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Around May 1964, scenes were filmed at Marina City for Mickey One, a surreal, freewheeling drama released on September 27, 1965 by Columbia Pictures. Arthur Penn, whose work includes The Miracle Worker, Bonnie and Clyde, and Alice’s Restaurant, directed it.
The film starred Warren Beatty as a nightclub comic fleeing the Detroit Mob for Chicago. (Yes, you read that correctly.) It is considered a cult classic today.
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Scenes were filmed inside a residential unit and corridor, at the skating rink, the west tower parking ramp, and on the Chicago River. For the scene at the skating rink, a large animated sculpture was constructed and then destroyed by fire for the movie. Robert Fields, who at the time was an industrial design student at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, created the sculpture.
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While filming in Chicago from March through May 1964, the stars of the movie stayed at Astor Towers Hotel, another building designed by Marina City architect Bertrand Goldberg. The film opened in Chicago on October 27, 1965, at the Woods Theater, a movie palace demolished in the 1990s that was located at Dearborn and Randolph Streets.
(Right) A film crew prepares a set for Mickey One, a movie filmed at Marina City in 1964. This Chicago Sun-Times photo by Ralph Arvidson on May 4, 1964, shows a “Rube Goldberg” type apparatus composed of bicycle wheels, gears, a piano, and other items. Photo is looking northwest toward the west tower. The theater building is under construction at upper right, where a line of spectators has gathered.
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Frames from Arthur Penn’s 1965 film, Mickey One. Click on images to view larger versions...
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| Exterior set constructed on the skating rink. |
Warren Beatty in front of a Marina City apartment. |
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| Close-up of a large billboard near the west tower for Seay & Thomas Inc., a Chicago real estate firm. |
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(Above) Watch the exterior Marina City scene from Mickey One featuring Warren Beatty as Mickey, Alexandra Stewart as Jenny, noted Japanese actor Kamatari Fujiwara (1905-1985) as “The Artist,” and the Chicago Fire Department.
(Below) The interior Marina City scene from Mickey One with Warren Beatty and Hurd Hatfield (1917-1998) as Mr. Castle.
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