Join us the 2nd Tuesday of the month at the Hideout for our new series, CFA CRASHERS! At CFA we are constantly inspired by the sea of talented individuals who call Chicagoland their home. In our upcoming CFA CRASHERS series, we are inviting some of our favorite locals into our vault to curate a film program all their own (absolutely no rules or strings attached). The general motivation behind the series is to have a lot of different communities and voices engaging with our materials, as we’re increasingly interested in collaborating with those who are eager to mix it up with the CFA films in ways not thought of before. Beginning this August, a guest programmer (aka “Crasher”) will introduce a screening of their making over happy hour at the Hideout. All films will be presented in 16mm.
This October we are delighted to have Lee Bey with us to share his archival findings, which he’s titled “From MidCentury Chicago, with Love (and Commercial Breaks)” – two short films with two commercials that, together, capture architectural, political and social ups and downs of Chicago at mid-century.
Architecture Critic, Lee Bey, is one of Chicago’s keenest observers of architecture and urban planning. For four years he published the WBEZ blog, “Beyond the Boat Tour,” and before that he worked at the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Central Area Committee and was Deputy Chief of Staff for Planning and Design for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Today, Bey is civic engagement and special projects manager at the Arts Incubator with The University of Chicago Arts and Public Life Initiative, where he manages strategic initiatives and partnerships with arts organizations, community groups and civic leaders.
And here’s what Lee has to say about his program:
“I’m endlessly fascinated by midcentury Chicago. Here is this big American city struggling to find itself—to remake and rebuild itself—as it deals with some of the heaviest social, political and racial problems of our time. The result is often two Chicagos: The creative, beautiful and ingenious Chicago that leaves it stamp on the world; and that other Chicago, where the results of poverty, racism and gross inequities are apparent. When put together, these four great short films from the CFA library capture both Chicagos. Ad firm’s Foote Cone Belding’s 25th anniversary shows Chicago’s contribution to the Mad Men-era ad game. Chicago Mural: Midwest Metropolis is a colorful, tongue-in-cheek love letter to the beautiful city. Endorsement, is a brief campaign ad by a Republican candidate for Cook County State’s Attorney who’d later win the seat by appealing to African-American voters. A Place to Live is a film designed to put a kinder face on 1960s urban renewal policies. These films show the architectural, political and social ups and downs of Chicago at mid-century. And these same issues play out today.”
Foote Cone Belding’s 25th anniversary (1967, Goldsholl Design & Film Associates, 16mm., Color, Sound, 4min., found in CFA’s Mort & Millie Goldsholl Collection)
A sponsored film made by Goldsholl Associate for Foote, Cone & Belding, a Chicago-based advertising firm founded in 1942. The film celebrates the firm’s 25th anniversary through a collage of print ad work the film created throughout the years.
Chicago Mural: Midwest Metropolis (circa 1960, Gordon Weisenborn, 16mm., Color, Sound, 26 min., found in CFA’s Jack Behrend Collection)
A tongue-in-cheek promotional film made by documentary filmmaker Gordon Weisenborn (1923-1987) for the Sperry and Hutchinson Company, who operated the S&H Green Stamps retail loyalty reward program within the US. Customers would receive these trading stamps at the checkout counter of supermarkets, department stores, and gasoline stations among other retailers, which could be redeemed for products in the S&H rewards catalog. The films narrator highlights many of our city’s downtown and lake front attractions, including a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago and shopping down Michigan Avenue, where original viewers would have been more likely to acquire their prized S&H Green Stamps.
Bernard Carey “Endorsement” (1972, 16mm., Color, Sound, 1 min., found in CFA’s Chuck Olin Collection)
TV campaign spot for Republican politician Bernard Carey.
A Place to Live (1968, DeWitt Beall, 16 mm, color, sound, 28 min., found in CFA’s DeWitt Beall Collection)
A City of Chicago sponsored film commissioned by Lewis W. Hill for the Department of Urban Renewal. The film attempts to defend the city’s redevelopment plan for residential and commercial urban renewal, and explains how relocation officers can assist those who have been recently displaced. As the narrator succinctly states, ‘We are tearing down what stands in the way of a better city. Some buildings must go simply because they occupy space needed for something else, but for the most part, it’s the worn out areas of the city that are making way for the new.’ Recently displaced home owners are interviewed, expressing their distaste of the urban renewal process. The film explains how the city will help these displaced home owners, by use of a good relocation officer from the Department of Urban Renewal.