CHAPTER 34 of THE COOLEST SPOT IN CHICAGO: A HISTORY OF GREEN MILL GARDENS AND THE BEGINNINGS OF UPTOWN PREVIOUS CHAPTER / TABLE OF CONTENTS / NEXT CHAPTER In the Prohibition Era, a mobster summoned a Chicago Daily Tribune reporter to sit down for a meeting one afternoon inside the Green Mill. The reporter, James L.… Continue reading Ted Newberry, Alleged Green Mill Mob Boss
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Green Mill Gardens’ Showdown With “Count” Yaselli
CHAPTER 30 of THE COOLEST SPOT IN CHICAGO: A HISTORY OF GREEN MILL GARDENS AND THE BEGINNINGS OF UPTOWN PREVIOUS CHAPTER / TABLE OF CONTENTS / NEXT CHAPTER In the spring of 1922, an Italian man wearing flashy clothes showed up in Chicago, spending his nights at the city’s hottest cabarets and cafés, from Colosimo’s on… Continue reading Green Mill Gardens’ Showdown With “Count” Yaselli
The Battle Over Beach Rowdies, B-Girls, and Disorderly Women
Chapter 6 of The Coolest Spot in Chicago: A History of Green Mill Gardens and the Beginnings of Uptown <— PREVIOUS CHAPTER / TABLE OF CONTENTS / NEXT CHAPTER —> In September 1910, Tom Chamales began leasing the saloon formerly known as Pop Morse’s roadhouse.1 Less than four years later, he would build the larger… Continue reading The Battle Over Beach Rowdies, B-Girls, and Disorderly Women
Where Chicago’s 1919 race riot began
The landscape along Lake Michigan on Chicago’s South Side has utterly changed over the past century. If you’re looking for the beaches where Chicago’s race riot erupted on July 27, 1919, you won’t find them. As I was researching a history of the riot for Chicago magazine, I searched for maps, documents, and details that… Continue reading Where Chicago’s 1919 race riot began
1993 interview with Gene Wolfe
Tor Books announced the news today that author Gene Wolfe has died at the age of 87. I interviewed Wolfe in 1993 when I was a reporter for Pioneer Press Newspapers in Chicago’s suburbs, visiting him at his home in Barrington. Here is my article, which was originally published in the Barrington Courier-Review on March… Continue reading 1993 interview with Gene Wolfe
Why Machinal Should Be Revived More Often
Playbill, August 2017 — Plot spoilers aren’t a big worry with Sophie Treadwell’s 1928 play Machinal. Just about every description of the expressionist drama says it was inspired by the true story of Ruth Snyder, a Queens housewife who murdered her husband and was executed at New York’s Sing Sing. Chicago’s Greenhouse Theater, which is… Continue reading Why Machinal Should Be Revived More Often
New in Chicago: August 2015
New in Chicago columns from August 2015 at Crain’s Chicago Business: Ugly PowerPoints, tragic brochures: This company says it saves bad design fast This app finds and vets the charity. You write the (virtual) check. What if you could ride your luggage through O’Hare? Brilliant, right? U of C-born app aims to make life easier… Continue reading New in Chicago: August 2015
Sharon Jones interview
Pioneer Press, June 19, 2015 — Soul singer Sharon Jones sounded and looked as vibrant as ever when she returned to concert stages in 2014, less than a year after learning she had cancer. She’d had six months of chemotherapy. Told by her doctors that she’d beaten the bile duct cancer, she wasted no time getting back… Continue reading Sharon Jones interview
Gonerfest in Memphis, Tennessee, September 25-28, 2014
By Robert Loerzel Wondering Sound, September 29, 2014 In its opening moments, Memphis’s Gonerfest looked like a tame affair. Parents with toddlers and al fresco diners mingled with punk rock fans, both old and young, around a gazebo in city’s Midtown neighborhood as power-pop legend Paul Collins played. “When I started, Goner didn’t exist,” Collins… Continue reading Gonerfest in Memphis, Tennessee, September 25-28, 2014