the television broadcasting industry. The company owned several experimental television licenses, and in 1943 began broadcasting over WBKB (now WBBM-TV), the first commercial television station in Chicago. Whenever Balaban and Katz decided that murals would become part of the interior design scheme, they would commission painter and muralist Louis Grell of Chicago to execute them. Grell painted murals inside the Chicago Theater, Gateway Theater, Uptown Theater and many Paramount Theaters across the midwest and America for Balaban and Katz. The trademark for the company is owned by a historical foundation called the Balaban and Katz Historical Foundation. The foundation was founded by descendants of the original Balaban brothers. Its collection of B and K corporate documents is located in New Jersey. Theatre Historical Society, in Elmhurst, Illinois, maintains an extensive collection of architectural blueprints and large-format pictures of many Balaban and Katz theaters. In 2006, a documentary, Uptown: Portrait of a Palace, featured one of Balaban and Katz's most famous theaters, the Uptown. 2006 also saw the publication of a book on many of the B&K theatres, titled The Chicago Movie Palaces of Balaban and Katz, written by David Balaban with a foreword by theater historian Joseph DuciBella and published by Arcadia Publishing. See also United Paramount / Plitt Theatres List of experimental television stations Notes References Balaban, David. The Chicago Movie Palaces of Balaban and Katz, Arcadia Publishing, 2006. External links Louis Grell Foundation Castle Theater Collection, McLean County Museum of History 1916 establishments in Illinois Companies based in Chicago Companies disestablished in 1970 History of Chicago Mass media in Chicago Entertainment companies established in 1916 1970 disestablishments in Illinois Balaban family American Broadcasting Company Paramount Pictures