Grand opening The Uptown Theatre opened its doors August 18, 1925, billed as "An Acre of Seats in a Magic City". The Grand Opening of the Uptown Theatre was accompanied by a "Central Uptown Parade" of over 200 floats and a grand ball at Harmon's Arcadia in Uptown. Over 12,000 people stood in line to be ticketholders in the very first audience. Several women collapsed because of exhaustion.
Uptown Theatre staff and stage shows The theater opened with a staff of more than 130 people, including a full-time 34 piece orchestra, a nurse, firemen and others. Elaborate stage show productions would accompany each movie, unique in that the elaborate stage shows would follow the theme of the movie. Other chains had basic Vaudeville acts to keep patrons entertained before the movie. The Uptown Theatre is on several landmark and historic registers.
A half century of movies In a cost-cutting move, it was decided to end stage shows at the Uptown (though they were revived briefly in 1949). However, movies were still shown there; their popularity continued during the 1950s and 1960s. Notably, during the same period, the television show
Queen for a Day was filmed at the Uptown with a live audience. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, movie crowds dwindled; concurrently, the Uptown area was experiencing a decline of retail sales.
New life as a music venue Between 1974 and 1976, the Uptown was partially restored as a movie theater. Under the direction of manager Richard Davis, an arts management intern from Chicago City-Wide College, the staff was terminated from Plitt Theaters after complaints of massive internal theft. Davis continued repairs and restoration and had considerable success booking movies such as
The Godfather and action films. In 1976, Davis revived the Uptown as a major concert venue after more restoration. He coordinated local and national acts and booked the
Grateful Dead seventeen times between January 30, 1978 and February 28, 1981. The
J. Geils Band was the last band to play at the theater.
Since 1981 closure Since the winter of 1981, the Uptown Theatre has been closed to regular events. Then-owner Plitt Theatres had inadvertently turned off the heat, causing a frozen water pipe to burst. This resulted in extensive damage to the theater's interior. In subsequent years, deferred maintenance and vandalism led to further debilitation of the structure and ornamentation, both inside and out. However, during the same time period, the Uptown has been featured in films such as the
Academy Award-nominated
Ron Howard movie
Backdraft, the
Julia Roberts and
Nick Nolte movie
I Love Trouble, and the
John Hughes -
Chris Columbus sequel
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. In the 1990s, the theatre lobby was host to the "Hearts Party" (a gay "circuit" party), which raised money for an AIDS charity. In 2016, the theater was used for the music video for
Regina Spektor's single "Black and White".
Current restoration efforts In 1990, a group of preservationists persuaded the then-owners to donate important interior fixtures from the Uptown, specifically to be used in future preservation and restoration projects. Through the efforts of civil engineer Curt Mangel, it was arranged for the fixtures to be stored by wealthy collector
Jasper Sanfilippo at his estate in
Barrington Hills, Illinois. In 2006, the exterior was extensively secured and terra cotta pieces were cataloged and stored for future restoration efforts. A May 21, 2007 article in ''Crain's Chicago Business'' described the Uptown Theatre as "suddenly a hot property," as three national entertainment companies were in competition to purchase, restore and reopen the venue. The theater was purchased through a judicial sale July 29, 2008 by JAM Productions for $3.2 million (equivalent to $ in ). and finalized in court on August 18, 2008. JAM currently also owns the
Riviera Theatre, approximately a block south of the Uptown on Broadway. In August 2013, the
fourth installment of the
Transformers series began filming scenes in the theatre. On June 28, 2018, it was announced that $75 million (equivalent to $ in ) had been set aside to restore the theater. Construction was expected to begin during the summer of 2019. Jerry Mickelson, chief executive officer of JAM Productions, said in 2024 that he still hoped to see the building restored and estimated that it would take $140 million. ==Preservation advocacy==