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How did the book Chicago Christmas come about? ie name some of the people
who encouraged you to bring your popular series to print.
It was one of my former news directors, Chris Berry, who suggested, about
15 years into the radio series, that I ought to turn it into a book. The idea
was appealing; I had gathered so much material about Christmas in Chicago,
much more than I could possibly use on the radio, and I thought people might
be as interested in it as I have become.
I can't think of one colleague of mine at WBBM who thought it would be a
bad idea.
The book spans one hundred years of Chicago history-dealing with Christmas
in Chicago-how did you find your information?
Most of the information came from reading microfilms of old newspapers,
the Tribune and the Sun-Times, of course, but also such late and lamented
publications as the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Herald Examiner, and the
Chicago Inter Ocean (which I think is a great name for a newspaper in the
center of the country).
I also needed a goodly number of books, three of them listing the top
tunes of the day, several Associated Press and New York Times news-in-review
books, and several more dealing with specific topics or people.
Can you quickly relate one of your favorite stories in the book.
It was December of 1945, World War II was over, and thousands of
soldiers, sailors and airmen were arriving each day at ports on the east and
west coasts. The railroads didn't have enough capacity to move all those
people who wanted to be home by Christmas.
Trains were jammed, and Chicago was the rail center of the nation. On
Saturday, December 22nd, it all came to a head in what one official called
his worst transportation nightmare. All of Chicago's railroad stations were
packed and train schedules weren't worth the paper they were printed on.
There was chaos. Finally, Governor Dwight Green had to call out the National
Guard to help move travelers between stations and to keep order.
The book is chock full of photos. Name some of the organizations helpful in
providing photos used in the book.
The credit really belongs to the wonderful people at Cornerstone Press.
They scoured the city and came up with some really delightful photographs. Of
course, the newspapers, the Tribune, the Sun-Times, and the Daily Defender,
all made helpful contributions. But so did the Chicago Historical Society,
the archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese, the University of Illinois at
Chicago through its Special Collections, the CTA, the Burlington Northern
Santa Fe Railroad, the Chicago Architectural Society and Marshall Fields and
its archive.
Why would a photo of Al Capone in court be a part of a Christmas book?
Unlike most mobsters, Capone loved the spotlight. There are photos of him
with sports stars and other celebrities. He knew PR, and when he was hauled
into court in Joliet at Christmastime, 1927, he didn't pass up the
opportunity to show generosity to a good cause.
There are Christmases that are hard to forget-tell us about the Christmas
of the big snow in 1951.
Between December 14th and 25th of that year 33 inches of snow fell on
Chicago. It came in waves and made transportation progressively more
difficult. Cars, trucks and buses got stranded in drifts. The city's 274
plows couldn't keep up with it. The Fire Department appealed to people to
clear the snow from around fire hydrants.
Those were the days of tire chains and ashes and muscle power to move
cars stuck in the snow and ice. I was only four years old at the time, and I
remember passages through snow that was about head high. It was a lot of fun
being a kid then and playing in it.
Not all of Chicago's Christmases have been merry. Several in fact include
times of deep mourning. Tell us about some of these.
I remember the sad Christmas of 1958. I was 11-years-old I and remember
coming home from school one day in December and listening to the radio as
reporters described the Our Lady of the Angels school fire. That was a school
much like the one I attended; the kids who died could have been me, my
brother, our friends and our nuns. I think all of us grew up a lot that
Christmas. A lot of prayers were said at our school, and Christmas didn't
seem quite as happy.
Then there was 1976. On the Monday before Christmas, Mayor Richard J.
Daley died of a heart attack in his doctor's office. He had been the city's
leader for 21 years. It was a shock. The next day, thousands of Chicagoans
lined up outside the Nativity of Our Lord church to pay their last respects,
and the Daley family greeted each and every one of them as if they were
personal friends. Dignitaries came in the next day for the funeral. Our
reporters at WBBM described the funeral mass and procession and how bitterly
cold the weather was.
In two other years, the November deaths of great leaders still cast a
pall over the holiday. At Christmas, 1963, Chicago and the nation were just
coming out of a 30-day period of mourning for John F. Kennedy. In 1987, Mayor
Harold Washington suffered his fatal heart attack one month to the day before
Christmas.
Then there was 1988, when a terrorist bomb blew Pan Am flight 103 out of
the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, and we endured images of brightly colored
gifts, luggage and airliner parts scattered over that little village. We were
left with the knowledge of grieving families whose loved ones would not be
home for the holiday.
Where can people buy this book?
it is available at all chain stores and
independent bookstores in Chicago, can also be ordered by calling toll-free
1-888-40-PRESS. Also it can be ordered on-line.
Jim is doing a number of signings around town. Where are these signings
taking place?
A list of scheduled signings is available on this site.
© 2000 Cornerstone Press Chicago
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