Gateway Theatre (Chicago)

The Copernicus Center with the Mitchell P. Kobelinski Theater (former Gateway Theatre) is a 1,890-seat former movie palace that is now part of the Copernicus Center in the Jefferson Park community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The Copernicus Center is located at 5216 W. Lawrence Avenue.The former Gateway Theater was designed by architect Mason Rapp of the prestigious firm of Rapp and Rapp, famous for their design of deluxe theaters not only in Chicago (Chicago, Oriental, and Palace Theatres) but throughout the United States. It is the architect's sole surviving atmospheric theatre in Chicago.HistoryJune 27, 1930 was the opening day for Jefferson Park's new deluxe motion picture palace. Weeklong festivities in the area leading up to the opening were capped off by a gargantuan parade sponsored by area businesses. All the Chicago dailies covered the event, and in fact, the Chicago Herald-Examiner put forth a full page spread proclaiming the new theater as "the most acoustically perfect theatre in the world." The reports were not guilty of sensationalism, as the architects indeed had given extra special attention to the acoustics, as talking pictures, a relative newcomer to the entertainment field had found a perfect environment in this new, different theater.