06/28/2009 The Making of Public Enemies

The movie Public Enemies opens in theaters this week and I wanted to share these pictures that we took back in May, 2008. Being a true story, several scenes were shot in the actual location where events occurred, including the Biograph Theater in Lincoln Park. Word spread like wildfire when the production crew came in and converted this section of Lincoln Avenue into how it appeared in 1934. We and several hundred others flocked here on that Friday afternoon to catch a glimpse of the action. Production vehicles and trailors were parked up and down Halsted, and many cool vintage cars were brought in. They created artificial storefronts, laid street car tracks, and even sawed away all the metal parking meters- because obviously those weren't around in 1934 (heck, they can't even get them to work in 2009)! On a separate night, they shot scenes just down the street from our apartment building at Pine Grove and Surf. All evening we kept hearing continuous rounds of tommy gun fire. It was really loud! Apparently Johnny Depp even paid a visit to our corner Red Hen bakery for a coffee. For all the hype the production created around this area, the movie had better be good!