Fearful Symmetries: The Real Days of Maxwell Street

Last summer I wrote about my boycott of Maxwell Street Days. (And I boycotted again this year.) In my post I wrote, "Maxwell Street Days never could and never will have anything near the flavor of the Maxwell Street Market." For anyone too young to have gone to the Maxwell Street Market before 1994 or never found yourself at the corner of Maxwell and Halsted on a Sunday in Chicago back in the day, then you can get an idea of what it was like from Mike Shea's 1964 film And This Is Free which was recently released on DVD by Shanachie.

And This Is Free is a good example of what is known as "direct cinema". This is where the camera is a fly-on-the-wall capturing events and there's no omniscient narrator to explain to the audience what is unfolding before their eyes. The style was made possible by portable cameras developed during World War II as well as portable sound recording equipment. Robert Drew of Time, Inc. led a unit which invented a wireless synchronizing system in the 1950s and this meant that a maneuverable crew of two could go out and shoot synched sound footage. In 1964, Shea and his soundman, Gordon Quinn, spent 16 Sundays at the Maxwell Street Market with And This Is Free being the result.

The film showcases the people hawking goods & the hordes of people who went there to buy, the buskers, the street preachers, and some of the characters, all of which made the Maxwell Street Market special, something beyond stores in a city's main shopping district throwing up a table outside and trying to pawn off their overstock.

Here are a couple of the men of God out preaching to shoppers.

There were many bargains to be had at the Market. After all, they cheated you fair. This guy was selling 8 pairs of socks for a buck

When I see a pile of pipes & pipe fittings on State Street in July, then I'll reconsider Maxwell Street Days.

And This Is Free is a cult classic mainly because of the music. Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Robert Nighthawk – they all played down there. The film showcases Nighthawk, Carrie Robinson, Fannie Brewer, Jim Brewer, and others with some wonderful performances, many of which got people shakin' their booties.