City - Chicago, IL - The original Tony's Tavern 1941 - Side by Side

by Mike Savad

Title

City - Chicago, IL - The original Tony's Tavern 1941 - Side by Side

Artist

Mike Savad

Medium

Photograph - Colorized Photo

Description

Colorized Photo from 1941
Original title: Tavern on Southside of Chicago
Photographer: Russell Lee
Location: 31st and Federal St, Chicago, IL

This location was shot from a number of angles, I believe there is either a bar directly behind the photographer, or he's standing on it. The walls were lined with the seven dwarfs for some reason.

The room was full of smoke and haze, the flash really lit up. Though I think it also acted as a reflector as its pretty well lit in there. Their eyes were dazzled by the flash, as many don't look that happy to see another angle. And their eyes are quite dilated, so that must have hurt.

I can't tell if its raining, or if the flash lit up dirt on the window. To me it looks like a bit of both, and it makes for better ambiance.

A quick bit of info about the place, it was opened in 1900, by Tony Finkelstein, he hosted many now famous musicians: Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Estelle and Jimmy Yancey. There were lesser known local bands as well. They served a few specialties such as gumbo, fried shrimp and hot dogs.

As far as I can tell, this place doesn't exist at all. Its a vacant lot now. Not sure when it went out of business. I do wonder if there were fire codes back then, there doesn't seem to be any marked exits and it doesn't look like you could even stand to get out if you wanted too.

Uploaded

January 30th, 2023

Statistics

Viewed 244 Times  -  Last Visitor from Warrington, P2 - United Kingdom on 03/29/2023 at 4:48 PM

Colors

Embed

Share

Sales Sheet

Tags