History

The Electric Theater opened on April 3, 1968 at 4812 North Clark Street in Chicago's Uptown, in a 1928 building that had housed the Rainbo Gardens dance hall, entertainment complex and skating rinks. Its operator was Aaron Russo, then in his twenties and later a film producer and political figure. Russo ran it as Chicago's answer to the San Francisco ballrooms — touring rock bills, a full light show, a room built for dancing rather than seating. It carried that name for only a few months: sued by the owners of New York's Electric Circus, Russo renamed it in mid-1968, briefly as the 'Lectric Theater and then as the KINETIC PLAYGROUND, the name it is remembered by. This chronicle holds the two names as separate entries because its events fall either side of the change and each page should name the room as it was called that night — but they are the same building on the same street. See Kinetic Playground for the rest of the story.

Its Place in the Scene

Chicago's ballroom-model rock room in its first months, before the lawsuit that renamed it the Kinetic Playground.

The Facts

Shows at this Venue