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"The Uptown Theatre was built by architects Rapp and Rapp for the Balaban and Katz Corp. This amazing corporation started as a family business in the late nickelodeon era and by the early 1920s had control of most film markets in Chicago. The flagship of Balaban and Katz, the Chicago Theatre, opened downtown on State Street in 1921. A financial analysis Balaban and Katz completed in 1923 suggested that their best interests were served by building a theater as large and lavish as they could manage near Broadway and Lawrence. And so, the Uptown was planned.
When built, it was the third largest in terms of seating. But it was the largest, by far, in land area and cubic volume, due in part to the three vast lobby areas. The interior decorations were in Spanish Renaissance style. Everything about the theater was on a grand scale. The terra-cotta facade of the theater's main entrance, for example, towered nearly eight stories above Broadway. Specially designed bronze chandeliers lit the main lobby. A state-of-the-art Wurlitzer organ with 10,000 pipes entertained patrons with music and a range of sound effects. And one of the world's largest air-conditioning systems kept the theater cool during the summer months. Dozens of talented artists and craftsmen--many of them European immigrants--helped make the Rapp brothers' plans a reality. Utilizing skills they or their fathers had learned before arriving in the United States, they produced the custom-made lighting fixtures, handcarved marble staircases, ornamental iron grillework, and individually sculpted sprites, gargoyles, and griffins that gave the Uptown its splendid appearance.
The Uptown formally opened for business on the evening of 18 August 1925 with a showing of "The Lady Who Lied," a film starring Lewis Stone and Virginia Valli. Huge crowds greeted the Uptown's opening. By the end of the 1920s, after more than 20 million people had already attended the Uptown. Some of the greatest theaters, such as Radio City Music Hall in New York, were not even on the drawing boards yet.
Business remained strong until the onset of the Great Depression, when increasingly cash-strapped Chicagoans found it more economical to patronize smaller, less glitzy theaters in their own neighborhoods rather than bearing the extra costs--higher ticket prices and streetcar fare--associated with a visit to the Uptown. As a cost-cutting measure, Balaban & Katz eliminated the Uptown's elaborate stage shows and focused exclusively on motion picture exhibition. In 1949, the firm briefly revived stage presentations at the Uptown, but they did little to stimulate additional business.
The theater, never a huge money-maker, languished during the 1950s, as the popularity of television soared and many Chicagoans lost interest in movies and the city's aging movie palaces. Through the 1950s and early 1960s, film fare became the mainstay again with occasional use of the stage for rentals. The most notable rented use of the stage was for the television show "Queen for a Day," which televised one week every year in the theater. The Uptown was also used as a large hall, especially for corporate meetings, such as those held here by Standard Oil of New Jersey. These uses created revenue. But later, with declining film revenue, furnishings were sold on occasion, starting with the organ in 1962. Soon, because of high insurance costs and vandalism, all extraneous artwork was sold, including more than 90 major oil paintings and 18 major marble groups.
However, with deferred maintenance in the 1960s and 1970s, when revenues were failing, the building at more than 50 years had reached a point of much-needed repairs. Rather than manage the building, it was marketed, sold, and reverted back to the successor, Plitt Theatres. With no ability to manage such a complex facility, Plitt boarded up the building in 1981 and awaited further ideas.
Most of the damage to the building occurred in the early 1980s, making it unusable without restoration. Subsequently, volunteers managed to have the theater designated a Chicago Landmark and recorded on the National Register of Historic Places."
2008 UPDATE: Recently, the theater has been purchased by JAM Productions. According to a letter fom them: "the Uptown Theatre now has owners who truly care about saving and preserving this architectural gem." That sounds like good news. JAM was the team that brought the venerable Electric Light Orchestra to the Uptown in the late '70s - a concert I thoroughly enjoyed!