Walk along the streets of any large urban city, and you’ll likely come across street performers painted from head to toe in a single metallic paint. Most of these performers are stoic and serious, pretending to be statues. My favorite moments are when you catch them breaking character, seeing them as regular people on the street who just so happen to be completely covered in metallic paint.
The man, the myth, the mercury
I worked in downtown Chicago every day from 2000 to 2020. During part of that time, a man wore all silver clothes with silver-painted skin.
Most street performers take their craft seriously, but not our Silver Man. Oh no, he was the master of the “anti-performance.” You’d find him lounging by the old McDonald’s near the Wrigley Building, just a regular Joe having a smoke… who happened to look like he’d been dipped in a vat of liquid metal.
Silver-tongued wisdom
One day, I spotted him dropping some street-smart knowledge on a group of unsuspecting ladies. Their crime? Leaving their phones out in the open. Our metallic mentor warned them about the dangers of phone-snatching faster than you can say “tin man.”
The dynamic duo
Another time, he was teaming up with another street performer—the guy with the British flag on his hat who does card tricks. Neither was performing. The card magician was charging his cell phone at a nearby outlet planter. Silver man is using his Metallic Superpowers to charge the card magician’s phone.
Commuter of steel
If you were a silver man, wouldn’t you take the silver stairs? aka the escalator? One time, I saw him walking down the regular stairs at the Grand Avenue subway station. There is no escalator for this metallic man.
He rode the train home, gripping the silver pole with his metallic mitts while the commuters ignored him.
My very first photo of Silver Man was in 2009 at the Belmont stop. Wearing his signature silver outfit, but his face and hands were not painted yet. Maybe he puts on his game face downtown? Silverman prefers to get his news via the old-school print newspaper. Without the face paint, he almost looked… normal. Almost.
The accidental portfolio
The funny thing is, I never caught him in the act of actual street performing. All my photos are of him doing mundane stuff, which honestly, makes them even better.
The magic of technology
Want to know the real magic trick? Google Photos. I typed in “silver man,” and boom! All these memories came flooding back. Google somehow knows which photos are of a silver man.
A silver lining in my photo albums
The best part? Google’s “helpful” suggestions for other “silver man” related photos. It’s like a weird and wonderful trip down memory lane, sprinkled with a dash of robot confusion.
Silver man: robots
Certainly a sort of silver man, this is C3PO from “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” is the raw robot that Anakin made. In 2012, I was at a work conference in Orlando. After the conference, I swung by the Orlando Science Museum for fun. They had an entire Star Wars exhibit with many of the original costumes and models. Since it was a Tuesday, there was nobody, literally nobody, at the exhibit. I was the only one in there for 2-1/2 hours! I took 812 photos. I would have shot more, but the battery on my phone and Nikon was getting low. Some day I’ll post more of these photos.
C3PO’s knees
The spare parts robot is in front of a car repair shop on Lawrence Avenue. I lived on Lawrence Avenue for 13 years. Usually, I rode down Lawrence on the bus. One day, I took a long walk down Lawrence and snapped this shot.
In my first few years working for the Tribune, I had many toys at my desk. One of them was this little remote-controlled robot that shot foam discs from his mouth.
K-2SO standing underneath the silver Chicago Bean.
Silver man: silver hair
When searching my Google Photos for silver man, it also gave results of men with silver hair.
It could be said that Santa Claus has silver hair. I kept the dark tones in this photo, because it makes Santa look more ominous.
My dad’s pin-filled hat was featured in the Chicago Tribune. (my blog post with a screenshot of the Chicagao Tribune)
An Estonian exhibit was once featured in downtown Chicago. (I wrote a blog post about it). After WWII, many immigrants escaped to Chicago (including my dad). In this photo is the famous Estonian composer Arvo Part. Funny how in this photo he kinda looks like my dad.
When I lived by myself in a Lincoln Square apartment, a regular character on my couch was this plush of Monet. He has wild white hair that is fun to style.
When I was a kid, it was a family tradition to put tinsel on the Christmas tree. Here my niece puts the tinsel on her head.
Silver man: statues
Another subject that Google Photos sometimes thinks is a silver man is statues. Granted, none of these statues are silver. They tend to be more like bronze or gold—close enough.
When Sam Zell took over Tribune Company, he put this crazy statue of a bureaucrat in the lobby of the Tribune Tower. Someone put a silly newspaper hat on its head.
One night I put 50 snowballs on the Jack Brickhouse statue.
It’s a lot of fun using a kaleidoscope lens in the Art Institute of Chicago.
In the early 2000s, our family had a backyard croquet league. I painted these green army figures gold. Anyone who won a match also won a Golden Sharpshooter.
Silver man: Walking Dude
Speaking of silver hair, the Walking Dude of Chicago certainly had a mane of silver hair. Google Photos uncovered these images I took of Walking Dude over the years when he had silver hair.
If you liked the Walking Dude, you might like my blog post, Chicago’s Walking Dude: Conversation Starters
Silver man: duct tape
I suppose some things with duct tape might look a bit like a silver man.
The handrail in front of the world-famous Art Institute of Chicago was broken for a couple of days. Before it could be fully repaired, it was wrapped up with duct tape.
Silver man: silver clothes
Google Photos gave some photos of gray clothing. That’s kinda like silver.
Can you tell that I love gray?
From the Star Wars exhibit in Orlando. I think this is a Snowtrooper’s glove.
The outfit for my wedding
The Pigeon Man in Lincoln Square would feed the pigeons at the corner of Lawrence/Western/Lincoln. Hundreds of pigeons would flock to him. Poem to Chicago’s Pigeon Man, Joseph Zeman.
Other images that came up in my Google Photos search for: silver man
Coworker Mike Fioritto captured this image of me in San Francisco while I was on the ground taking photos. In front of me is my tripod.
A couple of days after September 11, 2001, I placed about 100 tiny American flags on all the building’s water hydrants in downtown Chicago.
I’m not sure why Google Photos thinks there is a silver man in this photo. But this shot captures a historic moment in Lincoln Square. The public sculpture arches are being installed. I just happened to take that day off work, and was walking around the neighborhood when they were putting these arches in place. From what I recall, nobody else was around taking photos of the installation. This was back in 2002, before cameras were commonplace with cellphones. Not everyone had a camera on them at all times.
I suppose this portrait of Barack Obama makes him look like a silver man. This was taken from the celebration in Chicago’s Grant Park on the night when Obama won his first presidential election. What a magical night. (My blog post with more photos. And a video.)
I have several posts about drawing on frosted windows:
• Tips on how to get away drawing on wet windows
• How to photograph a window drawing on the bus or train
• Drawing on foggy bus windows
King Kong climbs the Wrigley Building in Chicago
• Get into the swing of Montrose Harbor
• Wire person on a swing with string
Blair Kamin, the Chicago Tribune’s architecture critic, is walking underground and about to ascend the steps to the Tribune Tower.
Big silver pole in Millennium Park
In the early 1990s, our local library (Oak Lawn Public Library) offered sculptures that you could take out on loan. My brother and I where teenagers back then, we had fun bringing home a wide range of sculptures. Twenty years later, I visited the same library. They still have the same sculptures. However, they are no longer available for loan. They are only for display.
A drawing I did in college of a coal miner. The assignment was to interpret the word “underbelly.” I covered a sheet of aluminum foil with asphalt sealant, and drew the coal miner with oil pastel. A totally fun process that I made up, because I worked as a monitor in the sculpture lab. The sculpture professor, Kevin Strandberg, had some leftover driveway sealer, so he brought it to the sculpture department to see what the students would do with it.
A guy with a silver can paints the planter fence on Michigan Avenue.
So here’s to you, Silver Man of Chicago. You may have been painted in monochrome, but you sure added a whole lot of color to our lives!
This brings up so many memories. The underbelly art assignment. Walking Man. There is a bike-riding man in Oak Park who looks exactly like Walking Man, it’s eerie. Croquet – the time you and I went to that Chicago croquet club gathering on the shores of Lake Michigan and we were dressed wrong but they let us play anyway.
What did you do for the underbelly assignment?
And there was a Chicago Tribune reporter at that Chicago Croquet Club event. I can’t recall if the Tribune ever ran a story or images from that event. Oh wait. I found it! https://www.chicagotribune.com/2002/07/05/give-it-a-whack/
Loved this blurb on Silver Man and, of course, Walking Man. Used to see Silver Man all around the area and wonder what happened to him. But Walking Man was someone I saw all around during my many years at Tribune. And I see how he became a “silver man” when his hair turned silverish. His life came to a dreadful end which always makes me sad; but I think he would have been touched and surprised by how many people in Chicago have so many fond memories of him.
Indeed, Walking Dude did turn into a “silver man” with his hair. It was always exciting to see him around.