Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street on AllMovie

Actor Joe Montegna narrates this documentary exploring the history of Maxwell Street in Chicago, a place where black musicians and Jewish entrepreneurs teamed up to create the music that would ultimately evolve into rock and roll. When blues musicians in this multi-cultural, open air market began to realize their music was being drowned out by the urban symphony of progress, they decided to make the leap from acoustic to electric. The result, as artists such as Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters began to adapt and evolve, was the birth of the "electric urban blues." Though the area was sold to the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1994, and luxury condos now stand where legendary musicians once played for pocked change, this section of the Windy City is still considered the true birthplace of rock 'n' roll by music lovers all across the world.