It was the one indoor marching band event of my high schoolcareer. Early one Saturday morning each December, we’d pile into the buses forthe 20 minute drive south, passing through towns such as Argo (Always broughtto mind a box of corn starch. Still does.) and Summit to Ford City Mall fortheir annual indoor Christmas parade. There we’d join with other school bands,animal acts, clowns and assorted dignitaries marching the halls of the shoppingcenter, while sound bounced off the terrazzo floor and storefronts.
We used these cheesy (on this site, that word always carriesthe best connotation) little songbooks called “Christmas Favorites” or somethinglike that, which the school had probably owned since the 1950’s. I can stillpicture the red, green and white cover and yellowed pages. Our go-to song wasthat deeply meaningful Yuletide carol “Up on the Housetop.” The crowds, mostlyfamilies with young kids or older folks, always seemed to have a good time. Sodid we, although those memories tend to grow fonder with passing time (and withforgetting the “getting up early” part).
These incredibly great photos come to us courtesy of Rick Drew.Rick’s Dad worked in mall management at Ford City during the mall’s early years.I would date these photos, based on the styles and store names to approximately1968-70, some ten years before I assaulted the corridors there with my trumpetplaying.
I’d love to tell the story of Ford City, one of Chicago’smost historically important malls, in full here someday, but only have time fora few brief notes at the moment. Ford City Shopping Center, opened on August12, 1965, was “Chicago’s first all-weather, enclosed shopping center.”
The structure itself was originally built during World WarII as a bomber engine plant. In the late forties, portions were used for theTucker Car Corporation – an American dream that should have come true, and astory movingly told in one of my all-time favorite films, Tucker: The Man andhis Dream. Later on it became an aircraft motor plant again, operated by FordMotor Company, hence the name. For a few years in the early 60’s, before themall development project, it sat vacant.
Initially, there were 82 stores, several locally-owned, withnational chains F.W. Woolworth, Lerner Shops, Bond Clothes, ThomMcAn shoes, Wurlitzerpianos and organs and SupeRx Drugs (the yellow “s” at the left edge of thefirst photo) along with a National Tea Company food store. A General Cinematwin theatre opened soon afterward. The two anchors, at opposite ends of the centerin classic “barbell” fashion, were Penneys and Chicago-based Wieboldt’s.
At 178,000 square feet, the Penneys store was the company’s largestsingle-floor unit at the time. Interestingly, as late as 1975, this Penneysstore continued to outsell those at newer, much larger area malls, includingthe behemoth Yorktown Center (1968) and Woodfield Mall (1971). A year afterFord City opened, another Penneys opened 15 miles to the south at Harvey’s fabledDixie Square Mall. The Wieboldt’s store initially had a restaurant and a supermarket,an interesting feature of many of their locations in the early 60’s, includingRandhurst. What really strikes me about this store was that the signage,interior and exterior, was red instead of Wieboldt’s signature green, usedvirtually everywhere else. When I saw these pictures it was a shock, likeseeing a blue Coca-Cola can or purple arches above a McDonald’s sign. So wrong,yet looking at these photos…so right. (These posts always have a way of turningmelodramatic at some point, don’t they?).
In any event, they sure knew how to decorate the place forChristmas. Hope you’re having a great one!
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