Capitol Theatre
7941 S. Halsted Street,
Chicago,
IL
60620
7941 S. Halsted Street,
Chicago,
IL
60620
11 people
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Showing 51 - 58 of 58 comments
I have lived in this area since 1965, part of the migration that saw many people flee to the suburbs for fear of us “invaders”. Saw Leo High School’s enrollment drop to almost 300 boys (although it is now flourishing again). The Wimpy’s hamburger place stayed around for a few years then closed. The Walgreens on the corner 79th Halstead has been closed for a while too. There used to be a Woolworth’s kitty corner from the Walgreens, in addition to a department store named Frank’s.
I miss the Capitol theater. It had character, more so than the multiplexes of today.
As a kid living on the southside(69th & Ashland)during the war years until 1953, I went to the Capitol many times, and also the Cosmo across the street. I went to many of the GREAT shows all over the southside, Southtown, Empress, Stratford, Highland, Jeffrey and dozens of others. My Dad & Mom both worked national defense jobs and we always had a buck or two for me to go to the show. Movies were one of the things that kept coming, no matter what. The Capitol had a restaurant next door, called the Capitol restaurant and I worked for a guy that owned some donut and ice cream shops around the city and we made all of his ice cream in the Capitol restaurant. After working(???) we would walk down to the corner(80th Street) and have a “Wimpys” hamburger. Does any one remember these things?
The facility was in such horrible shape by that time, it would have cost more to rehab, than to tear it down and start over.
WHat a waste they did not convert the cinema to a church.
I moved two blocks from the theater in 1965 as a 3 year old and still live on the block today and have so many fond memories of Saturday afternoons spent at the Capitol theater. After the white flight to the suburbs in the late 60’s, the theater stopped getting first run movies and attendance sagged. It was purchased and used by the Gene Ammons (a famous Blues artist) but they went defunct. Now a big empty space sits there. A church tore it down but ran out of money to build their church, so the land now sits as an eyesore.
The Chicago Capitol was used as a model for a theatre in Sydney,Australia. This theatre was also called the Capitol and opened in 1928. It once had a 3/15 Wurlitzer pipe organ. The theatre once seated 3,000. Organ restored and moved to Orion theatre at Campsie,Sydney.(1988) Capitol Theatre,Sydney restored in 1995 by Sydney City Council.
If this is the Capitol Theatre on 79th and Halsted, I used to go there as a kid during the early 60’s. My father, who worked for White Way, changed the marquees, therefore I received free tickets. The theatre was boarded up and in poor shape, but I do believe it stood thru the some of the 80’s, and I have a photo I took of it’s boarded up shape. At one time, in the 70’s, they tried to bring back live entertainment, I do believe seeing and ad to where James Brown played there. Blaban and Katz used to own the theatre. It was quite a thrill in the early 60’s to sit thru hours of Sat afternoon cartoon festivals. Also, when House on Haunted Hill played there, they brought a skeleton down from the balcony, and one Sat kids matinee they had horror film actors arrive (some who were not the real people..like Lugosi, as he was dead, but we kids did not know this).
In the early 70’s it was used by Rev Jesse Jackson for his Operation Breadbasket meetings. That organization later became Operation Push.