Chicago in the 1940s-A Film by the Chicago Board Of Education
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- čas přidán 28. 03. 2014
- Mysterious Found Footage Offers a Rare Glimpse of 1940s Chicago
JENNY XIE
MAR 19, 2014
At a recent estate sale on the south side of Chicago, Jeff Altman spotted a canister of film simply labeled "Chicago" and "Print 1." That tidbit of information was intriguing enough for Altman to drop $40 on the print.
Altman, who works in film post-production, took two weeks to inspect and fix minor issues before scanning and turning it into a digital video.
The result is this short film, a marvelous and thorough overview of 1940s Chicago, when the Wrigley and Tribune Towers were still considered modern landmarks.
In contrast to typical city promotional films, this video offers glimpses of downtown spots like Buckingham Fountain along with the city's manufacturing plants and meat-packing facilities. The footage also comes with all sorts of statistics and facts. For example, Michigan Boulevard (now Michigan Avenue) carried more than 55,000 automobiles on an average day.
Based on the credits, it appears the video was produced by the Chicago Board of Education, with an assist from United Airlines (for the aerial shots). The release date of the film has also been pinned to between 1945 and 1946. John Howatt, credited as the Business Manager of the Board in the video, was elected on January 8, 1945, and Johnnie Neblett, the narrator, died on September 15, 1946.
Altman writes that he thinks the video was meant to attract people or companies to Chicago, or perhaps as a resource in the classroom. But according to DNAInfo, a spokesman from the Chicago Board of Education said that staff haven't been able to find any reference to the film in its archives.
This film appeared on this website:
m.theatlanticcities.com/neighb...
Thank you very much for uploading this video. I was born in 1938 and lived in Chicago until 1970. One of the things most people don't notice is the abundance of Elm trees. These beautiful trees died when the Elm Bark Beetle moved through and the trees had to be replaced.
I remember as a child see the reflections of overhanging branches on the hood of our car as we drove through the residential neighborhoods. It really was such a beautiful place. Everyone took great pride in thier yards/home. People of every class.
Technically, it was "Dutch Elm Disease" (a type of fungus) that killed the elm trees. (I grew up in Oak Park just outside of Chicago when this problem started.) The Elm bark beetles did play a key role in carrying the disease from tree to tree. But the people's direct action (boring into the bark) was not what killed the trees. Also, Elm trees have interconnected root shafts and once infected a tree can transmit another tree even even without the beetles' help.
Unfortunately those trees were replaced by Siberian Elm and Silver Maple. Though fast growing, they cause issues today as they hollow out and often break during storms causing damage and power issues.
Outside of Central Park in NYC, the largest extent collection Elm trees in the. country is Grant Park. At one time these beautiful, shady trees were ubiquitous in American town and cities.
This is my grandmother's Chicago. Its like magic seeing Chicago in color from that era!
The narrator's voice - takes me back to old movies / News Reels - must have been on still in the 60's - floods with memories of - childhood - family - aunts/uncles/cousins - oh it all started out so normal :-)
Reagan economics ruined it. And civil liberties for the colored, if you were into being White. I doubt that the Blacks share the same fond memories of these times without romanticizing it like Disney's "Song of the South". Don't let it take away from your childhood memories, just give a thought once in a while to the real story now that you know better and can look back at it. But, again, Reagan ruined middleclass America for everyone. It wasn't the whites or the colored, it was Reagan and the corporations.
@@randomcomment1105 Better start with Nixon..
@@randomcomment1105 The colored wanted equal opportunity. Honestly they had it up north to a high grade, its just the tainting of few other areas in america that endured racist horrors and overshadowed the real moments with the shock value moments that the past is now seen as...
Its criminal, but that era is not known for what this video wonderfully showcased like that of a ribbon carefully caressing a sentimental christmas tree.
Same here. The narrator and music is reminiscent of old educational film reels we used to watch in the lower grades of elementary school during the mid 80s. Speaking of the narrator, he died only two years after this film was made. He was in a plane crash in Niles, IL in 1946 at only 33 years of age.
My father grew up in Chicago around this time - 716 90th Place. He left in 1949 for northern Wisconsin and in 1951 after his sister graduated from DePaul, his parents also moved there.
someone should make a split screen video showing the past and current side by side
I'm planning on it!!!
That would be a great idea.
back when Chicago was one of the greatest cities in the world.
notice the color of the people that all have common goals and values in life.
it wasn't some run-down, slum, shtt-hole like it is now.
maybe it can become another Detroit.
Not much different. Lol more potholes on lake shore drive now. Also they've painted lines on the roads to form lanes. A lot of these buildings still stand... Modern cars and different clothes..
i guess im asking the wrong place but does someone know of a method to log back into an Instagram account?
I somehow forgot my login password. I would love any help you can give me.
In response to 3:17, Chicago still is the most American of American cities. The thing that makes Chicago more American than New York City ( the 2nd most American of American cities ) is due to one simple, historical reason. And that is Chicago, as is it today, was founded after the American Revolution, by Americans of the United States of America. It was incorporated as a town in 1833 to be precise. New York City was the name given by the British, after they conquered New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, after the Duke of York himself. It was a British city for 110 years, before the American declaration of independence in 1776. From this historical reason, descends the other characteristics of Chicago that make it more American geographically, culturally and architecturally.
I'd say Philadelphia would be more American than Chicago.
Chicago was colonized by the French and spanish at one point i believe and the name is French but that's just wat i read
The name is a variation of what the Native peoples that lived in the area called it "the Onion fields".Jean Baptiste Point du Sable a trader was one of the earliest, if not "THE" earliest settlers and has a High School named after him. For further information, he was Negro and not a slave, around the 1700s. and settled at the mouth of the now called Chicago" river.
@@ivyrich2777 The name Chicago, is not French. The language has no word approximating the sound, nor spelling. The word is a indigenous word, meaning place of the wild onion. Chicago is sited in an area where there were once bogs and sand hills, with savanah, like prairies, and oak groves, stretching to the west.
Most likely this film was made as a classroom resource. At that time, all Chicago Public School students were required to take a one semester course about Chicago, including the city's history, people, form of government, etc. The course was usually taken in 8th grade or freshman year of high school.
Before white flight and blm and LGBT
@bruce basile I don't know about homophobia but that's when people were normal and life was pretty simplistic that all this bizarreness and craziness that you love so much
@@artjimeneziii8499 we still have to take chicago history in a lot of schools. idk why you're bringing irrelevant topics into discussion
We spent half of one of our history class on Chicago history in I think 6/7th grade. That would have been 2004/2005
Love seeing the years past in our city and how it has evolved. Thank you for sharing. A treasure.
Devolved
Chicago ! Has to be the most beautiful city in the World ! I grew up Here ! 🥰🙏✝️🌹I was Truly blessed
I love you CHICAGO !!i have been to some great Cities !😁😀none
Compare to to this magnificent City!! God Bless this city !!🙏🙏🙏✝️✝️✝️💜💜💜🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🙂🙂🙂🙂🥰
Oh! To have a time machine !
and let them know that are government was going to attack its citizens on 9-11 and with COVID-19
I love this video. But if it's possible, they should make a re-make of the entire video with then and now. Side by side. How it looked then and how it looks now. Filming the same locations. That would be great. I would suggest it.
czcams.com/video/PnlZ3PbIGFQ/video.html
@@ChicagoDeb Yeah! Thanks! I saw that. But it's not enough. I want to see the whole thing.
I am happy to see the Chicago of those years, the then second largest USA city. It really was majestic, according to this video. Mahalia Jackson migrated there, and we all know her fantastic contribution to the arts.
Hate to disappoint you but number three New York L.A. then Chicago, but don't dare get me wrong I lived there for years and I love it more than any other City, self-setting what it used to be, with the north side with all the pizzerias oh man, but nothing and I mean nothing like downtown, the Water tower mall , merchandise Mart, I could go on and on especially on Michigan avenue, I remember when Marshall Fields downtown used to sell guns I remember when I was a boy in the '60s I saw a shotgun for $50,000 I couldn't make sense of it how it could cost that much, how far could it shoot I thought !
They said the "then second largest us city" meaning they already know Chicago isn't second anymore
@@larrypatterson2340 Dear Larry, I enjoyed Your comment very much. I can only imagine the experiences You have from that childhood period. I visited America 2 months ago for the first time in my life, and it was Chicago. I can't get over how much I miss it now. A fantastic city, that has it all. Education, music, culture, food, architecture, leisure, sports, shopping...and unfortunately, crime.
@@larrypatterson2340 Mr.Cleland is correct. Chicago during the 40s, WAS the second largest city in the US. Los Angelos did not receive that title until the early 80s. Had Chicago sustained its incredible pace and rate of growth, from the 19th century, into the 20th century, its population and size might have rivaled NYC.
Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes are technically inland seas, given their huge sizes. Like, if you're living in the heart of America, as far away from the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Mexico as you can be, just drive a shorter distance to Lake Michigan, for example.
And the coast of Lake Michigan even feels like the coast of the sea. The amazing thing about Chicago is, it's now the 3rd largest city in the USA (2nd largest until 1984) and its main skyline fronts Lake Michigan and miles of beaches and boating marinas. You don't get that in New York City or Los Angeles do you. In those cities, you have to take a train, for 10 miles or so, to the beach.
I didn't know that. Is that really true? That you don't get that in New York City and Los Angeles. Miles of beaches, a long walk through, and we can get there pretty easy just by walking. But in New York and Los Angeles you'd have to walk almost ten miles get to the ocean front. Is that really true?
PEOPLE WERE MUCH BETTER DRESSED THAN TODAY
Lol no young men in the southside wearing saggy jeans showing their underwear and butt cracks
And in better shape.
@@Bojangles5-2 That's because kids and adults back then walked around. No fast food no smartphones and watching TV or video games lol
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and much slimmer too!
This is really awesome. A true time capsule of Cook County Contents. BTW the music at 25:00 is "Burlesque" by Jack Shaindlin.
12:46 Wow, can't believe that's Lane Tech over in Roscoe Village. It looks exactly the same now.
Thanks for posting this historical footage.
Kelly, I have some background info on one of the contributors listed in the beginning credits, Selma Jacobson, who was a friend of my parents. She was a prominent educator & probably was on the board of the Chicago Board of Ed. at the time this film was made. I knew that later on in her life she was associated with North Park College in Chgo. in some way. I'm sure biographies or obituaries are available to the public about her. After her first husband died I belive she was the woman who married G. Larson, who was my father's former business partner. By the way, this is a GREAT film, the best I've ever seen about old Chicago. I love the emphasis on the schools and hospitals because my grandfather was a builder who had contracts in the thirties to build several schools & hospital buuildings, including Chgo Vocational & parts of U of Chgo Hospial. Pass this on to the person who found the original film.
5:06 Upper right corner is one of the Navy's two practice aircraft carriers used in Lake Michigan during WW2. New pilots would fly out of Glenview NAS and do practice landings and takeoffs on those two ships. Numerous WW2 planes are still on the bottom of Lake Michigan today as a result of failed flights.
Fun to see it this way. My grandpa’s hometown. This is the Chicago he knew. His parents, my great grandparents were caretakers at Edgewater Presbyterian church at this time….they were Swedish immigrants who by this time were American citizens, and proud of my grandpa being in the Navy..I’m really lucky that they wrote their son and vice versa almost every day from 43-46 they gave such a detailed account of daily life in Chicago. Altogether it’s about 1,000 letters I have. I wrote a screenplay from them.
In the 1950s, 60s, people dressed up to go downtown. It was a wonderful city to grow up in. The Richard J Daley era, RIP.
Super find! I currently commute to Loyola Uni Chicago in my car (pre-covid) and would sometimes drive around and explore the other parts of the city for fun. Nice to see what it used to look like. I really love the buildings and technology designs of the 40s-50s, especially with the cars. Honestly though I would have preferred the more suburban scenery shown in the 40's. It's still city but plenty more trees and a sense of greenery compared to today's metal and concrete builds. Plan on moving out of Illinois later though as I am looking for a more rural place to settle down.
Beautiful! Thank You !!!!!
Also known as the windy city. I was there in 1981 on leave from great mistakes Navy training command.
One thing that makes it more American, than New York City, is the fact that's it's included in the Public Land Survey System, but New York City isn't.
20:28 Milwaukee Road tracks outside of Union Station, curving under the CNW.
Wow... this is so fascinating
All the buildings are gone!!! Its amazing how much its changed.....even since the mid 90's.....
The people who did recorded this should see chicago now they would be like holy crap what happened here now?
On the way to being a Detroit.
Sadly
Turning in to the hood
LOL you'd think there were no black people in Chicago looking at this film
It wasn’t that many. And during those times, the people didn’t and couldn’t integrate.
Nonsense, there was Bronzeville and the 63 rd and Halstead area. A quiet and safe place. We were a true city of ethnic neighborhoods.Most neighborhoods were known for the group that lived there. Some people would say they were segragated but we who lived in those places just thought that we lived among our common things and backgrounds.
@@246spyder and it worked
@@Lemondoor They didn't because of "birds of a feather" but my neighborhood was old and hell even we didn't want to live there, on a downhill slide.
Right next to the new expressway (Congress x-way later renamed Eisenhower) it destroyed a LOT of nice homes and that was the end of the neighborhood that I lived in from '45 to '58 everything went downhill fast starting in '54-'55.
@@uncleremus7380 Indeed it worked. And there were many that were middle-class. A group that my family was not a part of.
My great grandparents grandparents and parents all from Chicago my parents would have been 8 in 1940 what good people common sense and a sense of humor my ancestors had nice to see how it used to be 😊
20:34 east of LaSalle Street Station on the Rock Island.
20:00 CNW curve north of Northwestern Station
My kind of town!
24:08, look at all the garbage thrown down on the field from the bleachers at Wrigley! Now that wouldn't happen today!
15:35, 63rd and Halsted St, Englewood.
packr72 💀
It was a small version of downtown. Great place to shop, eat, and get entertained.
Now it's a ghetto
@@artjimeneziii8499 not anymore. There's a whole foods over there now. Whole foods never appear the ghetto.
@@princepauli90 true but I would not risk my life grocery shopping there next to getting shot or robbed after getting my organic food or taking my friends to eat at the chipotle restaurant there. Especially in this pandemic.
@Dave Hansen The Edgewater beach hotel is still a prominent building on the north side. It was only partially demolished. The main building with flag pole still stands:)
Thanks for the info. Sheridan and Bryn Mawr ! And all this time I thought it was demolished.
The hotel was torn down. What remains are the Edgewater Beach apartments.
That's right they have a nice market going in the summer months.
Harry Morgan Okay. Then that building that my parents went to when they were kids (the hotel with the nightclub) is now gone.
I have read that it was at the old Edgewater Beach Hotel where the baseball player Eddie Wiatkus was shot by a 19-year-old Chicago secretary (Ruth Ann Steinhagan), who had an obsession over the former Cub who then played for the Philadelphia Phillies, who were in town.
She shot him with a 22 caliber handgun. He survived, but was never the same, turning into an paranoid alcoholic who died of cancer at 53 in 1972.
The story by the way, was the inspiration for the novel "The Natural", which became one of Robert Redford's best films.
@@lmsemail Exactly. The Edgewater Hotel was not pink!
Dear Kelly and all
Someone knows where I can get the contact from Jeff Altman? Thank you
I love this city. And I’ve seen a few cities in the world.
The jaunty, bouncy tune heard the most during this film is "Petite Flirt" by Jack Shaindlin. Also at 14:07 did she just smack that guy?
Замечательный фильм о прекрасном городе великой Страны. Вся инфоструктура города, если не обращать внимание на автомобили, выглядит очень современно. А ведь прошло уже 83 года. Да Амегике есть, чем гордится в прошлом и настоящем. Любите и берегите Её, граждане США.
14:19 Is that Volta Elementary? I went there in the 90's (1990's)
15;52 Madison St and Pulaski Road. The west sides major shopping district. Now one of the most violent neighborhoods in Chicago. Store mostly gone. Madigan's was the place to go for back to school clothes.,
Ever go to Marlboro theater?
@@martycarey2784 No! Usually the State and Rockne, further west.
I was wrong it might have been shot on 16mm cine color.
The City of my grandparents.
What a heart breaker
yeah, especially when you think what politicians have done to it!
The Chicago I'm from is a warzone I have no idea what this is but looks like a movie
Because it turned in to the hood
Chicago is 30% black in 2020s
thatz my home town!!!
Mine too - sadly.
My Grandpa Francisco was born in December 3rd 1936 in Mexico Durango he was only 4 years old in 1940s and My Dad's father Pedro was born in 1935 in mexico 🇲🇽 and he's 5 years old in 1940s
Definitely shot in 1945. Theater marquee lists the '45 film, CONFLICT.
1940 s
Such a shocking video. I've watched it a dozen times at least. So much lost.
interesting.
Is this video public domain?
+Carson Menke I found it online here, which is included in the YT description of this film:
www.citylab.com/tech/2014/03/mysterious-canister-film-transports-you-back-1940s-chicago-color/8676/
It wasn't on CZcams, so I put it up. If some owner wants it taken down, I'm sure he or she will let me know. Thanks for asking Carson.
+Kelly Gerling 1940s
Ahhh Chicago.. Going on 100 years of cruise control. I think I saw my high schools. Steinmetz and Schurz!
If you're bulletproof you can visit there with no trouble today.
Sad, but true.
@@williamwebb7917Untrue! per capita not even in the top ten.
Shoot.... If I was around back then and had seen this plug, I would've hightailed it to the Chi too.
Fortunately, I was born and raised there anyway. 😉😏
2:55 this steel mill is gone oof
20:09 Capitol Limited leaving the B&O/C&O's Grand Central.
Grand Central Station was demolished in 1971.
@@jalilmuhammad8270 yes it was, some of the platforms were still there until recently when they built a new structure on the site.
Here is a related video of 1940s-era Chicago featuring 47 photos: czcams.com/video/io-nhveJKF8/video.html
Anybody catch with the narrator said when they were showing the beef at the stockyards in Chicago, he said nothing goes to waste not even to the last hair, WHAT!! Does that mean anal track, brains and hooves? So the truth comes out.
Probably for dog food
Hooves were used to make glue and gelatin. Nothing was wasted, but put to use. Illustrates just how efficient and practical Chicago once was. This was one of the reasons in grew and prospered within an incredibly short period of time.
Hot dogs
I appreciate that the film is in color. It's so interesting that way. I think it be less interesting if it wasn't in color. Was it not in color in the first place? Still! I really hope they a side by side remake of the entire film of then and now. Regardless of how hard it may be.
This is obviously real color. Try finding a film that offers a perfect faded variety of color.
Was this before the expressway(s)?
Yes, most weren't built yet
I love chicago, I wish I would have been there
❤
Hahaha
City .,it's so tiny😃😄😅
3:56
??? Before our time. A few 80 + yrs remember these.
Back when we had a civil law-abiding society. Not looking like they just rolled out of bed drunk on their way to Walmart.
I dont even live near Chicago but give me a time machine.
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Painful to see a beautiful Soldiers Field and Meigs Field before Shortshanks little Richie Daley got his rat claws on them and ruined them.
Shot in glorious 16mm Kodachrome, may be.
Could be 1948 based on the orange license plates.
Lmsemail I think it's 1945 / 1946. The plates appear orange on black which were the colors for 1945. I also spotted one that was white on brown, which was 1946. If you saw a white on black plate, most likely it was Wisconsin.
@@Tiqerboy 1945
@@WitchKing-Of-Angmar doubtful. America was still at war in 1945. Something like this would have been early post-war.
@@Tiqerboy not doubtful, and the reason why is because of the films being shown.
What happened Lightfoot? You get what you vote for.
The people who did this film should see the south side and west side now!! Lol!! What a surprise they'd see!
Actually the West Side has been going through extensive gentrification over the past 20 years. It's not as bad as it used to be in the 1980s. Now, the Humboldt Park area is an 85% Puerto Rican working class neighborhood, very safe, family friendly, and heavily gentrified. No longer subject to gang turf wars and drive-by shootings that was more commonplace in the 1980s.
Da_Fonz Well the west side was particularly hit hard by the construction of the Congress Expressway; now Eisenhower. Tens of thousands of residents were forced out, many middle and working class. Thousands of business closed, mostly small ones too. And many factories closed.
The Southside still has its enclaves though of safe areas. Bridgeport, Canaryville, Hyde Park, Kenwood, Calumet Heights, Bevèrly, and Morgan Park. The West side is fought but the West Loop is unrecognizable today and Pilsen is in the process of gentrification.
And they had slums back then too. You just don't tend to include them in a reel to kids to show them the wonders of the city.
gotwa229 kiss my ass I live 3 houses down from Humboldt park, gun shots every day, and your working class Puerto Ricans all posted up on the corner waiting to get shot..... 😋🤣
Still a great place . . . . . to be armed.
Really jarring to think about segregation as a constant reminder of the injustice in this country.
was this during the war
The lower part of the description tells all I know about the date of the film, taken from the article linked at the bottom. "The release date of the film has also been pinned to between 1945 and 1946."
More than likely.
After. Definitely '45 and '46.. The license plates on the cars are a dead giveaway, Illinois plates in '45 were Illini colors, orange on dark blue. '46 were SIU colors, white on maroon. Both were made of fiberboard, actually all Illinois plates were fiberboard from '43-'48.
All passenger plates*
🫂🌎🫂sharing
What? No Synagogue in Hyde Park or Baha'i Temple across from Northwestern? And no diversity at all in people. Chicago is known for their different ethnic neighborhoods and restaurants.
But, otherwise a pretty good video for propaganda to move your business to Chicago in the 40s. (Didn't see Motorola either).
Actually, I'm speaking about architecture...
I think they were commenting on not showing them. This reel is definitely a whitewash in more ways than one in terms of what they chose to show, it's a brag reel in a period where "diversity' was not seen as a positive. They only covered the white beaches. Not the black ones.
They showed the Temple Sholom on Lake Shore Drive, one of Chicago's oldest and best known synagogues. I remember a high school field trip to see Holy Name Cathedral, Temple Sholom and Baha'i Temple, the latter located in Wilmette, more than a mile north of NU. Motorola was still fairly new in 1940 and wasn't really established as a consumer electronics manufacturer till after WWII. Compare to Zenith, who had Chicago factories but was also wasn't a recognized brand till postwar; Western Electric was a much bigger name but its facilities were based in Cicero and other IL locations.
TheFifthDementia , thank you for being so informative. I had noticed the Synagogue also.
You can’t compare the identity of a city today to that of one which it had 75 years ago. You’re comparing two completely different and unrelated time periods.
Go to wikipedia and check out the demographics. Sad.
it is now 'bullet city.'
Fastt Ed Philadelphia's even worse
It still is a great city and always will be. The architecture, museums, parks, theatres, restaurants, churches, neighborhoods, and; of course, our Lake Michigan and lakefront beaches, and last but not least the people!!!!
Love it!! Not a snowflake in the entire reel!!!
I think literally they meant it wasn't filmed in the winter.
Eh ??
Back when teaching was taken seriously.
was not built in 25 years ....lies, those buildings are hundreds of years old if not more....
Oh, the good old days when United didn't attack people on their airplanes! xD
Yipes, so many buildings filthy from the air pollution! It got much cleaner in the 90's. Did people not care about littering in the 1940's? Maybe less people were on Lake Michigan water system and therefore less concerned about gumming up the intakes. It'd be cool to get the streetcars back. Removing those was a mistake.
Small amounts of trash along the curbs is normal in a big city, especially in a windy one like Chicago. I live in the city too and I don’t see a difference in the amount of trash on the streets.
This is what happens 'cat', when you don't give your factories to China. Not everything is an aesthetic, the real world moves around what it is built for, it isn't built off of design.
before the collapse.
I’m sorry, Michigan BLVD?!!?
Back when Chicago was a family city not the hood Gang bangers
Other than the people on the beach being too white, along with the fact they had a zoo (prison, especially for a polar bear) it looks like not a bad place to live or visit.
Remember what they took from you.
Awww the chicago BOE. Before they became terrorists.
yay for it being a dump today! wonder why?
WHITE PEOPLE IN THE GLORY YEARS !!!!!!!!!
If you attend a Chicago public school now, you're fucked.
Florida will never be like chicago
24:08, look at all the garbage thrown down on the field from the bleachers at Wrigley! Now that wouldn't happen today!
1940 s
24:08, look at all the garbage thrown down on the field from the bleachers at Wrigley! Now that wouldn't happen today!