You can hear this interview here:
Rick Kogan, WGN Radio
I'd like to welcome to the
show Genevieve Davis, who has made a remarkable, haunting – I don't
know if it's depressing, SECRET LIFE, SECRET DEATH. This film, which
screens at the Gene Siskel Film Center on Friday, and next Tuesday
again, it's about your grandmother. And it's sort of a horrific kind
of story. A beautiful and interesting figure, who winds up getting
caught up in Chicago, after the turn of the century. And winds up
being associated with people like Big Jim Colosimo and the raunchy,
crazy times at Levee District in Chicago, that famous red light
district on the near South Side, that was noted for brothels and
gambling halls and opium dens. Chronicled by my father and Lloyd
Wendt, in a book called “The Lords of the Levee.” I will tell
you that it must have been disturbing, in many ways, to discover the
secret life, and indeed the controversial secret death of her
grandmother. And she traveled to this strange, strange place called
the Hollywood Hotel, in a kind of no-man's-land in northern
Wisconsin.
This movie, was this at all
for you depressing to uncover the sordid and sad details of your
grandmother's life?
GD
It was very depressing at
times and I just had to just put my nose to the grindstone and slog
through it.
RK
What was your initial -
what was the seed of this film. What compelled you to take an 8 year
long journey to get this film made?
GD
Well, you know, my Dad
always talked about when he was a kid and when he was 5 years old his
mom took him to Big Jim Colosimo's funeral.
RK
Yeah.
GD
And I didn't know if that
was just a story that he made up –
RK
Sure. Sure.
GD
You know, to make him feel
better about having a bad childhood, or if that really happened. And
he didn't really talk very much about his mother, and he was dead at
that point, so I didn't have anybody to ask about it. So I went to
the library. This was the day before the internet. And I looked up
Chicago crooks. And Big Jim Colosimo was Chapter One.
RK
Oh, I'll bet! I'll bet!
And that must have peaked your interest. And then you go from
Colosimo and then you delve into what Chicago was like, or what
Colosimo's Chicago was like at the time. And those must have been
revelations. Talk about a sordid era in Chicago History!
GD
Yes, it certainly was. You
know, the Levee is kind of a forgotten part of Chicago's History. It
occupied the part of Chicago that's now called “the South Loop” -
RK
Right.
GD
Or “Printer's Row.” And
at the time, it was just a cesspool of misery. There was
prostitution and all manner of theft and crime and opium dens and
really a bad place to be.
RK
Well, almost - as you know,
my father was the co-author of The Lords of the Levee,
the seminal book about that area. And it chills me when I re-read it
every year. It chills me. It's almost unimaginably sordid, is it
not?
GD
Yes,
it is. And it's difficult to contemplate, you know, somebody that
came before you ending up there. But that's, that's what happened.
RK
One
of the fascinating things about your grandmother's life is detailed
in SECRET LIFE, SECRET DEATH, which again screens at the Gene Siskal
Friday and next Tuesday, is that this was a woman of some – now she
was flawed – but there's some fortitude there, because as you well
know, Genevieve Davis, Producer, Director, Cinematographer,
everything else on this film, that not many women were able to
survive the kind of situation that your grandmother was plugged into,
or were they?
GD
No
they weren't. And you know, personally, I don't look at her as a
flawed person.
RK
Yeah.
GD
I
look at society as
being flawed. Because she had a baby after an engagement. And the
guy that she was engage to disappeared. And her father threw her
out. So she really didn't have too many options. And she was
living with a sister, and that was a really chaotic household and the
husband was a drunk. And so she took, as her other sister said, the
first opportunity that came along and that wound her up in the Levee
in Chicago. But she was a tough gal.
RK
Oh,
no question. In this movie she was – you know as many women were
in that time, she hooked up with a guy who
used her, but who, in that weird kind of sense also provided a sense
of protection. And at least for the little boy, your dad, believed
that was his father.
GD
Yeah,
Dad thought that Tony Coglioni was Dad, until he was in Philadelphia
– his mom had sent him back when he was 11. And a relative took
him aside and explained that his name wasn't – [Laughs]
RK
Coglioni.
[Laughs]
GD
I
changed their family's name.
RK
I have to, as a historian of modest
note, so applaud the research that is involved in this thing. You're
quite a talented filmmaker. The film is visually stunning. Tell me
about the film making itself. You use music brilliantly, you use old
newspaper clippings, old photographs and all sorts of other
cinematography elements to tell this story. How did you
conceptualize that?
GD
I am a professional artist so the way
that I make a film is different from the way somebody who is steeped
in film would do it. So I told the story through a lot of images.
Sometimes you'll see a music video where the actors doing the
reenactments will act out a story and the lyrics of the songs, for
example Alberta Hunter singing about the Hollywood – tell what's
going on in the scene. That's how I made the movie. I just do it
differently.
RK
For example, there's a lengthy dance
number near the beginning of the film -
GD
The tango!
RK
The tango, that is just brilliantly
done. Is that your artwork that's involved in that, too?
GD
Well, actually those are some vintage
tango pictures
RK
Wow!
GD
I found those tango dancers on the
Library of Congress website before I had even thought about making a
movie. And when I saw them, I was like, you know these would make a
wonderful animation. And I was fascinated with them and I was
studying tango at the time. So when it came to making a movie, I
said, “This is a great way to show the thrill of falling in love,
you know, at a dance hall.” I took the pictures and I processed
them, using Photoshop, you know, made them look more like paintings,
and then I animated them, along with this beautiful music that came
from the Orchestra Tipica Budpest, a beautiful live version of “La
Cachila” which means “the sexy woman.”
RK
Secret Life, Secret Death, a docudrama
mystery. Well, your grandmother, and also the actress who plays in
this thing is absolutely stunning. And it's a silent film in many
ways. There's no spoken dialog by the actors and there are many of
them in this. Your grandmother has a rough time in Chicago,
unquestionably. And your Dad kind of too - I don't want to spoil the
movie - that shadowed him for the rest of his life. She winds up in
northern Wisconsin, running a brothel. Spread Eagle is the name of
the town. When you came upon that information – that's one of the
strangest little towns I've ever encountered in real life, or fiction
– did you know what to make of that place when you first
encountered it?
GD
Have you been up there?
RK
I have never been up there. It's a
long drive. I mean it's north of Green Bay.
GD
Yeah.
RK
It's way up there. But it seems to
have been a kind of hangout for mobsters like John Dillinger. One of
the fascinating things is you have the guy talking about how the
hunters up there, the locals, would go out a kill a bunch of deer, so
that the mobsters could then stick a deer on their car and then drive
back and say, “Hey, I shot that! I killed a deer!” When all
they really did was whore around and play poker. That place, is –
in it's way – it's kind of a rural “Levee,” isn't it?
GD
It really was. You know, when I went
up there, it was 5 bars and restaurants on a curve in the road [Kogan
laughs] and back in my grandmother's day, it was 5 brothels on a
curve in the road. And there really is no town. [Laughs] You know,
I try and show that in the movie. It's really just those 5 -
RK
Yeah, yeah.
GD
You know, that's just the kind of place
it was. It was quid pro quo there, just like in Chicago,
where they would take care of the sheriff and the judge and the DA.
You know--
RK
Sure.
GD
They would wine and dine them at the
Hollywood Hotel and give them freebies -
RK
Wine and dine AND. Yes.
GD
Right.
RK
The film is called “SECRET LIFE,
SECRET DEATH,” and Genevieve Davis is the producer and director and
cinematographer and art director and everything else in this film.
It features actors doing the docudrama part, but also features
stunning photographs, some of which even I have never seen, that the
great Tim Samuelson, the Cultural Historian of the City of Chicago,
was of unbelievable help to you, was he not?
GD
He was a great resource. He gave me a
couple of those pictures of panoramics of Chicago that hadn't been
published before. And he also pointed out a number of places that I
could shoot. So I went down to Clark Street where the pawn shops are
-
RK
Sure.
GD
And I shot the second stories there.
And I used that for a green screen background where these crazed
brothel madams throw an inmate -
RK
Yeah
GD
--out of a third story window of a
brothel.
RK
Before I let you go, Genevieve, and
you'll be in town, I'd love to, I'm going to try to meet you. You'll
be here Friday and next Tuesday, screening SECRET LIFE, SECRET DEATH
at the Gene Siskel Film Center on State Street, right across from the
Chicago Theater. You'll meet John Dillinger, Big Jim Colosimo,
Chicago Blues, antique cars, Al Capone – all make appearances. It
must be a great load to have finished it.
GD
Well, you know I'm still trying to wrap
up the book. And I did use your Dad's book as part of my research.
It was kind of a central -
RK
Yeah, that is one of the definitive
books, because he was able to interview the living Hinky Dink Kenna,
for goodness sake!
Genevieve, I cannot tell you how much I
admire this film and how much I think people – anybody –
interested in the history of Chicago, and just interested in a
fascinating story – your grandmother and her story and actually
your whole family will haunt me for some time. It's a remarkable
piece of work and it's 8 years well spent, Genevieve Davis.
GD
Thank you.
RK
Call me when you're here and
let's get together and talk further for maybe something in the
newspaper.
GD
Will do. Thank you so much
for having me on your show.
RK
It's my pleasure. 8 years
devoted to this and I understand exactly why you did it and
why you could not not do it again. SECRET LIFE, SECRET DEATH
screening Friday and next Tuesday at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Go
to www.secretlifesecretdeath.com
Genevieve, a pleasure to
meet you over the phone. I hope to meet you in person.
GD
Likewise.
RK
Take care.
