Adams
Theater
The Adams Theater was located at 20 East Adams Street and opened in
June 1921. It had a seating capacity of about six hundred persons and
was initially operated as part of H.M. Ortenstein's Vista Amusement
Enterprises. Interestingly, the Adams was the subject of two notable
civil rights lawsuits during the 1920s. In the first instance, in 1923,
Morris Lewis, executive secretary of the Chicago branch of the NAACP,
filed charges against the theater's owner after an usher, in violation
of the state's 1885 public accomodations law, refused to sit Lewis, an
African American, on the main floor. Prosecutors dropped the case only
after the theater's owner assured the court he would no longer permit
employees to discriminate against black patrons. Three years later, in
1926, another African-American patron sued the theater after being
ordered to sit "down front" against her wishes. A judge found
the usher guilty of violating the plaintiff's civil rights, but the
theater's owner, despite having agreed to prevent such acts of
discrimination against black patrons, escaped penalty. Though yielding
mixed outcomes, such lawsuits helped Chicago's African Americans clarify
their civil rights and galvanize opposition against those who violated
those rights. In this way, the Adams occupied a unique position in the
cultural and racial landscape of 1920s Chicago. In 1930, buffeted by the
combined effects of the Depression and stiff competition from larger
Loop movie theaters, the Adams switched to a strict "tabloid talker
policy" of newsreels and short movie features.
Alcazar Theater
The Alcazar Theater was one of three Loop movie theaters owned by
Harry Moir near the intersection of Clark and Madison Streets. Moir also
owned the Morrison Hotel.
During the late 1920s, the Alcazar operated as an all-night movie house.
Astor Theater
Opened in 1922, the Astor Theater was located near the corner of
Clark and Madison Streets.
Band Box Theater
The Band Box Theater, located on Madison Street, opened in October
1915 and was managed by Jack Haag. In 1916, he instituted a "women
only" policy which allowed the theater to exhibit films, such as "The
Unborn," that local censors deemed too sensational for a mixed
male-female audience. "The house," one Variety
reviewer observed, "hit a [box office] gusher when it decided to
bar the men, for the house has been packed every performance since it
opened." Haag later went on to become manager at the Ascher
Brothers' Metropolitan Theater.
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Barbee's Theater, advertisement, 1920 |
Barbee's
Theater / Monroe Theater
Barbee's Theater was located on the south side of Monroe Street,
just west of Dearborn. In 1922, Barbee sought to install a stage so that
the theater could present vaudeville, but his plans were blocked by city
officials due to the lack of a sufficient number of emergency exits. The
theater closed in May 1923, reportedly due to poor business. The theater
reopened four months later under new management as the Monroe Theater.
In October 1923, the theater's former owner, William S. Barbee filed for
bankruptcy, having incurred over $230,000 in debt with the theater.
Bijou Dream Theater
The Bijou Dream opened in 1905 as part of the Jones, Linick,
Schaefer chain of motion picture theaters. It was located at 178 South
State Street, just south of Monroe, next door to the
Orpheum Theater at 176 South
State Street. The theater was purchased by the Keough Candy Company in
1922 for $255,000. It closed in early August 1922.
Boston Theater
The Boston Theater opened in 1911 and was located on Madison Street
near the Columbia Burlesque Theater on Clark Street. It seated 750 and
was one of three Loop movie theaters owned by Harry Moir near the
intersection of Clark and Madison Streets. Moir also owned the
Morrison Hotel. During the
early 1920s, the Rose was demolished to make way for expansion of the
Morrison.
Castle Theater
The Castle Theater was located on the west side of State Street,
just south of Madison. It opened in January 1916 and seated three
hundred. The theater was remodeled and wired for sound in 1929. In 1932,
owner Clarence Beck converted the Castle into Chicago's first
all-newsreel movie house, presenting thirty-minute shows for a
fifteen-cent admission charge.
Five Cent Theater
The Five Cent Theater was located at 172 South State Street and had
a capacity of approximately 325 persons. The theater opened no later
than December 1907 and was thus one of the earliest movie theaters to
operate in the Loop.
Lyric Theater
The Lyric Theater was located at 252 South State Street and seated
about 290 persons. It was one of the first movie theaters to operate in
the Loop, having opened no later than December 1907. In early 1910, the
Lyric became the first theater in Chicago to employ women as ushers, a
move to reduce labor costs that later drew criticism from aldermen who
claimed women were incapable of acting calmly in emergency situations.
Pastime Theater
The Pastime Theater was located east of Clark on Madison Street.
The theater's management made news in 1917 when it hired four
African-American musicians to drum up new customers by playing jazz in
the theater's tiny lobby.
Rose Theater
The Rose Theater was one of three Loop movie theaters owned by
Harry Moir near the intersection of Clark and Madison Streets. Moir also
owned the Morrison Hotel.
During the early 1920s, the Rose was demolished to make way for
expansion of the Morrison.
Star Theater
The Star Theater opened in July 1914 and was located on Madison
Street between Clark and Dearborn. When it opened, it was one of at
least four movie houses located within one block of one another on
Madison Street. The theater was purchased by the Jones, Linick, Schaefer
movie theater circuit in 1921 for $40,000. In 1922, the circuit sold the
theater to the Harding Company, which reportedly planned to convert the
theater into the newest of its string of Loop coffee shops.
Unique Theater
The Unique Theater was the fifth movie house opened by the firm of
Jones, Linick, Schaefer on State Street. It opened in November 1919 and
was located on the west side of State Street between Adams and Van
Buren, just north of the Rialto Theater. The theater had a seating
capacity of three hundred.
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Internet Resources
Photograph:
Astor Theater, exterior view, 1922 [Univ. of Minnesota Libraries]
Photograph:
Crowds
standing on State Street, Chicago Theater on right side of
image, 1926 [Library of Congress]
Suggested Reading
· George D. Bushnell, "Chicago's Magnificent
Movie Palaces," Chicago History 6 (Summer 1977),
99-106.
· Ben Hall, Best Remaining Seats: The Story of the
Golden Age of the Movie Palace (DaCapo Press, 1988).
· Lary May,
Screening
Out the Past: The Birth of Mass Culture and the Motion Picture
Industry (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1983).
· Michael Putnam,
Silent
Screens: The Decline and Transformation of the American Movie
Theater (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2000).
· Robert Sklar,
Movie-Made
America: A Cultural History of American Movies
(Vintage, 1994).
· Maggie Valentine,
The
Show Starts on the Sidewalk: An Architectural History of the
Movie Theater (Yale Univ. Press, 1996).
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Sources: Billboard, 7 Dec. 1907, 52; 12 March 1910, 7; 19 March 1921, 25; 28 Aug. 1926, 8; Variety, 22 July 1911, 16; 31 July 1914, 18; 22 Sep. 1916, 62; 3 Nov. 1916, 23; 10 Aug. 1917, 34; 31 Oct. 1919, 24; 16 June 1922, 28; 7 July 1922, 62; 11 Aug. 1922, 37; 8 Sep. 1922, 46; 29 Sep. 1922, 26; 10 May 1923, 19; 12 July 1923, 26; 1 Nov. 1923, 22; 28 Feb. 1928, 44; 16 Jan. 1929, 60; 26 Feb. 1930, 72; 5 Apr. 1932, 7; Motion Picture News, 30 Oct. 1915, 155; 31 July 1920, 935; Chicago Defender, 24 March 1923, 6; 5 May 1923, 4; 9 Jan. 1926, pt. 1, pg. 1.
Page authored: 4 August 2001
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