Mercury Theater

7210 W. North Avenue,
Elmwood Park, IL 60707

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Balaban & Katz Corp., Cineplex Odeon, Plitt Theatres

Styles: Streamline Moderne

Nearby Theaters

Mercury theatre

The Mercury Theater opened in the late-1940’s. By the late-1950’s, it was acquired by the Balaban & Katz chain. In the 1970’s, the Mercury Theater was part of the Plitt Theatres chain. In the early-1980’s, the Mercury Theater was twinned.

In 1988, the Mercury Theater was closed by Cineplex-Odeon, and was demolished. One of its last bookings was the Michael Douglas thriller “Fatal Attraction”. The nearby Midwest Bank had the words “Goodbye Mercury” displayed on its signage at the time of the theater’s demolition.

A strip mall now sits on the site of the Mercury Theater.

Contributed by James Piscitelli

Recent comments (view all 37 comments)

JPK
JPK on March 20, 2013 at 8:28 pm

The manager’s office had a private bathroom with a shower. There was, also, a fair size apartment upstairs
next to the projection booth. When I was there it was used as storage. It no private entrance. The story I had was that the original owner lived there for a while after he built the theatre. Imagine that today…

Ret. AKC (NAC) CCC Bob Jensen, Manteno, Illinois
Ret. AKC (NAC) CCC Bob Jensen, Manteno, Illinois on June 28, 2013 at 7:54 pm

My aunt got married and had her wedding reception at the Casanova Restaurant in Elwood Park. The Mercury Theater was being built right next door to the East. All that had been done on that date was that the foundations had been put in, it was June 5, 1949.

danhere
danhere on November 30, 2014 at 10:28 pm

I remember seeing the like BJ dirty dragon show back when I was young kid at this theater still have the dirty dragon banner signed by BJ

Jay Harvey
Jay Harvey on December 1, 2014 at 7:14 pm

such a grand & majestic looking theatre. why must they be demolished for “progress?”

paulnelson
paulnelson on February 4, 2015 at 8:39 pm

An art deco masterpiece and great marquee too. Major waste of a handsome theatre.

Jimz
Jimz on July 19, 2015 at 3:16 am

I work there from 1985 to 1988 I was an usher it was a great place to work in high school interesting people wasn’t the greatest paying job at the time 3 35 an hour but it was fun got a chance to see a lot of movies and dated some of the girls behind the counter. It was pretty sad when I watched them tear it down, lot of history went with it.

NicoToscani
NicoToscani on December 24, 2015 at 12:22 am

Saw my first movies ever here. Disney stuff. I recall a Herbie movie and The Rescuers. Saw Star Wars here with my dad in 77. It was awful when they split it into 2 screens. The floors and screens were totally lopsided as a result and I remember almost falling over in the aisles after a few pre show beers when I was in HS.

Realtorac
Realtorac on April 23, 2017 at 8:35 am

My stepfather was a policeman in Elmwood park in the 50’s one night there was a burglar who broke in and when they went there they couldn’t find him. My dad heard a noise and found him hiding in the ceiling and arrested him. After that the manager gave our entire family fee admission for life. We saw every movie they showed every week. I even used to sit in the screening room with the engineer. It was so cool watching him change reals and the rod that would burn the light. Good memories.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on February 24, 2018 at 9:27 pm

Summer 1968 photo & copy added credit John LeQuesne‎.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on August 27, 2019 at 6:14 pm

April 27, 1952 photo added credit Keith Powell.

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