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(Far left) Circa 1963 poster for United Air Lines, painted by Thomas Hoyne, depicting Marina City from the Chicago River east of the State Street Bridge.
(Near left) 1965 poster promoting Pan Am and featuring Marina City at night. |
Marina City entices air travelers and poster collectors
Between 1963 and 1965, Marina City was depicted in two posters – for two airlines – that are collector’s items today.
A 25x40-inch poster for United Airlines, circa 1963, was painted by Thomas Hoyne (1924-1983), depicting Marina City from the Chicago River east of the State Street Bridge.
Hoyne is better known as a painter of maritime art. A former Navy officer, he started as a commercial artist, drawing advertisements for Green Giant and Charmin, as well as other posters for United. In the mid-1960s, he was diagnosed with cancer and given two years to live. He decided to focus his work on maritime art and lived 17 more years, producing dramatic paintings of America’s nautical past.
In 1965, Marina City at night enticed travelers to “Fly Pan Am to Chicago, U.S.A.” The 24x39-inch poster, for an international airline no longer in business, was printed on translucent paper and designed to display in a light box.
“We have never seen a poster like this from this time,” said Alfra Martini in 2011, a gallery associate at Chisholm Gallery Vintage Posters in New York. “Just holding it up to the light creates the most amazing effect. It really looks like the building is glowing.”
“Promotional travel campaigns did – and still do – focus on the most attractive sites a city has to offer,” noted Martini. “These two posters were created in what we now dub the ‘Mad Men Era,’ which is that innovative period [around 1960] when the collective psyche lay in visions of a rapidly changing time, both philosophically and technologically.”
In March 2011, both posters were sold at a vintage poster fair in Chicago – the United Airlines poster for about $950 and the Pan Am poster for $850. Said Marina City resident Brett Young, buyer of the Pan Am poster, “This thing is amazing. I bought an LED frame to present it...good for 50,000 hours. This will be the perfect night light.”
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Join us at Marina City for true bourbon
Not even Marina City could keep Hiram Walker in Peoria. In this 1969 ad for Hiram Walker’s “Ten High” straight bourbon whiskey, a man offers a drink over his balcony in what is most likely the west tower. “Come over soon,” invites the ad copy. “We have something good for you.” At the time, Hiram Walker & Sons Inc., with a distillery built in 1933, was in Peoria, Illinois. A French company, Pernod Ricard, currently owns Hiram Walker. The distillery was purchased by ADM in 1980 and now makes ethanol. |
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You Live Better Electrically
This is part of a two-page magazine ad that appeared in the December 24, 1965, issue of Life. The photograph was taken from the living room of a west tower unit, probably a “08” unit on about the 25th floor. In the distance are the east tower of Marina City and 75 East Wacker, also known as Mather Tower. Sponsored by Edison Electric Institute, an association of U.S. shareholder-owned electric companies currently representing 70 percent of the electric power industry, the ad included illustrations of other all-electric buildings in Chicago, such as John Hancock Center. |
The ad text read, “Now flameless electric heat brings new comfort to apartment living everywhere. In Chicago’s 60-story Marina City, the comfort, cleanliness, and reasonable cost of electric heat have helped keep modern apartments like this virtually 100% rented.”
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Marina City backdrop as CTA shows off new bus
Two Chicago Transit Authority buses are parked on Wacker Drive for this photo from, most likely, 1963. In the background, both the west tower (left) and east tower (right) of Marina City appear to be open, so it is at least 1963, but the office building at far right is still being constructed and it will not start to open until February 25, 1964. The bus on the left is newer than the bus on the right. It is an 8500-series bus built by an Ohio company called Flxible that closed in 1996. CTA photographed this new model of bus in front of Marina City and on State Street with the Chicago Sun-Times and Wrigley Building in the background. |
The bus fleet was being modernized in the early 1960s, just a few years after the last streetcar was replaced. The 8500-series was used until 1975.
1963 Popular Science article on Marina City
“Like to live in a 60th story apartment overlooking Lake Michigan, park your car 18 stories high, ride an elevator to your boat? Then move into Marina City.”
That was the advice Popular Science gave its readers in 1963. Since 1872, the monthly magazine has introduced the latest in science and technology to a general audience.
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Its April 1963 issue included a cutaway diagram by Ray Pioch, whose work appeared often in Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. To illustrate an article by James Liston, the diagram shows railroad tracks running east and west below the complex, the 16-story office building, 1200-seat theater, three elevators in the central core of the west tower, cars arranged in the parking ramp, year-round skating rink, and more. |
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The article and additional illustrations explained how the Linden tower crane worked, how the caissons were buried, and offered three reasons why the towers were round.
“The most spectacular new building in America looks like two stacks of giant poker chips piled on the north bank of the Chicago River.” |
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On the cover of National Geographic
For its June 1967 issue, National Geographic put Marina City on the cover. Seen through a fisheye lens, the view of the Chicago River from east of the Dearborn Street Bridge also appeared on a two-page spread – part of a 53-page article on Illinois. “World’s loftiest apartments,” declared the magazine. “588-foot towers of Marina City blaze with Christmas lighting. The darkened lower 20 floors house parking spaces, restaurants, a supermarket, and a basement marina on the Chicago River. Above these, pie-slice apartments soar another 40 stories.” (Left) Photo by Bruce Dale |
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Another image showed people on an east tower balcony.
“With the city for footlights, sky dancers twirl 52 stories high at Marina City. At this height, traffic tumult fades to silence and the view ranges into Indiana.” (Right) Photo by James L. Stanfield |
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