Uptown Theatre (Chicago)
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Balaban and Katz Uptown Theatre
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Uptown Theatre, 2011
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| Location | 4816 N. Broadway, Chicago, Illinois |
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| Coordinates | 41°58′10.7″N 87°39′35.7″W / 41.969639°N 87.659917°WCoordinates: 41°58′10.7″N 87°39′35.7″W / 41.969639°N 87.659917°W |
| Built | 1925 |
| Architect | C.W. Rapp, George Rapp |
| Architectural style | Tudor Revival, Mission/Spanish Revival, Other |
| NRHP Reference # | 86003181 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 20, 1986 |
| Designated CL | October 2, 1991 |
Uptown Theatre (also known as Balaban and Katz Uptown Theatre) is a massive, ornate movie palace located in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Designed by Rapp and Rapp and constructed in 1925, it the last 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.
The largest in Chicago, it boasts 4,381 seats and its interior volume is said to be larger than any other movie palace in the United States, including Radio City Music Hall in New York. It occupies over 46,000 square feet (4,300 m2) of land at the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Broadway in Chicago's Uptown Entertainment District. The mammoth theater has an ornate five story entrance lobby with an eight story façade.
Rehabilitation efforts are needed to restore and reopen this historic Chicago landmark, which has been closed to regular audiences since 1981.
The Uptown Theatre opened its doors August 18, 1925, billed as "An Acre of Seats in a Magic City." The Grand Opening of the Uptown Theatre was accompanied by a "Central Uptown Parade" of over 200 floats and a grand ball at Harmon's Arcadia in Uptown. Over 12,000 people stood in line to be ticketholders in the very first audience. Several women collapsed because of exhaustion.
The theater opened with a staff of over 130 people, including a full-time 34 piece orchestra, a nurse, firemen and others. Elaborate stage show productions would accompany each movie, unique in that the elaborate stage shows would follow the theme of the movie. Other chains had basic Vaudeville acts to keep patrons entertained before the movie. The Uptown Theatre is on several landmark and historic registers.
Movies at the Uptown Theatre continued, even after stage shows ended as a way to reduce costs. In 1949, the stage shows were revived for a short time. Movies continued during the 1950s and 1960s. Notably, during that time, the television show Queen for a Day was filmed in the Uptown, with a live audience.
Movie crowds eventually dwindled, at the same time that the Uptown area was experiencing a decline of retail in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
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