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GLEN ELLYN – The Glen Art Theatre in downtown Glen Ellyn has entertained audiences for nearly 90 years, but the credits are far from rolling on this local institution.
The movie house converted to digital equipment in 2013 as part of a more than $350,000 renovation that is ongoing, co-owner Eric White said.
“We’re here for the long haul,” he said.
Located at 540 Crescent Blvd., the theater was built in the summer of 1926 on the former site of a livery stable, according the archival documents provided by the Glen Ellyn Historical Society.
However, it was not the village’s first movie house, local historian Bob Chambers said. A one-story theater was constructed on Main Street in the early 1900s to show silent pictures.
The Glen Art opened in January 1927 and has been screening films ever since.
It was designed in the English Tudor Style, Chambers said, and featured a full-size pipe organ that rose from the orchestra pit below the stage and a bowling alley in the basement, which has been closed for decades, but remains beneath the theater.
In its early years, moviegoers paid 50 cents or less for a ticket to the Glen Art, Chambers said, and participated in giveaways and raffles at the theater. Each show included a travelogue, coming attractions, a newsreel and a cartoon, in addition to the main feature.
In the 1950s, Village Clerk and Manager Bill Galligan bought and restored the Glen Art, Chambers said.
About 30 years after that, current co-owner Laverne Loftus bought the theater with her husband, according to White. The pair split the 1,000-seat space not long after the acquisition and divided it again in the late 1980s, into the four 200-seat auditoriums moviegoers know today.
Around that time, the 1986 film, “Lucas,” starring Corey Haim and Charlie Sheen, was filmed in Glen Ellyn. The Glen Art was featured in the movie and employees appeared as extras, according to the theater’s website. The production even hosted its midwest premier at the Glen Art.
“All the dignitaries were there,” Chambers said.
In the late 1990s, as the advent of the megaplex drew near, the Glen Art shifted its focus, White said, from operating as a bargain theater to being an art house that showed independent pictures – an identity it maintains today.
For example, the Glen Art is screening the Oscar-winning foreign language film “The Great Beauty.”
However, after last year’s switch to digital equipment, the theater hopes to feature more commercial, first-run films.
“The digital transition leveled the playing field,” White said, adding that the change has put the Glen Art in a position to be competitive with bigger theaters.
The lobby is in the midst of a refurbishment, White said, that will create a vintage, nostalgic aesthetic. Similar alterations are planned for the bathrooms and candy counter.
Chambers said there was a time when Lombard, Wheaton, Elmhurst and Villa Park all had theaters similar to the Glen Art, but Glen Ellyn’s is the only movie house still serving its original purpose.
“It’s amazing that it’s still there,” he said.
And as far as White is concerned, the Glen Art is here to stay.
He considers it an asset to Glen Ellyn’s downtown despite a close call in the early 2000s, when he said it could have gone under in the wake of spreading large-scale theaters, if not for its 20-year lease, which allowed it to go digital.
A manager at the Glen Art for more than a decade, White became a partner two years ago. He oversees the theatre’s day-to-day operations and has no intention of going anywhere.
“I just can’t imagine doing anything else,” he said. “I love showing movies.”
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If you go
What: Glen Art Theatre
Where: 540 Crescent Blvd.
Movie times: www.glenarttheatre.com