In the 1930s, actor Don Ameche resided in a house in west suburban River Forest. It's one of the vintage Prairie-style residences open for touring on Saturday during a housewalk in the River Forest Historic District.

Ameche began his radio career on "Empire Builders," broadcast from the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, says the Radio Hall of Fame's Web site. By 1932, he had become the leading man on two other Chicago-based programs: the drama "The First Nighter" and "Betty and Bob," considered to be the forerunner for soap operas.

In 1936, Ameche moved to California. Perhaps his best-remembered radio role was the gruff John Bickerson with a demanding wife, Blanche (played by Frances Langford), on "The Bickersons." Ameche and Langford recorded a series of Bickersons albums for Columbia Records.

Ameche's career in movies spanned more than half a century. He played the title character in "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell," about the inventor of the telephone. The role inspired a slang expression, "You're wanted on the Ameche," as a way of telling someone they had a phone call.

Ameche played a son of Mrs. O'Leary (whose cow started the Great Chicago Fire) in "In Old Chicago" (1937). The actor's favorite film was "Heaven Can Wait," which was an Academy Award Best Picture nominee in 1943.

The actor won the best supporting actor Oscar for his role as a member of a seniors community that discovers a fountain of youth in "Cocoon" (1985). In interviews, he said he had spent two months learning to break-dance, expressing pride at having performed "97 percent of the gyrations." (An 18-year-old professional dancer filled in on the other 3 percent.)

On Oscar night, as Ameche stood at the podium to accept his Academy Award, the applause lasted a good 30 seconds. Later, he told reporters that if the Oscar was a sentimental tribute because "I've been around as long as I have, that's lovely, too."

Ameche died in 1993.

The Prairie Style house Ameche lived in was designed by William Drummond in 1912, directly across the street from the architect's own house built two years earlier (which is also on the tour Saturday). A Roman brick fireplace opens to both the living room and dining room. A desk, bookcases and cabinets are all original.

The current owners of the home collect antiques, including 18th century desks, cabinets, American folk art and African art from recent trips to that continent.

In 1905, architect Charles E. White left the employment of Frank Lloyd Wright for his first commission on his own: a "frame-and-stucco country house" built for Walter Gerts for $5,500.

In 1910, the house was heavily damaged in a fire. Gerts, his wife and their 12-year-old daughter narrowly escaped -- saved by the hurling of a flatiron. The fire was started by crossed wires in the basement. L.H. Lozier, their next-door neighbor, was awakened when he heard the glass in the basement windows of the Gerts home breaking from the heat of the fire, according to a story in the Chicago Tribune.

Lozier saw the house on fire and knew he had to quickly awaken the sleeping family. So he threw a flatiron through the window of a bedroom in the Gerts residence. The crash woke them up, and the Gerts quickly left the home still in their nightclothes, with little Polly barefoot.

After the fire, Gerts hired Wright for the renovation. Wright reconfigured much of the interior and also created a geometric tulip design for every window in the house. However, Gerts balked at the outrageous cost of $800 to redo the windows.

"But the plans for the windows were stored at Taliesin East" [in Spring Green, Wis.], said Frank Paluch, the current homeowner. About 15 years ago, Paluch retrieved the plans and used their specifications for three windows: two geometric tulip windows in the foyer, plus one large window on the stairway landing.

Robert Spencer bought a lot in this undeveloped area in 1896, but he waited until 1905 to build his own Prairie Style house.

The brick fireplace in the living room features a bas relief sculpture.

"It was given to the Spencers as a wedding present. Later owners thought the naked Cupid was inappropriate, so they had a wall built to cover the entire fireplace," said Phyllis Voosen, the current co-owner along with Arthur Goldberg. Voosen and Goldberg uncovered the sculpture -- and their marriage ceremony was performed directly in front of the fireplace.

When the couple bought the house in 1980, they found orange shag carpeting covering the oak floors. The kitchen had 1930s metal cabinets and a pink stove. In the basement, they found a built-in buffet cut in half and used as a bar. They returned the buffet to its rightful place in the dining room.

Architects Thomas Eddy Tallmadge and Vernon Watson built a large house in 1907 for $6,300 for Elias V. Day, known as Daisy Day, one of the foremost impersonators and lecturers of the period.

The current owners bought the home four years ago and began a renovation. The work included stripping all the woodwork that had been painted white. Furnishings include many items collected while the couple lived in the Far East: Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.

Wood for the kitchen table was obtained from the trunk of a large elm tree cut down because of Dutch elm disease.

Architect William Drummond worked for Wright in his Oak Park studio from 1899 to 1909 -- when Wright abandoned his family and went to Europe with his mistress Mamah Cheney. Drummond was given the task of completing many of Wright's unfinished projects.

Drummond chose this lot for his own house because of its many trees; he actually cut a hole in the eaves to make room for one. The porch that is now enclosed was originally open and had three trees growing in it.

Wright designed a stucco-and-brick house in 1895 for Chauncey Williams, a publisher and community leader. Williams was born in Milwaukee and his family knew the Lloyd Joneses, from Wright's mother's family. So when Williams, newly married and with an inheritance of $100,000, moved to Chicago, it was only natural he look up Wright.

This is perhaps Wright's first house to show Oriental influence, historians say. Stone boulders, dragged from the nearby Des Plaines River, are used in the foundation, and they flank the front door. Visitors can look for an octagonal library, which Wright featured in his own home that same year.