Tradewinds Cinemas I & II
1452 Irving Park Road,
Hanover Park,
IL
60133
1452 Irving Park Road,
Hanover Park,
IL
60133
6 people
favorited this theater
The Tradewinds Cinema I & II was opened by General Cinema Corporation as a twin theater on July 6, 1973 with Julie Andrews in “Mary Poppins” & Roddy McDowall in “Battle for the Planet of the Apes”. It was closed by General Cinema Corporation on December 15, 1986
It reopened as a Dollar house on December 19, 1986 having been taken over by an independent operator. In 1987 it became part of the Classic Cinemas chain, but before it closed on December 21, 2002 screening “Sweet Home Alabama” starring Reece Witherspoon & an East Indian film. The Tradewinds Cinema (along with the Tradewinds shopping center) was demolished in February 2006, and was replaced by a Menards store.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
I have photos taken prior to the demoltion that I would like to post. When will this feature be online?
YES! Good job taking those photos. I hope they’ll be postable soon.
I’m not sure when that feature will be online, but you could always post a link.
I was a General Cinema manager from 1971 to 1975 and supervised the construction of this theater around 1973. It was the tiniest cinema that I had ever seen. When this one was designed, they didn’t even add any storage space for the cups, raw popcorn, popcorn oil, candy, etc. We ended up dividing the manager’s office in half and calling one the office and the other the storage room. It surprises me that it lasted as long as it did.
So was this a General Cinema then at one time? When did Classic Cinemas take over?
I loved that theater! Saw a whole host of awful B movies during the mid-seventies (of which I’m a huge fan now). Every theater shows the same set of movies now. Choice and variety in theaters died with the VCR and DVD.
Yes, GGC guy, seems like GCC was good about not building in enough storage space . We used the booth often to store cups,Pissed the Projectionists off,but we had no other choice.
This opened on July 6th, 1973. Its grand opening ad can be found in the photo section for this theatre.
General Cinema operated the theater until December 18, 1986 when it was taken over by Tivoli Enterprises, which eventually became Classic Cinemas who operated the theater throughout the rest of time.
The $3.5 million Tradewinds Shopping Center was designed by Finck, Stowell & Associates in 1969 in Hanover Park. The original center was anchored by a Zayre big-box discount store, a Dominick’s grocery store, and a Walgreens. But at the outset, an expansion included a place for a diminutive cinema and a bank - or almost enough space. General Cinema signed on to be the provider. The Tradewinds blew in on October 5, 1969 launching theatre-less.
The General Cinema Tradewinds Cinema I & II opened on July 6, 1973 with “Mary Poppins” and “Battle for the Planet of the Apes.” (Based on its position in the Center, we believe that Finck, Stowell & Associates was likely one of the facility’s main architects.) In 1981, the winds had died down and General Cinema downgraded its duplex to a sub-run, dollar discount house. GCC bailed after “Touch & Go,” “Boy Who Could Fly” and “Jumpin' Jack Flash” on December 15, 1986 with the multiplex era in full build-out mode.
The tiny duplex resumed as a dollar house under new operators on December 19, 1986. Under the Classic Cinemas banner from 1987 to 2002, the venue appears to have ceased operations on December 31, 2002 with “Sweet Home Alabama” and, likely, a Bollywood title. The Tradewinds Shopping Center had turned at its 30th anniversary in 1999 with leasing renewals challenging. It became a greyfield-status plaza with vacancies above occupancy rate in the early 21st Century. Certainly, a duplex in the megaplex era was not going to survive or find a new operator.
And 2004 may have been the plaza’s final stand for all of the remaining retailers at the center’s 35-year mark. The cinema was demolished along with the rest of the Tradewinds Center in 2006 in favor of a Menard’s big box home fix-it retail location.