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Chicago Film/History Fans Will Have TWO Final Chances To Catch My Hollywood On Lake Michigan, 2nd Edition Presentation This Week:

Wednesday, July 8— 7PM
Palatine Public Library
700 N. North Court
Palatine, IL 60067
https://il.evanced.info/palatine/lib/eventsignup.asp?ID=11869

Thursday, July 9— 7PM
Wood Dale Public Library
520 N. Wood Dale Road
Wood Dale, IL 60191
http://wooddalelibrary.evanced.info/eventsignup.asp?ID=7532

In another incredibly huge honor, Hollywood On Lake Michigan, 2nd Edition has been selected to be one the books included in the 2014 Illinois Reads Program!

Illinois Reads is a statewide program to promote reading amongst all Illinois citizens. It is under the auspices of  the  Illinois Reading Council and in conjunction with the Illinois State Library, State Librarian and Honorary Chair Jesse White (whose Secretary Of State Office funds the literacy effort under which I volunteer tutor).

I can’t begin to state how excited I am by this development. As a volunteer ESL/ABE tutor, Universal Literacy is a cause near and dear to me, so this is an especially heartfelt honor. It is also wonderful for the book itself, which I had hoped would become a textbook of sorts, and this definitely puts it well on the way to that status.

Many thanks to The Illinois Reading Council, my co-author Arnie Bernstein, my publisher Chicago Review Press, the State Library and Librarian, and anyone else who had a hand in the section process. I’m greatly looking forward to the festivities and kickoff ceremony on Wednesday, March 12 down in Springfield!

Kevin’s Movie Corner has an excellent review of Hollywood On Lake Michigan, 2nd Edition. Check it out here!

I especially enjoy the fact that he had read the original edition and loved the additions I made and the extra material that Arnie put in the history section:

http://kevinsmoviecorner.blogspot.com/2013/12/book-review-hollywood-on-lake-michigan.html

I am extremely honored to announce that I am speaking at Chicago Book Expo. It is a major gathering of Chicago Writers and Independent Publishers and I can’t begin to describe how pleased I am to be a part of it.

Chicago Book Expo

Sunday, November 24

St Augustine College, 1345 W Argyle.

 The event starts at 11AM and I’ll be presenting from 2:30-3:30

It will be such a kick to do my HOLM 2 presentation in the old Essanay Studio Buildings- which were the site of one of the first movie studios on earth. And to be in the company of such fine authors and publishers makes it an even bigger thrill.

You really ought to stop on by because I will be in Full Expounding Mode!!!

Arnie Bernstein will be there as well talking about his fantastic new book, Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German American Bund.

Here is the ABC 7 News segment featuring me discussing Hollywood On Lake Michigan, 2nd Edition and Chicago Film. I couldn’t be more pleased with how well it turned out. Enjoy!!!

WOW! I watch the ABC 7 News At 4 pretty regularly and it was SUCH a surreal and wonderful experience to see ME suddenly appear on screen in the midst of such a well done piece of work. Incredibly reifying!!!

A big thanks to Producer Marsha Jordan for her kindness and general awesomeness. And a huge shout out to Tonya Davis for a brilliant editing job!!!

Part 2 will be airing at some point in the future. Stay tuned for details!

Another blogger positively reviewed HOLM 2- but this one inadvertently “outed” me with a link on my name so I might as well just come clean about it. When I was VERY young and impressionable…uhhhhm this is sooo embarrassing… I was a Civil War General.

There, I feel SOOO much better now that I got that off my chest!

http://journeysinclassicfilm.com/2013/09/23/hollywood-on-lake-michigan-100-years-of-chicago-and-the-movies/#more-4892

Confession really is good for the soul!

The love for Hollywood On Lake Michigan, 2nd Edition keeps on flowing with two more great reviews!!!

The first one is in the online entertainment journal Pop Matters and was written by Brendan William Boyle. Brendan gives the book 8 out of 10 stars!

Click here for the Pop Matters review.

The second was done by film blogger Aurora on her classic movie site Once Upon A Screen (aka Aurora’s Gin Joint). Aurora gives a great review of the book and even had a book giveaway! (My apologies to those who missed out on it for my procrastination in not posting this here earlier)

Click here for Aurora’s review.

Kartemquin Korner is a regular series spotlighting the efforts of Kartemquin Films, the best documentary producing collective this side of the spiral arm of the galaxy. Much of this particular piece is excerpted from the large Kartemquin section in Hollywood On Lake Michigan, 2nd Edition.

At The Death House Door (2008)

Click on this picture to order At The Death House Door.

Although they are most known for the legendary film, Hoop Dreams (1994), which they directed and produced together with Frederick Marx, Steve James and Peter Gilbert also share co-producer and co-director duties on this brilliant collaboration. In addition, Gilbert handles director of photography duties and James is co-editor (with Aaron Wickenden). Wickenden and Zak Piper are co-producers and the executive producers are Gordon Quinn, Christine Lubrano, Debbie DeMontreux, Evan Shapiro, and Allison Bourke.

Gilbert (left) and James pose with their camera in the cemetery where many of the convicted men were buried. The sequence where Pickett walks through this graveyard pointing out those whom he ministered to is one of the film’s more powerful moments.

At The Death House Door tells the story of Carroll Pickett, a prison chaplain in Huntsville, Texas, who presided over ninety-five executions during a fifteen-year period. Having no one he could share his emotional burden with, Pickett made cassette-tape recordings of his thoughts and impressions of each individual execution, describing the entire day (which Pickett would spend with each condemned man from 6 am until they were killed at midnight) in vivid detail.

Carroll Pickett sits with some of the tapes he recorded during his time as minister to the condemned men. He had not listened to any of these tapes until the making of this film.

Several interconnected threads tie the film together: footage of Pickett recounting his life and experiences to the camera, shots of him listening to his tapes (none of which he had listened to since recording them), Pickett’s visit to the prison cemetery where all the condemned men were buried, interviews with his adult children, friends, and colleagues, and a birthday party for Pickett attended by his children. Also woven into the narrative are two Chicago Tribune reporters investigating a story about Carlos De Luna, an executed man who was almost undoubtedly innocent (a sentiment shared by Pickett at the time, which he reveals in a meeting with the two journalists), and the story of De Luna’s sister, who becomes inspired by the injustice foisted upon her brother to become an activist against the death penalty.

One of the series of Chicago Tribune stories filed by reporters Steve Mills and Maurice Possley which provided much evidence to exonerate De Luna, unfortunately too late to save him.

All of these elements are artfully combined into what is one of the most powerful documentary films (or any other category of film or narrative form) ever made. And despite the fact that one can’t watch this film without becoming convinced that there is something seriously wrong with America’s prison system in general and the death penalty in particular, all political issues are superseded by the story of Carroll Pickett, a man who willingly endured unspeakable emotional agony and torment because of his ministerial calling and strong religious faith. A man who is undoubtedly a “Christian” in the purest sense.

Whatever your political, social, or religious beliefs may be; if you are not deeply moved by this film you really ought to seek help from a trained psychiatric professional.

I forgot to draw attention to this nice little mention of Hollywood On Lake Michigan, 2nd Edition on the website Pure Wow. It was posted in June by writer/journalist Lara Levitan:

Check out the piece here.

Have you bought it yet? Well get on it, Internet!!!

Arnie and I had a wonderful time with Bill Moller on WGN-AM yesterday. Have a listen!

Here we are in the fishbowl studio on the ground floor of the Tribune Tower, which was a fabulously Chicago-esque experience.

Bill kept the two of us on our toes by occasionally asking each of us questions from the other person’s knowledge base, but that was a nice change of pace. My voice was sounding OK but I have GOT to cut down on my UHMMs and AHHs, which will happen as I get more acclimated to these interview deals. I can’t wait to do a long form interview some time where I don’t have to be so conscious about cramming the point in before time runs out.

After the interview Arnie and I got our picture taken with The Twinkie Kid and headed underground for a breakfast Cheezborger at The Billy Goat. A quintessentially Chicago morning!