Plan to Attend "Uptown Community Portrait 2025"

Petition updatePlease Restore the UPTOWN THEATRE!Plan to Attend "Uptown Community Portrait 2025"

Friends of the Uptown

Jul 17, 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Brian Wolf, Historian, Friends of the Uptown, b.wolf@comcast.net

UPTOWN COMMUNITY PORTRAIT 2025

WHAT: At noon on Saturday, Aug. 16, Uptown neighborhood residents and fans of its endangered landmark will gather for a new portrait in front of the Uptown Theatre. Led by Friends of the Uptown with support from Uptown United and 46th Ward Ald. Angela Clay, the “Uptown Community Portrait" event recognizes the 100th anniversary of the theater and exhibits the continuing widespread support for restoring the 1925 movie palace that’s been closed since 1981.

Uptown is Chicago’s northside entertainment hub and home to nearly 60,000 residents. First settled by European immigrants in the 1830s, Uptown is diverse, multi-cultural, multi-lingual and has a colorful history as a hotspot for arts and entertainment. The neighborhood’s iconic Prohibition-era venues and ornate architecture are as beloved today as they were in the early decades of the 20th century.

HIGHLIGHTS:

· This is the third community portrait boosters have staged to recreate the historic, black and white view of crowds that gathered here in August 1925, to see "An Acre of Seats in a Magic City." Crowds gathered in 2000 to celebrate both the Millennium and the 75th anniversary of the theatre and again in 2005 to recognize the 80th anniversary.

· This year, excitement is building because the very first book, The UPTOWN: Chicago's Endangered Movie Palace" to detail the Uptown Theatre's entire 100 years of history has been written by local journalists Robert Loerzel and James A. Pierce (CityFiles Press).

WHEN: Saturday, August 16, 2025 at 12 p.m.

WHERE: Broadway & Lawrence

DETAILS: https://www.facebook.com/events/1300941091448030