CHICAGO (WLS) — The Uptown Theatre opened 100 years ago. According to the Chicago Architecture Center, it was not only meant to be a place to see a movie, but also somewhere to have an unforgettable experience.

Since its opening, the entertainment we enjoy, along with how and where we see it, has changed. And for 44 years, the Uptown Theatre has sat empty. The last show there was in 1981.

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Robert Loerzel is a freelance journalist and author of new book “The Uptown, Chicago’s Endangered Movie Palace.”

While writing it, he got a chance to go inside the theatre, “And the first thing you see is this huge grand lobby that’s like six stories high with columns. The place needs work but the foundations of it and the actual architecture of it are still intact. And it’s really a beautiful, magnificent castle.”

Richard H. Driehaus Executive Director of Preservation Chicago Ward Miller says a combination of things contributed to its closure.

“It became a rock venue, a rock concert venue, you know, versus movie theatre. With all this entertainment that focused around a whole day of being at the Uptown. Being part of this magnificent theatre with all of its acts and shows and performances and music. It was more than just a movie theatre. But in its later years, as movies sort of declined and movie theatres across the nation were closing, television was part of that, of course. It became sort of a rock concert hall,” Miller said.

Among the acts that performed there, the Grateful Dead took the stage at the Uptown 17 times. And Prince played his first Chicago shows at the theatre.

Miller says there were some “problematic” owners after the Uptown closed 44 years ago. It’s now owned by Jerry Mickelson of Jam Productions.

“It’s always been a matter of how much it would take and what type of public-private partnership of all stakeholders to bring it together to restore the theatre. And it’s one of the nation’s largest movie theatres, if not the largest,” Miller said.

Another factor, over the years there’s been a lot of wear and tear which requires a lot of funding to bring it back.

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a plan in 2018 to reopen the Uptown. But that plan never came together. Loerzel says owner Jerry Mickelson is still working on a plan to restore the theatre. But the cost to do so has grown significantly.

“This building has amazing spaces beyond the auditorium,” said Loerzel, talking about how he imagines the theatre’s next life. “So, you have an auditorium that has 4,300 seats in it. And if it becomes a rock concert venue, they may take out some of those seats to have people standing on the main floor for some shows. So, the capacity could be 5,000. But the building was also designed to have thousands of people waiting in the lobby for the next show. So the space is really huge. And I think that those spaces like the grand lobby and the other foyers could be spaces for special events. I could picture something like an art exhibit in there. And something like a theatre production, a little kind of black box theatrical show could be staged in some room of the Uptown beyond the big shows in the main venue.”

You can find Loerzel’s book, “The Uptown, Chicago’s Endangered Movie Palace” at https://www.cityfilespress.com/.