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Uptown Theatre (Chicago), United States

Category: Attraction

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4818 North Broadway
Chicago
IL 60640
USA

Chicago, United States Print route » N41° 58' 10.7" W87° 39' 35.7"   (41.969638888889, -87.659916666667) Start navigation »

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Uptown Theatre (also known as Balaban and Katz Uptown Theatre) is a massive, ornate movie palace located in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Designed by Rapp and Rapp and built by Paschen Bros. contractors, it one of the many movie palaces built by the Balaban & Katz theatre chain run by A. J. Balaban, his brother Barney Balaban and their partner Sam Katz.
The largest remaining in Chicago, it boasts 4,381 seats and its interior volume is said to be larger than any other movie palace in the United States, including Radio City Music Hall in New York. It occupies over 46,000 square feet (4,300 m2) of land at the corner of Lawrence Avenue and Broadway in Chicago's Uptown Entertainment District. The mammoth theater has an ornate five story entrance lobby with an eight-story façade.
The Uptown Theater has been closed since 1981. While restoration was often discussed in the following decades, and several concentrated efforts were made to promote the Uptown's restoration, no such efforts were successful, leaving the theater in disrepair. However, on June 28, 2018, it was announced that $75 million had been set aside to restore the theater with hopes of reopening it within two years.

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