GHOST SIGNS: 2012

You've probably only seen my postings on Facebook, but I continue to compile photos of ghost signage in Chicago. These are signs that are faded or partially obscured by newer buildings. Many times, it will be an advertisement for a product that no longer exists, or an establishment that no longer exists. I just discovered one last week that has been in full view (for me) for decades, a black on yellow rectangle advertising the long-defunct DAILY NEWS just past the Armitage Avenue el stop for the Brown Line. I just happened to be staring south as the train was moving north. I'll try to get a photo from the Red Line as I head towards Fullerton, and again from street level. Here are some of the photos I took last year.

Please Hold For Gloria Christmas

Here are some photos I took off the TV during last week's airing of NAKED CITY, a mid-60s cop show set out of New York City's 65th Precinct. Part of syndicated-MeTV's Sunday Night Noir, one can also watch THE FUGITIVE, Boris Karloff's THRILLER, HONEY WEST and ROUTE 66. Burgess Meredith is trying to mail all of his poems and is hit on the head by a rock, thanks to the bartender who had owned the poems in lieu of giving Meredith a bar tab. Never fully explained, I guess Meredith's character's writing would one day fetch money.

The story plays backwards, after the bartender shows up to confess to the cops. We see a blind guy working at a newsstand, in one scene a copy of AMAZING FANTASY#15--the first appearance of Spider-Man--is prominently displayed, and in the next, it is the JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY issue which introduces THOR. Meredith wanders the city and ends ups at, I guess, his editor's party--Candace Hillegoss from CARNIVAL OF SOULS is there!--is handed a check, which he then rips up, and goes to a tavern. There is a beat poetry thing going on and Alan Alda--credited as "Young Poet"--in a crazy-ass white suit and tie trashes Meredith, who then grabs his poems from the bartender and we sort of get back to the beginning. Meredith had claimed that the woman in the episode's title was his yet-unborn daughter. And, of course, I forget a key point, the bartender became enraged because Meredith let the envelope--loaded with stamps bought from a machine on a street corner!--slide into a sewer.

The young cop on the show, partnered with an older cop, though you never know who the real main character is, finds a book of poetry for $1.50--hefty 1960s pricing!--and mulls them over. After the shift ends, he goes to the street corner, completely spoils his suit to grab the envelope after a bit of trouble. There it is, HOLD FOR: GLORIA CHRISTMAS, GEN. DEL. some town in IOWA. The cop contemplates maybe opening the envelope to read the poems, then decides to put it in the mailbox and walk towards the subway.