I’ve had theaters on my mind a lot lately, partially because our company (which publishes Smile Politely and produces The Pygmalion Festival) has a firm hand in the re-opening of The Highdive as The Accord this Friday. The renovation is pretty sweet, all told, given the quick turn around, and the limited budget. And the building is old, and has a lot of history.
I knew that it was an adult cinema called the Illini Theatre at one point, and as such, I went to the internet to find a picture, and sure enough, I got this one from Cinema Treasures, which is an amazing resource for cinephiles:
This was 1962 I believe.
The title of that “film” lead me to this. As it happens, it wasn’t porn actually. Just a weird sci-fi film about some big ass spider that terrorizes some dancers on an island. It was still considered “seedy” or whatever — but it wasn’t straight smut yet.
The facade is totally different now. The brick has been exposed, but it’s currently painted black.
While there are not current plans to re-open the ticketing booth as a functional place to earn admission (nor will there be smut films — tough market, what with the internet and all), it feels like there’s got to be some way to utilize that tremendous space at some point, eh?
I’ll think on it.