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Chicago's Englewood Neighborhood: At the Junction (Images of America) ReviewLast night I read that wonderful book on the Englewood neighborhood where I was raised. It was very good. I am so glad it was written.
Here are some reflections I had. I was surprised that the only photograph of Englewood High School was a partial shot in the background of another photograph. Englewood High School was a flag ship high school in America. Englewood High School was founded in 1868 or 1869 long before most cities had high schools. The building was an impressive three story structure that had a fourth and fifth floor steeple. It was one of the 1st schools in the USA to have a lunchroom and a study hall. The auditorium seated 2300 students in the main floor, balcony and gallery. There were no posts and the stage was acoustically structured so that one didn't need a microphone to speak to the entire audience. I could go on but I am surprised that it wasn't mentioned.
The information given about the theaters was probably an account from someone who was about 15 years older than me, I am 70. In the late 1940s when I went to the show often, there were six theaters: Ace, Empress, Linden, Englewood, Stratford and Southtown. They were accurate that the Stratford did have a stage shows and that Bob Hope would appear there - my mother always remembered that fondly. They also noted that the Empress had baudy shows while the Southtown was lovely. The Englewood and Linden Theaters are only casually mentioned. The Ace is not mentioned. By the 1940s when I was going, the Southtown was still lovely with ducks swimming in the pond in the lobby. The Stratford always had the most recent movies, was the most expensive and no longer had stage shows. They were inaccurate when they stated that only Stratford had stage shows as actually I saw stage shows at every theater but the Ace and Linden. The Englewood had stage shows on Saturdays and I saw Charley McCarthy and Edgar Bergen there once. The Linden now showed the blue movies. The Empress usually showed two movies and, on occasion, would have magic stage shows or something else to draw a kids audience. The Ace was a grungy theater but it usually had 3 cowboy movies, 10 cartoons and a serial like Batman or the Green Hornet. I usually went to the Ace although I did go to the Englewood, Empress or Southtown on occasion. I rarely went to the Stratford and I only went to the Linden once when I was much older. The blue movies would have an "R" rating today although they were considered quite risque then.
One of the things I had to do was walk with my mother and sisters and brother from our home at 61st and Sangamon to 69th and Wallace. That works out to be just over 1.5 miles. What made the walk miserable for me was that from 61st and Halsted to 69th and Halsted, there was a store (shop) next to each other for just about every block. My mother would stroll into the shops as we were walking and I would be left outside standing on the sidewalk watching my sisters and brothers. They weren't a bother, it was just all that standing and waiting. The walk would take at least two hours each way. I hated it. My wife has no idea of the depth of my hatred of shopping from then. Today, I go in and get what I want and I leave: I am a buyer.
The class photograph on pupils at the Beale Elementary School had kids I think I remembered. To help my memory, I scanned the photograph and sent it to a woman who I believe is in the photograph. She and her husband live in Arizona. I didn't know her very well but I knew her brother. When we were ten years old, we would play a game called "I got it" which was the reverse of "Tag." Actually, we called the game of "Tag" by the name of "it." In "I got it" the person who has "it" must run from everybody and when someone touches him, then they have "it." Well, the woman's brother had "it" one night about 10:00 p.m. They were playing in a vacant lot between the High Low Foods at 63rd and Sangamon and Czimers Meat Market which featured game animals for meat: Deer, Bear, etc. Her brother ran out of the vacant lot area (which sometimes had a carnival set up in it) where they were playing and climbed up the support to the elevated tracks for Chicago's Rapid Transit System (we called it the "El"). I wasn't there. He was being chased by several other kids I knew, he got to the top and decided to cross the tracks to the other side. As fate would have it, he tripped on the 2nd rail and fell on the 3rd rail. He was immediately electrocuted. The other guys were in shock and climbed back down wondering what to do. Several minutes later, a train came by and spread his body parts over the next two blocks al the way to Carpenter Street. When I attended his wake, I was surprised that they had an open casket and the funeral director had used plastic to fill in the missing patches of skin on his face and elsewhere. I still remember him that day. According to the woman, her parents had decided to go to the show for the first time and while they were out, the boy had sneaked out of the house. She says her parents never got over it and it totally changed their lives.
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