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Sep. 7th, 2010 09:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogI wrote a little bit about this in Facebook, but haven't had the chance to do so here.
In going through the Cinema Treasures website (www.cinematreasures.com), it seems like nearly every theatre there had, on it's page, a comment from someone saying 'Here's a picture of this theatre from nineteen eighty-whatever' and a link to American Classic Images. They all looked kind of similar; not poor quality pictures by any means, but not high-end professional architecture shots either. Just nice pictures of some pretty old buildings. I wondered what the story was behind the website and who put the collection together.
With about 400 theatres plotted in Chicago, I took a little break and looked further up the shore. In an article about a theatre in Evanston, I found the answer to my questions about those images. I have to tell you, I was floored. Those answers are here: On the Road with a Photo Hobo.
One man, Jim Marcus, spent some twenty or thirty years taking those pictures. He worked during part of the year at a seasonal job, and spent the rest of his time driving all over the country in his pickup truck, sometimes with his wife, sometimes alone, sleeping in its bed, chasing trains, questioning random strangers in random small towns about where to find the local theatres and neon signs and other vanishing Americana, and, of course, shooting pictures. Eighty thousand of them and more, on 35mm slide film.
Damn.
I very much wish I could have met this man. Sadly, he died of cancer in '89. I could have been Jim Marcus. Maybe I even will be. I really don't know where my life is going these days. But I'm so glad to have read about him and to have learned a little bit about an extraordinary life.
I think he's something of a new hero to me. He's certainly inspirational. I was starting to feel a little bit disheartened by the sheer number of places in Chicago I'm going to photograph as I work on my project, but if Jim could set out to photograph every theatre in the country (and so much more) and get that close to actually doing it, I can damn well get every one in Chicago.
On that note, I found a possible resource for theatre listings that aren't covered by Cinema Treasures, which only has movie houses and does not list legitimate theatres. Right over in Elmhurst is the Theatre Historical Society, an organization dedicated to the collection and preservation of theatre history. I do believe a field trip is in order. The museum is open on third Saturdays. Unfortunately, I'll be at Dellacon this month, but maybe next. Another option is to take an afternoon off (my team was told, post-merger, that we could each take an extra afternoon of PTO somewhere) and go out there during the week. Yeah, I think I'll do that. I may call them too; I bet they can help me compile a list of locations in Chicago.
In going through the Cinema Treasures website (www.cinematreasures.com), it seems like nearly every theatre there had, on it's page, a comment from someone saying 'Here's a picture of this theatre from nineteen eighty-whatever' and a link to American Classic Images. They all looked kind of similar; not poor quality pictures by any means, but not high-end professional architecture shots either. Just nice pictures of some pretty old buildings. I wondered what the story was behind the website and who put the collection together.
With about 400 theatres plotted in Chicago, I took a little break and looked further up the shore. In an article about a theatre in Evanston, I found the answer to my questions about those images. I have to tell you, I was floored. Those answers are here: On the Road with a Photo Hobo.
One man, Jim Marcus, spent some twenty or thirty years taking those pictures. He worked during part of the year at a seasonal job, and spent the rest of his time driving all over the country in his pickup truck, sometimes with his wife, sometimes alone, sleeping in its bed, chasing trains, questioning random strangers in random small towns about where to find the local theatres and neon signs and other vanishing Americana, and, of course, shooting pictures. Eighty thousand of them and more, on 35mm slide film.
Damn.
I very much wish I could have met this man. Sadly, he died of cancer in '89. I could have been Jim Marcus. Maybe I even will be. I really don't know where my life is going these days. But I'm so glad to have read about him and to have learned a little bit about an extraordinary life.
I think he's something of a new hero to me. He's certainly inspirational. I was starting to feel a little bit disheartened by the sheer number of places in Chicago I'm going to photograph as I work on my project, but if Jim could set out to photograph every theatre in the country (and so much more) and get that close to actually doing it, I can damn well get every one in Chicago.
On that note, I found a possible resource for theatre listings that aren't covered by Cinema Treasures, which only has movie houses and does not list legitimate theatres. Right over in Elmhurst is the Theatre Historical Society, an organization dedicated to the collection and preservation of theatre history. I do believe a field trip is in order. The museum is open on third Saturdays. Unfortunately, I'll be at Dellacon this month, but maybe next. Another option is to take an afternoon off (my team was told, post-merger, that we could each take an extra afternoon of PTO somewhere) and go out there during the week. Yeah, I think I'll do that. I may call them too; I bet they can help me compile a list of locations in Chicago.
