Downers Grove Tivoli Theater -- Tour

The DG Tivoli Building conducted tour groups through the building every 15 minutes from 9-12am, Saturday, September 13, 2014. The following line was for the tour, not a movie.

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It was too dark to take pictures in the lobby and the auditorium. Which is just as well because I found a 360-view of the lobby and a virtual tour of the building that do a better job of depicting the wonderfully restored interior than I ever could. Plus they no longer take tours into the projection room because the tour groups are too big.

The history of the building and theater are described in a museum exhibit,  the Classics Cinemas web site, and the stage crew's web site. The stage crew site has a link for their HPS4000 equipment. When I followed that link, they had a picture of the Tivoli Theater as their cover page. I reproduce it here in case their cover page is later changed.

HPS4000

I can attest that a movie can get uncomfortably loud. But they enforce an average sound limit of 98dB (C weighting) with peaks not more than 103dB (C weighting) to protect their antique and delicate decorative plaster. (TechSpecs)

When they still used 35mm film, they would receive a feature film in a bunch of "cans," each can contained 20-min of film. The manager would spend hours splicing them all together and making sure the picture played with no glitches. If there were glitches, she would have new copies of the appropriate 20-min segments shipped and then repeat the splice and check cycle. Take a look at the picture of their 35mm projector in the projection booth of the virtual tour. The three white platters held the spliced film as one continuous loop. It would be about a mile long. The room was not air conditioned and the projector used a 4000 watt light bulb, so the room got very hot.

A projectionist used to be highly paid because it was a very risky job. The film was very flammable. The room was lined in lead and each opening had a lead door held up over it with a rope along the ceiling. If a fire started, the ropes burned, the lead doors dropped, and the fire was sealed in. Unfortunately, the projectionist was also sealed in.

Now the room is air conditioned because of the digital equipment in the room. They get a disk drive with the contents and a USB drive with the keys to unlock the contents. No more hours are spent splicing and checking film.

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The theater lost it original theater organ. But it now houses a Wurlitzer 3/10 organ owned and maintained by CATOE, the Chicago Area Theatre Organ Enthusiasts. 

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I took a closeup of the entrance to show the ornamentation that they have preserved. The theater has a 65-foot tall fly tower with a 19-foot stage and its original light control board to support live entertainment. Scroll through the stage crew's photo gallery to see some pictures of the light control board. Over 1000 hours were spent restoring the light board. The dimmer rheostats are over a foot in diameter and are controlled by the little white and red knobs. The big levers control a preselected set of the rheostat levers. The big wheel down below and between the big levers can control everything. It gives a literal meaning to "crank up the lights."

They use the fly tower to store the movie screen. For movies, it is lowered and 3 speaker stacks (center and right are shown below) are rolled behind the screen.

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I've seen many pictures of the front part of the Tivoli Building, but none of the back. I include a photo of the back to show not only the vast auditorium part, but the fly tower.

Judging from the brick colors, it has had to be "patched" a few times. You can also see more of the ornamentation on the main part of the building.

I took a picture of the backstage area after the tour moved on to see the dressing rooms with a wide-angle lens to try to get a feel for the height of the fly tower. But the top part was too dark. You do get a good view of the 3 speaker stacks used during the movies. Below is four of the lanes of the bowling alley in the basement. I did not get pictures of the pin setting equipment because it was too crowded. Unfortunately, the virtual tour does just the theater so I don't have any pictures of that equipment.

I include their party room because one of my daughters used to work there. So it has sentimental value. I could get just a half of the room in the picture. They also have an adult party area with video games,  a big TV viewing area, and pool tables.

 

Update:

Michael Styles posted
Vintage Tivoli!
Rick Hardman I think I took that picture