The Uptown: Chicago's Endangered Movie Palace

Chicago's Uptown Theatre, one of America's largest and most lavish movie palaces, has sat vacant for more than 40 years. For decades, few people have been let inside--to experience its grand lobby, its sweeping staircase, or its massive theater auditorium, which once showed Marx Brothers films and played host to Bruce Springsteen concerts. The Uptown: Chicago's Endangered Movie Palace gathers the work of a dozen contemporary photographers with vintage blueprints, renderings, programs, and classic photographs to tell the story of one of America's jewels--a theater built "for all time." Opened a century ago, the Uptown is now in limbo, its beauty hidden behind a plywood barricade. Too costly to tear down and too expensive to restore, the theater faces a precarious future. That's why this book was created. To document what remains and to call for the protection and preservation of one of America's sacred places. It's not too late, as this book shows. Journalists Robert Loerzel and James A. Pierce have been studying the Uptown for decades. They have assembled a detailed documentation, relying on original records and first-hand accounts to tell the story of dreamers, a changing neighborhood and a nation stepping into a new world.

Author: James Pierce,Robert Loerzel
Publisher: Cityfiles Press
Published: 08/18/2025
Pages: 168
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 3.05lbs
Size: 12.30h x 9.30w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781733869072

About the Author
James A. Pierce, a journalist, WDCB-FM jazz radio host, and a founder of Friends of the Uptown, has been documenting the Uptown Theatre and advocating for its restoration since 1998.Robert Loerzel, a journalist and photographer, is the author of Alchemy of Bones: Chicago's Luetgert Murder Case of 1897 and an edition of the book Walking Chicago. He has written documentaries about the Union Stockyards and the Chicago River for the WTTW series Chicago Stories and worked on WBEZ's Curious City. He has also covered news, arts, and history for Chicago magazine, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Reader and Crain's Chicago Business.