The Esquire's Final Curtain Marks the End of an Era

The tall, two story vertical sign with the theater name lights each letter one at a time before the entire name is lit. The lights go off and the cycle repeats and has repeated for 68 years illuminating Oak Street, catching people's eyes going by on Michigan Avenue and Rush Street. Thursday night, September 14th, those lights will be turned off forever and an era will come to an end with the closing of the Esquire Theater.

The Esquire is the last movie palace in the city still operating as a movie theater. The theater is no longer considered a palace as it was remodeled and renovated into a six-screen multiplex in 1989. Soon it will disappear much like many of the other movie palaces in Chicago to make way for retail stores and restaurants.

Opened in 1938 by H&E theaters, with a seating capacity of 1,400, the Esquire was known as a classy operation from the start. For its first 38 years of operation the Esquire opted not to sell popcorn and treat the theater more like a venue found on Broadway. H&E sold to Walter Reade in 1966 who quickly remodeled the theater without damaging any of the original décor. They also immediately installed popcorn machines while adding ice cream and cigarette machines to closely resemble that of every other theater not realizing it was the unique presentation H&E brought that made the Esquire stand out from any other theater in Chicago.

Walter Reade was owned and operated out of New York so the theater was managed from afar which may have prevented the Esquire from reaching its full potential. Reade did not own any other theaters in Chicago which made watching the Esquire with a fine tooth comb, which theaters of those size needed to maintain their class, more difficult. Reade finally ended its association with the Esquire in 1975 selling the theater to Plitt believing the Esquire never quite lived up to expectations.

In 1986 Plitt/Cineplex Odeon began its plans to chop the giant theater into several smaller theaters with retail space available to other businesses. By July 1987, the plan was to have one retail tenant on the first floor, one on the second, and six theaters occupying the top two floors. In September, the Landmark Commission voted against the plan, attempting to avoid exterior changes, but allowing the matter to continue. In November, they struck a deal to keep the facade and lobby 90% intact, the way it is now. The theater closed and the entire interior was gutted and a new structure was built inside the shell. The theaters re-opened in 1990 with six shoebox sized auditoriums on the second and third floors and have since shown a mixture of art, first and second run films.

The theater is a far cry from the opulent palace that hosted the (usually) exclusive premieres of such classic movies as "Dr. Strangelove," "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold," "A Man For All Seasons," "The Lion In Winter," "Easy Rider," "Five Easy Pieces," "The Last Picture Show," "Sleuth," "Blazing Saddles," "Nashville," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "All the President's Men," "Star Wars," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "The Deer Hunter," "The Empire Strikes Back," "Return of the Jedi," "Fargo" and many more, but still provided the patrons of the Gold Coast a chance to see a good movie in a decent theater with a lot of history.

The decision to close the theaters now was an easy one as the owners have been steadily losing money over the past few years which is surprising considering there are no other movie theaters within reasonable walking distance. Sadly the building, as was such with many of the classic movie palaces, was never designated for landmark status and soon the Esquire with its grand vertical sign and large horizontal marquee will disappear forever with only the grand memories of the patrons who once attended.