Varsity Cinema

The Varsity Theatre closed on February 1, 1990 with “Tango and Cash,” “Mask of the Red Death,” and “The Wizard.” Capacity was 764 as a two-screener with 484 in the main floor and 280 in the upstairs. The closing gives John N. Ziegele co-architect credit as part of Lankton & Ziege e. The Varsity had opened in 1939 with “Out West” and a full house. Five people showed up for the final screening of “Tango & Cash.

According to the reports on its demise, GKC said it had no choice in closing the venue as they could either sell out or get imminent domained as the Campustown project was coming through their building no matter what.

1939 Grand Opening photo added courtesy of Frank Larkin, via Local History Collection, Peoria Public Library.

Circa 1941 photo added, photo credit Peoria Public Library.

I worked at the Varsity in the summer of 1976. At that time, there was a single screen, and the balcony was never, but never open. Only staff were allowed upstairs. We ran mostly soft-core porn, with an occasional blaxploitation feature. I remember that “Debbie Does Dallas” had been altered, with a black bar across the bottom 20% of the screen during the more pornographic scenes. The blaxploitation films were a rare addition to our scheduled films.

Our patron mix was interesting. We had the regulars, for porn features, and the blaxploitation shows brought in “ladies of the evening” and their “employers.” It was quite an experience to see a very elaborately dressed young man, complete with a feather in his hat, escorting 5 or 6 scantily clad young women! I used to sit in the box office, watching, to use the current vernacular, “pimped out rides” cruising past.

The staff members recognized most of our regular, porn patrons, so although our jobs required that we check IDs for verification of age (18), it was rarely necessary. One of our regulars was an on-duty police officer, who ostensibly came in to verify there were no underage patrons. We found it interesting that, over the course of the movie’s run (a week), he’d manage to see the entire film. He had a partner who always waited in the car — a K-9 unit.

As the previous poster has noted, Avanti’s was nearby. Many an evening saw staff members bring in an order of pizza bread (still a wonderful treat), sit in the balcony to eat it, and gaze out over the heads of the patrons who preferred not to be seen there. No patron ever complained about the aroma that had to be wafting down to them. All in all, it was an educational and fun experience for a naive young woman.

Here is a photo circa 1948:
http://tinyurl.com/ycc335y

Boxoffice of November 5, 1938, ran an item saying that George Kerasotes was planning to build a theater called the Varsity in Peoria. The Varsity was being designed by one of Peoria’s leading architects, J. Fletcher Lankton.

A photo of the foyer of the Varsity appeared on the cover of the Modern Theatre section of Boxoffice for March 30, 1940. The Varsity was located in an existing building, formerly a garage, which was extensively altered to serve as a theater.

The Varsity opened in l939 and was the last new theater to open in Peoria until the Fox in 1965. The style was very much art deco. It lasted longer than most single-screen theaters because of its proximity to Bradley University. It was considered sort of a “twin” to the Beverly, opened just 2 years earlier and located on the other side of the “bluff” area of Peoria.