Mary Frances and Bill Veeck on March 10, 1959 when Bill purchased 54 % of the White Sox for $2.7 million. (Photo courtesy of the Veeck family.)
Mary Frances Veeck is surrounded by a garden.
She is sitting with her daughter Marya on a mid-August morning in the patio of her Hyde Park retirement home. There are red begonias, sunflowers, and gold daisies. A visitor brings yellow flowers, just as he used to do with his mother. Mary Frances’s life has been a bouquet of joy, dancing, tears, and long summer nights. She was married to Baseball Hall of Famer Bill Veeck from 1950 until he died in 1986.
Mary [...]
For no reason at all, looters and arsonists destroyed the historic Central Camera Co. store, 230 S. Wabash during the May 30 Chicago protests following the murder of George Floyd. Not long after the store was ruined, third-generation owner Don Flesch began a personal journey to see if there was anything he could salvage from his upstairs office.
Maybe he would find a lost letter from his grandfather Albert Flesch.
Or, a family photograph, of course.
Instead, he found sweet music hidden in a distant shelf.
During the early 1900s, Central Camera had a record label. Flesch discovered a cracked, smoke-tinged 78 by Peluso’s Orchestra. It [...]
David Leong, 1920-2020
“The Cashew Chicken Capital of America” is a true made-in-America story delivered from the hills and highways of Springfield, Mo.
Springfield’s population is approximately 168,000 people. And nearly 100 regional restaurants serve cashew chicken.
David Leong, the beloved founder of “Springfield Style Cashew Chicken” died July 20 in Springfield. He had been battling pneumonia. David was 99 years old. He would have turned 100 on August 18.
David’s remarkable journey incorporates so many things I love: cashew chicken, Route 66, soul music, immigrant [...]
In loving memory of Clarence Burke, Sr, 1929-2020. (Photo courtesy of Keni Burke)
Clarence Burke, Sr., the beloved patriarch of Chicago’s Five Stairsteps soul and rock group died on July 16, following a seizure in an Atlanta area hospital. He would have turned 91 on July 17.
I interviewed Mr. Burke in late June for a New City magazine article celebrating the 50th anniversary of the group’s biggest hit, “O-o-h Child.” A couple of days after our conversation he fell in his home and suffered a fractured hip. When I heard that news I recalled the satisfied, empathetic tones in Mr. Burke’s voice. He ended our [...]
The city’s soul is wounded. Crime is up, children are getting killed and the simple lights of summer are shadowed by orders of distancing. Some rules are too much to remember but this should never be forgotten:
The summer of 2020 is the 50th anniversary of the hit Chicago pop-soul ballad “O-o-h Child.”
It is a song of healing.
“O-o-h Child” was recorded by the Five Stairsteps, a south side precursor to the Jackson 5. The group consisted of five of the six children of Betty and Clarence Burke, Sr. Clarence, Sr. was a detective for the Chicago Police Department. He also played bass and later managed the Five Stairsteps. The young blood [...]
Chicago’s oldest camera store 5/30/20 (Andy Pierce photo)
I was at the historic Central Camera Co., store, 230 S. Wabash on Friday afternoon.
I waited outside the door to pick up some prints at Chicago’s oldest camera store. My friend and long time clerk Timothy Shaver came out. We did an elbow bump and I gave him condolences towards the recent passing of his mother at age 99. Third generation store owner Don Flesch arrived next. He offered me a piece of candy as he does with most of his customers. He pulled his face mask down a bit to reveal a smile that would never be denied.
We began [...]
ELDON, Mo.—During the 1960s and 70s, tiny Eldon, Mo. was known as “Gateway to the Lake of the Ozarks.” Old U.S. 54 curved through town like a rainbow. The Randles Court and Coffee Shop greeted tourists at the north end of a bend in the road. Clear sailing ahead, ten minutes to the lake.
Loyd A. Boots built what was originally called the Boots Cottage Court in the early 1930s in Eldon. He was from Bagnell, Mo. In 1931 the 2,500-foot long Bagnell Dam was constructed, which created the lake. Boots had a foot up on tourism. There were no motels at the Lake of the Ozarks. (In 1939 his brother Arthur opened his Boots Motel on old Route 66 in Carthage, [...]
Bill Griffin, Chicago vendor, 1980. (Courtesy of Lloyd Rutzky)
The world has been changing and Bill Griffin likely wanted no part of it.
“Griff” was the gruffest vendor at Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park in Chicago. He was proud to say that no one had worked the ballparks longer than him. His vendor life began in 1952. Bill spoke in an outlaw drawl that came from his native Oklahoma and he had the face of a postage stamp left out in a western rain. Bill died May 16 of COVID-19 at the Astoria Place senior home in Chicago. He was 88 years old.
Bill died the day after they started playing live organ [...]
“Classic” John Prine stamp by Michael Hernandez de Luna
The idea was to get John Prine on a postage stamp.
He wrote some of the best songs about the American condition while on his late 1960s U.S. mail route. And it’s been assumed the little ranch house I bought in near west suburban Westchester, Ill. was on the postal path of the Maywood native. Since the COVID-19 pandemic kicked in, the volume of mail delivered by the U.S.P.S. has declined. The agency is asking Congress to keep the postal service going. President Trump has refused to sign a new bill that includes postal service [...]
Ilse Dietsche, 2014
People are saying there are lessons to be learned from these hard times. Lines of communication have been refreshed and some things are no longer taken for granted.
On the evening of April 2, I sent a short e -mail to Ilse Dietsche. I had not done this in a long time. I wrote about Ilse for this website in September 2014 when she decided to drive Route 66 alone.
Ilse was 86 years old in 2014.
Her determination and wonder became one of my all-time favorite travel stories.
I called her “The Grandma of the Mother Road.” I had Ilse and her daughter Christine on my [...]
There are bigger worries in this big old crazy world, but why is Lollapalooza still on?
It seems odd that the City of Chicago and Lollapalooza promoters have yet to postpone or cancel the July 30-Aug. 2 festival. Maybe there’s contracts and paperwork being worked out, but even in the best of times, Lollapalooza can be a major public health nuisance: crowds, porta-johns, food in the sun, thunderstorms. Did I mention porta-johns?
In a Thursday press briefing, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said everyone needs to “think seriously” about canceling all big summer events. Even my fearless webmaster Nick Kam who did this meme for me said he wouldn’t even go to one of his [...]
John Prine always seemed to be there for me.
But his music was there for you, too.
He wrote of angels that fly in from Montgomery, the mystical power of Wisconsin lakes, hobos, clocks and spoons and old people living alone in “Hello In There.”
He wrote “Hello In There” in 1969 based on a memory of delivering newspapers to a senior citizen home. He was only 23 years old. One of his favorite songs was “Far From Me,” about being raised near a junkyard in west suburban Maywood where “a broken bottle looks just like a diamond ring.”
John Prine saw those things.
He helped us understand those things.
John died Tuesday night from [...]
With all this time on his hands, he could get rid of the old songs.
After deep listens, many of them sounded too boastful. Others were sad. Too sad for now.
Just the other day he carried them upstairs from his basement. They weighed him down as he walked up the stairs. How could he have listened to these songs for so long?
Then, under the light of an early spring sun, he found the new songs. He heard tambourines in the alley. The old songs had collected dust but they turned into seeds of a new song. A child on a nearby tricycle hit every note. The old couple on their daily walk snuck within 5 1/2 feet of each other.
These were songs [...]
ROLLING STONES 2020 CORONAVIRUS SETLIST
“Doom and Gloom”
“Gimme Shelter”
“Fever” (Little Willie John cover)
“Wild Sources”
“Jumpin’ Jack Hot Flash”
“Miss You” (for empty arenas only)
“Let’s Spend the Night Together in Quarantine”
“Poison Ivy” (Leiber-Stoller)
“Something Happened To Me Yesterday”
“2120 South Michigan Ave/Mercy Hospital 2525 South.Michigan Ave”
“Sister Morphine”
“Just My Hazmatiation” (sort of a Temptations cover)
“Rocks Off This Cruise Ship”
“You Gotta Move” (Fred McDowell cover)
“She Was [...]
Kind and little incongruities make for a big and strong community.
And so it has been with my beloved FitzGerald’s in Berwyn. Think about it.
When Bill FitzGerald, his brother Chris and their late father Chris, Sr. opened FitzGerald’s in 1980, the working-class strip of West Roosevelt Road was a no man’s land. And they had the idea to create something like a Gulf Coast roadhouse? Smart money might have bet on a disco with 1980 hits like Diana Ross’s “I’m Coming Out” and Blondie’s “Call Me,” perhaps a Berwyn version of the “Stay Out All Night Discotheque” in Stone Park.
But it worked out to something beautiful, a song everyone could dance to.
Bill [...]
Two views of the Matchbox, with David & Jackie (upper black and white). Photo by Anthony Mata.
A good bar is a rich collection of loose change.
The patrons are a deep pocket of old and young, nickels and dimers, half dollars and occasional slugs.
The Matchbox, 770 N. Milwaukee, is my lucky penny.
I’ve been going to the Matchbox since 2000. I was breaking up with a girlfriend in Palmer Square and the Matchbox was my shrink couch on the way home to my place in the West Loop. Things change. I fell in love again at the Matchbox. Life moves on.
And the Matchbox was sold last week.
Owners [...]
I have no one but myself to blame for this.
I’m alone at Christmas. I watch ESPN at night. Inspired by the Jerry Vale scene in “The Irishman,” I’ve been deconstructing The Golddiggers LP “We Need a Little Christmas.” I’m working on another book.
I’ve been reading more. That “Dylan and Me” (50 Years of Adventures)” by Louie Kemp, Bob’s BFF is pretty good, especially the part about Dylan and Cher singing “All I Really Want To Do” (accompanied by the Band) at David Geffen’s 35th birthday party. I had a lot of fun being a semi-big shot journalist, going to concerts, traveling to New Orleans 26 times and drinking tequila at the [...]
Eugene Savage mural in Luau Lounge at Pier 39 (D. Hoekstra photo)
SAN FRANCISCO—The Bay Area is a great port for tiki bars.
There will always be a place in my heart for the Tonga Room, a rainy tiki paradise in the basement of the Fairmont Hotel that Anthony Bourdain called “the greatest place in the history of the world;” the newer but tragically hip Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco and Trader Vic’s in Emeryville, Ca.
Last week I visited the Bay Area to see the Oakland Raiders before they relocate to Las Vegas next season. (I doubt they will play the low rider music of War during game breaks). [...]
That was the premise on Tuesday night when I downed a bottle of Ensure and drove out to see “It Was Fifty Years Ago Today–A Tribute To The Beatles White Album” at the historic Arcada Theatre in downtown St. Charles. The headliners appeared so helter-skelter, I had to see how the whole thing came together: Todd Rundgren, Christopher Cross, Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, Joey Molland, the last surviving member of Badfinger and bassist Jason Scheff of the latter-day Chicago. I wasn’t alone. The show was sold out and will return to the Arcada on Dec. 2.
If you connect the dots of [...]
LOUISVILLE, KY.—The rewards of travel are found in a warm light.
Last summer while driving back from Nashville, Tn., I stopped in Kentucky to see a minor league Louisville Bats baseball game. Around the third inning, an African woman in a bright yellow cotton kitenge (sarong) walked down my aisle. She was selling homemade cookies from a Kibo basket that she balanced on the top of her head. This was pretty great. She was effusive, smiling, and stopped for a photo with every fan.
I learned that Elizabeth Kizito was “The Cookie Lady.”
When this season’s Bats schedule was announced, my Louisville based friend John Hughes sent me a notice [...]
