Parkway Theater gets new life—plans include a restoration

BY MAX SPARBER

Chicago Avenue’s Parkway Theater, a small and elegant single-screen movie house dating back to 1931, faced an uncertain future a few months ago.

This past July its owner of 29 years, Bill Irvine, announced he would be selling the venue. Irvine had rescued the Parkway in the 1970s from an Omaha company that wanted to make it an adult theater.

Instead, Irvine converted it into an art house, specializing in foreign and independent films. For a while, the future of the Parkway was up in the air—Irvine explained in a recent interview that it had grown prohibitively expensive to operate an independent movie theater.

Fortunately, Irvine found a buyer for the theater, literally next door to the Parkway.

Pepitos, a popular Mexican restaurant, has occupied the building next to the Parkway since the 1970s, and its owner, Joe Senkyr Minjares, thought he could do something with the theater. As he explains on the theater’s website, “Our intention is to restore the theater to its original design or close to it. And to use the facility for movies, live theater, private functions and meeting space. How the facility evolves depends on support. It needs to generate a profit to survive while enhancing the physical and monetary investments we have already made on the corner for 35 years.

We will be applying for a liquor license to expand the facilities potential and appeal. Some dinner theater? Perhaps. Nightclub with dancing? Don’t want to go there. Comedy club? On occasion if it is profitable. Our initial intent is to focus on movies with a mix of live entertainment.”

It is Senkyr Minjares’ intention to renovate the theater, inspired by the theater’s original design, which gave the theater a Spanish/Moorish facade that may never have actually been built.

For the past few months, Senkyr Minjares has been working with interior design students from the University of Minnesota’s College of Design to create a flexible space that can be used as a banquet hall, as well as a theater that offers both films and live performances. Senkyr Minjares has also started an oral history project, collecting stories about the theater’s history. In 75 years, the Parkway has had its share of stories—including, in one instance, influencing graphic design.

In 1993, a local designer by the name of Charles Anderson, who designs typefaces under the name Chank Diesel, was so inspired by the theater’s marquis that he designed a series of fonts based on the Parkway’s unique, neon-style lettering. The font, called the Parkway Family, is available at chank.com. More information about the theater and its renovations can be found at parkwaytheater.com.