Lee Bey: The Urban Observer

I remember seeing movies there in the 70's and 80's. I forgot how large the place is. Most people today are used to 400 seat individual theaters in multiplexes and don't have the experience of seeing a movie with over a thousand of their closest friends.

I think the original Star Wars played there for months if my memory is correct. I saw it three times in that theater. Saw the "Blues Brothers" across the street on the day it opened.

When they mentioned "Ray's Music Exchange" being in Calumet City the crowd went wild. Of course the actual scene was filmed in Bronzeville.

Oh well. Life and theaters change and move on. Today Bronzeville is hopefully becoming a growing destination neighborhood and Calumet City is at best holding its own.

I can't think of any use for a building of that size there. As you said I'm surprised it's still intact.

I haven't been down there in over a decade. Perhaps self storage. As George Carlin would say, if he were still alive, we Americans need a "place for our stuff".

I grew up in Calumet City during the 60’s and 70’s and remember this theatre very well. I saw the first Star Wars movie there when it came out. I also saw the Blues Brothers at the other theatre that was built across the street. It was part of the same chain. When the one across the street was built it was called River Oaks Theater #2. Then a theatre was added to the side of the original big theatre and called River Oaks Theatre #3. And yes you can guess what happened next. Another theatre was added to the one across the street and called … River Oaks Theatre #4. So we had 1 & 3 on one side of Torrence and 2 & 4 on the other.

The best thing was I was able to take my son to see the first Star Wars movie on the big 85 foot screen when the updated version was put out for theatrical re-release. I am down in Calumet City about once a month now. I would love to be able to get inside of the big theatre now and see what condition it is in.

Lee! Thanks for posting this. This brings back great memories. I've stood in lines that wrapped around this building opening weekends more times than I can remember.

I miss the huge screen so much. I can't remember if I saw Star Wars here but I definitely remember seeing The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the first Tim Burton Batman here. Outstanding and memorable experiences... :-)