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Film Unearthed of Chicago Ticker Tape Parade for Apollo 11 Heroes

 Pullman resident Marilyn Quiroz shares a film she shot in 1969.
Apollo 11 Parade 45 Years Ago Today
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THE LOOP — On Aug. 13, 1969, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong led a parade down the streets of Chicago to celebrate the successful return of Apollo 11 and man's first steps on the moon.

Marilyn Gartelmann Quiroz, then a 28-year-old insurance clerk from Pullman, was working in her office at 120 S. La Salle St. when "some women from the City of Chicago came by with shopping bags filled with confetti and rolls of ticker tape," Quiroz said.

"Back then in 1969, you could open the windows [in skyscrapers], and we were on the 16th floor," Quiroz remembered Wednesday. "We were just leaning out, throwing all the confetti and the ticker tape and all that."

Apollo 11 Parade 45 Years Ago Today
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Marilyn Quiroz/YouTube

Watch Quiroz's video of the 1969 Chicago event here:

When the astronauts neared the corner of La Salle and Monroe streets, Quiroz and her co-workers rushed outside to get a glimpse of them.

Quiroz, who had recently bought a Kodak 8 mm camera for a trip to Mexico with her husband, grabbed it on her way out the door.

"It was really exciting. All the girls came out of the office yelling and throwing confetti. ... When the astronauts all went by, we were all screaming," she remembered 45 years later. "I remember seeing Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins walk by, but I was only interested in Neil Armstrong. He was so handsome."

Her son, Alfonso Quiroz, lives in New York and has been digitizing his family's home movies, shot over the course of nearly 50 years growing up in Pullman.

"My son is so much into this, and all of the films that he has found," she said. "My husband had a little locker filled with the small 8 mm rolls, and he took them back to New York with him.

"He puts some on the Facebook now, and people enjoy them. A lot of us are still around, and when they see themselves in them, old friends, new friends, they're all excited. I'm hoping that some of the girls who came out of the office when I took this film, I hope they recognize themselves."

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