Classic Cinemas founder Willis Johnson is dead at 86. His dedication saved downtown theaters in communities across Chicago.
When Willis Johnson got into the movie theater business, 'old downtown theaters were out of favor,' remembered son Chris Johnson on Friday. The mal...
When Willis Johnson got into the movie theater business, 'old downtown theaters were out of favor,' remembered son Chris Johnson on Friday. The mall was king, and shoebox multiplexes of zero architectural distinction ran rampant. Chris always thought his father's middle name, Gamble, suited the film exhibition trade perfectly. But the gamble paid off. Through thick and thin, and sometimes — to borrow an old Mel Brooks line — through thin, the elder Johnson's perseverance and dedication to his hometown of Downers Grove led to the expansion of the regional theater chain known as Classic Cinemas, now with 16 locations and 137 screens in Illinois and Wisconsin.