Sunday, July 1, 2007

Richard Chwedyk & Aladdin's Castle




Chwedyk sent me a photo of him sitting next to lips. Not the MagiKist lips. I don't want to know where the photo was taken. I don't. When I shrank it down from the enormous size it was when Rich emailed it to me last week, I found the photo of him standing sideways on Bizarro-Earth underneath the original photo. Enough of MagiKist already. On to other haunts. Riverview Amusement Park stood on the north side for over half a century, the most iconic image being Aladdin's Castle, more of a maze of mirrors than a haunted house. What amazes me is that these structures were built withing a city neighborhood, much like Wrigley Field is surrounded on all sides by businesses and apartments. Riverview WAS bounded by the north branch of the Chicago River, but I would have loved to have grown up in a three-flat that faced the back end of that giant turban. Elvis knows what I'd be typing instead of my current drivel. To be continued. Wayne