The Copernicus Center with the Mitchell P. Kobelinski Theater (former Gateway Theatre) is a 1,890-seat former movie palace that is now part of the Copernicus Center in the Jefferson Parkcommunity area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The Copernicus Center is located at 5216 W. Lawrence Avenue.
A movie palace is any of the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930. With the advent of television, movie attendance dropped and many movie palaces were razed or converted into multiple screen venues or performing arts centers.
Jefferson Park is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, located on the Northwest Side of the city. The neighborhood of Jefferson Park occupies a larger swath of territory, as shown on this map.
Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in Illinois, as well as the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,716,450 (2017), it is the most populous city in the Midwest. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland, and the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the United States. The metropolitan area, at nearly 10 million people, is the third-largest in the United States, and the fourth largest in North America and the third largest metropolitan area in the world by land area.
The former Gateway Theater was designed by architect Mason Rapp of the prestigious firm of Rapp and Rapp, famous for their design of deluxe theaters not only in Chicago (Chicago, Oriental, and Palace Theatres) but throughout the United States. It is the architect's sole surviving atmospheric theatre in Chicago.[1]
The architectural firm Rapp and Rapp was active in Chicago, Illinois during the early 20th century. Brothers Cornelius Ward Rapp (1861-1926) and George Leslie Rapp (1878–1941) of Carbondale, Illinois were the named partners and 1899 alumni of the University of Illinois School of Architecture.
The Chicago Theatre, originally known as the Balaban and Katz Chicago Theatre, is a landmark theater located on North State Street in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Built in 1921, the Chicago Theatre was the flagship for the Balaban and Katz (B&K) group of theaters run by A. J. Balaban, his brother Barney Balaban and partner Sam Katz. Along with the other B&K theaters, from 1925 to 1945 the Chicago Theatre was a dominant movie theater enterprise. Currently, Madison Square Garden, Inc. owns and operates the Chicago Theatre as a performing arts venue for stage plays, magic shows, comedy, speeches, and popular music concerts.
The Cadillac Palace Theatre is operated by Broadway In Chicago, a Nederlander company. It is located at 151 West Randolph Street in the Chicago Loop area.
History
June 27, 1930 was the opening day for Jefferson Park's new deluxe motion picture palace. Weeklong festivities in the area leading up to the opening were capped off by a gargantuan parade sponsored by area businesses. All the Chicago dailies covered the event, and in fact, the Chicago Herald-Examiner put forth a full page spread proclaiming the new theater as "the most acoustically perfect theatre in the world." The reports were not guilty of sensationalism, as the architects indeed had given extra special attention to the acoustics, as talking pictures, a relative newcomer to the entertainment field had found a perfect environment in this new, different theater.[citation needed]
Acoustics is the branch of physics that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics technology may be called an acoustical engineer. The application of acoustics is present in almost all aspects of modern society with the most obvious being the audio and noise control industries.
The original Grand Hall and Grand Foyer ceilings and walls were designed and hand painted in a maze of connected Greek/Roman scenes of Deities and custom patterns by noted Chicago artist Louis Grell (1887-1960).[2]
Louis Frederick Grell was an American figure composition and portrait artist based in the Tree Studio resident artist colony in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He received his formal training in Europe from 1900 through 1915 and later became art professor at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts from 1916 to 1922, and at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1922 to 1934. Grell exhibited his works throughout Europe from 1905 to 1915, in San Francisco in 1907, and in Chicago at the Art Institute 25 times from 1917 to 1941. He exhibited in New York in 1915 and 1916 and in Philadelphia and Washington DC. Primarily an allegorical and figurative composition muralist and portrait painter, his creative strokes adorn the ceilings and walls of numerous US National Historic Landmark buildings.
Because of the new sound films (nicknamed "talkies"), plans to include a stage for vaudeville and stage shows were abandoned. Instead, a small "sound stage" was built to the back of the proscenium opening to house the screen and "newfangled" speakers. If the "talkies" were just a fad, the sound stage could easily be replaced with a full stage house with the usual complement of dressing rooms, proper rooms, fly space for the scenery and the like.[citation needed] The talking pictures soon became the norm, and, in 1932, all motion picture studios stopped making silent pictures, thus sounding the death knell for vaudeville and stage shows.
Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 18th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a kind of dramatic composition or light poetry, interspersed with songs or ballets. It became popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, but the idea of vaudeville's theatre changed radically from its French antecedent.
A proscenium is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch and on the bottom by the stage floor itself, which serves as the frame into which the audience observes from a more or less unified angle the events taking place upon the stage during a theatrical performance. The concept of the fourth wall of the theatre stage space that faces the audience is essentially the same.
The Loop, one of Chicago's 77 designated community areas, is the central business district in the downtown area of the city. It is home to Chicago's commercial core, City Hall, and the seat of Cook County. Bounded on the north and west by the Chicago River, on the east by Lake Michigan, and on the south by Roosevelt Road, it is the second largest commercial business district in the United States after Midtown Manhattan and contains the headquarters of many locally and globally important businesses as well as many of Chicago's most famous attractions.
Balaban and Katz Theater Corporation, or B&K, was a theatre corporation which owned a chain of motion picture theaters and founded by Barney Balaban, his six siblings, and Sam Katz.
Fred Astaire was an American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter. He is widely regarded as the most influential dancer in the history of film.
In 1977, the search began for a permanent site to house a Polish Cultural Center in Chicago. In 1979, groundbreaking ceremonies took place at the old Gateway Theater Building located near Milwaukee and Lawrence avenues. Because the Gateway Theater historically was the first movie theater in Chicago built exclusively for the "talkies," the Foundation decided to preserve the theater itself while remodeling around it, dividing the original 40-foot entry lobby and constructing three floors of office, meeting room and classroom space for the Cultural Center. This first stage was completed in 1981.[citation needed]
In 1985, the "Solidarity Tower," with its matching facade, was erected atop the building. The exterior of the building was modified to resemble the historic Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland. The tower is an exact replica of the clock tower adorning the castle—its spire seen by commuters driving along the Kennedy Expressway. The money was raised through the generosity of individuals and corporations that recognized the significance to the community of this symbol of the struggle for freedom in an oppressed country. That year the Copernicus Foundation took over the administration of the Gateway theatre and opened its doors to the Polish American and other ethnic communities, as well as Jefferson Park civic organizations which it has been serving until the present day.[citation needed]
In 1988, the Lake Shore Symphony Orchestra became the official orchestra-in-residence. The orchestra practices weekly and hosts concerts three times a year.[citation needed]
The Present
Since then, the theater has been cleaned, a thrust stage has been built, and the theater has been utilized for a wide variety of programs, not only for the Polish community, but also those of other ethnic groups which do not have their own facilities, e.g. East Indian, Spanish, Korean, Philippine, etc., as well as the American community.
Musical concerts, plays, athletic competitions, seminars, dance recitals, children's plays, choir competitions, and Candidates' Nights are just some of the many programs presented in the theater.[citation needed]
As knowledge of the existence of the theater grew, so did its usage and programs. The Copernicus Center theater is now in use an average of 48 weeks per year, with the heaviest usage during the weekends. The programs have become more sophisticated in nature and serve many more people. The theater seats 1,890.[citation needed]
The Loew's Wonder Theatres were movie palaces of the Loew's Theatres chain in and near New York City. These five lavishly designed theaters were built by Loew's to establish its preeminence in film exhibition in the metropolitan New York City area and to serve as the chain's flagship venues, each in its own area. All five theaters are still standing. One operates as a community performing arts center; two are commercial live entertainment venues; and two are currently used as churches.
Uptown Theatre is a currently closed, massive, ornate movie palace and concert venue located in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Designed by Rapp and Rapp and built by Paschen Bros. contractors, it is one of the many movie palaces built by the Balaban & Katz theatre chain run by A. J. Balaban, his brother Barney Balaban and their partner Sam Katz.
The James M. Nederlander Theatre is a theater located at 24 West Randolph Street in the Loop area of downtown Chicago, Illinois. The venue opened in 1926 as the Oriental Theatre, a deluxe movie palace and vaudeville venue. Today the Nederlander presents live Broadway theater and is operated by Broadway In Chicago. It currently seats 2,253. In 1978, the theater house and its office building were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as New Masonic Building and Oriental Theater. The office building is now a hotel. In 2019, the theater was re-named for impresario, James M. Nederlander, of the Nederlander Organization.
The Granada Theatre, 6427-41 North Sheridan Road was a 3,900–seat movie theater constructed for the Marks Brothers, who, in 1926, were major theatre operators in Chicago. Edward E. Eichenbaum was the principal designer for the architectural firm of Levy & Klein. Eichenbaum also designed the Marbro, Regal, and Century theatres.
Barney Balaban was the president of Paramount Pictures from 1936 to 1964 and innovator in the cinema industry.
The Riviera Theatre is a concert venue located on the north side of Chicago, Illinois.
Milwaukee Avenue is a street in the city of Chicago and the northern suburbs.
The Tivoli Theatre was a movie palace in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. It the first of the "big three" movie palaces built by the Balaban & Katz theatre chain run by A. J. Balaban, his brother Barney Balaban and their partner Sam Katz, who were also owners of the Rivera Theater and the Central Park Theater, that opened on February 16, 1921. The opening was a gala affair, complete with music from a 55 piece orchestra. The theater cost $2,000,000 to construct; its lobby was two stories high and was able to hold 3,000 people. About 1924-1925 Milton Charles was the resident organist who recorded for Marsh Laboratories on the Paramount label using the new electric recording system of Orlando R. Marsh with microphones, compared to the more common acoustic method using horns. Charles succeeded Jesse Crawford as a Marsh artist after Crawford went to New York to play at the Paramount Theater and eventually record with Victor Talking Machine Company. The theater, which stood just south of the southeast corner of 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, closed in 1963 and was demolished shortly thereafter.
An atmospheric theatre is a type of movie palace design which was popular in the late 1920s. "Rather than seating the theatre patrons in a boxlike, formal setting as passive observers of stage entertainment, the atmospheric design transported them to an exotic European courtyard or garden. A cerulean sky, often intricately dotted with accurately depicted starry skies with wispy floating clouds produced by a projector replaced the ornate domes of traditional theatre design. Rather than crystal chandeliers and gilt ornamentation there were arches, trellises, balconies and statuary to evoke a sense of the outdoors. Other ornamentation included trees, palms and vines and even taxidermy birds. As the stars twinkled above, creating in the audience a sense of infinite space, when the entertainment was about to begin the lighting effects created an illusion of the setting sun, as colors changed from yellow to red to mauve. The atmospheric theatre design made the patron an active, comfortable resident of an imaginary time and place, not a passive, aloof occupant of an oppressive formal space."
The Copernicus Foundation is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization based in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.
Broadway In Chicago is a theatrical production company. It was formed in July 2000 by the Nederlander Organization to present touring Broadway productions in Chicago and manages programming at five historic theaters. Occasionally, it presents tryouts and world premieres.
The Orpheum Theater opened in Champaign, Illinois in 1914 on the site of a vaudeville theater built in 1904. Designed by the Architectural firm Rapp & Rapp, the Orpheum was built to accommodate both live vaudeville performances and the projection of film. After a series of renovations and changes of ownership, the Orpheum screened its final film in 1986.
Abraham Joseph Balaban, known as A. J. Balaban or Abe Balaban, was a Chicago-based showman whose particular influence on popular entertainment in the early 20th century led to enormous innovations in the American movie-going experience.
References
↑ Frank Suerth (January 2005). "The Gateway Theater"(PDF). Jefferson Park Historical Society. pp.14–15. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
↑ Grell, Louis (2 December 2012). "Louis Grell artist file". Marquis Who's Who in America on Demand.
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