Music Box Theatre
3733 N. Southport Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60613
3733 N. Southport Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60613
69 people
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Showing 76 - 84 of 84 comments
The Music Box is a neat theater and brings back the golden era of moviegoing. The floating clouds and twinkling lights are a great touch. Of course the theater’s best feature is the great selection of movies that are always presented here. There really is no other theater like it in the city. Having said that, the sound system is awful. I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve always had problems hearing dialogue here because the sound echoes all over the place. The seats are so uncomfortable and the sight-lines terrible. If someone sits in front of you even three or four aisles in front of you, you cannot see the bottom of the screen (especially bad if watching a film with subtitles).
From Russell Phillips' Galleries:
Music Box Lobby, Early 1980s
Music Box Auditorium, Early 1980s
I love the Music Box, and have missed it a lot since moving away from Chicago in 1998. I loved the floating cloud on the ceiling and the lights that look like stars. The movies were exceptional. I hope that the new management is keeping things going as well as they were.
What a Show Piece! That is what Theatre should look like!
I lived three blocks from the Music Box from 1995 to 1997. During that time I loved the Music Box. It was a real treat to attend movies there on snowy weekend days or even just to walk past and see the marvellous detail in the theater facade and connecting building and storefronts. This is a real success story in the world of theater preservation!
The Music Box is now under new management. The partners who in 1983 leased and renovated the building and subsequently maintained the highest standards of presentation and spared no expense to create one of the best cinema experiences available anywhere were unable to negotiate a new lease with the building’s owner. The owner now plans to operate the Music Box himself though he has no experience in the field. Wishing him the best.
He has big shoes to fill. But of course, they’re his shoes.
The first time I was in the Music Box was 1961 when I saw “A Rasin In The Sun”. As a young person I was never impressed by the Music Box, but remember, this is Chicago which had neighborhood theatres of 5000 seats (The Uptown) and many neighborhood theatres that sat over 3000. I also found its open vertical like the Covent theatre looking rather unfinished.
However since 1961, I’ve been in a lot of mega-plexes and in comparison The Music Box looks great. I re-visited The Music Box about 15 years ago and it looked terrific. Although I’m still not fond of its open vertical and it’s lack of a balcony, I wish I owned it.
In 196l, The Southport area was certainly not prime Chicago real estate but luckily the neighborhood started to become trendy and The Music Box sucessfully re-opened.
Ah! if we could only predict real estate trends we all be wealthy and own prospering theatres.
Until its re-opening, The Music Box was never a first run house. All major releases premiered at downtown theatres (there were a few exceptions like “B” horror films) and then went to 2nd run movie palaces like the Uptown, Century, Gateway, and other 2000+ seat theatres. Along with the “A” film previously released downtown you got to see a “B” film for one admission. Smaller neighborhood independant theatres like the Music Box got films after they played at the large neighborhood houses for one to two weeks.
Lest anyone panic, the 2nd screen was added by opening into retail space adjacent to the lobby. The main auditorium remains in excellent condition thanks to the talent, forsight and hard work of the current management (who cannot be commended enough!).
The Music Box never had an organ until an electronic theatre style organ was installed in the early 1980’s. As with many smaller theaters built at the end of the 1920’s provision was made for installing an organ later, should talkies have proven to be only a fad. Later, air conditioning equipment was installed in the organ chambers.
Both lobby and auditorium were built in atmospheric style, with a Spanish flavor to the side wall architecture.
The Music Box projection booth is a technical tour-de-force equipped to show 16mm, 35mm, and 70mm film as well as 3-D and silent at original speed. Sound equipment includes regular optical, magentic stereo and digital.
For more photos of the Music Box Theatre, visit my website at http://www.petrixphoto.com/musicbox/index.html