Biograph Theater
Theater Location: 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60657
Theater Open Date: 1914
Theater Status: Open
Cast Affiliations
Anticipation Players
The Voyeuristic Intentions
Absent Friends (III)
History
The Biograph Theater opened in 1914 with 942 seats on a single floor. This historic theater continued to show movies until 2001.
This Lincoln Park neighborhood landmark is best known as the place where John Dillinger was gunned down on July 22, 1934 after attending a screening of “Manhattan Melodrama”.
The Biograph was an early Rocky Horror venue, starting twice weekly midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on March 3, 1978 with a five year, seven month, and three week run ending October 29, 1983. The movie returned on July 27, 1984 and continued for an additional couple years.
The Biograph Theater was purchased by the Victory Gardens Theatre company in 2004. The interior has been entirely rebuilt, from a venue which could originally seat over 900 to 299 today. The facade was repaired and cleaned and the marquee was rebuilt to resemble it’s original appearance. The Victory Gardens Theater at the Biograph opened on September 28th, 2006.
The exterior of the Biograph Theater and the surrounding buildings were retrofitted to look like they did in 1934 for the filming of the movie, "Public Enemies" (2009) starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. The interior of the Portage Theater in the Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago was used for the interior shooting of the movie.
External Links
Cinema Treasures [1]
