The Vic Still Going Strong At 100

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 2, 2012 9:00PM

Sun-Times "back in my day" correspondent Dave Hoekstra has a must-read article in today’s paper on the Vic Theatre, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

Originally built in 1912 as a vaudeville house, the Victoria Theatre has been transformed over the years into a wartime foundry, porno theater, Spanish language cinema and an automobile repair shop. But it’s its current incarnation as one of Chicago’s best music venues that the Vic is best remembered, and arguably the busiest period in the theater’s history, and serves as the foundation for Hoekstra’s article.

Walter Klein Jr. turned the Vic into a concert hall in 1983 and the talent that helped with the transformation included Cheap Trick manager Dave Frey, who was the talent buyer at the time, and operations manager Tom Klein, who went on to open the West End, which was booked by Sue Miller prior to her opening Lounge Ax and marrying Jeff Tweedy.

Hoekstra also gets the story behind the disco mirror ball that hangs above the Vic’s floor, the basement tunnels that extend past Sheffield, and other quirks of the Vic.