1902 Illinois Theatre Chicago Sleeping Beauty Program Erlanger & Klaw Antique

Description

Antique 1902 Program from the "Illinois Theatre" in Chicago for the Erlanger & Klaw Production of Sleeping Beauty.
In addition to information about the show and theatre, it provides pages of contemporaneous advertising demonstrating how  dramatically downtown Chicago has changed in 120 years.   For example, there are ads for an electric car dealership, a horse stable, and a 480 acre nursery  - all located in what is now the heart of the Loop.
52 pages counting front and back covers.
6.5" x 6.5".
About the Illinois Theatre:
The Illinois Theatre was located at 65 E. Jackson Boulevard in downtown Chicago.  It opened its doors on October 15, 1900, built for theatrical producer and manager Charles Frohman.  It was designed by Benjamin Howard Marshall, who later, with partner Charles Eli Fox, would go on to design such Chicago landmarks as the Drake Hotel and the Blackstone Theatre and Blackstone Hotel. The Illinois Theatre, which cost over a quarter million dollars to erect, was a jewel of Beaux-Arts architecture, inspired by the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago almost a decade earlier, and sat 1,249 people.
For many years, it was one of Chicago’s most well-known legitimate theatres, its stage hosting some of the most celebrated names of early 20th century theatre.
However, by the early 1910s, it had become the Chicago home of the Ziegfeld Follies, and presented both live stage reviews as well as motion pictures, before turning entirely to movies in the 1920’s.
It was closed during the Depression and demolished in 1936 for a parking lot.
Historic Note:
This program highlights in several locations that the theater was fireproof.  Ironically, Erlanger & Klaw were part owners of another Chicago Theatre, the Iroquois, which suffered a catastrophic fire just a year later in 1903.  That resulted in over 600 deaths and was the worst single building fire in U.S. history.