Looking South from the John Hancock Building, Chicago, Illinois.
Friday, February 17, 2017
The Evolution of the Skokie Lagoons.
The Skokie Lagoons are a nature preserve on the Skokie River that extends from Glencoe to Winnetka and is owned and managed by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County (FPDCC). Within the system are seven inter-connected lagoons totaling 190 acres that are surrounded by floodplains and uplands. Water flows from north to south through the Chicago Botanic Garden into the Skokie Lagoons and south to the north branch of the Chicago River. The lagoons have a long evolutionary history going back to Pleistocene age continental glaciation.
The North Shore uplands, lowland marshes, ravines, and Lake Michigan are all products of the last ice age. About 14,000 years ago, global warming caused the Laurentide icecap to retreat, leaving Glacial Lake Chicago (more than 60 feet above the present Lake Michigan). The glacier also left a topography of lake border moraines (low hills) separated by valleys and marshes that now include the Des Plaines River and the west fork (through Glenview), middle fork (through Northfield), and east fork or Skokie River of the north branch of the Chicago River. As lake levels fell, extensive wetlands developed in the valleys; the largest (approximately 20 miles long and ¼ to 1 mile wide) was the Skokie Marsh. To the east, the Highland Park Moraine, deposited by the Wisconsinan Glacier, separated the Skokie Marsh from Glacial Lake Chicago, now Lake Michigan.
Ridge Avenue in Winnetka lies along the crest of the Highland Park Moraine that slopes gently east and west. Glacial meltwater flowed eastward into Lake Michigan through stream valleys cut into the moraine clay deposits. In the marshes to the west, a diverse wetland plant community developed, including marsh grasses and wild rice that supported a robust community of fish and mammals and was also an important stop-over for migratory waterfowl. Woolly mammoths and bison were also known to be residents of this region. It is said that Potawatomi Indians called the marsh the Kitchi-wap choku (CheWab Skokie on early maps) that roughly translates to “great marsh.” Since the area was subject to flooding, the first European settlers took a cue from the Potawatomi and used the land primarily for hunting and fishing.
Frank Windes, Winnetka Village Engineer from 1898 to 1940, reminisced about the marsh of his childhood in a talk to the Masonic Club in 1933:
Flooding continued and in 1884, the Skokie Ditch was constructed from the Skokie Marsh, eastward along Willow Road, through Indian Hill and Kenilworth to Lake Michigan. Legal opposition and loss of funding killed the project before it could be dug deep enough to fully drain the marsh.
Two decades later, Frank Windes formulated plans for turning the swampy Skokie Marsh into a lagoon system and presented them to Daniel Burnham and the Chicago Plan Commission for inclusion in the 1909 Plan of Chicago. Burnham said he was “many years ahead of the game; wait, someday this will be taken up; not now young man.” It wasn’t until 1933, after a half-century of unsuccessful attempts to “drain the swamp” that President Franklin Roosevelt approved the creation of the Skokie Lagoons as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) project along with seven others in Illinois. Winnetkan Harold Ickes, FDR’s Secretary of the Interior, is credited with the development of the project.
The FPDCC had been buying up land in and around the marsh with the intention of flood control and the creation of a waterfowl refuge and recreational area. About 4 million cubic yards of earth were excavated and landscaped by more than a thousand workers. It was the largest CCC project in the United States.
The North Shore uplands, lowland marshes, ravines, and Lake Michigan are all products of the last ice age. About 14,000 years ago, global warming caused the Laurentide icecap to retreat, leaving Glacial Lake Chicago (more than 60 feet above the present Lake Michigan). The glacier also left a topography of lake border moraines (low hills) separated by valleys and marshes that now include the Des Plaines River and the west fork (through Glenview), middle fork (through Northfield), and east fork or Skokie River of the north branch of the Chicago River. As lake levels fell, extensive wetlands developed in the valleys; the largest (approximately 20 miles long and ¼ to 1 mile wide) was the Skokie Marsh. To the east, the Highland Park Moraine, deposited by the Wisconsinan Glacier, separated the Skokie Marsh from Glacial Lake Chicago, now Lake Michigan.
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| Flooded Winnetka 1924. |
Ridge Avenue in Winnetka lies along the crest of the Highland Park Moraine that slopes gently east and west. Glacial meltwater flowed eastward into Lake Michigan through stream valleys cut into the moraine clay deposits. In the marshes to the west, a diverse wetland plant community developed, including marsh grasses and wild rice that supported a robust community of fish and mammals and was also an important stop-over for migratory waterfowl. Woolly mammoths and bison were also known to be residents of this region. It is said that Potawatomi Indians called the marsh the Kitchi-wap choku (CheWab Skokie on early maps) that roughly translates to “great marsh.” Since the area was subject to flooding, the first European settlers took a cue from the Potawatomi and used the land primarily for hunting and fishing.
Frank Windes, Winnetka Village Engineer from 1898 to 1940, reminisced about the marsh of his childhood in a talk to the Masonic Club in 1933:
There were great flocks of wild geese, ducks and wild swans. In the wet woodlands were to be found snipe, plover, woodcock and partridge. In the summer the plover, killdeer, bobolink, meadow lark, marsh wren and many of the waders were found in great numbers. Coon, mink, rabbits, muskrat and weasels were found, and we had great fun hunting with our old muzzle-loading shotguns. It was bare of trees, except for a few straggling willows and a wooded island or two; it was very wet most of the year; and now and then large tracts of “floating bogs” dangerous to walk across in flood times… The wild flowers grew in great profusion. Pond lilies were found in some of the ponds, wild strawberries, grapes, elderberries, cherries and plums grew in the bordering woods and meadows and on the “islands.”Fishing was easy, according to Windes:
As small boys we would build two small dams across the Skokie stream. We would wade in the stream and beat the water with sticks, scaring the fish between our 2 dams. After we had some 20 to 30 good sized bass, pickerels, catfish and perch enclosed, we would close the dam, and then shovel out the fish, and everyone in town had a fine mess of fresh fish. The skating was wonderful. We could use iceboats, and skate all the way from Winnetka to the Wells St. Bridge in Chicago.In the late 19th century, floods and mosquitoes were a chronic problem in the Skokie Marsh. Settlers dug drainage channels in sections of the marsh in order to expand “useful land” for grazing and farming. These attempts to improve the land had a negative consequence. Peat deposits from the newly-drained marsh regularly caught fire, blanketing neighbors with dense smoke.
Flooding continued and in 1884, the Skokie Ditch was constructed from the Skokie Marsh, eastward along Willow Road, through Indian Hill and Kenilworth to Lake Michigan. Legal opposition and loss of funding killed the project before it could be dug deep enough to fully drain the marsh.
Two decades later, Frank Windes formulated plans for turning the swampy Skokie Marsh into a lagoon system and presented them to Daniel Burnham and the Chicago Plan Commission for inclusion in the 1909 Plan of Chicago. Burnham said he was “many years ahead of the game; wait, someday this will be taken up; not now young man.” It wasn’t until 1933, after a half-century of unsuccessful attempts to “drain the swamp” that President Franklin Roosevelt approved the creation of the Skokie Lagoons as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) project along with seven others in Illinois. Winnetkan Harold Ickes, FDR’s Secretary of the Interior, is credited with the development of the project.
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Plans, Development of the Skokie Lagoons, Forest Preserve of Cook County.
CLICK MAP TO VIEW IN FULL SIZE.
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| Looking north from Willow Road Bridge the month the lagoon project began, July 1933. |
The plan—completed in 1942—includes lakes, floodplains, connecting channels, flood control dams, and perimeter ditches to divert stormwater around the lagoons.
In 1968, the Chicago Botanic Garden was carved out of the north section of the Skokie Lagoons between Dundee Road and Lake Cook Road. Designed by landscape architect John O. Simonds, the Botanic Garden includes nine islands and 60 acres of water. Owned by FPDCC and managed by the Chicago Horticultural Society, it is a world-renowned living plant museum with 25 display gardens surrounded by four natural habitats.
Although peat fires were eliminated and flooding was reduced, by 1979 problems with siltation of the lagoons and untreated sewage spurred FPDCC to new action. The FPDCC and the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission implemented a plan to divert treated wastewater around the lagoons. In addition, over one million cubic yards of sediment were dredged from the lagoons between 1988 and 1993.
Following the dredging, 40 tons of invasive carp were removed and native and sport fish restored to the deeper (up to 12 feet) and cleaner lagoons. Fishermen are now a common sight at the Willow Road dam and boaters regularly enter the lagoons at Tower Road.
Today, the biggest threats in the more than 540 acres of floodplains and uplands in the Skokie Lagoons are invasive plants: overstory trees and garlic mustard in the floodplains, buckthorn in the uplands, and tall perennial reeds in the diversion ditches. Although peat fires have been eradicated, dead trees in the uplands are becoming a fire hazard. FPDCC and Chicago Audubon Society volunteers have been actively working to rid the area of buckthorn and garlic mustard, clear brush, and restore native plant species including grasses, sedges and wildflowers.
The Skokie Lagoons have transformed marshes into ponds and parkland, eliminated peat fires and greatly reduced the mosquito problem. But new homes built on land that was once marsh flood-plain still flood occasionally. In an effort to better control flooding, the Village of Winnetka is considering construction of a storm sewer system consisting of an eight-foot-wide pipe that would extend east to Lake Michigan—an underground version of the Skokie Ditch.
The evolution of the Skokie Lagoons is not complete. The construction of levees and dikes on the Mississippi River for flood control and navigation resulted in new problems that may not have been anticipated by the early planners. As exemplified by the Chicago Botanic Garden, close attention to detail and plenty of funds will assure the vision of sustainability.
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
In 1968, the Chicago Botanic Garden was carved out of the north section of the Skokie Lagoons between Dundee Road and Lake Cook Road. Designed by landscape architect John O. Simonds, the Botanic Garden includes nine islands and 60 acres of water. Owned by FPDCC and managed by the Chicago Horticultural Society, it is a world-renowned living plant museum with 25 display gardens surrounded by four natural habitats.
Although peat fires were eliminated and flooding was reduced, by 1979 problems with siltation of the lagoons and untreated sewage spurred FPDCC to new action. The FPDCC and the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission implemented a plan to divert treated wastewater around the lagoons. In addition, over one million cubic yards of sediment were dredged from the lagoons between 1988 and 1993.
Following the dredging, 40 tons of invasive carp were removed and native and sport fish restored to the deeper (up to 12 feet) and cleaner lagoons. Fishermen are now a common sight at the Willow Road dam and boaters regularly enter the lagoons at Tower Road.
Today, the biggest threats in the more than 540 acres of floodplains and uplands in the Skokie Lagoons are invasive plants: overstory trees and garlic mustard in the floodplains, buckthorn in the uplands, and tall perennial reeds in the diversion ditches. Although peat fires have been eradicated, dead trees in the uplands are becoming a fire hazard. FPDCC and Chicago Audubon Society volunteers have been actively working to rid the area of buckthorn and garlic mustard, clear brush, and restore native plant species including grasses, sedges and wildflowers.
The Skokie Lagoons have transformed marshes into ponds and parkland, eliminated peat fires and greatly reduced the mosquito problem. But new homes built on land that was once marsh flood-plain still flood occasionally. In an effort to better control flooding, the Village of Winnetka is considering construction of a storm sewer system consisting of an eight-foot-wide pipe that would extend east to Lake Michigan—an underground version of the Skokie Ditch.
The evolution of the Skokie Lagoons is not complete. The construction of levees and dikes on the Mississippi River for flood control and navigation resulted in new problems that may not have been anticipated by the early planners. As exemplified by the Chicago Botanic Garden, close attention to detail and plenty of funds will assure the vision of sustainability.
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Hobo College, 17 East Congress Street, Chicago, Illinois.
To the hobo population, Chicago was known as “Big Chi,” the place where thousands of migratory workers in the early 1900s hopped freight cars for jobs in the nation's harvest fields and logging camps.
Amidst West Madison Street's (skid-row), missions, cheap eateries, bars, and other establishments that catered to the transients' needs, Ben Reitman, dashing physician, reformer, and anarchist, founded a “hobo college” in 1908. There, men of the road gathered to swap stories and listen to lectures on everything from philosophy and politics to personal hygiene and vagrancy laws.
For nearly three decades, the hobo college provided an educational experience to these men and fostered a spirit of fraternity among them.
It seems that the Hobo College had set up shop at many different addresses. In 1937, the Hobo College was located at 1118 W. Madison Street, Chicago, Illinois.
Chicago Tribune Article, April 18, 1916
Chicago's Hobo College Loses Students When Coffee and Doughnuts Cease. There's No Audience for the Lecturers.
Chicago's hobo college has ceased to function (for the season). Warm weather has driven its students out of the city to seek Jobs, and the loafers, who had no real Interest In the college anyway, quit when the lunch was discontinued.
Coffee was the life blood of the college and doughnuts were the stuff upon which it existed. So when coffee and rolls were missing recently at a session of the public speaking class, the doom of the college was sealed.
It's All Over Now.
Three times a week the classes were held in the college at 17 East Congress street. On Tuesdays the Rev. Irwin St. John Tucker instructed them in social economics; on Thursdays Dr. John A. Cousilns taught them sanitation and hygiene, and on Saturdays Attorney George W. Waterman lectured on common law with special reference to vagrancy.
Free coffee and doughnuts were advertised and consequently the sessions of the college were well attended by the down-and-outs, and the "casual and intinerant workers," which is the hobo college name of honor.
The Good Students Vanish.
Mr. Tucker was instructing a class of fifty young people In public speaking planning to send them out through the country to organize the unemployed so strongly that the I. W. W. and A. F. of L. could win all their strikes. The idea was that all the possible strike-breakers would be members of the hobos' union and there would be nobody to fill the places of the strikers.
"The most promising students, those that have energy, have left town to find jobs," Mr. Tucker said, "and only the bums are left. So we discontinued our college until September."
Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.
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| Three hobos sitting under a covered structure in Chicago, Illinois, in 1929 |
It seems that the Hobo College had set up shop at many different addresses. In 1937, the Hobo College was located at 1118 W. Madison Street, Chicago, Illinois.
Chicago Tribune Article, April 18, 1916
Chicago's Hobo College Loses Students When Coffee and Doughnuts Cease. There's No Audience for the Lecturers.
Chicago's hobo college has ceased to function (for the season). Warm weather has driven its students out of the city to seek Jobs, and the loafers, who had no real Interest In the college anyway, quit when the lunch was discontinued.
Coffee was the life blood of the college and doughnuts were the stuff upon which it existed. So when coffee and rolls were missing recently at a session of the public speaking class, the doom of the college was sealed.
It's All Over Now.
Three times a week the classes were held in the college at 17 East Congress street. On Tuesdays the Rev. Irwin St. John Tucker instructed them in social economics; on Thursdays Dr. John A. Cousilns taught them sanitation and hygiene, and on Saturdays Attorney George W. Waterman lectured on common law with special reference to vagrancy.
Free coffee and doughnuts were advertised and consequently the sessions of the college were well attended by the down-and-outs, and the "casual and intinerant workers," which is the hobo college name of honor.
The Good Students Vanish.
Mr. Tucker was instructing a class of fifty young people In public speaking planning to send them out through the country to organize the unemployed so strongly that the I. W. W. and A. F. of L. could win all their strikes. The idea was that all the possible strike-breakers would be members of the hobos' union and there would be nobody to fill the places of the strikers.
"The most promising students, those that have energy, have left town to find jobs," Mr. Tucker said, "and only the bums are left. So we discontinued our college until September."
Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.
1890s Cabin in Giant City, Illinois.
The History of the Dutch Community in Chicagoland.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the middle-to-lower-class Protestant, rural Dutch immigrants who moved to and around Chicago established three distinct communities that recreated the Netherlands' cultural, social, and geographical patterns. The first two were agricultural enclaves: in 1846, near Lake Calumet, Zuid (South) Hollanders founded Lage (Low) Prairie, later known as South Holland; and in 1849, a few miles to the north, Noord Hollanders settled Hooge (High) Prairie, later known as Roseland. The third settlement, just west of the city center, became known as the Groningsche Hoek (Groningen Quarter) as immigrants from the Groningen Province increasingly settled there.
These communities reflected both the provinciality and diversity of the homeland while expressing the strong Dutch attachment to their place of origin and their desire to retain the familiar in their lives. They could not stay isolated for long and were designed as separate and segregated enclaves.
As Chicago grew, Dutch solidarity came under pressure. By the 1880s and 1890s, the crush of immigration from other parts of Europe threatened the Near West Side community. Many Groningen Quarter residents sold their holdings and fled to less congested areas. Some reestablished a community a little further to the west in the Douglas Park–North Lawndale area, while others moved to the newly established Dutch community in Englewood. Still, others left for Bellwood, Maywood, and Summit suburbs to pursue truck farming. At the same time, industrialization took its toll on Dutch autonomy, especially in the Roseland settlement. Industries such as the Pullman Palace Car Company, International Harvester, and the Illinois Central Railroad competed for open land and attracted thousands of Southern European immigrants to the area. Like the West Siders, many Roselanders sold and moved to areas that still afforded a rural setting, particularly South Holland and nearby Indiana. Others decided to remain, accepting and adapting to urban life's new order and flavor.
Between World War I and World War II, competition for living space from newly arrived ethnic groups once again prompted a move for the West Side Dutch, this time to the suburbs of Cicero, Berwyn, and Oak Park. Following World War II, they ventured into the far western suburbs, while many members of the Roseland and Englewood communities joined in the flight from the city by migrating to nearby south and southwestern suburbs.
Despite these migrations, Chicago's Dutch preserved their ethnic identity and promoted cohesiveness through religion, marriage, social clubs, and geographic proximity. Religious beliefs proved the strongest bond. Churches and Christian schools formed the institutional focus and remain hallmarks of the Dutch presence. Most early Dutch immigrants belonged to either the Reformed Church or its rival offshoot, the Christian Reformed Church, though later in the century, Roman Catholic and Socialist Dutch immigrants would challenge the hegemony of these institutions.
Chicago's Dutch earned their livings in numerous ways. Most early immigrants were farmers, first in self-sufficient operations, then as truck farmers supplying the city with fresh produce. General farming gave way to specialized pursuits such as onion and melon raising. Agriculture, however, grew increasingly less important as the city and its industries expanded. Factory work proved attractive to late-nineteenth-century immigrants, who found employment in the Pullman works and the railroads, steel plants, and other industries that moved to the Roseland area. Capitalizing on the explosive growth of Chicago, the Dutch also branched out into service industries. South Siders entered the building trades as independent entrepreneurs, while West Siders' familiarity with handling animals led to jobs as teamsters and refuse haulers. The West Side Dutch dominated the city's commercial refuse business, later expanding into the suburbs. Others sustained local economies, operating small retail shops and providing services for the Dutch communities.
The Dutch reached their high point as a percentage of the population in the earliest stages of their migration. Initially arriving as families, the small nuclei of settlers expanded slowly, and their growth rate fell well behind that of the other immigrant groups, though by 1920, Roseland's Dutch population had increased to approximately 8,750, making it the largest Dutch enclave in the city. Nevertheless, the Dutch accounted for less than 1 percent of Chicago's total population by this time. Twentieth-century immigration from Holland to Chicago has been limited, though the Chicago community remained active into the 1920s, scouting out prospective sites for Dutch settlement in as faraway places as South Dakota and Texas.
Despite slow population growth, dispersion, and apparent assimilation, the Dutch presence in Chicago remains resilient. Pockets of Dutch ancestry still inhabit their traditional spaces, marking their presence with place names, dedicated cemetery sections, churches, and Dutch-supported retirement homes and schools. Trinity Christian College in suburban Palos Heights is a fitting symbol of the continuing Dutch influence. Established in 1959 by members of the Reformed Church community, this nondenominational institution presently houses the Dutch Heritage Center, a library and research facility for Dutch history in the Chicago area. This institution reflects the active Dutch ethnic consciousness that takes pride in its long association with metropolitan Chicago.
ADDITIONAL READING.
Brown's Chicken Massacre in the Palatine, Illinois, Restaurant on January 8, 1993.
On January 8, 1993, two assailants robbed the restaurant and then proceeded to murder seven employees at Brown's Chicken and Pasta at 168 W. Northwest Highway in Palatine, Illinois.
The victims included the owners, Richard E. Ehlenfeldt, 50, and his wife, Lynn W Ehlenfeldt, 49, of Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Also killed were five employees: Guadalupe Maldonado, 46, of Palatine, via Mexico, the cook; Michael C. Castro, 16, and Rico L. Solis, 17, both Palatine High School students who were working there part-time; and Palatine residents Thomas Mennes, 32, and Marcus Neilsen, 31.
The assailants stole less than $2,000 from the restaurant. Two of the Ehlenfeldts' daughters were scheduled to be at the restaurant that night but happened not to be present at the time of the killing; a third daughter, Jennifer, was later elected to the Wisconsin State Senate.
When Palatine police found the bodies, it was more than 5½ hours after the 9 p.m. closing. Michael Castro's parents called the police a couple hours after closing time.
Later, Guadalupe Maldonado's wife called the police, concerned that her husband had not returned home from work and that his car was still in the apparently closed Brown's Chicken parking lot.
The building no longer exists. It was razed in April 2001, after housing a dry-cleaning establishment and a deli, then stood vacant for several years. A Chase branch office is located at the former Brown's location.
In March 2002, more than nine years after the murders, Anne Lockett came forward and implicated her former boyfriend, James Degorski, and his associate, Juan Luna, in the crime. Luna was a former employee of the restaurant.
In April 2002, the Palatine Police Department matched a DNA sample from Luna to a sample of saliva from a piece of partially eaten chicken found in the garbage during the crime scene investigation. The chicken was kept in a freezer for most of the time since the crime; testimony at trial indicated it was not frozen for several days after discovery and was allowed to thaw several times for examination and testing in the hope of an eventual match via increasingly sophisticated testing methods not available in 1993.
The Palatine Police Department took the two suspects into custody on May 16, 2002.
Luna confessed to the crime during interrogation, though his lawyers would later claim that he was coerced to do so through corporal punishment and threats of deportation. The pair met at Palatine's William Fremd High School and subsequently went to trial.
On May 10, 2007, Juan Luna was found guilty of all seven counts of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole on May 17. The state had sought the death penalty, which was available then, but the jury's vote of eleven-to-one in favor of the death penalty fell short of the required unanimity to impose it.
On September 29, 2009, James Degorski was found guilty of all seven counts of murder, mainly on the testimony of his former girlfriend Anne Lockett and another woman, who both stated that Degorski had confessed to them. On October 20, 2009, he was sentenced to life without parole. All but two of the jurors had voted for the death penalty.
The incident hurt the entire Brown's Chicken franchise. Sales at all restaurants dropped 35 percent within months of the incident, and the company eventually had to close 100 restaurants in the Chicago area.
In March of 2014, a jury awarded James Degorski $451,000 in compensation and punitive damages for being beaten by a Sheriff's deputy in Cook County Jail in May 2002. He suffered facial fractures requiring surgery; the deputy was eventually dismissed.
Chicago Tribune Article on March 8, 2014 - Jury awards Brown's Chicken Killer $451K in civil rights case.
A judge ordered a reduction of $120,000, and the Illinois Department of Corrections demanded that it get the money to pay for the upkeep of Degorski. However, no claims against the award were reportedly made by any of the families of the seven murder victims.
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
The victims included the owners, Richard E. Ehlenfeldt, 50, and his wife, Lynn W Ehlenfeldt, 49, of Arlington Heights, Illinois.
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| Restaurant owners Richard Ehlenfeldt, 50, and Lynn Ehlenfeldt, 49. |
The assailants stole less than $2,000 from the restaurant. Two of the Ehlenfeldts' daughters were scheduled to be at the restaurant that night but happened not to be present at the time of the killing; a third daughter, Jennifer, was later elected to the Wisconsin State Senate.
When Palatine police found the bodies, it was more than 5½ hours after the 9 p.m. closing. Michael Castro's parents called the police a couple hours after closing time.
Later, Guadalupe Maldonado's wife called the police, concerned that her husband had not returned home from work and that his car was still in the apparently closed Brown's Chicken parking lot.
Officers spotted the rear employees' door open when they arrived at the building. Inside, they found the seven bodies, some face-down, some face-up, in a cooler and walk-in refrigerator.
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| The victims of the January 8, 1993 massacre at the Palatine Brown's Chicken & Pasta were, top from left, franchisees Richard and Lynn Ehlenfeldt and employees Michael Castro, Guadalupe Maldonado, and bottom from left, Thomas Mennes, Marcus Nellsen, and Rico Solis. |
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| Emergency crews remove a body from a Brown's Chicken restaurant in Palatine on January 9, 1993, a day after seven workers were shot to death during a robbery. |
In March 2002, more than nine years after the murders, Anne Lockett came forward and implicated her former boyfriend, James Degorski, and his associate, Juan Luna, in the crime. Luna was a former employee of the restaurant.
In April 2002, the Palatine Police Department matched a DNA sample from Luna to a sample of saliva from a piece of partially eaten chicken found in the garbage during the crime scene investigation. The chicken was kept in a freezer for most of the time since the crime; testimony at trial indicated it was not frozen for several days after discovery and was allowed to thaw several times for examination and testing in the hope of an eventual match via increasingly sophisticated testing methods not available in 1993.
The Palatine Police Department took the two suspects into custody on May 16, 2002.
On May 10, 2007, Juan Luna was found guilty of all seven counts of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole on May 17. The state had sought the death penalty, which was available then, but the jury's vote of eleven-to-one in favor of the death penalty fell short of the required unanimity to impose it.
On September 29, 2009, James Degorski was found guilty of all seven counts of murder, mainly on the testimony of his former girlfriend Anne Lockett and another woman, who both stated that Degorski had confessed to them. On October 20, 2009, he was sentenced to life without parole. All but two of the jurors had voted for the death penalty.
The incident hurt the entire Brown's Chicken franchise. Sales at all restaurants dropped 35 percent within months of the incident, and the company eventually had to close 100 restaurants in the Chicago area.
Jury Awards Brown's Chicken Killer $451K in Civil Rights Case.
In March of 2014, a jury awarded James Degorski $451,000 in compensation and punitive damages for being beaten by a Sheriff's deputy in Cook County Jail in May 2002. He suffered facial fractures requiring surgery; the deputy was eventually dismissed.
Chicago Tribune Article on March 8, 2014 - Jury awards Brown's Chicken Killer $451K in civil rights case.
A judge ordered a reduction of $120,000, and the Illinois Department of Corrections demanded that it get the money to pay for the upkeep of Degorski. However, no claims against the award were reportedly made by any of the families of the seven murder victims.
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
The History of Chicago's Rear Houses.
Prior to 1890, frame cottages were ubiquitous residences for the working class in Chicago. Typically one-story, rectangular buildings of four to six rooms, these cottages often were built without permanent foundations of brick or stone. Resting upon cedar posts sunk below the frost line, most cottages sat on narrow lots, usually 25 by 125 feet. These narrow lots permitted a row of cottages to crowd one against another and still provide ample space within the interior of a city block.
During the 1880s in neighborhoods near the Loop where land values rose dramatically, the crowding of two and even three cottages upon a single lot became profitable for immigrant homeowners. In districts where factories displaced residences, landowners purchased old cottages intended for demolition. Without permanent foundations or plumbing, these structures were raised and moved easily to another location, often the rear portion of a lot. In other instances, landowners moved older cottages from the front to the rear of their lots and then constructed larger brick buildings on the front of the lot.
Chicago's housing reformers universally condemned rear houses as dirty, miserable firetraps overrun with bugs and rats. In Polish and Bohemian neighborhoods on the West Side, rear houses appeared on one-fourth to one-third of all lots in the 1890s. With the increased construction of three-story brick tenements, these neighborhoods became notorious for dark, damp, and narrow passageways (gangways) that prohibited adequate light and ventilation.
On occasion, rear houses were raised on brick foundations, creating two floors. The new brick first floor sometimes contained primitive toilets or stables. The presence of numerous stables and inadequate sanitation compounded the problems of overcrowded lots. Without adequate space, great numbers of children played in dangerous gangways and foul alleys. Despite building codes, these conditions persisted.
In heavily populated districts like the Back of the Yards or the Black Belt[1] on the South Side, rear houses presented a negligible problem since they appeared only occasionally. In industrial suburbs like East Chicago or Cicero, rear houses resembled their inner-city counterparts. But they appeared only in small, concentrated areas that housed the most recently arrived immigrants.
While rear houses remain common in older sections of Chicago, urban renewal decreased their numbers. Refurbished rear houses also remain in a few gentrified portions of the city such as Lincoln Park. Ironically, housing once condemned as a social evil now offers a trendy address for a young, upwardly mobile population.
[1] From the turn of the twentieth century until after World War II, the term “Black Belt” was commonly used to identify the predominately Black community on Chicago's South Side. Originally a narrow corridor extending from 22nd to 31st Streets along State Street, Chicago's South Side Black community expanded over the century until it stretched from 39th to 95th streets, the Dan Ryan Expressway to Lake Michigan.
Chicago's housing reformers universally condemned rear houses as dirty, miserable firetraps overrun with bugs and rats. In Polish and Bohemian neighborhoods on the West Side, rear houses appeared on one-fourth to one-third of all lots in the 1890s. With the increased construction of three-story brick tenements, these neighborhoods became notorious for dark, damp, and narrow passageways (gangways) that prohibited adequate light and ventilation.
In heavily populated districts like the Back of the Yards or the Black Belt[1] on the South Side, rear houses presented a negligible problem since they appeared only occasionally. In industrial suburbs like East Chicago or Cicero, rear houses resembled their inner-city counterparts. But they appeared only in small, concentrated areas that housed the most recently arrived immigrants.
While rear houses remain common in older sections of Chicago, urban renewal decreased their numbers. Refurbished rear houses also remain in a few gentrified portions of the city such as Lincoln Park. Ironically, housing once condemned as a social evil now offers a trendy address for a young, upwardly mobile population.
[1] From the turn of the twentieth century until after World War II, the term “Black Belt” was commonly used to identify the predominately Black community on Chicago's South Side. Originally a narrow corridor extending from 22nd to 31st Streets along State Street, Chicago's South Side Black community expanded over the century until it stretched from 39th to 95th streets, the Dan Ryan Expressway to Lake Michigan.
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
How the City of Chicago Dealt with all the Horse Manure.
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| A typical "Manure Vault" in a Chicago alley in 1918. |
In the late 1890s, Chicago had about 83,000 horses living and working in the city. On average, one horse creates between 40 to 50 pounds of manure daily at 40 pounds per day, or 3,320,000 pounds, or 1,660 tons of horse manure to dispose of daily. Furthermore, each horse produced around 2 pints of urine per day. The sheer volume made what was a nuisance in small towns and a crisis in large metropolitan areas.
With the upcoming World's Columbian Exposition scheduled to open in 1893, Chicago made the cleanup of manure a critical priority in 1892. It would be embarrassing for the city to have filthy streets when Chicago would be under worldwide scrutiny.
One strategy to deal with all the manure was the underground manure vault to diminish the problem. Manure was bailed and transported out of the city, along with manure being incinerated. The ultimate solution to the manure problem was just beginning in the U.S.
In 1893 Frank Duryea was reported to have made the first horseless carriage trip on U.S. roads in Springfield, Massachusetts. He traveled approximately 600 yards before engine problems forced him to stop and make repairs. America's First Automobile Race took place in Chicago, Illinois, in 1895. Winner, Frank Duryea, traveled 54 miles at an average of 7.5 mph in 10 hours and 23 minutes, including repair time, marking the first U.S. automobile race in which any entrants finished.
By 1900 there were only 377 automobiles registered with the Board of Examiners of Operators of Automobiles. The Comparative Wheel Tax Statement shows that in 1916 there were 46,662 horse-drawn vehicles and 65,651 automobiles. By 1940 there were fewer than 2,000 horse-drawn vehicles and over 600,000 cars. The fastest changes happened in the 1920s.
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| Today, horses are equipped with bags to collect their manure before it hits the Chicago streets. |
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
The History of the Telenews Theater at State and Randolph Streets, Chicago, Illinois.
Advertised as “the magazine of the screen," the Telenews Theater at 165 North State Street, Chicago, opened on December 23, 1939, as part of a chain that originated in San Francisco, California.
This small 606 seat theater was once the place where moviegoers could see a couple of cartoons, a newsreel, a comical short, and the famous “March of Time” news reports, all in a single hour. Newsreels featured world, national and local news, as well as weekly sports shorts. The Telenews Theater had seating provided in orchestra and balcony levels.
Keeping with its newsy theme, a United Press teletype machine clacked away in the lobby where an usher would continually spike the fresh news copy on the wall behind the machine.
The Telenews Theater opened showing World War II frontline footage and WWII news stories from 1939 through the end of the war in the mid 40s. With televisions in more homes, news broadcasts became a mainstay of viewers, and theaters like Telenews around the country closed or changed format.
Telenews Theater was renamed the Loop Theater on April 8, 1950 and began to show first-run feature films. In July of 1950, the newsreel policy was restored, as was the Telenews name. Then in August of 1953, the theater again switched to first-run films, and the name was changed, this time for good, back to the Loop Theater.
In the mid-to-late-1960’s, the theater began to show a lot of B-grade films as well as Russ Meyer-type adult films, in addition to continuing to screen first-run features. The theater thrived during this mixed-format programming. Other downtown movie houses closed in the 70s with dwindeling attendance, along with the Loop Theater which closed on April 2, 1978.
For years, the former Loop Theater had housed retail stores, but had been vacant for some time. The building was demolished in November and December 2005 to make way for a mixed-use 31-story high rise originally called MoMo (for Modern Momentum), but now called the Joffrey Tower, for the Joffrey Ballet, which is now housed in the building. The tower also is home to the Residences at the Joffrey Tower condominiums and two floors of retail space.
FROM THE JAN. 5, 1940 ISSUE OF THE FILM DAILY:
LATEST IN EQUIPMENT IN CHICAGO’S TELENEWS THEATER
Chicago — Latest advances in motion picture theater equipment are incorporated in the new Telenews Theater recently opened here by its owners and operators, Midwest News Reel Theaters, of which Herbert Scheftel of New York City is president.
House has RCA sound, Simplex projectors, and American Seating Co.’s Bodiform chairs. Approximately 400 of the latter are installed on the main floor of the auditorium, and 200 in the balcony.
A Westinghouse air conditioning system is used, Perey turnstiles, and Stanley Bigelow carpets supplied by Marshall Field Co.
The theater has a unique front and marquee, White Way Co. lighting, plus clear cut screen effect and excellent acoustics.
Marshall Field supplied the furnishings for the rest rooms. Equipment contract was executed by National theater Supply.
Shaw, Naess, and Murphy were architects.
Movies played from 1964 until its closing in 1978.
01/03/1964 – WHO’S BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BED?
01/24/1964 – FANTASIA
03/06/1964 – TWO WOMEN plus THE SKY ABOVE, THE MUD BELOW
03/20/1964 – THE SILENCE
05/01/1964 – THE EMPTY CANVAS
05/15/1964 – WEEKEND
06/05/1964 – THE CHRISTINE KEELER STORY
06/19/1964 – HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM plus HOUSE OF FRIGHT
06/26/1964 – ZULU
07/24/1964 – YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW
09/25/1964 – ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO
10/16/1964 - SHOCK TREATMENT
10/23/1964 - MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH plus BLACK SABBATH
10/30/1964 - LOS TARANTOS
11/06/1964 – LILI
11/27/1964 - DIARY OF A BACHELOR
12/18/1964 - SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS plus SANTA’S MAGIC
KINGDOM
12/25/1964 - GOODBYE CHARLIE
01/22/1965 – MARRIAGE – ITALIAN STYLE
03/19/1965 – ZORBA THE GREEK
07/02/1965 – THE PAWNBROKER
08/06/1965 – CASANOVA 70
10/08/1965 – DARLING
11/17/1965 - UNDER AGE? – THE VERDICT IS YOURS
11/26/1965 - PARIS SECRET
12/22/1965 - THE 1OTH VICTIM
02/11/1966 – THE SLENDER THREAD
03/10/1966 – DARLING
04/22/1966 – THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET
06/03/1966 – MALE COMPANION
06/24/1966 – AROUND THE WORLD, UNDER THE SEA
07/27/1966 – DEAR JOHN
08/17/1966 – THE WILD ANGELS
10/21/1966 - GIGI
11/18/1966 - HOTEL PARADISO
11/30/1966 - MATA HARI plus THE THIN MAN
12/07/1966 – NINOTCHKA plus MIN AND BILL
12/14/1966 - ANNA KARENINA plus GO WEST
12/21/1966 - CAMILLE plus THE BIG STORE
12/28/1966 - THE SOUND OF MUSIC
04/21/1967 – THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
09/27/1967 – ENTER LAUGHING
10/13/1967 - BLACKBOARD JUNGLE plus A PATCH OF BLUE
10/27/1967 - THE FLIM FLAM MAN
11/10/1967 - OUR MOTHER’S HOUSE
12/01/1967 – HOUSE OF 1000 DOLLS
12/22/1967 - THE GRADUATE
01/18/1968 – FAR FROM THE MADDENING CROWD
02/23/1968 – THE GRADUATE
06/14/1968 – BLUE
07/03/1968 – THE PRODUCERS
08/14/1968 – TARGETS
08/28/1968 – ANYONE CAN PLAY
09/18/1968 – THE PRODUCERS
10/04/1968 – THE YOUNG RUNAWAYS
10/25/1968 - THERESE AND ISABELLE
12/27/1968 - SKIDOO
01/10/1969 – LES BICHES
02/21/1969 – VIXEN
12/19/1969 - JOHN AND MARY
03/13/1970 – CHERRY, HARRY AND RAQUEL
08/26/1970 – WITHOUT A STITCH
12/16/1970 - EQUINOX
02/10/1971 – UNCLE TOM’S CABIN
03/19/1971 – THE STEWARDESSES
06/30/1971 – EVIL KNIEVEL
07/28/1971 – BILLY JACK
09/24/1971 – HONKY
11/05/1971 – THE ANIMALS
11/12/1971 - THE BUS IS COMING
11/19/1971 - HOUSE OF WAX (IN 3-D)
12/17/1971 - THE STEWARDESSES
12/25/1971 - DIRTY HARRY
04/21/1972 – BUCK AND THE PREACHER
07/28/1972 – FRITZ THE CAT
09/22/1972 – A GROUP MARRIAGE
10/13/1972 - IS THE FATHER BLACK ENOUGH?
10/27/1972 - PRIVATE PARTY
11/03/1972 – BUCK AND THE PREACHER plus COOL BREEZE
11/17/1972 - RAGE
12/01/1972 – SUPERFLY plus MELINDA
12/20/1972 - TRICK BABY
02/02/1973 – BLACK GIRL
02/23/1973 – SHAMUS
03/14/1973 – DELIVERANCE
03/23/1973 – WATTSTAX
04/13/1973 – SCHLOCK
04/22/1973 – DUEL OF THE IRON FIST
05/11/1973 – THE MACK
06/01/1973 – THE MAN FROM DEEP RIVER
06/15/1973 – KUNG FU: THE INVISIBLE FIST
06/29/1973 – EMPEROR OF THE NORTH
07/06/1973 – DUEL OF THE IRON FIST plus KUNG FU: THE INVISIBLE FIST
07/27/1973 – CAHILL – U.S. MARSHALL
08/10/1973 – THEY CALL ME TRINITY plus TRINITY IS STILL MY NAME
08/24/1973 – HEAVY TRAFFIC
10/05/1973 – LAST TANGO IN PARIS
11/16/1973 - DAY OF THE JACKAL plus PETE N TILLIE
11/22/1973 - BLACKBELT
11/30/1973 - BLACK GIRL plus ACROSS 110TH STREET
12/20/1973 - TROUBLE MAN plus HAMMER
12/25/1973 - THE STING
07/19/1974 – THE LORDS OF FLATBUSH
08/02/1974 – BUSTER AND BILLIE
08/16/1974 – THE CHINESE GODFATHER
09/04/1974 – BLAZING SADDLES plus BLUME IN LOVE
09/13/1974 – EXORCISM’S DAUGHTER
09/20/1974 – VIXEN/CHERRY, HARRY, RAQUEL/BEYOND VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
10/18/1974 - UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT plus THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE
10/25/1974 - LAW AND DISORDER
11/08/1974 – THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR/5 ON THE BLACK HAND SIDE
11/15/1974 - THE MANDARIN MAGICIAN
11/22/1974 - GOLD
12/06/1974 – LOVE UNDER 18 plus SENSUOUS YOUTH
12/20/1974 - THE FRONT PAGE
01/15/1975 – VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST
01/31/1975 – YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
03/14/1975 – A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE
04/25/1975 – SUPERVIXENS
06/20/1975 – DOLEMITE
06/27/1975 – SHAMPOO
07/04/1975 – THE GROOVE TUBE plus FLESH GORDON
07/11/1975 – LOVE (IN 3-D)
08/08/1975 – ILSA – SHE WOLF OF THE SS
08/29/1975 – SUPERVIXENS/CHERRY,HARRY,RAQUEL/VIXEN/FINDERS KEEPERS
LOVERS WEEPERS
10/03/1975 – THE MASTER GUNFIGHTER
10/31/1975 - LENNY plus LAST TANGO IN PARIS
11/21/1975 - BLACK ALLEYCATS plus THE BLACK BUNCH
12/19/1975 - VIXEN/CHERRY,HARRY,RAQUEL/FINDERS KEEPERS LOVERS
WEEPERS
12/26/1975 - SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
01/16/1976 – THE NAUGHTIEST SHOW IN TOWN plus HOT TIMES
01/23/1976 – THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR
01/30/1976 – THE ADVENTURES OF FRONTIER FREEMONT
02/11/1976 – NO DEPOSIT, NO RETURN
02/27/1976 – BLACK HOOKER plus COME BACK, CHARLESTON BLUE
03/12/1976 – MAN FRIDAY
03/19/1976 – BRUCE LEE – ALIVE OR DEAD?
04/16/1976 – DEEP JAWS
05/07/1976 – TAXI DRIVER
05/28/1976 – JACKSON COUNTY JAIL plus MEAN FRANK AND CRAZY TONY
06/18/1976 – VIGILANTE FORCE
06/15/1976 – PETER PAN
07/09/1976 – A SMALL TOWN IN TEXAS
07/16/1976 – THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES
08/06/1976 – INFRA-MAN plus WONDER WOMEN
08/27/1976 – THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR
10/01/1976 – APE (IN 3-D)
10/15/1976 - ADIOS AMIGO plus THE KILLER ELITE
10/20/1976 - THE POM POM GIRLS plus SWINGING STEWARDESSES
10/29/1976 - WOODSTOCK
11/05/1975 – RUSS MEYER’S UP
12/24/1976 - MARATHON MAN
01/14/1977 – TRICK BABY plus BLACKBELT JONES
01/28/1977 – IN SEARCH OF NOAH’S ARK
02/18/1977 – THE ENFORCER
03/04/1977 – MANDINGO plus DRUM
03/11/1977 – ANDY WARHOL’S FRANKENSTEIN
04/22/1977 – FANTASTIC INVASION OF PLANET EARTH (IN 3-D)
05/06/1977 – THE STEWARDESSES (IN 3-D)
05/20/1977 – FRITZ THE CAT plus HEAVY TRAFFIC
06/03/1977 – CINDERELLA (X-rated)
10/14/1977 - SHORT EYES
12/21/1977 - OH, GOD! plus AMAZING GRACE
12/30/1977 - CINDERELLA plus ALICE IN WONDERLAND (X-rated)
01/27/1978 – THE ADVENTURES OF THE WILDERNESS FAMILY
02/03/1978 – LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR plus LIPSTICK
02/10/1978 – EMMANUELLE IN BANGKOCK
02/24/1978 – WHICH WAY IS UP? plus THE BLACK BIRD
03/17/1978 – STRAIGHT TIME
CLOSED AFTER PERFORMANCES SUNDAY APRIL 2, 1978
Edited by Dr. Neil Galer Ph.D.
For years, the former Loop Theater had housed retail stores, but had been vacant for some time. The building was demolished in November and December 2005 to make way for a mixed-use 31-story high rise originally called MoMo (for Modern Momentum), but now called the Joffrey Tower, for the Joffrey Ballet, which is now housed in the building. The tower also is home to the Residences at the Joffrey Tower condominiums and two floors of retail space.
FROM THE JAN. 5, 1940 ISSUE OF THE FILM DAILY:
LATEST IN EQUIPMENT IN CHICAGO’S TELENEWS THEATER
Chicago — Latest advances in motion picture theater equipment are incorporated in the new Telenews Theater recently opened here by its owners and operators, Midwest News Reel Theaters, of which Herbert Scheftel of New York City is president.
House has RCA sound, Simplex projectors, and American Seating Co.’s Bodiform chairs. Approximately 400 of the latter are installed on the main floor of the auditorium, and 200 in the balcony.
A Westinghouse air conditioning system is used, Perey turnstiles, and Stanley Bigelow carpets supplied by Marshall Field Co.
The theater has a unique front and marquee, White Way Co. lighting, plus clear cut screen effect and excellent acoustics.
Marshall Field supplied the furnishings for the rest rooms. Equipment contract was executed by National theater Supply.
Shaw, Naess, and Murphy were architects.
Movies played from 1964 until its closing in 1978.
01/03/1964 – WHO’S BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BED?
01/24/1964 – FANTASIA
03/06/1964 – TWO WOMEN plus THE SKY ABOVE, THE MUD BELOW
03/20/1964 – THE SILENCE
05/01/1964 – THE EMPTY CANVAS
05/15/1964 – WEEKEND
06/05/1964 – THE CHRISTINE KEELER STORY
06/19/1964 – HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM plus HOUSE OF FRIGHT
06/26/1964 – ZULU
07/24/1964 – YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW
09/25/1964 – ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO
10/16/1964 - SHOCK TREATMENT
10/23/1964 - MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH plus BLACK SABBATH
10/30/1964 - LOS TARANTOS
11/06/1964 – LILI
11/27/1964 - DIARY OF A BACHELOR
12/18/1964 - SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS plus SANTA’S MAGIC
KINGDOM
12/25/1964 - GOODBYE CHARLIE
01/22/1965 – MARRIAGE – ITALIAN STYLE
03/19/1965 – ZORBA THE GREEK
07/02/1965 – THE PAWNBROKER
08/06/1965 – CASANOVA 70
10/08/1965 – DARLING
11/17/1965 - UNDER AGE? – THE VERDICT IS YOURS
11/26/1965 - PARIS SECRET
12/22/1965 - THE 1OTH VICTIM
02/11/1966 – THE SLENDER THREAD
03/10/1966 – DARLING
04/22/1966 – THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET
06/03/1966 – MALE COMPANION
06/24/1966 – AROUND THE WORLD, UNDER THE SEA
07/27/1966 – DEAR JOHN
08/17/1966 – THE WILD ANGELS
10/21/1966 - GIGI
11/18/1966 - HOTEL PARADISO
11/30/1966 - MATA HARI plus THE THIN MAN
12/07/1966 – NINOTCHKA plus MIN AND BILL
12/14/1966 - ANNA KARENINA plus GO WEST
12/21/1966 - CAMILLE plus THE BIG STORE
12/28/1966 - THE SOUND OF MUSIC
04/21/1967 – THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
09/27/1967 – ENTER LAUGHING
10/13/1967 - BLACKBOARD JUNGLE plus A PATCH OF BLUE
10/27/1967 - THE FLIM FLAM MAN
11/10/1967 - OUR MOTHER’S HOUSE
12/01/1967 – HOUSE OF 1000 DOLLS
12/22/1967 - THE GRADUATE
01/18/1968 – FAR FROM THE MADDENING CROWD
02/23/1968 – THE GRADUATE
06/14/1968 – BLUE
07/03/1968 – THE PRODUCERS
08/14/1968 – TARGETS
08/28/1968 – ANYONE CAN PLAY
09/18/1968 – THE PRODUCERS
10/04/1968 – THE YOUNG RUNAWAYS
10/25/1968 - THERESE AND ISABELLE
12/27/1968 - SKIDOO
01/10/1969 – LES BICHES
02/21/1969 – VIXEN
12/19/1969 - JOHN AND MARY
03/13/1970 – CHERRY, HARRY AND RAQUEL
08/26/1970 – WITHOUT A STITCH
12/16/1970 - EQUINOX
02/10/1971 – UNCLE TOM’S CABIN
03/19/1971 – THE STEWARDESSES
06/30/1971 – EVIL KNIEVEL
07/28/1971 – BILLY JACK
09/24/1971 – HONKY
11/05/1971 – THE ANIMALS
11/12/1971 - THE BUS IS COMING
11/19/1971 - HOUSE OF WAX (IN 3-D)
12/17/1971 - THE STEWARDESSES
12/25/1971 - DIRTY HARRY
04/21/1972 – BUCK AND THE PREACHER
07/28/1972 – FRITZ THE CAT
09/22/1972 – A GROUP MARRIAGE
10/13/1972 - IS THE FATHER BLACK ENOUGH?
10/27/1972 - PRIVATE PARTY
11/03/1972 – BUCK AND THE PREACHER plus COOL BREEZE
11/17/1972 - RAGE
12/01/1972 – SUPERFLY plus MELINDA
12/20/1972 - TRICK BABY
02/02/1973 – BLACK GIRL
02/23/1973 – SHAMUS
03/14/1973 – DELIVERANCE
03/23/1973 – WATTSTAX
04/13/1973 – SCHLOCK
04/22/1973 – DUEL OF THE IRON FIST
05/11/1973 – THE MACK
06/01/1973 – THE MAN FROM DEEP RIVER
06/15/1973 – KUNG FU: THE INVISIBLE FIST
06/29/1973 – EMPEROR OF THE NORTH
07/06/1973 – DUEL OF THE IRON FIST plus KUNG FU: THE INVISIBLE FIST
07/27/1973 – CAHILL – U.S. MARSHALL
08/10/1973 – THEY CALL ME TRINITY plus TRINITY IS STILL MY NAME
08/24/1973 – HEAVY TRAFFIC
10/05/1973 – LAST TANGO IN PARIS
11/16/1973 - DAY OF THE JACKAL plus PETE N TILLIE
11/22/1973 - BLACKBELT
11/30/1973 - BLACK GIRL plus ACROSS 110TH STREET
12/20/1973 - TROUBLE MAN plus HAMMER
12/25/1973 - THE STING
07/19/1974 – THE LORDS OF FLATBUSH
08/02/1974 – BUSTER AND BILLIE
08/16/1974 – THE CHINESE GODFATHER
09/04/1974 – BLAZING SADDLES plus BLUME IN LOVE
09/13/1974 – EXORCISM’S DAUGHTER
09/20/1974 – VIXEN/CHERRY, HARRY, RAQUEL/BEYOND VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
10/18/1974 - UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT plus THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE
10/25/1974 - LAW AND DISORDER
11/08/1974 – THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR/5 ON THE BLACK HAND SIDE
11/15/1974 - THE MANDARIN MAGICIAN
11/22/1974 - GOLD
12/06/1974 – LOVE UNDER 18 plus SENSUOUS YOUTH
12/20/1974 - THE FRONT PAGE
01/15/1975 – VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST
01/31/1975 – YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
03/14/1975 – A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE
04/25/1975 – SUPERVIXENS
06/20/1975 – DOLEMITE
06/27/1975 – SHAMPOO
07/04/1975 – THE GROOVE TUBE plus FLESH GORDON
07/11/1975 – LOVE (IN 3-D)
08/08/1975 – ILSA – SHE WOLF OF THE SS
08/29/1975 – SUPERVIXENS/CHERRY,HARRY,RAQUEL/VIXEN/FINDERS KEEPERS
LOVERS WEEPERS
10/03/1975 – THE MASTER GUNFIGHTER
10/31/1975 - LENNY plus LAST TANGO IN PARIS
11/21/1975 - BLACK ALLEYCATS plus THE BLACK BUNCH
12/19/1975 - VIXEN/CHERRY,HARRY,RAQUEL/FINDERS KEEPERS LOVERS
WEEPERS
12/26/1975 - SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS
01/16/1976 – THE NAUGHTIEST SHOW IN TOWN plus HOT TIMES
01/23/1976 – THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR
01/30/1976 – THE ADVENTURES OF FRONTIER FREEMONT
02/11/1976 – NO DEPOSIT, NO RETURN
02/27/1976 – BLACK HOOKER plus COME BACK, CHARLESTON BLUE
03/12/1976 – MAN FRIDAY
03/19/1976 – BRUCE LEE – ALIVE OR DEAD?
04/16/1976 – DEEP JAWS
05/07/1976 – TAXI DRIVER
05/28/1976 – JACKSON COUNTY JAIL plus MEAN FRANK AND CRAZY TONY
06/18/1976 – VIGILANTE FORCE
06/15/1976 – PETER PAN
07/09/1976 – A SMALL TOWN IN TEXAS
07/16/1976 – THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES
08/06/1976 – INFRA-MAN plus WONDER WOMEN
08/27/1976 – THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR
10/01/1976 – APE (IN 3-D)
10/15/1976 - ADIOS AMIGO plus THE KILLER ELITE
10/20/1976 - THE POM POM GIRLS plus SWINGING STEWARDESSES
10/29/1976 - WOODSTOCK
11/05/1975 – RUSS MEYER’S UP
12/24/1976 - MARATHON MAN
01/14/1977 – TRICK BABY plus BLACKBELT JONES
01/28/1977 – IN SEARCH OF NOAH’S ARK
02/18/1977 – THE ENFORCER
03/04/1977 – MANDINGO plus DRUM
03/11/1977 – ANDY WARHOL’S FRANKENSTEIN
04/22/1977 – FANTASTIC INVASION OF PLANET EARTH (IN 3-D)
05/06/1977 – THE STEWARDESSES (IN 3-D)
05/20/1977 – FRITZ THE CAT plus HEAVY TRAFFIC
06/03/1977 – CINDERELLA (X-rated)
10/14/1977 - SHORT EYES
12/21/1977 - OH, GOD! plus AMAZING GRACE
12/30/1977 - CINDERELLA plus ALICE IN WONDERLAND (X-rated)
01/27/1978 – THE ADVENTURES OF THE WILDERNESS FAMILY
02/03/1978 – LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR plus LIPSTICK
02/10/1978 – EMMANUELLE IN BANGKOCK
02/24/1978 – WHICH WAY IS UP? plus THE BLACK BIRD
03/17/1978 – STRAIGHT TIME
CLOSED AFTER PERFORMANCES SUNDAY APRIL 2, 1978
Edited by Dr. Neil Galer Ph.D.
Monday, February 13, 2017
Everthing you wanted to know about the "Zoot Suit" created in Chicago by Harold C. Fox, and the National Zoot suit riots.
In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.
Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.
I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.
FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY
As a child, Harold C. Fox had studied to be a violinist. He got a job with a string group in a Chicago restaurant. When the Century of Progress World's Fair opened in 1933, the restaurant manager decided to change the sweet sound of Fox's combo to something brasher and brassier. Violins were out; trumpets were in.
Fox had never played the trumpet before, but this was the Depression, and one could not afford to let a good job slip away.
"Somehow, I learned enough to fake my way through the season," Fox said. "I could only play in one key, A-flat, because that was the key that required the least amount of fingering. I could play loud, and I could play hot, but I never was a great musician."
When the fair closed, Fox got an offer to play with another combo in New York. But by the time he arrived with his wife, Marie, and daughter, the deal had fallen through. Eventually, Fox managed to hitch up with a group called the Chick Winters Band. That opened some more doors, and Fox was invited to play his trumpet over New York`s WNEW radio station.
When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:
- The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.
Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:
- "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
- "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
- "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.
— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —
THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.
Fox had never played the trumpet before, but this was the Depression, and one could not afford to let a good job slip away.
"Somehow, I learned enough to fake my way through the season," Fox said. "I could only play in one key, A-flat, because that was the key that required the least amount of fingering. I could play loud, and I could play hot, but I never was a great musician."
When the fair closed, Fox got an offer to play with another combo in New York. But by the time he arrived with his wife, Marie, and daughter, the deal had fallen through. Eventually, Fox managed to hitch up with a group called the Chick Winters Band. That opened some more doors, and Fox was invited to play his trumpet over New York`s WNEW radio station.
The Zoot suit is the most innovative men’s garment of the twentieth century. Its knee-length jacket featured exaggerated padded shoulders, and the voluminous, high-waisted pants narrowed to a pegged ankle.
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| Harold C. Fox |
"It was cool in those days to talk in rhymes," Fox said. "In those days, the highest compliment you could pay someone or something was to say it was 'the end to end all ends.' I needed a word to rhyme with the word 'Suit,' so I used the letter of the alphabet that is the end to end all ends - 'Z' - and came up with ZOOT."
Fox even invented the most distinctive accessory to the Zoot suit, the long, looping watch chain worn dangled from a trouser pocket.
"Our clothing store, Fox Brothers, had a commode you flushed by pulling on a chain," Fox recalled. "One day, I flushed the toilet, and the chain came off in my hand. For some reason, I took the chain with me when I went out into the showroom to phone a plumber." A commodious chain.
"Some cat was getting fitted for a Zoot suit, and he asked me if I had any accessories to go with the suit. Just on impulse, I hooked one end of the chain to his pants and put the other in his pocket. Bingo! He thought it was terrific, and pretty soon, everybody who came in for a Zoot suit had to have a chain."The Zoot suit was one of the Fox Brothers' first designs, and almost instantly the clothing house found itself among the avant-garde of American fashion.
Word spread and Harold Fox was soon the clothier of the stars. Dizzy Gillespie shopped there, and so did Charlie "Bird" Parker. Woody Herman and Stan Kenton were regulars. So were Sarah Vaughan, Lionel Hampton, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Nat "King" Cole, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Earl Hines, and Scatman Crothers.
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| Joel Daley, Bill Frink, and John Coleman at the Balaban and Katz "B&K" Uptown Theater, Chicago. |
A Zoot Suit with a Reet Pleat [1942]
Dorothy Dandridge & Paul White
The Zoot suit was regarded as fashionable by some and as rebellious and unpatriotic by others. Its popularity coincided with World War II. Rationing during the war led to clothing restrictions for U.S. citizens. To some people, the copious amounts of fabric required to construct a Zoot suit constituted open defiance of the American war effort.
THE STORY OF THE ZOOT SUIT RIOTS
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of violent clashes during which mobs of U.S. servicemen, off-duty police officers and civilians brawled with young Latinos and other minorities in Los Angeles. The June 1943 riots took their name from the baggy suits worn by many minority youths during that era, but the violence was more about racial tension than fashion. The Zoot suit garnered a racist reputation. In California, Latino, known as “pachucos” (male members of a counterculture associated with Zoot suit fashion, jazz and swing music), often wore flashy, brightly colored Zoot suits, porkpie hats and long dangling watch chains, were increasingly viewed by affluent whites as menacing street thugs, gang members and rebellious juvenile delinquents.
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| Pork Pie Hat |
Wartime patriotism didn’t help matters: After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the U.S. entry into World War II, wool and other textiles were subject to strict rationing. The U.S. War Production Board regulated the production of civilian clothing containing silk, wool and other essential fabrics. Despite these wartime restrictions, many bootleg tailors in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and elsewhere continued to make the popular Zoot suits, which used profligate amounts of fabric. Servicemen and many other people, however, saw the oversized suits a flagrant and unpatriotic waste of resources.
The local media was only too happy to fan the flames of racism and moral outrage: On June 2, 1943, the Los Angeles Times reported: “Fresh in the memory of Los Angeles is last year’s surge of gang violence that made the ‘Zoot suit’ a badge of delinquency. Public indignation seethed as warfare among organized bands of marauders, prowling the streets at night, brought a wave of assaults, and finally murders.”
In the summer of 1943, tensions ran high between Zoot-suiters and the large contingent of white sailors, soldiers and Marines stationed in and around Los Angeles. Mexican Americans were serving in the military in high numbers, but many servicemen viewed the Zoot-suit wearers as World War II draft dodgers (though many were in fact too young to serve in the military).
On May 31, a clash between uniformed servicemen and Mexican American youths resulted in the beating of a U.S. sailor. Partly in retaliation, on the evening of June 3, about 50 sailors from the local U.S. Naval Reserve Armory marched through downtown Los Angeles carrying clubs and other crude weapons, attacking anyone seen wearing a Zoot suit or other racially identified clothing.
In the days that followed, the racially charged atmosphere in Los Angeles exploded in a number of full-scale riots. Mobs of U.S. servicemen took to the streets and began attacking Latinos and stripping them of their suits, leaving them bloodied and half-naked on the sidewalk. Local police officers often watched from the sidelines, then arrested the victims of the beatings.
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| Zoot suiters lined up outside Los Angeles jail en route to court after a feud with sailors in 1943. |
Thousands more servicemen, off-duty police officers and civilians joined the fray over the next several days, marching into cafes and movie theaters and beating anyone wearing Zoot-suit clothing or hairstyles (duck-tail haircuts were a favorite target and were often cut off). Negroes and Filipinos — even those not clad in Zoot suits — were also attacked.
By June 7, the rioting had spread outside downtown Los Angeles to Watts, East Los Angeles and other neighborhoods. Taxi drivers offered free rides to servicemen to rioting areas, and thousands of military personnel and civilians from San Diego and other parts of Southern California converged on Los Angeles to join the mayhem.
Leaders of the Mexican American community implored state and local officials to intervene — The Council for Latin American Youth even sent a telegram to President Franklin D. Roosevelt — but their pleas met with little action. One eyewitness, writer Carey McWilliams, painted a terrifying picture:
“On Monday evening, June seventh, thousands of Angelenos turned out for a mass lynching. Marching through the streets of downtown Los Angeles, a mob of several thousand soldiers, sailors, and civilians, proceeded to beat up every Zoot-suiter they could find. Street cars were halted while Mexicans, and some Filipinos and Negroes, were jerked out of their seats, pushed into the streets, and beaten with sadistic frenzy.”
Some of the most disturbing violence was clearly racist in nature: According to several reports, a black defense plant worker — still wearing his defense-plant identification badge — was yanked off a streetcar, after which one of his eyes was gouged out with a knife.
Local papers framed the racial attacks as a vigilante response to an immigrant crime wave, and police generally restricted their arrests to the Latinos who fought back. The riots didn’t die down until June 8, when U.S. military personnel were finally barred from leaving their barracks.
The Los Angeles City Council issued a ban on Zoot suits the following day. Amazingly, no one was killed during the weeklong riot, but it wasn’t the last outburst of Zoot suit-related racial violence. Similar incidents took place that same year in cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit.
A Citizens’ Committee appointed by California Governor Earl Warren to investigate the Zoot Suit Riots convened in the weeks after the riot. The committee’s report found that, “In undertaking to deal with the cause of these outbreaks, the existence of race prejudice cannot be ignored.”
Additionally, the committee described the problem of juvenile delinquency youth as “one of American youth, not confined to any racial group. The wearers of Zoot suits are not necessarily persons of Mexican descent, criminals or juveniles.
Cherry Poppin' Daddies
"Zoot Suit Riot" (original video 1997)
"It was okay with me," Fox said of the end of the fad. "I was sick of Zoots by that time anyway."
Merriam-Webster [Dictionary] Company accepted Mr. Fox's claim to the name "Zoot Suit."
The initial fad of Zoot suits was short-lived, but the 1990s witnessed a resurgence in the popularity of swing dancing and the Zoot suit. In an effort to embody the spirit of the 1940s, many dancers dressed in vintage clothing which helped bring back the Zoot suit. Soon, the fad expanded to dressier occasions such as high school proms. Several tailors throughout the country began offering custom-made Zoot suits. Fox, who died in 1996, continued wearing the fashion throughout his life and was buried in a lavender Zoot Suit.
The Fox Brothers Custom Tailors at 556 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago, Illinois, is still open for business.
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
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