The Tivoli Theatre was a movie palace at 6323 South Cottage Grove Avenue, at East 63rd Street, in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago's South Side. It was the first of the "big three" movie palaces built by the Balaban & Katz theatre chain run by brothers A. J. Balaban, Barney Balaban and their partner Sam Katz, who were also owners of the Rivera Theater (North Side) and the Central Park Theater (West Side), that opened on 16 February 1921. [1] [2]
The building itself, a French Baroque styled structure, was designed by architects Cornelius Ward Rapp and George W. Leslie Rapp doing business under the auspices of Rapp and Rapp. The building had an intricate design complete with gold leaf and multicolored marble decor. It was outlined with paintings and ornate sculptures. The theater was two stories high with a painted ceiling in the lobby that was meant to resemble the chapel of the palace at Versailles. The theater held 3,520 patrons around one screen, had air conditioning, and the most up-to-date projection system.
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. [3] About 1924-1925 Milton Charles was the resident organist who recorded for Marsh Laboratories on the Autograph 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. [1] [4] [5]
Autograph Records was an American record label in the 1920s owned by Marsh Laboratories of Chicago, Illinois, which was owned by Orlando R. Marsh, an electrical engineer.
C. W. & George L. Rapp, commonly known as Rapp & Rapp, was an American architectural firm famed for the design of movie palaces and other theatres. Active from 1906 to 1965 and based in Chicago, the office designed over 400 theatres, including the Chicago Theatre (1921), Bismarck Hotel and Theatre (1926) and Oriental Theater (1926) in Chicago, the Five Flags Center (1910) in Dubuque, Iowa and the Paramount Theatres in New York City (1926) and Aurora, Illinois (1931).
The Paradise Theatre was a movie palace located in Chicago's West Garfield Park neighborhood. Its address was 231 N. Crawford Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. Located near the intersection of West Madison Street and Crawford in the West Garfield Park area of Chicago's West Side.
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. 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, sporting events and popular music concerts.
The Apollo Theater Chicago was built in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood in 1978, by theatre producers Jason Brett and Stuart Oken. Located at 2540 N. Lincoln Ave., the Apollo has 430 seats and a lobby featuring art exhibits and a full bar. The theatre is also the home of the Emerald City Theatre Company. The Apollo Theater Chicago has no relation to the Apollo Theater in New York City.
Uptown Theatre is a currently closed 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 Roxy Theatre was a 5,920-seat movie palace at 153 West 50th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, just off Times Square in New York City. It was the largest movie theater ever built. It opened on March 11, 1927 with the silent film The Love of Sunya starring Gloria Swanson. It was a leading Broadway film showcase through the 1950s and also noted for its lavish stage shows. It closed and was demolished in 1960.
The James M. Nederlander Theatre is a theater located at 24 West Randolph Street in the Loop area of downtown Chicago, Illinois. Previously known as the Oriental Theatre, it opened in 1926 as a deluxe movie palace and vaudeville venue. Today the Nederlander presents live Broadway theater and is operated by Broadway In Chicago, currently seating 2,253.
The Granada Theatre was a 3,400–seat movie palace located at 6427-41 North Sheridan Road in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. It was constructed in 1926 for the Marks Brothers, who were major theatre operators in the U.S. Edward E. Eichenbaum was the principal designer for the architectural firm of Levy & Klein. Eichenbaum also designed the Marbro, Regal, and Century theatres.
The Connor Palace, also known as the Palace Theatre and historically as the RKO Palace, is a theater located at 1615 Euclid Avenue in Downtown Cleveland, Ohio, part of Playhouse Square. The theater opened in 1922, as Keith's Palace Theatre after B. F. Keith, founder of the Keith-Albee chain of vaudeville and movie theaters. It was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Rapp and Rapp in the French Renaissance style, and originally housed live two-a-day vaudeville shows. The $2 million theater opened in the Keith Building on November 6, 1922, seating 3,100. The interior featured Carrara marble and 154 crystal chandeliers, and the main lobby, dubbed the "Great Hall," was decorated with over 30 paintings.
Balaban and Katz Theater Corporation, or B&K, was a theatre corporation which owned a chain of motion picture theaters in Chicago and surrounding areas.
The Riviera Theatre is a concert venue located on the north side of Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Orlando R. Marsh was an electrical engineer raised in Wilmette, Illinois. In early 1920s Chicago, Illinois he pioneered electrical recording of phonograph discs with microphones when acoustic recording with horns was commonplace. His firm Marsh Laboratories, Inc., founded in 1922, at one time was located on the seventh floor of the Lyon & Healy Building near the corner of Wabash and Jackson in Chicago. The Marsh firm no longer exists but the building still stands and is part of DePaul University.(1)
The Copernicus Center is a 1,890-seat former movie palace that is now part of the Copernicus Center in the Jefferson Park community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The Copernicus Center is located at 5216 W. Lawrence Avenue.
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 an American showman whose particular influence on popular entertainment in the early 20th century led to enormous innovations in the American movie-going experience.
The Tivoli Theatre, also known as the Tivoli and the "Jewel of the South", is a historic theatre in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that opened on March 19, 1921. Built between 1919 and 1921 at a cost of $750,000, designed by famed Chicago-based architectural firm Rapp and Rapp and well-known Chattanooga architect Reuben H. Hunt, and constructed by the John Parks Company, the theatre was one of the first air-conditioned public buildings in the United States. The theatre was named Tivoli after Tivoli, Italy, has cream tiles and beige terra-cotta bricks, has a large red, black, and white marquee with 1,000 chaser lights, and has a large black neon sign that displays TIVOLI with still more chaser lights.
Levy & Klein was a prominent architectural firm known for their theater designs. Their work includes the Landmark's Century Centre Cinema in Chicago and Marbro Theater in Chicago. Their work also includes the Granada Theatre (Chicago) and North Avenue Baths Building (1921). Edward Eichenbaum is credited with several of the firm's theater designs.
Hotel Windermere was a hotel in Hyde Park, Chicago, United States, located at 56th Street and Cornell Avenue. It was built in 1892 for the Columbian Exposition. In 1924 it was rebuilt with a West and East hotel under Rapp & Rapp, who also built the Chicago Theatre and the Tivoli Theatre. The 12-story hotel had 482 guest rooms and 200 apartments and had a tunnel connecting the two hotels. Over the years Windermere East attracted guests such as John Rockefeller, Philip Roth, George Burns and Gracie Allen, and American football teams. Windermere West was demolished in 1959 to make way for a parking lot, and in 1981 Windermere East was converted into apartments and placed on the National Register of Historic Places a year later under the title Hotel Windermere East.
McVicker's Theater (1857–1984) was a playhouse in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Built for actor James Hubert McVicker, the theater was the leading stage for comedic plays in Chicago's early years. It often hosted performances by Edwin Booth, who married McVicker's daughter and was once targeted there in an attempted murder. Adler & Sullivan designed a remodel in 1883. Although destroyed in two fires, including the Great Chicago Fire, McVicker's remained an operating theater until 1984. It was demolished the next year.
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