BoxOffice® Pro - November 2011

MARQUEE AWARD >
Striking popular consciousness at nearly
the same moment exhibitors were building
theaters devoted solely to the Talkies, Art
Deco became the signature design style of
movie houses nationwide—thanks, in part,
to the Scottish-born architect.
Famous for such beloved movie palaces
as the Fox Theatre in San Francisco and New
York’s Capitol Theatre, Lamb was commissioned
by Oak Park Amusement Company
to design an ornate but serviceable 1,520-
seat single-screen venue complete with
state-of-the-art CO 2 air conditioning and
modern sound technology. On April 11,
1936, the Lake Theatre threw open its doors
for the first time, revealing a design marvel
that would prove the test of time.
Under the auspices of Essaness Theatres,
and then Classic Cinemas, who leased the
Lake in 1981, the cinema remained in continuous
use, but its terra cotta carpeting and
plaster banding couldn’t resist the ravages of
age. Classic Cinema’s President Willis Johnson
says his attitude toward the condition
of the theater wasn’t cause for concern until
he actually purchased it outright in 1984.
“Obviously there’s a lot more incentive to
do things when you own it,” says Johnson,
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE
Little has changed about the Lake Theatre’s
exterior. Though the 60-foot-tall vertical blade
has had new wiring and its six-foot-tall neon
letters replaced over the years, it still maintains
the aura of a classic movie house and downtown
icon.
“That’s when we really started in on it with
our decorator Joe DuciBella.”
Deeply devoted to preserving the historical
integrity of the Lake Theatre, Johnson
and his wife Shirley knew expansion would
be crucial to the cinema’s financial survival,
and tasked their design team with converting
the single auditorium to three screens,
carving two spaces out of the original’s back
corners. They then re-carpeted and added a
new concession counter.
The gradual revitalization of the Lake
Theatre was not the only resurrection transpiring
within the Oak Park community—
the whole of downtown was experiencing a
facelift. Following World War II, the downtown
storefronts were the primary hub
for retail and entertainment. But with the
suburban migration of the ’70s, downtown
businesses lobbied to close off and cover
over Lake Street in order to create the same
incentives as their suburban multiplex competition.
The gamble didn’t pay off. Traffic
was cut off from the main artery, re-routing
customers from downtown and turning the
new district into a parking nightmare.
In 1988, downtown Oak Park business
owners set about undoing the mall dead
zone by re-opening Lake Street to throughtraffic.
Johnson saw to it the Lake Theatre
was the showcase of the downtown facelift,
but admits it could not (continued on page ##)
HISTORICAL ACCURACY
Color and clean lines have always been a principal component to Art Deco. Here, the mood of the downstairs foyer is brightened with accent colors of gold
and blue, along with earth tones like henna and rust.
26 BOXOFFICE PRO NOVEMBER 2011