David Berg & Company had developed a following of customers fond of their signature, kosher-style hot dogs beginning in 1860. David Berg hot dogs were sold at the 1860 Republican National Convention held in Chicago. This Convention is where Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate. Since Lincoln, following tradition, did not attend the Convention, he would not have eaten a David Berg hot dog.
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I'm guessing (or joking) that the concessions at the Republican National Convention did not have ketchup, and that's where the ritual of "No Ketchup on Chicago Hot Dogs" originated.
David Berg was a pioneer who introduced the "hot dog" at a professional baseball stadium. That happened in 1901; it was the Chicago White Stocking's first season as a major league team and their second season in Chicago playing ball at South Side Park, located at 38th Place and South Princeton Avenue, in Chicago.
The Chicago White Stockings first played ball at South Side Park.
When Vienna Beef set up shop in 1893, one of the few great sausage companies around was David Berg & Company.
In 1992, almost a hundred years later, David Berg joined the Vienna Beef Products family.
Vienna Beef carried on David Berg's taste and tradition by honoring their unique spice blend. Vienna Beef bought David Berg & Company and sells them online.
In 1978, David Berg made a six-foot, 681-pound premium beef hot dog in a 100-pound poppy seed bun covered with two gallons of mustard.
The average hot dog is consumed in 6 bites.
At one point in modern times, more hot dogs were sold at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport than at any other location on the planet.
Ambler’s Texaco Gasoline Station, also known as Vernon’s Texaco Station and Becker’s Marathon Gas Station, is located along historic Illinois Route 66 in the Village of Dwight. The station gets its name from longtime manager Basil “Tubby” Ambler, who operated it from 1938 to 1966.
The original 1933 building Jack Shore built consisted of an office with wood clapboard siding, an arched roof with asphalt shingles, and residential windows adorned with shutters and flower boxes. Extending out from the office over three Texaco gas pumps was a sheltering canopy supported by two tapered columns. Mr. Shore also constructed an ice house located on the property.
The station’s design, with its cottage look, may strike the contemporary traveler as quaint--or perhaps even odd. Why, after all, shouldn’t a gas station look like a gas station? But this domestic style, common along Route 66, had a distinct purpose and stems from a time in the early 20th century when gas stations were just beginning to seriously intrude upon the suburban landscape of America. The oil companies wisely opted to tread lightly on this new, non-commercial territory.
Gas stations were consciously styled to be homey and inviting to customers, as well as inconspicuous in their new residential, suburban surroundings. In the early 1940s, following a national trend that saw gas stations evolve to full service garages, Mr. Ambler added a service bay of simple concrete block to the north side of the original building. Although he left the station in 1966, the station continued servicing motorists until nearly the turn of the 21st century, making it one of the oldest continually operated service stations along the Mother Road.
Over the years, the station naturally underwent a number of changes. Windows were removed and added, fresh paint applied, and new roofing laid down. The tall, elegant red pumps of the 1930s gave way to the squat dispensers of the 1960s; and Marathon Oil eventually superseded the Texaco Fire Chief brand. The station operated as a gas station for 66 years until 1999 and was an auto repair shop until 2002, when the owner Phillip Becker generously donated the station to the Village of Dwight.
With the help of a $10,400 matching grant from the National Park Service’s Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, the Village of Dwight painstakingly restored the station to its former glory, taking the main office and canopy area back to the 1930s and the service bay area back to its 1940s appearance. Today, the station serves as a visitor’s center for the Village of Dwight. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 and received a Cost-Share Grant from the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program in 2002. Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. — BOD, Route 66 Association of Illinois, 2013-2015
Disco Demolition Night was a promotional event that took place on Thursday, July 12, 1979, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois, during which a crate filled with disco records was blown up on the field. It was held during the twi-night doubleheader baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. During the climax of the event, rowdy fans surged onto the field, and a near-riot ensued. It ultimately proved to be one of the most notable promotional ideas and one of the most infamous The event has been characterized as the "emblematic moment" of the anti-disco "crusade" and "the night disco died."
NEWS COVERAGE
The tale of two goof-ball WLUP Radio Station DJs behind the Disco Demolition Night. Steve Dahl and Garry Meier. In the 9th grade, Dahl began hanging around a local underground radio station, KPCC-FM... Okay... I'll just start in the middle! Steve Dahl began at WDAI Chicago on February 23, 1978, with his solo "Steve Dahl's Rude Awakening" show but it never achieved solid ratings despite media attention. Ten months later, on Christmas Eve, 1978, WDAI changed formats from rock to disco and fired Dahl. In March 1979, after a few months without a job, Dahl was hired to do a morning show at WLUP where he met overnight DJ Garry Meier (who was then broadcasting under the pseudonym of "Matthew Meier"). Shortly thereafter, the two began a cross-talk that eventually led to Meier being teamed up with Dahl as both sidekick and newsman. Dahl effectively forced Meier to use his actual name by calling him "Garry" on-air accidentally. After openly discussing the subject, again, on-air, Meier officially dropped his pseudonym. In response to Dahl's firing from WDAI, Dahl and Meier mocked and claimed to hate disco music and the radio station WDAI; He called it "Disco-D.I.E." mocking the station's slogan, "Disco-D.A.I," on the air. Dahl even recorded and started playing a parody of Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" which he called "Do You Think I'm Disco?" The song managed to crack the national charts to peak at #58 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received airplay across the country.
SONG: Do You Think I'm Disco?
During this same time period, Dahl and Meier, along with both Mike Veeck (son of the Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck), and Jeff Schwartz of WLUP promotions, came up with a radio promotion and tie-in to the White Sox called Disco Demolition Night which took place on Thursday, July 12, 1979.
The concept was to create an event to "end disco once and for all" in the center field of Comiskey Park that night by allowing people to get tickets at the box office if they brought 98¢ (referring to WLUP-FM's 97.9 location on the FM dial) and at least one disco record. The records were collected, piled up on the field and blown up.
Hundreds of rowdy fans stormed the field, refusing to leave, resulting in the second game of the doubleheader being postponed. American League President, Lee MacPhail, later declared the second game of the doubleheader a forfeit victory for the visiting Detroit Tigers. Six people reported minor injuries, and thirty-nine were arrested for disorderly conduct.
After the Disco Demolition Night promotion, disco began to lose its popularity. As a result of Disco Demolition Night, Dahl attained national recognition and his popularity increased significantly. He established a syndicate and the Steve and Garry show began airing in Detroit and Milwaukee, where it performed well. However, in February 1981, WLUP fired Dahl, citing "continued assaults on community standards." "It was going on in El Paso and Los Angeles, like, on Monday, and on Friday they fired me," Dahl later said. Meier was offered the opportunity to continue the show by himself, but he refused. Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.
Back in the 1930s, when people regularly traveled across the country via train, they usually had a 10-hour layover in Chicago. In later years, when celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, and Phyllis Diller ended up in Chicago, they made a night of it; and dining at the famous Pump Room inside the Ambassador East Hotel, 1301 N State Pkwy, Chicago, was an essential part of that.
Booth One at the Pump Room, Chicago.
The Pump Room opened on October 1, 1938, by Ernie Byfield. At the restaurant, the biggest stars of the day had the ultimate social-status symbol waiting for them -- Booth Number One. Ernie Byfield, a famous hotelier, and restaurateur who would personally pick up celebrities at the train station. “This was the place where all the VIPs were,” says Rich Melman, who owned the restaurant in the 1970s and 1980s and ran it until June of 2019.
Ambassador East Hotel - Pump Room, Chicago.
“If they didn’t want to be seen, they wouldn’t go to the Pump Room.” Amenities included reserved seating in a cream-colored leather booth in the corner famously referred to as Booth One. The banquette was reserved only for the crème de la crème. Even if the wait for the restaurant was long, Booth One would remain vacant until a VIP worthy of it — such as Sammy Davis Jr. or Marlene Dietrich —arrived.
Liz Taylor at the Pump Room, Chicago. (1960)
Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood at the Pump Room in Chicago.
The table’s occupants also received access to a rotary phone connected directly to the booth so they could make and receive calls as they dined. “There was a private number that you could call to reach Booth One,” Melman says. “That wasn’t given out very often. But celebrities knew it.” Movie star Joan Crawford, who preferred to be left alone while dining, would place a call and then wrap the long cord across the table as a sort of caution tape to others in the restaurant.
Marilyn Monroe at the Pump Room, 1959.
Phyllis Diller at the Pump Room, 1959.
Those who preferred face-to-face attention over a ringing phone would unplug it from the wall jack. “The phone was part of a big game,” Melman says. “Often people would pay what was considered big money in those days to be paged at the Pump Room.”
Carole Lombard and Clark Gable - between trains 1930s - in the Pump Room, Chicago.
While the hotel and restaurant have cycled through multiple owners and face-lifts — and celebrities no longer have to layover in Chicago — Booth One has stayed alive. The last iteration of the Pump Room, a nostalgic restaurant that once drew celebrities, closed in 2017. After a substantial refurbishment, the Pump Room has been revived and renamed Booth One, complete with a rotary phone installed in its VIP booth. If a guest chooses, he or she could still use it while dining on beef Wellington and cheesecake — although Melman says, diners usually prefer to use their cell phones.
“We are trying to resurrect something that disappeared in Chicago for a while,” Melman says. “It’s the type of room that needs a lot of hand-holding, and for a time it didn’t get the attention it needed. It lost some of its luster. After almost two and a half years in Gold Coast, Rich Melman’s Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises group, "Booth One" restaurant, inside the 285-room Ambassador Chicago Hotel, closed at the end of June 2019.
THE PUMP ROOM TIMELINE
1926 The 285-room Ambassador East hotel opens in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.
1938 Restaurateur Ernie Byfield opens the Pump Room Restaurant in the hotel.
2010 Real estate developer Ian Schrager—known for cofounding New York’s Studio 54—buys the Ambassador East for $25 million.
2011 Assets from the Ambassador East, including its famous rotary phone, are auctioned off as part of the hotel’s liquidation sale. The hotel is remodeled and reopens as Public Chicago.
2016 Schrager sells Public Chicago to investors Shapack Partners and Gaw Capital for $61.5 million.
2017 The hotel is renamed, Ambassador Chicago. Rich Melman’s Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises group, which formerly owned the Pump Room, returns to manage the space and renames it Booth One. After a remodel, the team installs a rotary phone at the famed table from which the restaurant now takes its name.
2019 Ambassador Chicago Hotel, closed at the end of the year.
At approximately 4:15 PM on November 7, 2006, federal authorities at Chicago O'Hare International Airport received a report that a group of twelve airport employees was witnessing a metallic, saucer-shaped craft hovering over Gate C-17.
A passenger photo shot from inside the terminal.
The object was first spotted by a ramp employee pushing back United Airlines Flight 446, departing Chicago for Charlotte, North Carolina. The employee apprised Flight 446's crew of the object above their aircraft. The object was also witnessed by pilots, airline management and mechanics. No air traffic controllers reported seeing the object, and it did not show up on radar. Witnesses described the object as completely silent, 6 to 24 feet in diameter and dark gray in color. Several independent witnesses outside of the Airport also saw the object. One described a disc-shaped craft hovering over the Airport, which was "obviously not clouds." According to this witness, the object shot through the clouds at high velocity, leaving a clear blue hole in the cloud layer. The hole reportedly seemed to close itself shortly afterward. According to the Chicago Tribune's Jon Hilkevitch, "The disc was visible for approximately five minutes and was seen by close to a dozen United Airlines employees, ranging from pilots to supervisors, who heard chatter on the radio and raced out to view it." There is no CLEAR photographic or video evidence of the UFO.
News sources report O'Hare UFO sighting.
Both United Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initially denied that they had any information on the O'Hare UFO sighting until the Chicago Tribune, which was investigating the report, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The FAA then ordered an internal review of air-traffic communications tapes to comply with the Tribune FOIA request, which subsequently uncovered a call by the United supervisor to an FAA manager in the airport tower concerning the UFO sighting. The FAA's stance concludes that the sighting was caused by a weather phenomenon and that the agency would not investigate the incident. According to astronomer Mark Hammergren, weather conditions on the day of the sighting were right for a "hole-punch cloud," an unusual weather phenomenon often mistakenly attributed to unidentified flying objects. UFO investigators have argued that the FAA's refusal to look into the incident contradicts the agency's mandate to investigate possible security breaches at American airports, such as, in this case, an object witnessed by numerous airport employees and officially reported by at least one of them, hovering in plain sight, over one of the busiest airports in the world. Some witnesses interviewed by the Tribune were apparently "upset" that federal officials declined to further investigate the matter. NARCAP published a 155-page report on the sighting and has called for a government inquiry and improved energy-sensing technologies: "Anytime an airborne object can hover for several minutes over a busy airport but not be registered on radar or seen visually from the control tower, it constitutes a potential threat to flight safety."
The Chicago O'Hare airport UFO story was picked up by major mainstream media groups such as CNN, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, The Chicago Tribune, and NPR. On February 11, 2009, The History Channel aired an episode of the television show UFO Hunters titled Aliens at the Airport, in which they reviewed the incident. Compiled By Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
