Main auditorium of Chicago's Music Box Theatre to close for upgrades for a few weeks this summer
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The venerable Music Box Theatre in Lakeview will be closing its main auditorium for just over three weeks this summer for some upgrades as the movie house celebrates its 95th anniversary.
The main auditorium at the Music Box, at 3733 N. Southport Ave., will be getting new auditorium seats with cupholders, improved auditorium lighting, refinished floors and new carpet, refurbishment of the original proscenium arch, and new supports for people with disabilities – including a T-Coil Hearing Loop system for those with hearing aids.
To allow for the $750,000 renovation project, the main 740-seat auditorium will be closed from Monday, Aug. 12, until Wednesday, Sept. 4. The smaller screening room and the backyard garden will remain open.
The Music Box first opened in August 1929, and at the time, it was described as a venue of "lasting beauty and great durability."
"But time, even for a cherished landmark, leaves its mark," the venue said. "All those wonderful audiences, all those memories, and all that cinema have taken their toll on the space."
The Music Box said the new seats will replicate the aesthetics and footprint of the original seats – but will have more comfortable seat cushions, walnut-stained veneer wood backs, hardwood armrests, and cupholders.
The theater said it knows the old seats have "a special place in many people's hearts." Along with the nonprofit Rebuilding Exchange, efforts are underway to find them a new home.
The Music Box is also taking contributions for anyone who wishes to sponsor a seat. A single seat can be sponsored for $750, or two for $1,400.
However, the theater noted that while those who sponsor seats will get a nameplate on the seats they purchase, sponsorship does not reserve a seat for movies or other events.
A Chicago treasure for 95 years
Aug. 22, 1929, will mark the 95th anniversary of the opening of the Music Box. At the time the Music Box opened, Wrigley Field, the theater's neighbor about half a mile to the east, had only been around for 15 years – and the Cubs and Philadelphia Athletics were about to play the first World Series games ever held there that October.
The Music Box was one of the first movie houses to show talkies, a revolution in the motion picture industry.
The theater, designed by Louis Simon and Edward Steinborn, cost $110,000 to build. In the early 20th century, it was considered small by theater standards, and unlike many old movie palaces, it had no stage.
"When the theatre was built, sound films were a new technology, and the plans included both an orchestra pit and organ chambers in case sound films failed and silent film accompaniment was needed," the Music Box said on its website.
The Music Box was designed in the architectural style known as "atmospheric."
"The dark blue, cove-lit ceiling with 'twinkling stars' and moving cloud formations suggests a night sky," the theater says on its website. "The plaster ornamentation of the side walls, round towers, faux-marble loggia, and ogee-arched organ chambers are, by Hollywood standards, reminiscent of the walls surrounding an Italian courtyard. Overall, the effect is to make the patron feel that they are watching a film in an open-air palazzo."
The first movie shown at the Music Box was "Mother's Boy," starring Morton Downey.
The Music Box did not always show first-run films. In the late 1970s and early 1980s – around the time of its 50th anniversary – it presented movies in Spanish and Arabic, and even adult films.
But under new management in 1983, the movie theater was revived as a destination for double-feature revival and repertory films, and later also foreign, independent, and cult films.
"From its namesake musical device to 70mm spectacles, the Music Box embraces a gamut of film genres, along with guest appearances and sing-a-longs. Its narrative frames the bigger picture of cinema in Chicagoland," wrote Bill Stamets for the Music Box's 90th anniversary site five years ago.
This reinvention of the Music Box included the addition of a theater organ, which is played regularly. While many visitors assume they are hearing ranks of pipes tucked away in those ogee-arched organ chambers, the sound is really pouring through speakers in the chambers – as the organ is actually a masterpiece of digital sampling.
The organ features real recorded samples of every pipe, percussion device, and sound effect that would be found in an organ chamber – all voiced and balanced for the room. The organ sound system was designed personally by Music Box house organist Dennis Scott, and built by his husband, Thom Day.
The console for the Music Box organ is from a Kimball pipe organ dating from 1929 – the very year the Music Box opened.
In 1991, the Music Box added a second screen in an existing storefront alongside the lobby.
The Music Box Lounge opened in 2015 as a venue to discuss a movie, grab a drink, or play a board game. The garden behind the lounge hosts screenings all summer.
Currently, the Music Box is the largest theater space operated full-time in Chicago. Its Music Box Films division also distributes foreign and independent films to other theaters, and the DVD and television markets nationwide.
