HOME TURF: HAROLD RAMIS

His old Second City haunts may be long gone, but when The Ice Harvest director Harold Ramis returned to live in Chicago, he still found plenty to warm to.

The film crew voted the
food as one of Chicago’s
top draws.
For a time in the late ’60s, Harold Ramis held two of the most desirable creative jobs available in the city of Chicago. Just a few years out of college, he worked as both assistant editor at Playboy magazine and as a cast member of famed comedy troupe Second City. The grueling schedule required eight hours a day at Playboy’s offices and six nights a week on stage, but, as Ramis admits, it was hard to complain. Living downtown, he could walk to both jobs. There were other perks, too.

The “Second City”
has a lot to offer
the visitor and
resident alike.“The Playboy mansion in Chicago was great, and there was a swimming pool in the basement,” he recalls. “The entire cast of Hair was naked in the swimming pool singing ‘Let the Sunshine In,’ and I thought, well, this is a quintessential ’60s moment. I was on a roll. I graduated college in ’66 and went right to San Francisco for Haight Ashbury and all that stuff, and then I happened to be back in Chicago for the Democratic Convention. It was a good time to be a long-haired guy.”

The long hair may be gone, but it’s still a very good time to be Harold Ramis. After living in Los Angeles for two decades, the successful director, actor and writer has spent the last nine years back home in his native Chicago, in the Highland Park suburb, with his wife and two sons, ages 15 and 11. (Ramis also has a 28-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, who lives in New York with his three-year-old grandchild.) Speaking with Ramis, one quickly understands why he is regarded as one of Hollywood’s true nice guys—he’s generous, affable and, unlike many in the entertainment industry, he harbors no ill will toward the West Coast.

“I was in LA for 20 years. I loved a lot of people there. I liked my work. I was just getting a little bored,” he says. “One sure way to shake up your thinking is to change locations. It came down to either the East Coast or Chicago, and I have a great family in Chicago, a big family, and we all actually get along. My dad and mom were too old to travel, and I wanted my kids to know them, so we moved back. That was it.”

Millennium Park. Of all the names that have come out of Second City over the years— Belushi, Murray, Myers—Ramis has had perhaps the most impact on Hollywood. Think of your top five favorite comedies from the past 25 years, the ones where you know every single line, and, chances are Ramis was creatively involved. It all started with Animal House in 1978, which he co-wrote, and continued with Caddyshack and National Lampoon’s Vacation, which he directed, and Stripes and Ghost Busters, which Ramis co-wrote and acted in. In 1993 he released Groundhog Day as writer, director and producer, before launching Robert De Niro’s career as a funny guy in 1999 with Analyze This, and the sequel Analyze That in 2002, which he wrote and directed.

Lookingglass
Theatre Company’s
Water Tower home,
the Water Works.
But, this Thanksgiving weekend, Ramis’ directing career takes a darker turn with the release of The Ice Harvest, starring fellow Chicagoan John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton. The film brings to mind the classic black comedies of the Coen brothers in sensibility and tone.

“The movie is about two guys who have done a terrible thing on Christmas Eve. It’s kind of a white-collar crime, but they really start screwing up and it turns into seriously violent business,” Ramis explains. “It’s deeply cynical and shows what happens if you act without ethics, morals or values. It’s got some pretty funny things in it too, and shows how sometimes things get so bad in life that there’s nothing to do but laugh.”

Ramis successfully lobbied for The Ice Harvest to be shot entirely in the Chicago area. It may have meant an easy commute for Ramis, but there were other advantages, too. “It was great working at home because of the terrific support from the film community here,” says the director. “People were so happy to have a major film. And it’s not like we started a new trend, but we were probably the first big film to come here in a while.”

Downtown Chicago’s
The Peninsula HotelBy choosing Chicago as a location, Ramis also helped break the ice, so to speak, for other recent high-profile films that have been shot in Chicago, including The Weather Man with Nicolas Cage and next spring’s The Break Up with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. When asked his favorite things about filming in the Windy City, Ramis reinforces the opinions of many—the people are friendlier, and the food is second to none.

“I did a survey when I first moved back to Chicago.

a holiday favorite
with the Ramis clan.I sent a questionnaire to all the production managers and first assistant directors I knew. And I’m not exaggerating, they all said they like the food most of all. It is a cliché about Chicago that people are friendlier or they’re more real somehow. There are good people everywhere, but, for me, it was like a homecoming.”

So, with a movie set on Christmas Eve coming out for the holiday season, are there any holiday traditions he and his family look forward to every year? “We like to go downtown and stay at a really nice hotel—usually the Four Seasons or the Ritz-Carlton or The Peninsula,” he says. “There’s a lighting ceremony [on North Michigan Avenue] to kick off the holiday season.”

Ramis is also quick to recommend the wide variety of stage productions all over town. “The theaters downtown are great now. There’s the Goodman, the Lookingglass right on Michigan Avenue, and Steppenwolf is not that far from downtown. And then, of course, there’s a lot of fringe theater. So I think anyone coming to Chicago should make sure they see a play and combine that with going to a good restaurant. There’s got to be 500 good restaurants here.”

While Ramis laments the departure of some of his old haunts from the Second City days, he says there is still plenty on offer, both new and old, for those visiting Chicago. “There used to be a great place open all night on Rush Street where you could eat steak and eggs at three in the morning,” he says. “But the Original Pancake House is still there, right off Rush Street, and Gibsons Steakhouse is great. Then there are all the pizza places, like Pizzeria Uno, for the original deep-dish Chicago pizza.” Among Chicago’s high-end restaurants, Ramis likes TRU, Ambria, Spiaggia, and Arun’s—“probably one of the best Thai restaurants in the world.” Charlie Trotter’s is on his list, too, of course, although he adds that it can be extremely expensive.

The dining room of TRU
restaurant, one of the
Windy City’s top dining
destinations. As a family man, Ramis also has plenty of suggestions for those looking to keep the kids happy. “Family dining in Chicago is great, primarily because of Rich Melman [founder of Chicago-based restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises]. All of his places are good. The old RJ Grunts, the original Rich Melman restaurant, is a great burger place near Lincoln Park. And I always urge anyone with kids to make the museum circuit,” he says. “We go to the Field Museum, we go to the Shedd Aquarium, one of the best in the world, and The Art Institute is phenomenal.”

With such a love for the Windy City and all it has to offer, it’s no wonder Ramis moved back from Los Angeles. Things may have changed since the Playboy mansion days, but you can still lead the high life in Chicago.