Billy Dec plays blackstone hotel manager in movie "one small hitch" filming in chicago

Here’s a funny lil behind the scenes video of me playing a hotel manager w/a cheesy mustache on the set of the movie “one small hitch” w/my scene partners award winning actor Daniel J. Travanti (Hillstreet Blues) & timeline theatre’s Janet Ulrich Brooks!

Shoutout to director john burgess for bringing the movie to chicago for all our local talent & crew who are some of the best in the world, ms. Joyce Piven for helping me build some acting confidence, all my friends on facebook & twitter who love the real time behind the scenes pics I send out, and the blackstone hotel for letting us use their amazing, historic, landmark of a chicago venue! For info on “one small hitch” see www.principleentertainment.com and for more info on blackstone hotel see below…

The Blackstone Hotel is a Chicago landmark, famous for celebrity guests including numerous U.S. presidents and notable gangsters.

One of my scenes was filmed in the Crystal Ball Room, that overlooks Grant Park and Michigan Avenue.  It’s 3,447 square feet that floods with natural light and can accommodate up to 383 attendees.  It is famous for New York kingpin Lucy Lucciano hosting the first crime convention in 1923.  Additionally, Robert Deniro filmed a scene in the as Al Capone in the movie Untouchables.  This room is now reborn as part of a recent $128 million renovation when the hotel was reopened in 2008 after closing temporarily in 2000.

The 23-story Blackstone was the tallest building in the city when completed in 1910.  It was named after Timothy Blackstone, a prominent Chicago business executive and politician.  The hotel was designed by architect Benjamin Marshall which employed a neoclassical Beaux-Arts architecture inspired by Marshall’s trip to Paris.

The Blackstone hotel is known as the “Hotel for Presidents.”  Some presidential stories include that President Truman used to love the hotel’s nightclub, the Balinese, with a copper dance floor.  Nixon sent candy and cookies to the hotel operators after each stay. Kennedy was held up in 1962 after enjoying a bowl of clam chowder in his room when he received an emergency phone call from Attorney General Bobby Kennedy about the Cuban missile crisis.  They even had a special room designed for presidents, which was separated from the rest of the hotel with a secret passageway in which they could make an easy escape.  It also is the location of the famous “smoke-filled rooms” where Warren G. Harding was chosen as the Republican nominee for President in June 1920.  The hotel is also popular among Hollywood.  People from Douglas Fairbanks Jr. to Katherine Hepburn, and Bill Murray have all enjoyed the hotel.