A sample of articles by Robert Loerzel on History, Music, Theater, Film, Books, Art, Business, News & Politics, Law, and Misc.
Recent writings
Another Deadly Chicago Heat Wave: 1916
A new book from Wilderness Press: Walking Chicago: 35 Tours of the Windy City’s Dynamic Neighborhoods and Famous Lakeshore. Buy the book at a local bookstore via IndieBound, Bookshop, Wilderness Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Powell’s. Read Chicago magazine’s interview with me about the book.
WBEZ’s Curious City: From Cemetery Saloons To Movie Palaces: How Uptown Became An Entertainment Hub
Who Wrote The Song About The Cow That Started The Great Chicago Fire?
Chicago magazine: A new memoir by Lee Weiner of the Chicago Seven
Chicago’s Cemeteries Offer Solace for the Living
Looking for Hollywood history and David Lynch’s Los Angeles — I went to Los Angeles. I looked for locations where some of my favorite L.A. movies were made. Especially the films of David Lynch, but others, too. Here’s what I saw and learned…
Chicago magazine: Blood in the Streets: A history of Chicago’s 1919 race riot
— Searching for Eugene Williams
— Related blog post: Where Chicago’s 1919 race riot began
HISTORY
Chicago magazine
Chicago’s Strange History With Pneumatic Tubes
Joseph Dunlop, a newspaper publisher imprisoned for obscenity
Was Jane Addams a lesbian?
The smoking gun: Anti-smoking crusader Lucy Page Gaston
Chicago Tribune
Before the car was king
In 1890s Chicago, bicycles were all the rage
WBEZ Chicago Public Radio’s Curious City (with audio)
What if the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 never happened?
After Haymarket: Anarchism on trial and a city in search of its soul
The story of Dunning, a “tomb for the living”
WBEZ Chicago Public Radio’s 848 (with audio)
The evolution of Chicago’s handgun ban
Tommy guns
Chicago Reader
Privatize Public Transit? Chicago’s tried it before. Here’s how that went.
A Conservatory, a Zoo, and 12,000 Corpses
Time Out Chicago
We solve the mystery of the Cubs’ early name: The Microbes
North Shore magazine
Steamer Trunk Diaries
Chicago Lawyer
The long legal battle over the Chicago River’s reversal
MUSIC
Crain’s Chicago Business
Seasonal pop concert previews: Summer 2015 / Spring 2015 / Winter 2014-15
How Bloodshot Records has lasted so long
Pioneer Press
Almost famous: The story of the Vertebrats’ “Left in the Dark”
When the Who came to town
Wilco (The Hubcap)
Interviews: Mekons / Richard Thompson / DJ Clark Weber / Bettye LaVette / Grace Slick / Wanda Jackson / Colin Blunstone of the Zombies / Eleventh Dream Day / Robbie Fulks / Tony Bennett
Listen magazine
Classical mania
Classical music in Chicago
Chicago Reader
Daytrotter takes some of its favorite bands to the far reaches of the Midwest
A CD series collects Illinois music from the past century
Daily Southtown
Buddy Guy Q&A
Concert reviews: Adele / Nick Cave / Cat Power / Tom Waits
Signal to Noise magazine
Baby Dee profile
Chicago drone music
Punk Planet
Frida Hyvönen Q&A
My Brightest Diamond Q&A
WBEZ Chicago Public Radio (with audio)
The National Barn Dance
The life and music of Jay Bennett
The Singleman Affair
Vertebrats song lives on
World music at the 1893 World’s Fair
Wondering Sound
Gonerfest 2014: Photos and review
Newcity
Concert previews: Ty Segall / Steve Dawson’s Funeral Bonsai Wedding
Record reviews for Signal to Noise magazine and Pioneer Press
THEATER
Playbill magazine
“An Issue of Blood” at Victory Gardens
Viola Spolin, pioneer of Chicago improv
Creatures of habit: Actors’ routines
“The Pirates of Penzance” at the Marriott
What Will Wrote: Chicago’s role in the debate over Shakespeare
“The Hunchback Variations Opera”
Christmas theater, past and present
Early African-American theater in Chicago
Censorship in Chicago theater
On fight choreography
Pioneer Press
Behind the scenes of Mary Zimmerman’s “Silk”
Edward Albee interview
David Cromer Q&A on “A Streetcar Named Desire”
John Mahoney discusses “The Seafarer”
A map of David Mamet’s Chicago
Play reviews: “Othello” / “The Adding Machine” / “Bus Stop” / “Arms and the Man”
Make It Better magazine
Play reviews: “The Herd” / “White Guy on the Bus” / “The White Snake” / “Venus in Fur” / “Luna Gale”
Chicago magazine
Tax break for Broadway shows
“All the Fame of Lofty Deeds”
WBEZ Chicago Public Radio (with audio)
“The Wizard of Oz,” the 1902 stage version
The Huffington Post
Some critics enjoy shooting “Buffalo” — A look back at the first reviews of “American Buffalo”
FILM
Chicago magazine
Film review: “Hogtown”
The 10 best Chicago documentaries
How a documentary captured Roger Ebert’s last months
11 Questions for Harold Ramis
Action heroes: People who make films happen in Chicago (co-written with Jeff Ruby) — including my interviews with Harold Ramis, Gordon Quinn, Joan Cusack, Neil LaBute, Peter Thompson, Barbara Scharres, John McNaughton, Joe Swanberg and others
Centennial of Essanay studio
Pop Matters
Guy Maddin interview
Crain’s Chicago Business
(some articles behind paywall)
Director Joe Swanberg: 40 Under 40 profile
Kartemquin Films’ Justine Nagan: 40 Under 40 profile
Pioneer Press
Steve James and Alex Kotlowitz discuss “The Interrupters”
DVD Reviews and Film Reviews
Column on “The Murray Effect”
BOOKS
Pioneer Press
Author interviews: Audrey Niffenegger / Richard Price / Rick Moody / Chuck Palahniuk
Chicago magazine
Book review: “Blood Runs Green”
“Cloning Terror” by W.J.T. Mitchell
“Girls of Murder City” by Douglas Perry
“Chicagoan” by Neil Harris
Time Out Chicago
Ivan Brunetti
Chicago Reader
“Hack” by Dmitry Samarov
Chicago Sun-Times
Book review: “The Man Who Looked Books Too Much”
Signal to Noise magazine
Book review: “I Shot a Man in Reno”
ART
Chicago Reader
Cover story: Jim Nutt interview
Chicago magazine
Michael Abramson’s photos of 1970s Chicago nightclubs
“Sympathy for the Devil” exhibit at MCA
Pioneer Press
The sensational “Sower”
Art Shay Q&A
Time Out Chicago
The Picasso turns 40
WBEZ Chicago Public Radio
The legacy of sculptor Lorado Taft
A fresh look at Freedom Wall
BUSINESS
Crain’s Chicago Business
(some articles behind paywall)
New in Chicago: A weekly column
The last days of Hot Doug’s: Q&A with Doug Sohn
Industrial revolution: See how small-biz owners are giving factories new life
Best Entrepreneurs 2014: Nick Floyd of Three Floyds / David Kalt of Chicago Music Exchange
Can the Empty Bottle/Longman & Eagle team tap into another success?
Chicago’s beer stein runneth over with new craft brew startups
NEWS & POLITICS
Belt magazine
Burn or fizzle? Public art, economic renewal, and the curious case of the Great Chicago Fire Festival
Illinois Issues
The vanishing monarch butterfly
Impoverished in Illinois
2012 report on homicides in Chicago
Huffington Post
Emanuel’s gun proposal harks back to Richard J. Daley
Pioneer Press
On the Brown’s Chicken murders
1992 profile of conservative Congressman Philip Crane
More articles on news and politics.
LAW & LAWYERS
Chicago Sun-Times
F. Lee Bailey Q&A
Leading Lawyers
The father and daughter lawyers behind Pac-Man and Beanie Babies
Chicago Lawyer
(some articles behind paywall)
Lawyers still practicing into their 80s: Harry Rosenberg, Gilbert Feldman, Jack M. Siegel, Bernard J. Nussbaum, Thomas P. Sullivan and Newton Minow
Where do midsize IP firms exist in the legal world?
Stephanie A. Scharf spends career practicing law and studying the profession
Lawyers on Twitter
Warren D. Wolfson, legal poet
Michael Y. Scudder Jr., former White House lawyer
More articles on the law and lawyers.
MISC.
Chicago’s Flag Is a Much Bigger Deal Than Any Other City’s Flag Chicago magazine