Part of the Balaban and Katz chain, the lavishly decorated venue, with plush carpeting and velvet drapes, featured some of the most celebrated African-American entertainers in America.

Nat "King" Cole, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Dinah Washington, Ethel Waters, Miles Davis, Sammy Davis Jr., Bill Robinson, Moms Mabley, Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, and Duke Ellington performed frequently at the theater through the 1920s and 1940s.

King, Herbie Hancock, Della Reese, Stevie Wonder, Les Paul, Gladys Knight & the Pips, International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Dionne Warwick, James Brown & The Famous Flames, The Isley Brothers, John Coltrane, Etta James, Pearl Bailey, The Impressions, Dorothy Dandridge, Revella Hughes, Five Stairsteps, Peg Leg Bates, Dave Peyton, and Martha and the Vandellas.

Performers included Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder, Ella Fitzgerald, The Temptations, Miles Davis, Nat "King" Cole (from Chicago), Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson, Muddy Waters in 1956, the Jackson Five in 1968, and B.B.

The theater was situated near two popular black venues: both a nightclub (the Savoy Ballroom) and a major retailer (the South Center Department store).

Both theaters were able to attract several big names but, due to its size and central location, the Regal was arguably able to book bigger acts.

Prior to the opening of the Regal, Chicago experienced the Great Migration, which brought a large number of blacks from the south into the city looking for a new life and work.

In June 1962, "Little" Stevie Wonder recorded his famous live version of the number-one hit single "Fingertips" at a Motortown Revue there that included Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Mary Wells, and The Marvelettes.