By Philip Vidal
Three of my Italian relatives visited Chicago for the first time last month. As I showed them around the city, I developed an even deeper appreciation of all that Chicago has to offer. We visited several places I had not been in a long time, and I discovered several places totally new to me. Their reaction to Chicago brought home to me what a wonderful city we live in, particularly as I think of all the marvelous things coming up.
We took the Chicago Architecture Center’s River Cruise, which is a great introduction to the city. Along the north branch of the Chicago River, the former Chicago Tribune Freedom Center – – the Tribune’s printing plant and headquarters at Chicago Avenue – – looked as if it has been almost completely demolished to make way for the Bally’s Casino and hotel. Our engaging Chicago Architecture Center docent mentioned plans to build a development on the former Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tracks that line the south branch of the Chicago River.
Luxury yachts and recreational boats will be featured at the inaugural Chicago International Boat Show at Navy Pier, August 21-24. Photo by Chicago International Boat Show.
Back in the 1960s, my father would take my sisters and me to see international freighters dock at Navy Pier. I also recall attending Taste of Chicago there in the 1980s, and meeting a friend and his daughter whose Great Lakes cruise boat docked on the north side of Navy Pier. Since then, Navy Pier has been transformed, and the transformation continues. When touring with my Italian relatives, I saw the new marina on the north side of the pier, which will host the inaugural Chicago International Boat Show, August 21-24.
My Italian relatives were not familiar with the hit series “The Bear,” which is filmed in Chicago, so I didn’t take them on a pilgrimage to have an Italian Beef sandwich. But they enjoy watching NBC’s “Chicago Fire” TV series, so they took a private tour of the set and several of the locations where the series is filmed.
All this reminded me that movies and TV have a long history in Chicago. The enormous Uptown Theatre at Broadway and Lawrence opened a century ago on August 18 boasting “an acre of seats in a magic city.” I have a vague recollection of seeing a movie there as a youngster with my parents in the 1960s. The theater has been vacant since a J. Geils Band concert on December 19, 1981. I went on a tour of the theater about twenty years ago and it was in bad shape. Plans to revive the theater have not panned out, but perhaps last month’s reopening of the CTA’s Lawrence Avenue Red Line station will renew interest in the theater. Find out more about the theater in historians Robert Loerzel and James A. Pierce’s recently published “The Uptown – Chicago’s Endangered Movie Palace” (CityFiles Press).
3 final movies will be shown at Jay Pritzker Pavilion before the Millennium Park Summer Film Series concludes for the year. Photo by City of Chicago.
The 9th iteration of The Music Box 70MM Film Festival runs August 8-21. Filmed in Chicago, “Backdraft” (1991) will be screened on August 17 and 18. The Millennium Park Summer Film Series on Tuesdays at Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park wraps up for the season this month. The series includes a screening of “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997) on August 5. That movie was shot in Chicago.
The Robert Altman Centennial Retrospective at the Gene Siskel Film Center continues through August 30. Altman, who directed such famous movies as “M*A*S*H,” also directed “A Wedding” (1978) that was filmed at the David Adler-designed Lester Armour House in Lake Bluff. While that movie is not part of the series, Altman’s “Gosford Park” (2001) is. It was written by Julian Fellowes who went on to pen “Downton Abbey.”
The South Side Home Movie Project honors local histories by creating an ongoing conversation in the arts with South Side generations of the past, present and future. Discover more at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts through August 24. Photo by South Side Home Movie Project.
The Logan Center for the Arts on the University of Chicago campus hosts “The Act of Recording is an Act of Love: The South Side Home Movie Project,” an exhibition with related programming and events through August 24. Jacqueline Stewart, University of Chicago professor of Cinema and Media Studies and host of “Silent Sunday Nights” on Turner Classic Movies, is the founder and director of the South Side Home Movie Project, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Learn more about Monty and Rose, a pair of Great Lakes Piping Plovers, at Newberry Library’s screening of the documentary “The World of Monty and Rose,” August 21st. Photo courtesy of the Newberry Library.
One of Chicago’s most famous celebrity couples, Monty and Rose, are the subject of the documentary film “The World of Monty and Rose” (2021) that the Newberry Library screens (free; advance registration required) on August 21 in conjunction with their exhibition “Winging It: A Brief History of Humanity’s Relationship with Birds” (through September 27). Monty and Rose were the first pair of Great Lakes Piping Plovers to successfully breed in Chicago. The endangered species hadn’t been seen in Chicago for seventy-years, so the couple created a stir when they made their nest at Montrose Beach.
Chicago-born actress Kim Novak receives the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, August 27-September 6.
My Italian relatives wanted to go to a Cubs game, but their time here was too short. The next best thing…my cousin Lucia had her first hot dog, and per Chicago tradition she did NOT have it with ketchup!
Chicago is famous for live theater companies as well as its outdoor events and festivals. As part of the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks, Lookingglass Theatre Company presents Ice Cream Circus! at five parks around the city, August 17-24, including Seneca Park, next to Lookingglass, on August 19.
The 8th annual NEXUS Chamber Music Festival “Re:newal” presents 3 different concerts this month around Chicagoland. Photo credit to Mike Grittani, Grittani Creative.
I would have liked to have introduced my cousins to the 8th annual NEXUS Chamber Music Festival “Re:newal” at Guarneri Hall (August 8 and 12), or at the Winnetka Congregational Church (August 13). I also wanted to take them to a concert at Millennium Park or Ravinia, but again there just wasn’t enough time.
Catch the last performances of the Grant Park Music Festival at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park this month! Violinist Joshua Bell and the Grant Park Orchestra take the stage on August 6. Photo credit to Sebastian Madej.
The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park and the Chicago Cultural Center host the Chicago Jazz Festival, August 28-31. Other highlights this month include: violinist Joshua Bell at the Grant Park Music Festival on August 6; Earth, Wind and Fire at Ravinia on August 7; “An Evening with Cynthia Erivo” at Ravinia on August 15; and “Carmina Burana” Grant Park Music Festival, August 15-16, which is the final concert of this season’s Grant Park Music Festival. And speaking of final concerts, August marks Cyndi Lauper’s (August 5) and Rod Stewart’s (August 8) farewell concert tours at the Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre.
Celebrating 25 years with their first museum exhibition! Over 50 artists are featured in the Design Museum of Chicago’s exhibition “Community on the Make | Arts of Life 2000 – 2025,” honoring the organization’s growth. Photo by Arts of Life.
August includes the debut of two performances and an exhibition. Chicago City Opera performs a new production of “Hansel and Gretel” as part of its first-ever Chicagoland Summer Tour at Trinity Highland Park (August 3), outdoors at Rosehill Cemetery (August 7), and at DANK Haus (August 8). Haymarket Opera Company makes its Ravinia debut on August 24 with a semi-staged production of Handel’s “Alcina” starring Nicole Cabell. Arts of Life celebrates its 25th anniversary with its first museum exhibition entitled “Community on the Make | Arts of Life 2000 – 2025” at the Design Museum of Chicago, August 11-September 30.
My cousins so enjoyed themselves that they’re already planning their next to trip to Chicago.
Dates, times, locations and availability are subject to change.
Cover image photo credit: Norman Timonera
