Polynesian Village was in the Edgewater Beach Hotel (its sister hotel, Hotel Somerset in Boston, also had a Polynesian Village).
The Edgewater Beach Hotel was built in 1916, facing Lake Michigan. This pink-painted hotel had 400 rooms and was a landmark for half a century. The complex had a private beach and offered seaplane service to downtown Chicago. During its lifetime, the hotel served many famous guests including Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Charlie Chaplin, Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, and Nat King Cole.
On June 14, 1949, Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus was shot and nearly killed by an obsessive fan at the hotel; this later would be a large part of the inspiration behind Bernard Malamud's novel The Natural (adapted to screen starring Robert Redford).
The original and very elegant Marine Dining Room was replaced by the Polynesian Village in the 1950s. Employees who were trained in serving fine cuisine at the Marine Dining Room disdainfully referred to the new restaurant as "that chop suey joint."
Less Waverly, a band leader during the Polynesian Village era, has these reminisces:
"They had huts and all the motifs of a Polynesian village. There was one act called the Pearls of the Pacific and they had Tahitian drum dancers with them. The Tahitian drums were actually fuel cans and they made a high-pitched metallic sound. It was a pretty ordinary stage but, instead of a curtain, they had something like bamboo crossed. You could see through it, but it still gave you the feeling of a curtain.
Martin Denny performed there. He was a very big act and he had records with bird calls on them. The Boyd Twins performed there. They were quite well known throughout the country because they were the Doublemint twins. We had Dorothy Shay, the 'Park Avenue Hillbilly.' She did a song about underage hillbilly marriages and marrying your cousin.
They replaced the Polynesian Village and they tried to bring back the Marine Dining Room. There would be people who would come back to relive their honeymoon of 20 or 30 or 40 years ago and they were looking for that nice hotel that they enjoyed so much - and they’d spend one night in the rooms up there with the peeling plaster and the crummy bathroom and all that. We saw the hotel slip little by little. The stores began to close and they stopped operating the summer theater, but still you thought it would keep going."
The Edgewater Beach Hotel closed in 1967 and was demolished mid 1970. There is now a high-rise condominium building in its place.