J&J Motor Service, the original tradeshow carrier, is proud to announce a partnership with CenterStage Productions of Illinois, Inc. to service their trucking needs locally and nationally to venues throughout the continental US.  J&J Motor Service was awarded the contract over other carriers based upon our reputation of delivering consistent, on-time deliveries in a cost efficient manner. 

Since 1996, CenterStage Productions of Illinois, Inc. provides lighting design services, technical direction, stage management and production services for over 250 business meetings, product rollouts, museum exhibits, tradeshows, media events, corporate entertainment, commercial interiors, and outdoor seasonal events annually.  From their headquarters in the Chicagoland area, they service clients and their shows locally, nationally and globally in venues throughout the US and abroad.  CenterStage Productions takes pride in delivering on time and on budget shows to their clients. 

Your freight.  Delivered and show-ready. 

The night McCormick Place burned…

The scope of the disaster was hard to fathom. Tribune reporters and photographers who raced to the scene that bitterly cold January night in 1967 sent word that McCormick Place was ablaze, engulfed in flames, raging — destroyed. Back at Tribune Tower, the night editor said, “It can't be.”

But it was. The gleaming white convention center, which had opened in November 1960 and was the centerpiece of the city's dominant trade show business, was gone.

The building that was supposed to be fireproof and “outlast Rome’s glories” was consumed frighteningly fast. Smoke was reported by janitors at 2:05 a.m. on Jan. 16. By 2:30 a.m., when Fire Commissioner Robert Quinn arrived, he upgraded it to a five-alarm fire. Eighteen minutes later, he ordered the first special alarm.

Firefighters wasted time trying to thaw four of seven hydrants before discovering they actually weren't frozen, they just weren't hooked up.

For the full story, visit the Chicago Tribune.