Congress Theater
2135 N. Milwaukee Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60647
2135 N. Milwaukee Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60647
15 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 86 of 86 comments
At some point in the last week, signs have gone up heralding a re-christening of the theatre as the Nokia (like the cell phone company). I personally have mixed feelings about this- on one hand, I am sad to see it lose the name it has held for most of its years (aside from the Teatro Azteca/Cine Mexico days), but on the other this will likely bring more money into keeping the place up, to bolster the Nokia name. While it is amazingly intact inside, it needs a lot of maintenance. Perhaps it will even recieve a proper marquee again.
From Russell Phillips' Galleries:
Congress/Mexico Theater Lobby, 1984
Yeah, they’re the same boards that say “Congress Theatre”, actually, it’s embossed through.
Well…I have to admit that the “n” might not have been there. But, I think it was. I took several pictures of the theater at this time. Perhaps “Vincenete Fernandez” is an accomplished local businessman or something? Whatever the outcome of that discussion is, this was certainly the theater’s name (rather than an attraction). It was mounted above the backlit attraction boards on either side of the marquee.
Who is Vicente Fernandez? (No ‘n’ in his first name.) He is one of Mexico’s most popular singers, called the ‘King of the Rancheros.’ Born Feb. 17, 1940 in Huentitlan del Alto in Jalisco, Mexico.
He has recorded a total of 56 albums. At one point, he performed (for free) at the La Plaza de Mexico in front of an audience of 54,000, still a record for the Plaza. He still performs. Just recently, Fernandez announced that he planned to open a mariachi theme casino in Las Vegas called Guadalajara, Guadalajara.
He probably appeared at the Congress Theater in 1988.
The real question is: who is Vincente Fernandez?!?! I would say the theater had this name out front around 1988.
My mistake.
Vincente Fernandez was the name on the marquee, actually.
It was also once known as the teatro juan fernandez
I believe that the Congress Theatre, during the 1970s and 1980s, was known as the Mexico Theatre. They took the letters down from the vertical marquee and stored them right on the regular marquee! You could easily see this from the nearby L (which is now called the Blue Line).
According to their site, it was built by the Lubliner & Trinz chain, also was on the Orpheum vaudevill circuit, and went to Balaban & Katz in 1929 with the rest of the Lubliner/Trinz chain. The vertical framework is still in place, although to be honest, it kind of disfigures the ornate facade. Another prior name for the congress in its spanish-language period was the cine mexico, and these name changes presumably are why the vertical is missing and why the marquee sports a rather bizarre modern backlit/retro font look on a 60s style frame.