Riviera Theatre

The Riviera Theater was one of the Uptown neighborhood's more popular movie houses during the Jazz Age. The theater's opening boosted the financial prospects of the emerging Uptown entertainment district and significantly advanced the theater management careers of Barney Balaban and Sam Katz.

In August 1916, Tom Chamales announced his intention to invest $650,000 in the construction of a ten-story hotel and large theater on the southwest corner of Broadway and Lawrence Avenues. Chamales, owner of the nearby Green Mill Gardens restaurant and cabaret, hoped the Riviera would attract additional theater-goers to the neighborhood, some of whom might visit his resort after the show.

Designed by the famous movie palace architects C.W. Rapp and George Rapp, the Riviera and other theaters built during the late 1910s stood apart in size and capital investment from those built only a few years before. The Riviera project included not just a 2,500-seat theater, but also adjacent space for eight retail storefronts and thirty-six "bachelor apartments." The final price tag for the project, though not as high as it had been when plans called for a ten-story hotel, nonetheless surpassed a half million dollars. During the summer and fall of 1918, the project budget was nearly busted by the rising costs of building materials during the First World War. This caused several construction delays and eventually pushed back the opening of the theater to the first week of October 1918.

Today, the Riviera is a well-known concert venue. In 2000, the theater was designated a contributing structure to the Uptown Square National Historic District.

---chicago.urban-history.org