Trailer
Plot summary
The O'Leary family travels to Chicago in 1854 to begin again. Patrick O'Leary tries to outrun a steam train with his wagon; the horses pull free and he is killed. His widow Molly settles in the city with her three boys, proves herself as a laundress and builds a laundry business in a district called the Patch. Her sons are educated. Jack becomes a reforming lawyer, while Dion turns to gambling. Washing a sheet, Molly finds a drawing that appears to be the work of Gil Warren, a local businessman.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about In Old Chicago (1938)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- During pre-production, MGM announced that Jean Harlow, under contract to that studio, would be loaned to 20th Century Fox to star as Belle Fawcett in In Old Chicago; after Harlow's death the part went to Alice Faye.
- Alice Brady won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for In Old Chicago, becoming the first person to win the supporting award after having been nominated for it the previous year.
- The O'Leary family in the film is largely fictitious: the real Mrs. O'Leary was named Catherine, not Molly, and she had two children, one son and one daughter, not three sons.
- Alice Faye's popularity skyrocketed after In Old Chicago, and that same year she was reunited with Tyrone Power and Don Ameche for Alexander's Ragtime Band, which proved even more successful.
- The Mayor of Chicago in 1871 was Roswell B. Mason, not an O'Leary son as the film shows; like the fictional Jack, Mason was elected on a reform ticket and took similar measures against the fire.
