Jack Behrend Collection
Inclusive Dates
1932 – 2001
Bulk Dates
1960 – 1990
Abstract
This collection of films was compiled by Jack Behrend who owned a camera equipment rental house and worked as a professional industrial filmmaker from the 1950s until the 1990s. Included in this collection are 13 reels of raw footage from an unfinished documentary of historical inns of America and time lapse footage of Grant Park, the Equitable Building and Lake Point Tower as they were being constructed. The collection includes industrial films about steel foundries, the making of railroad wheels and a film about the teachers' strike at Niles North in the 1970s. Also within this collection are films made by Gordon Weisenborn, a Chicago filmmaker who gave his films to Jack Behrend before his death. Behrend has donated the prints and rights of his films and those of Gordon Weisenborn to CFA. He has also donated 52 prints made by the National Film Board of Canada.
Collection Items
To request more information about the items in this collection, please contact the archive at
info@chicagofilmarchives.org.
Items with Viewable Media
- 60 Cycles
- Action: The October Crisis of 1970
- African Rhythms
- Air show (WWI Planes Dogfight)
- Am I Really That Different?
- Amazing Grace
- Anywhere to Everywhere
- Babbit Reserve Mining Blast
- Babbit Reserve Mining Blast
- Ballet Adagio
- Barber’s Friction Casting
- Bardstown, KY: Bardstown Area
- Bardstown, KY: Talbott Inn
- Beatrice Foods Company
- Beluga Baby
- Between Two Wars: Twilight of an Era (1934-1939)
- Black Powder: A Hunting Heritage
- Bowling
- Buckhorn, WV: Interiors
- Canadians Can Dance
- Case of Barbara Parsons, The
- Chairy Tale
- Champion Papers Incorporated “Imagination 10”
- Chicago Breakdown
- Churchville, VA: Chruchville Area
- Churchville, VA: Skyline Drive - Buckhorn Inn
- Cimarron, NM: St. Francis Tavern
- Cities: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
- Citizen Harold
- Coldspring Project, The
- Colfax
- Columbia, CA: San Ysidro Ranch
- Columbia, CA: San Ysidro Ranch
- Columbia College Lighting Course- Hobsons
- Conoweld (German)
- Conoweld (Russian)
- Corral
- Cross Section
- De Düva
- Disinfection
- Equitable Building Time Lapse
- Feeling All Right
- Galena, IL: Stillman Inn
- Galena, IL: Stillman Inn Exteriors
- Galena, IL: Stillman Inn Interiors
- Griffin IR Granite City (U of I?)
- Griffin Wheel Brake Shoe Heating Effects
- Henry Ford's America
- High-Speed Golf
- High Speed Infrared Wheel Analysis
- I'll Go Again
- If I Had a Million [segment]
- Indian Speaks, The
- Japan: Its Culture and People
- King of the Hill
- Leo Burnett- 50th Anniversary Chicago Aerials
- Lonely Boy
- Matinee
- Medical Update: Panic Disorder
- Metooshow: “Water is Wet”, The
- Metooshow: “Where Does My Street Go?”, The
- Mindscape
- Mural Midwest Metropolis
- My Father the Song and Dance Man
- Natchez, MS: Monmouth Plantation
- Natchez, MS: Natchez Area
- NBC News
- Northern Fisherman
- Not Man's to Command
- Odyssey
- Once Upon a Time
- Other World, The
- Oxford, MD: Robert Morris Inn Exteriors
- Oxford, MD: Robert Morris Inn Interiors
- Oxford, MD: Robert Morris Inn Waterfront
- Pas de Deux
- Persistent Seed, The
- Pinscreen
- Play to Learn
- Popcorn
- Rhinebeck, NY: Beekman Arms Inn Ephemera
- Rhinebeck, NY: Beekman Arms Inn Exteriors
- Rhinebeck, NY: Beekman Arms Inn Interiors
- Rhinebeck, NY: Rhinebeck Area
- Right Candidate for Rosedale
- River (Planet Earth)
- Sailing: Do It Right- Keep It Safe
- Sailing Moods
- SanCasT
- Santa Claus is Coming Tonight
- Short and Suite
- Space Connection
- St. Augustine, FL: St. Augustine Area
- Stampede
- Stockbridge, MA: Red Lion Inn Exteriors
- Stockbridge, MA: Red Lion Inn Interiors
- Stockbridge, MA: Red Lion Inn Memorabelia
- Stockbridge, MA: Stockbridge Area
- Stories of Tuktu: Tuktu and His Eskimo Dogs
- Stories of Tuktu: Tuktu and the Big Seal
- Stories of Tuktu: Tuktu and the Clever Hands
- Stories of Tuktu: Tuktu and the Ten Thousand Fishes
- Stories of Tuktu: Tuktu and the Trials of Strength
- System, The
- Teacher’s Strike
- Teaching Children Poison Prevention
- Tennis Original
- This is an Emergency
- Time Piece
- Tucson, Arizona: Tanque Verde - Hike
- Tucson, AZ: Tanque Verde - Ranch
- Tucson, AZ: Tanque Verde - Ranch & Hike
- Tucson, AZ: Tucson Area
- Turn of the Century
- Unemployed Jr. Executive Man
- Universe
- Voice of the Fugitive
- War Film
- War II: Total War
- Wolf Creek, OR: Wolf Creek Inn
- Wolf Creek, OR: Wolf Creek Inn Exteriors
- Wolf Creek, OR: Wolf Creek Inn Gold Mining
- Wolf Creek, OR: Wolf Creek Inn Interiors
Collection Identifier
C.2004-02
Extent of Collection
172 rolls of 16mm totaling 96,535 feet, 1 roll of 8mm film totaling 50 feet, 1 roll of Super 8mm film totaling 50 feet, 2 1/4 inch videotapes, 1 hi-8 videotape, 2 VHS tapes and 1 3/4 inch tape.
Language Of Materials
English
Subject
Custodial History
Behrend's collection had previously resided at WPA film archive. When CFA incorporated in 2004, Behrend moved and gifted the collection to the CFA. Upon his death, Gordon Weisenborn had deeded his films to Behrend, which Behrend also gifted to CFA.
Access Restrictions
This collection is open to on-site access. Appointments must be made with Chicago Film Archives. Due to the fragile nature of the films, only video copies will be provided for on-site viewing.
Use Restrictions
CFA owns rights to all Behrend and Weisenborn film materials. CFA does not own rights to NFBC films.
Creators
Behrend, Jack
(was created by)
Jack Behrend was born in Chicago in 1929. After getting a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Behrend joined the army in 1951. Upon leaving the army in 1953, Behrend became a partner in his father's business, selling and renting used motion picture theater equipment. Two years later, Behrend and his father decided to market their business towards television companies, where there was a greater degree of growth than in movie theaters. He worked as a professional industrial filmmaker from the 1950s until the 1990s. In the early 1970s, Behrend worked with the Director's Guild of America to set up a committee that acknowledged films being made in Chicago. For over ten years the committee held monthly film screenings first at the Sheraton hotel, and then at a space above a wine store at 745 N. La Salle street.