Lee Bey: The Urban Observer

(above photo by Lee Bey)

I just watched Haskell Wexler's "Medium Cool," a 1969 movie filmed in Chicago. Some of the camerawork is inspired, such as a the opening credits which feature a motorcycle courier gliding through Chicago as an ominous score by Paul Butterfield plays. And as always, it's a kick seeing bits and pieces of mid-century Chicago; at once clunky and streamlined. Aged and new.

The building above, 400 E Randolph, makes a few appearances in the movie and it's not hard to figure out why. At the time, the new building was among Chicago most visible and prominent structures---the dome in the above photo once sat right by Lake Shore Drive before the roadway was rerouted in the 1980s. That and Jerrold Wexler, Haskell's brother, was the developer. The dome houses a pool area.

Above: The dome looms as Robert Forster, a blonde and Peter Bonerz walk across a surface parking lot that no longer exists

Above: Robert Forster and Peter Bonerz go inside the dome--dig the pool--for an interview. 

"Medium Cool" is a great piece of filmmaking, by the way....imbued with a kind of angry, ballsy nihilism that would be test-audienced away by movie studios today. When the film's protagonists find themselves caught-up in the protests and cop riots of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, it's not staged. Wexler actually puts them--his heroine in particular--in the middle of the real thing.

OH! One more thing. My mentor, journalism professor and second father, Les Brownlee, appears in a key scene early in the film. Les died two years ago so it was a blast seeing him on screen. His sililoquy on the news media and the role of the viewer anchors a brilliantly adlibbed scene--and shows why I found him so fascinating.