Shiny Shiny Security

The back lobby of the NBC Tower (200 East Illinois Street) is very clean, very shiny, and not used much these days.

This is the security checkpoint where countless thousands of freaks and their fans went through metal detectors (on the left, click to enlarge) on their way to tapings of the Jerry Springer Show.  Since "Springer" moved to Connecticut, it sits.  Waiting.  And gleaming.

Chicago was once Hollywood before there was a Hollywood.  Then the movie industry moved to the west coast, mostly for the consistent weather.  When radio became big, Chicago was huge, but lost its edge to New York.  Then TV came along and gave birth to another media golden age in Chicago.  Over the years, dozens of TV shows have been filmed in, or at least set in Chicago.  The grandpappy of gabfests, Donahue, was filmed at the WGN-TV Studios (2501 West Bradley Place) in the city's North Center neighborhood before it moved to New York.  Of course, we still have the Oprah Winfrey Show, but that's going away, as have Springer, Lykos, Hunt, and others.

There are still a few hold-outs.  Chicago is home to the nation's last superstation, WGN-TV, which produces a couple of national programs a year.  Cable programs on the Food Network, HGTV, and TLC are constantly scouring the neighborhoods of Chicagoland.  Some segments of NBC's semi-syndicated LX.TV are filmed in the Chicago area.  And last weekend NBC ran a pilot for a "reality" TV series called The Match Off that was produced locally.

Freedom Museum Leaving Michigan Avenue

Over the weekend the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum announced that it is closing the doors on its Michigan Avenue home.  The not-quite-three-year-old museum spent $10 million to convert the Hammacher Schlemmer store adjacent to the Tribune Tower into a showplace for the notion of freedom of the press.

Regardless of what you think of the museum's content, it was an unusual choice.  It's quite possible that the former McCormick Tribune Foundation may have been able to arrange favorable rent from the Tribune Company at the time of its opening.  But times have changed.  Tribune is now bankrupt, and the foundation has dropped the Trib's name from its title.  It seems like as good a time as any to move on.

With Sam Zell running things at Tribune these days, we can only hope that the soon-to-be-vacant storefront will attract a high-profile tenant.  The space is not without its problems, though.  It has an unusual number of columns to support the weight of the building above it.  These columns are essential to the building and cannot be moved.  This is one of the reasons that WGN television was never able to open a streetfront studio in what would seem to be the perfect location.  There simply isn't enough column-free space for a modern television studio.

As a side note, the Trib Tower annex that the Freedom Museum is leaving is actually called the WGN-TV Building, as noted on its cornerstone.  WGN television moved out of the building in the 1960's to its new home in the little known North Central neighborhood , better known as "the neighborhood next to Roscoe Village."  

Ben-Agains

Last year the Bennigan's restaurant chain collapsed, leaving two very high profile vacancies in Chicago's Loop.  One, directly across from the Art Institute must have been a gold mine, especially on rainy days, as tourists sought shelter from the elements and vagrants. The other was front and center on the ground floor, Michigan Avenue face of the Illinois Center.  Now it appears there is some life at both locations.

First, down by the Art Institute, we're happy to report that the Bennigan's has actually reopened for business.  It's been open since at least November and appears to be doing OK.  Not as good as it used to, but what restaurant is doing its old traffic these days anyway?

The Illinois Center location isn't open, but at least we don't have to look at a vacant bar anymore.  The windows have been covered up with advertising for some movie coming out in the spring.  One of the large windows has been transformed into a video screen.  It's not ideal, but it's certainly better than nothing, especially considering the amount of vacant storefronts within 1,000 yards of that location.

What we'd like to see: WFLD Television take over the Bennigan's space and finally get the streetfront news studio it's been craving for years.  Parking the microwave truck on South Water Street and doing live shots from the plaza of 230 North Michigan really isn't the same thing.  It would also leave WGN Television as the only commercial station in town whose news operation isn't open to public viewing.