An illustration of a window washer graced the cover of Fortune magazine in November 1932.
This scene looks extremely familiar to me. The view from the window looks just like my view from my desk at Tribune Tower in 2007. Looking north, you can see the Hotel Intercontinental.
I wish I had captured the street view below to make the comparison even stronger with the 1932 illustration.
What’s truly striking is that in 2007, I photographed a window washer cleaning my window. Almost the same view as the Fortune illustration!
Could this possibly be the same view as mine‽
The answer isn’t certain. Fortune magazine was produced in New York City, not Chicago.
However, the illustrator Ervine Metzl was born in Chicago. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and even created several posters for a series commissioned by the Chicago Transit Authority in the early 1920s. He very well could have been using a Chicago reference for his illustration.
Here’s Metzl’s illustration and my photo side-by-side:
It’s possible that this 1932 Fortune cover captured the view from the same desk where I worked exactly 75 years later. And I photographed a scene remarkably similar to the one Ervine Metzl illustrated for Fortune magazine all those decades ago!
I love this! I haven’t ever successfully captured window washers but it’s been on my list since you did it back in 2007! Everytime I see one I kick myself for not capturing the two window washes who took a break to take a selfie together, right outside my window!
Oh, doing a selfie with the window washer. That would be epic!