Regal Theater was a night club, theater, and music venue, popular among African-Americans. Located in the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois.Best, Wallace ''The Encyclopedia of Chicago''
/ref> The theater was designed by Edward Eichenbaum. and opened in February 1928. Part of the

Balaban and Katz Balaban and Katz Theater Corporation, or B&K, was a theatre corporation which owned a chain of motion picture theaters in Chicago and surrounding areas. It was founded by Barney Balaban (later long-time President of Paramount Pictures), his six ...

chain, the lavishly decorated venue, with plush carpeting and velvet drapes, featured some of the most celebrated African-American entertainers in America. On what for a time was known as the

Chitlin' Circuit The Chitlin' Circuit was a collection of performance venues throughout the eastern, southern, and upper Midwest areas of the United States that provided commercial and cultural acceptance for African American musicians, comedians, and other enterta ...

, the Regal also featured motion pictures and live stage shows.

Nat "King" Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...

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Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and Singing, vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and se ...

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

Sarah Vaughan Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer. Nicknamed "Sassy" and " The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was nominated for a total of nine Grammy Award ...

Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of th ...

Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s songs". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performe ...

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...

Sammy Davis Jr. Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...

Lionel Hampton Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles ...

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but add ...

, and

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was bas ...

performed frequently at the theater through the 1920s and 1940s.The Regal Theater and Black Culture By C. Semmes
/ref> Other acts to appear at the Regal over the years have included such performers as

The Supremes The Supremes were an American girl group and a premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successfu ...

, Wayne Cochran,

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The Four Tops ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

, B.B. King,

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Della Reese Delloreese Patricia Early (July 6, 1931 – November 19, 2017), known professionally as Della Reese, was an American jazz and gospel singer, actress, and ordained minister whose career spanned seven decades. She began her long career as a s ...

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, pop, s ...

Les Paul Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his protot ...

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, John Coltrane,

Dorothy Dandridge Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) was an American actress, singer and dancer. She is the first African-American film star to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, which was for her performance in '' C ...

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, Peg Leg Bates,

Dave Peyton Dave Peyton (19 August 1889 – 30 April 1955) was an American songwriter, pianist, arranger, orchestra leader, and music critic columnist for the '' Chicago Defender''. Peyton first began as a pianist in the trio of Wilbur Sweatman, along wit ...

and

Martha and the Vandellas Martha and the Vandellas (known from 1967 to 1972 as Martha Reeves & The Vandellas) were an American vocal girl group formed in Detroit in 1957. The group achieved fame in the 1960s with Motown. An act founded by friends Annette Beard, Rosali ...

. Closed in 1968, the theater was later demolished in 1973.

History

The Regal was a major complex that featured films, dance, music, and comedy. The theater was a prominent entertainment venue for over four decades in Chicago, Illinois. This theater opened on February 4, 1928, located in “Bronzeville” at Congress Parkway and State Street. The theater was designed by Levy and Klein and was influenced by the Harlem Savoy Ballroom located in New York City. It was owned by a white business association in Chicago, and seated . about 3,000 people. The theater was one of the first entertainment complexes available for black audiences, and which employed black staff members (other than the musical acts). In its early uears, the Regal featured silent films, we'll known black musicians of all types of genres—mainly jazz and blue. Performers included Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder, Ella Fitzgerald, The Temptations, Miles Davis, Nat “King” Cole, Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson, the Jackson Five, and B.B. King. Typically shows consisted of an opening musical act followed by a film. The theater was situated near two pppular black venues: both a nightclub (the Savoy Ballroom) and a major retailer (the South Center Department store). The Regal was a lavish spot. It featured velvet seating, large pillars, and grand spaces. Costing $1.5 million in 1928 dollars to construct, the Regal opened new doors for African Americans in the entertainment business. eventually had a black manager, hired and featured black entertainers, ushers, dancers (although generally only lighter-skinned women), and coat checkers. One of the house bands recruited for the Regal was Fess Williams and his Royal Flush Orchestra. They had been an opening act at the Savoy Ballroom and had begun to gain a following. Aware of their increased popularity, Balaban and Katz hired them as the house band. Often compared to the Apollo in Harlem, the Regal actually opened six years earlier, and had double the seating capacity. Both theaters were able to attract several big names, but the Regal was arguably able to book even bigger acts due to its size and central location. Prior to the opening of the Regal, Chicago endured The Great Migration, which brought a large number of blacks from the south into the city looking for a new life and work. After the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, blacks began to slowly move from their southern homes. Once blacks had the ability to move away from their slave owners and find industrial jobs, the north was able to provide this “new life” for them. Over a 20-30 year period, waves of thousands of blacks left the south and entered major cities like Chicago, New York City, Detroit, and so on. For most of its time, the Regal thrived with business by bringing in musical talents from across the country. People had some of the best times at the theater which helped spread the word about it and bring in more business. Eventually, with developments in technology like with the radio and TV, business began to decline. With the repercussions of all these factors, the Regal began losing more and more business which eventually led to the owner having to file bankruptcy and close down the theater in 1968. The building was later demolished in 1973. The site is now occupied by the Harold Washington Cultural Center.

Notable events

In June 1962, "Little" Stevie Wonder recorded his famous live version of the number-one hit single "

Fingertips "Fingertips" is a 1963 hit single recorded live by "Little" Stevie Wonder for Motown's then Tamla label. Overview Written and composed by Wonder's mentors, Clarence Paul and Henry Cosby, "Fingertips" was originally a jazz instrumental record ...

" at a Motortown Revue there that included

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo a ...

, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles,

Mary Wells Mary Esther Wells (May 13, 1943 – July 26, 1992) was an American singer, who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s. Along with The Supremes, The Miracles, The Temptations, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and the ...

, and

The Marvelettes The Marvelettes were an American girl group that achieved popularity in the early to mid-1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart (now Cowart Motley), and Georgia Dobbins, who ...

. In May 1964, during a performance at the theater,

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in '' Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Wit ...

was crowned, "the Queen of Soul" by music promoter

Pervis Spann Pervis Spann (August 16, 1932 – March 14, 2022) was an American broadcaster, music promoter, and radio personality. He was a disc jockey on WVON and was influential in the development of blues music in Chicago, Illinois. Early life Spann was ...

. B.B. King recorded his famous live album ''

Live at the Regal ''Live at the Regal'' is a 1965 live album by American blues guitarist and singer B.B. King. It was recorded on November 21, 1964, at the Regal Theater in Chicago. The album is widely heralded as one of the greatest blues albums ever recorded a ...

'' at the theater in November 1964.

Gene Chandler Gene Chandler (born Eugene Drake Dixon; July 6, 1937) is an American singer, songwriter, music producer, and record-label executive. Chandler is nicknamed "the Duke of Earl" or, simply, "the Duke." He is best known for his most successful so ...

appeared many times at the theater, and recorded a live album there in 1965 (variously titled ''Live at the Regal'' and ''Live On Stage In '65''). From August 12–27, 1968,

The Jackson 5 The Jackson 5 (sometimes stylized as the Jackson 5ive, also known as the Jacksons) are an American pop band composed of members of the Jackson family. The group was founded in 1964 in Gary, Indiana, and for most ...

opened for

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''m ...

acts

and

Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers were a Canadian soul band from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The group recorded for the Gordy Records division of Motown Records in 1968, where they had a top 30 hit single, "Does Your Mama Know About Me". As ...

Notes

References

Green, Adam (2007). Selling the Race: Culture, Community, and Black Chicago, 1940–1955. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Moore, D. "CineWiki - Regal Theater and African-American Exhibition in Chicago, the." CineWiki - Regal Theater and African-American Exhibition in Chicago, The. N.p., 14 Dec. 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2013. Semmes, Clovis E. (2006). The Regal Theater and Black Culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bibliography

*Ottley, Roy. "Regal Theater, Frayed but Imposing, Tailored for the Community", ''Chicago Tribune'', February 27, 1955. *"Once Majestic Regal Awaits Wrecker", ''Chicago Tribune'', September 6, 1973. hehe {{DEFAULTSORT:Regal Theater (Chicago, Illinois), The Jazz clubs in Chicago Music venues in Chicago Defunct jazz clubs in Illinois Music venues completed in 1928 Theatres completed in 1928 1928 establishments in Illinois Historically African-American theaters and music venues Demolished buildings and structures in Chicago Buildings and structures demolished in 1973