I love fall and everything there is to do here in Lake County but we are now turning the page to the most wonderful and joyous time of year…the Holiday Season! Lake County is the perfect place for festive holiday fun! Starting this weekend there will be residents and visitors at all of our great shopping locations from Gurnee Mills and Westfield Hawthorn to Long Grove, Downtown Antioch, Vernon Hills, Libertyville and Waukegan. Not to mention, this is also the kick-off weekend to many of our festive holiday events. Another great time of year to enjoy our beautiful county!

Gurnee Mills Mall and Westfield Hawthorn will both be opening early this Friday for the shopping season. Both will be open at 5am to accommodate those early shoppers, but the big box stores at each mall will open earlier so please check each store for hours of operation. Santa will be visiting each mall through December 24, so make sure your kids get there in time to tell him what they want, as he will have to rush back to the North Pole of the 24th to get all those gifts delivered. Westfield Hawthorn is also hosting a Turkey Day 5K run/walk starting at 8am. They will also be having Toys for Tots Drive on November 27 and December 3 and 10. Gurnee Mills Mall has a wide range of events planned for the holiday season and will kick things off on Black Friday where shoppers have a chance to win fabulous prizes, sample favorite holiday foods, and see a performance at 10am from Chicago’s Rock-n-Roll hit musical “Million Dollar Quartet”. My pal from 102.3 WXLC, Jimmy Novak, will be broadcasting live from 5am – 9am.

The dazzling Vernon Hills Winter Wonderland Holiday Light Show kicks-off this Friday night at 6pm and is a sight to see. It is a great tradition for many families as they take a drive through this amazing collection of animated lights and decorations on the grounds of the Cuneo Mansion & Gardens. From what I hear, when you go to this event, you will receive a raffle ticket to take to any participating Vernon Hills store for a chance to win a $50 gift card in their holiday raffle. You can check out my behind the scenes look at this great holiday event at http://www.youtube.com/visitlakecounty. The Village of Vernon Hills will hold its annual Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Vernon Hills Golf Course on Saturday, November 27 at 4:30pm. There will be hot chocolate, cookies and cider available, plus Santa of course!

Also, starting this Friday at 10am is the Chicago Botanic Garden Wonderland Express. This 10,000 square foot exhibit of miniature trains winds over bridges, past waterfalls and through more than 80 mini-replicas of Chicago’s favorite landmarks. The Garden will also be decorated with thousands of twinkling lights. Check out our website http://www.lakecounty.org/events.cfm for all of our communities’ tree lighting ceremonies happening this weekend.

Mark your calendars to be at KeyLime Cove Waterpark Resort in Gurnee on Friday, December 10 at 6pm as the Radio Disney Road Crew will be there giving away prizes and enjoying “splash-tastic” holiday fun! Our holiday page, http://www.festivespaces.com has great holiday events listed and you could even win a shopping spree and an overnight stay by entering our contest. Lake County is definitely a great place to be all year round and I look forward to experiencing all of our festive holiday events!

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Edward Amet's Films, 1896-1898
by: Diana Dretske blogger of Illuminating Lake County, Illinois History

Edward Amet’s contributions to the early motion picture industry included the invention of the first practical 35mm motion picture projector—the Amet Magniscope—and the pioneering of special effects in motion pictures.

In last week’s post, I wrote about Amet’s wonderful Magniscope, which was completed in 1894 and ready for production in 1895.

This Magniscope (above) was originally owned and operated by Arthur E. Johnson (1886-1974) during his career as a theater projectionist in Minnesota. It became part of the museum's permanent collection in 2001, and is on display in the museum's galleries.

Magniscope advertisements stated it was "The perfect projecting machine. The Magniscope is simple, durable and compact, the pictures sharply defined and clear." The projector weighed about 90 pounds and the "model 1898" sold for $100. Since films weren't readily available, simply selling his invention to traveling showmen wasn't enough. Amet needed films to go along with the projector.

A traveling theatrical troop used the Amet Magniscope to show the first moving pictures in the Arizona Territory in 1897. For audiences accustomed to viewing color lantern slides, anything that moved was a wonder to behold on the screen. The first silent films were short—only 2 to 3 minutes in length—and featured circus parades, a winter sleigh ride, a horse-drawn fire department rushing to a call, and even prize pigs at the county fair.

"Boxing Boys" featured Amet's brothers, Percy and Herbert, duking it out in a ring at the Scale Company in Waukegan where the Magniscopes were produced.

Like films produced by others, Amet's first films were straightforward recordings of movement, such as the "Boxing Boys," or his wife and daughter playing in their backyard in Waukegan.

But quickly, Amet began thinking more in terms of each film having a theme or story to tell. His first "theatrical" films featured a marionette and tableau vivant (motionless performance in theater).

Still from "McGinty Under the Sea," the dancing skeleton.

Growing sentiment to free Cuba from the Spanish inspired this Amet tableau vivant "Freedom of Cuba" featuring Uncle Sam, Lady Liberty and little Cuba.

One of Amet's most endearing films was called "Morning Exercise" and featured two young women from Waukegan—Bess Bower Dunn and Isabelle Spoor (George Spoor's sister).

When the women arrived at the inventor’s home on North Avenue in Waukegan, Amet handed each a pair of boxing gloves. Dunn thought she was doing “our town inventor” a favor. “We whipped those long skirts out of the way and had a fine old time.” For several historic minutes, the girlfriends punched each other while Amet took their picture with his camera, becoming the first women in motion pictures.

In 1909, while traveling in Spokane, Washington, Bess Dunn discovered that Amet had sold prints of the film. In a local theater, she was recognized by an usher as one of the “boxing girls.” Amet’s film had traveled 2,000 miles and was still being shown 11 years later.

Amet's best known films are related to the Spanish-American War of 1898.

When war broke out, Amet illegedly sent a request to the U.S. War Department asking for permission to travel to Cuba to film the battles. His request was denied, but his enthusiasm for the idea did not diminish. He used accounts in newspapers to re-create the battles.


The land battles were filmed at Third Lake, a favorite fishing location of Amet. He enlisted his brothers and neighbors to be the actors. Still from film, and taking a break from filming. (above)

The majority of Amet's work on the theme of the Spanish-American War presented challenges, since it was mainly a naval war. Amet made a series of films showing the naval battles in his backyard, including one titled “Spanish Fleet Destroyed” or “The Battle of Santiago Bay."

Edward Amet standing in his backyard in front of his set for the filming of "The Battle of Santiago Bay" 1898. (LCDM 61.33)

For "The Battle of Santiago Bay," Amet constructed a shallow water tank 18 x 24 feet with a painted backdrop of Cuba. Five or six of the important naval vessels in the battles, such as the USS Olympia, USS New York and USS Oregon were reproduced at a 1/70 scale in sheet metal, 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 feet in length.

The model of the USS Olympia, built by Amet for the film, as shown on exhibit at the museum. (LCDM 61.33.2) Photo © 2007 Jess Smith/PHOTOSMITH

The models were constructed with firing gun turrets, and smoking stacks and flags. The gunfire was replicated with blasting caps, and gunpowder and camphor soaked cotton wadding, which was electrically ignited and provided smoke for the ships’ smokestacks. All of these effects were controlled from an electrical switchboard off camera. Additionally, waves were created by underwater jets and a large fan off camera.

Amet's artful use of special effects was so convincingly portrayed that he was asked to show his “war movies” at the opening of the Naval Training Center Great Lakes in 1911. Amet's "Battle of Santiago Bay" film (right)

The Spanish-American War was a popular topic in all sorts of media, including film. The American Vitagraph Company also made a version of the "Battle of Santiago Bay" in 1898, directed by J. Stuart Blackton. This film (rather than Amet's) is the one most often referenced in the history of early motion pictures, but it is a far cry from Amet's film with its pioneering use of special effects. Blackton's film features small wooden model ships in a bathtub with cigar smoke blown onto the scene by an assistant off camera. If Amet saw this film he probably rolled his eyes and laughed.

To be fair to Blackton, he was pivotal in the early years of the industry, and was among the first filmmakers to use the techniques of stop-motion and drawn animation. He is also considered the father of American animation.

Since most of Amet's films are lost, historians rely on published catalogues of films available for sale. These lists give us insight to the wide range of topics popular with motion picture audiences. Amet's 1898 catalogue listed (in part) the following films (50 feet in length, price $9.00 each):

"Passing of the Milwaukee Fliers on the C & NW Railroad" (train in each direction)
"Mamma's Pets" (old pig and ten little ones)
"Tugs Towing Barge"
"Clothes Race" (swimming contest in Lincoln Park)
"The Ducks" (seventy young ducks in a pond)
"Interrupted Tea Party on the Lawn" (comic)
"Chicago Fire Department Runs"

Amet left Lake County for California sometime after 1913, and continued working on motion picture devices. In the image above, Amet (left) is making a film using an early sound recording camera he invented.

For the museum's permanent exhibition on Edward Amet, the staff tracked down a copy of the "Battle of Santiago Bay" from the Killiam Collection (distributed by Worldview Entertainment), which is probably the best source for silent film era movies. The collection was assembled in the 1960s by Paul Killiam through acquisition from the Estate of D.W. Griffith, and later, a large portion of the collection of Thomas Edison.

We ordered the film (sight unseen) and crossed our fingers that it was not Blackton's version. Thankfully, it was Amet's film, and all 20 seconds of it plays in the museum's galleries everyday to the delight of visitors.

Special thanks to Carey Williams and Kirk Kekatos for years of research on Amet and his contribution to the early motion picture industry.

This blog was written by Diana Dretska. Here is a link to her blog page: http://lakecountyhistory.blogspot.com

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The Best Classes You’re Not Taking by Melissa @PBinmyhair

The Best Classes You’re Not Taking by Melissa @PBinmyhair

Enrichment. Hobby. Extracurricular. Just for fun. Socialization (for mom or tot!)

Whatever your reasoning more and more parents are looking for classes and activities to sign their kids up for. There are so many options out there these days from private groups and clubs, to national chains, and private tutors. What too many parents are overlooking is that some of the best, and most affordable classes are right under their noses!

Your local Forest Preserve, Park District and Library.

All of these offer classes and activities for multiple age groups from mom and tot to grade school. They also tend to be more affordable than the private or national chains because you have already partially paid for them through your tax dollars. I truly don’t know why more parents don’t use them.

When I moved to Lake County 2 years ago this fall I was excited to finally have a local park district and to have such a great Forest Preserve District. I moved from an urban area that had a Great library program, but the parks and recreation were lacking. We eagerly signed up for programs every session since moving here. One class, or in some cases multiple classes, have either been very small or been cancelled; Every. Single. Season.

Now it could be luck and what we choose. For the most part we stay away from team sports, my kids lean towards the academic (science, cooking, nature). However we started with a soccer clinic this summer that we loved, and the fall version is threatened due to under enrollment.

What you may not know about Park District programs is that many have instructors that are professionals in their field, or our outsourced from national chains. Our soccer clinic for example is outsourced from a group that runs soccer clinics all over the region. All of the instructors play semi-professionally. I played soccer high school through college, I even taught clinics for toddlers through kindergarten. I could not have been more impressed with the coach we had for this program. Not only was he teaching actual skills (dribbling, stopping, kicking, etc). He made the skills easy to understand with games and characters they would know, he made it fun and non-competitive, and really connected with the kids. The fall program for residents is $60, and your child comes home with a soccer ball! The class is 7 weeks, that makes it less then $10 per class! Yet when I registered there were only 2 people registered, TWO! Currently we are at 5 and are waiting to see if they are going to cancel or combine the ages.

We frequently end up at the open gym ($3/child $5/family) with 6 or fewer families. While most of the pre-registered (age specific) library programs we have taken are full or close to full all the drop in storytimes we have done are sparse on attendance. Same for the Forest preserve, we have had some full classes but have had just as many cancelled for low attendance.

With a tight economy this is the perfect time to check out your local park district or library for programs. You can find your city and links to both the park district and the library at our City Info Page. Information on Forest Preserve classes can be found here.


Have you/Do you use your local park district/library for classes? What are some of your favorites?



* Disclosure, I am biased as I spent over 10 years directing and teaching programs in a park district and nature center. However even with out the teaching experience I would hands down always try my local park district and library for classes because I am always trying to save money. I was not compensated in anyway to promote the parks or forest preserve districts.

This blog was written by Melissa @PBinmyhair Here is a link to her blog page: http://www.littlelakecounty.com/

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