn,” they said.
Basnight and Hatchell bought the theater in 2023, restored the original blond brick, and revamped its offerings. Studios require first-run movies to be shown for weeks, a formula that doesn’t suit Pioneer’s single screen. “Everybody here will have seen it in a weekend,” Hatchell explains. Instead, the theater screens classic and popular films from the past. (Recent showings include An American in Paris, Scarface, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.) It also hosts concerts with Grammy-winning musicians and special events like an OBX Got Talent competition and a 1929-style speakeasy for Valentine’s Day.
One experience is reserved for the Pioneer’s performers. They’re invited to get their photo taken on the ladder outside the theater as they point to their name on the marquee.
‘Blackboard Jungle’ Breaks Out ‘For Real’
(7/26/55)
- The make-believe of a Hollywood movie turned into cold realism last night in a Chicago theater.
Five squad cars were sent to the Southtown Theater to help quell a teenage battle which broke out during the showing of “Blackboard Jungle,” a movie about juvenile violence.
An 18-year-old usher, Allen Lucas, was taken to St. Bernard’s Hospital with a possible concussion.
Police held five of the youths who participated in the fight. Arrested were 17-year-olds Arthur Ross, Eddie Chaffin, Ernest McCollough, and Lee Cosby of Dixmoor.
“Captain Video and His Video Rangers” aired live on The DuMont Television Network from the Ambassador Theatre on Saturday mornings as “The Secret files of Captain Video”.
Feb 01, 1961: ROSSEN TAKES OVER ASHLAND AVE. THEATER
John A. Rossen, chairman of the Chicago chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba committee, is president of a corporation operating the American theater at 8 N. Ashland, it was disclosed this week.
Rossen is the former Communist party organizer who once operated the Cinema Annex theater near Kedzie and Madison, which specialized in the showing of Russian films, many criticized as being Red propaganda.
Rossen, who was a columnist for the Daily Worker, Russian propaganda newspaper, also publishes the Maverick, regarded as a pro-Communist newspaper.
Rossen is listed as president of Empresas Latinas Inc., chartered April 12, 1960, to show Latin and Spanish films at the American theater. Julio Partillo is secretary-treasurer and Fred Rodrigues is manager. Both were associated with Rossen at the Senate theater after he left the Cinema Annex.
(Aug. 02, 1936)
USE GLASS BRICK IN REMODELING KARLOV THEATER
First use of glass brick in Chicago theater architecture will be at the Karlov theater, 4048 Armitage avenue, according to Sobel & Drielsma, architects, whose plans are being used in a modernization program. According to Charles and Henry Stern, operators of the Karlov, as well as the Cinema and Austin theaters, approximately $25,000 will be spent in remodeling the former house.
Additional space has been leased adjoining the theater for use as rest rooms and lounge. A new façade of modern materials is being built and new indirect lighting, new decora-tions, and a new ventilating system are contemplated. The Karlov seats 900.
The new $35,000 Milltown Theatre opened on August 18, 1946 by Marine Corps veteran Tony Paulson, who was currently operating a theatre in nearby Amery.
Where weeds now lace the broken ground
And traffic hums a hollow sound,
There stood a place with a glowing face —
A neighborhood theatre, warm with grace.
Its marquee once in amber shone,
With hand-set letters proudly shown,
Announcing dreams for all to see:
Laughter, tears, and cartoon sprees.
Saturdays, kids, with nickels tight,
Watched their heroes sing and fight -
As couples slipped into the dark
Where whispered hopes would softly spark.
The lobby smelled of buttered corn,
Of rain-damp coats on evenings worn,
And laughter rose as reels would spin,
As strangers met and felt like kin.
The usher’s beam, a guiding star, Led latecomers from near and far, While flickering frames danced black and white Across a screen that ruled the night.
Now silence sits where stories played,
No ticket torn, no debts unpaid,
Just wind that sighs through vacant space
Where time has left a gentle trace.
But if you stand there just past dusk,
When daylight fades to shadows hushed,
You might still hear, across the air,
A ghost of laughter lingering there.
BOX OFFICE, April 15, 1950: “Rollin K. Stonebrook, operator of the North Center theater in Chicago, has come up with a solution to the problem which guarantees to keep everybody happy.
He has reserved 200 seats in his theater for that 10 per cent of the audience who haven’t experienced the thrills of really enjoying the refreshment.
The remaining 90 per cent of the audience who are confirmed popcorn chewers have their selection of seats in all other parts of the house.”
The City has just approved all the requirements to begin work, set to begin next month and be completed by the end of 2027. A $25 million U.S. Housing and Urban Development Section 108 Loan was applied for on behalf of developer Baum Revision, to be repaid by the developer over a 20-year period. The project is estimated to cost $88 million and will include 16 residential units and space for arts groups and nonprofits.
(Excerpted from the CHICAGO READER, March 30, 2007, Section One, P.4 “A Hundred Furnished Rooms, an architectural history of Uptown” by Lynn Becker) - The challenges facing historic Uptown may best be represented, however, in its great namesake monument, the Uptown Theatre, dating from 1925. Constructed at a cost of $4 million in a deliriously eclectic style that a contemporary reporter called “Spanish Mexican Renaissance,” it covers 46,000 square feet (most of a city block), stands eight stories high, and seats 4,300. By the end of its first decade, nearly 20 million people had passed through the 213-foot-long lobby, which is terminated by a curving double stair and lined with twin colonnades rising to a 92-foot-high ceiling. As detailed in The Chicago Movie Palaces of Balaban and Katz by David Balaban, namesake grand-son of the Uptown’s manager, the theater occupied a rare moment of shared democracy, where anyone with a quarter or 50 cents could spend a couple hours steeped in the sort of luxury usually reserved for the ultrarich, attended to by a small army arrayed in at least eight different styles of uniforms, designating every station from floor manager to page boy to footman. So as not to disturb the patrons, ushers had to master a complex set of hand signals to manage the huge crowds.
By the 1960s, of course, we had begun opting for a no-frills, self-service, lowest-price world. Blitzed by free TV, the great movie palaces crashed into dust. The Uptown held on, finally closing for good in 1981. The heat was turned off soon after, and in the dead of winter the water pipes froze and burst, causing massive damage. It’s gone downhill ever since. The theater has passed through multiple owners, including convicted slumlord Lou Wolf, who once owned the Goldblatt’s block, and is currently in receivership. Recently the city picked up the tab for $500,000 in emergency repairs, removing some large, unstable chunks of terra-cotta before they simply fell to the street. Despite the ongoing efforts of activists committed to saving this official Chicago landmark, the Uptown remains boarded up and forlorn. Just before the February election, the 48th Ward alderman Mary Ann Smith told Windy City Times that a “premier developer” had signed a contract to restore the theater but declined to divulge the company’s name.
(May 27, 1955) El Paso Children Escape Unhurt In Theater Fire
Three hundred and fifty grade school children were led to safety at 11:30 a. m. Thursday when fire broke out in the projection booth of the El Paso Theater. The children were attending a free show at the theater as part of their end of the school year activities.
Speedy Exit
Don Rist, co-manager of the theater, saw smoke coming from the projector and sped downstairs to warn H. B. Tate, superintendent of schools.
Edward Heiken, principal of the Jefferson Park School in El Paso, gave orders for the 12 teachers
present to lead their pupils out. Most of the youngsters were on the sidewalk before they knew what had happened. The El Paso Fire Department quickly extinguished the blaze.
Projector Damaged
Bill Fever, who was operating the projector, said the film broke and snapped against a carbon arc.
One reel of the film was destroyed and the lens and the projector were damaged. In addition to the El Paso pupils, classes were present from the Secor and Spring Hill schools. A show for another group of children, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, has been cancelled.
McHenry Outdoor Theater celebrates 75 years of movies under the stars
Just like they have on most every summer night for the past three quarters of a century, drivers make their way down gravel paths, kicking up dust and passing rows of speaker poles as they look for the perfect spot to watch a movie at the McHenry Outdoor Theater.
While the name has changed since that first car pulled into the Skyline Drive-In on July 20, 1951, to see “Rogues of Sherwood Forest,” the feeling of excitement when images start to flicker on the six-story screen hasn’t.
“It’s very unique, and I think it’s very important to preserve it,” owner Scott Dehn said.
The screen at the McHenry Outdoor Theater is roughly six stories tall and 100 feet wide. The theater opened as Skyline Drive-In on July 20, 1951, with a showing of “Rogues of Sherwood Forest.” Rick West/
The theater in Lakemoor (the property the theater is situated on was annexed from McHenry in 2020) is celebrating 75 years since first opening at 1510 Chapel Hill Road.
Open during the golden age of outdoor theaters, the McHenry is the only remaining drive-in in the suburbs.
Dehn purchased the theater 26 years ago. He said his earliest childhood memory was seeing a movie with his parents and sister at the very drive-in he now owns.
“I know exactly where we were parked, and I remember the two movies I saw were ‘Star Trek III’ and ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,’” he said. “I already loved movies at that point. But this was the biggest building I’d ever seen at that young age, and I was like, ‘Wow! They show a movie on there?’ I was just captivated.”
The experience of being able to get out of the car and run around before the movie, and seeing people together in groups, stuck with him.
“I became infatuated with the whole communal movie experience,” Dehn said.
While they’re still there, the drive-in speakers at the McHenry Outdoor Theater don’t emit sound anymore. Sounds are broadcast over loudspeakers throughout the site and simulcast on FM radio. Rick West/
People are still embracing that experience. Dehn said they’ll get 600 to 700 cars on weekend nights to the theater, which is generally open from April to December.
Charles and Anna Ellis of Woodstock said they’ve had season passes for their family for two years and come every Wednesday for “subtitle night,” or any time a new movie comes out.
“I grew up going to drive-ins,” Charles Ellis said. “It was a whole family affair every summer. We like that it’s passing on to the next generation.”
Their experience showed.
Not only was the bed of their truck covered in cushions and pillows, but a hammock attached to a stand on the tow hitch allowed Charles to gently swing and pass the time before the movie started
“We’ve got it set up now so it’s almost as comfortable as sitting on our couch at home,” he said.
A few spaces over, Mason Snider and Chloe Schadle of Belvidere perched in the back of a pickup truck, eating popcorn and getting ready to take in their first drive-in movie. Both 17, they were the target audience when the industry was thriving.
“Seeing it in movies has kind of made it nostalgic for me, even though I’ve never been to one,” Schadle said. “When you see it, it always brings a vibe, and it looks cool.”
Dehn said he’s tried to make the theater a destination for families and has made a variety of improvements to the property over the years to enhance the movie-watching experience, including replacing the screen and renovating the concession stand three years ago.
“Everything’s as upgraded as it can be right now,” he said.
While only about 300 drive-ins still operate in the United States, Dehn said there were “thousands” when he bought the McHenry Outdoor in 2000.
Most closed because they couldn’t afford new equipment when the movie industry switched from traditional 35 mm film to digital projection.
Dehn faced the same dilemma, but saw an opportunity when Honda offered an online contest called “Project Drive-In” in 2013, which the company described as “a national effort to save as many of America’s remaining drive-ins as possible” by supplying them with free digital projection setups.
Dehn got the word out about the effort, which required people to vote online for the theater they wanted to receive the equipment. Moviegoers rallied, and they were one of nine theaters nationally chosen.
“What saved the theater is what I love most about it; it’s that the community comes together,” he said. “I mean, they come here because they want to see ‘Moana’ or ‘Toy Story,’ but they want to share that experience together, and it becomes like a block party where there just happens to be a couple of movies playing.”
To celebrate the anniversary, the theater will give the first 75 cars free admission on Tuesday, July 21, and Thursday, July 23, to showings of the live-action “Moana” and “The Odyssey.”
As part of the theater’s “golden ticket” promotion, one winner will receive a ticket good for every movie, every season, for the next 75 years. To sign up for the giveaway, visit goldenagecinemas.com/goldenticket.
Dehn said he still finds it hard to believe that the theater is turning 75 and that he’s been a part of it for over a third of its history.
“There’s not that many (drive-ins) that can say that,” he said. “I love movies. I love what you get out of seeing movies with your friends, your family, the community, your neighbors. It’s my job to take care of it and leave it better than I found it. I hope that whoever comes after me can keep that going for another 75 years.” (by Rick West)
Former Egyptian Theatre Executive Director Barbara Kummerfeldt passes away
DeKalb, IL – The Egyptian Theatre is saddened to announce that former Executive Director Barbara Kummerfeldt passed away on January 20th at the age of 87.
Kummerfeldt’s multi-decade history with the Egyptian Theatre started during the late 1970’s when she, along with her husband Irv, were part of the original steering committee that was instrumental in saving the Egyptian Theatre from the literal wrecking ball. She along with a group of concerned citizens worked to get the building listed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1978 and formed the non-profit organization, Preservation of Egyptian Theatre, which continues to own and operate the Theatre to this day.
“Barb dedicated an impressive number of years to the Egyptian Theatre. There is no doubt she has left a lasting imprint on the history of the Theatre,” stated Alex Nerad, Egyptian Theatre Executive Director.
Thanks to Kummerfeldt’s efforts, she, along with many dedicated community members, were able to secure a $2.3 million grant from the State of Illinois in 1982. This money was used to restore the Theatre to its original 1929 splendor.
“Barb never wearied in her passion for the preservation of the Egyptian Theatre,” said DeKalb City Manager Bill Nicklas. “From the preservation campaign that she and her late husband, Irv, successfully led to renovate the historic theatre in the 1980s to the present, she thought about and talked about what might be done to make it better every day.”
When the Theatre reopened in 1983 after its restoration, she became the first Executive Director of the non-profit serving until 1988 where she helped to see that it was host to dozens of events a year including robust film programming.
“Without Barb Kummerfeldt there most likely would be a parking lot at 135 N. Second St. instead of the historic landmark Egyptian Theatre,” stated former Egyptian Theatre Board Member Barb Josh. “She not only cleared the initial hurdle of saving the Theatre from the wrecking ball, but the even larger one of funding its restoration and making it financially viable. She, along with her husband Irv, and a handful of others made the building operational so it could be open to the public during its restoration. In all aspects, she was always hands on.”
Many community members who worked with Kummerfeldt during her tenure at the Egyptian Theatre have begun to share their memories of Barb following her passing.
“It’s very possible that we would have never seen the revitalization of the Egyptian Theatre if it had not been for Irv and Barbara Kummerfeldt. As a matter of fact, this community treasure might not even be intact had it not been for the dogged determination of the Kummerfeldt’s over 40 years ago. Now, we share in the sadness in Barb’s passing, but we celebrate her stewardship that continued for many years following the establishment of the Preservation of Egyptian Theatre organization. We will continue the celebration of Barb Kummerfeldt’s life later this year, as we look forward to a gala grand opening of the Egyptian Theatre,” stated City of DeKalb Mayor Jerry Smith.
“The City of DeKalb has lost a champion. The dedication of Barb Kummerfeldt, as Director of the Egyptian Theatre merits a chapter in the community’s history,” stated charter P.E.T. members Roger and Mary Keys. “Barb championed the Egyptian as a cultural arts center for the city when the building was filled with snow and falling apart. Beginning in the late 1970’s as a charter member of Preservation of Egyptian Theatre she opened her home for meetings, helped keep the lights on during trying times and supported fellow volunteers. With grateful hearts we mourn her passing.”
“When I first came to NIU/DeKalb, Barbara Kummerfeldt was one of the first people to welcome me and got on the bandwagon of supporting the NIU Show Band. The method to her madness was getting me to support her and Irv’s efforts in saving the Egyptian Theatre. DeKalb will forever be indebted to Barbara Kummerfeldt for her love, commitment, and preservation of the theatre – a DeKalb Treasure.” stated Michael Embrey who presented shows at the Egyptian Theatre during Kummerfeldt’s tenure.
Her longstanding impact on the Egyptian Theatre will forever be a part of its rich history.
Additional memories and tributes will continue to be shared on the Egyptian Theatre social media and website: www.egyptiantheatre.org.
(April 19, 1930) Theatre Deal Goes In Effect At Midnight
Warner Brothers To Take Over Sheboygan Theatre And Other Theatres In Wisconsin
It was unofficially announced today that Warner Bros, one of the leading film companies in the United States, has taken over the Wisconsin branch of the Universal Theatrical Enterprises chain of theatres, and that the concern will assume ownership at 12 o'clock midnight tonight and will start operating these theatres Sunday. Theatres included are the Sheboygan theatre, which was erected at a cost of $600,000 and which was opened to the public in 1928; Venetian theatre at Racine, Kenosha theatre at Kenosha, and all the Universal theatres in Milwaukee except the Alhambra. Among the Milwaukee theatres are the Lake, State, Downer, Juneau, Nation and Kosciuszko. The deal, which has been in the course of consummation during the past week, involves millions of dollars in theatre values. Manager K. G. Wood of the Sheboygan theatre today would not make official comment as to the completion of negotiations, but admitted that he was notified late Friday to take a complete inventory of his theatre, and to check meters at the close of business tonight.
Family aims to restore old movie theater - Granada was constructed in Racine in 1928 (By Michael Burke, The Racine Journal Times)
In the late 1920s, people of this city were constructing lavish movie theaters as fast as Walgreens were built in two years, and most neighborhoods had one nearby.
But by the 1970s, another generation of residents was demolishing the old movie houses like they were rat-infested eyesores.
Today it’s nearly impossible to find an old theater here that’s both semi-intact and feasible to restore. However, one comes close.
The Namowicz family of Warren Industries has bought and wants to restore the former Granada Theater, 1921 Charles St. “We want to bring back the glamour” of the 1928 theater, said David Namowicz.
Given acceptable restoration costs, the owners envision possibly turning the building into a banquet hall and/or events center.
It was Namowicz who first explored the old building - last used by its Illinois owner for storage and saw its potential. Steven, Thomas, Carolyn and Michael Namowicz went along with the idea, and the family bought the structure for $150,000.
David Namowicz indicated the theater lobby’s ceiling and said, “That’s what caught my eye.”
Its considerable architectural detail is all there - just as much of the plaster work throughout the building remains. The main original features missing are the stage and the sloping floor. A poured, level concrete floor forever obscures the original floor.
However, much of the stage house remains, including the large proscenium arch and the fly loft, just under the ceiling, which is 48 feet tall there. From the loft, workers would haul away scenery used in the vaudeville plays, said theater historian Fred Hermes of Racine.
Hermes said five local theaters were built in about 1927-28: the Granada, Capitol, Majestic, Crown and Venetian. “There was a tremendous interest in silent films,” he said, and vaudeville was still popular entertainment.
The Granada Theater, which operated until 1961, differentiated itself from other local theaters with its Spanish theme, “so it was kind of gaudy,” Namowicz said.
In the early years, for 15 cents a person, one could go to one of those grand theaters “and be treated like a queen,” Hermes said. “It was just as much a treat to see the inside as it was to see the movie.”
Among local movie theaters. the Granada wasn’t one of the most opulent. It was “a little bit below the middle,” Hermes said. However, by today’s standards, it’s a delight, with 24-foot ceilings in the seating area, terrazzo floors, and intricate plaster work adorning the walls and ceilings.
“It’ll never be like the Venetian and Rialto, Namowicz said, "but it’s definitely gorgeous.”
The building even has the original fireplace in the lobby. “I found (it) last week Namowicz said, hidden behind one of the walls that was added later to carve up the theater for later uses.
The Granada fared better in its decades of disuse than most local theaters. Most obviously, it wasn’t razed. Second, its domed roof undoubtedly helped ward off water damage. Finally, whoever erected interior walls did so respectfully, causing very slight damage to the structure.
“We got lucky here, because so far the damage is nominal,” Namowicz said.
When the old theater went on the market, he said, other bids came from a print shop and an auto repair business. Namowicz and his family didn’t think either one came close to realizing the Granada’s potential.
In addition to the theater itself, they bought the adjacent building at 1925 Charles St. All their plans are predicated on a restoration cost they can afford but if it does happen, that next-door building will play a part.
To run a banquet hall/events center they’d need a large kitchen, and to meet present building codes they’d need new bathrooms. They could put the kitchen and bathrooms in the adjacent building with a doorway in between, “so we don’t damage the theater, Namowicz explained.
“What I really need right now,” he said, “I need someone with some pictures” from the Granada’s early years.
If the costs aren’t prohibitive and the restoration can be done, the Granada will become a tangible link to a bygone era In Racine.
Namowicz said “It’s definitely going to give the city of Racine the feeling for what we have lost.”
Family aims to restore old movie theater - Granada was constructed in Racine in 1928 (By Michael Burke, The Racine Journal Times)
In the late 1920s, people of this city were constructing lavish movie theaters as fast as Walgreens were built in two years, and most neighborhoods had one nearby.
But by the 1970s, another generation of residents was demolishing the old movie houses like they were rat-infested eyesores.
Today it’s nearly impossible to find an old theater here that’s both semi-intact and feasible to restore. However, one comes close.
The Namowicz family of Warren Industries has bought and wants to restore the former Granada Theater, 1921 Charles St. “We want to bring back the glamour” of the 1928 theater, said David Namowicz.
Given acceptable restoration costs, the owners envision possibly turning the building into a banquet hall and/or events center.
It was Namowicz who first explored the old building - last used by its Illinois owner for storage and saw its potential. Steven, Thomas, Carolyn and Michael Namowicz went along with the idea, and the family bought the structure for $150,000.
David Namowicz indicated the theater lobby’s ceiling and said, “That’s what caught my eye.”
Its considerable architectural detail is all there - just as much of the plaster work throughout the building remains. The main original features missing are the stage and the sloping floor. A poured, level concrete floor forever obscures the original floor.
However, much of the stage house remains, including the large proscenium arch and the fly loft, just under the ceiling, which is 48 feet tall there. From the loft, workers would haul away scenery used in the vaudeville plays, said theater historian Fred Hermes of Racine.
Hermes said five local theaters were built in about 1927-28: the Granada, Capitol, Majestic, Crown and Venetian. “There was a tremendous interest in silent films,” he said, and vaudeville was still popular entertainment.
The Granada Theater, which operated until 1961, differentiated itself from other local theaters with its Spanish theme, “so it was kind of gaudy,” Namowicz said.
In the early years, for 15 cents a person, one could go to one of those grand theaters “and be treated like a queen,” Hermes said. “It was just as much a treat to see the inside as it was to see the movie.”
Among local movie theaters. the Granada wasn’t one of the most opulent. It was “a little bit below the middle,” Hermes said. However, by today’s standards, it’s a delight, with 24-foot ceilings in the seating area, terrazzo floors, and intricate plaster work adorning the walls and ceilings.
“It’ll never be like the Venetian and Rialto, Namowicz said, "but it’s definitely gorgeous.”
The building even has the original fireplace in the lobby. “I found (it) last week Namowicz said, hidden behind one of the walls that was added later to carve up the theater for later uses.
The Granada fared better in its decades of disuse than most local theaters. Most obviously, it wasn’t razed. Second, its domed roof undoubtedly helped ward off water damage. Finally, whoever erected interior walls did so respectfully, causing very slight damage to the structure.
“We got lucky here, because so far the damage is nominal,” Namowicz said.
When the old theater went on the market, he said, other bids came from a print shop and an auto repair business. Namowicz and his family didn’t think either one came close to realizing the Granada’s potential.
In addition to the theater itself, they bought the adjacent building at 1925 Charles St. All their plans are predicated on a restoration cost they can afford but if it does happen, that next-door building will play a part.
To run a banquet hall/events center they’d need a large kitchen, and to meet present building codes they’d need new bathrooms. They could put the kitchen and bathrooms in the adjacent building with a doorway in between, “so we don’t damage the theater, Namowicz explained.
“What I really need right now,” he said, “I need someone with some pictures” from the Granada’s early years.
If the costs aren’t prohibitive and the restoration can be done, the Granada will become a tangible link to a bygone era In Racine.
Namowicz said “It’s definitely going to give the city of Racine the feeling for what we have lost.” (August 28, 2005)
“A mighty enemy of the darkness is this electric theatre sign of 1,800 lights. It is one of the recent the erections of the Milne Electric Sign Company, Milwaukee. It is 34 feet high and six feet wide. The letters measure 24 inches in height and are of the gold bevel edge channel type. There are three channel borders all along the sign.”
Park Ridge ordinance protects Pickwick Theatre structure, though its future as a movie-viewing venue is in question (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune, December 10, 2022) - News that the Pickwick Theatre would show its final picture in January sparked a flurry of local discussion about what would happen to its 1928 art deco-style building, but its owner — and a local ordinance — will ensure that the historic structure remains as it is.
Less than a day after co-owner Dino Vlahakis announced the final showing would take place early next year, a “Save the Pickwick” Facebook page sprang up and area residents expressed worry about the future of the vintage theater, which many consider a symbol of Park Ridge and a jewel in the area.
Now, a cadre of interested operators and a jump in ticket sales have its owners optimistic about the future of movies in the space — but whatever happens, the building itself will stay intact, Vlahakis said.
Vlahakis explained that local law ensures the Pickwick’s facade will be preserved regardless of who owns the building or what its use is.
“Now, the actual auditorium, believe it or not, can be destroyed,” he said. “Well, under my watch, that’s not going to happen.”
In fact, Vlahakis said, the local Park Ridge preservation ordinance has more teeth to preserve the Pickwick than does its status on the National Register of Historic Places. Register status “just gives you the title; there’s some tax benefits,” Vlahakis said.
The city of Park Ridge designated the theater a landmark under a city ordinance that created the Historic Preservation Commission, Community Preservation and Development Director Drew Awsumb told Chicago Tribune/Pioneer Press. The ordinance passed in January 2010, and the Pickwick became the first landmark in September of that year, Awsumb said.
Awsumb noted that local landmark rules are the backbone of enforcing community preservation — more so than placement on the National Register.
“A local landmark has a lot of regulatory control … behind it. The local landmarking is a very powerful tool.”
Under the ordinance, “no alteration may be performed on any site designated as a landmark” without a “certificate of appropriateness” or in response to cases of severe damage.
To issue a certificate of appropriateness to alter a landmarked site, the Historic Preservation Commission must consider a battery of architectural and aesthetic concerns.
By the time James Vlahakis, Dino Vlahakis’ father, applied for status for the Pickwick on the National Register of Historic Places, art deco’s day had passed and changes were occurring in building styles by the 1970s.
Notes on the paperwork accompanying the 1974 application for the register deem the theater an “unusually well-preserved example of Art Deco Theater Architecture.”
Attached photographs show the Pickwick Fountain Service was operating where Pazzi di Pizza restaurant is now located.
An “statement of significance” in the application notes: “The Pickwick Theater is an important cinema locally and perhaps regionally in the Art Deco style. … It has come down to us with few changes so that its art and architecture can still be appreciated directly without the need for interpretation.”
The application observes that the building, as it stood in 1974, had undergone some minor changes. “These include the modernizing of the office and store spaces, usually in the form of new lighting and dropped ceilings,” the report states. “The originally two story high lobby was fitted with a false ceiling dropping its height to one story.”
But, the application stated, the theater was “largely unchanged” from the way it was built in 1928 for local leading citizen and former Mayor William H. Malone, who had named it the Pickwick after the “The Pickwick Papers” by Charles Dickens, according to Vlahakis. Malone died in 1956. About two decades later, it was clear that a different type of architecture had risen to prominence in Park Ridge and that the theater he commissioned could be altered to fit the new style. “The tastemakers in Park Ridge have succeeded in imposing ‘colonial’ design on new construction and remodeling,” the 1974 application states before going on to predict that “it will not be long before the owner of this great Art Deco theater begins to think of remodeling in a colonial style.”
The theater was granted status on the register in 1975. However, Awsumb noted the National Register of Historic Places doesn’t have the practical weight that people often think of it as having. “You hear national and you think, ‘Oh, Washington DC, powerful stuff,’ but it doesn’t have a lot of protections,” he said.
Amy Hathaway, a survey and National Register specialist at the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office, echoed this. “The National Register of Historic Places is an honorific program and does not afford additional protection to resources in and of itself,” she said. “As long as private property owners follow local laws and there is no state or federal involvement, they can do whatever they want to their property.”
Frank Butterfield of Landmarks Illinois added that “in most cases, (for) a private homeowner with a private home, (or) private business owner with their own building, the National Register does not have any say on alterations or demolition.” As a Park Ridge native, though, Butterfield noted Vlahakis’ commitment to preserving the appearance and function of the building. And he saw reasons beyond the theater’s ownership to be optimistic as well, he said: “For a building as valued by the community and the region as much as the Pickwick Theatre, finding a creative solution is absolutely worth it.”
(MINNEAPOLIS STAR-JOURNAL Thurs., April 18, 1946) - THE SHOW WINDOW By Bob Murphy - Movies Every Night for Milltown - WISCONSIN VET TO OPEN NEW THEATER BEACHHEAD - TONY PAULSON, having returned from three years service, this week-end will open up a new beachhead at Milltown, Wis. Paulson, a marine lieutenant on his discharge, is operator of the Amery theater at Amery, Wis. Saturday, however, he will stage the grand opening of his new theater at Milltown. The new house, which seats 350 persons, cost $35,000 and is acclaimed as the model of a small town theater. Milltown had movies just one night previously. Some years ago, an operator moved in, showed pictures one night, then moved out. From now on, it’s every night.
Saturday, May 10, 1941: New Theater Will Open Tonight
With the gala opening of the new Hollywood theater tonight, Kenosha will welcome her eighth motion picture house. Michael Lencioni, who has been the manager of the Lincoln theater for the past three years, is owner and manager of the new Hollywood. The Hollywood is located at 4902 Seventh Avenue, where the Butterfly theater once operated. However, for the opening tonight, the building has been completely renovated and redecorated. The interior is done in maroon, cream and orchid, and the sidelights are rainbow colored fixtures. which may be changed to any color desired.
Self-rising seats will be another innovation, chosen by by Mr. Lencioni for the comfort and convenience of patrons, and a new mirra-phonic sound system is a feature of the new theater. Motion pictures will be unreeled upon a new processed screen with a highly reflective surface, which has the added virtue of being exceptionally easy on the eyes.
A modernistic canopy will greet movie patrons as they approach the Hollywood, and new draperies and carpets will add to the attractiveness of the interior.
The new theater will be open every evening and for Sunday and holiday matinees.
Mr. Lencioni, who was born in Kenosha, made his home here until he moved to Sheboygan Fails to manage a theater. Three years ago he returned here to manage the Lincoln. During the past week his many friends in the city have extended their best wishes for success In his new venture.
Rita and I saw “Ed Wood” here, then the Broadway Theatre, on her birthday on a memorable 75° November 7, 1994.
Urban spelunking: Racine’s Majestic / Uptown Theater By Bobby Tanzilo - Feb 23, 2021
While all eyes in Racine are on the future of the 1928 Capitol/Park Theater, which is currently hanging precariously in the balance, a few folks are focused on the future of the old Majestic/Uptown Theater, also built in 1928, 16 blocks further east on Washington Avenue. One of them, of course, is the current owner, Tom Paschen, who purchased the 10,400-square-foot Gothic theater in December 2019.
Paschen, who in his own words, “owns more than a handful of properties but fewer than a dozen” – including one a block east where his wife runs a doggie day care and grooming business – has been working to clean out the long-vacant theater and plans to convert it into a Viking-themed food hall with apartments above.
Pointing to a number of thriving recent business additions to the neighborhood, Paschen – who has a workshop in a building adjacent to the theater – is bullish on Uptown, about a mile south of downtown, and says that it suffers from a poor public image.
“The perception is that it’s not as nice as downtown, that it’s not as safe as other places,” he says, “but when I say perception problem, I mean just literally that. It’s actually fine. Uptown is nice, it’s safe. We don’t have big problems here.”
The theater is located at a bend in Washington Avenue that is lined for a number of blocks with vintage retail building stock that seems like prime territory for a renaissance. Squint a little and you can see it lined with restaurants, shops, galleries and brewpubs.
And, a revitalization of the Uptown Theater – if all goes according to Paschen’s plan – could provide just the spark the area needs.
The history of the Majestic / Uptown
Designed by Racine architect Wade B. Denham, the theater was built as the Majestic by German immigrant brewer and real estate investor Ernst C. Klinkert, whose name can also be seen on an adjacent part of the building that has always housed retail space and apartments above.
Along with the Capitol/Park and the Granada, the Uptown is one of three survivors of four movie palaces that opened in Racine in 1928, a golden age of theater building that came crashing down with the stock market in 1929. The Venetian was demolished in 1977.
As was common, the 1,292-seat theater was built to accommodate both live performances provided by traveling vaudevillians and the screening of moving pictures.
The Majestic – operated by “veteran amusement man” Frank Wolcott – opened on May 2, 1928, showing “Dress Parade,” a Cecil B. DeMille co-production with William Boyd and Bessie Love, as well as an Our Gang comedy and “other features.”
“When the doors of the new Majestic in ‘Uptown—the Heart of Racine’ swing open tomorrow afternoon,” wrote the Racine Journal News on May 1, “there will be revealed one of the most beautiful of sights. Artists and artisans have for weeks worked on this most gorgeous place of amusement.
“Unqualified charm of design embellished by exquisite decorative treatment which accentuates its architectural features elevates the new Majestic from the ordinary theaters. Done in pure Gothic style with daring employment of detail … the treatment of the entrance is unusually fine. Three columns carrying Gothic arches give access to the permanent open vestibule. There is a deep ceiling in gold and bronze, curved down in an interesting way to rest upon a beading of grotesque Gothic heads. The 82-foot-long lobby is in English Gothic overspread with a delicately-hued blue ceiling into which a series of arches have been groined.”
The newspaper continued on in this effusive manner, detailing the art work, the “Granitex” pulverized granite lobby trim created by Milwaukee’s Christoffel Art Stone Co.; the large Marr and Colton 10-stop, three-manual organ built in Wausau; the 150 tons of cast stone on the exterior; and even the ticket booth – now gone – which was described as “An exquisite bit of craftsmanship is portrayed by the mahogany and marble ticket booth which commands the entrance to the Majestic, a gem of creative workmanship. possessing a quiet elegance.”
Sometime around the 1940s, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, the facade of the theater was altered, with the theater portion covered in red brick, making it appear to be a separate building than the two retail and apartment buildings that flank it. They are, in fact, all the same structure, which you can see more easily in a pre-alteration photo.
Interestingly, once inside, the theater appears to have been snuck in between its neighbors, oozing through them and and exploding out the back into the big auditorium space.
From the street it would appear the theater frontage is far too narrow to fit such a large venue, but you enter through a long, narrow passage into the lobby, which sits behind the western part of the building, while the larger eastern section continues further back, sharing a wall with the theater. Then, the large auditorium opens up mostly behind the other wings, with a basement and sub-basement that have garage doors leading in from the alley, called Maiden Lane.
The Uptown had a relatively short run as a live performance venue and cinema, however, and 31 years after opening, it closed for good. While the retail spaces and apartments remained in use, the theater has moldered for considerably longer than it ever hosted audiences.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Area tavern owners Peg and Lou Larson bought the building around 1998 and used it to store items related to their bars – Peg & Lou’s Bar & Grill and the Brass Monkey – as well as their collections of antiques, furniture and other objects. They continued to rent out the eight apartments upstairs and to lease the two storefronts, but, says Paschen, when Lou passed away, Peg decided to sell.
“Peg is a really nice lady,” says Paschen. “She doesn’t want to be a landlord.”
Paschen says the Larsons had hoped to gather financing to rehab the theater, but nothing came of that effort.
“It quite literally was just storage for them,” Paschen says. “In the main hallway, there was a path about body-width wide all the way down. It was full to the brim with building materials, doors, windows, furniture … you name it, just all packed in here.”
Even though Paschen says the folks at the city dump know him by name now, since he’s been running load after load of junk out there from the building, he says he’s still nowhere near done with that task, and it’s plain to see he’s right.
There are multiple cars abandoned in the basements, plus stuff literally everywhere. And the place is open to the elements, and has been for decades. When we entered, the part of the stage that hadn’t caved into the backstage area below was covered in snow. The aisle into the auditorium from the lobby was a sheet of ice. The seats were already gone, save for a few here and there, when Paschen arrived on the scene, and a lot of plaster and decorative elements inside the extremely ornamental auditorium had already crashed to the floor. Vandals have left their marks and their destruction scattered around the building, too.
Looking up at the stunning mural above the proscenium – “a very Greek tragedy with the severed head and everything,” Paschen observes, “and from the best I can tell, if you look at the globe up there, the center point of the globe looks to be about where Racine is” – and all of the decoration that either remains in situ or in pieces on the ground, this was a glorious movie palace.
But it’s also obvious that there’s little hope of it ever being that again.
“If you look at it you can see what it was,” echoes Paschen. “With imagination and probably $20 million, it could be that again.”
But considering Racine hasn’t had an operating movie theater since 2009, there’s no way any theater could recoup that kind of investment anymore.
“My plan is to convert this into a food hall and apartments,” he says as we stand on the stage, gazing out into the darkness as vaudevillians once did (though they were blinded by the footlights, which now run in an unlit row along the front of the stage). “You’ll enter from either the street or the parking lot. You’ll have a lobby which will go up to the apartments and given the height, I can get anywhere between two and three levels of apartments. It’s all going to come down to talking with the engineers when I get around to it.
“This (main) level will be a food hall. A handful of restaurants, a big communal dining area, exit onto the parking lot. Everybody can have something different (to eat); it’ll be a nice experience.”
The basement and sub-basement already have vehicle access and are perfect for providing underground parking for tenants and perhaps customers. He’s also eyeing a shared commercial kitchen down there that could be rented to food trucks, which could enter the basement spaces for loading, storage, etc.
Paschen says that even if the interior has decayed in the 60-plus years since the theater ceased operation, the bones of the building are solid. “It’s all this internal structure that sort of crumbles,” he says. “And that’s what would all go away. As beautiful as it was it just can’t be saved.”
But, he says, he will work with architectural salvage experts who can help determine which bits of original decoration and other elements can be saved and reused in the project. “I want to keep it the soul of the building,” he says.
Gazing around at everything that still needs to happen, Paschen estimates the project will take 3-5 years to complete. “I have to get all of this down to, ‘what do I have, what needs to get out of here and what will I keep’,” he says. “Then I can go into the first phase, which is building the skeleton (for the upper floors).”
It’s on that skeleton that he hopes to hang not only the “soul of the building,” but its future, too.
How a Single-Screen Theater on a Remote North Carolina Island Keeps Movie Magic Alive
Classic films, clever owners, and a leg up from Andy Griffith have kept the lights on at Manteo’s Pioneer Theater for 108 years
By Andrea Cooper
March 11, 2026
The Pioneer Theater in Manteo, North Carolina.
In the historic photo, a local actor stands on a ladder outside the Pioneer Theater in Manteo, North Carolina. He smiles and waves at the camera. His other hand rests on the marquee boasting his name: ANDY GRIFFITH. The burgeoning star was there to promote the East Coast premiere of his 1957 film debut, A Face in the Crowd.
Visitors can see the ladder in the theater’s lobby today, an artifact of the self-proclaimed “oldest independent, family-owned theater in the country.” The Outer Banks landmark on Roanoke Island, first built in 1918, has survived the advent of “talking pictures,” fires, world wars, and a pandemic. “We raised a lot of generations,” says former owner Buddy Creef, whose great-grandfather founded the theater. “As my dad always said, we were the cheapest two-hour babysitter in town.”
The story goes that Buddy’s great-grandfather, boat builder George Washington Creef Jr., stopped by a nickelodeon theater on a trip up north and saw a couple of short films. He came home with projector equipment and began showing movies to friends at the boat shop. As word spread, he thought, “I can probably start charging people.”
By the 1930s, “talkies,” or movies with sound, were growing in popularity. Herbert Creef Sr., Buddy’s grandfather, knew the theater didn’t have space for the modern technology it needed, so he constructed a new Pioneer Theater downtown. What some might view as a risky business decision, given the greater economic tumult, Buddy sees as a masterstroke. “The movie industry was one of the few that thrived during the Depression and through World War II,” he says.
It didn’t hurt that the theater was the first place in Manteo with air conditioning, according to Michael Basnight, who co-owns the Pioneer today with his sister, Jamie Hatchell. (In the late 1940s, air conditioning replaced “swamp coolers,” which chilled air through evaporated water.) The building expanded its utility and appeal in the 1950s by adding a stage for beauty pageants, historic plays, and sock hops.
Manteo’s children spent their weekends at the community mainstay through the 1960s and 1970s under the watchful eye of Buddy Creef’s dad. “Everybody knew H.A. Creef,” Hatchell remembers. “The parents knew the kids were safe. He was not going to let them leave.”
Showing flicks like Jaws and Star Wars, the Pioneer provided date night for most of Manteo’s teens. “They would come here to get away from their parents,” Buddy recalls. With his own father on site nearly every night and his mom there often, being at the Pioneer for Buddy “was like having a couple of friends over and hanging out in the living room with my parents.” He found other places for dates.
Along with many downtown buildings, the theater got an English Tudor makeover in the early 1970s when the town attempted to entice Queen Elizabeth to Manteo for a celebration of the first colony. Liz didn’t show, but she sent her people. A fire later that decade—one of several to threaten the theater over the years—burned the neighboring hardware store. The Creef family mopped the water in the theater, aired out the smoke, and opened the Pioneer that night.
Covid-19 could have been the Pioneer’s undoing. When the town allowed takeout restaurant sales, Buddy Creef saw his chance. He offered drive-up concessions of candy, soda, and popcorn from the 1950s popcorn machine outside the theater. The first night, Manteo’s town manager, county health inspector, and chief of police arrived together. Buddy began explaining why he thought the sales were allowed. “We’re here to get popcorn,” they said.
Basnight and Hatchell bought the theater in 2023, restored the original blond brick, and revamped its offerings. Studios require first-run movies to be shown for weeks, a formula that doesn’t suit Pioneer’s single screen. “Everybody here will have seen it in a weekend,” Hatchell explains. Instead, the theater screens classic and popular films from the past. (Recent showings include An American in Paris, Scarface, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.) It also hosts concerts with Grammy-winning musicians and special events like an OBX Got Talent competition and a 1929-style speakeasy for Valentine’s Day.
One experience is reserved for the Pioneer’s performers. They’re invited to get their photo taken on the ladder outside the theater as they point to their name on the marquee.
‘Blackboard Jungle’ Breaks Out ‘For Real’ (7/26/55) - The make-believe of a Hollywood movie turned into cold realism last night in a Chicago theater.
Five squad cars were sent to the Southtown Theater to help quell a teenage battle which broke out during the showing of “Blackboard Jungle,” a movie about juvenile violence.
An 18-year-old usher, Allen Lucas, was taken to St. Bernard’s Hospital with a possible concussion.
Police held five of the youths who participated in the fight. Arrested were 17-year-olds Arthur Ross, Eddie Chaffin, Ernest McCollough, and Lee Cosby of Dixmoor.
A fifth boy held was 15 years old.
“Captain Video and His Video Rangers” aired live on The DuMont Television Network from the Ambassador Theatre on Saturday mornings as “The Secret files of Captain Video”.
August 16, 1935.
Feb 01, 1961:
ROSSEN TAKES OVER ASHLAND AVE. THEATER
John A. Rossen, chairman of the Chicago chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba committee, is president of a corporation operating the American theater at 8 N. Ashland, it was disclosed this week.
Rossen is the former Communist party organizer who once operated the Cinema Annex theater near Kedzie and Madison, which specialized in the showing of Russian films, many criticized as being Red propaganda.
Rossen, who was a columnist for the Daily Worker, Russian propaganda newspaper, also publishes the Maverick, regarded as a pro-Communist newspaper.
Rossen is listed as president of Empresas Latinas Inc., chartered April 12, 1960, to show Latin and Spanish films at the American theater. Julio Partillo is secretary-treasurer and Fred Rodrigues is manager. Both were associated with Rossen at the Senate theater after he left the Cinema Annex.
X
(Aug. 02, 1936) USE GLASS BRICK IN REMODELING KARLOV THEATER
First use of glass brick in Chicago theater architecture will be at the Karlov theater, 4048 Armitage avenue, according to Sobel & Drielsma, architects, whose plans are being used in a modernization program. According to Charles and Henry Stern, operators of the Karlov, as well as the Cinema and Austin theaters, approximately $25,000 will be spent in remodeling the former house.
Additional space has been leased adjoining the theater for use as rest rooms and lounge. A new façade of modern materials is being built and new indirect lighting, new decora-tions, and a new ventilating system are contemplated. The Karlov seats 900.
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The new $35,000 Milltown Theatre opened on August 18, 1946 by Marine Corps veteran Tony Paulson, who was currently operating a theatre in nearby Amery.
Where weeds now lace the broken ground And traffic hums a hollow sound, There stood a place with a glowing face — A neighborhood theatre, warm with grace.
Its marquee once in amber shone, With hand-set letters proudly shown, Announcing dreams for all to see: Laughter, tears, and cartoon sprees.
Saturdays, kids, with nickels tight, Watched their heroes sing and fight - As couples slipped into the dark Where whispered hopes would softly spark.
The lobby smelled of buttered corn, Of rain-damp coats on evenings worn, And laughter rose as reels would spin, As strangers met and felt like kin.
The usher’s beam, a guiding star,
Led latecomers from near and far,
While flickering frames danced black and white
Across a screen that ruled the night.
Now silence sits where stories played, No ticket torn, no debts unpaid, Just wind that sighs through vacant space Where time has left a gentle trace.
But if you stand there just past dusk, When daylight fades to shadows hushed, You might still hear, across the air, A ghost of laughter lingering there.
Tab Hunter
Gwen Verdon
Damn Yankees
and Western Hit
Tab Hunter
Gwen Verdon
Damn Yankees
and Western Hit
BOX OFFICE, April 15, 1950: “Rollin K. Stonebrook, operator of the North Center theater in Chicago, has come up with a solution to the problem which guarantees to keep everybody happy. He has reserved 200 seats in his theater for that 10 per cent of the audience who haven’t experienced the thrills of really enjoying the refreshment. The remaining 90 per cent of the audience who are confirmed popcorn chewers have their selection of seats in all other parts of the house.”
The City has just approved all the requirements to begin work, set to begin next month and be completed by the end of 2027. A $25 million U.S. Housing and Urban Development Section 108 Loan was applied for on behalf of developer Baum Revision, to be repaid by the developer over a 20-year period. The project is estimated to cost $88 million and will include 16 residential units and space for arts groups and nonprofits.
(Excerpted from the CHICAGO READER, March 30, 2007, Section One, P.4 “A Hundred Furnished Rooms, an architectural history of Uptown” by Lynn Becker) - The challenges facing historic Uptown may best be represented, however, in its great namesake monument, the Uptown Theatre, dating from 1925. Constructed at a cost of $4 million in a deliriously eclectic style that a contemporary reporter called “Spanish Mexican Renaissance,” it covers 46,000 square feet (most of a city block), stands eight stories high, and seats 4,300. By the end of its first decade, nearly 20 million people had passed through the 213-foot-long lobby, which is terminated by a curving double stair and lined with twin colonnades rising to a 92-foot-high ceiling. As detailed in The Chicago Movie Palaces of Balaban and Katz by David Balaban, namesake grand-son of the Uptown’s manager, the theater occupied a rare moment of shared democracy, where anyone with a quarter or 50 cents could spend a couple hours steeped in the sort of luxury usually reserved for the ultrarich, attended to by a small army arrayed in at least eight different styles of uniforms, designating every station from floor manager to page boy to footman. So as not to disturb the patrons, ushers had to master a complex set of hand signals to manage the huge crowds.
By the 1960s, of course, we had begun opting for a no-frills, self-service, lowest-price world. Blitzed by free TV, the great movie palaces crashed into dust. The Uptown held on, finally closing for good in 1981. The heat was turned off soon after, and in the dead of winter the water pipes froze and burst, causing massive damage. It’s gone downhill ever since. The theater has passed through multiple owners, including convicted slumlord Lou Wolf, who once owned the Goldblatt’s block, and is currently in receivership. Recently the city picked up the tab for $500,000 in emergency repairs, removing some large, unstable chunks of terra-cotta before they simply fell to the street. Despite the ongoing efforts of activists committed to saving this official Chicago landmark, the Uptown remains boarded up and forlorn. Just before the February election, the 48th Ward alderman Mary Ann Smith told Windy City Times that a “premier developer” had signed a contract to restore the theater but declined to divulge the company’s name.
(May 27, 1955) El Paso Children Escape Unhurt In Theater Fire
Three hundred and fifty grade school children were led to safety at 11:30 a. m. Thursday when fire broke out in the projection booth of the El Paso Theater. The children were attending a free show at the theater as part of their end of the school year activities.
Speedy Exit
Don Rist, co-manager of the theater, saw smoke coming from the projector and sped downstairs to warn H. B. Tate, superintendent of schools. Edward Heiken, principal of the Jefferson Park School in El Paso, gave orders for the 12 teachers present to lead their pupils out. Most of the youngsters were on the sidewalk before they knew what had happened. The El Paso Fire Department quickly extinguished the blaze.
Projector Damaged
Bill Fever, who was operating the projector, said the film broke and snapped against a carbon arc. One reel of the film was destroyed and the lens and the projector were damaged. In addition to the El Paso pupils, classes were present from the Secor and Spring Hill schools. A show for another group of children, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, has been cancelled.