Ford City Cinema 1 & 2
7601 S. Cicero Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60629
7601 S. Cicero Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60629
1 person
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The original General Cinema Ford City Cinema 1 and 2 opened May 27, 1966 with Jason Robards in “A Thousand Clowns” and Jack Lemmon in “The Great Race”. Closed on August 9, 1990 the day before the GCC Ford City 14 opened(it has its own page on Cinema Treasures).
Contributed by
Scott N Weinfeld
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
In the summer of 1988, Rita and I came from Kenosha to see “Tucker - The Man And His Dream” at the Ford City Cinema, which was meaningful as the Tucker plant is directly adjacent to the Ford City theatres
Love that. The area has great history as the Dodge Chicago Plant in WW2, Tucker and Ford after the war with Ford leaving in 1959. The Ford City Shopping Center was announced in 1961 by Harry F Chaddick as a $10 million suburban plaza. Wieboldt’s signed on as anchor in 1962 with a 30-year leasing agreement. Penney’s also joined the project as another anchor. The proposed $1 million, 2,500 seat twin was announced by General Cinema in late April of 1965 along with the Cermak Plaza and the Elmhurst Plaza single screeners. Ford City opened on August 12, 1965.
The GCC Ford City Cinema I & II opened on the North strip expansion with 1,900-seats on May 27, 1966 with an art gallery and auditorium with pushback seats and hi-fi sound. It would be joined by a bowling alley and Jewel’s Turn-Style Family Center big box retail store (later a Venture store and then Sears). The lower level “Peacock Alley” was added to create a sub-level connector between the main mall and the North mall / General Cinema. On February 22, 1973, the theater became the Ford City Cinema I-II-III after an auditorium split. The triplex featured “Shamus,” “The Poseidon Adventure,” and “The World’s Greatest Athlete” at its debut. The venue began 70mm screenings in 1979.
Chaddick proposed a major $10 million West addition and a smaller - and quickly built - $4 million Ford City East addition. There, on July 17, 1981, three screens were added with the launch of the separate GCC Ford City East facility. Movie lovers preferred the original, large screen at the Ford City I-II-III. That auditorium ended in October of 1983 as the original Ford City single screen was closed for the venue’s final refresh. It would re-emerge in December of 1983 as the GCC Ford City I-V, now with five screens.
On August 31, 1987, the original Wieboldt’s anchor store closed and its contents auctioned off just prior to that chain’s Chapter 7 demise. (It would become a Carson Pirie Scott until its 2018 bankruptcy.) A Southwest wing and a proposed Marshall Field anchor was proposed in 1989 and would have taken the retail complex to over 200 stores. However, it wasn’t built. On August 9, 1990, the GCC Ford City closed with “Presumed Innocent,” “Duck Tales: The Movie” splitting with “Quick Change,” “Navy Seals” splitting with “Jungle Book,” “Die Hard 2,” and “Days of Thunder.” The next day, the Ford City 14 replaced the Ford City and Ford City East properties. A retail location for Marshall’s would be in the area once housed by the General Cinema which was demolished.
Penney’s made it to the Mall’s end - June 20, 2026. Like many shuttered malls, the venue was subject to urban explorers and urban vandals. An urban explorer was purportedly attacked by a security guard and then in early October, a mass break-in to the former mall occurred as the City tried to figure out how to better fortify the location in advance of its redevelopment / demolition. And the Ford City 14 just kept on going under AMC.