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New Regal Theater

Architect
John Eberson
Year
1927
Style
Moorish / Mudéjar
City
Chicago, IL
Collection
movie palaces
New Regal Theater
Photo: Zol87 from Chicago, IL, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0
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The Avalon Theater opened on Chicago's South Side on August 29, 1927, in a neighborhood then home to German, Swedish, and Irish families. Architect John Eberson, an Austrian-born specialist in atmospheric theaters, designed it in a Moorish Revival style he said was inspired by an ornate Persian incense burner he found in a French Quarter antique shop. As the surrounding neighborhood's population shifted through the 1960s, the theater, renamed the New Regal Theater, became a landmark stage for African-American performers.

the building

Moorish Revival design. Eberson built his reputation on atmospheric theaters designed to feel like exotic outdoor courtyards, and here he carried that through in a full Moorish Revival theme, reportedly modeled on an ornate Persian incense burner he came across in a New Orleans antique market.

the style

Moorish Revival was Eberson's signature register for atmospheric movie palaces, using exotic, non-Western motifs to make an evening at the theater feel like an escape to somewhere else entirely, a formula he was nationally known for, credited here directly to his encounter with the Persian incense burner in New Orleans.

More on Moorish / Mudéjar

the architect

John Eberson was an Austrian-born architect nationally known for atmospheric theater design, building exotic, escapist interiors across the country. The Avalon was one of his Moorish Revival works, drawing on found objects like the New Orleans incense burner for its motifs.

significance

The theater is an individual Chicago Landmark (L-151), designated June 17, 1992. It operated as a live performance venue until 1934, then as a movie theater from 1935 until 1967, before later reopening as the New Regal Theater and becoming a major venue for Black performers as the neighborhood's demographics changed through the 1960s.

nearby

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