Classic Cinemas founder Willis Johnson is dead at 86. His dedication saved downtown theaters in communities across Chicagoland.
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.
Willis Gamble Johnson died Aug. 16 at age 86, with Classic Cinemas announcing his death on social media.
“He was one of the best guys in the business,” said his friend and fellow suburban theater owner Dino Vlahakis, co-owner of the Park Ridge Pickwick Theatre. “He was a true showman, hardworking, and one of the sweetest, nicest men I’ve ever met in this business. Always honest. His son, Chris, is the same way.”
Chris Johnson now serves as CEO of Classic Cinemas, a division of Tivoli Enterprises, Inc., the Johnson family business. He’s also Illinois president of the National Association of Theatre Owners trade organization. He started as an usher, working for his father at the 1928 Downers Grove landmark, the Tivoli Theatre.
It’s now a beautifully restored 1,000-seat venue, currently making hay with “Barbie,” accompanied by a recently added boutique auditorium off the lobby named after his father: The Willis Theater. The Tivoli paid tribute on its marquee earlier this week.
“He was a relentless volunteer,” Chris said. “He’d volunteer for everything. A tough persona in some ways, no-nonsense. Incredible passion for detail. Always trying to make the downtowns where we had theaters better for everyone.”
Johnson was Downers Grove citizen of the year in 2010; he’s in the Elmhurst Civic Hall of Fame; earlier this year, he and his wife of 46 years, Shirley Johnson, were chosen Downers Grove historians of the year. (His first marriage ended in divorce in the early 1970s.)
Johnson is survived by his wife, Shirley; his children Stephen, Kay, Chris, Wendy and Amy; his stepchildren Mary and Richard; 14 grandchildren; and great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
And countless friends.
“He always reached out to help people,” Chris Johnson recalled. “So many people would tell me stories: ‘Your dad bought me glasses.’ Or, ‘Your dad paid for me to get my teeth fixed.’ So many stories like that. He didn’t tell anyone about it, really. He just took care of it.”
Johnson was born in January 1937 and grew up in a Sears catalog house at 4812 Bryan Place in Downers Grove, three blocks from the Tivoli. He graduated from Downers Grove Community High School in 1955, then from Western Michigan University in 1959. He served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army National Guard, subsequently working as a time-study engineer, one of 26 for International Harvester.
He got laid off from that job, Johnson says in a 2022 documentary “History Happens Here,” produced by the Downers Grove Historical Society. From there, with his brother, Ross, he started Johnson Printers and eventually cofounded Classic Cinemas/Tivoli Enterprises, Inc.
Movie theater ownership is not for the weak of heart. The pandemic has taken a heavy toll. And with the studios and streamers currently at contract negotiating odds with the writer and screen actor guilds, films initially scheduled for fall 2023 release may end up getting kicked down the road into 2024, leaving exhibitors in the lurch for new titles to keep audiences coming back.
But in his own heyday, Willis Johnson saw ups, downs and everything in between. He took over the Tivoli with brother Ross in 1976, along with the hotel, the bowling alley and storefronts in the same corner complex at Highland and Warren. They took it over because the theater’s tenant, Chicago-based Oscar Brotman, who died in 1994, slapped a “closed for remodeling” sign on the marquee and, as Johnson told it in the documentary, Brotman skipped on the lease.
So Johnson got into the theater business. Through the years as an operator and renovator of theaters in downtown Downers Grove, Elmhurst, Oak Park, La Grange and other towns, he believed foremost in “the concept of supporting communities, and volunteering. And giving,” son Chris Johnson said.
And the last movie his father ever saw? Chris Johnson knows the date and the title: May 2, 2023. The film was “History Happens Here,” the homegrown documentary about the history of the Tivoli Theatre, advertised in 1928 as “the Wonder Theater of Suburban Chicago.”
The film is about the Tivoli, but really, it’s about Willis Johnson. And that screening in May?
“We sold every seat,” Chris says.
A memorial is planned for 10:30 a.m. Sept. 2 at the Tivoli Theatre, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove.
Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
Twitter @phillipstribune
