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Chicago Theatres: The Chicago Theater
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Published: November 20, 2006
It will not take a patron long to encounter the opulence and grandeur of the Chicago Theater. Approaching the theater, located at 175 N. State St., a six-story glowing vertical marquee on the outer French Baroque façade serves as a landmark to welcome its visitors.
A 60-foot wide reproduction of Paris' Arc de Triomphe is sculpted in the façade behind the marquee.
The replica’s Parisian authentic towers above the Champs-Elysées as signal of Napoleon's triumphant re-entry into the city down its grandest boulevard. At the Chicago Theater, the replica gazes out over State Street, a street seeped in triumphant history in its own right, harkening back to its shopping district heyday of the early 20th century and later immortalization in a song by Frank Sinatra.
Once inside the grand lobby of the Chicago Theater, it is impossible to ignore the magnificent eloquence of the art and design, set to mimic the Royal Chapel at Versailles, the French palace of the kings. Leading up to the many galleries, balconies and promenades in the theater is the grand staircase, itself pattered after the Paris Opera House.
Owners Barney and Abe Balaban and Sam and Morris Katz spared no expense when they commissioned Cornelius and George Rapp to design the Chicago Theater, what they hoped would be the key theater of their chain, Balaban and Katz Theaters. Getting the best workmanship, drapes, crystal chandeliers, bronze fixtures and terra cotta plasters money could buy, Balaban and Katz spent $4 million to open the theater. It is little wonder the Chicago Theater was called the “Wonder Theater of the World” when it opened its doors on Oct. 26, 1921.
Still, the story behind the Chicago Theater is arguably as grand as the décor itself. As the first large, lavish movie palace in America, the 3,600-seat Chicago Theater became the prototype for other theaters springing up around the country at the time.
On opening day in 1921, a 50-piece orchestra performed and Jesse Crawford gave a rousing concert on the theater's Wurlitzer pipe organ. This opening day set the tone for the theater's next half century, which attracted the best in live theater, film, movies and music of the era – including John Phillip Sousa, Duke Ellington, Jack Benny and Benny Goodman.
After a redecoration in 1933 in preparation for the city's World Fair and a modernization two decades later (a modernization signaling the end of most stage shows for the theater), the theater continued to thrive into the 1980s.
On Jan. 1, 1983, the Chicago Theater received designation as a historic city landmark. Unfortunately, it was an honor received at a difficult socioeconomic time; it did not save the theater from being a victim of sagging business. Faced with demolition, the Chicago Theater closed on Sept. 19, 1985. But in 1986, private groups got together with the city and bought the Chicago Theater in a redevelopment effort culminating with a gala reopening concert featuring Frank Sinatra.
Today, although the stage is not large enough to accommodate the needs of modern Broadway productions, the Chicago Theater still attracts smaller stage shows, concerts, comedy shows, speeches and other special events. Its French-baroque revival design style has blended into the city's already impressive theater landscape to create a landmark vital to the story of State Street and the surrounding theater district.
Sources:
The Chicago Theater. 2006. 16 November 2006. <http://www.thechicagotheater.com/.>
The Chicago Theater. Centerstage Chicago. 2006. 16 November 2006. <http://centerstage.net/music/clubs/chicago-the ater-state.html.>
A 60-foot wide reproduction of Paris' Arc de Triomphe is sculpted in the façade behind the marquee.
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Once inside the grand lobby of the Chicago Theater, it is impossible to ignore the magnificent eloquence of the art and design, set to mimic the Royal Chapel at Versailles, the French palace of the kings. Leading up to the many galleries, balconies and promenades in the theater is the grand staircase, itself pattered after the Paris Opera House.
Owners Barney and Abe Balaban and Sam and Morris Katz spared no expense when they commissioned Cornelius and George Rapp to design the Chicago Theater, what they hoped would be the key theater of their chain, Balaban and Katz Theaters. Getting the best workmanship, drapes, crystal chandeliers, bronze fixtures and terra cotta plasters money could buy, Balaban and Katz spent $4 million to open the theater. It is little wonder the Chicago Theater was called the “Wonder Theater of the World” when it opened its doors on Oct. 26, 1921.
Still, the story behind the Chicago Theater is arguably as grand as the décor itself. As the first large, lavish movie palace in America, the 3,600-seat Chicago Theater became the prototype for other theaters springing up around the country at the time.
On opening day in 1921, a 50-piece orchestra performed and Jesse Crawford gave a rousing concert on the theater's Wurlitzer pipe organ. This opening day set the tone for the theater's next half century, which attracted the best in live theater, film, movies and music of the era – including John Phillip Sousa, Duke Ellington, Jack Benny and Benny Goodman.
After a redecoration in 1933 in preparation for the city's World Fair and a modernization two decades later (a modernization signaling the end of most stage shows for the theater), the theater continued to thrive into the 1980s.
On Jan. 1, 1983, the Chicago Theater received designation as a historic city landmark. Unfortunately, it was an honor received at a difficult socioeconomic time; it did not save the theater from being a victim of sagging business. Faced with demolition, the Chicago Theater closed on Sept. 19, 1985. But in 1986, private groups got together with the city and bought the Chicago Theater in a redevelopment effort culminating with a gala reopening concert featuring Frank Sinatra.
Today, although the stage is not large enough to accommodate the needs of modern Broadway productions, the Chicago Theater still attracts smaller stage shows, concerts, comedy shows, speeches and other special events. Its French-baroque revival design style has blended into the city's already impressive theater landscape to create a landmark vital to the story of State Street and the surrounding theater district.
Sources:
The Chicago Theater. 2006. 16 November 2006. <http://www.thechicagotheater.com/.>
The Chicago Theater. Centerstage Chicago. 2006. 16 November 2006. <http://centerstage.net/music/clubs/chicago-the ater-state.html.>
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