Continuing with the “Favorite Photo Series,” this week we have a favorite from Arlene Lane (of Cook Memorial Public Library) – The Liberty Theatre.  Arlene has several good stories about the Theatre, so read on!

“Although the building was “modernized” at a later date, this photo shows the original Art Moderne style designed by E. P. Rupert in the late 1930s. The façade was cream colored stucco smartly trimmed in dark blue. The Liberty’s claim to fame is of course the fact that Marlon Brando was an usher there between 1939 and 1941. According to folks who knew Marlon, he was a good kid, but always rebellious and a big practical jokester. Apparently Marlon did not like to wear the long-sleeved white shirt under his theater uniform, so he cut around the collar creating a dickey that fit only around the jacket opening. When the manager found out he fired Marlon. In retaliation Marlon put foul smelling cheese and rotten food in the air conditioning vents before departing. When the air was turned on for the evening shows, the smell drove everyone out of the theater in a hurry.”

And, not quite as amusing, but full of possibilities, Arlene told me about the air conditioning too:

” This early system was quite large, filling a whole corner of the building. Coils in the unit were cooled by water pumped from an artesian well that is between 400 and 600 feet deep and still exists in the old unit. After the air was cooled it was pushed into a large T-shaped tunnel under the theater and up through floor vents. The tunnel is large enough to walk/crawl though and has connecting exits and passages. It has been the seed of urban legends about secret tunnels under the town that get longer and more mysterious with each telling – Someone asked me just last year about the hidden tunnel that connects the theater to Cook House, three blocks away. When I look at this postcard and the “Cool Air Conditioned” sign, I always smile.”

Thanks, Arlene!

My personal memory of the Liberty Theatre is this is where I went to see the first showing of the first Harry Potter flick! It was VERY exciting! If you have any of your own memories of the Liberty Theatre to share, drop us a comment below!

Recently I asked the Digital Past participants for their favorite image in their collection. Anne Shaughnessy of Mount Prospect sent me to this image of Main Street, 1917.  Anne pointed out that it shows Mount Prospect’s Main Street (now Route 83 at this particular point) just north of Central Road. She continues “It reveals how much Mount Prospect and all the northwest “suburbs” were once really part of the country.  The road is unpaved and rutted, there are some cultivated fields, but the only sign of “development” are the telephone pole and wires.  The scene is somewhat appealing yet daunting.  It helps remind us that our area was once really part of the earth–not just concrete and asphalt.” I couldn’t agree more, Anne! She also mentioned that it wasn’t until the mid-1920’s that the roads were paved.

Do you have  a current photo of this area of Mount Prospect? If so, be sure to upload it to this record so we can all see the difference!

Since we had football uniforms last week, how about cheerleaders this week?

First up, I think the mysterious photo from last week is now explained, same gal…apparently a cheerleader. NOW it all makes sense!

And then from Lake Forest Academy,  we have the squads from:

• 1954
• 1965
• 1973
• 1983
• 1992

And from 1990, we even have a squad from Huntley!

For those coming down from their SuperBowl highs, I thought this week we’d see what kind of football uniforms we could dig up in Digital Past.  First, out of uniform, we have a photo of 3 Chicago Bears (including Mike Ditka) attending a sports banquet at Lake Forest Academy. Also, from the Academy, we have a photo of the 1880s team and the 1894 football team! In the same timeframe, we have the Andrews Wire Company team from Rockford. Check out those uniforms! You can compare them to those worn by the 1920s era Arlington Heights High School team. There’s also the 1938 AHS team, 1939 AHS team, and  1941 AHS team! A year later, from 1942, we have a picture of William G. Simon Jr in his football uniform. For further comparison, we have the 1960s Fort Sheridan team. Getting closer to what we’re used to now, there’s the Academy’s 1952 team on the field. Is that the coach or a ref in that white uniform up front? And one more comparison point from 1978 of the Academy’s Caxy team at work. And to end our football uniform meander through time, there’s this curious image from Ft Sheridan. Wish I knew the story behind that one…

Although we don’t have a lot of Valentine’s Day stuff in Digital Past, what we do have gives you an interesting looking into times past.

From 1984, we have some classifieds from the Concerned Citizens Commitment, a local African-American newspaper. We find sentiments such as “To Rose, I Love You, The Cherokee” or “Dimples, Love ya, Peppermint Patty.”

1960 brought us some sweet greetings from the Park Ridge School for Girls: “Won’t you be my Valentine? I need someone to care – Someone whose heart is warm and kind Whose Blessings I may share. ” (zoom in to read the entire poem) Apparently these Valentine’s card were used to update patrons on the work of the school and to fund raise. Was this an orphanage? I don’t know…leave a comment if you do!

From 1944, we have the Valentine’s Edition of The Rays, a newsletter filled with letters home from WWII servicemen, plus various other interesting pieces and poetry such as “My luve is like a red, red rose, that’s newly sprung in June.” In 1945, we also have newspaper articles about servicemen calling home with “Valentine greetings.”

From the early 1900s we have a postcard “Be My Valentine” with a rather cross looking angel. Looks more Christmas-y to me, but what do I know?

From the way way past (1840s), we have a notation in a diary during the Civil War “Recd letter and valentine”.

My great aunt was an avid postcard collector and she had one heck of a sense of humor! She LOVED the funny cartoon cards she’d find while traveling and would often send those instead of a more scenic card.  As a kid in the country, nothing was more exciting than when the mail came and if you got a funny card from Aunt Ethel, all the better!

Needless to say I was absolutely tickled to find a lot of these old funny cards at the Lake County Discovery Museum’s Curt Teich Postcard Archives. They are by Ray Walters and many can be found here on Digital Past.  They are not all fish related, but most of us know a fish story when we see it, so today, we focus on fish! So, gear up your funny bone for some funny fish cards!

Come On Up–The Fishin’s Great on Lake Texoma. This is Only a Minnow.

This One Almost Got Away

You’ll Be Surprised!

I Am Sending This to Prove My Fish Story. You Know the Stroy, They Grow Them Big in Northern Minnesota

I Had Some Trouble to Land This One.

Here’s Where Fish are Fish!

Hope you enjoyed our fish story!

Milk cows and the Chicago suburbs aren’t a common association today, but “back in the old days” there were huge dairy farms, creameries, butter and cheese factories everywhere.  The land was spotted with Holsteins, Jerseys, Guernseys, Brown Swiss, and all sorts of mixes of just good solid milk cows, along with beef cattle, horses, goats, pigs, sheep…

Remember, cows have to be milked daily and the milk had to be taken care of that day, in some manner whether used straight or churned into butter or made into cheese, etc. AND if you only had a horse and cart, or sometimes, a dog and cart, you couldn’t travel very far every day to sell your milk so creameries were everywhere.  While browsing through the Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois (some of which is available in the Dundee Collection here),  I saw mention of several cheese factories in Arlington Heights and Barrington, among other places. Now, maybe there still are some in those areas, I really don’t know – if you do, please leave a comment!

Having a history of farmers and cheesemakers in my own family, I appreciate the effort involved every time I sit down with a glass of milk and a cookie or some cheese and crackers. So, today we shine the spotlight on the milk industry on Digital Past!

There was a lot to choose from, everything from the cows themselves to milk cans to wagons to trucks to buildings.  In a search for “Dairy,”  I found a photo of the Fred H Witt Dairy wagon in Wilmette, a postcard of the Oaklawn Dairy near Morrison (note the cute cowherd & his dog to the left), and another of the Model Dairy Barn and Part of the Holstein Herd in Mooseheart. As I dug further, I found the Mount Prospect Creamery Company truck.  There was also a lithograph of the Elgin Butter Company. Lots of postcards and photos of local creameries: Forest Glen Creamery in Round Lake, Edwardsville Creamery Company, Lake Zurich Creamery, Mount Prospect Creamery Company, Hawthorne Mellody Farms Dairy in Libertyville,  Danville Dairy Plant, and how could we forget the Borden Company in Elgin! And still another aspect of the whole business – the milk cans! Bray & Kates in Arlington Heights manufactured milk cans.

Time for some hot chocolate, made from scratch, anyone?

Yes, we have a lot of military history here at Digital Past – from the Civil War to the more recent conflicts.  Today, we feature the Cold War and the Nike missiles and bases.

Project Nike was a U. S. Army project that started in 1945 as an anti-aircraft defense system. It was named after the Greek goddess Nike, the divine charioteer, who personifies victory. They were built as a last line of defense against air attack and were used to protect cities, as well, as military targets. Each launch site had 3 parts, at least 1000 yards apart. One part was used to detect incoming targets and direct the interception. A second part held the missiles and the third was the administrative area that housed the staff. Usually these were built on existing military installations or National Guard armories. However, sometimes land had to be purchased. 1965 marked the beginning of the end for the Nike missiles though and all sites were deactivated by 1974.  There is a Nike Historical Society if you want to know more about the program, but here on Digital Past, we have some great photos from our participants, Arlington Heights and Lake County Discovery Museum.

Arlington Heights has the largest collection of Nike-related photos from the radar tower construction to the completed headquarters to 5 radar towers (with helicopter!) to the disassembling of the domes.  The Arlington Heights Historical Museum provides the following history of that land: “In 1942, the Navy requested 360 acres at the corner of Central and Wilke Roads in Arlington Heights, Illinois for an auxiliary air training field. An airplane hanger and housing for up to 150 men began in 1943 and in May 1945, this air base become a camp for 75 German prisoners of war working at Glenview Naval Air Station. After World War II, the property was leased as a private air field and trailer camp. In January 1955, the Army took over the property as the headquarters for the 45th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Brigade and it became a Nike missile defense base. The site was also used for a long-range air defense radar unit with five radar towers constructed in 1960. In 1979, 103 acres of the Nike site were given to the Arlington Heights Park District and Arlington Lakes Golf Course was built. By 1994, the 12th Special Forces (Airborne) Green Berets unit had been deactivated leaving only three military units still stationed in Arlington Heights.”

Lake County Discovery Museum has some Nike-related items from Fort Sheridan, including this shot of the Nike Guided Missile Repair Shop,  a missile during installation, a Nike Ajax missile installed, a row of Nike Ajax missiles , and even a color shot of the missiles on the launch pad!

If you know more about Nike missiles and installations than I’ve been able to research, please feel free to tell us in the comments!

One of the newer collections here on Digital Past is from the Archives and the University of St Mary of the Lake in Mundelein. Their first contribution is a collection of about 1,000 images from the 28th International Eucharistic Congress held there and throughout Chicagoland in 1926.  The Congress was the largest religious gathering in modern history.  There is a nice post about it on Illuminating Lake County, if you want to know more about it.The collection is a real snapshot of the experience, sure there are lots of people kissing Cardinal’s rings, groups of cardinals and bishops, the procession,  crowds, and photos of Solider Field filled to the gills, but there are also shots of train stations in Chicago filled with people or the train station in Mundelein, the arrival of the South American filled with pilgrims from Boston and being pulled by a tug up the Chicago River, fainting women, the US Army Cavalry, police officers trying to hold back the crowd, a line of parked cars, people climbing over fences, the groundskeeper cleaning up, and a bird’s nest! This is an amazing collection, not only for those in religious studies, but also anyone interested in clothing styles, old cars/trains/boats, Chicago history, Mundelein history, or even policemen! Be sure to check it out!

While sifting through the collections here on Digital Past, I found this cute photo of a soldier and his pet squirrel from Fort Sheridan. Apparently the squirrel wants to get big and strong as he’s trying to eat the “Multiple Vitamin” bottle.  Alas, we don’t know the soldier, but if you do, please leave us a comment!

I had to look further! Check it out – a pet fox at Fort Sheridan. How cute is that? Needless to say pets were important to these guys, check out how many it takes to get this little guy’s photo!

We mustn’t forget the more “normal” pets, like this little puppy or cute Siamese kitten! And then the very close relationships between the soldiers and their horses, but that’s another post!

What a cute way to start the new year!