I recently stumbled upon this amazing video of Chicago. It's part of the Prelinger Archives, a collection of advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur video from 1927 and 1987, freely available to the public via the The Internet Archive web site. The video, called "To Market, To Market", is from 1942 and details the "science" behind billboard advertising in the city. It contains some great shots of Lake Shore Drive, in addition to the L and the long lost Chicago street cars. This is the city of Chicago that my grandparents would have occupied as young adults, riding the street cars and visiting the shops depicted. That's pretty cool.
Plus, the voice over narration is hilarious. I especially love, at 3:38, how the narrator refers to the science of advertising placement as an "immutable law". Enjoy:
A few things to note about the video:
1) The elevated platform depicted at 1:35 is the current day Wilson stop on the Red Line.
2) The Paradise Theater, shown at 2:08, was torn down in 1956.
3) Street Cars in Chicago stopped running in 1958.
2 comments:
I didn't know Chicago had street cars. Thanks. I learned something new today.
Wow, those days were awesome, i still imagine all that stuff while reading and watching clips about it.
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