A movie palace built for silent films and vaudeville a century ago is throwing itself a Labor Day weekend party big enough to shut down a chunk of downtown St. Charles. The Arcada Theatre marks its 100th anniversary on Sunday, Sept. 6, with a free public parade, a meet-and-greet with Priscilla Presley, and a live musical revue featuring Chubby Checker leading the crowd through the Twist.
The celebration is timed to the exact date the Arcada first opened its doors on September 6, 1926, and organizers are leaning hard into that echo of the original grand opening. According to Shaw Local, the day's festivities begin at 1 p.m. with the Priscilla Presley meet-and-greet experience at Studio 64 inside the theater, where Presley will recount behind-the-scenes stories and take audience questions in a session moderated by Ron Onesti, president and CEO of Onesti Entertainment. Presley will also take part later in the day's headline musical program, The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Onesti Entertainment is the company that has operated the Arcada's stage bookings since 2005, and Onesti told the outlet that the venue has become important to both the Fox Valley community and the national live entertainment community. The company produces more than 200 concerts, corporate events, casino shows, and festivals annually across the country, per the same report.
A Downtown Parade With a Ferris Bueller Twist
At 3 p.m., the Arcada Centennial Parade steps off from just west of the Fox River and proceeds past the theater through downtown St. Charles, free and open to anyone who wants to watch. The parade includes a recreation of the classic parade scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, according to the report, with Chubby Checker leading the Twist along the route.
Rock drummers Carmine Appice and Vinny Appice are also set to appear at the parade in downtown St. Charles, the outlet notes, before joining Chubby Checker later that evening as part of The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll lineup.
Music, Food and a Century of History Under One Roof
The evening's centerpiece, The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, closes out the anniversary celebration at 6 p.m. inside the theater. Tickets start at $28.75 and are required for the show, which showcases music from the past century alongside highlights from the Arcada's own 100 years, according to Shaw Local's report. Priscilla Presley, Chubby Checker, and both Carmine and Vinny Appice are all slated to participate.
For anyone looking to eat between the parade and the concert, Rock ‘n Ravioli — the Italian restaurant tucked into the Arcada's lobby — will be open from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. that day and is encouraging reservations, per the outlet's account.
From Vaudeville Stage to Speakeasy to Concert Hall
The Arcada wasn't always a rock ‘n’ roll destination. Built in 1926, the theater hosted performances over the decades by Judy Garland, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Vincent Price, and other entertainers, and it even ran a speakeasy hangout during Prohibition, according to Shaw Local. Construction on the venue began in 1924 and cost $500,000, funded by Chicago Tribune cartoonist Lester J. Norris and his wife, Dellora Angell Norris, an heiress to a major portion of the Texaco Oil fortune, according to the St. Charles History Museum.
When it opened, the Arcada seated 1,009 people at a time when the entire population of St. Charles was only around 5,000 residents, per the Arcada Theatre's own account — evidence the venue was designed from the start as a destination for the broader Fox River Valley rather than a neighborhood movie house. That original opening night in 1926 drew sold-out crowds, including patrons who arrived from Chicago on a dedicated special train car to see the premiere of the silent film The Last Frontier and vaudeville performances by radio stars Fibber McGee and Molly.
Designed by Chicago architect Elmer F. Behrns, the Arcada's exterior was built in Spanish Colonial Revival style with tan brick and terra-cotta trim, while the interior features Spanish-Venetian atmospheric decor styled after an open courtyard in Madrid, according to the museum's history pages. The theater still retains its original 1926 Marr & Colton pipe organ, a $25,000 instrument with an art-deco silver-and-red console decorated with river heron carvings that can physically rise up from beneath the stage floor, per Cinema Treasures.
Preservation, Ownership and a Pandemic-Era Overhaul
The Arcada Theatre Building was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on August 16, 1994, and the City of St. Charles designated it an official local landmark the following year as part of the establishment of the downtown Central Historic District, alongside the 1928 Hotel Baker and the 1940 Municipal Center. Onesti Entertainment took over live bookings in May 2005 after previous operators had announced plans to close the venue, shifting programming back toward national touring acts.
The physical building itself is owned separately from its stage operations: local development firm Frontier Development, LLC, led by St. Charles residents Curt and Conrad Hurst, purchased the Arcada real estate in May 2019. During the COVID-19 shutdown, Onesti Entertainment and the Hurst brothers carried out a multimillion-dollar overhaul of the building, adding two new restaurants, additional restrooms, a new bar area, courtyard space, and 11 hotel suites, according to Northwest Quarterly's reporting at the time — upgrades that turned the century-old movie house into a multi-day entertainment destination just as it prepares to mark its 100th year.
