Filmmaker John Anderson remembers when he got the seal of approval from Brian Wilson. In March 1998 he’d been called to Wilson’s home in Saint Charles, Illinois, so that the eccentric former Beach Boy could decide if he was the right man to shoot a video and concert film for the forthcoming Imagination, Wilson’s first album of new material in a decade. After an hour of shop talk the two adjourned to dinner, where Wilson’s family and business associates joined them. Wilson waited for everyone else to take a seat, then grabbed a chair next to Anderson.
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Now 51, Anderson came to Chicago in 1972 to attend Northwestern and started working in television and film shortly after graduating. He’s been a cameraman, an editor, and a director for several local production companies, and among his many jobs he’s filmed news features for Bill Kurtis and edited the Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle” video. In 1995, with partners Maggie Magee and Michael O’Brien, he launched a video and film production studio called Superior Street (no relation to the band-rehearsal complex of the same name) that now has 18 full-time employees. In 2004 Anderson filmed a concert DVD for Jim Peterik & the Ides of March called A Vehicle Through Time, which cast real-life figures like disc jockey Dick Biondi and manager Bob Destocki in an onstage retelling of the band’s history, and he recently finished an early cut of a documentary on 60s pop oddball Tiny Tim.
Best known for novelty numbers like “When the Cubs Win the World Series” and “She Don’t French Kiss,” the Cleaning Ladys also composed the theme for Jonathon Brandmeier’s short-lived early-90s TV series and frequently appeared as guests on his WLUP radio show. Throughout the 80s their tunes turned up on Dr. Demento’s playlists. From 1993 to 1998 they hosted their own local radio program, a two-hour rock ‘n’ roll talk show called Needle Drop that aired twice a week, first on WCBR in Arlington Heights and then on WVVX in Highland Park. “We built up a great listenership, and it got us interviews with established artists–everyone from Ray Davies to Rick Nielsen,” says Anderson. Currently the band is in the middle of an intermittent tour of Chicagoland Borders bookstores, promoting a 24-song career retrospective titled Split Personality.
“With [Smile] I storyboarded every measure,” Anderson says. “It was so dense and so complex the only way I could be sure I covered everything was to break it down that way. I got the album and put on headphones for about a week and wrote down everything and kinda mapped the cameras so they wouldn’t get in each other’s way.”
