By the 1920s when this postcard was for sale, the song “You Made Me Love You (I Didn’t Want to Do It)” was super popular and familiar. First written and published in 1913, one of the earliest recordings of the song was made by Al Jolson, who recorded it on June 4, 1913. The song continued to be popular for decades and was recorded by scores of artists.
The title was so much a part of the public consciousness that tourist postcards riffed on it: “You Made Me Like This Old Town – Chicago – I Didn’t Want To Do It.”
The “Old Town” of Chicago being less than a century old and, unlike in this image, no place of rolling hills and quaint structures, one wonders who would choose such a postcard to send? On August 31, 1924, “Gertie” – who’d clearly been enjoying some Prohibition hooch – mailed it from Chicago to her friend Marjorie in Chicago, writing: “Can’t write drunk so this will have too doo….Chicago is some town. – Gertie.”
For more amazing historic images and classic postcards like this, check out the phenomenal Jordan Smith on Flickr.
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