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As Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres reaches its centennial year, BOXOFFICE looks back over three generations
Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres has reached its 100th year in exhibition. The company's journey is one family's journey-a saga of expansion, innovation, triumph and tragedy, and a history as old as the film industry itself.
In 1893, 17-year-old Gus Kerasotes immigrated, alone, to the United States from Greece. He, like many arriving on our shores, saw a land of promise.
Gus first settled in Chicago and found work as a bellhop. "He worked with a guy by the name of Spyros Skouras," says Gus' grandson and company CEO, Tony Kerasotes. It was the same Spyros Skouras destined to run the Fox Theatres chain and become president of 20th Century Fox. Tony and his brother Dean, Kerasotes' COO, believe it was Skouras who hyped the potential of the new nickelodeon technology to young Gus, who promptly around and became a grocer, a career that ended up being rather short-lived. During an altercation with a disgruntled customer, Gus was stabbed.
"The story I heard was somebody [was] unhappy with an overripe banana," says Tony. As a result, Gus determined his fortune would be found elsewhere, perhaps in a lesscongested city like Springfield, Ill.
At the dawn of the new century, Gus relocated and opened C&K Confectionary with friend Peter Courtakon. Within the year, Gus' brother Louis joined the business partners. Around the same time, Gus began to explore the earning potential of early operator-cranked nickelodeons. His new nickelodeon proved popular, and in 1909, Gus and brothers Louis and George opened their first official theatre: The Royal.
Three years later, the Kerasotes brothers followed that success with the launch of the Savoy Theatre and then continued to expand their exhibition business. In 1921, the Kerasotes company bought the old First National Bank building beside the Savoy and converted it into a fully equipped moviehouse with 900 seats and Springfield's first organ, installed to plink alongside silent films. The company erected its home office on the Springfield town square in 1926.
Cinema was here to stay, but when Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer premiered in 1927, Gus doubted "talkies" were more than a passing fad. His oldest son, George, convinced him to keep pace...