The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-02-13
Four Chicago Theatres
Slated For Destruction

Chicago, Feb. 12.-Four of Chi
cago's theatrical andmarks-monu-
ments to the business acumen Of a
song and dance comedian, a medicine
show magnate, minstrel manager
and a pair of circus men-are slated
for destruction.
Workmen have already begun sink
ing caissons under McVickers, most
venerable of the downtown theatres,
and the wreckers will take charge in
May. George M. Cohan's Grand OPP
era house, Powers and the Olympic
are soon to follow, and with them
will disappear the loops most notable
reminders of Victorian grandeur,
carved walnut and red plush.
The Grand probably will be the sec
ond of the quartet to go, as under the
terms of the present lease it must be
rebuilt before January l, 1924. Pow
ers, Known to by-gone theatre go
ing generation as Hooley's Theatre,
and which for nearly 90 years has
held the unquestioned prestige as the
theatre in which the most illustrious
actors preferred to appear, is to give
way to an addition to the Hotel Sher-
man. A new play house may be in
corporated in the hotel extension, but
this point has not been definitely de-
cided.
Owners of the Olympic are planning
to rebuild that house as soon as CON
ditions are favorable.
James II. McVicker, founder of the
theatre which still bears his name,
was the song and dance comedian in
Chicago's early quartette of theatri-
cal magnates. A travelling company
brought him here in the early days.
and in 1857 he built his first theatre
on the spot where the present play
house-now devoted to continuous
audeville-stands. The theatre i'm
mediately became the most important
center of dramatic activity in the mid
die west. Its opening was a great
event, and nightly thereafter crowded
omnibuses left its doors after the per-
formance for the Bulls Heads Tavern
and the fashionably outlying suburb
of Cottage Grove, now part of the
near south side.
McVicker installed resident stock
company which supported" nota-
bic succession of visiting stars
Charlotte Cushman, Edwin Booth, the
elder Sothern, J. H. Hackett, Lotta
Crabtree, Lawrence Barrett, Charles
Kean, and many others. Here Edwin
Booth met Mary McVicker, the man
ayers daughter, whom he afterwards
married. Here, when Lincoln was
shot, there was double mourning, for
the assassin, J. Wilkes Booth, had
played McVicker's often. Here, in
1866, "The Black Crook" had it's phe-
nomental Chicago run of Sc nights.
The theatre was destroyed in the
great fire of 1871, and was the first
playhouse to be rebuilt after the dis
aster. " 1890 it was again destroyed
by fire, nd the present structure
-datss fri itss restnrntion in 1892.
AhO ufN2iShuc Blu" was
John A. Hamlin and the minstrel man
ager Richard NJ. Hooley. Both were
identified with the early days of the
present Grand opera house. In 1870
Hooley, whoshad made fortune with
his minstrel troupes, bought Bryan
Hall, concert auditorium, rebuilt it
and prepared to open Hooley's opera
house. The fire of 1871 destroyed the
theatre on the very night before it
was to be opened and swept his for
tune away.
In 1873 Hamlin, famous through
cut the country for his Hamlin's wiz
ard oil, built the largest billiard hall
in the world on the sites Of the for
mer opera house. Later he enlarged
and turned it into a beer garden,
which in turn became Hamlin's the
atre in 1873, and in 1880, after ex-
tensive alterations, was reopencd un-
der the former name of the Grand
opera house.