There are no new features emblazoned on the marquee, but the message on the facade is clear.
In many western suburbs, old movie houses have gone dark and stand as memorials to bygone times. But it might just be the prominence of those marquees that keeps nostalgia for the good old days alive, reminding their communities that something is missing and inspiring efforts to restore the theaters to their former glory.
Wheaton, Hinsdale, Lombard and Geneva all have dark movie houses, each rich in architecture and history. Each now is an object of renovation and/or restoration, part of citizen-fueled campaigns to give them a second life.
All four theaters were built in the early- to mid-1920s. All have stages, trap doors, backdrops and orchestra pits. All were built as majestic palaces for vaudeville and silent movies. But the timing of their debuts could not have been much worse, as “talkies” would soon arrive and sweep vaudeville’s live variety acts off their stages. Ironically, it is these very types of shows, along with films and other forms of entertainment, that have inspired the enthusiasm to refurbish and reopen the theaters, all of which are sitting idle on valuable downtown real estate.
“The idea is to restore it not as a movie theater but probably as a performing arts center of some type,” said Lombard Village Manager Bill Lichter of the village’s DuPage Theater.
The DuPage, now a gutted shell, can be restored at an estimated cost of $5.5 million. The village has committed $1 million to the project through its tax increment finance district (TIF), Lichter said, and $125,000 has come from Illinois FIRST, the state’s public works program.
“[The theater] was gifted to Lombard,” he said, “and a citizens committee is looking at what to do with the property. They have a year to do the preliminary work, develop a plan, hire an architect and raise funds.”
The story is similar at the Wheaton Theater, which stands as a $6 million restoration challenge to its hopeful revivalists.
Borrowing from the original “Grand Theater” name, a non-profit citizens group has set out to acquire ownership of the 1,200-seat palace, which opened in 1925. A deed transfer is anticipated soon, according to attorney Scott Pointner, who represents both sides in the deal.
The non-profit Grand Theater Corp. is the second group to attempt to restore the theater, which closed in November 1998. The first group’s failure led to frustrations among city officials eager to see the downtown centerpiece revitalized but unwilling so far to commit resources to the effort.
“The theater is a key in the downtown,” said Mayor Jim Carr, “but to what extent the city would be willing to support it financially, I don’t know.”
Building agent Stephen Rathje, who is related to several owners, said it could be used for other purposes, but he and his relatives favor maintaining it as a theater.
Designed by architect Norman Brydges, the theater has a style that typifies an era that featured blue dome ceilings with twinkling stars (now damaged but repairable).
Its classic proscenium, hidden for years behind a wall, is a museum in itself, featuring Beaux-arts-style terra cotta of unusual Pompeiian-style plasterwork. All was sealed off when the theater was partitioned to show four movies instead of one, a move undertaken in the 1970s to compete with multiplex theaters.
“Right now we’re restoring what we can [afford] to show people what it can be again,” said Lisa Wolancevich, chairwoman of the Grand Theater Corp. “It was called an architectural gem in the Illinoisan [a local newspaper] when it first opened, and we think it can be again.”
The plan is to renovate and restore the theater as an 800-seat multi-use center for the performing arts, workshops, classic movies and a venue for mid-size to large meetings.
Dayton Spence, principal of New Millenium Restorations of Sutton Bay, Mich., has been retained for the delicate work or restoration. In one section of the lobby, he and his associates spent nine days stripping 17 layers of paint down to the original finish.
Spence’s work uncovered rich mahogany woodwork and a pattern of soft colors in mint condition. Covering this artwork “defies explanation,” said Wolancevich, pointing to the ceiling’s Middle Eastern woodwork bas-reliefs and designs.
The corporation’s strategy is to rebuild part of the theater as fast as possible so it can be reopened for limited use.
“We’d like to show classic movies and offer a makeshift stage to local groups in need of a stage for rehearsal,” she said.
Obstacles include an antiquated electrical system that must be brought up to code, exterior tuckpointing and the demolition of six partitions now dividing the theater. Total cost: $50,000.
However, with the roof and heating system already repaired, Wolancevich said she believes the restoration program is living up to the non-profit’s motto to “meet or exceed” expectations.
Three fundraising events have yielded about $80,000, she said, with more planned in the months ahead. Grant writer Julie Langhout has approached Illinois FIRST and a number of foundations in search of funds.
The Grand Theater Corp. also may retain a professional fundraising organization to intensify its capital campaign, she said.
“We want to do a fundraising `Casablanca’ film night and a Marx Brothers Night,” Wolancevich says. “We understand the Marx Brothers may have performed in the theater in 1926 when they were living in a La Grange boarding house.”
Each dressed in jeans and sweatshirt, she and Langhout recently spent a day cleaning artifacts. It was January, and except for heat in the lobby, the dark-as-pitch theater was igloo frosty.”I’d like this restored like the Paramount in Aurora,” said Wolancevich. “They’ve done a marvelous restoration and have a really wonderfully diversified program that brings a lot of people downtown.”
Jan Mangers, director of Aurora’s preservation commission, said the downtown once had four movie houses. The Tivoli and Isle are but memories, she said, and the Fox was converted into offices.
Only the Paramount Arts Centre, which was originally named the Rialto as a movie house, remains. It was purchased by the city in 1976 as the keystone to a $15 million plan to revitalize the downtown.
Built in 1931 for $1 million to seat 2,000, it was trimmed to just over 1,800 in the modernization process and been “phenomenally successful” as a performing arts center, according to Janet Bean, executive director of the Aurora Civic Center Authority.
“We’ve been in the black every year I’ve been here [nine years] and last season had 17 sellouts,” she bubbled. “Our show profits were over $300,000 for the ’99 season and we’ve sold $10,000 a day for the second half of this season, a good number.”
Programming quality shows is the key, Bean said, ticking off the season’s acts, among them the Second City comedy troupe, the Kingston Trio, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, “Peter Pan,” Irish tenor John McDermott, and Yeston’s “Phantom,” another version of the musical.
“We have 52 dates scheduled over the next 18 weekends,” she said.
With 27 rental dates also booked, Bean said she believes a movie theater would add to the appeal of Aurora’s downtown but says there are no more old ones to renovate or restore.
Frank Griffin, a principal in the “up-for-sale” Geneva Theater, says he has heard from “quite a few prospects,” including one who expressed interest in leasing it as a performing arts venue but backed off when the numbers ($14 to $17 per square foot) didn’t work.
The 8,400-square-foot theater’s sale price is $1.75 million, Griffin said, adding, “I would love to see it stay as a movie theater.”
Built in 1923 as a virtual twin to the theater in Sycamore, it is another of the 1920s vintage theaters that moved from vaudeville to single-screen to multiple screens to shutdown.
Geneva officials, he said, were interested “but they’ve never come to us and said, `look we’d like to do this or that and we’re willing to throw this much money behind it.'”
Competition among performing arts theaters is getting stiffer, he said, naming St. Charles’ Pheasant Run and Norris Center and Elgin’s Hemmens Auditorium.
“Same with movies,” he continued, “because I hear there’s a 30-plex coming to Randall Road.”
He said “ownership,” relatives of Griffin’s, would like to sell the building, lease it to a single tenant or convert it, as a last resort, into retail-commercial space.
“That could be tricky,” he said, “and I’d rather see it restored as a movie theater again.”
So too would a new group forming to save and restore the 76-year-old Hinsdale Theater, which hopes to know by April if there is a chance of pulling it off. They are supported by the Village Board, which formed a save-the-theater commission and is underwriting a renewable lease on the property.
Chairman Harry Vincent said the commission intends to raise seed money to hire consultants to explore the possibilities. In addition to the historic preservation aspect, he said, “it has to be a functional entertainment center for the village to justify it.”
Vincent added: “If the project does go ahead as we hope it will but can’t say for sure yet, then we will undertake a capital campaign to restore [it] and reconfigure it to fit the programs we believe will attract our residents and neighbors.”
What started as movie theater in 1925 became a summer stock stage in the ’50s for actors such as Jack Palance and Charlton Heston. While it does not have the elaborate decorative art of the Wheaton Theater or the Arcada in St. Charles, it still has its charm and original pipe organ.
Vincent said an architectural firm and consultant have been retained to explore the building’s potential and type of programs that might be presented. One consultant said the building, which also has retail spaces, is structurally sound and estimated restoration costs at $1.5 million to $2 million.
“We hope to have enough information by April so that we can decide whether or not we should go ahead and, if so, how we should go ahead with fundraising,” Vincent said.
A capital campaign already has raised enough to retain the two consultants, he added, but much is not known about the 540-seat theater’s condition, which Vincent says does not appear “very good.”
What could be a model for many if not all the suburban area’s old movie houses can be found in St. Charles’ Arcada, which opened as a vaudeville showcase in 1926 and soon thereafter showed talkies.
Over the years it has been remodeled and made over a number of times, but in 1993 itwas restored as a first-run movie house to its original appearance with Venetian-Spanish decor, a starlit dome and spacious balcony.
Owners of the theater are Ruby, Craig and Gary Frank, who have leased its operation to Classic Cinema of Downers Grove.
“We’ve made many improvements,” he said, referring to a rebuilt marquee, pipe organ (which is played to requests Friday and Saturday nights), new screen and sound system.
“I’ve investigated the possibility of converting it, at least partially, to live theater again, but I haven’t quite gotten there yet,” said Craig Frank. By 1979, rising costs ended live performances, which shared time with the movies.
Today, he said, a local independent’s single-screen theater can be profitable for only a couple of weeks before attendance dries up. Multiplexes can show a new release on their biggest screens and, as a film’s popularity slips, move it to smaller screens in a step-by-step process.
Frank attributes the Arcada’s success to its ties with Classic Cinemas, which runs another seven screens in St. Charles’ Foxfield Theater and can employ the same economic strategy as the multiplexes.
Judging from recent headlines, his theater and those like it may be in their best position in years. With major chain theater owners announcing cutbacks in their screens, the day may be coming when stage shows and classic movies in old restored classic movie house are in vogue.
“That’s what we believe,” said Wolancevich, staring at a mess and work ahead in the Wheaton Theater. “And we think it’s going happen right here.”
