The era of the movie palace is one of the most incredible - and largely unexamined - periods in American history. It would have been extraordinary if only for its brevity. Structures that looked like they were built for the ages were being demolished en masse within just a few decades. Even more importantly, the movie palace was a uniquely democratic institution. All classes flocked to the movies, and the price of tickets varied by time of day, not It's an epic topic, one I hope to return to in the future. For now, however, the hour is late, and I will concentrate on the story of just one theater, subject of a new documentary that debuts this week. There's no more poignant reminder of the ephemeral movie palace era than the rotting hulk of the Uptown Theater, a 4,300 seat wonder on Chicago's north side, closed since 1981, Athough an official city landmark for over a decade, for a number of years it was owned by one of the city's notorious slumlords, and still remains in private hands today, neither owned or controlled by the groups struggling to save it. Northwestern students John Pappas and Michael Bisberg have created, Uptown: Portrait of a Palace an award-winning documentary that takes the audience through both the theater's illustrious Providing a note of cautious optimism, the Portage, opened in 1920, has itself recently reopened after a long shuttering. The Chicago Sun-Times recently ran a story by Mary Houlihan detailing how the Silent Film Society of Chicago took out a lease on the theater, with a hardy band of volunteers removing the tall wall that had split the 1,350-seat auditorium into two, repainted the walls and domed ceiling and even restored some of the original giltwork A gala re-opening took place earlier this month. The website of the Friends of the Uptown includes an extraordinary, downloadable artifact: an The website also offers a download of the documentary's trailer, including a tantalizing shot of a Join a discussion on this story
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