A downtown La Grange business that opened when Calvin Coolidge was president in 1925 and still survives celebrated its longevity last week by showcasing its storied history on the big screen.
The La Grange Theatre, now officially Classic Cinemas La Grange Theatre, kicked off its Century of Cinema 100th anniversary party on Wednesday with the screening of a documentary about the theatre, followed by “The Freshman,” the Harold Lloyd silent classic that opened the same year as the theatre.
And the celebration is only beginning this month.
“Every month we will show one of the greatest films of the decades since the theatre’s been open,” said Jim Toth, the marketing director for Classic Cinemas who directed the documentary about the theater.
Those classic movies will be screened on the fourth Wednesday of the next 10 months. “The Wizard of Oz,” representing the 1930s, will run in March; in April it will be “Citizen Kane” from the 1940s. Other movies on the schedule include Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” “2001: A Space Odysey,” “Grease,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Clueless” and, on consecutive weeks in October, the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Details are at classiccinemas.com.
“I tried to pick movies that were culturally significant and balance it out with some favorites or very popular movies,” said Mike Schindler, Classic Cinemas events coordinator. “A lot of the choice came down to what we could get, or couldn’t get. There are some movies I would have loved to have included, but they were not available. I really wanted to do ‘Jaws.’ I wanted ‘Shaun of the Dead’ for Halloween, but it just didn’t quite work out.”
Classic Cinemas operates 16 theaters in the Chicago area. Many are renovations of older movie houses that were suffering revenue loss in the Internet age with so many streaming services.
The La Grange Theatre opened in 1925 and for its first two decades was used primarily for live entertainment. That changed with a switch to motion pictures in the late 1940s and has been the focus of the venue ever since.
It fell on hard times toward the end of the 20th Century and was purchased in 2004 by John Rot and Dan Chopp. While they made infrastructure improvements to the building, it wasn’t enough to ensure the theatre’s long-term viability, so they entered into an agreement with the village in 2009 to help fund further improvements which eventually cost $1.8 million.
The village provided $1 million in loans, financed with money from tax increment financing, and the owners funded the rest.
The conditions of the loan were that it could remain unpaid as long as the Theatre continued to operate as a movie theatre. The deal succeeded in keeping the historic venue in operation, serving primarily as a second-run venue.
But the rise of internet streaming services dealt a serious blow to the theatre’s business model, and the COVID-19 pandemic finished it off. The theater closed in March 2020.
The owners then sought a deal with Classic Cinemas, which was only too happy to buy the theatre and keep it operating as a first-run venue. But only after being assured Classic would have no obligation to repay the loan taken out by Rot and Chopp, regardless of future decisions.
President Mark Kuchler acknowledged at the time the concern of some residents that the village not just forgive the million-dollar loan. The fact that the money came from tax increment financing also drew criticism.
Indeed, any proposal to release any owner of the theatre from the debt obligation didn’t sit well with some La Grange residents.
But the village was able to craft a deal which would not only keep the theatre in business, but bring additional tax revenue into the village.
A new 50 cent per ticket entertainment tax would be split evenly between the Village and Classic Cinemas, and that tax would be in place in perpetuity — even after the $1 million loan had been repaid.
Classic Cinemas, which started in Downers Grove’s Tivoli Theatre, has become a force in the Chicago area theater community by offering first-run movies, viewed in clean theaters with comfortable reclining heated seats, free refills on soda and popcorn — and a lower ticket price.
Classic Cinema’s CEO Chris Johnson, who also calls himself its CPO (chief popcorn eater) said it was great to be celebrating the La Grange Theatre’s past, and even moreso, its future. Classic Cinemas plans to add three more theaters seating just under 200 people, which are scheduled to open sometime this Summer.
“I am super excited because in 2021 when we started approaching the village and, candidly, at the time we didn’t know exactly how we would be received and how it would turn out,” he said. “We’re extraordinarily happy with how it turned out and we’re working on the additions so we can have more movies.”
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
