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Address | 600 Golf Mill Shopping Center Niles, Illinois [1] United States |
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Coordinates | 42°03′13″N87°50′18″W / 42.053625°N 87.838300°W |
Owner | Rach, Comiskey, and Vaughn, Inc. [2] |
Operator | Mill Run Theater Corporation [2] |
Type | Theatre in the round |
Capacity | 1,600 [3] |
Construction | |
Opened | July 2, 1965 |
Closed | August 1, 1984 |
Demolished | August 1984 |
Architect | Belli & Belli Architects and Engineers [2] |
Mill Run Playhouse (aka Mill Run Theatre) [4] was a 1,600 seat [5] theatre in the round in Niles, Illinois. It was built in 1965 on the grounds of the Golf Mill Shopping Center. [6] It was scheduled to open in June 1965 but torrential rains delayed the opening to July 2, 1965. [7] It was demolished in August 1984. [8] Its last show was a performance by Lou Rawls on August 1. [9]
Mill Run was originally a venue for off-Broadway shows. It closed sometime in the late 1960s. In 1969, a group headed by Gerald Kaufman, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Donjo Medlevine (a former owner of the Chez Paris), leased the theater from Golf Mill Shopping Center. The plan of the new operators was to bring to the theater Las Vegas entertainers, each act opening on a Tuesday and performing 8 or 9 shows - 1 show each night from Tuesday through Thursday, 1 or 2 shows on Friday, and 2 shows on Saturday and Sunday (some shows were booked for weekend performances only, depending on popularity/availability of performers). Almost every show had an opening act and the 20-minute intermission between acts was utilized by the theater to sell drinks and candy. Long before the theater showed a profit, it was kept solvent by the sale of liquor. First musical contractor was Edwin Shedosky, who was also lead trumpet player for all the orchestras he assembled that the various artists and plays required. 1970 - 1971.
The first act to perform - in early 1970 - was Shecky Greene, who was paid $30,000 for the appearance (tickets went for $7.50). One of the last to perform - in 1984 - was Diana Ross, who was paid $250,000 (tickets now cost $25). In the mid-1970s, management started booking one-night stands on Monday nights, sometimes boxing matches, sometimes headliners. Tom Waits was one of the first to perform on a Monday night. His performance sold out, all records for candy sales were broken, and the theater came close to the single night record for liquor sales. When Kaufman saw the figures. he told Butch Wonders, his manager, to re-book Tom Waits. Butch said that Mr. Waits said he would never work there again as it was the first time he had ever worked in a venue where the patrons "didn't vomit in the aisles." Periodically, the theater would showcase a musical or play, such as Sweet Charity, Hair, Grease, and Jesus Christ Superstar.
Throughout this time, the theater presented shows for children on weekday and weekend mornings. Harry Lee Rogers ran this operation, handling scripts, costumes, music, lighting, casting, and directing single-handedly.
In 1971, Marquee Enterprises was formed to operate Mill Run. It then opened a second venue in San Carlos, California (Circle Star Theater), and subsequently opened other theaters in Los Angeles, Sunrise (Florida), Louisville, Atlanta, and New York. It also ran shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York for 13 weeks a year for several years. It also booked shows for other owners' venues (such as Holiday Star Theater in Merrillville, Indiana).
The theater closed when Golf Mill Shopping Center, the owner of the property, refused to renew the lease in 1984. The site is now part of the parking lot of the shopping center.
A renovation was scheduled for January 1977 to increase the seating capacity to 2,000 seats and to be closed for six months during renovation. The renovation never went through. [10]
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1957.
Olive May Osmond was the matriarch of the American Osmond singing family.
Donald Clark Osmond is an American singer, dancer, actor, television host and former teen idol. He first gained fame performing with four of his elder brothers as the Osmonds, earning several top ten hits and gold albums. Then, in the early 1970s, Osmond began a solo career, earning several additional top ten songs.
Olive Marie Osmond is an American singer, actress, television personality, author and businesswoman. She is known for her girl next door image and her decades-long career in many different areas. As a singer, she has had several chart-topping country music songs such as "Paper Roses" and "Meet Me in Montana". As a television personality, she has been a host of Donny & Marie and more recently on The Talk. As an actress, she had appeared in television films and Broadway musicals. As a businesswoman and author, she has written several books and helped found the Children's Miracle Network.
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour is an American variety show that starred American pop singers Sonny Bono and Cher, who were married to each other at the time. The show ran on CBS in the United States, and premiered in August 1971. The show was cancelled in May 1974, due to the couple's divorce, but the duo reunited in 1976 for the similarly formatted The Sonny & Cher Show, which ran for two seasons, ending August 29, 1977.
The Osmonds were an American family music group who reached the height of their fame in the early to mid-1970s. The group had its best-known configurations as a quartet and a quintet. The group has consisted of siblings who are all members of a family of musicians from Ogden, Utah, and have been in the public eye since the 1960s.
The 28th Daytime Emmy Awards were held in 2001 to commemorate excellence in daytime programming from the previous year (2000). As the World Turns tied with General Hospital for the most Daytime Emmys won in a single year, with a total of eight.
The Hollywood Palace is an hourlong American television variety show broadcast Saturday nights on ABC from January 4, 1964, to February 7, 1970. Titled The Saturday Night Hollywood Palace for its first few weeks, it began as a midseason replacement for The Jerry Lewis Show, another variety show, which lasted only three months.
American Buffalo is a 1975 play by American playwright David Mamet that had its premiere in a showcase production at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago. After two additional showcase productions, it opened on Broadway in 1977.
James Arthur Osmond is an American singer and businessman. He is the youngest member of the sibling musical group the Osmonds. As a solo artist, Osmond has accumulated six gold records, one platinum record, and two gold albums.
Shecky Greene was an American comedian and actor. He was known for his nightclub performances in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he became a headliner in the 1950s and 1960s. He appeared in several films, including Tony Rome; History of the World, Part I; and Splash. In television, he guest-starred on such television shows as Love, American Style and Combat!, and later Laverne & Shirley and Mad About You.
The Mississippi Coliseum is a 6,500-seat multi-purpose arena in Jackson, Mississippi, built in 1962 and located on the Mississippi State Fairgrounds complex. The arena has 6,812 seats available for basketball, and can be expanded to 10,000 for concerts. It sits 2900 feet atop the extinct Jackson Volcano.
The Circle Star Theatre was a performing arts venue in San Carlos, San Mateo County, California. Its name is based on it being a theater in the round, featuring a rotating circular stage with none of its 3,743 seats further than 50 feet from the stage. Unlike similar venues across the United States, the Circle Star Theatre stage had the ability to rotate in either direction without limit, thanks to the slip ring and brush system that supplied electrical/audio to and from the stage. The theatre's address was 2 Circle Star Way, San Carlos, CA 94070.
Merrill Davis Osmond is an American musician. He is best known for being the lead vocalist and bassist of the family music group The Osmonds and The Osmond Brothers, as well as an occasional solo artist.
The Chez Paree was a Chicago nightclub known for its glamorous atmosphere, elaborate dance numbers, and top entertainers. It operated from 1932 until 1960 in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago at 610 N. Fairbanks Court. The club was the epitome of the golden age of entertainment, and it hosted a wide variety of performers, from singers to comedians to vaudeville acts. A "new" Chez Paree opened briefly in the mid-1960s on 400 N. Wabash Avenue and was seen in the film Mickey One with Warren Beatty.
The Copa Room was an entertainment nightclub showroom at the now-defunct Sands Hotel on The Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was demolished in 1996 when the Sands Hotel was imploded.
The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast is an American series of television specials hosted by entertainer Dean Martin and airing from 1974 to 1984. For a series of 54 specials and shows, Martin and his friends would "roast" a celebrity. The roasts were patterned after the roasts held at the New York Friars' Club.
Dave's Picks Volume 31 is a three-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete concert recorded on December 3, 1979 at the Uptown Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. It was released on July 26, 2019, in a limited edition of 20,000 numbered copies.