Merchandise Mart - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• Owing to the expanding postwar economy and family, ownership began offering tours in 1948. Architecture and design interest groups continue to offer scheduled tours.
• Movies and TV shows are frequently filmed on the Wells Street Bridge and underneath the elevated tracks on Franklin.
• Chicago Marathon routes have taken runners past the structure, typically on Wells Street.
• The Mart hosts the annual Art Chicago activities.
• In the opening credits of the 1970s television sitcom Good Times, the building is depicted prior to renovation and revitalization.
• The 1948 film Call Northside 777, was made in Illinois and the Mart is seen from newspaper offices on Wacker Drive.
• The lobby appeared in the movie The Hudsucker Proxy as the interior of the Hudsucker Company headquarters.
• In 1956, the eight-minute short subject film The Merchandise Mart used the Mart's name and covered in detail the building's interior and operations.
• David Letterman once called the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame "the Pez Hall of Fame" because the combination of busts atop the tall vertical pedestals resembled the candy's dispensers.
• In the 1993 film The Fugitive, the location of Harrison Ford's character is pinpointed by police when they hear a CTA train operator announce, "Next stop, Merchandise Mart" in the background of a recorded phone call.