Monday, December 28, 2020

This Week in Chicago (1945)

If you're still looking for something to do on New Years Eve this Thursday, allow me to dig out another one of my old "current interests" newsmagazines and fill ya in! Of course you'll have to travel back over half a century to 1945, way back to when the 'ol Windy City was quite a different place altogether! But as I'm sure many of you are aware, some things never change, or get old, or go out of style-- and that's the need to watch pretty ladies do their eye-poppin' thang on (and possibly off) stage. So have yourself a tantalizing "laffiesta" as you scan over these ads of sizzlin' starlets and burlesque beauty queens, and afterwards maybe have a cocktail or two-- or even something a little more "intimate" back stage!

***POST UPDATE WITH ANOTHER FINE COLORIZATION BY MR. CAVIN!***

5 comments:

Mr. Karswell said...

You’ll notice mention of “delovely, delightful”, Denise Darnell mentioned in one of the ads, here’s an interesting bit of info about her:

http://trueburlesque.blogspot.com/2012/12/striptease-murder-case-and-giant-true.html?m=1

Brian Barnes said...

While the showgirls are certainly a main attraction, I'd be interested to see the old time-y big bands, not counting the dance music, I think I can skip that one. It'd be interesting to see what the environment was like in those days, and how easy it was to play a sax with a thick haze of cigarette smoke swirling around!

The only ad that shows a picture of the building the fun takes place in was the Club Flamingo and boy, that was a bit of a let down! Did they repurpose a gas station? :)

"Scan-Dolls" is sort of the by-line for this blog!

So I've heard of Darnell but have not seen striptease murder case, I might have to track that one down for the show. It's a great gimmick.

Mr. Cavin said...

This is awesome. I love that ad for The Tropics most (hey! Blind pianist!), but I think Russell's Silverbar is where I'd end up--unless it's thick with tacky conventioneers, that is. Either way, most of this stuff is within walking distance of each other. Hopefully there wouldn't be too much inclement late-December Mafia going on during the war years.

Am I the only one who thinks that looks like Elsa Lanchester moonlighting at the Playhouse Cafe?

Slayla said...

Beautifully done ads. I love the illustrations!

Mr. Karswell said...

Some more illustrative fun from an old classic show program coming up next, thanks for the comments!