The Unexpected Tour
Simple Joy #4
I love a good occasion of serendipity.
One day, not too many summers ago, I was walking past the Uptown Theatre on the north side of Chicago on my way to some mundane error like a post office run when I caught the most beautiful stroke of luck.
There’s a haunting beauty to abandoned places, particularly churches and old theaters. Barns, too. The Uptown Theatre was built back in 1925 during the heyday of Chicago theatres. These were the grand ones, built in an era when going to the theatre meant spending hours in a virtual palace with air conditioning, plush velvet seating, and ornate chandeliers. You could watch a live stage show and a film for the price of your ticket.
The Uptown Theatre could host over 4000 people, was referred to as “An Acre of Seats in a Magic City.” It was massive. I say was because it closed back in the early 80s. It still stands as an historic landmark. Over the years various people and organizations have made attempts to revive the old girl but restoration costs are just too prohibitive.
The entrance is completely boarded up now. It’s rare that anyone is ever allowed in…
…with the exception of movie makers. Occasionally location scouts glam onto the Uptown and, on a fateful day in August, pixie dust was sprinkled all over my head as I walked by en route to the post office.
THE DOORS WERE OPEN.
They were finished filming, the actors were gone, and all that was left was the location manager and cleanup crew. Part One of my simple joy was being allowed to stand in the three stories tall lobby for about thirty seconds before being shooed out. Even in its dilapidated state it was stunning.
Part Two was the spectacular.
Equipment truck drivers get none of the glory. These men and women work their butts off quietly and out of the spotlight. Chatting with the driver while he waited for the truck to be loaded was so great- he had the funniest stories. Another simple joy. He was also generous enough to point out the location manager to me, said I ought to say hello to the man and tell him how I was studying costuming at a fine arts college.
An earnest one minute exchange with the location manager yielded an invitation for a guided tour of the interior!
The man was gracious, kind, and unhurried in his tour. I got to walk through the entire building, go into the old projection room, climb that grand staircase in the lobby. I was even allowed to stand on the actual stage and look back out over all of those empty seats. An entirely different perspective! History felt like a palpable thing to breathe in from up there.
I stood where the likes of Count Basie and Duke Ellington stood.
There were no selfies taken. For this simple joy (or maybe extraordinary, in this case) I rely on memory alone, a feeling inside that I was privy to the fugacious glamour of my dreams.
Yours truly,
Vivie V.
