Des Plaines Theatre

After 24 years split into two dark screens, the Des Plaines Theater is reopening its doors and relighting its stage as a live rental and presenting venue. Established in 1925. The Des Plaines Theatre was built in 1925 as the northwest flagship for the suburban Chicago Polka Brothers circuit of Maywood. After successfully hosting the likes of Gene Autry in vaudeville and film, the theater was purchased by H&E Balaban, a spinoff of Balaban & Katz, in 1935, and received its distinctive marquee. The theater remained a popular first-run and discount house until a 1982 fire damaged the building's storefronts. Although the theater itself suffered little damage, it remained closed for a year, and business never fully recovered. After a series of sales, the theater was twinned in 1987 by Kohlberg Theaters, with much of the décor obscured by walls, a dropped ceiling, and flat black paint. In 1998, Jim and June Burrows of Chicago refurbished the theater for first-runs, but were unable to make