Monday, March 5, 2012

blast from the past

I ran across an interesting web site while looking for something else - Cinema Treasures, a site dedicated to old movie theaters.  I love the old theaters.

Here's the one that used to be at 95th & Beverly/Ashland.  I'd never pictures of what it looked like before its current use as a church.  Roseland and West Pullman used to have several: the Roseland, Parkway, and others.

This one in Rogers Park was demolished several years ago.  The Ramova in Bridgeport has been closed a long time, but is still standing.   Blue Island had the Lyric.   My first loss was the Valencia in Evanston, a vintage gem with twinkling lights in the ceiling.  I saw that one demolished in 1975, and a bland high rise office building was built in its place in 1976.  Don't even get me started about the Uptown.



The Patio on the northwest side was recently reopened after being closed for several years.  They're having a fundraiser to upgrade to digital projection, since film prints are becoming harder to get and will eventually go out of widespread distribution.

Hyde Park had the Hyde Park, later known as the Harper, which is currently being renovated.  Those are the bright spots on this list.  I'm looking forward to that reopening at 53rd & Harper.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As I recall the Hyde Park and the Harper were two different theatres. But the theatre gem of Hyde Park was the Picadilly. the "Pic" was in the lavish old style. Shows there were more expensive - they cost a quarter but they were often double feature.

Fargo said...

Thanks for the clarification. Wish I could have seen the Picadilly. That goes back to when my mom was growing up in Hyde Park.