Movies Filmed in Uptown

Next of Kin 1989



Chicago cop Truman Gates has alienated his rural Kentucky relatives by living in the big city. Truman is happily married to Jessie, a violinist and music teacher. Back on the family spread in Kentucky, Truman's older brother Briar Gates, who has had to struggle ever since the local coal mine was closed down, resents Truman for moving to Chicago and for convincing their younger brother, Gerald Gates, to do the same. Gerald, a truck driver for a vending machine company, feels torn between Truman and Briar. But things are about to take a deadly turn, thanks to Chicago's Isabella crime family, which is led by John Isabella. In an attempt to legitimize his enterprises, John is bringing his son Lawrence Isabella, a recent business school graduate, into the Isabella family operation. That doesn't sit well with Joey Rosselini, whose plan to succeed John as the head of the family is now threatened. Insulted by being forced to groom Lawrence for a position that he feels should be his, Joey reluctantly lets Lawrence accompany him on a little trip to convince the owners of a local vending machine company to sell out to the Isabellas. Joey's method of achieving this goal is to hijack a company truck filled with merchandise, but its driver -- Gerald Gates -- leads them on a chase, and nearly escapes before Joey shoots him dead. By the time Truman figures out that it was Joey who killed Gerald, Briar has arrived in Chicago looking for Joey. And then Lawrence is found dead. John wants revenge, and Joey tells John that it was Truman and Briar who killed Lawrence. Briar later ends up killed by Joey in a shootout. Having had more than enough, Truman gets his family together for an all out war against Joey and his henchmen!

Hello,

Well, here goes. I have always had a lot to say but never have really been one to keep a journal. I have lead an interesting life full of colorful characters and unbelievable stories. I am doing this because they are both starting to fade from my memory. Faces and events once so vivid in that movie that runs through my mind are starting to deteriorate...

Let me share a little bit about myself and invite you into my warped world of "screwed up" insights and opinions. I am a 30 something Chicago native, a husband and a father of three. I live in North East Wisconsin, it is as beautiful as it is laughable. I'll explain more as we go along. I work in a Methodist Church with Families and run a Teen Outreach Center/ Music venue.

That all sounds pretty normal so far I'm sure. I am also the son of a Chicago Police Officer who was banging my "hippy" Mom behind his wife's back. They met in a neighborhood (Greek) Diner on the North Side she worked at in the late 60's & 70's. And in 1971 I hit the scene. I was raised by Truck Drivers, Red Card Players, Carnies, Outlaw Bikers, Cowboys, Thieves, Gangsters, Drug Dealers and a loving gentle Southern Grandmother. I love and miss them all dearly.

My boyhood was spent in a wonderfully dangerous place known as "Uptown" on the North Side of Chicago a.k.a. Hillbilly Heaven. It no longer exists, part of the goal of this Blog is to preserve some of the stories connected with this place and the wonderful and delightfully screwed up people I encountered as a boy!

-Jeff

About my home, the neighborhood of Uptown in Chicago was the place ...

Here, you could always find someone who was very different from you, and yet you could also find someone who was very similar to you as well. You would find a few people who hated you (mainly because you represent a quality or group of people they despise--much more subtle than racial prejudice), but you could also find someone you can sincerely trust.

Uptown once known as Hillbilly Heaven possessed a diversity was not necessarily racial & economic harmony, more like a detente between a couple major groups, and many others caught somewhere in-between.

Yet at the same time, everyone seemed to speak at least one grain of truth, even if it was hidden in anger or other (literal) mental illness. If you read the news or listen to extremists, you would think that people fell into two main categories in Uptown. The truth is, most Uptown residents fell somewhere in between, and would have rather connected with you than fought with you!

Geographically, Uptown is located on the North Side of Chicago, next to Lake Michigan. The boundaries are [approximately] from Irving Park Road north to Foster Avenue, and from Ashland Avenue to Lake Michigan (In Street Numbers: 4000 North to 5200 North, by 1600 West to approximately 10 blocks east or until you start drowning). Uptown includes areas which don't always want to be associated with the name Uptown, such as Buena Park and Sheridan Park.

The name "Uptown" has a stigma, especially for real estate agents....I miss it dearly! I miss the people, sights, sounds and smells!

More to come

I'm back... It has been a friggin' year. I am only back because I have a cousin that knows nothing of her family. My Uncle Tommy died some years ago and on his death bed a daughter flew in from Georgia to be at his side. I suck at this, writing that is. I am a professional loud mouth! Someone has got to tell the stories! Jamie I'll do my best...

For Tommy, George and Juanita!

The Cross is Boss...


If you lived on North Side of Chicago from the 1940's-90's you remember the Gaylords. My Step dad is a former Gaylord. As a young person I interacted with these guys. Many of my elementary school mates ended up in the gang. Last year I purchased a book Lords of Lawndale: My Life in a Chicago White Street gang. It is an interesting bit of Chicago history.

A social club in the late 1940s to a greaser gang in the 1950s, The Gaylords became a force to be reckoned with. From the 1960s on, the Gaylords spread throughout the City of Chicago.

The Chicago Gaylords began as one of the clubs started by Veterans post WWII. The majority of the original members were Italian, Irish, Greek, and Mexican American which reflected the population at the time, as the Grand and Ogden area was known as one of Chicago's "Little Italy's" There were many such clubs in Chicago during the post WWII era. Many of these social clubs had their own clubhouses and baseball teams. The Gaylord's clubhouse was on the corner of Ohio and Noble Street.

During their peak period in the 1970s, the Chicago Gaylords held sets (or sections) on the North Side,West side and the South Side of Chicago.

• The West side sections included Ohio and Noble, Ohio and Leclaire and Monticelllo and Augusta.
• Their South Side sections included Back of the Yards (around 55th & Ashland, Sherman Park), Marquette Park, Pilsen (18th & Western), and Bridgeport (Throop Street).
  
• Their North Side presence included Humbolt Park (Moffat & Campbell); (Palmer & California, Lawndale & Altgeld); Logan SquareIrving Park (Albany & Byron); Kilbourn Park (Cornelia & Kilbourn); Kelvyn Park (Kilbourn & Wrightwood); Dunham Park (Montrose & Narragansett); Ravenswood (Seeley & Ainslie); and Uptown (Sunnyside & Magnolia, Lawrence & Broadway). During the 1960s through the early 1980s, the Chicago Gaylords experienced tremendous growth and expansion, with sections popping up all over Chicago.

By the year 2000, the Gaylords Nation found themselves claiming only four sets. These four sets were Sayre Park, Newport Street, Kilbourn Park and Seeley and Ainslie.

At this time, the four sets found themselves going through a lot of turmoil at this time. Their basic problem was lack of recruitment, which is hard to do when the area around you is going through a ethnic and cultural transformation. Anyone living in these areas at the time, can probably testify to the fact that Spanish/ Latino immigration was being felt strongly around them. Along with the growth of the Spanish speaking community comes the growth of their gangs, and these gangs are what Spanish/Latino youths are drawn in to, not mostly white gangs waving an American flag.

With no new recruits coming in for these four Gaylord sets, the current members were finding themselves aging and having to contend with other things in life, other than just protecting their neighborhood. In the process of all this, many members got married, moved away, got long prison time, etc..

It was at this period in time that the Gaylords main enemy and problem had come full force to bear on the Gaylords. This was drug addiction. Heroin, Crack Cocaine and other drugs were rampant all over the streets of Chicago at this time. The gang ended up collapsing and their so called reign ended all because of drugs.

Nightline Tonight: Cow Farts Cause Global Warming!

File this one under “ You couldn’t make this crap up if we tried.” After all the endless moaning and wailing by environmentalists that humans are mucking up the environment and causing the worst warming trend in history, a new study shows that cow crap and cow farts are far more to blame...

In fact, the United Nations Food & Agricultural Association claims that the world’s 1.5 billion cows are worse then all the cars, planes, and all other forms of transportation PUT TOGETHER. Apparently, cows are so dangerous because their “emissions” contain methane gas—a substance thought to heat the atmosphere twenty times more than the carbon dioxide that usually gets all of the press. On Wisconsin!

Cows are believed to account for one third of all the world’s methane emissions, and therefore the tasty beef-supplying critters are responsible for all the most heinous crimes against the environment: acid rain, desertification, and, of course, the destruction of coral reefs.

I guess we can all look for livestock to be appearing on America's Most Wanted sometime soon—or at the very least, expect cow-farts to be subject the strictest governmental regulations while cow poop may be outlawed entirely. Surprisingly, the cows here in Wisconsin themselves have nothing to say in their defense, other than “Mooo @#%! .”

Ferrell's Snappy Service

I have been thinking about my family lately. My Mom was one of six kids, five girls and one boy born over sixty years ago on a farm in Morton's Gap, KY. The closest "city" is Madisonville.

Founded in 1807 and named for James Madison, the fourth President of the United States, this city has grown to be the home for over 19,000 people. Madisonville is located in the heart of Western Kentucky (49 miles south of Evansville, Indiana; 104 miles northwest of Nashville, Tennessee; and 153 miles southwest of Louisville, Kentucky) making this community attractive for economic development opportunities and weekend visitors. The town is served directly by the Pennyrile Parkway, US Hwy 41 and 41A, and Kentucky Highways 70 and 85, making it easily accessible to all travelers.

Sometime in the 1990's I ran a crew operating Morton's Gap. At some point I will share some truly unbelievable stories about my time in Western Kentucky. Today just a dive Diner tale "Ferrell's Snappy Service" Ferrell's is more than a hamburger joint - it is history for all locals.

My Grandfather a farmer/ Coal Miner took my Mother to eat at this place as a girl. My Uncle Tommy took me as a teen while on vacation from Chicago. And I sent my crew to bring back sacks of greasy food during my time in "The Gap!"

The place is tiny. A friendly old boy or gal takes your order - "dressed with all the fixin's." Then you take a seat on one of the 15 diner stools in the restaurant.

In a one-square-foot space of wooden cutting board, a woman pats out raw ground beef, pull apart lettuce, slice tomato, and dress hamburger buns. Smashes and screes the patty on the grill. There is little to no hand-washing. A bag of fries and a flat fountain Pepsi and you are on your way! The stuff is good and has never killed a single Hillbilly that I know of...

Ferrell's is a small hometown diner where you can just sit and chat over good food and leisurely conversation if you don't know anybody in town go to Ferrell's you will get to know some people pretty quickly they prepare the food right in front of you and the food is served piping hot.