Andy, I found a really good mention of 'Medium Rare' in Jerry Stiller's book Married To Laughter, via Google Books. Check into it, hope it helps! The Happy Medium, London House and Mr. Kellys were all owned by George and Oscar Marienthal, so that's why their bookings were top-notch. One of the great things about Cy Coleman's appearance on 'Playboy's Penthouse' is hearing his version of '
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I found a mention you've probably seen, in a book called 'Show Tunes'. Don't know if you've seen it or not, but Coleman was on the first episode of 'Playboy's Penthouse' in 1959, some of which were released on DVD a few years ago. This is a segment of it that's posted on YouTube: Cy Coleman & Hugh Hefner, 1959
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Passed the building today...it looks like they wisely decided to keep the look of the original building and replaced some missing stone in the process!
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

When I was a kid staring out the window of the car, I used to notice a boarded-up passageway under the C&NW embankment along the Kennedy at the inbound ramp from Montrose. It wasn't big enough for automobiles, but had MAYFAIR imprinted in the concrete above the opening. When the expressway was redone in the '90s, it was covered over with new concrete. If you use Google Street View, you ca
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PKDickman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Mr Downtown Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Oh, I'm quite sure they were never built. It's > > always tricky for a mapmaker like me to know > what > > streets to show for a given year. I recently > did > > a map of the Union Stock Yar
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That's part of the Meyercord Company factory; they made printed decals and stickers. The main offices were in a art-deco building across the street - rounded glass-block windows, blonde brick, very streamlined.
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Here's a link to an interesting interview with some of the former workers at the Poston Brick Company in Springfield, the company that made a lot of the paving bricks: Poston Brick Company History
Forum: General Discussion

Ah yes, right you are...a directory from '66 has the 5th Avenue headquarters, a plant at 4500 W. 45th in Chicago and a plant at 4700 W. 16th in Cicero, which is still there. Is that it? The 5th Ave. building was designed by the Epstein & Sons firm and until recently still had the Hallicrafters logo on the front.
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Passed by a real nice example today around 4300 W. Division, for Rainbow Wet Wash.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Riverviewfan- By chance do you have any information on an early attraction called 'Creation'? I've seen it in postcards, but recently saw a b&w photo of the same building renamed 'War Of The Worlds' and wondered what both of those attractions were about.
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The Hallicrafters plant is on the corner of 5th Ave and Kostner. It's recently been turned into a furniture distributor after being vacant for a long time.
Forum: General Discussion

Chicago Gospel Tabernacle, 1958
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

I came across the history of the Chicago Gospel Tabernacle building at Clark, Barry & Halsted, found was one of the city's first 'megachurches' and even had a live remote broadcast every weekday morning on WLS. Interestingly, the building is still standing (the congregation moved out in 1979) and it is now used by Walgreens and Petco.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Interesting! Betty Hutton was married to Ted Briskin from 1945-1951. Briskin was part of the family that founded Revere Camera. He subsequently married a few other movie stars as well.
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The intersection of Marquette Rd. and Woodlawn Ave. has this type of signal.
Forum: General Discussion

The Hyde Park Arms is still alive and thriving. They still have the front desk cage grillwork intact too. For a while in the mid '90s one of my uncles lived at either the Ohio East or Hotel Tokyo, I can't remember which. It was a harrowing ride up the elevator to his studio room, single bare lightbulb fixture, futon, etc. As soon as you entered the front doors of the building, you got hit wi
Forum: General Discussion

Passed it on the 190 heading in from O'Hare, it was sitting in the yard beyond the River Road stop!
Forum: General Discussion

I noticed today that the library on Kimball and Foster has been demolished. There was another library building almost identical to it on the corner of Fullerton and Sheffield which was demolished in the '90s. Were these the only ones of their kind in the city?
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Neat how the east wall of the building later built on the ware yard is curved to accomodate the tracks!
Forum: General Discussion

I know exactly the spot you're talking about. I wonder if it's not a means to discourage and/or slow down traffic that would use Ardmore as a shortcut between Milwaukee and Nagle. There was a similar three-color concrete cone barrier at Keeler and Irving, to prevent cars from entering the one-way part of Keeler. On Historic Aerials, that bump-out on Ardmore shows up in the 1962 photograph.
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Does anyone know what happened to Captain54? I haven't seen him post here in quite some time...
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Thank you much. It must have been a big organization because the building is quite large. I heard an old radio commercial from 1972 for a fundraiser banquet at the Ridgeland Club; among the guests were Gale Sayers, Fergie Jenkins and Ernie Banks, with Daddy-O Daylie and Duane Dow as MCs and Jack Brickhouse as the toastmaster. Haven't come across any photos yet, though.
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Does anyone have any history or photos of the South Side Swedish Club at 7330 S. Ridgeland? It was later the Ridgeland Club and now apparently is owned by the NOI (it's just east of Mosque Maryam on Stony Island), although it's currently boarded up.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

daveg Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think Geoffrey Baer (forget what program) > mentioned there is a public bathroom building that > was built for the fair still standing in Jackson > Park. Ah yes, you're right - it's just south of the parking lot for the Crown Space Center, before you get to the Music Court by the North Pond. A Hyde Park
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The Nike missile base was on the eastern edge of the park just north of Hayes Drive, where the golf driving range is now. The radar towers were nearby, on Promontory Point. I read that when the base was being built in the early '50s, the lagoon boats were removed so I'd guess the boathouse sat unused after that until demolition. As far as I can find, the Darrow is the only intact remnant of t
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Here's a photo of the Brazil Building with part of the abutment of the bridge visible on the lower right. That's the part which was built about ten years before the fair. North Pond/Darrow Bridge This would be looking east.
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That was the Jackson Park boathouse: Jackson Park Boathouse, 1910 There was a lot of construction in the park due to the Army base, street widening, and expressway plans that ultimately didn't get built (including a bridge over the park itself). What's strange is that the road remanants are still visible on the west section, as though they weren't even removed but just covered over. Darrow
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> The bridge connecting the Illinois Building and > the Brazil Building, just south of the Gallery of > Fine Arts (now the Museum of Science and > Industry), is probably the Darrow Bridge. Yep, that's it. The map nicely shows the sidewalk that passes underneath the bridge deck on the west embankment, which is still there. It's got an interesting history - some parts were buil
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Cautiously walked across the Darrow Bridge in Jackson Park today (it's in terrible shape) and noticed the fading double yellow line in the middle. Where did this road lead, and when was it closed?
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I know the one that looks like a giant C ('Being Born') was moved to just off the intersection of Ohio and Orleans, right where the ramp ends.
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