The Pickwick Theatre is an Art Deco

Art Deco

Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

 movie palace

Movie palace

A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...

 located in Park Ridge, Illinois

Park Ridge, Illinois

-Climate:-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 37,775 people, 14,219 households, and 10,465 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,374.6 people per square mile . There were 14,646 housing units at an average density of 2,083.8 per square mile...

, a suburb of Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

.

Designed by Roscoe Harold Zook, William F. McCaughey, and Alfonso Iannelli

Alfonso Iannelli

Alfonso Iannelli was an Italian-American sculptor, artist, and industrial designer.Based in Chicago for most of his life, Iannelli was born in Andretta, Italy on February 17, 1888. He came to America in 1898...

, the Pickwick opened in 1928 as a vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 stage and movie theatre. It is widely recognized for its marquee

Marquee (sign)

A marquee is most commonly a structure placed over the entrance to a hotel or theatre. It has signage stating either the name of the establishment or, in the case of theatres, the play or movie and the artist appearing at that venue...

 and 100-foot tower, which appeared in the opening credits of Siskel & Ebert & the Movies. The main auditorium

Auditorium

An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...

, built to resemble an Aztec

Aztec

The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...

 or Mayan

Maya civilization

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...

 temple, seats up to 1,400 people.

The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1975 and continues to host films as well as live stage show

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

s. In 1990, theatre management expanded the Pickwick by adding three new screens behind the original auditorium. New movies arrive every Friday. The newest movie is usually played in the main theatre for the first week and then is rotated throughout the three back theatres for the following weeks at the theatre.

The Pickwick Theatre is open every day of the week with early matinee times Friday, Saturday and Sunday and every day during the summer. It is five dollars for everyone at or before 6 pm and for children under twelve and senior citizens sixty five and older. After 6 pm, general admission is seven dollars.

On December 4, 2009, the theatre was transformed into a rock hall for the Pickwick Music Festival, organized by local band The Break

The Break (band)

The Break is an alternative rock band from Park Ridge, Illinois. The band consists of four members: Paul Ansani , Sean Cahill-Lemme , Matt Gieser , and Miles Malin...

. The festival raised six thousand dollars, all of which was donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation

Make-A-Wish Foundation

The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a 501 non-profit organization founded in the United States that grants wishes to children who have life-threatening medical conditions. The charity now operates in forty-seven countries around the world through thirty-six affiliate offices.The president & CEO of this...

.

External links

• Theatre Website
• The Pickwick at cinematreasures.org
• photographs of the interior