During the mid-1970s, Uptown still had a few of its original residents. I found this man looking wistfully through a construction fence at a location that obviously held some emotional significance for him. A reader wrote in to say he believed this location is on Wilson Ave. west of Broadway, showing the construction of Truman College. He says, “I can tell this by the El tracks and former CTA Wilson Yard building. The gentleman may be recalling happier days spent at the Deluxe Theater, which was right about where he is looking.”

I have read that Gloria Swanson, a movie star from the silent movie era used to frequent the De Luxe. Swanson was born in Chicago in 1899 and starred in several movies with Charlie Chaplin which were made at Essanay Studios in Uptown. Her career survived the transition to “talkies” and she continued making movies and appearing on television will into the 1970s. She is perhaps best known today for her role in the critically acclaimed movie Sunset Boulevard in which she played a fading silent movie film star.