Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Vintage Billboards Of Uptown & Chicago

You've got to watch quick, but from the 1:45 mark in this video till about 2:10 you can see several glimpses of vintage billboards that were once all over Uptown. See if you can spot the old "Lower Wilson" stationhouse that was demolished in the mid 1950s, and then the 4600 block of Broadway with billboards perched atop current-day Iyanze. Next, you'll see Sheridan looking north towards Lawrence. If you've been following all of the vintage photos posted on our Facebook wall, you will notice some of the long demolished buildings. Very cool.

3 comments:

  1. It was nice to watch the vintage footage, but while I watched this clip I had the impression that I was a character in Orwell’s novel 1984 watching state propaganda: “believe every billboard’s message and consume, consume, consume!”

    My favorite spots in this clip were,

    1. As the camera pans on a huge advertisement of Budwiser, we hear, “...repeatedly receive up-to-the-minute information about products necessary to their daily living” (2:44).

    2. And then, as the billboard endeavors to get across the message that we should drink 7-UP, that healthy soda pop, we hear, “Chicago’s 750,000 schoolchildren represent an active group of great value “ (2:58).

    I had my Winston Smith moment for the day. Thank you.

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  2. There is a certain classiness to the old days that is missing now. Wow. Amazing how many billboards there used to be.

    I think it mustve been cool to have streetcars. Geez. That was dumb to get rid of those.

    We still have plenty of problems with media today in different ways Bakerboy. The billboards seem very quaint today.

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  3. Interesting Uptown footage. That looked like the Goldblatts building on the left but I didn't see the building across the street from it...hmmm

    Baker Boy...you are a character in Orwell's novel..only it's TODAY!

    Advertisers see humans as objects to be manipulated. Advertising techniques have been refined and styled to the present by politicians who have adopted them.

    Politicians see humans as objects.

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