Frank Sinatra Brought the Chicago Theatre Back

Frank Sinatra headlined the Chicago Theatre’s reopening gala on September 10, 1986. The performance followed a nine-month restoration that rescued the ornate movie palace after its September 1985 closure.

The Chicago Architecture Center describes a building saved from demolition by Chicago Theatre Restoration Associates. Its lobby and grand staircase drew on French architectural models, part of the elaborate setting created when the theater first opened in 1921.

Sinatra’s appearance made the restoration’s outcome tangible: a repaired theater with a performer onstage and an audience inside. The night marks the start of a renewed live-performance chapter for a building whose name and marquee had already become part of Chicago’s streetscape.

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Sources: architecture.org.