And now ... Mister Kelly’s documentary is ready to take you back to a swinging Chicago era, peppered with stories from Herbie Hancock to Streisand #1

I nodded my head, knowing that so many dreams born in taverns evaporate before the next day’s sunrise. But this one did not, and it has consumed Marienthal for the last nearly seven years and manifested in all sorts of ways. I have observed and reported about Marienthal’s journey, and, frankly, it has been more rewarding than either of us might have imagined.

He has gathered dozens of interviews, mounds of memorabilia, staged concerts and now there is a documentary, “Live at Mister Kelly’s,” an hourlong documentary premiering at 8 p.m. May 27 on WTTW-Ch. 11.

“It has been an amazing and gratifying,” Marienthal told me recently. “Some of the people who had performed at the clubs are hard to get, and who was I? But in talking to managers and gatekeepers, the Marienthal name meant something and I was pleasantly surprised at how many agreed to be interviewed.”

The memories these stars share are lively and genuine. They represent a history of American entertainment, such people as Ramsey Lewis, Lily Tomlin, Bob Newhart, Fred Willard, Dick Gregory, Les McCann, Lainie Kazan, Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce’s daughter Kitty, Tom Dreesen, Herbie Hancock and many more.

Comedian-director David Steinberg says: “(Mister Kelly’s) was everything.”

There is a delightful story from Bonnie Koloc, who tells of the night that John Lennon and Yoko Ono were in the audience, there to hear her.

David Mamet tells of his days as an inept busser at the London House.

There is the chilling story about Richard Pryor’s reaction to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., driving across the late night city getting high on marijuana after his Kelly’s set and failing to show up the next day in New York for the “Ed Sullivan Show.”

It is really a remarkable movie, one that not only captures the excitement of the places but also the many elements that conspired to make the night clubs so popular, the state of the country’s entertainment scene, the intimacy of it all.

For those who were ever there — I saw Mort Sahl and Bette Midler though not on the same bill — it will give an instant and refreshing jolt of nostalgia, as it tickles dormant memories.

But even those who have never heard of these nightclubs are likely to find the film fascinating, not only for the interviews with performers and clips of past shows but also the shock that such places ever really existed.

As Marienthal says, “I had a lot of surprises. I didn’t know that Billie Holiday sang at Kelly’s for instance and I can’t tell you how many in the 18- to 35-year-old crowd are intrigued.”

To his great credit, Marienthal makes only one short on-camera appearance.

“This isn’t about me,” he says.

He is ever gracious about mentioning and thanking those who have aided his journey, none more enthusiastically so than archivist Adam Carston, a young Loyola University graduate with a degree in and zeal for history. He’s been along for the ride and tells me, “This has been one of those things that was interesting to begin with. But as I keep digging, it just gets more and more interesting. It is an endless and wildly entertaining well.”

The most recent milestone took place earlier this year, when Marienthal donated what is being called the Mister Kelly’s Archives to the Newberry Library. It contains dozens of oral histories with singers, musicians and comedians. There are books and matchbooks, posters, dinner plates, ashtrays. There is also a bar tab run up by comedian Lenny Bruce. It also has a vast number of albums that were recorded live at the clubs.

Though it will be some months before the staff will have cataloged the materials and there is likely not to be a formal exhibit until 2024, the institution’s president Daniel Greene welcomes the new residents.

“It all makes me wish I could have been there,” he says.

This film will intensify that feeling. It’s a wonderful movie, not only a vivid look at the clubs’ influence on the arts and entertainment scene, but it also provides a look at the role they had on the city’s cultural scene and pioneering efforts at racial equality and women’s liberation. “Live at Mister Kelly’s” has been six years in the making, financed by Marienthal and family and friends, as well as some other investors and people recruited through Kickstarter. It is directed with great agility and authority by Ted Bogosian, who wisely starts things off with a tremendous and little-known story from Barbra Streisand about her first appearance at the club and a photo shoot at Oak Street Beach.

So, enjoy, but know that this is not the end of the end of the Mister Kelly’s saga, for Marienthal and his collaborators are still talking about a book and are planning for later in the year a theatrical release of an expanded 80-minute film. There have been conversations with TV executives about a possible television show.

There is little doubt that “Live at Mister Kelly’s” will spark colorful memories and compel some folks to start digging through boxes in their attics or basements in search of photos of their prom nights, since the clubs were popular before and after prom stops.

If they happen to find one, they may not remember the names of their dates. But they will surely remember the places, the music or the comedy or the steaks, the heady sophistication of it all and the good times they had.

rkogan@chicagotribune.com