Take A Trip Through The Streets Of 1970s Evanston

EVANSTON, IL — Take a trip through the streets of Evanston 46 years ago in the film "Control." Produced by the drivers education and training division of Allstate Insurance Company, the film helped teach Evanston Township High School students of the 1970s how to drive and provides a snapshot of the city's streets nearly half a century ago.

The 1972 film was shown to students sitting in "driving simulators," each with their own steering wheel, according to the film's description. Narrator John Drury of WLS-TV provides instructions and gentle reminders ("A squeeze play! You should have predicted it might happen. It's common in city traffic.")

It was filmed on 16 mm in a widescreen format with an anamorphic projector lens, according to uploader J.J. Sedelmaier, a Chicago-based animator who produced Saturday Night Live's "Saturday TV Funhouse" and MTV's "Beavis & Butthead."

While plenty has changed for Evanston drivers since the days of leaded gasoline and optional seatbelts, the video shows some elements remain unchanged, like the First Presbyterian Church, Lake Street Church and former First Church of Christ, Scientist – visible around 6:30 into the below video.

Travel through downtown and pass the Valencia Theater on Sherman Avenue at what is today the site of the Rotary International headquarters around the 8:30 mark before passing Fountain Square around 9 minutes into the film.

Head down Orrington Avenue to Northwestern University around 10:30 into the video. Thanks to the Evanston History Center for sharing the video and spotlighting the Coronet Theater, formerly at 817 Chicago Ave., visible on the right side of the street around the video's 12:30 mark.

Sedelmaier said the videos were given to him by former Evanston Township High School teacher Gary McAvoy, who taught drivers education. Allstate was headquartered in Skokie until it moved to Northbrook in 1967. An earlier educational film produced by the company that year, also provided by McAvoy, took aspiring motorists through Skokie down Golf Road and Dempster Street before heading up the Edens Expressway to Lake Avenue. The 1967 film "Drive in Review" returns to Evanston around 16 minutes in.