 1941 photograph of a crowd exiting into the lobby of the Regal Theater | |
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| Location | 4719 South Parkway (now known as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) Bronzeville, Chicago, Illinois, United States |
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| Type |
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| Genre(s) | |
| Opened | 1928 |
| Closed | c. 1968 |
The Regal Theater was a night club, theater, and music venue, popular among African Americans, located in the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois.[1] The theater was designed by Edward Eichenbaum,[2] and opened in February 1928. It closed in 1968 and was demolished in 1973.
Part of the Balaban and Katz chain, the lavishly decorated venue, with plush carpeting and velvet drapes, featured some of the most celebrated African-American entertainers in America.[1]
On what for a time was known as the Chitlin' Circuit, the Regal also featured motion pictures and live stage shows. Nat "King" Cole, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Dinah Washington, Ethel Waters, Miles Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Bill Robinson, Moms Mabley, Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, and Duke Ellington performed frequently at the theater through the 1920s and 1940s.[3]
Other acts to appear at the Regal over the years included such performers as The Supremes, Wayne Cochran, The Esquires, The Temptations, The Four Tops, B.B. King, Herbie Hancock, Della Reese, Stevie Wonder, Les Paul, Gladys Knight & the Pips, International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Dionne Warwick, James Brown & The Famous Flames, The Isley Brothers, John Coltrane, Etta James, Pearl Bailey, The Impressions, Dorothy Dandridge, Revella Hughes, Five Stairsteps, Peg Leg Bates, Dave Peyton, and Martha and the Vandellas.
- ^ a b Best, Wallace The Encyclopedia of Chicago
- ^ Regal Theater Cinema Treasures
- ^ Semmes, C. The Regal Theater and Black Culture. Google Books.