The Adelphi No More

During my first complete summer in Chicago, in July, I quit my job because it conflicted with my first play. I was not financially prepared for such a move. My father had died the January before and I was going to need a new apartment in October. I had no skills of any kind, and no money.

Worse, I had no air conditioning, and that summer was one of the hottest ever. If I recall, Fridays, Mondays and Tuesdays were my days for pounding the pavement, to fill in applications. that left the weekends and Wednesdays and Thursdays with nothing to do. As I do now, I was living in Rogers Park at the time, and on Clark Street there was the Adelphi Theater.

The Adelphi was a second-run theater that had seen better days. It was cavernous, with at least one balcony and enormous ceiling fans. On the weekends it was swarming with kids, but during the week it was blessedly empty and for two dollars you could duck in there and see the double feature. On occasion, when it was particularly hot, I'd sit through the double feature twice, until the sun went down. I think I saw Lethal Weapon there, and maybe The Adventures in Babysitting. Usually the movies were teen-sex romps, and I don't remember too much about them. I do remember considering the Adelphi a blessing, and in years since, everytime I passed it I'd say a quick prayer of thanks.

Probably two years after that broiling summer, the Adelphi closed. Three years ago, when I moved back to Rogers Park, there was a sign saying it was reopening soon. I was genuinely looking forward to it. Today, I rode past and discovered the building has been torn down, no doubt in preparation for a luxury condo monstrosity. If they name the building The Adelphi, I swear here and now to don a black veil and scatter rose petals across its threshold.