Reading the wiki article on the Blues Brothers, it mentions “Mayor Richard J. Daley had all but prevented films from being produced there up until his death in 1976”
A cursory look at IMDB of the 2,000+ “filming location: Chicago” does show a large gap in from the mid-1950’s through the1970’s
Does this mean that in the 1960’s Salt Lake City was better-documented, due to “Carnival of Souls,” than Chicago, or am I blanking on a bunch of movies?
I’m sure there’s some footage of the '68 Democrat Convention somewhere out there…
Cecil is going to take this question on in next week’s column. Interesting subject.
Thanks Ed. The Salt Lake City remark was a joke, but seriously, looking at New York in The Naked City from 1949, we see a huge city that’s largely changed and mostly gone for good. The same for the San Francisco in 1947’s Dark Passage, and there’s enough footage to make Los Angeles the most documented city on earth. It would be a sad, sad truth if our beloved Chicago’s past, by comparison, were like family photos eaten by termites. So I’m not embarassed that the heavy artillery is being called in since mine was not just idle curiosity.
Note that, as Ed mentioned, Cecil has now addressed this: http://chicago.straightdope.com/sdc20091015.php
Also, since there’s now a thread on this in the “Questions, Comments, for SD Chicago Column” forum, I’m going to close this one and let further comments happen there: Were no movies made in Chicago while Richard J. Daley was mayor? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board