Marco's Charlie Blum First Paired Aretha and Jennifer Hudson

When Marco’s Charlie Blum attended the movie “Respect” on Friday at Marco Movies, he couldn’t help but recall when he first brought Aretha Franklin and Jennifer Hudson together at Chicagoland’s Star Plaza Theatre.

Blum was the President/CEO and talent buyer for the famous theater for 28 years. He had a long working history with Franklin.

“I’d been looking forward to seeing the film for a while,” Blum said Sunday at his home on the island. “One, because I had a long-term working relationship with Aretha Franklin. She played in my theatre numerous times over the years.”

 "Jennifer Hudson had lost on American Idol, but I knew the name,” Blum remembers. “I had Aretha coming in to the theater. We were sold out.”

Blum got a call from a radio station, hoping to get Hudson added to the bill.

“She said, ‘Could you do me a favor and put somebody on the front end?’ I said, ‘Well, we’re already sold out.’”

“She wanted to do it as a favor to Jennifer Hudson,” Blum said. "Typically, Aretha doesn’t have an opening act, or she has her son open and play a couple of tunes, then she comes on. In our business, if you’re already sold out, why would you go through the expense of putting an opening act on?”

Blum decided to make an exception.

“I said, ‘You know what, I’ll do a favor.’ She didn’t win American Idol; she loves Aretha Franklin from what this radio person told me. So, I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it if I can get approval from Aretha Franklin.’ So, I called Aretha Franklin’s people to get approval. They didn’t know who she was at the time. But they said, ‘Alright, she can do 30 minutes.’ So, I set it up.”

Blum said Hudson was elated.

“All excited,” Blum said, “She comes out, she opens for Aretha. The introduction, she meets Aretha, and the rest is history.”

Blum was excited when he learned that Hudson would be playing the role of Aretha Franklin.

“Here it is years later,” he said, "when I see that Jennifer is playing Aretha. It is so cool to know that I put that together and I gave Jennifer that opportunity to open for her idol, Aretha Franklin. That’s a memory that I’ll have for a long time."