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Try your hand at 1 question about Chicago's movie history In this series, Bite-Sized Chicago Movie Trivia , we locate a building, an object, or another type of structure in Chicago. Then, with our trusty HD video camera, we zoom in on one section of the item until it is separate from the whole. Next, we create a trivia question about the structure and its links to Chicago and movies. Clues are embedded in the question. Finally, we'll give you the answer to the trivia question — with a fun visual explanation. All of this happens in 60 seconds or less! Ready to play? Now that you know how to play Bite-Sized Chicago Movie Trivia , can you identify the above engraving, the object on which it's etched, and perhaps also its link to a movie filmed on location in Chicago in the 1980s? Click on the video below to play!

Try your hand at 1 question about Chicago's movie history In this series, Bite-Sized Chicago Movie Trivia , we locate a building, an object, or another type of structure in Chicago. Then, with our trusty HD video camera, we zoom in on one section of the item until it is separate from the whole. Next, we create a trivia question about the structure and its links to Chicago and movies. Clues are embedded in the question. Finally, we'll give you the answer to the trivia question — with a fun visual explanation. All of this happens in 60 seconds or less! Ready to play? Now that you know how to play Bite-Sized Chicago Movie Trivia , can you identify the above architectural element in Chicago? And its connection to classic Hollywood (c. 1930-1955)? Click on the video below to play, and at the same time, take a quick virtual walking tour in Chicago!

Try your hand at 1 question about Chicago's movie history In this series, Bite-Sized Chicago Movie Trivia , we locate a building, an object, or another type of structure in Chicago. Then, with our trusty HD video camera, we zoom in on one section of the item until it is separate from the whole. Next, we create a trivia question about the structure and its links to Chicago and movies. Clues are embedded in the question. Finally, we'll give you the answer to the trivia question — with a fun visual explanation. All of this happens in 60 seconds or less! Ready to play? Now that you know how to play Bite-Sized Chicago Movie Trivia , can you identify the marquee in the video below as well as a "fox" associated with it? Click on the video below to play!

In a 60-second video, discover murals in Chicago devoted to movies Murals and other forms of street art line the streets of Chicago. As of this writing, FindMASA lists more than 8,000 murals and pieces of street art in Chicago! Perhaps the most photographed is the Greetings from Chicago postcard mural, shown above. If you look closer at the mural's "G," you will spot Chicago-based entertainment in the form of Muddy Waters and the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off . Plenty of other movie-related murals greet you in Chicago too. You can find ones devoted to Hollywood’s silent era, the Blues Brothers , Dolly Parton, Quincy Jones, and Robin Williams, among others. Watch our video below for a sneak peek of Chicago's movie murals, and then locate your favorite in Chicago's Mural Registry .

Before dominating children's television in Chicago, Bozo the clown performed for Hollywood's kids Bozo the Clown’s Chicago franchise on WGN (1960-2001) is one of the most popular children's programs in television history. Less widely known is that Bozo, before starring on TV, was hired by Hollywood stars to entertain at their children’s birthday parties. ⁣ ⁣ In the images below, you can see Bozo at the 5th birthday of Ann Rutherford’s daughter, Gloria. You might know Rutherford as one of Scarlett O'Hara's sisters in Gone with the Wind or as Polly in the Andy Hardy teen comedies, costarring Mickey Rooney. ⁣ ⁣ Note the Bozo placemats, balloons, and party hats among the 67 (!!!) tiny attendees. Pictured with Bozo is Joannie Fink, the photographer’s daughter. — Photoplay , February 1950

Discover three reasons Carl Laemmle is a pioneer in film and Chicago. Born in 1867 in southwestern Germany, Carl Laemmle immigrated to the U.S. in 1884, acquired U.S. citizenship in 1889, and worked in Chicago for more than two decades.⁣ ⁣ In 1906, Carl Laemmle (pronounced LEM-LEE) entered a Chicago nickelodeon, an early storefront theatre that charged guests about a nickel to watch moving pictures. Laemmle watched as customer after customer flowed in and out of the building. With all that traffic, the 40-year-old realized that investing his savings in this new motion picture business might be a lucrative idea. Laemmle was right. ⁣ Three reasons Carl Laemmle is a pioneer in film and Chicago: ⁣ He was among the first to open movie theaters in the city. His first theatre, The White Front, opened on Milwaukee Ave. ⁣ ⁣He opened Laemmle Film Service and rented films to new theaters in major cities in the U.S. and, at one point, was the largest film distributor in America.⁣ ⁣He and other independent film producers founded Universal Pictures, which continues to make films. ⁣ To read more about Laemmle’s life in the movie business — and his complicated relationship between American and German audiences — locate his profile within the German Historical Institute’s biography project .⁣ And to learn more about Jewish pioneers in Chicago, check out our virtual walking tour below!

Take a quick look—then and now—at Chicago's Central Park Theatre. Around this time in 1917, a theater opened at 3535 W. Roosevelt Road in Chicago that would "change the moviegoing experience, in Chicago and the nation" ( Chicago Tribune , 2012). Our video below offers a quick look—then and now—at this industry-changing movie palace, the Central Park Theatre.

Technology, giving movie audiences trouble since 1920... "The Boy Scout leaders did not mess up your movie!" This was the cry heard 'round Chicago's Hamilton Park 100 years ago today. On July 2, 1920, Chicago-area Boy Scouts were having a delightful Field Day. Exhibit tents that explained their work were a highlight as was the day's schedule of events. Less successful was the evening screening of Knights of the Square Table , a movie Thomas Edison made with the Boy Scouts of America in 1917. ⁣ ⁣ According to suburban reports, the screening "was marred by the inability of the operators of the machine to produce sufficient power." What a nice way to say the New Era Film Company was incompetent!⁣ Further throwing the business under the bus, so to speak, the scout leaders exclaimed they "were in no way responsible for the disappointment" of the evening and it was those that "furnished the picture, machine, and operators" who failed to do their job.⁣ ⁣ Oh, movie technology, giving us trouble since 1920... Sources "Scouts Big Field Day at Hamilton Park." Suburbanite Economist (2 Jul 1920).

In 1896, a newly established movie company made its way to Chicago. Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière are two of the first men whom film history students learn about. Because the brothers were, by all accounts, the first to screen films to a large paying audience, they are generally considered the fathers of modern cinema. ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ In 1896, the Lumière company made its way to Chicago to film this massive Ferris wheel, which served as the centerpiece of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The ride took about 20 minutes to make two revolutions, but based on the speed of this footage, you’d think the rotation would take a couple of days! ⁣ Learn more from us about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

In the one movie she made in Chicago, the openly bisexual author-actress "bares her very soul." In February 1918, openly bisexual author Mary MacLane starred in the silent movie Men Who Have Made Love to Me , released by Chicago’s Essanay Studios.⁣ ⁣ Mary MacLane wrote her first book, The Story of Mary MacLane , at age 19. Shocking, confessional, and banned in some cities, her diary-like book sold extremely well, over 100,000 copies in the first month alone.⁣ ⁣ MacLane’s third novel caught the attention of George Spoor, who ran Essanay Studios in Chicago. The two made one movie together, Men Who Have Made Love to Me (1918), adapted for the screen by MacLane from her own short story. Like about 75% of silent films, MacLane’s 90-minute movie is now thought to be lost.⁣ In the 1920s, Mary MacLane moved to a predominately black neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, where her companion, a black artist named Harriet Williams, cared for her until her death at age 48. ⁣ ⁣⁣ Read more about Mary MacLane’s fascinating life and short-lived film career at Columbia University’s Women Film Pioneers Project . Images: Wikimedia Commons; Central Jersey Home News (24 Feb 1918).⁣