The Congress Theater in Chicago, built by Fridstein and Company in 1926 for the movie theater chain of Lubliner and Trinz, is a surviving example of a movie palace. It features ornate exterior and interior design work, in a combination of the Classical Revival and Italian Renaissance styles.
The Congress Theater could seat over 2,500 moviegoers and also has storefronts facing the streets. The theater is currently operating as a 3,500-capacity live music venue. It is located at 2117-2139 N. Milwaukee Avenue and was designated a Chicago Landmark on July 10, 2002.
In August 2008, pop punk band Paramore recorded a live CD/DVD titled The Final Riot! at the theater. It was released in November 2008 and it was awarded in US (Gold Album) and Canada (Platinum Album). Dragon Gate USA began using the venue for its professional wrestling shows in 2009.
On March 31, 2009, VH1 Storytellers recorded a segment on Blues Legends "ZZ Top" at the Congress Theatre. Selected fans from the ZZ Top fan club from across North America were notified by email that they could attend the taping along with 2 guests. The legendary band played "Just got paid", "La Grange", "Jesus left Chicago", "Give me all your loving", "Tush" and "Sharp Dressed Man" with selected fans getting to ask the band pre-screened questions. The show's editing crew had the band repeat the first three songs, asking for more showmanship; the fans got 3 songs more as a result. The show aired June 27, 2009 on VH1 Classic.
In November 2012, PNC Bank filed for foreclosure on the theater, alleging default on a $4 million loan by owner Eddie Carranza.
Read more about Congress Theater: Notable Performers
Famous quotes containing the words congress and/or theater:
“I date the end of the old republic and the birth of the empire to the invention, in the late thirties, of air conditioning. Before air conditioning, Washington was deserted from mid-June to September.... But after air conditioning and the Second World War arrived, more or less at the same time, Congress sits and sits while the presidents—or at least their staffs—never stop making mischief.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theater. Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality. Our audience must experience not only the ways to free Prometheus, but be schooled in the very desire to free him. Theater must teach all the pleasures and joys of discovery, all the feelings of triumph associated with liberation.”
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)