Mickey One Around May 1964, scenes were filmed at Marina City for Mickey One, a surreal, freewheeling drama released on September 27, 1965 by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Arthur Penn, whose work includes The Miracle Worker, Bonnie and Clyde, and Alice’s Restaurant. The film starred Warren Beatty as a nightclub comic fleeing the Detroit Mob for Chicago. (Yes, you read that correctly.) It is considered a cult classic today.

Scenes were filmed inside a residential unit and corridor, at the skating rink, the west tower parking ramp, and on the Chicago River. For the scene at the skating rink, a large animated sculpture was constructed and then destroyed by fire for the movie. According to Internet Movie Database, the sculpture was created by Robert Fields, who at the time was an industrial design student at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago.

While filming in Chicago from March through May 1964, the stars of the movie stayed at Astor Towers Hotel, another building designed by Marina City architect Bertrand Goldberg. The film opened in Chicago on October 27, 1965 at the Woods Theater, a movie palace demolished in the 1990s that was located at Dearborn and Randolph Streets.

Frames from 1965 film Mickey One. (Right) Exterior set constructed on skating rink.
Warren Beatty in front of a Marina City apartment.
Rare close-up view of large billboard near west tower for Seay & Thomas Inc., a Chicago real estate firm that would be hired 24 years later to sell the commercial property at Marina City.