Riviera Theatre
4746 N. Racine Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60640
4746 N. Racine Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60640
15 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 85 comments
Looks like the renovation is complete! Their website calendar lists concerts going on throughout the summer. The new photos look great!
The JAM Productions Facebook page has dozens of photos of ongoing renovations in the link below. Today they posted 8 photos of old balcony seats removal and the installation of 820 new seats on that level. Posted in gallery as well. (I recall some of the old seats had Granada stenciled on their backs at past shows.)
https://www.facebook.com/jamusa/
Before & After photos & descriptions added credit Jam Productions, Ltd.
PHASE 1: DISCOVERY The front windows at the Riviera Theatre You may have noticed something different about the entrance to the Riviera Theatre. We uncovered the original transom windows that had been covered for at least 60 years. All but one were still intact allowing customers to get a glimpse of the lobby chandelier before even getting in the front doors. See the before and after photos!
The Riviera was the first mechanically refrigerated (air conditioned) theater in Chicago, with ads for its “freezing plant” first appearing in the Tribune on June 12, 1919. The Central Park, which is often cited as the first air conditioned theater, did not open with a plant in place, but was added at the same time as the Riviera’s, with its advertisement appearing June 21. The Central Park is probably usually cited as first because it opened before the Riviera.
However, the Empire Theater in Montgomery, Alabama had a CO2 refrigeration system in 1917. http://archive.org/details/motionpicturenew162unse/page/2804/mode/2up?view=theater
And a similar system was described in the National Theater in Los Angeles in 1914: http://archive.org/details/motionpicturenew102unse/page/n490/mode/1up?view=theater
WBEZ piece on Uptown.
https://www.wbez.org/stories/from-cemetery-saloons-to-movie-palaces-how-uptown-became-an-entertainment-hub/ff35dc6f-fcde-4ca4-81e5-22fe33947291?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wbez
Fall 1977 Reader ad designed for Jam Productions by and courtesy of long time Chicago graphic artist Shelley Howard added. It confirms that the Riviera was already doing double duty as a concert venue prior to 1983. The Billy Joel date of 11/19/77 is confirmed via the Chicago Tribune as well.
Jam Productions downloadable coloring book of the Riviera and other theatres.
https://www.jamusa.com/coloringbook/?utm_source=Chicago+–+Jam+Mail+List&utm_campaign=b5807b82ef-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_08_01_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1cddcb52a5-b5807b82ef-247204449&mc_cid=b5807b82ef&mc_eid=2a384cf67a
The Riviera closed as a movie theatre in 1983.
New official website:
https://www.rivieratheatre.com/
They have an extensive lineup of concerts for 2018!
Air Conditioning ad as found by Texas Two Step.
Found on Newspapers.com
1923 photo added via the Calumet 412 facebook page.
Cited for code violations re fire escape and exterior walls. DNAInfo story here.
This is what I fear the Uptown will become – trashed, as a so-called “music venue”. Additionally, consider what what has happened at the Congress and what soon might happen to the Portage.
I was in the Riveria during Open House Chicago last Sunday. It is in very bad shape with many bars throught the main floor. The floors are sticky and the whole building is dirty including the washrooms. The balcony still has the theater seats. It seems that the owners are squeezing every pennny form the building and the concert goers have no idea what an elegant venue this was.
This opened on October 2nd, 1918. It’s grand opening ad is in the photo section for this theatre.
Like the Rivieras facebook page! Its Riviera Theatre Chicago IL
I just saw the film, “The Break Up” with Jennifer Aniston, and there is a great scene involving the Riviera, you can see a lot of it.
Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cl4k5g
Passed by the Riviera today. It had some newer looking, protective white tarps over the top span of the front wall, oer the marquee.
Same as the Uptown still has. Though the Uptown’s upper terra cotta arches had been removed a while back.
A good sign that both are being protected from the elements, until brick/facade work can be done.
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Actually given the billboard I suppose that would be 90s
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Ah The Riv. This place could still be the ultimate, if it would just get some cosmetics done. Concert business has cleary kept it alive. I’ve seen so many shows there I can’t even remember which were films and which were concerts. Robert Palmer, Cheap Trick years back on New Years, etc. (Noticed they had seats from the Granada in the balcony.)
My last was The Pretenders last Christmas. Which unfortunately we were not told was a Toys-For-Tots show, so we arrived empty handed.
All we could do was say “Hi” to WXRT’s Terri Hemmert.
Back in the `80’s, there was a brazen armed robbery of whoever ran the then Riviera niteclub. The newspapers later reported that it was an inside job. When pictures they ran surfaced of the alleged thieves laying on a bed of money.
In the early `90’s, then Chicago Bull Cliff Levingston reportedly bought the Riviera. But he was unfortunately traded from the team days later. So I don’t think he ever took over.
As I get older, I kind of wish these places didn’t remove all the main level seats. It’s what make the House Of Blues only viable if you pop for the dinner packages. I know I’m in no way their main cash cow audience, but I think it’s why bands like Steely Dan & Ray Davies now play the Chicago Theatre. The Congress also removed all the main floor seats. Surely essentially costing themselves the recent roller derby revival. Which re-opened on their floor, and coincidentally in Chicago in the 1920’s. Yeah, yeah I went.
They had an original roller girl in her 80’s there. And initially seats.
A friend told me once Natalie Merchant apologized to the audience at one of the two, for the conditions of the house. Which ever one she doesn’t play at again we’ll know.
The Riviera I’m pretty sure did a short late `70’s stint as a revival house, similar to the Parkway & Music Box. Mixed double features of cult classics.
Had the nearby Uptown not succumbed to all that befell it since 1981, The Riviera might itself now be dormant. But it’s a trooper. “Faded Elegance” can certainly be reversed with money and vision though.
Some sort of work is going on with the Riv’s facade:
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Here are some blog posts on the Riv restoration:
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Also, a couple on the proposed multiplex across from the Aragon:
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