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WTTW11 PRESENTS
THE FOX RIVER VALLEY AND CHAIN O’ LAKES
WITH GEOFFREY BAER
(And
TED GRIFFIN’S
1912 MODEL T TOURING)
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Premieres
Tuesday, November 28 at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Sunday, December
10 at 7:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.
Chicago,
IL – Geoffrey Baer,
well-known WTTW11 on-air host, producer and Chicago Architecture
Foundation
tour guide, will debut his newest, much-anticipated documentary The
Fox
River Valley and Chain O’ Lakes on Tuesday, November 28 at 7:30
p.m.
This is the fifth original
documentary in Baer’s highly successful multi-part series exploring the
character
of the regions surrounding Chicago.
“Don’t call
them suburbs! The towns and small industrial cities of the Fox
River Valley have
a feeling all
their own,” says Baer. “We use boat, bike and car to explore the sixty
miles of
waterway as we tell the stories of this unique area.” The Fox
River
Valley and Chain O’ Lakes debuts on WTTW11 on Tuesday, November
28 at 7:30
p.m.
Host
Geoffrey Baer
has taken WTTW11 viewers all over the Chicago area
in his
popular television tours. He’s twice cruised the Chicago
River,
hiked through the
Loop’s
skyscraper canyons, explored the lakefront, visited
diverse urban neighborhoods from onboard the ‘L’, and profiled the
history of Chicago’s
suburban regions
to great acclaim from viewers and critics alike. The
Fox River
Valley and Chain O’ Lakes project was a welcome challenge for
Baer.
“The Fox
River has
always been an
essential artery. It provided a food and water source for Native
Americans, powered the waterwheels that turned some early settlers into
rich
men, and above all, it is the thread that connects a series of
communities that
are distinctive in the Chicago region,” said host and writer
Baer. “These
communities have their origins not as suburbs dependent on the big city
to the
east, but as cities, towns and villages with special histories all
their
own.” <>
<>
The Fox
River and
Chain O’ Lakes
with Geoffrey Baer
The
Fox River Valley and Chain O’ Lakes
program weaves the region’s stories together, moving from the Chain O’
Lakes
area near the Wisconsin border more than 60
miles down
the Fox River to the peaceful woods south of Aurora.
Baer and his crew navigate the region by vintage speed boat, Model T
Ford and
bicycle as they move north to south along the waterway.
<>Here is just a
small sampling of the
people, places and stories featured:
·
The
Chain O’ Lakes heyday as a playground for gangsters, tycoons and
politicians
·
The
long-lost era when floating beds of American Lotuses covered the lakes
with
fragrant blossoms
·
The
factory in Antioch
that makes fine china for Air Force One and U.S.
embassies around the world
·
A
ski jumping club in Fox River Grove that’s an Olympic training center
·
One
of the earliest forms of auto racing – the hill climb – resurrected in
Algonquin
·
A
hiking trail in a Carpentersville
forest preserve that was once a motor speedway
·
How
famous detective Allen Pinkerton got his start when he stumbled on a
gang of
counterfeiters near his home in West
Dundee
·
The
watches that made Elgin
a household name throughout the world
·
The
vast Kane County Flea Market
·
The
Kane County Cougars minor league baseball team
·
The
wealthy family that transformed St. Charles by building a one-of-a-kind
exotic
luxury hotel, a movie palace, a stunning art
deco city hall and more
·
The
Fox
River Trolley
Museum
·
Not
one but two castles: Bettendorf
(Vianden) Castle in Fox River Grove and Dunham
Castle
in Wayne
·
The
eccentric millionaire who used his Geneva
estate for research on levitation, secret codes embedded in
Shakespeare’s
writings, and other subjects
·
Lincoln
Highway, America’s
first coast-to-coast auto route
·
Fermilab
in Batavia,
the world’s most powerful particle accelerator
·
The
largest Hindu temple in North America in Bartlett
·
Mary
Todd Lincoln’s desperate visit to a medium in St.
Charles and her stay at a mental
hospital
in Batavia
·
The
rise and fall of industrial Aurora
and its re-birth as Illinois’
second largest city.
The
Fox River Valley and Chain O’ Lakes
captures the same energy, humor and intriguing storytelling that have
made
Baer’s previous documentaries (Chicago By Boat: The River Tour, Chicago’s
Loop: A Walking Tour, Chicago’s Lakefront, Chicago By
‘L’:
Touring the Neighborhoods, Chicago’s North Shore, South of Chicago:
Suburbs,
Steel Mills, Shoreline, Northwest of Chicago, Chicago’s Western
Suburbs: From
Prairie Soil to Prairie Style and Chicago By Boat: The New River Tour)
some
of WTTW11’s most popular original productions.
The Fox
River and
Chain O’ Lakes
with Geoffrey Baer
The
Fox River Valley and Chain O’Lakes is
an original production of WTTW11. Writer and host is Geoffrey
Baer, producer is Dan
Protess,
associate producer and researcher is Susan
Godfrey,
associate producer is April Davis,
executive producer is VJ McAleer.
More
information about the production, and all of
WTTW11’s programming, is available at www.wttw.com.
Major
funding for The Fox River Valley and Chain O’
Lakes is provided by:
# # #
<>For
additional information,
contact: Holly H. Gilson, (773) 509-5424 or hgilson@wttw.com
Julia Maish,
(773) 509-5551 or jmaish@wttw.com
Electronic
artwork and interviews with the production team available upon request
<>11/6/06
