A friend recently forwarded these links to me (thanks Donna!) of a couple of  short films which show Chicago circa 1948. They were made by MGM as part of their Traveltalks  series. This one is entitled “Chicago The Beautiful.”

The first thing that struck me about the opening shot that pans along the Michigan Avenue Cliffs, was (aside from how many of the buildings remain) how odd the “cliffs” looked without the “mountains” of International and Post-Modern structures built in the intervening years looming behind them. This is even before the Inland Steel Building (1957) or, as the camera shows as it continues panning north, the Prudential (One) Building.

I also noticed how sooty some of the buildings looked, particularly the Merchandise Mart. This was still an industrial Chicago, where coal fires burned in the boilers of most buildings and steam engines in both trains and boats weren’t entirely uncommon.

The look from the “observation tower of the Board of Trade” was edifying, and I found it fascinating to see certain buildings without any structures around them. The stunning Jewelers Building stood out even more along the river than it does today, and the shots of the “original” Adler Planetarium long before its glass addition were particularly striking.

This is such a valuable record of the city especially considering it was shot during a period where there was very little filming going on in Chicago. I’ve been obsessively going back over it and finding new details; outer Lake Shore Drive before it was extended North to Hollywood (legend tells that a “clouted” person living in the Edgewater Beach Apartments wanted to get to work earlier), how the Water Tower looks bare without the Victor Skrebneski designed gardens, and a road crew standing around doing nothing in closed down lane (some things never change!).

The second film is entitled “Nightlife In Chicago.”

Wow! People really knew how to party back then! It was quite a kick to watch that short, having heard the tales of those who had experienced these places. I now see why they get a little misty eyed when relating those stories.

What was your favorite thing about these films? What struck you as odd? Please share your thoughts in the comment section.