Today, Friday, we headed farther south towards Chicago from Deerfield for an interview that we had at the Green Mill. We left the house early, so we had some time to kill while we were around the area. We went to a Starbucks for a while to organize footage for our documentary, and at a little before noon, we started heading over. When we first approached the Green Mill, the door was locked, but luckily the owner saw us at the front and let us in. The jazz club was incredibly dark, the only sources of light being from the front window and the lights in the back spelling out “Green Mill.” The owner, Dave Jemilo, gave us a friendly welcome and walked us towards the back for a place to talk. Because the lighting was so poor, he turned on the spotlights and angled one at a table where he sat. It kind of looked like we were interrogating him, but he seemed okay with it nonetheless.
We started asking Dave some questions about the history of the Green Mill and about his experiences as a local business owner. For some background information, we found out that the Green Mill had been around since 1907, and before Dave purchased the club in the 1980s, it was more of a rundown club filled with drug addicts and alcoholics. But Dave was able to purchase the place for a good deal, and he decided to fix it up to become more of a stable venue. The Green Mill has a rich history, for it was the place where slam poetry first began in 1987. Nowadays, Dave has a concert set up for every night, and he is quite capable of filling the place up with an audience. He claims that because the club is locally owned and operated, he is able to keep the ticket prices much cheaper than they should be because there are no middlemen who try to make a profit. Tickets are also only sold at the door, so no one can make any reservations and cheat others out of good seating. Dave believes that the fact that the club is locally owned helps it maintain its authenticity and atmosphere, which both of us could sense while in the club, even when it was empty. Dave gave us a lot of great information about what it was like running a local business, and it was really cool to see yet another perspective from the independent owners.
Great, Jana! This is so cool, and dear to my heart. Try to talk to Jim Wadsworth who runs all the entertainment at Nighttown in Cleveland, OH and see if you can get a local perspective. Even though there aren't drug addicts and alcoholics running around Nighttown, they always seem to get the best jazz entertainment and they keep the prices down. Furthermore, they have cut out the middle man but do offer reservations. However, you must pay cash at the door to compensate the band. Keep up the good work. KMOCK
ReplyDelete