Studebaker Theater & Playhouse Theater

Here is a photo of the Fine Arts as the Studebaker/World Playhouse from the Charles Cushman collection, May 26, 1963

I’m not as concerned about the theaters themselves, but rather the types of movies they show. The type of lineup at Century is what I’m looking for. The art-house, independent film, foreign film genre. I didn’t think about the Reader, although now that you mention it, it’s the obvious choice. I know about the Reader and its catering to the artsy-culture in Chicago. It is the paper I use to check out new music concerts and the like. Thanks for the info about the old theaters though. I’d like to check those out.

Yep, Chcicago Reader’s gonna be your best bet. That said, there’s not many operating ornate theaters besides the Music Box. In the suburbs you have the tivoli, the catlow, the york, the pickwick. In the city, the Vic still shows movies, but it’s rather run down since it operates as a concert venue primarily. Beyond that there are some still operating but not in their original form- the Chicago, Palace, and Oriental are the old palaces that now show live shows, the Biograph just closed for good a few days ago, the Riviera is a live venue, the Lakeshore is legitimate, the Park West was once a neighborhood theater, the Portage is closed, twinned, and modernized, the Central Park, one of the first proper palaces, is a church, the Davis, Village and Logan were quadded, the Admiral is a gentleman’s club, the Esquire had a six-screen built where the original house was, the Century now is a mall featuring 7 new screens showing mainly art and indie movies, the Logan Square is a discount mall/flea market, then there’s the closed ones, like the Uptown, Patio, Ramova, New Regal, or last ‘movie palace’ in the city, the McClurg Court… not too many old theaters still playing movies.

A 1915 Chicago Daily News photo shows The Wide Awake Club in front of the Studebaker Theatre. I’m not sure how to explain that name at that time.

Is this theater being used now or is it just sitting empty?

Actually when the theater opened as the Fine Arts on Christmas Day in 1982 there were only 2 theaters. It’s premiere attractions were “Moonlighting” with Jeremy Irons and Fassbinder’s “Veronika Voss”. The two smaller theaters didn’t open until 1987 or so. My favorite memory is going to the Warner Brothers anniversary celebration in 1997. Each day the Fine Arts showed a series of Warner Bros. films from a certain decade. I had the pleasure of attending the 1960’s which showed “Days of Wine and Roses”, “Bullitt”, “Bonnie and Clyde” and “The Wild Bunch” and then the 70’s which showed “All the President’s Men”, “Superman”, “Dog Day Afternoon”, “Blazing Saddles”, “The Exorcist” and “A Clockwork Orange”. What a day that was! Sadly Loews let the theater get run down as seems to be the case with many of their theaters. Homeless people just outside the entrance were allowed to beg for money and not chased off. It’s a real shame a true movie lovers house was treated so shoddily.

A great theatre in its time. I used to see movies there when I came home from college at ISU, and then I managed it for a few months way back on 1990 (and a friend of mine continued to manage it for many years). It was a very tough place to make money, unless there was an artistic hit there, like “Stop Making Sense” or “The Cook, the Thief…Lover”. There are/were few venues like aud. #1 for size and faded grandeur—think of the Music Box on a grander scale. I’ll miss it.

My fondest memory of this theatre is when, during the mid 90’s my wife (then girlfriend) and I snuck up into the empty balcony with slices of cheesecake and watched the movie Emma.

This is truly a wonderful theatre, and I hope it can be saved and used again in the future for it’s intended purpose, live performances and unique films.