Des Plaines Theatre

This is from the Chicago Daily Herald, 3/8/82:

Fire raged through the landmark structure housing the Des Plaines
Theater and three other shops Sunday afternoon, destroying two businesses and causing more than a half-million dollars damage.
About 30 patrons were evacuated from the theater, 1476 W. Miner St., as the blaze flashed across a common basement area in the half-block long building. No one was reported injured. The cause of the fire was undetermined. The three-alarm fire burned for nearly three hours and Des Plaines firefighters called in engine companies from five suburban departments.

Smoke was reported pouring out of the Mar-El Discount shoe store, 1480 Miner, about 2:30 p.m. just as the afternoon showing of the movie “Taps” began playing In the 63-year-old theater, firefighters said. The shoe store, Rappoport watchmakers and jewelers, the theater and Wlndy’s restaurant are located in the same building and share a common basement and roof, according to firefighters. Moviegoers praised the action of John Praught, the theater manager on duty when fire broke out next door.

While a great picture, it had to have been taken some time between 2000-2004, probably closer to the latter, as it looks like Fannie Mae is closed. It is probably a scanned photo, which would account for the inaccurate date.

True crime, October 1950:

Des Plaines theater safe with $200 taken

Sometime between midnight Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday, October 22, burglars entered the Des Plaines theater manager’s office and removed a small safe containing $200 cash, tickets and valuable papers. They then dragged or carried the safe to the first exit door on the east wall of the theater and left the building. The safe was transported to a waiting automobile in the parking lot to the rear and east of the building in which the burglars fled the scene.

Have they stopped showing Bollywood films here? Yahoo Movies says that they are showing BLOOD DIAMOND and THE QUEEN.

It wasn’t added; it was deemed eligible. The owner refuses to sign the form to add it. However, National Register eligibility carries with it all the same protections; the addition is a formality.

Controversy over the marquee in 1983:

Local sign ordinance doesn’t play at Des Plaines Theater

Rows of Hollywood-style bulb lights and orange neon lettering remind some old-timers of the days when the Des Plaines Theater marquee advertised 10-cent movies, the kind that didn’t need to be rated for sex and violence. But a city ordinance regulating business signs has no similar sense of nostalgia, and under its provisions the theater marquee has to come down by 1985. However, most city officials and members of the business community say the marquee should be granted an exemption from the sign law.

“The marquee is something that should be preserved,” 2nd Ward Alderman Herb Volberdeng said at a recent bearing on the ordinance. City merchants, particularly those in the downtown area where the
theater is located, fear that a strict interpretation of the 1978 ordinance could mean the old marquee would be replaced with a flat, plain modern sign out of character with the 64-year-old theater building. “If we have to tear the canopy down, people are going to think there’s no theater here anymore. It’s part of Des Plaines,” theater manager John Fraught said at a bearing this week on the sign law. Also, theater owner Richard Balaban estimated the cost of removal at $25,000.

The marquee has been sheltering theatergoers from rain and snow since the building went up in the early 1900s. It survived a theater war that occurred when the now-demolished Echo Theater, a block away on Ellinwood Street, played serials â€" old-time soap operas â€" which were drawing big crowds. The Des Plaines Theater countered with live vaudeville acts and first-run movies, said James Williams, president of the Des Plaines Historical Society, which also opposes replacing the marquee. During the years, the 990-seat theater, unable to keep up with the new shopping mall theaters, began showing second-run films at cheaper ticket prices, Williams said.

Williams said the marquee is part of “what makes the character of an old town like Des Plaines,” and the historical society plans to make the theater building and marquee a candidate for national landmark status.

The sign ordinance goes into effect Jan.1,1985. Sometime before that, the city council can enact a list of proposed changes, which includes a special waiver for the marquee. “I don’t think there will be any problem getting that through,” said Alderman Robert Martin, 3rd, a member of the building code committee. Committee members say the proposed changes will be considered by the council some
time after Christmas. Chamber of Commerce members have long battled the sign ordinance, which outlaws most overhanging street signs and restricts the sizes of other types of signs. They too are expected to support the marquee waiver.

Patrons of the theater also seem to like the old marquee. “It’s a part of a heritage, I think,” Ralph Tobar, a resident of Des Plaines for 18 years, said as he was leaving the theater after a showing of “Mr. Mom.” “The theater and the marquee have been here for a long time and they never bothered anybody before.”

Cool, where did you get that

Article in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune: “Des Plaines Theater’s restoration at standstill”

In 1985-1988 it would have been Andy’s Grill, I believe. Before that it was Windy’s Italian Beef.

Wow, I just found this website a couple of weeks ago while looking up some info from another theater, and thought I’d try to look up the Des Plaines.
I remember growing up in Des Plaines and watching many movies here. I was sad when the fire hit, (but I wasn’t there), and remember walking to work at the First National Bank of Des Plaines, past the theater and thinking it looked kind of spooky. I was glad when they fixed it up and re-opened it, although I never went inside the theater after that because I moved away shortly thereafter.
I’m glad to see it’s still open and running.
Mary

Greetings!
I stumbled across this site while searching for ‘Polka Brothers’. Martin Polka was my great-uncle and I’m collaborating with his son to research family history. If anyone knows where I could find out more information about the Polka Brothers movie chain, I would be most appreciative.

The Pioneer Press ran a nice article about what is going on with the Des Plaines Theatre. The link below is to the article and has a picture of the theatre today.

View link

Hi- I’m interested in any info yu might have regarding the Old Temple Building in Des Plaines that housed the DesPlaines theatre Guild for 35 years – the theatre was on the 2nd floor of the Masonic Temple Building just down the street from the Cinema mentioned here- I’m trying to research how the Temple Building was built, how the theatre came to be, what it looked like inside, any actual building or architectural plans that exist- I’m currently a partner in a children’s educational charitable theatre group that is working on rennovating this wonderful old theatre but have had no luck in finding original plans. Thankyou- Gay Miezin