Paradise Theater

Scott, People are lazy as a rule I believe. I was too. We cut down going to the palaces twice a week to once a week because of tv dinners and all those FREE shows on television (some were very very good). Especially when the winds blew on a cold night, it was nicer to stay in a warm house than go out to the garage or hop on a streetcar and go to a movie theater. The handwriting was certainly on the wall for the Paradise & Marbro Theaters. But then there always Saturday Matinees…

Scott, No I just thought msybe you did visit Ny with all your knowledge. I have only been to two Fox Theaters. Atlanta Fox and of course the Brookyln Fox. I was at the Brookyln Paramount about ten years ago and walked around in the lobby and in the “Auditorium”. I wonder what is going on these days since the school left I believe.
I think I would rather drive down to St. Louis to see that Fox and have dinner with you.

Life’s too short, your question asking if anything has been started at Leow’s King’s reminds me what is going on in Haiti. After billiins of dollars being pledged, nothing seems to have changed sine the earthquake over one year ago. After Sarah Palin’s visit recently,she said we need to send billiins more because the people are srtill living in tents. So I will have to check the website or visit there in person on my next trip to NY. Barbra Streisand recently said on a tv interview that she and Neil Diamond were ushers at Loew’s Kings.

I will not give up hope for the Uptown. I want to remind everyone that the Loew’s Kings in Brooklyn was also closed for over 30 years before finally beginning a $70MM restoration which will take at least 4 years. Granted, New York’s budget is in much better shape than Chicago’s, but assuming the theater remains structurally sound, I have hope that it will be around long enough to be be reborn. After the Kings is restored, it will likely rank among the top 3 restored theaters in the country. The Uptown (when restored) would easily join that rank.

Sounds wonderful Scott! I do plan on coming down when the local theater organ chapter has a show. I could not attend the last one they had in the fall, but would love to this time. They must have spent good money on it. The Rialto in Joliet, where I attend regularly, looks like a real gem. New carpets, cleaning of the massive light fixture in the lobby and really spic and span. On the downside, the city of Joliet might curtail some allowances $$$$$$. The state owes them hundreds of thousands-and we know how Illinois is doing these days………

Scott, I think the Tivoli was successful at it. My family told me the Marbro was not. They did not have an audience. Too bad. If the accustics were better at the Paradise, maybe they would have chosen that theater for the stage shows. But alas, the audience would not come out for that venue either! The south siders appartently did. Good for them. It is hard for me to believe that a small tv box in a living room would keep someone from going down a few blocks to see live entertainment at a beautiful movie palace. But not everyone thinks like us! Otherwise they would still be in operation. At least some of them MAYBE.. Looking forward (in a way) to the last installment of “Moguls”—— the end of an era.

Scott, Great point. I guess 1946 was the best one to date after the war ended. People went to the movies weekly if not more. It was automatic. Then came the little box and profits dried up to many of the screens. I suppose that is why the Marbro tried to revive the stage show policy in 1949 to no avail. I think it was very short lived. Too bad, I bet plenty of money was spent to “upgrade” the stage and lighting and musicians etc. etc. It should have worked when you imagine the population was still strong. I just think people got used to their living room couches and the free entertainment.

Scott, I am sure it will be on again and again as WTTW does. Go to their website and find out more. I am looking forward to tonites “Moguls”. This is the “50’s” and the beginning of the wide screen epics at the Marbro and all over the US. This is our era, when we “fell in love” with those wonderfull “Popcorn
palaces” and all the glamour of the settings. You might say they were made for each other: the epics and the places they played in……..

Hello Paradise and Marbro lovers! Tonite Geoffrey Baer is doing his special on WTTW Chicago feature “Biking the Blvds” aT 7:30 PM cst. It will also be repeated later tonite and twice more this week. I think Wed and Thursday. He will give a history before the ride on how the boulivards came to be and how they were designed. One can only hope it will include how the beautiful theaters in the area came to be and what became of them. I would imagine the Paradise might be mentioned for its closeness to Garfield Park.

Thanks Scott for the numbers. I sometimes “live” in the clouds I guess. Murder is as common in that area today as movie theaters were in my time. I would like to believe that those palaces,if survived, would have changed the neighbood for the better. I know better. I will always think of that area that I knew and loved as the way it was. I saw a mayoral candidate today saying if elected, he would give every student in Chicago a lap-top. No Exceptions! My thoughts: It was a few years ago, there were murders over a pair of Michael Jordans shoes and Nikes, just imagine the murder rate soaring over laptops!

Did anybody see on Turner Classic Movie channel last night the first in a series of seven new shows on “Moguls in Hollywood”? Every Monday
for seven weeks. It was great. Bob Balaban, grandson of the founder,
told how his grandmother Goldie told her husband “We are in the wrong business” as she walked past a nickeloen, They lived above a grocery store. Thats how it all began. It will repeat Wed I believe and again on the week-end. No. 2 will air next Monday. #7
will dicuss the 50’s when movie palaces closed and the upstart of the cineplex. Check TCM.com

Scott, B&K must have had an auction. These people were
accuate I am sure. Maybe it was a private auction. It was a beauty. A large green globe with crytals hanging from it. I was lit up green. What year did the Norshore
close? Do you mean B&K closed it down without any notice? What a shame for the people that wanted “one more and last visit”. The Marbro had no auction. Our relatives that lived there at the end would have told us. And I WOULD HAVE GONE FOR SURE!!!!!!