In Old Chicago
Encyclopedia
In Old Chicago is a 1937 American drama film
directed by Henry King
. The screenplay by Sonya Levien
and Lamar Trotti
was based on the Niven Busch
story, "We the O'Learys." The film is a fictionalized account about the Great Chicago Fire
of 1871 and stars Alice Brady
as Mrs. O'Leary, the owner of the cow which started the fire, and Tyrone Power
and Don Ameche
as her sons. It also starred Alice Faye
and Andy Devine
. At the time of its release, it was one of the most expensive movies ever made.
had announced that Jean Harlow
, who was under contract to that studio, would be loaned to 20th Century Fox
to star in the role Belle Fawcett. However, due to Harlow's untimely death, the part went to Alice Faye
. Faye's popularity skyrocketed as a result of the picture, and she was reunited with Power and Ameche that same year for Alexander's Ragtime Band
, which proved to be even more successful.
Some sources claim that MGM offered to loan both Harlow and Clark Gable
to Fox for In Old Chicago if they reciprocated by loaning Shirley Temple
to MGM for their upcoming production of The Wizard of Oz
. However, this is merely a rumor, as Harlow died in June 1937, several months before MGM had even purchased the rights to Oz.
. Alice Brady won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
. She was the first person to win the Supporting Oscar after being nominated in the prior year. The film was also nominated in the categories Assistant Director (Robert Webb) Won, Music (Scoring) Nomimated, Sound Recording (E. H. Hansen) Nominated and Writing (Original Story) Nominated.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Henry King
Henry King (director)
Henry King was an American film director.Before coming to film, King worked as an actor in various repertoire theatres, and first started to take small film roles in 1912. He directed for the first time in 1915, and grew to become one of the most commercially successful Hollywood directors of the...
. The screenplay by Sonya Levien
Sonya Levien
Sonya Levien was a Russian screenwriter. She wrote for 72 films between 1921 and 1962. She won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay in 1955 for the film Interrupted Melody....
and Lamar Trotti
Lamar Trotti
Lamar Jefferson Trotti was an American screenwriter, producer, and motion picture executive.- Early life and education :Trotti was born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He became the first graduate of the Henry W...
was based on the Niven Busch
Niven Busch
Niven Busch was an American novelist and screenwriter of movies such as the acclaimed The Postman Always Rings Twice. His novels included Duel In the Sun and California Street...
story, "We the O'Learys." The film is a fictionalized account about the Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S...
of 1871 and stars Alice Brady
Alice Brady
Alice Brady was an American actress who began her career in the silent film era and survived the transition into talkies. She worked up until six months before her death from cancer in 1939...
as Mrs. O'Leary, the owner of the cow which started the fire, and Tyrone Power
Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
and Don Ameche
Don Ameche
Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...
as her sons. It also starred Alice Faye
Alice Faye
Alice Faye was an American actress and singer, called by The New York Times "one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career." She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader and comedian...
and Andy Devine
Andy Devine
Andrew Vabre "Andy" Devine was an American character actor and comic cowboy sidekick known for his distinctive raspy voice.-Early life:...
. At the time of its release, it was one of the most expensive movies ever made.
Production
During pre-production, MGMMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
had announced that Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...
, who was under contract to that studio, would be loaned to 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
to star in the role Belle Fawcett. However, due to Harlow's untimely death, the part went to Alice Faye
Alice Faye
Alice Faye was an American actress and singer, called by The New York Times "one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career." She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader and comedian...
. Faye's popularity skyrocketed as a result of the picture, and she was reunited with Power and Ameche that same year for Alexander's Ragtime Band
Alexander's Ragtime Band (film)
Alexander's Ragtime Band is a film released by Twentieth Century Fox that takes its name from the 1911 Irving Berlin song "Alexander's Ragtime Band" to tell a story of a society boy who scandalizes his family by pursuing a career in Ragtime instead of in "serious" music...
, which proved to be even more successful.
Some sources claim that MGM offered to loan both Harlow and Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
to Fox for In Old Chicago if they reciprocated by loaning Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
to MGM for their upcoming production of The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
. However, this is merely a rumor, as Harlow died in June 1937, several months before MGM had even purchased the rights to Oz.
Cast
- Tyrone PowerTyrone PowerTyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
as Dion O'Leary - Alice FayeAlice FayeAlice Faye was an American actress and singer, called by The New York Times "one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career." She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader and comedian...
as Belle Fawcett - Don AmecheDon AmecheDon Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...
as Jack O'Leary - Alice BradyAlice BradyAlice Brady was an American actress who began her career in the silent film era and survived the transition into talkies. She worked up until six months before her death from cancer in 1939...
as Mrs. Molly O'LearyCatherine O'LearyCatherine O'Leary was an Irish immigrant living in Chicago, Illinois in the 1870s. She was married to Patrick O'Leary... - Phyllis BrooksPhyllis BrooksPhyllis Brooks was an American actress and model. Brooks was born Phyllis Seiler in Boise, Idaho on July 18, 1915. She began her career in films at age 20, and had been known as the "Ipana Toothpaste Girl" due to her work as a model...
as Ann Colby - Andy DevineAndy DevineAndrew Vabre "Andy" Devine was an American character actor and comic cowboy sidekick known for his distinctive raspy voice.-Early life:...
as Pickle Bixby - Brian DonlevyBrian DonlevyBrian Donlevy was an Irish-born American film actor, noted for playing tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s. He usually appeared in supporting roles. Among his best known films are Beau Geste and The Great McGinty...
as Gil Warren - Tom BrownTom Brown (actor)Thomas Brown was an American child model, and later a film and television actor....
as Bob O'Leary - Berton ChurchillBerton ChurchillBerton Churchill was a Canadian actor.Born in Toronto, Ontario. As a young man interested in the theater, he appeared in stock companies as early as 1903 and later headed to New York City where he began an acting career that soon put him on the Broadway stage...
as Senator Colby - Sidney BlackmerSidney BlackmerSidney Alderman Blackmer was an American actor.Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina. He started off in an insurance and financial business but gave up on it. While working as a builder's laborer on a new building, he saw a Pearl White serial being filmed and immediately...
as General Phil Sheridan - J. Anthony Hughes as Patrick O'Leary
- Paul HurstPaul HurstPaul Michael Hurst is a former English footballer who played in Football League Two in England, for Rotherham, where he played for over 10 years. He is currently joint manager of Conference National side Grimsby Town with Rob Scott.-Playing career:Hurst figured regularly on the left side of the...
as 'Mitch' Mitchell - June StoreyJune StoreyJune Storey June Storey June Storey (born Mary June Storey, (April 20, 1918 – December 18, 1991) was a Canadian-born American film actress during the mid-late 1930s and into the 1940s, who most often appeared in B-movies as the heroine of westerns....
as Gretchen O'Leary - Madame Sul-Te-WanMadame Sul-Te-WanMadame Sul-Te-Wan was an American actress. The daughter of freed slaves, she began her career in entertainment touring the east coast with various theatrical companies and moved to California to become a member of the fledgling film community...
as Hattie - Gene ReynoldsGene ReynoldsGene Reynolds is a former American actor turned award-winning television writer, director, and producer.-Early life:He was born Eugene Reynolds Blumenthal on April 4, 1923 to Frank Eugene Blumenthal and Maude Evelyn Blumenthal in Cleveland, Ohio, he was raised in Detroit, Michigan, where his...
as Young Dion - Charles LaneCharles Lane (actor)Charles Gerstle Levison , better known as Charles Lane, was an American character actor seen in many movies and TV shows, and at the time of his death may have been the oldest living professional American actor. Lane appeared in many Frank Capra films, including You Can't Take It With You , Mr...
as Booking Agent
Awards
The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best PictureAcademy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
. Alice Brady won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
. She was the first person to win the Supporting Oscar after being nominated in the prior year. The film was also nominated in the categories Assistant Director (Robert Webb) Won, Music (Scoring) Nomimated, Sound Recording (E. H. Hansen) Nominated and Writing (Original Story) Nominated.
Historical inaccuracies
Despite crediting the Chicago Historical Society for assistance with historical research, much of the film is fictionalized.- The portrayal of the O'Leary family is completely fictitious down to the names of the characters. Mrs. O'Leary's name was Catherine, not Molly.
- The O'Learys had two children, one son and one daughter. (In the movie there are 3 sons) Her only son was named James. The daughter was named Anna.
- Patrick O'Leary did not die in 1854 as a result of an accident involving his horses. He died in 1894.
- Mrs O'Leary did not run her own "French Laundry" out of their house.
- The Mayor of Chicago in 1871 was Roswell B. MasonRoswell B. MasonRoswell B. Mason served as mayor of Chicago, Illinois for the Citizens Party....
, not an O'Leary son.