Raue Center For The Arts

Mission Statement:

Raue Center For The Arts is dedicated to enriching the lives of all through the arts.

History:

Opened in 1929 as El Tovar, the building was a welcome addition to northern Illinois as a movie and vaudeville theatre to showcase the thrilling new "talkies" and the troupers who wheeled into town on tour with their backstage trunks and onstage spangles. The name "El Tovar" was simply a title picked up by one of the theatre's founders on a trip out west. It was a glamorous name in keeping with that era's fascination with all things exotic, and did not translate into a Spanish phrase or idiom.

What it did translate into, however, was the site of first kisses, marriage proposals, farewell dates before shipping out, class trips and simply escaping the frustrations of a day. It embraced the golden age of movie musicals, film noir, love stories, comedies, cartoon festivals and adventure serials on Saturday afternoon. Area theatre groups used the theatre for musicals and plays between film showings during the 1960s. Home to the movies for most of its life, El Tovar eventually became The Lake, and then drifted into a spinsterish old age as the downtown Showplace. It was finishing its days as a shabby art house with a sprinkling of viewers.