travels or interests took them. The Esquire In 1936, Balaban was induced by his brother Barney to return to Chicago to build a movie theatre for younger brothers Harry and Elmer, of H&E Theatres, with Paramount's backing. His family lived in Evanston, Illinois, during this period. Balaban selected two young Chicago-based consultants, Pereira and Pereira, to design the Esquire Theatre, which opened in 1938, in a posh Art Moderne style. One of the nation's first "art houses", the theatre featured an art gallery and a coffee bar lounge. Popcorn was not served. When asked if the theatre was going to have an orchestra pit, Balaban reportedly replied, "That's over." Instead of offering a bill of multiple films, the theatre showed only one film, combined with "The Esquire Hour", a section of shorts, cartoons and a quote for the day. Oriented to only film presentations and not stage shows, its sight-lines and acoustics were designed for top projection and audio quality. Architectural Forum selected it as "Building of the Month" in April 1938. The family returned to Geneva—where Balaban was a frequent visitor to the League of Nations headquarters—then lived in Paris until the advent of war in Europe, when the family returned to the U.S. They lived in Greenwich, Connecticut, and then moved back to New York and the Dorset Hotel. The Roxy In the early Forties, Spyros Skouras approached Balaban about managing The Roxy Theatre near Times Square, which was not operating profitably. Its executive group consisted of people Balaban knew; rather than replace them, he re-invigorated them. The theatre kept its stage shows, but Balaban oversaw them and "hired top names to head the stage shows. Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Cab Calloway ... all played the Roxy. A better class of films was booked, and the theater's fortunes improved. The all-time boxoffice-champion movie, Forever Amber, was booked during this period. That policy lasted only six years, however. Its next transformation was astounding. The stage area was covered with a 30-foot-by-30-foot ice floor for ice [skating] shows. The theater's seating capacity was reduced to 5,886. The Center Theater on Sixth Avenue was also converted to ice, and both theaters did successful business." He also invited the New York Philharmonic, then under conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos, to perform four shows a day for two weeks in September 1950 to excellent business. Just two years from his final retirement, Balaban was still