When Uptown Was "Hollywood On The Prairie"

The Tribune has a "flashback" article about the time when Chicago, including Uptown, was the heart of the movie-making industry.  I wonder how many of us realize when we go to Dib, we're eating at the site that Charlie Chaplin once called home ... or that Broncho Billy Playlot pays homage to a movie star (and the "Ay" in Essenay Studios)?

"Lured from the West Coast by a salary of $1,250 per week, a veritable king's ransom, Chaplin made a film appropriately titled "His New Job," at the Essanay Studio on Argyle Street. He initially lived with the studio owner's family in an apartment at Kenmore and Lawrence Avenues. There was a baby and a Christmas tree. It seemed like Chaplin, who came from a dysfunctional family and spent time in an orphanage, had found a home in Chicago."

Read the entire article here.