Rockin' the Paradise

December 19, 2007 10:47 AM

The Paradise Theater opened on Chicago's West Side on September 14, 1928, and was billed as the world's most beautiful theater for its stunning interior and exterior beauty.

The first feature was "It Girl" Clara Bow's The Fleet's In [1928 Time review].

The Paradise's cavernous interior had poor acoustics and it struggled to compete with other theaters during the rising popularity of "talkies." The theater closed for three years in 1931 and never met expectations before it was demolished in the late 1950s.

You can search this site for 22276 to see film of the theater from 1937. The Democratic National Committee used 2,500 softly cushioned seats from the defunct theater at the 1956 Democratic Convention.

The movie palace's rise and fall inspired the 1981 Styx concept album Paradise Theater, featuring "A.D. 1928/Rockin' the Paradise," "Too Much Time On My Hands," "Nothing Ever Goes As Planned," "The Best of Times," "Lonely People," "She Cares," "Snowblind," and "Half Penney Two Penney/A.D. 1958/State Street Sadie." ("State Street Sadie" is named after another 1928 movie, featured on the same page as a newspaper ad announcing the opening of the Paradise.)

Although the Paradise Theater inspired the album, Chris Hopkins' cover was apparently inspired by Richard Addison's serigraph based on Chicago's Granada Theater. (Hopkins still does rockin' art.) Ironically, the Granada's sister theater The Marbro was one of the theaters the Paradise lost business to.

Lots of links from the comments on this page (which is linked to "billed" in the post).

posted by kirkaracha (19 comments total)

Tonigggghts the niggghtt we make heeeeeestoreeeee... honeyyy you and I....

Styx might not have been half as terrible if Dennis DeYoung didn't sound so much like Ethel Merman
posted by psmealey at 11:44 AM on December 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

Styx The B-52s might not have been half as terrible if Dennis DeYoung Fred Schneider didn't sound so much like Ethel Merman.

Fixed that for you.
posted by hanov3r at 11:53 AM on December 19, 2007

Styx might not have been half as terrible if Dennis DeYoung didn't sound so much like Ethel Merman

True, but with lyrics like:

On board, I'm the captain, so climb aboard.
We'll search for tomorrow on every shore;
And Ill try, oh lord, Ill try to carry on.

There's not much to work with, even for Ethel Merman.
posted by Pollomacho at 12:10 PM on December 19, 2007

awesome post... nicely researched, I had no idea that particular Styx album was based on a real theater.

and no one sounds quite as bad as Ethel Merman, except for Ethel herself on that disco album she did in the late 70s.
posted by inthe80s at 12:14 PM on December 19, 2007

Great post. I also didn't know that the Styx album was based on a real place, and I should since I'm from Chicago and was (I thought) up on the city's history.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 12:20 PM on December 19, 2007

My entire high school won tickets via an organized call-in contest to WLS(?), to go see the Paradise Theater concert at the Rosemont Horizon in 1980. It was probably the first concert for 99% of us, although it was my second - I had been to their show the night before.

For some reason, I DID know this album was based on a real theater, but I can't remember why.

Thanks for this!
posted by SuperSquirrel at 1:23 PM on December 19, 2007

Huh, interesting.

In Detroit, there's the Fox Theater, which currently bills itself as the world's most beautiful theater. It was opened *exactly one week later* than the Paradise. I wonder if there was a race at the time??? Surely their designers would have been aware of the other....

The Fox was refurbished to its original glory in the '90s and while the exterior is not nearly as impressive as the Paradise, it's acoustics are fine and I've seen bands from the Clash in the 80's to the Pixies a few years back after it had been restored (though it's not primarily a concert venue). All the ornate sculpture can be a trip if yer on a ... er trip.

Quote from Joe Stummer: "Nice place for a Clash show. This place is a fucking palace."
posted by crowman at 1:29 PM on December 19, 2007

Actually, as I recall, the Fox bills itself as America's (not the world's) most beautiful theater.

Thanks for the post BTW.
posted by crowman at 1:31 PM on December 19, 2007

The Oriental Theater is my favorite theater. It's actually almost a year older than the Palace, has the largest pipe organ in a movie house, was where the Violent Femmes were discovered, and was picked by Entertainment Weekly as one of the ten best theaters in the country.
posted by drezdn at 1:47 PM on December 19, 2007

Nice post! I'm kind of partial to the Tampa Theater as it's just down the road. Have seen some amazing shows there, Tori Amos, B-52's, Judi Tenuta, and some wonderful films during the various film festivals. My favorite being the silent film "Claire"
which was accompanied by an 11 piece local ensemble. Truly a magical experience in a magical place.
posted by HappyHippo at 2:34 PM on December 19, 2007

Great post. I appreciate the thoughtful research. I grew up on the northwest side and some great movie houses that I attended are no more. The Milford. The Will Rogers. The Gateway. At least the Music Box still stands. I have hopes for the Uptown theater because that would be great.

Cool pics here.
posted by zerobyproxy at 3:52 PM on December 19, 2007

My Styx snark (snyrx?) aside this is something that I had wondered about. I bought the record when I was a teenager, and though I didn't like the album very much, I was fascinated by the pictures on the front and back of the album. Showing the theater in two states: opening night and old and decrepit, ready to be torn down. Literally spent hours looking at it. I was even daydreaming about it the other day, wondering if it were a real or fictitious place. Even though I lived in Chicago for 6 years, I never thought to check it out. Thanks, kirkaracha, this is a great post!
posted by psmealey at 4:15 PM on December 19, 2007

Leaving aside the Paradise Theater album in particular, is there any musician or group today who would ever record a concept album about a movie theater? Or any record company that would be willing to sell it?
posted by blucevalo at 4:15 PM on December 19, 2007

is there any musician or group today who would ever record a concept album about a movie theater?

I think Arcade Fire would do it, but I'd be about as indifferent to that as I was to this record.
posted by psmealey at 4:21 PM on December 19, 2007

I started getting kinda obsessed with Styx my senior year of high school, then went to college in Chicago. As it turns out, my sophomore year I lived in an apartment building that was built after Loyola bought and tore down the Granada Theatre (after considering renovating it for their theatre department). This concrete and steel monstrosity was called the Granada Center, piling insult onto injury.

A few years ago, they turned the Granada Center apartments into a dorm. Given the early 90s austerity of the hallways and apartments in the building, it wasn't too much of a downgrade.
posted by StrangeTikiGod at 6:48 PM on December 19, 2007

Oh, and then I moved back home and worked next door to the Oriental Theatre. And also eventually outgrew my Styx obsession.
posted by StrangeTikiGod at 6:49 PM on December 19, 2007

The B-52s might not have been half as terrible wonderful if Fred Schneider didn't sound so much like Ethel Merman.



Fixed that for you.
posted by cows of industry at 7:02 PM on December 19, 2007

Styx = Stynks

Please, for the love of God, do not encourage them...
posted by cows of industry at 7:06 PM on December 19, 2007

Styx = Stynks

I think you might have had to have been there.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 11:05 PM on December 19, 2007