Chicago, IL, USA

Closed 1971

This was a magical place in my childhood. Anon

The Kungsholm Miniature Grand Opera was a puppet theater located in the Kungsholm restaurant in the McCormick mansion at the intersection of Rush and Ontario Streets. The performances first took place in the the fourth floor ballroom, starting in 1941 and then in a custom-built theater which opened in 1950, after the ballroom was destroyed in a fire. The puppets and theater were the brainchild of Ernest Wolff, an opera recording enthusiast who had built a miniature theater in his basement and his mother Esther Wolff who devised the puppets along with her friend Fred Stouffer. Prior to their exhibition at the Kungsholm, the Wolffs had exhibited their opera puppets in the Gas Pavilion at the Worlds Fair in 1938-9. The Kunsgholm closed in 1971. Some of the puppets and scenery were acquired by the Museum of Scientific and Industry, where they remained on view until 2005 when they were transferred to the Swedish American Museum. Today the building still stands and appears to be undergoing construction.