Coming in a Blase of Glory: Chicago's New Archbishop

     Back in September, Pope Francis named Blase Cupich as the successor to the 77-year-old Cardinal Francis George as Archbishop of Chicago. On Tuesday, the appointment was made official when Cupich was installed as the new Archbishop in front of a packed house in Holy Name Cathedral. In his installation speech, he advocated for not becoming complacent with "the mountaintop of our self-assuredness, but rather walk into the mess". By all accounts, Archbishop Cupich is a demonstration of how Pope Francis is shaping the new face of the Catholic Church as a compassionate, caring front that is working to welcome back parishioners who have been jaded by the recent scandals that have befallen the Church.


     In his installation Cupich used an implement that had also been used by George Mundelein (a leader who was considered to be a compassionate and caring figure in his time as well) in his installation 99 years earlier, further symbolizing his reformist views.  In his installation address, Blase avoided making any overt political statements, instead making a point to recognize those who had shaped his ministry, such as his immigrant ancestors from Croatia and the Native Americans he had met as bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota(his previous posting).  Due to an interesting rule, Archbishop Cupich is not actually a Cardinal.  A diocese can only have one voting Cardinal at a time, and Francis George is eligible to remain one for another three years. After he turns 80, Cupich will become a Cardinal.


     Our new Archbishop is getting right down to business, going on a preaching tour of several ethnic parishes in the diocese.  He'll be going to the largest Polish parish in the city next month, but tomorrow he'll be going to a Lawndale parish that was caught right in the middle of the sex abuse scandal.  We can be sure that there are changes to come in the future, but through it all, Chicago has always had, and will continue to have, guidance from strong Archbishops, a club now joined by Blase Cupich.

The Golden Throat is NOT toast: Surreal Chicago Week Day 4

     You've seen him amongst the throngs at Wrigley to take in a Cubs game(perhaps in the Bleachers). You've seen him at the Toast to Harry Caray. You've seen him at the Cubs Convention. Hell, I've even seen him walking down Clark Street at 11:00 on a Saturday night. But wherever he goes, he's always wearing a well-worn Cubs uniform with two words on back. "Woo Woo".


     Ronald Wickers first started attending Cubs games in the late 1940s. By the end of the 1950s, he had started his own unique cheer. By the 80s, he was firmly entrenched in the annals of Cubs Lore. In 1983, Bill Veeck asserted that "The best way to appreciate Ronnie is when he's about 100 feet away and not in your ear. All throughout the glory years of the 60s(even the heartbreak of '69), and the Bleacher Bum era of the '70s, Ronnie was there.  when some of his family members died in the 1980s, he all of a sudden found himself homeless without a stable job.  Between 1984 and 1990, he even attended Cubs games off of the grace of fellow fans.  In the 1987 season there was a period where he stopped showing up at Cubs games, and some loyal fans began to worry that he had died.  Eventually Ronnie contacted a local news organization to confirm that he was still very much among the living.


     Since 1990, Wickers' life has taken a minor upswing.  He has found several sources of income, be they washing windows in the Wrigleyville neighborhood, selling Streetwise magazines, and even working a job set up for him by a friend.  In 2001, he sailed to new heights when he sang "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" at Wrigley, joining such luminaries as Bill Murray, William Petersen, and (cough)Mike Ditka.  Ronnie is still a persistent presence at all things Cubs to this day, retaining his position as the city's Biggest Cubs Fan.

Spider Dan: Surreal Chicago Week Day 2

     The 1980s in Chicago. A time of Chicagofest, big hair, NO DISCO, Da Bears(and their Superfans), and many other things. One of the more surreal Chicago events from that decade came in 1981. First, on Memorial Day, a gentleman by the name of Dan Goodwin scaled the Sears Tower using (among other things) suction cups in an effort to call attention to the challenges of rescuing people from high-rise fires(a peril he knew firsthand from watching the infamous MGM Grand fire a year earlier in Las Vegas). His climb took seven hours, and aside from a few attempts by the Fire Department to stop him, he reached the top of the tower and unfurled the flag to honor his father.

     Six months later Dan came back for Veterans Day. After having just climbed 56 stories in Dallas 4 days earlier, this time he had his sights set on the 100 story John Hancock Center. He started out, this time in a wetsuit made to resemble a Spider Man outfit. As he went, he swung across the building on a rope in order to elude firefighters who were trying to catch him with a window-washing machine. The firefighters then switched to using fire hoses in an attempt to blow him off the side of the building, while at the same time using axes to break the windows of the Hancock in order to deprive Goodwin of handholds. In addition to all of that, they also stuck poles through the windows to dislodge him. Finally, Mayor Jane Byrne stepped in to stop the madness and allowed Spider Dan to finish his climb unimpeded. Of course he was arrested at the top of the building, but he raised awareness anyway.

     Over the intervening 33 years, Goodwin has climbed several more buildings, including the CN Tower, the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and even a building in Chile this past March, but Chicagoans will remember him as the man who took on the 2 tallest buildings in the city-and lived to tell the tale.

George Streeter-The Man, The Myth, The Squatting: Surreal Chicago Week Day 1

     War Veteran. Squatter. Captain. Gun-runner. Pioneer. Criminal. Land owner. Scoundrel. Liar. All of these words(and many others) could be used to describe George 'Cap' Streeter, an eccentric Chicagoan from the late 19th Century who inadvertently played a large part in helping create the Chicago we all know today.

     According to his own self-aggrandizing legend, the whole thing started in 1886 when he ran his boat (named the Reutan) aground off the shore of Lake Michigan. Finding that the boat was impossible to extricate from he sandbar, Streeter just left it there. At this time, the Lake was still a popular dumping ground for all sorts of waste produced by the city(a practice that had started in the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire).  This, combined with the natural accumulation of silt, meant that eventually Streeter's boat was connected to the mainland of the city. By this time Streeter had organized the "United States District of Lake Michigan" around his wreck, refusing to recognize any outside authority, and inviting other squatters to join him. In 1889, he moved to another ship that had run aground in the dump, naming it the Castle. This touched off a period where Streeter and his fellow squatters would periodically fight off interlopers, be they dismayed wealthy land owners and industrialists in a court of law, or constables with gunfire and pots of boiling water(he beat the rap on the gunfire on account of the fact that buckshot wasn't considered to be a deadly weapon).

     By 1892, the land that made up Streeter's squatter village was valued at approximately $300,000(which is equal to roughly $7.9 Million today). The following year, the District had accumulated quite the underworld element, attracting prostitutes, the homeless, and other 'undesirables'(somewhat reminiscent of another infamous red-light district). That same year, Streeter took advantage of the Colombian Exposition to make some more money.  He re-floated the Reutan(the original boat he ran aground in 1886) and used it to ferry folks back and forth from his District to Jackson Park(the site of the fair). In the aftermath of the fair, there were many subsequent attempts to remove him, all of which were fought off either in the courts or in person. Streeter maintained his right to the District until his death in 1921(even though he moved to East Chicago 3 years earlier).  Despite all the bad blood he'd had with the city through his life, the mayor of Chicago(who at that time was the infamous Big Bill Thompson) allegedly attended his funeral.

     The actual facts of Streeter's life are a bit different. While he did serve in the Civil War, he wasn't a captain. He had acquired his boat in an attempt to take up a gun-running operation to Latin America. Coming upon the lakefront, he saw an opportunity to make a quick(and illegal)buck. He obtained permission from a landowner to dock his boat on the shoreline, and from there plotted to have the shoreline filled in so as to obfuscate the land titles, letting him "claim" land that was owned by(amongst others)the estate of William Ogden(Chicago's first mayor), Potter Palmer, and the Chicago Title and Trust Company. He then sold plots of land to other squatters, even going so far as to keep detailed records of collected property taxes. Eventually, Streeter claimed to own 186 acres of land right off of the lake. In reality, much of that landfill had actually been created for the building of Lake Shore Drive. To reassure skittish investors(as well as pressure landowners into paying him off) Streeter would periodically stage 'invasions' where he would lead a band of squatters onto his land with shanties. They would set up shop, the landowners would quickly send their goons after them, and then Streeter would complain that his rights were being infringed by the big, bad landowners. This process repeated itself until Streeter was convicted of manslaughter in 1902. After being sent to prison, Streeter eventually died at the age of 84 in 1921 from pneumonia.

     While many of the facts of Streeter's life rest on the fence of him either being a folk hero or just a low-rent thug, what cannot be argued is his impact on the city. After all the squatters were evicted from Streeter's 'District', the developers moved in and started building. The building never stopped, and today the site of the John Hancock Center and the surrounding neighborhood is known as Streeterville.

The Byrne Memorial?

     If a certain alderman gets his way, one of Chicago's premier summertime destinations may be getting a new name.  Read on for more details.    

     If Thompson made the city corrupt, and Daley I made the city work, Jane Byrne was the Mayor that started to make the city the world-class destination that it is today. True, Daley II played a major part in the large scale beautification and downtown renaissance of the 1990s, but Mayor Byrne took the first steps a decade earlier. Coming to power in the wake of the (politically) disastrous 1979 Blizzard, Byrne saw the need to shake things up.

     Her first big contribution was fine-tuning ChicagoFest. At that time, Navy Pier had seen a lot in its years of use, ranging from shipping, to sailors during World War II(including the skydiving nonagenarian himself, George H.W. Bush), to students enrolled in the University of Illinois(prior to the establishment of UIC). But by 1978 it wasn't seeing much except for disuse and neglect. Mayor Michael Bilandic saw this as an opportunity, and so began a two-week long music festival in the middle of the summer.  After taking office, Byrne saw an the opportunity as well and continued the festival as Mayor Byrne's ChicagoFest. The affair was highly successful, and continued for several more years until it was retired and reimagined. You'll be able to check out Chicagofest in all its modern glory this year at the Taste of Chicago. In addition to that, Byrne was also responsible for helping to extend the Blue Line all the way to O'Hare.

     In 1983, Byrne attempted to run for Re-Election was opposed by Harold Washington as well as a then lesser-known Richard M. Daley. Now you've heard of minority candidates running for an opening and splitting the Black/Hispanic/Asian vote? Well in '84 Byrne and Daley split the White vote allowing Harold Washington to take the election. Mayor Washington went on to leave his own legacy prior to his untimely death in 1987, a legacy that was properly memorialized with the naming of the new library. However, there has been no similar remembrance of Mayor Byrne's legacy. That may soon change though as Alderman Ed Burke has recently submitted a proposal to investigate different possible opportunities to pay tribute to the aging Byrne, some of which include:

• Buckingham Fountain(as in renaming it)
• The International Terminal at O'Hare
• The Plaza in front of Water Tower Place
• Navy Pier's Grand Ballroom.

     Of course, this being Chicago, the land where matters of money, power, and politics are in a constant state of flux, there'll be more to this.

Day 15: The Bleeding-Heart Mayor: The tale of Buckner Morris

     After William Ogden fulfilled his term as Mayor, the next person to fulfill the duty was a man belonging to the Whig Party, by the name of Buckner Morris.  Prior to coming to Chicago, Morris had been born and raised in Kentucky, which is also where he met and married his first wife.  In 1834, he moved to Chicago, where he established a law firm.  In 1838, he was elected Mayor of Chicago.  After his term was up, he served as an alderman(and had a much less colorful tenure than Michael Kenna and John Coughlin did, that's for sure).  He would also go on to serve as Illinois Secretary of State, as well as spend time as a Lake County Judge.

     When the time came for the Civil War, Morris was violently opposed to it, even to the point of being a suspected Copperhead(which were a faction of Democrats who were in favor of making immediate peace with the South).  This desire for reconciliation with the South eventually landed Morris in some hot water.  In 1864, there was a conspiracy for a Confederate jailbreak.  More precisely, there was a plot to bust many Confederate POWs out of Camp Douglas, a plot that Morris was privy to and a participant in.  Many of the conspirators, including Morris, were arrested before the escape could be affected.  Morris ended up serving 9 months in prison, during which time most of his business affairs were foreclosed upon due to lack of maintenance.  His heirs were so incensed by this action, that they refused to donate any of his personal material to the Chicago Historical Society.

     And one final note.  If you've ever mused that something is going to hell in a hand basket, you've got Buckner Morris to thank for it.  He issued the first recorded utterance of the phrase in reference to the fact that there were POWs in Camp Douglas.

Day 252: Wuff, Wuff, Wuff!-The Chi-Town roots of Arsenio

     Okay folks, tonight WGN is airing a new talk show starring the one and only Arsenio Hall.  Now if that name sounds familiar to you, that's because this isn't his first go-around with the late night TV scene.  His first talk show ran from 1989 till 1994.  Arguably, the most famous moment to come out of the program came in 1992 when Bill Clinton was on the campaign trail.  One of the stops he made was on the Arsenio Hall Show, and he took some time to play the saxophone. But I bet you didn't know that Chicago played a vital role in the life and times of Arsenio Hall.

     It all started in the summer of 1978.  Arsenio Hall had just graduated college, and he moved to Chicago to get his career off the ground.  He had a place right by O'Hare airport, and he would do shows all around the area.  One time he heard about Zanies Comedy Club, and he figured that he would try it out.  Good thing too, because stand-up comedy is what got him noticed.  One day he was doing a show at the Hyatt when he opened for Nancy Wilson(no, not that Nancy Wilson), a famous jazz singer.  She soon noticed his talent and took him on the road with her.  All the way to Carnegie Hall-and beyond.  From there, the rest is talk-show history.  Arsenio Hall may have only lived in Chicago for a year and a half, but it was his time here that set him on the path to become the star that he is today.

Day 247: A Recreation Area for a Labor Icon-Labor Week Day 3

     How could a child born in 1850 England go on to influence the entire history and legacy of labor unions to this very day?  Pretty easily actually, just ask Samuel Gompers.  For the first 10 years of his life, he lived in London, and attended the Jewish Free School.  All of that changed in April of 1860, when he was pulled out of school and apprenticed off as a cigarmaker in order to help his family out with their crushing levels of debt.  Alas, even this did not help, and the family immigrated to the United States in 1863.

     Once in the states, Gompers promptly started working once again as a cigarmaker in Manhattan, becoming active in the Local 15 Union the very next year.  In 1873, he jumped to another company, one that was more in line with his advanced abilities.  While there, he started to become influenced by the more socialist ideas that were propagated in the talk in that shop.  2 years after that, he became president of the Local 144 Union.  In 1881, he was instrumental in founding the organization that would become the American Federation of Labor(which merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1955 to become the AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation in the United States).  In 1894, he was instrumental in promoting the new Labor Day holiday that had been recognized by Congress to placate the Pullman strikers.

     A number of years later, he popped back up when the United States got involved in World War I, urging all unions to hold off on striking and other labor actions during wartime so as to give America and its companies every advantage possible.  Gompers died in 1924, but many of his methods of organizing labor are used to this day even.  Additionally, there is both a park and a statue in downtown Chicago memorializing his roles in the labor history of this city and all others as well.

Day 244: The Train Man

     Anybody who has ever taken a cross-country trip on Amtrak(and if you haven't done so yet, I highly recommend that you do so) has experienced the creature comforts of high-class train travel.   Personal bedrooms, dining service, all of the accommodations necessary to make a 50+hour train trip bearable.  One of the men that we have to thank for this innovation is named George Pullman.

     In the early 1860s, Pullman was a young engineer who had moved to Chicago to grab a piece of the burgeoning railroad market, as the city was quickly becoming the railroad hub of America.  In between having his own company and helping to elevate the city of Chicago(yes, that is just as fascinating as it sounds, and yes, there will be an entry on it later), Pullman was working on something else.  In 1864, he came out with the Pullman Sleeping Car, the first of its kind.  In the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln's 1865 assassination, Pullman arranged for the President's body to be transported to Springfield for burial aboard one of his sleeper cars.

     This proved fruitful for Pullman, who started to receive thousands of orders for new cars.  In 1867, he rolled out his most ambitious project yet, the "Hotel on Wheels".  With sleeper service, meals that rivaled the classiest restaurants of the day, and amenities even including mending of clothing, the Hotel on Wheels soon became the gold standard for train travel across the country.  To properly serve the clientele that Pullman hoped to welcome aboard his "Palace cars", Pullman started hiring former slaves to work as porters on the cars.  And he kept hiring them, all the way up until the Pullman Company wound up being the single largest employer of African-Americans in the Post-Civil War era.  In 1871 he teamed with Andrew Carnegie to bail out the Union Pacific railroad(who would come into play with Metra in the 1990s).

     By 1880, the company was ready to expand, and so Mr. Pullman bought 4,000 acres of land 14 Miles south of the city on land belonging to the Illinois Central.  It was here where he would build his most enduring legacy.  In addition to a new factory, the plot of land also contained an entire self-contained community for the workers who worked at the plant.  The neighborhood had everything: churches, parks, theaters, libraries, and the iron fist of George Pullman himself.  He set rigid standards for behavior, and was not afraid to expel workers with only 10 days notice.  Some contemporary critics alleged that Otto von Bismarck himself was a kinder ruler than Pullman.

     Actually, the cold-heartedness of Pullman lends itself well to a story that I want to tell later this week, as well as blending with this week's theme.  You see, in celebration of Labor Day tomorrow, Chicago 365 is commemorating the occasion with Labor Week.  Every day this week through Friday, I will be writing about a different labor-related vignette from Chicago's history.  Given this city's long and illustrious history with organized labor, this endeavor should not be too difficult.

Day 235: Harry's Places

     We have already talked about how Harry Caray is synonymous with Chicago baseball and the most highly regarded Cubs announcer since Jack Brickhouse, if not of all time. Of course, much of Harry's legend status was enjoyed by him while he was still alive, and boy did he enjoy it! In addition to being the life of the party, he also started a Restaurant venture in 1987(the year before lights came to Wrigley) called Harry Caray's Tavern. The first location was right next door to Caray's stomping grounds, Wrigley Field.  After Harry passed away in 1998, the venture continued on without him. In fact, the first Toast to Harry Caray was held in 1999 at Harry Caray's. Over the years, the restaurant group expanded, to include several Italian steakhouses, a seafood joint, and other extensions of the Harry Caray's brand.

     However, it wasn't until 2009 that the franchise took its biggest step forward with the opening of their new flagship location on Navy Pier. It isn't just a sports bar, it isn't even just a restaurant. In fact, it is so much more than that. What makes Harry Caray's on Navy Pier truly one of a kind is the Chicago Sports Museum(which will be talked about in a later entry).  As Navy Pier was now the main location, the location in Wrigleyville ended up closing in 2010 as the result of a dispute with the owner of the property. Also in 2010, the Harry Caray's location in Rosemont became the opening salvo in the Blackhawks' post-Cup celebration/bar crawl.  In 2013, the same situation transpired once again.  Since it opened, the Navy Pier location has become the new Worldwide HQ for the Toast to Harry, where it can continue to honor Harry's partying ways for years to come.

Day 225: Filth, Corruption, Obscenity, Idiocy, and Bankruptcy

     Chicago(and to a greater extent the state of Illinois) has a very rich history of being one of the most corrupt places in this great nation.  However, when looking over the decades upon decades of Chicago-style politics, who seems like the worst offender to you? Is it George Ryan, hands bloodied by the deaths of 6 children?  Is it Rod Blagojevich, who tried to sell an "f*&%ing golden" Senate seat?  Is it Richard J. Daley, who advocated the police as a means of preserving disorder?  Actually, it is none of the above.  The epitome of Chicago's corrupt past did his dirty work long before any of the aforementioned men were around.

     William Hale Thompson was born in Boston in 1869.  When he was only 9 days old, his family moved to Chicago. Fast-forward through nomadic cross-country moves, a trip to Europe for self-discovery, and the death of his father, and we come up for air in 1900, when he started off his career in politics by narrowly winning election as the 2nd Ward Alderman.  A decade and a half later he is elected the 41st Mayor of Chicago.  Once mayor, he instituted a surcharge on city workers in order to amass a war chest for a future Presidential run.  One of the biggest events that happened in his first term was the Race Riot of 1919, which witnessed Thompson's initial refusal to accept National Guard troops into the city merely to spite the Governor.  (In an interesting side note, Richard J. Daley was a member of an ethnic Irish 'gang' at the time of the riot. Furthermore, Daley never completely denied rumors that he had been party to the bullying of the city's blacks in that incident.)  He stepped down in 1923, though he stayed in the public eye through a phony scientific expedition.

     Thompson ran once again amidst a gang war in 1927, an election that saw him pull such stunts as debating two live rats and threatening to punch the King of England in the nose.  Additionally, he openly courted the support of Al Capone, even going so far as to accept a $250,000 donation from the man.  This brand of gangland politics continued after Thompson was elected, as shown by the Pineapple Primary(a sideshow unto itself which featured rampant violence before and after the Primary) which ushered even more of Thompson's men into power. Also, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre happened on Thompson's watch. He failed in his quest to secure the GOP's nomination for the 1928 Presidential race, which he then blamed on the sister-in-law of the publisher of the Chicago Tribune.

     In 1931, Anton Cermak ran against Thompson for the Mayorship, and Thompson proceeded to run a campaign that probably was one of the most racist ones ever run.  To give you an idea, one of his campaign ditties had him saying that Cermak's name was too ethnic for it to work as a Mayor's last name.  Fed up with his tomfoolery, the citizens of Chicago unceremoniously dumped Thompson in favor of Cermak.  In one final twist, two safe deposit boxes were found upon Thompson's death that contained close to $1.5 Million in cash.  One more thing: the title for this entry comes from an editorial that ran in the Tribune after Thompson's defeat.

Day 190: Chicago's Money People: Allen M. Turner

     Over the course of this blog, we've already talked about two families, the Pritzkers and the Rices.  The next one of these philanthropists that we're talking about is a gentleman by the name of Allen Turner.  Allen M. Turner is the past chairman of Columbia College's Board of Trustees, but he first got his start in 1965 when he joined The Pritzker Organization, where he was eventually made partner.

     With all of that success, Mr. Turner has been quite active in the world of philanthropy, with some of the highlights of his generosity being as follows: chairing the executive committee of Hyatt International Corporation, being the Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Mill & Lumber Company, as well as being the Chairman of the Board of McCall's Magazine.  By the 1970s, his philanthropic interests had turned to the theater world. and he was the first chairman of the Victory Gardens Theatre, playing an instrumental role in steering the theatre towards financial stability.  Later on, he served some time on the board of the Goodman Theatre.

     But Turner's true area of expertise is in the area of the arts.  He became the Chairman of the Board of the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1991.  His term saw the museum construct its current building, as well as a Capital Campaign that saw the museum grow from a small storefront operation to the renowned institution that it is today.  But his philanthropic efforts haven't been limited to just the MCA.  Turner has also served on an art committee at the University of Chicago, as well as on the boards of the  Art Institute, Pritzker Architecture Prize, and the Newberry Library, amongst others.

     His generosity has been recognized by bodies around the world, garnering him honors such as the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Republic of France, being made an honorary Knight of Malta, being named to the Official Seat of The Hague, and many more honors.  The city of Chicago recognized him for his efforts as well by designating a stretch of East Pearson Street with the honorific Allen M. Turner Place.

Day 197: Like Father, Like Son: the Harrisons

     A man becomes Mayor of Chicago, has ties to politicians of his day, gets elected to 5 terms, becomes the longest serving Mayor in the city's history, only to die in office.  Later on his son, having come up through the political ranks of the city he grew up in, follows in his footsteps, acts as more moderate than his father, and also goes on to serve longer than his father did.  Collectively, the two men define an era of Chicago politics.  And both of them had completed their terms by the time The Statue of The Republic was erected(1918).  While the Daleys may be Chicago's most infamous and well-known political dynasty, they weren't the first.  That honor goes to Carter Harrison Sr. and his son, Carter Jr.

     Carter Harrison Sr. served on the Cook County Board, until he won election to the U.S. House in 1875.  After winning re-election in 1877, Harrison stepped down in 1879 to run for Mayor, an office which he won.  His time as Mayor may be best remembered for the one time during the Haymarket Riot that he walked through the crowd without getting a scratch, so that he could implore the police to take it easy on the protesters.  He left office in 1887, upon which he ran the Chicago Times from 1891-1893.  At that time, Harrison once again ran for Mayor, and was elected to a record fifth term.  Harrison was elected in April of 1893, just in time to kick off the World's Colombian Exposition on May 1 of that year. He desired to show the world the best that Chicago had to offer.  For the most part, Harrison proved to be correct, and the 1893 Fair was the talk of the town for 6 months, even attracting more than 710,000 people in a single day.  However, the Fair ended badly(and very badly for Harrison) when Harrison was assassinated by a disgruntled former office seeker 2 days before the end of the fair.  The city was plunged into a deep depression, and all closing festivities of the Fair were abruptly cancelled.

     Four years later, Chicago voters walked into the voting booth and were welcomed with the sight of a familiar name running for Mayor.  Carter Harrison Jr. had claimed his birthright.  Jr. was more moderate than his father, and was seen as a reformer, since he kept in tune with the needs of the middle class.  In fact, in one of his more well-known moves, he made motions to close down the Levee District, and infamous red-light district that had been occupying space in the city ever since the 1893 World's Fair.  Harrison Jr's legacy may have been one of reform, but what is most notable about his time as Mayor is the fact that by the time he stepped down in 1915, the city was essentially at its modern size and was on its way to becoming the metropolis that it is today.  Over the course of the 36 years between 1879 and 1915, There was a Harrison at the helm of city government for 21 of those years.  Carter Harrison Jr. was succeeded in office by William Hale Thompson, who would leave his own distinctive legacy on the city.

Day 185: The Scourge of Black Metropolis

Author's Note: The inspiration for this entry comes from an article that ran in the Chicago Tribune a few days ago.  For more on Two-Gun Pete, check it out.

     In the mid-1940s. the 5th District on Chicago's South Side was home to roughly 200,000 people and was the crime capital of the city, leading all other districts in robberies, rapes, and murders.  The area was rightly known as the "bucket of blood".  In the middle of all this lawlessness(and at times fighting a seemingly one-man war against it) stood a hard-boiled cop by the name of Sylvester Washington.

     Of course, today he might be more well-known by his nickname of Two Gun Pete, the deadliest police officer to ever walk the streets of Chicago.  According to his own claims, he gunned down 12 criminals between 1934 and 1951 and made 20,000 arrests during that same time period.  Once the city council saw all of the crime that was befalling primarily Black areas of the city, they requested that several black policemen start to step up their enforcement in those areas.  What nobody could have predicted was that they had just set an officer upon Black Metropolis(the place that we know of today as Bronzeville) who was "the meanest, cruelest person that I have ever seen in my entire life" (as his third wife said of him).  This reputation of being a cold, uncaring man preceded him.  So much so, that all he had to do to clear out a street was announce his presence, whereupon the street would be a ghost town in seconds, the prostitutes would hide out, and any wrongdoers would willingly walk unescorted to the local police station.

     Of course, any cop with a legend of Washington's level must have had some pretty distinctive sidearms, right?  Of course he did.  Washington wore two pearl-handled .357 Magnums on a belt, with the handles positioned perfectly for the quick draw.  He began carrying them after his first take down of a perp, where he almost emptied out his gun in the fracas.  As the years wore on, Washington's legend and celebrity grew.  When the Brooklyn Dodgers played the Cubs with their second baseman Jackie Robinson, Washington was there to patrol and keep the peace.  Finally, Washington's actions caught up with him in 1951, when a grand jury asked him the intuitive question of how a cop making $3,600 a year could afford a $40,000 house.  In October of the same year, Washington retired from the force.  He died in 1971, but at least one of his guns live on in the possession of the daughter of one of Washington's friends.

     Overall, the legacy of Two-Gun Pete is best captured by legendary music producer Quincy Jones:  "Every weekend we watched a legendary black cop named Two-Gun Pete who carried two pearl-handled revolvers shoot black kids in the back in broad daylight, right in front of a Walgreen's drugstore — the kids dropped like potato sacks," Jones wrote in his autobiography. "We fantasized about making Two-Gun Pete pay."

Day 171: The Jordanic Dynasty-Championship Week Day 3

    If there is one basketball team that UNQUESTIONABLY owned the NBA during the 1990s, the obvious answer to that category would be the Chicago Bulls.  With 6 titles in 10 years, the Bulls were without a doubt the team to (try but fail to) beat during that period of time.  But before you build a dynasty, you have to start with the first title, which the Bulls captured in triumphant fashion on June 12, 1991. The next day, the team made its way home, and the fans were there to greet them(against the official advice of the city, but since when did that count for anything?) On Friday the 14th, the team was treated to a championship parade.  But much like as happened when the Blackhawks won it in 2010, there were a number of different things going on in the city that day, as the annual Philippine Independence Day parade was slated to step off on the same day, as well as the beginning of Blues Fest in Grant Park(which was the location of the rally).  Needless to say, the Bulls stole all of the attention from the other events going on in the city that day.

     The next year saw the bulls come back and win yet another title, one that was nothing short of inevitable.  Needless to say, a parade was inevitable as well.  In 1993, the Bulls were up for a 3-peat, and while the outside aspects of the team might have led some to believe that the dream ride was over(such as bickering, occasional acrimony amongst some of the team members, and some unexpected losses) the team ultimately persevered and delivered their 3rd championship.  A few short months after that title, Michael Jordan's father was murdered.  it was this, along with some other concerns that led him to retire from basketball on the eve of the '93-'94 season at the age of 30.  The next two seasons, Jordan spent his "retirement" trying to make it in the sport of Baseball.  He didn't do so well, and came back to the Bulls at the tail end of the '94-'95 season.  The '95-96 season saw the Bulls stampede through the NBA with the best record EVER for a basketball team. The next season was another repeat, albeit one capitalized by Jordan powering through a hellish case of the flu to win one of the games in the Finals.

     Then we get to '97-'98.  All year it had been rumored that this was the last year for Scottie Pippen, Phil Jackson, and even(gasp) Michael Jordan.  At the end of it, the Bulls were NBA Champions for the 6th time, had pulled off the 2nd 3-peat, and were at the end of the road.  At the victory rally in Grant Park(moved there because according to some conspiracy theorists the powers that be in the city didn't want the common folk milling about the Loop), Phil Jackson cryptically said that very same thing and confirmed the suspicions of fans everywhere.  In the end, the Bulls dynasty came to a crashing end in 1998, and they have not won a title since.  Who knows what the future might hold...

Day 115: Flag-burning gets a case of the Mondays

     In 1976, the country was wrapped in a fervor over the impeding Bicentennial celebrations coming on July 4 of that year.  From a special Bicentennial symbol, to the commissioning of a park in Joliet, to even a special edition of the quarter, America had a bad case of Bicentennial fever.  Meanwhile over in the world of Baseball, the Chicago Cubs were commemorating the 100th Anniversary of their (and the NL's) origins.

     April 25, 1976 marked 100 years since the first game ever played in Cubs history, and they were marking the occasion by playing a contest against the Los Angeles Dodgers.  In the fourth inning of that game, Cubs player Rick Monday was warming up in the outfield.  At this point, two fans all of a sudden charged the field and start running toward the center.  In the 70s, streaking had elevated itself to a common pastime, and so it may have been assumed that that was what they were up to.  However, nobody really knew what was going on, and so the two men proceeded to the middle of the field.  It was at this point that Monday noticed that the object the two men were holding was a folded up American Flag.  They draped it on the playing surface, perhaps as if to use it as a picnic surface of sorts?  But wait, then they started dousing it with lighter fluid, and then they brandished matches?  My goodness, they were gonna burn it!  At this point, Monday(who had served in the Marine Corps reserve) sprung into action, sprinting all the way from Center field to Left, swooping down and snatching up the flag mere seconds before it would've burst into flames(a moment that was captured for posterity in this picture by Jim Roark).  Immediately, Monday was honored with multitudes of praise, was named the Grand Marshall of Chicago's 1976 Flag Day Parade, and established a legacy that would go on to define his career.

     Looking back on it now, Monday is intensely proud of that act and has said that "If you're going to burn the flag, don't do it around me. I've been to too many veterans' hospitals and seen too many broken bodies of guys who tried to protect it.".  In the intervening 37 years since the incident, Monday has been offered amounts of money up to and including $1 Million to sell the flag, but has decided to keep it for his personal collection. The 1976 Cubs finished that season with a 4th place record, but Rick Monday finished first in the hearts of Americans in our Bicentennial Year.

Day 106: The Cornerstone of a Community: Gayles Drive

     As we've previously talked about, churches can be cornerstones of the communities that they reside in.  The leaders of those churches are no exceptions.  The Rev. Jethro Ward Gayles founded the  Gospel Temple Baptist Church in 1956 at the age of 34.  In 1970, the church moved to its current location on W. 103rd St., and it was led there by Gayles himself.  By the time Gayles was 72, he had become as much a part of the church as the choir.  On March 26, 1994, Gayles was hard at work compiling his sermon for Palm Sunday, which was to be that coming Sunday.  But then disaster struck.  An unidentified man snuck into the church and assaulted Gayle.  In the scuffle, Gayle was stabbed several times, and he ultimately died.  Even worse, the crime was never solved.

     But that is not where the story ends.  In the confusion and grief that followed Gayle's murder, a neighboring church sent over a 25 year old assistant pastor named Bishop Smith.  Within a few months, the church was so confident in Smith's abilities that it offered him the pastoral position.  Smith initially turned down their offer, but he later reconsidered and accepted the call.  There were a few early bumps in the road, but within 4 years time, the church was doing great under the stewardship of Rev. Smith.  But while the church is now thriving, Rev. Gayles' memory lives on.  Both as a larger than life painting that hangs permanently behind the altar, and also in a named street.  The city officially renamed the area at 10300 South Aberdeen Street to Dr. Jethro W. Gayles Drive.  This way, the name of Rev. Gayles will live on long into posterity.

Day 63: A Stuffed Legacy

     We've already seen in this blog how museums use preserved animals as part of exhibits(i.e. Bushman, for one), but did you know that the father of the art of taxidermy has heavy connections to Chicago?  Well you do now.  We are talking about Carl Akeley, a naturalist from the late 19th/early 20th centuries, who(as previously stated) is noted for inventing the art of modern taxidermy(which is the act of stuffing animals in order to preserve them).

     Akeley was born in New York in 1864.  Growing up, he studied taxidermy before starting an apprenticeship in Rochester.  When he was 22, Akeley brought his trade to the Milwaukee Public Museum, where he presented the first ever complete habitat diorama in a museum in 1890.  After that, Akeley spend 8 more years perfecting taxidermy techniques in Milwaukee.  During that time, he also worked with the Field Museum in Chicago.  It was here that he would develop a cement gun that would help make exhibits. Not only that, but his cement gun is today used as the basis of shotcrete.  Akeley's talents mainly were in the preservation of African Mammals.  He was skilled in fitting skins over a framework, thus ensuring a realistic look to the specimen.

     In 1921, Akeley went on a trip to the Belgian Congo, where he collected mountain gorillas for his exhibit.  At some point in the trip, he became very enthralled with gorillas, and started to work with African authorities to safeguard them.  Sadly, Akeley died of a fever in the Congo while on his fifth expedition to Africa.  Carl Akeley was one of the groundbreaking pioneers in the field of taxidermy, a man whose stunning works can be seen at the Field Museum of Natural History.

Day 95: Their way or the Highway: 176 years of political thuggery.

     They say that Chicago is called the Windy City because of its constant breezes, but really its called that because of its windbag politicians.  Chicago politicians have always been corrupt(remember Big Bill Thompson and the Levee Boys?), but they've also always been slightly boorish.  What follows is an anthology of the most outrageous things ever said by Chicago Politicians:

• "Gentlemen, let's get this thing straight, once and for all. The policeman is not here to create disorder. The policeman is here to preserve disorder"  Mayor Richard J. Daley, talking to reporters about the chaos that surrounded the 1968 Democratic National Convention
• "It’s been very effective. (Holding a rifle): I put this up your butt, you’ll find out how effective it is. Let me put a round up your, you know" Mayor Richard M. Daley, responding to a reporter's question on the effectiveness of the city's handgun ban in 2010.
• "I won't take a back seat to that Bohunk, Chairmock, Chermack or whatever his name is. Tony, Tony, where's your pushcart at?  Can you picture a World's Fair mayor?  With a name like that?"  Mayor William H. Thompson, issuing a racial-slur laden campaign against Anton Cermak in the 1931 election(which he lost, by the way)
• "They think there’s wetlands out there. They’re trying to romanticize the wetlands issue. … I guess everything’s a wetland. My backyard could be a wetland. It should be designated. They could designate everything in the country as a wetland. All of DuPage County would be a wetland" Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1991, addressing concerns that a potential suburban airport would negatively impact wetlands
• "I've got this thing, and it's F$%#ing golden!" Governor Rod Blagojevich, referring to Barack Obama's former Senate seat that he was attempting to sell in late 2008
• "I  thought the health of people is very important. If a rat is on your sandwich, you hope to know it before. If a mouse is on your salad, it’s common sense" Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1994, addressing concerns over food safety in the city's restaurants.
• "Snow? What Snow?!"*  Mayor Michael Bilandic, downplaying the severity of the 1979 Blizzard that was indeed quite severe.  The next month, Bilandic lost his bid for reelection to Jane Byrne in the primary.
• "To do this any other way would have been needlessly contentious"  Mayor Richard M. Daley, defending his 2003 decision to tear up Meigs Field with bulldozers, in violation of an FAA ruling.

(*=Not a direct quote)

Day 81: "I'm the Mayor! No you're not!": The story of Thomas Hoyne

     The year is 1875.  Thomas Hoyne has just been elected Mayor by a free and fair vote of the citizens of Chicago.  However, the Circuit Court declares the election null and void and returns power to the incumbent.  This sounds like the set-up to a political thriller.  And in many ways, it is. However, to gain a fuller understanding on the back story of this case, we must go back 3 years prior to this.

     On April 10, 1872, the Illinois General Assembly adopted the Cities and Villages act, which served to provide a blueprint for towns to incorporate without requiring special legislation to be passed each and every time.  On April 25, 1875, the city of Chicago voted to operate under the Cities and Villages Act, and changed mayoral elections from November to April(yes, there was an election that year; yes, the elections were moved to April at the end of the month; and yes, this was COMPLETELY an act of political hucksterism on the part of the City Council[a la this, as well as this]).  At the time of the Act's adoption, Mayor Harvey Doolittle Colvin was in office.  His attorneys informed him that according to their interpretations, the Act cancelled the April elections and extended his term for another year.

     However, the Act left a fairly large loophole in place, because it didn't implicitly include OR exclude the office of Mayor from the changes in election dates.  Because of this, a Mayoral election was held in November 1875 anyway.  Neither the Republicans or the Democrats fielded a candidate. Thomas Hoyne captured 33,000 of the 40,000 votes cast, and was summarily declared Mayor of Chicago.  Mayor Colvin wasn't too pleased with this, and refused to give up his office.  He was supported in this quest by the city's comptroller.  Eventually, the Circuit Court ruled Hoyne's election null and void, which allowed Colvin to continue his term unimpeded.  Finally, a special election was held on July 12, 1876; one that Colvin lost.  Thomas Hoyne later died in 1883 in New York as a result of a railroad accident, but his name lives on as the name of a street on the North Side of Chicago.