Oak Park

Oak Park Conservatory is a conservatory and botanical garden located at 615 Garfield Street in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United... States. It is open daily with restricted hours; a donation is suggested. The conservatory started in 1914 as a community effort to house exotic plants collected during residents' travels. Today's Edwardian-style glass structure was built in 1929 but fell into neglect until 1970, when a group of concerned citizens preserved it. It was then expanded in 2000. The conservatory now provides 8,000 square feet of growing areas, making it the third largest conservatory in the Chicago area, and contains more than 3,000 plants, some of which date back to 1914. The Oak Park Conservatory was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on March 8, 2005. The desert collection includes three cactus groups , plus succulents including agave, crassula, succulent euphorbias, gasteria, haworthia, and kalanchoe. Woody plants in this room include olive, etrog, fig, date palm, bay, and pomegranate.
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The Frank Lloyd Wright/Prairie School of Architecture Historic District is a residential neighborhood in the Cook County, Illinois village of Oak... Park, United States. The Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District is both a federally designated historic district listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and a local historic district within the village of Oak Park. The districts have differing boundaries and contributing properties, over 80 of which were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, widely regarded as the greatest American architect to have ever lived. Oak Park, Illinois was first settled in 1835 and incorporated as a village in 1901. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright came there in 1889 and designed his home which was built in 1889, in 1897 he added the studio along Chicago Avenue. Wright brought international attention to the village, designing 25 structures there in all; most of them within the historic district. The Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District provides a look at a cross section of Wright's work which spans several decades over his career.
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The Frank W. Thomas House is located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The building was designed by architect Frank Lloyd... Wright in 1901 and cast in the Wright-developed Prairie School of Architecture. By Wright's own definition, this was the first of the Prairie houses - the rooms are elevated, and there is no basement. On September 14, 1972 the Frank Thomas House was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
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The Walter H. Gale House, located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and constructed in 1893. The house... was commissioned by Walter H. Gale of a prominent Oak Park family and is the first home Wright designed after leaving the firm of Adler and Sullivan. The Gale House was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on August 17, 1973. The house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1893 for Walter H. Gale, who was a member of one of Oak Park's "founding families" and a local hardware store operator. The house was the first design undertaken after he left Louis Sullivan's firm, Adler & Sullivan. The house followed on in the nature of Wright's own home and was one of a series of modest homes designed in 1892 and 1893. Two of these homes were designed for Walter Gale on a speculative basis, the other being known as the Robert P. Parker House, which stand down Chicago Avenue from the Gale House. The Gale House, like all of the homes designed in this "series," has symmetrical sides but they are difficult to see clearly because other buildings are built too closely.
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John Guilbert Avildsen is an American film director. Avildsen was born in Oak Park, Illinois, the son of Ivy and Clarence John Avildsen. After... starting out as an assistant director on films by Arthur Penn and Otto Preminger, John Avildsen received his first success with the low budget feature Joe which received critical acclaim for star Peter Boyle and moderate box office business. This was followed by another critical success, Save the Tiger , that was nominated for three Oscars, winning Best Actor for star Jack Lemmon. Avildsen's greatest success was Rocky , garnering ten Academy Award nominations and winning three, including Best Picture and Best Director. He later directed what was expected to be the series' final installment, Rocky V . His other films include Cry Uncle! , Neighbors , The Karate Kid The Karate Kid, Part II , The Karate Kid, Part III , Lean on Me , and 8 Seconds . Avildsen was the original director for both Serpico and Saturday Night Fever , but was fired over disputes with producers Martin Bregman and Robert Stigwood, respectively.
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George Robert "Bob" Newhart , is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Noted for his deadpan and slightly stammering delivery, Newhart came to... prominence in the 1960s when his album of comedic monologues The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was a worldwide bestseller and reached #1 on the Billboard pop music charts—it remains the 20th best-selling comedy album in history. The follow-up album, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back! was also a massive success, and both albums held the Billboard #1 and #2 spots simultaneously, a feat unequaled until the 1991 release of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II by hard rock band Guns N' Roses. Newhart later went into acting, starring in two long-running and prize-winning situation comedies, first as psychologist Dr. Robert "Bob" Hartley on the 1970s sitcom The Bob Newhart Show and then as innkeeper Dick Loudon on the 1980s sitcom Newhart. He also had a third, short-lived sitcom in the nineties titled Bob. Newhart also appeared in film roles such as Major Major in Catch-22, and Papa Elf in Elf. He provided the voice of Bernard in the Walt Disney animated films The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under.
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Raymond Albert "Ray" Kroc was an American businessman who joined McDonald's in 1954 and built it into the most successful fast food operation in the... world. Kroc was included in Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, and amassed a fortune during his lifetime. He owned the San Diego Padres baseball team from 1974 until his death in 1984.Similar to another fast-food giant, KFC founder Harlan Sanders, Kroc's success came late in life when he was past his 50th birthday. Kroc was born to parents of Czech origin in Oak Park, near Chicago, on October 5, 1902. His father originated from the village Břasy near Plzeň, Bohemia . He grew up and spent most of his life in Oak Park, Illinois. During the First World War he lied about his age and became a Red Cross ambulance driver at 15. During the war, Kroc served in the same regiment as Walt Disney. Between the end of the war and the early 1950s he tried his hand at a number of trades including paper cup salesman, pianist, jazz musician, band member and radio DJ at Oak Park radio station WGES.
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Betty Marion White Ludden , better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and television personality. With a... career spanning over seven decades, she is best known to contemporary audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls. Since the death of co-star Rue McClanahan in 2010, she is now the only living Golden Girl. She currently stars as Elka Ostrovsky in the TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland and hosts the practical-joke show Betty White's Off Their Rockers. White has won seven Emmy Awards and has received 20 Emmy nominations over the course of her career, including being the first woman ever to receive an Emmy for game show hosting and is the only person to have an Emmy in all female performing comedic categories. In May 2010, White became the oldest person to guest-host Saturday Night Live, for which she also received a Primetime Emmy Award.
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Kathleen Mary "Kathy" Griffin is an American actress, comedian, model, writer and producer. Born in Oak Park, Illinois, she moved to Los Angeles in... 1978, where she studied drama at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and became a member of improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings. In the 1990s, Griffin began performing as a stand-up and also appeared as a guest star on several television shows. She achieved recognition in a supporting role on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan . Her breakthrough came on the Bravo reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List , which became a ratings hit for the network and earned her two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Reality Program. Griffin has released four comedy albums, with all of them receiving Grammy Award nominations. Her first album, For Your Consideration , made her the first female comedian to debut atop of the Billboard Top Comedy Albums chart. In 2009, she released her autobiography Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin, which topped The New York Times Best Seller list. Griffin has also taped stand-up specials with HBO and Bravo.
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John Mahoney is an American actor, best known for playing Martin "Marty" Crane in the American sitcom Frasier on NBC. Born in England, he became a... naturalized citizen of the United States in 1959. He started his career on the stage in 1977, moving into film in 1980. He appeared in Frasier from its inception in 1993 until the final episode in 2004. He has also worked as a voice actor, and performed on Broadway and in Chicago theatre. Mahoney, the seventh of eight children, was born in the seaside resort of Blackpool, Lancashire, England – the town to which his mother was evacuated as the Mahoneys' home city of Manchester was heavily bombed during the Second World War. He started school at St Joseph's College, Blackpool. After the war, the Mahoneys moved back to Manchester. Mahoney grew up in the Withington area of the city and discovered acting at the Stretford Children's Youth Theatre. His father, Reg, was a baker. Mahoney moved to the United States as a young man when his older sister, Vera, a war-bride living in rural Illinois, agreed to sponsor him. He studied at Quincy University, Illinois, before joining the United States Army to speed up the U.S.
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George Robert "Bob" Newhart , is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Noted for his deadpan and slightly stammering delivery, Newhart came to... prominence in the 1960s when his album of comedic monologues The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was a worldwide bestseller and reached #1 on the Billboard pop music charts—it remains the 20th best-selling comedy album in history. The follow-up album, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back! was also a massive success, and both albums held the Billboard #1 and #2 spots simultaneously, a feat unequaled until the 1991 release of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II by hard rock band Guns N' Roses. Newhart later went into acting, starring in two long-running and prize-winning situation comedies, first as psychologist Dr. Robert "Bob" Hartley on the 1970s sitcom The Bob Newhart Show and then as innkeeper Dick Loudon on the 1980s sitcom Newhart. He also had a third, short-lived sitcom in the nineties titled Bob. Newhart also appeared in film roles such as Major Major in Catch-22, and Papa Elf in Elf. He provided the voice of Bernard in the Walt Disney animated films The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under.
more

Raymond Albert "Ray" Kroc was an American businessman who joined McDonald's in 1954 and built it into the most successful fast food operation in the... world. Kroc was included in Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, and amassed a fortune during his lifetime. He owned the San Diego Padres baseball team from 1974 until his death in 1984.Similar to another fast-food giant, KFC founder Harlan Sanders, Kroc's success came late in life when he was past his 50th birthday. Kroc was born to parents of Czech origin in Oak Park, near Chicago, on October 5, 1902. His father originated from the village Břasy near Plzeň, Bohemia . He grew up and spent most of his life in Oak Park, Illinois. During the First World War he lied about his age and became a Red Cross ambulance driver at 15. During the war, Kroc served in the same regiment as Walt Disney. Between the end of the war and the early 1950s he tried his hand at a number of trades including paper cup salesman, pianist, jazz musician, band member and radio DJ at Oak Park radio station WGES.
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Betty Marion White Ludden , better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and television personality. With a... career spanning over seven decades, she is best known to contemporary audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls. Since the death of co-star Rue McClanahan in 2010, she is now the only living Golden Girl. She currently stars as Elka Ostrovsky in the TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland and hosts the practical-joke show Betty White's Off Their Rockers. White has won seven Emmy Awards and has received 20 Emmy nominations over the course of her career, including being the first woman ever to receive an Emmy for game show hosting and is the only person to have an Emmy in all female performing comedic categories. In May 2010, White became the oldest person to guest-host Saturday Night Live, for which she also received a Primetime Emmy Award.
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Kathleen Mary "Kathy" Griffin is an American actress, comedian, model, writer and producer. Born in Oak Park, Illinois, she moved to Los Angeles in... 1978, where she studied drama at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and became a member of improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings. In the 1990s, Griffin began performing as a stand-up and also appeared as a guest star on several television shows. She achieved recognition in a supporting role on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan . Her breakthrough came on the Bravo reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List , which became a ratings hit for the network and earned her two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Reality Program. Griffin has released four comedy albums, with all of them receiving Grammy Award nominations. Her first album, For Your Consideration , made her the first female comedian to debut atop of the Billboard Top Comedy Albums chart. In 2009, she released her autobiography Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin, which topped The New York Times Best Seller list. Griffin has also taped stand-up specials with HBO and Bravo.
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Elizabeth Jean Philipps , known professionally as Busy Philipps, is an American film actress, perhaps best known for her supporting roles on the... television series Freaks and Geeks and Dawson's Creek. She has also performed significant roles in films like The Smokers , as Karen Carter, the drama film Home Room as Alicia Browning, she appeared in White Chicks , played a supporting role in Made of Honor and appeared in He's Just Not That Into You , starring Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson and Drew Barrymore. Currently, she plays Laurie Keller in the television series Cougar Town for which she won a Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Critic's Choice Television Award in 2011. Philipps was born in Oak Park, Illinois. Her parents gave her the nickname Busy because as an infant she was always moving. The nickname stuck; it even appears on her credit cards, but not her driver's license. She attended Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. She attended Loyola Marymount University at the same time as Linda Cardellini and former boyfriend Colin Hanks.
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Beverly Archer is an American actress. She was born in Oak Park, Illinois. She attended San Francisco State University and UC Santa Barbara where... she majored in drama. Archer is perhaps best known for her roles as Iola Boylan on Mama's Family for four seasons and as Gunnery Sgt. Alva Bricker on Major Dad from 1990 until 1993. She has appeared in other programs such as The Young and the Restless, ALF, and the movie Project ALF, along with many other guest appearances. She played a thieving teacher in The Brady Bunch Movie, who was caught by Bobby Brady. She also appeared in two episodes of Married with Children as Miss Hardaway, a sexually repressed librarian and abstinence counselor who is in love with Bud. In addition, she appeared in a 1994 episode of Full House, where she played the role of an unsympathetic SAT test monitor. She also appeared on episodes of Grace Under Fire, Family Ties and The Fall Guy. She portrayed Nancy Walker's daughter in The Nancy Walker Show. Aside from acting, Archer has also written episodes for both Mama's Family and Alf.
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