Travel Video of 1940s Chicago

 

 

Comments

[Captain Hruska Carswell, Continuance King]

The narrator noted all of this was built within 100 years. I might add by immigrants of all stripes.

[Dan Filler]

Two thoughts. One, I enjoyed hearing the Hilton Chicago, previously the Conrad Hilton, called by its original name: The Stevens Hotel. A nice picture of Justice John Paul Stevens in the family hotel is at http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2010/11/justice-stevens-on-memorials-mosques-and-monuments.html. Second, I had no idea that the Field Museum had been called the Field Museum, had the Field name taken off, then had it returned. I wonder why.

[Steve L.]

I also enjoyed the reference to the Stevens Hotel. "Field Museum" was in common use by the time I became aware of the place in the mid-1950s, but Wikipedia says the name was not restored until 1966.

On the other hand, I find it hard to believe, as the film stated, that there were 150,000 hotel rooms in Chicago's "urban center" in the 1940s. According to Loyalty Traveler, there are currently only 108,700 hotel rooms in Chicago, which is third most in the U.S.

Las Vegas has the most hotel rooms, at 169,100, and Orlando is second, at 119,800. New York is fifth, at 106,000.