I know you think that downtown Milwaukee in this year 1962 is a pretty awesome place, and it is. But wait ‘til you see it 55 years from now! There will be new and bigger buildings, new convention centers, new sports arenas, new hotels, new restaurants and new museums. There will be a 75-acre park on the lakefront that will host a huge music festival every summer featuring all the biggest names in entertainment. The Art Museum will expand many times and eventually feature a huge expanding wing-like sculpture over one of its pavilions. You want futuristic? Wait ‘til you get a load of that thing! It’ll be pretty cool, I promise.

But downtown will also be losing some of the things that you have come to love the most. Those old and beautiful railway depots? Gone. A single multi-purpose station will replace them, and while the new place will be efficient and quite space age in appearance, it simply won’t have the same feel of the other places. Gimbel’s and Schuster’s will both be gone as well, replaced only by the memories you are forming right now. The Milwaukee Clipper will no longer sail the lake; the streetcars and trackless trolleys will no longer ride the streets. And the movie theaters you love so much? Pretty much all gone. In the faraway future, movie theaters will all be out in the suburbs. And they’ll actually be more like movie cities, with as many as 20 or even 30 separate theaters all in the same building. They will sit adjacent to sprawling parking lots and shopping centers, and many will have full-service restaurants as well. But the days of going into the big city to catch a show will be long gone. And you will miss them.

You’ve always loved those classic theaters, haven’t you? The beautiful lobbies with their vaulted ceilings, the velvet rope lines, the uniformed ticket-takers, the exotic design motifs, and the neon-lit concession stands. “Cathedrals” some people call them and, compared to the vast soulless movie complexes of the future, they are. There’s The Riverside, The Wisconsin, The Towne, The Warner and others. There’s The Strand, where you first saw Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty,” and where “South Pacific” played for 54 straight weeks starting in 1958! There are The Princess and The Esquire too, cinemas known to specialize in films condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency. You’ve never been to either one, of course…but deep down you hope to someday, right? Relax, kiddo, your secret’s safe with me!

Before it was known as The Esquire it was called The Telenews. And the only movies that ran there were newsreels. The Telenews closed up shop in 1952 when you were only a baby, but the idea of an all-news theater has always fascinated you. Before the age of television, theater newsreels were the only way for people to see the news in action. How different that world must have been. They’re still making newsreels in 1962. In fact, you’ve seen them yourself, many times. They’re usually shown together with a cartoon or two, right before the main feature. When the Telenews was in business, however, it was nothing but newsreels.

Before they were married, Mom and Dad would often go downtown, and you’ve always loved the stories they tell about this time in their lives. They would go to a fancy restaurant, then maybe to a nightclub or to the Million Dollar Ballroom for some dancing. And, of course, they would go to the movies. One day you will learn that a regular stop on date nights was the Telenews Theater. Dad will joke that it was because of Mom’s legendary hatred for hot and humid weather. Evidently the Telenews had an air-conditioning system second to none. He’ll tell you that entering the Telenews on a hot summer night was like stepping into a meat locker, and that made Mom happy. You’ll find this story hilarious, of course, and it will certainly ring true. I mean, let’s face it, Mom does seem to get a little crazy when things get hot and sticky. But deep down you know it wasn’t only the air-conditioning that drew Mom and Dad to the Telenews.

Your parents understand the world and the way it works better than just about anyone you will ever know. They read, watch and discuss the news of the world with their kids like no other parents you know. They are curious about the world and passionate about learning, and they have passed both that curiosity and passion on to their kids. Sure, Mom probably liked the frigid air of the Telenews. But mostly she wanted to see what was happening in the greater world.

You will always remember the great movie cathedrals of downtown Milwaukee, but the one you’ll fixate on will be the one you never visited. The one that showed nothing but newsreels…to the curious, the passionate, and yeah…also to the ones who were driven mad by the summer heat.

Telenews (and nothing but the news)    1993     John T. McCarthy, Jr.    8-color silkscreen