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Designed by George L. and Cornelius W. Rapp for theater managers Balaban and Katz, the theatre, a virtual museum of Asian art, presented popular first-run motion pictures, complemented by lavish stage shows.
Turbaned ushers led patrons from the lobby, with polychrome figures and large mosaics of an Indian prince and princess, through an inner foyer with elephant-throne chairs and multicolored glazed Buddhas, to the auditorium's "hasheesh-dream décor." Among the many stars that played the theatre are Paul Ash (billed as "the Rajah of Jazz"), The Three Stooges, Judy Garland, Al Jolson, Stepin Fetchit, Sophie Tucker, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Fanny Brice, Danny Kaye and Alice Faye. During a record-breaking week in 1930, as many as 124,985 patrons visited the Oriental to see the hit film "Flight."
From the National Register submission: "The surrounding Masonic Building office structure rises 24 stories. The theater and 8 floors of Masonic halls are housed in a large structure at the rear. The theater occupies 8 stories in the rear of the building. Built directly over the theater are 4 Masonic halls on the 9th floor, 3 on the 10th floor, 2 on the 12th floor and as large as the theater itself on the 14-16th floors. The fact that there are 8 stories (10 auditoriums) all with no visible support, directly above the theater which throughout its whole interior contains no visible supports, is certainly a tribute to Rapp & Rapp's engineering."
Although management changed hands several times in the subsequent decades, the theatre continued to feature films until the early 1970s, at which time the M&R Amusement Company briefly presented live performances by such artists as Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and the Pips and Little Richard.
Soon the theater fell into disrepair. In an effort to preserve the theatre, it was added to the National Register in 1978, but the building continued to crumble. The theatre was closed to the public in 1981, and the site was considered for a two-story, 50,000 square-foot shopping mall and a 1,600 seat cinema. In 1996, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley announced that the Oriental would be restored to its original grandeur for the presentation of live stage musicals by Livent, Inc. Renamed Ford Center for the Performing Arts in 1997, the restoration of the theatre was completed in October 1998, at which time it was opened with the Chicago premiere of "Ragtime." The venue was acquired by SFX Theatrical Group in 1999, and its production of "Fosse" debuted at the Ford Center before embarking on a national tour. The list of hits goes on including the pre-Broadway of "Blast" in 2000, as well as the world premiere of "Sing-A-Long Wizard of Oz" in January 2003. And most recently - "Wicked."
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The Oriental Theatre Building, originally the Chicago United Masonic Temple, at 30 West Randolph Street. The temple was designed by prominent theatre architects Cornelius W. Rapp and George L. Rapp, and was built on the tragic site of the ill-fated Iroquois Theatre.
When dedicated in 1926, the temple was the home of La Fayette Chapter No. 2, Wiley M. Egan Chapter No. 126, Hyde Park Chapter No. 240, and Temple Chapter No. 252. No Masonic bodies meet there at present.