From 1990 to 2014, Ted Frankel owned and operated Uncle Fun, a Lakeview shop that sold novelty items and gag gifts. The mild-mannered Frankel could often be seen casually sporting a jester’s cap or a wig composed of glow sticks, and his stock included such staples as bacon-flavored lip balm, glasses with googly eyes, hordes of rubber cockroaches, unicorn snow globes, and enough fake poop and vomit to fake a yearlong stomach bug. The shop’s interior, roughly the size of a Starbucks, was crammed with shelves and drawers carrying miniature high-heeled shoes, rubber finger puppets, and other knick-knacks to pad out goody bags.
Frankel, 67, now lives in Baltimore with his husband, operating the gift shop at the American Visionary Art Museum. He began his fun run in 1976 with the opening of Goodies, another novelty store in Lakeview that he ran with his two sisters. According to Frankel, family conflicts drove him out of the business in 1990, and he rebounded into Uncle Fun. “He created his world out of that—a safe place for himself and everyone else,” says Scruggs.
Sun 6/10, 11:30 AM and 2 and 7 PM. Chicago Filmmakers, 5720 N. Ridge, 773-293-1447, chicagofilmmakers.org, $8.
