Homes Get Demolished in Bensenville

This was when the homes in the Village of Bensenville were being torn down to make room for a new runway that lines up with Wilson Avenue. I had to have a ladder, a free weekend afternoon and will to get this shot because Irving Park Road is a parking lot and a nightmare, like, all the time this far west.

Norridge Theater closes after flooding

      
by CYRYL JAKUBOWSKI
      The AMC Lowes Norridge 10 Theater, 4520 N. Harlem Ave., closed on July 15 after a water main break flooded a portion of the theater.
      Norridge building commissioner Brian Gaseor said that a water main that fed into the theater broke and flooded several auditoriums in the western portion of the theater in a section that was part of the original theater building. The cost to repair and replace the carpeting and seating was estimated at more than $100,000, Gaseor said.
      The property was being leased to AMC Theaters, but in the past it operated as a Lowes Theater before AMC merged with that company in 2006. The theater also was a Sony Theater, and it opened as a Marks and Rosenfield Theater, Gaseor said.
      “They had it in their contract that if something ‘catastrophic’ happens, they had the option of walking away,” Gaseor said. “The theater operator is still responsible for fixing the main and providing maintenance for the building.” Gaseor said that the property manager is Colliers International.
      Colliers International senior property manager Gloria Valerugo said that AMC Theaters had a clause in their rental agreement that gave them the option of leaving and they chose to do so, citing the flooding as the reason. Valerugo said that AMC had been leasing the property since 1988.
      AMC Theaters spokesman Ryan Noonan said that the company decided to close the theater and concentrate on other venues.
      “We continually strive to upgrade the quality of our theatre circuit by adding new screens and by disposing of older screens through closures and sales,” Noonan said in a statement. “We do, however, look at our theaters on an individual basis, and we have decided to close AMC Norridge 10.”
      Gaseor said that the building will not be demolished. “We don’t want to send the message that this will be an abandoned building because we will keep an eye on it,” Gaseor said.
      Norridge Mayor Ronald Oppedisano said that while cost of the repairs was cited as the reason for
closing of the theater, the state of the movie industry and its competitive nature also may have played a factor.
      “It’s painful to see it close because it put the village into focus over the years and brought people into the village that otherwise might not have stopped here, and it also opened up room for people to visit other businesses, either before or after the movies,” Oppedisano said.
      Oppedisano reflected about the legacy of the theater and its impact on the village. “I remember when it opened in 1970 as a kid and how busy it was,” he said. “It was a pretty big deal back then because they were state of the art, with giant screens, and they had seats that rocked back and forth.
      “But as time went by and with the way that movies are today with the opening of these Muvicos, especially the one in Rosemont, where they cater to every need of the customer, it was hard for theaters like the Norridge to compete,” Oppedisano said.
      According to an article published in 1970 in Boxoffice magazine, a publication of the National Association of Theater Owners, the Norridge opened as a twin theater on a 10-acre parcel of land. It seated 1,200 people and 900 people in the two auditoriums, and there was parking for 932 cars, according to the article.
      The first movies that were screened there were “Paint Your Wagon” starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood and “A Boy Named Charlie Brown,” according to an ad that ran in local newspapers at the
time. The Snoopy character was scheduled to make an appearance during the matinee, the ad said.
      The original building featured sloping white masonry walls that were capped at each end and at the entrance with a mansard roof made of metal siding, according to the article. The lobby had white walls with cedar panels and blue and green carpeting and a 14-foot-diameter chandelier, the article said.
      Gaseor said that two additional auditoriums were added to the original building in the late 1970s and that six more were added in the second building over time, he said.
      “From a municipal standpoint, we would prefer to have it demolished,” Oppedisano said. “You hate to see it standing there vacant, but unfortunately that is a part of the economy right now and it’s fairly common.”          
      Oppedisano said that there were plans to create a large retail development anchored by a Costco store. He said that the closing of the Maurice Lenell cookie factory and the Cookie Jar store in 2008 was to be a part of the expansion along with the theater, but that Costco instead built a store on the former Kiddieland site in Melrose Park.
      “The problem with developing that area is that there are many separate property owners and it’s
been hard getting them all together to some common denominator to sell the parcels so a big development can come in,” Oppedisano said.

Car in crash was fleeing cops

Six people were injured in a collision between a Toyota Camry and a Toyota Sienna
that occurred at about 6:05 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 21, in the 4500 block of West Devon
Avenue, according to the Chicago Police Department Office of News Affairs.
The vehicles collided  on Devon, and the minivan struck a home at the intersection.
Two people were treated on the scene and four were transported to area hospitals,
according to the Chicago Fire Department.

(Photo by Cyryl Jakubowski)

(Photo by Cyryl Jakubowski)

(Photo by Cyryl Jakubowski)

by CYRYL JAKUBOWSKI
      What started as a car screeching its tires and doing doughnuts in the parking lot of a church in Sauganash ended with a car crash that injured six people at about 6:05 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 21, in the 4500 block of West Devon Avenue, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
      According to police, a deputy chief saw a Toyota Camry doing doughnuts in the parking lot of Queen of All Saints Basilica, 6280 N. Sauganash Ave. The officer attempted to stop the Camry, and the vehicle fled into Lincolnwood, police said.
      As the Camry was traveling south on Kolmar Avenue, the driver drove through a stop sign, and his car collided with a Toyota Sienna that was traveling west on Devon, according to police. After the crash, the Sienna struck a home at the intersection and the Camry stopped in the front yard of the home.
      The Camry's engine burst into flames, and its four occupants were sent to area hospitals, while the two occupants of the Sienna were treated on the scene, according to police. The occupants of the Camry were between ages of 20 to 25, and the occupants of the Sienna were 43 and 30, police said.
      The 23-year-old driver of the Camry was cited for reckless driving, according to police.

Comic from Poland Sells Out Copernicus

by CYRYL JAKUBOWSKI
      If Poland had its version of Hollywood, then the Northwest Side Polish community had a chance to see one of its biggest stars recently.
      Popular Polish actor and comic Cezary Pazura performed on Nov. 14 at the Copernicus Cultural and Civic Center and reflected on his fame, the differences between American and Polish humor, and his opposition to political correctness.
      Nearly every seat in the 1,900-seat theater in the center, 5216 W. Lawrence Ave., was filled as Pazura joined the Polish sketch comedy group Ani Mru Mru, or “Don’t Say a Word,” to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the group, which performed a mix of abstract sketches.
      The appearances highlighted the Copernicus Center’s practice of featuring headline groups from Poland and other European countries.
      Pazura, age 47, has performed in some 55 films dating back to the late 1980s, and he has received many acting awards since the 1990s. He is a staple of Polish cinema, television sitcoms, theater and cabaret, and he has been performing stand-up comedy for the past 12 years. He also is a dramatic actor.
      “The audience here at the Copernicus Center is fantastic,” Pazura said in Polish. He said that it is not only in Chicago, which has the largest Polish population in the United States, that people anticipate his shows.
      “Right now in Polonia, whether it’s in Chicago or in Ireland or New York, people wait for Polish artists to come and are not like people in Warsaw, who go when it’s convenient for them,” Pazura said. “Here, if you have a poster or a date is set, then people know that the performers are not coming for a long time.”
      While Pazura has an image as a wild man on stage, he is soft-spoken and intelligent away from the stage.
      “What is fame? Fame is something actors in Hollywood know about,” Pazura said. “Our fame is the way it is. We are known in our country and sometimes it’s better that way . . . There’s always good in bad, that someone is known only in Poland because he can go wherever and still have peace of mind without someone bothering them.”
      Pazura said that he has been coming to perform at the Copernicus Center for more than 10 years and that he enjoys his brief stays in the Chicago. He said that people come up to him and ask for autographs and quote his movies.
      However, he said even he can’t remember some of his film lines because he is involved in too many new things and that the nature of an actor is to constantly reinvent himself.
      “That’s a very hard aspect of this work because as we all know some careers burn out and artists burn out,” Pazura said. “There are artists who sing to the same tune, there are artists who work in one type of films and there are artists who are slaves to their one-hit wonders and never go anywhere after that.”
      While some view him as the Polish Jim Carrey because of his physical comedy, he thinks Carrey is the best at what he does. “I like Jim Carrey because his comedy is physical and he knows how to pantomime,” he said. “Plus he is a very intelligent man.
      “But if I had to introduce myself to an American audience, I would have to say that there is no place in the world, maybe a little in Poland, where actors must be able to do everything. Sometimes Americans ask me who I am and what do I do, and when I tell them that I’m an actor, they ask what kind of an actor, film or theater?
      “And I tell them that I’m in film, theater, stand-up comedy, I provide voice work for animated movies, etc., and they don’t understand. For us that’s an everyday thing because an actor must be able to do everything. It’s a necessity in Poland or in Russia that an actor must be able to play both in films and in theater and in other things.”
      Pazura said that he would never do off-color comedy. “I’m a big opponent when it comes to young comedians in a cabaret resorting to cursing on stage to get a laugh,” he said.
“I differentiate between a cackle and laughter because the two are different things. I don’t want to make the audience cackle, I want to make them laugh. Laughter is a reaction to abstract concepts in the mind and the comedian has to bring out those concepts using either himself or through words.”
      During the stand-up portion of the show, Pazura also spoke out against political correctness. “The thing that spilled out from America to all over the world is unfortunately political correctness,” he said. “President Obama after Fort Hood had to say that a friend killed a friend and couldn’t say that it was a Muslim, for example. It’s stuff like that and I don’t understand it at all because it backfires against us. It shouldn’t be like that.”
      Pazura also said that the jokes he performs are created with the Polish audience in mind and that sometimes humor can’t be translated into other languages.
      “Language is very specific,” he said. “When I watch Russian movies because I know the language very well and I hear Polish people trying to translate them, it’s just not the same thing. This specificity can’t be duplicated.”

(Editor's note: While Pazura can speak some English, this interview was conducted in Polish and translated verbatim into English.)

Fatal Crash Shocks Northwest Side Poles

by CYRYL JAKUBOWSKI

      Chicago’s Polish-American community is grieving the death of the president of Poland and 95 other Polish leaders in Russia over the weekend, with numerous memorial services held throughout the city.

      The plane that was taking them to Russia to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre by Soviet

forces of some 20,000 Polish leaders crashed in dense fog early Saturday, April 10, in a forest near an airport in Smolensk, killing all aboard, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, age 60, his wife, Maria Kaczynska, age 66, and top government officials, military officers and other society leaders.

      “It’s a very devastating tragedy for the people of Poland, the Polish Americans in Chicago and just Poles all over the world,” said Polish National Alliance president Frank Spula. Spula said that the Polish community was overwhelmed when it heard the news but that the people of Poland are resilient and that they will make it through the national disaster.

     Spula said that the association was preparing for Kaczynski’s visit to the United States that was scheduled from April 29 to May 1 and that he was scheduled to meet with the Polish secret service for a walkthrough of the PNA headquarters on April 13. Kaczynski has been the president of Poland since 2005.

      “I was speechless when I got the phone call,” Spula said. “We were supposed to see him at the building on May 1.” Spula said that the group is working to plan a memorial service. 

      Spula said that that the loss is immense because Poland has lost a president who cared about democratic issues including human rights. Kaczynski was going to Russia to mark the Katyn Forest Massacre of 1940, in which Polish military officers and civilian intellectuals were executed by Soviet secret police after the Set Union invaded Poland following a pact between Joseph Stalin and Adolph Hitler to carve up the country.

      Spula said that he knew at least 20 of the people who died in the crash. “These were people I knew, and they were brilliant people,” he said.

      Among those who died in the crash was Chicago resident Wojciech Seweryn, age 70, a native of Poland and an artist who designed a monument to the Katyn Massacre at Saint Adalbert Cemetery in Niles. Beginning Saturday the area around the monument began filling up with mourners who left flowers, lit candles and shed tears. Seweryn’s father was among the officers who were killed in 1940.

   Copernicus Foundation president Gregg Kobelinski said that Kaczynski also planned to visit the Copernicus Civic and Cultural Center following the Polish Constitution Day parade on May 1. Kobelinski said that the festival and celebration after the parade was to be held at the Copernicus Center instead of at Navy Pier for the first time this year.

      Kobelinski said that whether to go ahead with the celebration has not been decided. “It’s a sensitive issue and we need to decide what we will do,” Kobelinski said. Kobelinski said that once news of the crash broke, many local organizations held memorial services throughout the city.  “Most of the people have gone to church, because for many Poles that is the center of the social community,” he said. “That’s where the Poles naturally turn to."

     Kobelinski also talked about the connection to Katyn. “It certainly publicized what happened in Katyn and made many people aware for the first time what happened,” he said. “What a tragic way to have that come to light again in such a way.” 

     Polish American Association executive director Gary Kenzer said that the Polish consulate general’s office in Chicago was swamped with people who were waiting to sign the condolence book. Kenzer said that the association has created a virtual memorial book on its Web site where people can leave their thoughts and prayers. The site can be reached at www.polish.org. 

      Kenzer said that the circumstances behind the tragedy are bitterly ironic and that some may view it as a step backward in the relations between Poland and Russia. “But the country will survive and rebuild, and they have to grieve and let the healing begin,”Kenzer said. 

      A memorial service for the victims of the crash and marking the anniversary of the massacre will be held at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, April 25,at Saint Hyacinth Basilica, 3636 W.Wolfram St., followed by a memorial at 2:30 p.m. at Saint Adalbert, 6800 N. Milwaukee Ave., Niles. 

      A dinner will be held at 4 p.m. at the White Eagle restaurant, 6839 N. Milwaukee Ave., Niles. The cost is $40.

      For more information, call 773-934-1720.