W.O.W & b.a.h, thanks for the info! I'll tell my neighbor Thaht Adams County site was really interesting. I posted this thank you last night, but it got eaten. Here's try #2.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

My neighbor wants to know about a company called "Packet Envelope Company" (Could be spelled "Packett"). He said he had relatives who worked there and it had something to do with being an off-shoot of the Kool-Aid Company. The way he heard it when he was a kid, Kool-Aid had 500 women (always) working in a factory somewhere near Municipal Airport (now MDW) and they hired s
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

You could try: Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago & Northwest Indiana 20 S Clark St, Chicago, IL 60603 (312) 416-2500 It's their local HQ.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Sorry, but according to the Sun-Times it has to be levelled because it is a safety hazard due to being next to the "youth batting cages". http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/23925394-418/historic-lyons-building-to-be-demolished-following-fire.html
Forum: General Discussion

Hah! Just a few days ago my 60 year old friend was telling me that he was in High School before he even knew of the Loop. He thought 63rd & Halsted "was" downtown.
Forum: General Discussion

There were 2 "Rolling Stone Records" at one time. One was on Washington just east of LaSalle, (which changed its name to "Rocks Records" when the partners had a falling out: it's closed now), and the other one is still in business as "Rolling Stone". It's located on Forest Preserve Drive just west of the Harlem/Irving Plaza. Another mega record store I used to fr
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Here is Ebert's 1969 review: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/medium-cool-1969
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Could it be "Medium Cool" by Haskell Wexler? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064652/ Siskel & Ebert did a thing on that "semi-documentary" around that time. I saw the movie and it was "medium cool" to me in a "Billy Jack" kind of way. Check the film office for shooting locations.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

If you want more info about the Pope in Grant Park, try contacting Michael Sneed @ the Sun-Times. She was in charge of the whole thing, because she was Jane Byrne's press secretary at the time. From what I've heard from cops and just about anybody who had to deal with working downtown during that hastily arranged Woodstock for the Worshippers, Sneed wasn't exactly "detail oriented", to
Forum: General Discussion

Victoe Borge told this story on the Tonight show: The afternon/ evening the Pope said Mass in Grant Park traffic all around downtown was a mess due to street closings and crowd control. Victor Borge had a show scheduled (and sold out months in advance) at Orchestra Hall. Almost nobody showed up for his sold out show. So he told Johnny that he was going to get back at the Pope by bringing a p
Forum: General Discussion

I'm pretty sure that land is owned by the Catholic Church. I have relatives that live near there and I remember them saying when they moved to that neighborhood (in the mid 60s) that the Church owned almost all the property in that area at one time, and used most of it for Resurrection Hospital. Next time try asking the landscaper "nice job, who pays you and can I ask them for a recommend
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Oh, Jeeze. It's one of those Alex Jones "Illuminati" conspiracy nuts. http://www.greatdreams.com/political/hierarchy-of-secret-societies.html Hey, pal. The Bobby Franks murder is world famous due to it being one of the first instances of forensic science being used to connect the crime to the perpetrator, through the use of found eye glasses at the scene of the crime; it was call
Forum: General Discussion

There was one in Westmont at CAss & Ogden in a strip mall called "Jewel Village", where Jewel Co. decided to put all of their subsidiaries in teh same place, so it had a Turn-Style, a White Hen Pantry, Osco, Reichardt Cleaners, Case & Bottle Liquors and of course a Jewel. Another was on North Ave. & Queen Bee Road (I think that was the name of it) in Glendale Heights, and
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

You can see this easily in farm areas, and still in the recently built up areas of DuPage County. The north/south roads are lined up along township boundaries, which are a six mile by six mile chunk of land. The roads follow the meridians heading north; so since we are west of the Greenwich meridian and north of the equator our roads jog slightly to the east every 6 miles, as we near the north p
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

I heard this story years ago. An advertising writer lived at the Edgewater Beach Apartments. One day after a grueling day trying to come up with a new slogan for his client at the office he decided to stop in at the bar of the hotel before going home. While he was sucking down his scotch on the rocks a guest of the hotel walked in and ordered a Budweiser. The bartender told him "Sorry, th
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Here's a cut by cut movie of the Blues Brothers locations, then and "now"; ("now" being a few years ago). St Helen of the Blessed Shroud Orphanage comes in around 2:40. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_SbLi-X8JI This guy, Herve Attia, does these then/now movie shoots all the time. Check out his "Ferris Buelle"r and "Home Alone" videos too.
Forum: General Discussion

Is the Tip Top Tap the same place as "The Clouds Room high atop the Allerton Hotel"? The Clouds Room was where Dom MacNeill broadcast the national radio show "The Breakfast Club" for 2 hours each morning Monday through Friday for decades. He had an orchestra and famous guests drop by to chit chat with him and a co-host.
Forum: General Discussion

Home Run Inn on 31st St. on the West Side. Still there. Been there forever.
Forum: General Discussion

All I remember about Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia is that it was the "source authority" for a whole slew of TV quiz shows like Jeopardy and the GE College Bowl. Some shows even gave them out as "Grand Prizes". From wikipedia it says Compton's was bought by Emcyclopedia Britanica (a Chicago company) in 1961, and later sold to the Chicago Tribune. And sold many times since
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I just finished reading "Images of America - Forest Park" by Kenneth J. Knack (Arcadia publishing co. (www.arcadiapublishing.com). It is an excellent book full of hundreds of pictures of Forest Park going back to the mid 1800's. On pages 45 & 46 there are pictures of the Bloomer Girls playing at Parichy Stadium. The captions say it was located at Harlem & Harrison. There is
Forum: General Discussion

I found this from the local newspaper. Scroll down to "Thirty Years Ago..." http://www.forestparkreview.com/print.asp?ArticleID=5134&SectionID=6&SubSectionID=51 "...One man was responsible for the Bloomer Girls, an Oak Park roofer and baseball fanatic named Emery Parichy (PAR-is-she). At age 80 he was inducted into the Amateur Softball Association of America. The team
Forum: General Discussion

Try getting in tough with Gunny Harboe. He is Chicago's leading preservationist. http://www.architectmagazine.com/preservation/the-preservationist.aspx
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Geoff Baer from WTTW did a piece about those houses on his "Biking the Boulevards" show. http://www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=74,6 I think the Drexel Blvd. segment is in part 2.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)