A Theater of Our Own : A History and a Memoir of 1,001 Nights in Chicago

Rating:
Summary: A Comprehensive Theater History.
Review: Written by a movie review expert who spent twenty-five years at the 'Chicago Tribune' as chief critic and arts and entertainment editor until he retired in 2002, he gives the background of early theaters and their demise. The best feature of this study of drama and theater from the early 1830s is the abundance of old photos and playbills interspersed throughout.

Innumerable theaters existed in such a large place as Chicago. McVicker's in the 1850s was considered the 'high class' theater of Chicago, a place for the major stars and shows of its time. Sarah Bernhardt made her Chicago debut there in 1881, which she called the 'pulse of America.' Edwin Booth, son-in-law of James McVickers, mgr., and his brother, John Wilkes Booth appeared there in RICHARD III. Edwin shared acting honors in OTHELLO and JULIUS CAESAR with James O'Neill whose son Eugene wrote about in his drama, 'Long Day's Journey into Night.' McVickers himself appeared as the grave digger in HAMLET. It was destroyed by fire in 1871, again in 1890, to be replaced in 1922 as a movie theater which was razed in 1984 as were so many others across the country.

Knoxville saved two of many (Bijou built in 1901 and Tennessee Theatre in 1928). Nashville has to claim the newly renovated (back to the Twenties in its entirety) as the 'state' theater as none of theirs survived. Even small towns like Pulaski sported an 'Opera House,' though on a much smaller scale from those in Chicago. In the early 1900s, the music halls featuring vaudeville appeared on the scene. Knoxville had the Roxy, I have read in a local tabloid.

In 1906, the Majestic (later called Shubert) opened on Monroe St. at Main near the Loop. It's still there in the theater district with five others. In 1959, the Shubert hosted 'The Music Man' starring Forrest Tucker. Shubert has continued in business through the decades, except the Depression years (1932-45). In the 1990s, Mayor Daley decided to revive some of the old money-generating bustle and prestige-garnering glamour of the theater scene downtown. The Shubert is now owned by New York based firms, and will be revamped in 2005, and, after all these years, will sport a new name -- LaSalle Bank Theatre.

An early move toward revival of the Loop area took place in the 1980s. Chicago Theatre (1921) on State Street was threatened with demolition but, after nine months and $25 million investment, it was restored. So were the Palace on Randolph St., and the Oriental (both 1926) all refurbished, back to the French Renaissance splendor as movie palaces.

The old Shubert, I feel, is Chicago's theater above par. I hope they won't do as Knoxville developers did and make it garish and old-fashioned looking, returning to a past no one remembers. Memories can't be sustained when the publicity leaves out a whole decade and then refuses to admit this omission, as was the case with a 'theatre of our own' here in the South. It's still billed as Tennessee Theatre but was financed by 'Banc' of America, so technically it is not locally owned either. Something the two have in common -- what a calamity!