WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Chicago was warm on December 7, 1941--warm for December, with a high of 39 degrees. It was Sunday. With the stores closed, people had a chance to take the day off from Christmas shopping. Maybe they were headed out to Comiskey Park to watch the Cardinals battle the Bears.

The news hit the city shortly after noon. The Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor--where's that? And Chicagoans searched their maps, and found it was in Hawaii, and realized that their country was now at war.

Little more than a year ago, 40,000 people had gathered in Grant Park to hear Charles Lindbergh tell them that the U.S. must stay out of foreign wars. The Tribune had been sounding the same message. But things were different now. We had been attacked. We would stand together as Americans.

Suddenly, all Chicago was in motion. Sunday afternoon looked like Friday evening rush hour. Municipal Airport and the city's six railroad terminals were jammed with travelers whose plans had abruptly changed--soldiers and sailors returning to their units, politicians on their way to Washington, private citizens just wanting to get back home.

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The house at 2156 N. Tripp Avenue looks unremarkable, yet it is part of history. Walt Disney was born here on December 5, 1901--110 years ago today.

Elias and Flora Disney, Walt's parents, arrived in Chicago from Florida in 1890. The World's Fair was coming, and Elias hoped to find work as a carpenter. The family first lived near the fair site on the South Side.

In 1893 the Disneys purchased a plot of land in the Hermosa district on the city's Northwest Side. The area was sparsely settled, with dirt streets and few houses. Elias built a two-story frame cottage with his own hands on the southwest corner of Tripp and Palmer. The original address number was 1249 Tripp.

Elias did well in Hermosa. He got other carpentry jobs, then used his earnings to buy two more lots, build two more cottages, and sell them. He also became a trustee in the local Congregational church.

Walter Elias Disney was the family's fourth son. The story that he was named after the church pastor is probably not true.

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The story begins with a letter from Albert Einstein to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939. The celebrated physicist warned the president that Nazi Germany was developing the makings of an atomic bomb.

Roosevelt knew what would happen if Hitler got such a weapon. The president ordered a massive secret project to make sure the U.S. beat him to it. Scientists from all over the country were enlisted in the effort.

Early in 1942 Enrico Fermi and a team of physicists gathered at the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory. Their goal was to develop a self-sustaining nuclear pile. This was the first step needed to produce the bomb.

Put simply, the scientists would arrange graphite blocks and uranium pellets in a certain way. Since nobody knew what would happen when the pile was finished, control rods were inserted as a safety measure.

A new lab for the project was being built in suburban Argonne. Then the construction workers went on strike. Fermi decided to push ahead without delay, using a room under the stands of Stagg Field, the university's unused football stadium.

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Feminism was in the news on November 30, 1923. Five hundred women came to Chicago for a conference of the National Women's Rights Party. They met at 675 N. Rush Street, the mansion home of Ganna Walska.

Walska was one of those people who were famous for being famous. Born in Poland in 1887, she was currently married to her fourth husband, Chicago industrialist Harold McCormick. McCormick's money was financing her dubious career as an opera singer--a scenario Orson Welles admitted copying in Citizen Kane.

At the meeting a number of NWRP speakers outlined the discrimination that women suffered in America. The laws of practically every state treated them as inferior to men.

Ohio was one example. Women in that state could not become taxi drivers or railway crossing guards. Nor could they find employment in bowling alleys, bars, or Turkish baths. They weren't even allowed to shine shoes.

If anything, the problems became worse when a woman married. Under the tradition of English common law, a husband and wife became one person. That "one person" was the husband. He then had control of the wife's earnings.

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America's first auto race was run on this date in 1895--right through the streets of Chicago.

In 1895 automobiles were a new invention. They were small, open, and delicate. The year before there'd been an open-road race in France. Now the Chicago Times-Herald announced it would sponsor a race.

The event was scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, November 28. The route would cover 54 miles, from Jackson Park to Evanston and back, mostly through the city's parks and boulevards. First prize was $2,000 and a gold medal.

The infant auto community was excited, and the Times-Herald confidently predicted 100 entries. Then, the Monday before the big day, Chicago was hit with 10 inches of snow. Many drivers backed out. But the paper declared that the race would go on.

The sun was shining on Thanksgiving morning, and the snow was beginning to melt. About 2,000 people came out to Jackson Park to see the racers off.

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For over a century, the day after Thanksgiving has been the busiest shopping day of the year. Let's go back and look at Black Friday thirty years ago--November 27, 1981.

The big news in Chicago was that the federal government had given the green light, and the city was set to host a World's Fair in 1992. The other major story was about Harry Caray, the Sox TV broadcaster. He was moving north, and would be doing the Cubs games next summer.

The weather had been warm, so shoppers were turning out in large numbers. Over a million people jammed the State Street Mall, and sizeable crowds were seen on North Michigan Avenue. Ford City reported a record 60,000 shoppers. Woodfield, Oak Brook, and Old Orchard were also having a busy day.

Shopping styles varied. The country was pulling out of a recession, and some retailers noted that customers were buying fewer--but more expensive--Christmas gifts. Other people were just looking for a bargain. That was good news for Goldblatt's, which was shutting down its last fourteen department stores.

Every retailer seemed to have a special sale. Rose Records was featuring Barbra Streisand's "Memories" album and "The Jacksons Live." If you wanted a book, Kroch's & Brentano's offered a coffee-table volume The Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana.

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Chicago may not have an ocean, but we do have Lake Michigan. We are a maritime city. This is one day to remember that tradition, with the story of the Christmas Tree ships.

Around the turn of the 20th Century, the German custom of decorating Christmas trees was taking hold in Chicago. The closest evergreen forests were in northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan.

Each November a few lake schooners loaded up with trees and sailed them down to Chicago. Customers would come over to the Clark Street dock, go aboard a ship, and select their tree. It was fun way for city families to get into the holiday spirit.

The C. H. Hackley, shown here moored in front of the John A. Rusk Building at 104 S. Water Street in 1909, was one of many ships that carried Christmas trees from Michigan to Chicago.

Herman Schuenemann was master of a Christmas Tree ship. Chicago children affectionately called him "Captain Santa."

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