Park West Chicago music venue founder Dale Niedermaier has died at 89

Dale Niedermaier was one of those guys who did what he wanted.

In 1977, Mr. Niedermaier became the primary investor in a group that gutted an old movie theater in Lincoln Park to create one of Chicago's most intimate music venues: Park West, 322 W. Armitage Ave.

Under Mr. Niedermaier's ownership through the late 1980s, Park West hosted concerts by performers including Prince, Bob Dylan, U2, Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder. The Bears also recorded the “Super Bowl Shuffle” there in 1985.

Before getting into the music industry, Mr. Niedermaier and his wife Judy Niedermaier ran Niedermaier, Inc., which designed product displays for shops and department stores including Henri Bendel, Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdale’s, Gucci, Macy’s, Marshall Field’s, Nike, Ralph Lauren and Tiffany.

The theater had several lives before becoming Park West. Its immediate predecessor was the Town Theater, a burlesque and pornographic movie house that was shut down by the city in 1973 to halt the showing of "Deep Throat."

Mr. Niedermaier brought an eye for design to the theater's facelift. It became known for its tiered booth interior, small dance floor, "Star Wars"-style marquee and post-modern look that incorporated the aluminum veneer alucabon.

Mr. Niedermaier partnered with Chicago's Jam Productions to book talent for shows.

"Dale was a larger-than-life guy, and he lived life on his own terms," Jam founder Jerry Mickelson said. "He did whatever he wanted to do, and he did it well, in his own authentic way. And everybody really loved the guy."

Mr. Niedermaier raised his kids in Winnetka but was separated from his wife and living in an apartment across the street from his music venue when he got a call from Mickelson in 1978. Mickelson told him the Rolling Stones were coming to Chicago and wanted to avoid the city's commotion by staying in a quiet suburb.

Mr. Niedermaier asked his wife to host them in Winnetka. She agreed, with some hesitation, and Mr. Niedermaier sent a Park West worker to fully stock the bar at the house, which sat on an acre lot and had a swimming pool.

"They stayed up all night playing music and doing whatever," said the couple's son Jeffrey Niedermaier. "My mother just rolled her eyes. She wasn't starstruck by any means."

"They'd stay at our house every time they were in town after that," Diana Hayden, the Niedermaiers' daughter, said of the rock stars. "Those were fun times."

Mr. Niedermaier died March 22 from natural causes in Austin, Texas, according to his family. He was 89.

He was born in Chicago on March 7, 1937. Family lore has it that Mr. Niedermaier was born on a table in a tavern near Fullerton and Clybourn where his mother Genevieve was a cook and his father George, who held several jobs, often could be found on a barstool doing a crossword puzzle.

Mr. Niedermaier went to Lake View High School, where he played on the football team.

While attending the University of Miami, Mr. Niedermaier worked days as a cabana boy at a Key Biscayne hotel, delivered flowers, worked construction and took night classes in business and mortgage banking.

After college, he went into mortgage banking in Miami before joining the Army. He later moved back to Chicago, befriended and partnered with a Bohemian artist who printed silkscreen banners. He opened a shop on Lincoln Avenue, hiring students from the School of the Art Institute. But soon he transitioned into creating elaborate holiday window displays and product promotions.

Mr. Niedermaier loved to sail and competed in the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac. His boat was named Park West and had the venue's logo emblazoned on one of its sails. He was a marathon runner and triathlete. He loved muscle cars and luxury automobiles and toured the country on a BMW motorcycle that he rode as far south as Panama.

"He picked me up at summer camp one year on his motorcycle, and the camp didn't want to give me to him at first because he looked like a lunatic, but they did, and I rode on the back as we traveled through Death Valley," Jeffrey Niedermaeir said. "The wind was like a blow-dryer on my face all the way to Los Angeles. We stayed in tents the whole way, and, when we arrived in L.A., we checked in to the Beverly Wilshire."

Mr. Niedermaier reunited with his former wife and cared for her toward the end of her life. She died of cancer in 2011.

In addition to his son and daughter, he is survived by four grandchildren and one great-grandchild. One of his grandchildren is former Blackhawks player John Hayden.

A celebration of life is being planned.