The 2024 Centennial year for Clarendon Hills has been filled with events and activities, which will continue throughout the rest of the year.
But two efforts by the Clarendon Hills Historical Society will leave a lasting memento, long after the year ends.
One is a book about the history of the village, scheduled to be out in the fall. The other is a documentary about the history of Clarendon Hills, which had a premier showing at the June Daisy Days festival and now is available for online viewing on the Historical Society’s website, www.clarendonhillshistory.org, and the village website, www.archive.org/details/clarendon-hills-chronicle-v-3-06.15.24.
“We have been working on the Centennial history book for over two years and decided we should also have a film of our history,” said Chuck Brand, president of the Clarendon Hills Historical Society.
Brand said in 2022 he saw a longtime neighbor, Dan Youngman, whose son, Jake Youngman, works on creating films.
“Knowing of Jake’s talent from previous work, we asked Dan if Jake might be interested in producing a documentary of Clarendon Hills,” he said “Soon after, Jake responded that he was very excited at the prospect of creating a film of his hometown centennial.”
Youngman, 25, moved with his family to Clarendon Hills when he was five years old. He no longer lives in the village, but said he often returns to visit his parents. He currently works as a production manager at a communications firm.
“My team produces many pieces of content every year for a wide variety of clients,” he said. “I’ve also created a variety of personal projects during my time in high school, college, and a few freelance projects here and there.”
Creating the Clarendon Hills documentary was right in his wheelhouse and turned out to be quite a history lesson for Youngman.
“I learned many, many things while working on this project,” he said. “One of the most surprising being the major 1961 plane crash that took place south of 55th Street. This was a significant national aviation disaster event that took place right here in Clarendon Hills.”
Once Youngman was on board to create the documentary, the process began. He said information was gathered from many sources to create an outline of the area’s history. Then, a script/voiceover structure was created to serve as the foundation of the story.
“From there, we trimmed and consolidated information to a more digestible format,” Youngman said. “Our first drafts were over an hour long, so we decided to include that (additional) information in the book rather than the film.”
Additional work in creating the documentary included interviewing a few Clarendon Hills residents and Historical Society members for inclusion in the final product.
“This served as a more personal account of the village history,” Youngman said. “Then we began to match visuals to the voiceover/script structure we had built.”
The process to create the 28-minute documentary took 18 months.
“We depended on Jake’s expertise to create a cohesive result, which included scripting, editing, music and narration,” Brand said.
Responses from those who have seen the documentary have been very positive, he said.
“It proved to be a real crowd pleaser at its debut during the Daisy Days centennial celebration,” he said. “Our goal is to educate and inform our residents, both young and old.”
Youngman said he believes that mission was accomplished.
“We just wanted to ensure that we could create a well-rounded educational experience in a video format to celebrate the centennial of Clarendon Hills, which is what we did,” he said. “We are very happy with the end project and are very excited for everyone to enjoy the history celebration of the village.”
Chuck Fieldman is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.
