WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Every so often, you'll hear a visitor to our city ask for directions to Madison Avenue. This will make a true Chicagoan's blood boil. The dumb tourist doesn't even know it's supposed to be Madison Street.

Actually, there is no special rule on what is called a Street, and what is called an Avenue. It's merely traditional usage.

But the other suffixes! Here we get into some technicalities. At one time there was a whole protocol on how a suffix would be used on Chicago thoroughfares.

Let's take Boulevard.

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The announcement appeared on the entertainment page of the Tribune, just below the ad for the Four Marx Brothers. Emile Coue would be presenting a lecture at Orchestra Hall on February 6, 1923. The Miracle Man was coming to Chicago!

Coue was a 65-year-old French pharmacist. In the course of his business, he had made a startling discovery--patients responded better when he praised their medicine. He concluded that their imagination was the reason. It all had to do with thinking positive thoughts.

Coue claimed any person could develop this power. He called his method "autosuggestion," and it was easy. Just keep repeating a simple phrase--"Day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better." The unconscious would do the rest. You could transform your health, your life, everything!

Now Coue was touring the United States. He was describing his system to vast audiences, selling his books, setting up Coue Institutes to promote autosuggestion.

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How well did you find your way around 1944 Chicago?

Most of the buildings in the picture have been demolished to make way for the UIC campus. But there are some clues.

We have a wide street here, and there are only a few like this within a three-mile radius of State and Madison. In the background, the spire of Holy Family Church is cleary visible. And in the foreground is Gold's Restaurant, a well-remembered landmark of the Maxwell Street area.

To those of you who had the correct answer--good work!

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Could you find your way around the Chicago of the past?

Once again, a picture from days gone by. The location is within a three-mile radius of State and Madison. Most of the area looks different today, but there are clues that can help you identify the site.

Send in your guess to the "Comments" section. I'll run a contemporary photo tomorrow.

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Remember when gerrymander was a dirty word? The new Chicago ward map is a mess. But it seems to satisy legal requirements and political realities, so the City Council adopted it by a lopsided vote.

Let's take a look back at some ward maps from simpler times, courtesy of the annual Chicago Daily News Almanac.

The first map is from 1911. Chicago was slightly smaller in size and in population then. The city was divided into 35 wards, with two aldermen each. The Republicans had a strong presence in the council, and the city often elected Republican mayors.

Notice that most of the ward boundaries are geometrically regular and compact. The south end of the 1st Ward does have some wandering borders. I suspect they were drawn that way to accommodate some scheme of the two aldermen, Bathhouse John Coughlin and Hinky-Dink Kenna.

The next map is from 1921. Chicago has grown larger in land area, and the 2.7 million population is comparable to today. We now have the familiar 50 wards, with one alderman each.

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Today's film was produced in 1925 by the CTA's predecessor, Chicago Surface Lines. CSL wanted to educate the public on traffic safety, and was willing to smash a lot of cars to do so. As a result, much of the film is unintentionally hilarious.

What's interesting to the historian is the street scenes from nearly 90 years ago. The downtown sites are easy to identify.  But the film also goes out into the neighborhoods. I've been able to place a few of these outlying locations (see below). If anyone recognizes other sites, let me know in the comments section.

1:50--Archer Ave at RR just east of Cicero. Conductor is flagging the streetcar across the tracks.

2:10--Cicero Ave at 22nd St (Cermak Rd). The old Western Electric complex is clearly visible. Notice that CSL ran two-car trains on some of the busier routes.

3:15--Cicero Ave at Erie. The Lucille Theater was at 653 N. Cicero Ave.

7:00--Possibly North Avenue. The center-of-the-street trolley poles are a clue.

8:14--Traffic signals were new in 1925, and the public was still getting used to them

9:20--Either Broadway or Clark Street. The streetcar is signed for Route 1.

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The news in Chicago in January 1923 was about vampires. No, not that kind.

The problem was "vampire autos."

Cars were just beginning to crowd the city then. Traffic laws were primitive, and drivers were usually careless. At the same time, pedestrians were still pretty casual about wandering into the street whenever they felt like it.

A person would be walking along, minding his own business. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an auto would appear, run him down, and speed away while the victim lay bleeding on the pavement. The auto was like a vampire--attacking without warning and sucking the blood out of innocent people.

Vampire autos killed four people on January 17. The next day they snuffed out three more lives. Hundreds of Chicagoans were being injured. The city council and concerned citizens were looking for ways to combat the growing menace. Would our streets ever again be safe?

Then there was the "auto vamp." The phrase derived from actress Theda Bara, known as The Vamp. In her films, Bara's character operated like Dracula.

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