{"id":23337,"date":"2026-10-15T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T14:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=23337"},"modified":"2026-10-15T09:00:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T14:00:48","slug":"23337","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=23337","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tour The Uptown Theatre As Part Of Open House Chicago: The free Open House Chicago festival<\/a>, now in its 16th year, offers behind-the-scenes access to more than 200 sites, including many that are not normally open to the public. Joining this year\u2019s list is the Uptown Theatre, which has been closed since 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No registration is necessary for attendees to visit the sites, which are available all across the city on Open House weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Uptown, 4816 N. Broadway,\u00a0turned 100 last year<\/a>. It is the largest freestanding theater in North America, according to a statement from the Chicago Architecture Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visitors will enter though the main lobby and take a short guided tour of the auditorium.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Uptown Theatre is the crown jewel of the local entertainment corporation Balaban and Katz and renowned Chicago commercial architects Rapp and Rapp. Built in 1925, the Uptown is the largest freestanding theater in North America and was inspired by opulent palaces in Europe, employing the Spanish Baroque Revival style. No expense was spared in its construction. Marble sweeps throughout the building, ornate plaster climbs the walls and sprawls across the ceilings with images of royalty, mythology and fantasy. Large columns and arched doorways, murals by Louis Grell, and grandiose lighting by Victor S. Pealman inspire the imagination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside the auditorium thousands of colored lights hidden in plaster coves indirectly light the space to enhance the mood of the film or music being presented. With a stage, orchestra lift, movie screen and pipe organ, patrons could enjoy movies, plays, vaudeville acts, comedians, news reels and music in all forms. With decreasing revenue in the 1960s, the Wurlitzer organ and many lavish paintings and statues were sold to help cover operating costs. By the 1970s, the theater became a live music venue, hosting numerous rock concerts with headliners like the Grateful Dead, Genesis, Electric Light Orchestra, Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello, Prince, Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen, and Frank Zappa. Shuttered since 1981, new owner Jerry Mickelson of JAM Productions fame has worked tirelessly to draw attention to the theater\u2019s potential and raise funds for its eventual rebirth\u2014estimated to require as much as $200 million. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Tour The Uptown Theatre As Part Of Open House Chicago: The free Open House Chicago festival, now in its 16th year, offers behind-the-scenes access to more than 200 sites, including many that are not normally open to the public. Joining this year\u2019s list is the Uptown Theatre, which has been closed since 1981. No registration… Read More »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23342,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23337\/revisions\/23342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}