Results tagged “oldchicago”

File this under "good ideas, bad execution." Designer Robert Brindle conceived the idea of an indoor amusement park and shopping mall after a visit to Knott's Berry Farm. Brindle's concept was a turn of the century design inside the park, with mom-and-pop stores anchoring the shopping mall instead of the brand name stores normally found in shopping malls.

We had the good fortune recently to speak with Barry Gifford, one of our favorite contemporary authors. His newest book is Memories from a Sinking Ship, a "fictional memoir" about growing up in mid-fifties Chicago (and Key West and New Orleans). Roy is a youngster shuttled from place to place, alternating between his beautiful, vivacious mother and his estranged, gangster father. For a sizeable chunk of the book he lives at 6312 N. Rockwell, and the story is packed with fascinating details about a vanished Chicago: going to movies at the Nortown Theater on Western or hanging out at Lucky's El Paso pool hall.