page_title: Woods Theatre
section_title: Movie theater
hierarchical_section_title: Woods Theatre / History / Movie theater
caption_attribution_description: The Woods Theater was kitty corner to the United Artists Theater in downtown Chicago. This theater had the &quot;honor&quot; of having one of the first X rated films shown in Chicago - &quot;The Fox&quot; It was about a two women who discovered they were lesbians. The most shocking scene in the movie was one girl confessed to wearing the other's underwear. Lines to get into see this movie stretched around the corner. That's the 60's for you! By the way, even though I was not 18 at the time, I got in for free to see this. I found the movie very boring. The downtown ushers exteneded unofficial courtesies to one another. While I worked as an usher I did not have to pay to see a movie.
context_page_description: The Woods Theatre was a movie palace located at the corner of Randolph and Dearborn Streets in the Chicago Loop. It opened in 1918 and was a popular entertainment destination for decades. Originally a venue for live theater, it later converted to show movies. It closed in 1989 and was demolished in 1990.
context_section_description: The Woods converted to show movies in 1932. It later became the flagship venue for Essaness Theatres, which moved its headquarters into the building. Starting in the 1950s, the building featured an unusually large marquee facing Dearborn Street. The facade and its marquee can be seen in the parade scene of the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
  In its later years the quality of the venue declined. In 1982, the management had to pay for medical treatments when a patron was bitten by a rat during a show. By 1988, the Woods had become the last of the Chicago Loop movie houses. It closed on January 8, 1989, after a screening of Hellbound: Hellraiser II.
caption: Woods Theatre in 1970
exif: {"Image Make": "HP", "Image Model": "HP psc2350", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "paint.net 4.2.16", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:11:04 08:50:42", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "656", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "665", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}