Signs Of The Times: How Chicago Bars Got So Many Old Style Signs
Curious City
WBEZ Chicago
4.6 • 661 Ratings
🗓️ 29 December 2019
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We uncover the history and bask in the glow of a ubiquitous Chicago bar sign.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, John Fasiel here. I'm meeting Oswaldo Alvarez, our questioner this week, at a bar called the double in Logan Square. It's at the corner of Fullerton and Drake. |
| 0:10.8 | Oswaldo grew up down the street here in the 90s. |
| 0:13.5 | Oswaldo? |
| 0:14.0 | Yeah. Hi, nice to meet you. Hi, nice to meet you. |
| 0:16.0 | Oswaldo's dad worked as a clerk for Cook County. When Oswaldo was a kid, his dad would hang out at this bar every day, |
| 0:23.6 | until little Oswaldo was sent by his mom to drag him home. |
| 0:27.6 | Oswaldo remembers seeing the corner bar's electric, old-style beer sign hanging on the outside, |
| 0:33.6 | gleaming like a beacon for the whole neighborhood. |
| 0:44.6 | His dad passed away 16 years ago at age 46, and whenever Oswaldo sees an old-style sign like that, |
| 0:50.3 | he thinks about him. And that happens a lot because you can see these bright old-style signs hanging from the facades of neighborhood bars all over the city, which got Oswaldo thinking. |
| 0:55.9 | Why are there so many old-style beer signs in Chicago? |
| 1:01.9 | You've seen them hanging outside bars here, right? Pale yellow, almost white, the red, white, and blue |
| 1:07.9 | old-style logo in the top square and a bottom partition that reads, |
| 1:12.0 | bottles and cans, cold beer, servesa fria, gym ne pivo, or my personal favorite, package goods. |
| 1:24.0 | I don't know of any other city that has the abundance of old style signs Chicago does. |
| 1:29.0 | It's unique, even a little strange. |
| 1:32.1 | And Chicagoans are really into these signs. |
| 1:34.6 | There's photos of them all over Instagram, a blog that tracks, quote-unquote, old-style bars. |
| 1:40.5 | And old-style returns the love, branding itself as Chicago's Beer. |
| 1:44.9 | Here's an ad they ran in the 90s starring Chicago cop-turned actor Dennis Farina. |
| 1:49.6 | Chicago is being invaded by people from New York and L.A. who want our old style and old-style life. |
| 1:54.5 | Why? |
... |
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