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(More customer reviews)What a delightful gripper this book is, chock full of impressive facts and tasty trivia rolled into a well researched sampler that's part cinematic history, part travel guide. You can thumb through for location addresses set off in bold type, followed by brief descriptions of the films associated with each, and then you can plan a proper movie maniac's pilgrimage. Just don't expect directions to private residences: You won't get to ring the doorbell where Macaulay Culkin was left "Home Alone" (1990) or hang out at the house where Tom Cruise ran his "Risky Business" (1983). You can, however, eat breakfast where Timothy Hutton and Dinah Manoff met for coffee in "Ordinary People" (1980) or have a "cheezbooga, cheezbooga" at the Billy Goat Tavern, made famous by John Belushi on "Saturday Night Live" and revisited in his 1981 romantic comedy "Continental Divide."
Bernstein delves into the early years of moviemaking, before Hollywood's crass monopolization of it, when the burgeoning film industry was nurtured in Chicago. Among the developmental milestones: the invention of the first cameras and projectors, the establishment of two of the world's first film studios, the practice of creating movie adaptations out of contemporary news events, the first African-American owned and operated film productions in the United States, the genesis of the independent film community, the weekly film serial, and the gore flick that typified the drive-in era.
The book covers an amazing list of films and TV shows shot in Chicago and traces the contributions to celluloid history by actors, writers, and directors who have roots in the city -- an illustrious roster too long to post here. Rounding out this special chronicle are interviews, film profiles, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of a specialized Chicago art, the innovative technology it demanded, the visionary gumption that birthed an industry, and the tough dreamers behind it all.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Hollywood on Lake Michigan: 100 Years of Chicago & the Movies (Illinois)
Author Arnie Bernstein combines history, site guide,trivia, photos, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, and celebrity interviewsto chronicle (for the first time) the significant contributions ofChicago and Chicagoans to a century of American filmmaking. AmongChicagos unique honors in this history are the development ofearly film technology, home to the first African American owned andoperated film studios, the production site of one in five moviesduring the silent film era, the birthplace of "slasher" flics, theorigination and growth of movie palaces and related theater amenities,the Second City, Goodman, and Steppenwolf theaters as the trainingground for comedic and dramatic talent, and the current support forindependent filmmaking (e.g. Hoop Dreams, Go Fish, Soul Food, lovejones) and television series (Early Edition, Cupid, Turks).
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