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Green Mill
Posted by:
TDK38
()
Date: April 25, 2015 02:22PM
Does anyone have any information on what The Green Mill was like (and even exactly were it was located) in the late 30s/early 40s? When did it become what it is today - in its current incarnation at 4802 N Broadway? I've found some information (when Texas Guinan was playing there in 1930) that the main cabaret was located at 4806 N. Broadway. Then that it was leased to a man named Huff in late 1930 and the name was changed for a period to "Lincoln Tavern Town Club". The next reference I found was that it was destroyed in a fire in early 1933 (then called The Green Mill again in the Tribune article). I assume it was rebuilt shorty thereafter. Is that when it became just the cocktail lounge in its current spot? I found nothing after that until the articles with present day owner and staff which skip over this period (except to say that the late former owner, Steve Brend, started as a bartender there in 1938).
Thanks in advance for any info. (I'm researching for a novel set in 1938 and want to get the details right.)
Thanks in advance for any info. (I'm researching for a novel set in 1938 and want to get the details right.)
Re: Green Mill
Posted by:
Richard Stachowski
()
Date: April 25, 2015 03:51PM
[b]I thought it was always the Green Mill. I knew a few intertainers who played there. I has tunnels that go all the way from it's basement to the Arogon Ball Room what I saw on channell 11. It is a historic place.[/b]
Re: Green Mill
Posted by:
WayOutWardell
()
Date: April 25, 2015 07:07PM
This site has a lot of good info on the Mill in the '30s:
http://www.myalcaponemuseum.com/id153.htm
I think the current layout dates to the late '30s or very early '40s; there's very similar decor in a few other bars around town, such as Rainbo, which opened in the late '30s, and the bar at the upstairs restaurant at Italian Village.
I've seen a photo of the long-demolished Crown Propeller Lounge on 63rd Street which had an near-identical wall mural to the ones at the Mill. I believe these may have been made by Brunswick.
The original stage location was the circular platform behind the bar itself. There are a lot of claims that certain members of jazz royalty played there but I have yet to find actual evidence that they ever did.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2015 07:39PM by WayOutWardell.
http://www.myalcaponemuseum.com/id153.htm
I think the current layout dates to the late '30s or very early '40s; there's very similar decor in a few other bars around town, such as Rainbo, which opened in the late '30s, and the bar at the upstairs restaurant at Italian Village.
I've seen a photo of the long-demolished Crown Propeller Lounge on 63rd Street which had an near-identical wall mural to the ones at the Mill. I believe these may have been made by Brunswick.
The original stage location was the circular platform behind the bar itself. There are a lot of claims that certain members of jazz royalty played there but I have yet to find actual evidence that they ever did.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2015 07:39PM by WayOutWardell.
Re: Green Mill
Posted by:
TDK38
()
Date: April 26, 2015 09:17PM
Thanks, WayOutWardell! Lots of good info.
I ran across this very helpful article in the Chicago Federation of Musicians magazine after I posted my request for info: https://www.cfm10208.com/images/intermezzo/58_20090204025921.pdf
"The building was nearly destroyed in a 1933 fire but
later rebuilt. The upstairs Green Mill cabaret room continued to
operate on a sporadic basis through the 1930s and 1940s, at times as a
ballroom called the Paradise (not to be confused with the west-side Paradise Ballroom)and later the El Morocco. Frank Snyder’s Dixieland band played there in the early 1940s. The current site of the Green Mill jazz club, the second door north of Lawrence, dates back at least to the 1930s. It was a cocktail lounge through World War II, owned by the Batsis brothers, according to current owner Dave Jemilo, and was a watering hole for a mostly neighborhood crowd and some after-hours patrons from the nearby Uptown and Riviera theaters and the Aragon Ballroom. A variety of musical groups entertained the customers long into the
early morning hours."
I still don't know when the cabaret/ballroom disappeared (there's a Mexican restaurant there now), but I think I have enough to go on.
I ran across this very helpful article in the Chicago Federation of Musicians magazine after I posted my request for info: https://www.cfm10208.com/images/intermezzo/58_20090204025921.pdf
"The building was nearly destroyed in a 1933 fire but
later rebuilt. The upstairs Green Mill cabaret room continued to
operate on a sporadic basis through the 1930s and 1940s, at times as a
ballroom called the Paradise (not to be confused with the west-side Paradise Ballroom)and later the El Morocco. Frank Snyder’s Dixieland band played there in the early 1940s. The current site of the Green Mill jazz club, the second door north of Lawrence, dates back at least to the 1930s. It was a cocktail lounge through World War II, owned by the Batsis brothers, according to current owner Dave Jemilo, and was a watering hole for a mostly neighborhood crowd and some after-hours patrons from the nearby Uptown and Riviera theaters and the Aragon Ballroom. A variety of musical groups entertained the customers long into the
early morning hours."
I still don't know when the cabaret/ballroom disappeared (there's a Mexican restaurant there now), but I think I have enough to go on.
