John R. Schmidt

Mark White Square and McGuane Park

By: John R. Schmidt | Dec. 11, 2012

Dec. 11, 2012

Give my regards to Skid Row,                                                                                             Remember me to Mark White Square . . .

Those are the opening lines of a song that went around town when I was a kid, a parody with Chicago landmarks of Cohan’s “Give My Regards to Broadway.” Skid Row was the flophouse section of Madison Street. Mark White Square was a pocket-park located at Halsted and 29th streets.

Today Skid Row has been gentrified. Mark White Square has changed, too. Now it’s called McGuane Park.

The Chicago Park District renamed this 10-acre facility in 1960 to honor the recently-deceased John F. McGuane.

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South Chicago, past and present

By: John R. Schmidt | Dec. 10, 2012

Dec. 10, 2012

North Chicago is in Lake County. West Chicago is in Du Page. East Chicago is in Indiana. But where is South Chicago?

South Chicago is part of the city, located about a dozen miles southeast of the Loop. It’s officially designated as Community Area 46.

If Jefferson Davis had been listened to, this area might have become downtown Chicago. In 1833, as a young Army officer, Davis surveyed the various rivers that could be linked to the planned Illinois-Michigan Canal. He said that the Calumet River was the best choice.

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Finding your way around Chicago's present

By: John R. Schmidt | Dec. 7, 2012

Dec. 7, 2012

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Finding your way in Chicago's past

By: John R. Schmidt | Dec. 6, 2012

Dec. 6, 2012
How well could you find your way around the Chicago of the past?
 
This 1955 scene is on the North Side, north of North Avenue and east of the river. Though there have been some physical changes made in the years since, there are also clues that can help you identify the site.
 
If you think you know the location, send in your guess as a comment. I'll post a contemporary photo tomorrow.
 
 
 

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Detective novel highlights old Chicago

By: John R. Schmidt | Dec. 3, 2012

Dec. 3, 2012

I’m fascinated with Chicago history — that much is obvious. I also like old movies. I don’t read much fiction, though I do have a weakness for detective stories.

You Bet Your Life combines all three of these preferences. This “Toby Peters Mystery” was written by Stuart M. Kaminsky in 1978.

Kaminsky (1934-2009) was a native Chicagoan. He earned a PhD in speech at Northwestern, and was teaching film studies there in 1977 when he published his first novel. His character Toby Peters is a 1940s Los Angeles detective whose cases usually involve Hollywood stars and the film industry.

YBYL stars the Marx Brothers. Chico Marx supposedly owes a large gambling debt to a mobster, who’s demanding payment. Chico claims he doesn’t owe any mobster any money. The studio hires Toby Peters to clear up the matter.

The heart of the novel is set in Chicago. As someone who grew up in the city in the 1940s, Kaminsky lovingly captures the feel of those times. The story also has cameo appearances from such figures as Al Capone, Ian Fleming, and a young state senator named Richard J. Daley.

Kaminsky eventually wrote over 60 novels. The list includes 24 Toby Peters books.

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Farewell to the Chicago Cardinals

By: John R. Schmidt | Nov. 29, 2012

Nov. 29, 2012

Chicago’s pioneer pro football team was playing its very last home game.  

The date was November 29, 1959. The place was Soldier Field. The Cardinals were facing the Bears.  

That’s the Chicago Cardinals. They’d been here first, long before the Bears – or the NFL.

The team started out as a part-time, semi-pro outfit in 1898. They became known as the Cardinals after they cut a deal for some cardinal-red uniforms. In those days the only money the players got was by passing the hat among the spectators, or winning bets from the opposing team.

When the pro league was formed in 1920, the Cardinals became a charter member. The team played their home games at Comiskey Park and had some early success. They won NFL championships in 1925 and 1947.

But as the seasons passed, Chicago became a Bears’ town. The Bears had the star players, the publicity, the money. They were the dominant team in the NFL. The Cardinals usually posted a losing record.

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So, who was Dan Ryan anyway?

By: John R. Schmidt | Nov. 27, 2012

Nov. 27, 2012

You know Eisenhower and Kennedy. You might have heard of Stevenson. But who was Dan Ryan?

Glad you asked. This is who Dan Ryan was. . .

He was born Daniel Ryan Jr. in 1894. Daniel Ryan Sr. was a Democrat office-holder who followed the Chicago political tradition of naming his son after himself. The elder Ryan eventually became President of the Cook County Board. Dan Ryan Woods, at 87th Street and Western Avenue, is named after him.

Our Dan Ryan grew up on the South Side. He served in the Navy during World War I, then earned a law degree from Chicago-Kent. When Dan Ryan Sr. died in 1923, Democrat leaders followed another local tradition. They appointed his son to the vacancy on the County Board.

After finishing out his father’s term, Young Dan ran the family insurance business for a while. In 1930 he became a candidate for the County Board in his own right, and was elected.

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Chicago gets a newspaper

By: John R. Schmidt | Nov. 26, 2012

Nov. 26, 2012

The year was 1833. Chicago had just been incorporated as a town. There were already 300 people living here. On this November 26, we got our first newspaper.

Our 21st Century media like to portray themselves as unbiased and non-partisan. Sometimes they are. But in 1833, newspapers let you know their agenda right up front. That first local paper was a weekly named the Chicago Democrat.

The man behind it was John Calhoun. He’d run a succession of unsuccessful papers in New York, most recently in Watertown. After hearing travelers’ tales about the boomtown on Lake Michigan, the young editor headed west.

Calhoun set up shop in a building on Clark Street just south of the river. Like anyone who owned a printing press in 1833, he depended on job-lot printing orders to make his living. The newspaper was more of a sideline, a vehicle to publicize his personal views.

(Hmmm. Sounds like a blog.)

Andrew Jackson, a Democrat, was president. The opposition party was called the Whigs. Yet the feature story in the first issue of the Chicago Democrat was not a political manifesto.

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