The Uptown Theater has been sold to Jam Productions.
Here are a few juicy pics to get you interested. There is also a film that some local film students have created, this lobby shot is from their movie trailer.
Hopefully, with this sale, there will be a renovated theater. This theater is supposed to be larger and more grandiose than the Chicago Theater, which is downtown. The building was supposed to have "more than an acre of seats", somewhere around 4000. The City has had to do some remediation work, and some of the exterior terra cotta on the building has been removed and, I would suppose, stored. The previous owner was a notorious slumlord on the north side, and let the building flood through a leaky roof, and there was standing water in the auditorium for a few years, or so I have heard. Some friends have gone through though, and have said that the building still is very intact, and is still breathtakingly beautiful.
Unfortunately, this theater is not located in Chicago's theater district, so it is not in the most ideal location. On the flip side, there are lots of great live music venues nearby, such as the Arragon ballroom and the Riviera.
Uptown was a very happening spot when this theater was built. There is lots of great 1910's and 20's architecture nearby.
I learned about the sale from both the local NPR station, and a great local blog about architecture (from which I stole this next picture):
http://arcchicago.blogspot.com/2008/07/cbs2.html
If this link puts you at the top, scroll down, and the uptown pics will come in.
More great pictures and history can be found at the compassrose.org website.
http://www.compassrose.org/uptowntheatre/news20060515.html
If you scroll around, you can even find the orriginal Baliban
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