Chicago Theatre

Just walk up to the theater. The tours on the weekdays are at noon and they let us in about 11:50. Saturday, I think, there are two tours – one at 11am and one at noon. Double check on the website Cinemark. Earlier it said that the tours were only through September which would mean you would need to go on Tuesday at the latest but we couldn’t find where it said that on the website so perhaps they changed the policy. If you go let me know what you thought.

I have just returned from a tour of the theater. They are open to the public every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for $10 per person and it lasts just over an hour. I must say it was worth every penny. We went from the lobby to a suite box to the balcony down to the main floor again to view the original organ. Then we got to go on stage and then backstage. In the backstage area Frank Sinatra (who re-opened the theater in the 80’s) started a tradition by signing the wall in the hallway. Ever since every performer has signed including entire casts of shows. We got to see the star dressing room and then down to the basement to see some great pictures of the Chicago through the years (one from 1956 with the Chicago playing “Giant” and one from 1957 with the Chicago playing “Brigadoon” while the State Lake across the street was playing “The Bridge on the River Kwai”). Someone above mentioned the condition of the projection room and while we didn’t see it we were told no film projection equipment remains and is rented for the rare time a movie is shown. The guide also claimed cleaning people have seen ghosts at night but he was quick to add he had never seen one himself. It was a great time and I highly recommend it to anyone who can get to it. The tour group was small – only about 14 of us so it was perfect.

View link 1959

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Some fool injured himself trying to slide down the stair rail.

You’re looking for this.

I (my self) find that the MEZZANINE in “N” is a good place to sit “N” is in the center of the mezzanine.

The Mezzanine is located below the Balc and a bove the main floor, you can connect to the CHICAGO THEATRE web site from this CT page.

Good luck and have a great time, it is a wonderfull theatre. : )

In 1958 or ‘59 (correct me if I’m wrong) Warner Bros. brought to the Chicago Theater for, I think, only one day, the full panoply of the stars from essentially all of its hit TV series then to each walk on and say a few words to the audience prior to the screening of, I believe, “The Young Philadelphians.” In fact, they had a showcase bus out front to suggest it was a “busload of stars” though I doubt they actually arrived on the bus; don’t know.

At that time Warners TV seemed to have every hit show on TV. I think this program included Jack Kelly (James Garner had already left the Maverick series, which was the biggest and an early hit for Warners, which started the ball roling) plus innumerable others (there must be records somewhere). There are some stars I think were there, but don’t want to name them and be wrong.

The two biggest stars publicized to be there were Connie Stevens featured as singer “Cricket” in “77 Sunset Strip,” and Edd Byrnes, a hit newcomer in the same series, who acted a valet at the nightclub where Connie sang; he being “Kookie,” who was always seen combing his pompadour (later memorialized in the tune, “Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb”). Many students were primed to go to the Loop for that one, including me.

Shortly before the show date, the Press carried the story that all of these new stars and starlets were in contract negotiations fighting for higher pay, including Connie Stevens and Edd Byrnes, and would only be in the show if they had signed their contracts. All eventually had but Connie Stevens and Edd Byrnes. A day or two before the show, Connie signed her contract in Hollywood and it was announced she would come to Chicago, but Edd Byrnes did not. Still the young audience held out hope.

The TV stars appeared as a cavalcade, outfitted as appropriate for young stars and starlets then, walked across the stage, stopped and said “Hello, I’m , and I hope you will watch me in ,” and some engaged in a little real Q & A, and then moved on. They were all wonderful, they did what they were supposed to do, and actually seemed happy to be there. Connie, absent Edd Byrnes, was considered the leading star there, and she was introduced last. She was just like “Cricket” and herself, was very cute, with her usual French twist hairdo, and even was supposed to sing a little song.

I was sitting pretty close to the front of the stage, maybe Center between Rows 3 and 5. Connie came out and tried to chat (they were really trying to give us our monies worth), and the audience kept shouting at, and imploring her, “Where’s Kookie, where’s Kookie?” She was very commiserating with the young girls, and said things like, “I know, I know; he couldn’t be here; you wanted to see him, and he would like to be here, but he can’t.” She would never say it was about the money. She answered other questions, but they kept coming back to “Kookie.” She even tried to sing her cute song. It was a standard pop tune, something like “Sunny Side of the Street,” and sadly for Connie, the audience really wasn’t attentive to her. I felt a little sorry for her because I thought she really wanted to sing; maybe the presentation actually was to be a set off for her to develop her singing career more then, I don’t know. Anyway, it didn’t work that day. But the performers were all cheered greatly. They seemed quite happy with the response from the audience.

The Warners movie was a melodrama featuring beautiful young people, including Paul Newman.

I am simply drawing on memory and this is the best I can remember it; but it was at the Chicago Theater. I was there with a schoolmate. Her older brother was required to accompany us to this because her family didn’t think she (and I) should be unaccompanied for the stage show! He, decidedly, was not interested in any of this, I thought. He was only required to be there for the stage show, and when that ended, he said to us, “Okay, I was only supposed to stay with you for the stage show,” and left. Then I decided not to stay for the movie then, and I think we all returned to the North side on our own.

Here is an early view

Responding to an earlier question, in the 1950s the theater now known as the Cadillac Palace was outfitted for Cinerama. So Cinerama wasn’t shown here.

But I did see the restored Abel Gance 1927 film Napoleon at the Chicago Theater prior to renovation. while not Cinerama, this did involve three synchronized projectors. The three images were tinted different colors.

This showing featured a live orchestra under the direction of Francis Ford Coppola’s father.

In a sense, yes. Most Broadway shows in Chicago are now booked in as part of the Broadway in Chicago series each year which is a joint venture of the powerhouse Nederlander Organization and Live Nation. They either own or have long term leases on the Cadillac Palace, the Oriental (Ford Center), and the LaSalle Bank Theatre (formerly Shubert) They also occasionally book shows into the Auditorium Theater and the Drury Lane at Water Tower Place. With that kind of clout, it would be difficult for another house to compete for the shows. Also given the up and down availability of product, the question would have to be asked if Chicago really needs another large capacity house intended for Broadway-type shows right now.

I have also been told that the Chicago, is spite of its seating capacity (over 3,000) has both a shallow stage and inadequate load-in and load-out access to the stage, making it difficult if not impossible for shows with large and complex sets to play there. It did have runs of a few shows in the past “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” for example, but the staging of that show is simple compared to, say, “Wicked”. Many of the classic movie palaces that began as vaudeville houses or combination movie and stage show houses had shallow stages because vaudeville and the stage shows back then didn’t require complex stage sets.

This is one of the reasons that the costs of restoring and adaptive re-use of theaters are often staggering: the stagehouse has to be thoroughly rebuilt, brought up to modern building codes, and equipped with new rigging, computerized lighting,loading docks and large access doors. When the now defunct Livent company acquired the Oriental, it also acquired the old Bailey Typewriter Building behind the Oriental’s stage house, broke through the wall, and expanded the stage space so that the modern Broadway blockbuster could play there. I have been on the restored Cadillac Palace’s stage and it too now has large access doors, modern rigging, and fly space. The former Shubert/Majestic has had a number of remodelings, a huge one just recently.

I’m sure that MSG will decide if it wants to make the kind of investment that would enable make the Chicago capable of handling a contemporary Broadway blockbuster or use it as is for different kinds of events and entertainments. Given how slowly things sometimes move in Chicago (look at Block 37 across the street), I wouldn’t think an overhaul of the Chicago’s stagehouse will happen any time soon, even MSG decides to go that route.

Here is a recent shot of the facade

there has been talk of msg buying the building behind the stage and breaking thru the wall