Chicago biography theater july 22 1934

The Shooting of John Dillinger Outside the Biograph Theater, July 22,

Chicago ran a fever of a hundred and one that groggy Sunday. A reporter fried an egg on a sidewalk; the air looked shaky. And a hundred thousand people were in the lake like shirts in a laundry. Why was Johnny lonely? Not because two dozen solid citizens, heat-struck, had keeled over backward. Not because those lawful souls had fallen out of their sockets and melted. But because the sun went down like a lump in a furnace or a bull in the Stockyards. Where was Johnny headed? Under the Biograph Theater sign that said, “Our Air is Refrigerated.” Past seventeen FBI men and four policemen who stood in doorways and sweated. Johnny sat down in a cold seat to watch Clark Gable get electrocuted. Had Johnny been mistreated? Yes, but Gable told the D.A. he’d rather fry than be shut up forever. Two women sat by Johnny. One looked sweet, one looked like J. Edgar Hoover. Polly Hamilton made him feel hot, but Anna Sage made him shiver. Was Johnny a good lover? Yes, but he passed out his share of squeezes and pokes like a jittery masher While Agent Purvis sneaked up and down the aisle like an extra usher, Trying to make sure they wouldn’t slip out till the show was over. Was Johnny a fourflusher? No, not if he knew the game. He got it up or got it back. But he liked to take snapshots of policemen with his own Kodak, And once in a while he liked to take them with an automatic. Why was Johnny frantic? Because he couldn’t take a walk or sit down in a movie Without begin afraid he’d run smack into somebody Who’d point at his rearranged face and holler, “Johnny!” Was Johnny ugly? Yes, because Dr. Wilhelm Loeser had given him a new profile With a baggy jawline and squint eyes and an erased dimple, With kangaroo-tendon cheekbones and a gigolo’s mustache that should’ve been illegal. Did Johnny love a girl? Yes, a good-looking, hard-headed Indian named Billie Frechette. He wanted to marry her and lie down and try to
  • John dillinger last words

    • Biograph Theater

    The Biograph Theater was opened September 5, All seats were on a single floor and was equipped with a Weickhardt organ. This Lincoln Park neighborhood landmark is probably best known by Chicagoans as the place where John Dillinger was shot and killed on July 22, after attending a screening of “Manhattan Melodrama” starring Clark Gable (allegedly the ghost of Dillinger has haunted the theater ever since).

    During the ’s, the second floor of the building was converted into two small additional screens. The original décor in the original main auditorium mostly lost, the historic Biograph Theater continued to show movies until

    The theater reopened in under the Village Theatres chain, which operated it until September , when it again closed.

    The Biograph Theater was purchased by the legitimate Victory Gardens Theatre company in The interior has been entirely rebuilt, from a venue which could originally seat over to today (which is about more seats than Victory Gardens' old space down the street, which will now be rented out to other area theater companies). The facade was repaired and cleaned, and the marquee was rebuilt to resemble its original appearance. (The words “Victory Gardens” have replaced the word “Essaness” over the neon-lit Biograph name, Essaness being the chain that operated the movie house during the ’s.)

    The Victory Gardens Theater at the Biograph was opened on September 28th, , with Charles Smith’s drama, “Denmark”. By it had two auditoriums, one seating , the other with seats. In March it went dark due to the Covid pandemic. It reopened on March 14, operated by the Los Angeles based Theatre

    Contributed by Abigail Johns, Alan Van Landschoot, Bryan Krefft

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    Biograph Theater

    Theater in Chicago, US, opened

    The Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, was originally a movie theater but now presents live productions. It gained early notoriety as the location where bank robber John Dillinger was leaving when he was shot down by FBI agents, after he watched a gangster movie there on July 22, The theater is on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a Chicago Landmark on March 28,

    History

    Designed by architect Samuel N. Crowen in , the Biograph has many of the distinguishing characteristics of movie houses of the period, including a storefront-width lobby, recessed entrance, free-standing ticket booth, and canopy marquee. The building is finished with red pressed brick and white-glazed terra cotta.

    On July 22, , after attending the film Manhattan Melodrama with brothel madam Ana Cumpănaș, also known as Anna Sage (or "The Woman in Red"), and Polly Hamilton, John Dillinger was shot dead outside the Biograph by FBI agents led by Melvin Purvis, when he attempted to pull a pistol and flee into the crowd after he saw them. Dillinger's whereabouts had been leaked to the FBI by Cumpănaș under the threat of deportation back to her birthplace of Romania.

    From the s through the s, the Biograph was the center in Chicago for midnight showings, with raucous costumed cult following, of Rocky Horror Picture Show.

    In July , after 90 years as a movie theater under various owners, Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater announced it had purchased the Biograph for use as a live venue. The theater was completely renovated by architect Daniel P. Coffey, who constructed a proscenium-thrust stage and seating for people. A grand staircase, which was part of the original structure, was restored to lead up to the building's second floor, housing a studio theater seating people and an adj

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    • File:Crowd at Biograph Theater after Dillinger

    This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between and , and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart and the copyright renewal logs.

    Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (70 years p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 years p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 years p.m.a.), Mexico ( years p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 years p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.

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