Thanks for bringing this up, Jeff. I went by there a lot as a kid (family lived nearby) and I distinctly remember the brick tower on the building at Addison & California being taken down, some time in the mid-80s. In the link you posted, you can see the tower in the photo taken from the trolley bus turnaround. By the way, near the spur that ran in front of this building, there was a flagp
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

That three-story building on Kedzie & Elston was recently demolished. I remember it being a country & western bar when I was a kid, and then most recently it was a paint and decorating store. The paint store had an interesting animated neon sign mounted on the north side of the building.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Haven't found the grave, but I looked at the 1971 obituary...holy cow, they took from the WGN Studios on Bradley all the way over to Loretto Hospital when he had his heart attack? That's over 10 miles!
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Here's the High Low on E 63rd: Woodlawn High Low
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I was doing some searching around and found that the High Low at 1210 E 63rd (just east of Woodlawn Ave) was previously a nightclub called Anne Millstone's Rendezvous. It looks like the club changed names by 1957, because Chuck Berry played at the Stage Lounge at this same address. I've got no idea when it became a grocery store.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

A photo with the EKCO factory - probably early '60s: EKCO Factory, '60s
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Hugh Hefner's predecessor to Playboy After Dark was broadcast here on WBKB (Balaban & Katz's TV station, later became WBBM-TV), called Playboy's Penthouse. The set was made to look as though you were in Hef's apartment and the first episode featured Lenny Bruce, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Cy Coleman, who wrote the theme song.
Forum: General Discussion

My favorite: Melrose peppers, with some good bread and sharp provolone. South Shore lays claim to the invention of creamy garlic salad dressing, at Alexanders Steak House off of 79th, so famous that Nicky Hilton was said to have flown containers of it out to Beverly Hills for his wedding to Liz Taylor.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I found a Trib article from April 14, 1969 that describes a massive grain elevator fire at that location. The article said that the elevator was the last grain elevator in the city served exclusively by railroad and that it was owned by Gerstenberg & Co. The structure was severely damaged and the embers started grass fires at 50th & Halsted.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Fantastic! It's bigger than I remember it being, too.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

The only place I found reference to it was in a book on serial killers that said Rignall was left by the Alexander Hamilton statue, which is close to Diversey.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

What exactly does that phrase mean? I heard it in a musical scene from a rock and roll movie from 1957. The band was from Memphis and the movie was filmed in Dallas so the phrase was at least regional... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0QrggYv13I
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I do not, but my mother grew up in the neighborhood and said that her mother used to shop there. She didn't remember the name in particular, however. The Crystal was their preferred theater, although the much-smaller Queen was closer to their house at the time. And, in keeping with the shopping habits of the time, she mentioned that they rarely crossed Western nor California to buy grocerie
Forum: General Discussion

Excellent - thanks Dunning!
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Hi - which building is it?
Forum: General Discussion

I remember that small building - it was brick, somewhat art deco, and had station identifier letters on it that were obscured by overgrown brush. Was it something like WOPC or something?
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

There was an upstairs place called Bieg's Bowl on Milwaukee near Montrose that burned down in the '90s.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

My childhood dentist's office was in the Skil building. I distinctly remember that one of the elevator buttons read 'SKIL' instead of the floor number.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Wasn't it Coach And Six?
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Hey Ringo, good to see another Don on here! So the Tribune said that Mill Run was demolished in '84 for expansion of the mall. Wasn't the theater on the very northern end of the mall? It doesn't look like anything went up in its place except for the parking lot.
Forum: General Discussion

There was a thread here about the Klaus Department Store that has some mentions of Kaufman's and a couple of photos of the intersection in the early '60s. http://forgottenchicago.com/forum/1/1757/page=2/_subject_
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Check the Southtown Economist from December 1942 (via Newspapers.com) - there's a wedding announcement that mentions an Emmet Vaile, living on 61st Pl.
Forum: General Discussion

There are some tracks starting to poke through at the old turnaround just south of the corner of 63rd & MLK, east to Vernon.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Add to that asbestos, knob-and-tube wiring and still-connected gas lighting lines and it's a wonder we just don't demolish it all and start all over!
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I believe one of the family members is Don Glut, now a successful science fiction writer, filmmaker and at one time, bass player in a band out of Los Angeles called Penny Arkade that was produced by Mike Nesmith of The Monkees.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I found a brief mention in the Tribune from 1949 about the sale of the hotel from one owner to another. It says that the hotel, which had 67 rooms, was 55 years old at the time and had been remodeled in 1944. As far as the organized crime aspect of your story - South Shore was home to many crime figures, both well-known and less-so, so perhaps her recollections tie in with that in some way.
Forum: General Discussion

Thanks for reviving this thread - I have since found that the name of the Chinese restaurant was Genghis Khan. Before that, though, it was a Mexican restaurant called Joe's La Siesta, which was mentioned in one of Jory Graham's guidebooks to Chicago.
Forum: General Discussion

Yeah, he was a Greek gentleman. Sometimes we'd see him over near Lee and Algonquin too, and I remember that he got arrested for being a public nuisance.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I believe the original Orchard Field was just a grass strip so there probably wasn't much of an official entrance. During the war, the main gate to the Douglas factory was on Mannheim Rd. (now called Old Mannheim), and there was a secondary gate on the Higgins Rd. side. Those gates remained in use as gates to the Air Force facility pretty much up until the base closure in the '90s. There is
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Interesting. I'm wondering if perhaps Geo. Schmidt contracted out the concessions to Gordon, then. Sam also ran concessions for circuses, amusement parks and ballrooms in Florida.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)