Title : Postcards from Chicago: #12 The Chicago Theater
link : Postcards from Chicago: #12 The Chicago Theater
Postcards from Chicago: #12 The Chicago Theater
[by Wes Douglas, Symposium Correspondent in Chicago, USA]Well here we are, just one week in front of the 8th International Symposium, the World Cup of Urban Sketchers. Months and months of planning and preparations have been going on behind the curtains and by this time next week the lights will go up and the curtains will open and hundreds of urban sketchers will become acquainted with the streets of the city we call home. Of course there are butterflies, sweaty palms and cast members pacing nervously in the wings. But the show must go on.
So how fitting, then, that I should choose The Chicago Theatre as the featured sketch location for this week. You have undoubtedly discovered that there are many iconic buildings and structures that have defined Chicago over the last few weeks in this series, but few where the city's name is so boldly displayed on its façade as this. It will likely become a quick favorite for our visitors, along with Cloud Gate, Willis Tower, The Art Institute of Chicago, Marina City, Wrigley Building, Harold Washington Library, the Buckingham Fountain, and many more.
To help me demonstrate the popularity of this theatre, I have invited a few more of my Urban Sketchers Chicago colleagues to share their version of the Chicago Theatre: Paul Ingold, Brian Wright, Bernard Battung, and Adriana Gasparich.
The Chicago Theatre, originally known as the Balaban and Katz Chicago Theatre, is a landmark theater located on North State Street in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Built in 1921, the Chicago Theatre was the flagship for the Balaban and Katz (B&K) group of theaters run by A. J. Balaban, his brother Barney Balaban and partner Sam Katz. Along with the other B&K theaters, from 1925 to 1945 the Chicago Theatre was a dominant movie theater enterprise.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places June 6, 1979, and was listed as a Chicago Landmark January 28, 1983. The distinctive Chicago Theatre marquee, “an unofficial emblem of the city,” appears frequently in film, television, artwork, and photography.
The structure is seven stories tall and fills nearly one half of a city block. The 60-foot (18 m) wide by six-story tall triumphal arch motif of the State Street façade has been journalistically compared to the l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The central arch-headed window adapts the familiar motif of Borromini’s false-perspective window reveals of the top floor of Palazzo Barberini, Rome. The coat of arms of the Balaban and Katz chain—two horses holding ribbons of 35 mm film in their mouths outlined by a border of film reels—is set inside a circular Tiffany stained glass window inside the arch. The exterior of the building is covered in off-white architectural terracotta supplied by the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company with Neo-Baroque stucco designs by the McNulty Brothers.
At the time of the building's 1978 application for the National Register of Historic Places designation, the venue’s marquee had been replaced twice. The original marquee was basic and facilitated two lines of text for announcements. The 1922–23 marquee had ornate “flashing pinwheels, swirls and garlands of colored lights.” It also included “milk glass letter attraction boards, and CHICAGO in large letters on three sides.” The 1949 replacement was similar to the second marquee, but its attraction boards were larger and the oversized CHICAGO lettering only appeared on the front. Until Balaban and Katz’ 1969 sale to the American Broadcasting Company, their name was on the marqee.
The entire marquee was replaced in 1994, but retains the look of its predecessor. In 2004, the original marquee was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The marquee is featured in numerous movies and TV shows set in Chicago, and its neon font was used in the title of the 2002 film Chicago.
The Chicago Theatre, originally known as the Balaban and Katz Chicago Theatre, is a landmark theater located on North State Street in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Built in 1921, the Chicago Theatre was the flagship for the Balaban and Katz (B&K) group of theaters run by A. J. Balaban, his brother Barney Balaban and partner Sam Katz. Along with the other B&K theaters, from 1925 to 1945 the Chicago Theatre was a dominant movie theater enterprise.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places June 6, 1979, and was listed as a Chicago Landmark January 28, 1983. The distinctive Chicago Theatre marquee, “an unofficial emblem of the city,” appears frequently in film, television, artwork, and photography.
The structure is seven stories tall and fills nearly one half of a city block. The 60-foot (18 m) wide by six-story tall triumphal arch motif of the State Street façade has been journalistically compared to the l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The central arch-headed window adapts the familiar motif of Borromini’s false-perspective window reveals of the top floor of Palazzo Barberini, Rome. The coat of arms of the Balaban and Katz chain—two horses holding ribbons of 35 mm film in their mouths outlined by a border of film reels—is set inside a circular Tiffany stained glass window inside the arch. The exterior of the building is covered in off-white architectural terracotta supplied by the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company with Neo-Baroque stucco designs by the McNulty Brothers.
At the time of the building's 1978 application for the National Register of Historic Places designation, the venue’s marquee had been replaced twice. The original marquee was basic and facilitated two lines of text for announcements. The 1922–23 marquee had ornate “flashing pinwheels, swirls and garlands of colored lights.” It also included “milk glass letter attraction boards, and CHICAGO in large letters on three sides.” The 1949 replacement was similar to the second marquee, but its attraction boards were larger and the oversized CHICAGO lettering only appeared on the front. Until Balaban and Katz’ 1969 sale to the American Broadcasting Company, their name was on the marqee.
The entire marquee was replaced in 1994, but retains the look of its predecessor. In 2004, the original marquee was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The marquee is featured in numerous movies and TV shows set in Chicago, and its neon font was used in the title of the 2002 film Chicago.
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