Chicago loop in 1970

Filmed 28 August 1970.

[@josephferguson6158]

Chicago was there before us and will be there long after were gone. Work hard, enjoy your short time on this earth and stay safe.

[@paul9912]

Yes you will enjoy it more if you stay away from Chicago LOL

[@h3cz_]

@@paul9912 nah. Chicago is great.

[@paul9912]

@@h3cz_ I think you're outnumbered a little bit on that one buddy LOL but if you enjoy it great

[@PRHILL9696]

Chicago is still the best place on earth

[@paul9912]

@@PRHILL9696 yes if you're looking to get robbed or murdered lol

[@chuckwagon5518]

Back when Chicago was still somewhat a decent city before the democrats ran it into the ground! I was born and raised there and I ain't never goin back!

[@robertpreston2220]

democrats destroy everything that is good

[@Diogenes-ty9yy]

Amen, sir. I've lived in the free state of Florida now for 39 years and there's no going back.

[@robertpreston2220]

@@Diogenes-ty9yy I have friends in Florida who want me to move there and get out of this democratic crap hole. I just HATE hot weather though and need my winters. or I would move there like everyone else is in two minutes!

[@PRHILL9696]

Democrats have destroyed many once great citys

[@beatricemccoy2288]

Its kinda spooky now

[@phoebecatgirl933]

Rider: Does this bus go to da Loop? Driver: No, it goes "beep-beep"!

[@augustmosco]

Thanks a lot for this. I worked downtown in 69 and 70 and this brought back some good memories. 90% of the places in this video aren't there anymore. This is a treasure!

[@beatricemccoy2288]

I worked downtown in the late 70s

[@ARTURO-EP]

My family would make a day of it with shopping, a matinee movie, followed by a steak dinner at Tad’s Steakhouse: T-bone steak, mashed or baked potatoes, peas and carrots, dinner rolls, and a soft drink. Cost $1.59. I miss the 70s. I was in 8th grade in 1971. Food was unprocessed and abundant, life was uncomplicated, and overall people behaved and respected authority.

[@wmbrown6]

Tad's Steakhouse. Obviously not solely a New York thing (there were quite a few in Manhattan back in the day, one on 34th Street across from Macy's, another along Times Square . . . ).

[@dareklachowicz3946]

BETTER DRESSED PEOPLE AND REAL CARS.

[@nicolascalvache8102]

The (mostly) clean, colorful, respectable appearance and attitude of people and the atmosphere are great examples that people decided to discard. We have a bad habit of leaving the good things of yesterday behind.

[@PRHILL9696]

I wasnt even born just yet and I would love to go back to these days. People were happy and relaxed. Now the city has daily riots vandalism attacks on police! Downtown back then was safe, now its a warzone!

[@brushcreek42]

"Cotton Comes to Harlem" was released in 1970, as was "Soldier Blue". Imaginative, nicely framed, captures the Loop probably at noon hour in the summer of 1970. I worked in the Loop from 1965-70 and walked many miles on my lunch hour.

[@nathancoleman8413]

How old were you then brushcreek?

[@brushcreek42]

@@nathancoleman8413 I was born in 1942, so 23-28 years. The Loop was still a neat place then.

[@beatricemccoy2288]

Everytime you look.around it's a new movie came out and we was there

[@drjohnson98]

This was probably 28 August 1970, which was a Friday. The headlines in the newspapers refer to a tear gas grenade attack that the Jewish Defense League (JDL) carried out in Chicago's Civic Opera House on the evening of 27 August to protest the performance of a Soviet dance troop there that night. Interesting to see the cars, buses, store fronts, and clothing styles. This is the Chicago I remember as a kid.

[@themovietheatre]

title changed.

[@beatricemccoy2288]

I was just starting high school. Use to ride on the 66 bus going there just to enjoy being downtown

[@boataxe4605]

I bet they didn’t call it “Domestic Terrorism”.

[@jericarolinem2789]

The old CTA buses of the time. Wow! My dad used to drive those back then

[@WAL_DC-6B]

Yeah, the CTA still had a fair amount of the 1950s vintage, propane fueled, "Twin Coach" buses still running around downtown in 1970.

[@merrybe3418]

At 9:10 I saw a glimpse of the "Stop & Shop" sign, which was a place my grandparents brought me to to purchase mixed nuts in a pink and brown rectangular box, and had chocolate covered orange peels. All luxuries. I loved seeing all those shift dresses and still the preponderance of bouffant hairdos. I so remember that pace and it looks like the summer!

[@1Radioriot]

Haha I forgot what it looked like to see ppl walking without their faces in phones 📱

[@maguffintop2596]

All women in dresses w/ very few being morbidly obese.

[@alfx5432]

Smart phones need to be put away you are so correct.

[@alfx5432]

​@@maguffintop2596women look so much better

[@GrainGuy757]

And no electric scooters 😆

[@MightBeAPizza]

​@GrainGuy757 Electric scooters are amazing. I use one everyday to go to work while my $575 a month car sits in the parking space.

[@jimmyb1559]

I never thought there would come a day when I’d enjoy watching a strangers home movies. But here I am wanting more.

[@iggy8702]

This was filmed in 1970 based on the release dates of the movies. Most were released in the US in mid to late 1970. One was released in late Dec 1969.

[@gintasindreika933]

I was in college in '69 when this was filmed. We were so blessed to have a normal everyday life, while our peers were fighting in Viet Nam.

[@AlejandroP1980s]

Until they came back in body bags and some spit in their face

[@Diogenes-ty9yy]

These were depressing times for a young man, I was in college, too, and the 2S draft determent was the prime reason. College wasn't a way of dodging the draft, just delaying it for a few years. I thank the Almighty that today's kids don't have to worry about a draft anymore.

[@fulton92503]

even in 1970 people were well dressed I was a teen then but I think there was less poverty then

[@argopunk]

Everyone dressed well back then. The slob thing picked up in the '70s. Had nothing to do with money.

[@afrogirl757]

6:15 a lot of sizzling going on at Ronnie's steak house. This is the 70s when xxx movies took over half the Loop's movie houses. And the Loop after dark was a mini Babylon.

[@fnihp30]

I noticed all the XXX movies. It’s a lot like Times Square in 1970s New York.

[@111danish111]

Very analog world . I like how men and women are distinctly dressed differently.

[@jaminova_1969]

Jake: "How often does the train go by?" Elwood: "So often you won't even notice it!"

[@beatricemccoy2288]

Yep

[@elwoodblues6663]

😎😎😎

[@mustafahajj]

A time when women dressed like ladies.

[@afrogirl757]

And men did too.😎😜

[@mustafahajj]

@@afrogirl757💯 I totally agree with your comment.

[@peteroberts6771]

Yes!

[@daviddoyle543]

Notice how everyone dressed? Like they had some class and dignity...

[@stephenmoerlein8470]

The Green Limousines (CTA buses), Checkered Cab and Yellow Cab (same owner ironically) are prominent in these scenes, Thanks for posting!

[@dipschwantz1]

Back when people dressed decent to go outside...

[@cgbleak]

more likely dressed decent for business or for a day visiting downtown.

[@phillipmoore7436]

GOOD OLD DAYS NO CELL PHONES.🤭

[@PRHILL9696]

agree

[@beatricemccoy2288]

Yep

[@kathlynemarkham3119]

Wow so many memories!!!

[@bigal05171957]

THANKU KZbin AMAZING FOOTAGE how many times I took the subway to the CHICAGO STADIUM to see LED ZEPPELIN though out the 70s and the movies SHAFT & SUPERFLY now in my 60s it was a great time ✌️☮️🎸😎

[@PRHILL9696]

Wow look at all that crowed foot traffic! These days the sidwalks downtown are pretty vacant. I miss those old news stands too. And the old Chicago Northwestern Train terminal sadly demolished in 1984!!!

[@luislaplume8261]

Wait til rioting is made legal and at present theft is legal. By the end of this year the Lop will be like a ghost town.

[@PRHILL9696]

@@luislaplume8261 sadly i know

[@troyw1843]

Really cool video! Everyone looked so healthy back then!

[@v.a.993]

the average life expectancy back then was 60/65.

[@timward3116]

Just think: Everybody in those street scenes is 50 years older or dead, but otherwise the scenes haven't changed all that much.

[@niccoarcadia4179]

Painting a vivid picture of a very small portion of Chi- town via my memories: The film stirred up some old memories of me as a youth going to Wrigley Field by train with my old grammar school girlfriend, her brother and other pals. It was that long portion of the train ride through the inner-city which showed the backsides of the row houses and tenement buildings with those clothes lines which is etched in my mind. Unpainted light brown dingy wood porches with old couches and automobile backseats, crooked stairs, black tar, and roofing tiles. Also, backyards, weeds, vacant lots, & parking lots, all loaded with old metal junk, like washers, dryers, railroad ties, and stripped down wrecked cars.

[@PRHILL9696]

Would give anything for Chicago to be great like this again!

[@PRHILL9696]

@Ronald Washington Its very sad

[@PRHILL9696]

Love the city so much now but loved it then as well and wish I could go back in time for a few days and experience it again

[@beatricemccoy2288]

Me too. I sure miss it

[@PRHILL9696]

@@beatricemccoy2288 many people do

[@ronniejones6025]

It seem like people looked much better and much happier back than

[@PRHILL9696]

They are called the good old days for a reason

[@robertpreston2220]

we were

[@peteroberts6771]

Technology is hurting us! Human interaction is necessary! Face to face, shoulder to shoulder.

[@johnkennedy9327]

This is great film. Real as captured as it was. I was going to college in those days. I used to eat at "Tad's" sometimes.

[@johnkennedy9327]

@Veronica A. It was steak and chop House downtown. I think the vid shows the one on State Street near the Chicago Theatre.

[@Diogenes-ty9yy]

I was at the U of I Circle Campus 1967 - 1971 and Tad's was too much $$$ for me. I existed on $2 a day and that was only $1 for lunch so a hot dog and a small soda was my usual.

[@robertpreston2220]

So much more street and foot traffic compared to today by far

[@PRHILL9696]

I wasnt even born just yet and I would love to go back to these days. People were happy and relaxed. Now the city has daily riots vandalism attacks on police! Downtown back then was safe, now its a warzone!

[@dutchmangolinde5469]

Yea it's warzone alright tanks and jets are in downtown blowing up buildings and shit

[@dg1006]

We’ll never have a downtown like that again. Most of those small businesses on State St are gone. My first trip to Chicago was on a layover on an Amtrak train going west in June of 1974. I remember there was a Montgomery Wards and two Woolworths’ on State St.

[@robertpreston2220]

@@dg1006 You are right. ANd yes Sate street had Fields, Wards, two Woolworths, Sears, Weiboltz, Goldblatsz, Caron Piere Scott, Many theaters, etc. Now nothing

[@imanonattorneyspokesperson]

Some of the footage is from the 70s

[@krishnamurtiism]

Without a stitch - sounded a classic.

[@bepponabuco7389]

A lot of great legs from the women! Nowadays... meh.

[@abegoldman3078]

wow times have changed, I didn't see a single mexican person in that video, everyone was either black, white and a few chinese maybe, chinese was the only Asian ethnicity back then, I also didn't see any panhandlers in that video, because Americans actually hired their own back then.

[@davehansen4537]

It has been predicted that by 2044 there will more Hispanics in the United States than white people. Also, Europe is basically dying. People aren't producing enough children, and the Euro populations are getting smaller. Sadly, in many European cities Muslims will be the highest population in 25 years or so.

[@miguelmacias8177]

Hola!!

[@nicolascalvache8102]

My latino family was there, they had worked hard and came in the early 60s, moving to what used to be the polish area off of Ogden. They became a part of close-knit community. There were also some Mexicans who had been there since the 30s; they remember these colorful, clean days quite fondly. Unfortunately, rioting happened in the late 60s, which is when they say the city took a turn for the worse.

[@gregggillott8551]

In this 12-minute video of only people walking in a busy city, NOT one woman was wearing pants..

[@jaysaeger2057]

Thanks for sharing

[@nathancoleman8413]

I am in Chicago right now! this is what it looked like in the period I was born!(which was 1969 to be more precise)

[@cokesquirrel]

2 things jump the mind looking at this. Almost nobody is overweight and Of course nobody has phones in hand

[@beatricemccoy2288]

Yep. People back then pay attention on whats going on around them and was more friendly and helpful

[@ytyt3922]

8:40 those big circular cases/bags. Don’t see those anymore.

[@michaelmccormick3830]

Those were for ladies' hats.

[@afrogirl757]

Hat boxes! That lady was getting fresh summer hats for church. :-)

[@111danish111]

Did not even knew those existed.

[@SRLovesPandas1]

My city! this was like 20 some years before I was born

[@KamJ2010]

Wow! I was 5. (oh born and raised in chicago so this is awesome!)

[@drewhunkins7192]

Never knew there was a Tad's Steaks in Chicago. I saw them in Times Square when I lived in NYC in the mid 1990s but never knew they were in Chicago.

[@babyyoda8195]

We were just a few months old! Born in Woodlawn and lived in Hyde Park.

[@TariqBusy]

Great video, thanks for posting.

[@tommcfarland6008]

This camera person had a very good eye! Used to go downtown in the seventies when I was a child all the time. Amazing thank you.

[@brandon7913]

In 1970 I was a kid. I do remember the grey hound station in 1981 I worked at the Burger King there. Chicago was really grimmy back then but safer than it is today 2023 so many adult movie theaters some of our ancestors were freaky. I remember the shoppers corner at Randolph & State they had so many gadgets. Downtown is nothing like this today. The excitement and upbeat of the 70’s & 80’s is long gone.

[@beatricemccoy2288]

Yep haven't see downtown Chicago in a few yrs.

[@merkury06]

Anybody else look for familiar faces?

[@user-xg5kh9ci4f]

I miss the days you could look at someone and immediately know if they're a man or woman. There's to much guessing involved nowadays.

[@ChiTownBF3]

Gem Frozen in time

[@Stephanie-vn6ir]

This is 1970 ,because the movie is soldier blue 💙 I miss those big green checker cabs!😂

[@norellpolk]

I miss those days.a time I would like to go back to

[@robertpreston2220]

we all would

[@antoniomenjivar6556]

We all would be we have to remember that there was a lot of crime and other things that were happening

[@Racerkey999]

Goin' Downtown on Logan Square El...see a movie. grab a Steak at Tad's

[@djbhe]

Tad's now named Ronnie's since at least the 80's is still there. It was there in 2013 when I moved away from Chicago and haven't heard anything about it closing.

[@DeadAbeVigoda]

@@djbhe Ronny's just closed permanently last week, a victim of COVID-19.

[@djbhe]

@@DeadAbeVigoda Wow!!!

[@shanan1124]

Vivian Maier loop?

[@kevinronske9894]

Looks like the mob was their to collect at the x rated movie house.

[@danielandries6998]

I am looking to license some of this footage for a documentary. How can we get that done? Who should I contact?

[@jeffspitza]

Walgreens must have come from the future as their stores and logo look the exact same as they do today!

[@beatricemccoy2288]

Downtown was rather crowded with people and cars almost daily and holidays sometimes.

[@brianglade848]

The Trout House was a front for a brothel back then

[@boataxe4605]

How fitting!

[@scottgrunow5201]

Some of these buildings by the L in the beginning are still there

[@RyanSmith-on8rj]

Did you film this personally or know the person that did?

[@timoneill9574]

This 8mm footage was filmed by Vivian Maier in 1970.

[@tomservo56954]

11:30 Chicago and they don't brag that Roger Ebert co-wrote that movie?

[@beatricemccoy2288]

I don't see the McVick movie theater. It seem like more in the late 60s to me

[@KillerChair1]

Beautiful city. To think Chicago was a much bigger city then than it is now. I hope the inner city can continue to grow again.

[@PRHILL9696]

wish they would expand more and stop tearing down old buildings and stop cancelling big towers that are proposed

[@patrickmclaughlin214]

Is the city shrinking?

[@Shivayoudestroyme]

@@patrickmclaughlin214 Population peaked in 1950 at around 3.6 million and today it's around 2.7

[@fratzogmopars]

@@Shivayoudestroyme If you count the illegals, it would probably put us over 3 million again.

[@devoradamaris]

🤲👑🤲

[@countolaf1920]

12:15-12:26 James Marcelo and Pat Marcie leaving a meeting on who is going to be the next judge in their pockets!! Lol

[@thpass]

Please give credit to Vivian Maier for this footage. She shot many photograph stills and motion picture film footage of Chicago in the 1960s-70s. It was the era of miniskirts and baby doll style dresses. Seeing people holding newspapers instead of smart phones was the norm. Downtown Chicago was an active, thriving place to be back then.

[@tsf5-productions]

This film of Chicago in the Summer (?) months of 1970 are great...the famous and infamous downtown scenes with "real people" who had (and still does) have human life stories that would be incredible. Good, steady filming. Thanks for presenting a good era of filming life in its places and everyday people.

[@melvonjohnson5711]

Sometimes I search for vintage footage to see how life was like before I was born-This is before my time- I was born 13 years later (1983) but it seems like life look simpler and easier going compared to nowadays.... No smart phones or social media--people were interacting with each other instead of looking at phones.

[@patrickmclaughlin214]

Looks like the city was very comfortably integrated back then. Everyone was very polite to others. I am from NYC but have always wanted to see Chicago. This looks very much like midtown Manhattan

[@musclecarfan74]

Just 2 years earlier Chicago was the site of the Democratic convention The site was a mess with protesters rioting.

[@PRHILL9696]

Democrats bringing riots, funny how things have not changed

[@fratzogmopars]

7:26 is that Carl Kolchak of Night Stalker fame?

[@mmfmmf332]

Thank you for the memories! I grew up in Chicago, west side, from "68 to "95. It's such a different City now.

[@yahinessness5669]

I bet that food was so damn good omg i miss 90s meat 😢

[@camstone5001]

Thought more women wore pants back then.

[@countolaf1920]

Some old mob ( Outfit guys) on the very last scene!!!!

[@JamesSmith-wp4um]

Spotted a new 1970 Buick Riviera at 11:58 so most likely this was taken in 1970

[@patrickmclaughlin214]

It definitely is fascinating

[@keyboardwarrior656]

THX!!

[@The_best_days_are_yesterdays]

We seem to have a predilection for the adult movies, don't we....

[@iggy8702]

Oh later there is one that is rated X, but that it when X meant adult only. The porn industry in the 70's turned X into explicit sex. Today there is a rarely used NC-17 rating to replace the X of the 60's.

[@bigdogs29]

My thoughts EXACTLY and whoever took this was definitely GIRL watching. Notice all the girls filmed with the view scanning down to their legs. lol. GREAT REMEMBRANCES regardless.

[@djbhe]

@@bigdogs29 A woman filmed it. The person who posted it gave her name in the the comments. It was filmed in 1970.

[@5x7m]

@@bigdogs29 Her name is Vivian Meier a photographer... and yeah, I noticed the ankle fetishism

[@SL-vi4tk]

Hats and hat boxes... sure as hell ain't present day.

[@thewilloughby605]

incredible,looks just like nye, love chicago culture

[@beatricemccoy2288]

Me too

[@KamJ2010]

That wa so cool!

[@banks5162]

Can't imagine living that close to train tracks.

[@anthonyscilingo266]

Wow so many more elderly walking around in the city back then. The city is so much younger now-a-days.

[@stephenmoerlein8470]

Too dangerous for the elderly

[@fratzogmopars]

No, just the elderly are afraid to venture outside now. This was a time when people didn’t lock their house doors.

[@filmmakerjohnb]

Do you license footage?

[@Tmidiman]

Kind of creepy focusing on adult theaters and women, but hey even stalker movies could have cultural significance.🤔

[@boataxe4605]

This was filmed by a woman.

[@kevinjones5715]

ah yes, Chicago in 1970, I remember going to all the Porno Palaces shown in the video! Good times, good memories.