Chicago History | Fall-Winter 1987-88

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CHICAGO HISTORY-

____T_h_e_M _ agazine of the Chicago Historical Socie~- - -

EDITOR

Fall and Winter 1987-88

R L'SSEI.I. L E\\' IS

Volume XVI, Number 3 and 4

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

M r:c

l os,

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Au:-1A ZAK ED ITORIAL ASSISTANT

CONTENTS

MARGA REI vVEI.SII DESIGNER

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Bil .I. V.\:-.: Ni~l \\' EG I·: :-.: ASSISTANT DESIGNER

M1c11E1.1.1-: KocA:-.:

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EDITORIAL INTERNS

Coprrigh 1 1988 b) the Ch icago 11 i,1 orica l Sociel) Clark Street a1 ;-.;onh A\'cnuc Chicago. 11. 606 I~

Article, a ppearing in this journal arc abstranecl and indexed in I li.\lonral t\b.,trac/,1 and ,\mn'irn: /-liltm)' and l.ije.

Foo1notecl manmcrip1s of 1he articles appearing in this issue are arnilable in the C hi cago I li sw1in1l Soci1·11 ·s Publica1ions Oflice.

Cover: C:hildrm lmng mlmged 1rrap /11 a C:ivilwn l)ejen11' office, C:hirn{;o, /912. ,\da/1ted /mm a J1hotograph by Jack /)elano.

Courie.,_\' 11/ n,e l.1/m11) of C:011gre,1.

Clarence Darrow: Lawyer for the People ARTH UR Ai'\D LJLA WEINBERG

j01 I:', KR'l.YS KOll'SKI

5 I En::-.: SI R,\L 'SS

Soldiers Without Guns P ERRY R. D UIS

PHOTOGRAPHY WII .Ll.\~I j E:-.:N 1:-.:cs

Pleasure Garden on the Midway P AUL KR UTY

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Eye-Catching Music DAVID M. GUION

DEPARTME TS 3

From the Editor

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Yesterday's City

Chicago Historical Society OFFICERS Ph ili p D. Block III, Chairman Ph ili p W. H umme1~ Vice-Chairman Richard H . Needham, Vice-Chairman

Bryan S. Reid,Jr., 71wisurer Mrs. Newton N. Minow, Secretary Ste\\'art S. Dixon , hnmedialP Past Chairrnan

EII S\\'Orth H . Brown, President and Dirfflor

TRUSTEES l\ l rs. Brooks McCormick Phi li p D. Block III Wi ll iam J. McDonough Laurence Booth Rohen Meers Mrs. Emmett Dedmon Mrs. Ne\\'tOn N. l\linow Stewart S. Dixon Ri chard 11. Needham Wi ll iam M. Drake Philip W. Hummer Potter Palmer Edgar D.Jannoua B,-ya n S. Reid,Jr. Philip E. Ke ll ey Ed\\'ard Byron Sm ith , Jr. W. Pau l Krauss Dempsey .J. Trm·is Mrs . Abra Prentice Wilkin

LIFE TRUSTEES Bowen Blair Cyrus Colter John T McCutchco n ,.J r.

Andrew l\1cNally III ;\[rs. Frank D. :\layer Gardner H. Stern Theodore Tieken

HONO RARY T RUSTEES Eugene Sawyer, Acting ,\layor; City of Chicago \\' illiam C. Bartho lomay, Presidr>11/, Chicago Park District

T he Ch icago H istorical Soc iety is a pri\'ately endowed institution dc\'oted to collecting, presen ing, and inte rpreting the h istory of the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois, and selected areas of American history.

It must loo k to its members and friends for continuing financial support. Contributions to the Society are tax-d eductible, and appropriate recognition is accorded major gifts.

Me mbe rship Membership is open Lo anyone imerestecl in the Society's goals and activities. Classes of annual membership and clues are as follm,·s: Incli\ idual , S30: Famil), S35: Student/Senior Citi,en, S25. \ !embers rccei\C the Society's quarterly magaz ine. Chicago Hi5fm)•: a quarterly newsleuer, Pa..1t-'/1m e.1; a qua11erl) Calnzdar listing Societ) programs: invitations to special e\·e n ts: free admission to the building al all times; resened seats at films and concerts in our auclito1ium: and a IO percent d iscount on books and other merchandise purchased in the \ l useum Store.

Hours The ;\luseum is open daily from 930 ,UI. to .J-:30 I~\I.; Sunda)' from 12:00 V)0:0- Lo 5:00 I'.\I. The Libra!) and Manuscrip ts Coll ection are open Tuescla)' through Saw relay from 9:30 .ut. to 4:30 P\I. All other research collenions are open by appo in unem. T he Society is closed on Ch ristmas, ~cw Year's, and Thanksgi\'ing clays.

Education and Public Programs Guided tours. slide lectures, gallel) talks, craft demonstrations. and a variet} of special programs for all ages, from pre-school through senior citi1.en, are offered.

Admission Fees for Non-me mbe rs Adults, Sl.50; Chi ldren (6-17), 501\ Senior Citizens, 50~. Admission is free on Mondays.

Chicago Historical Society

Clark Street at North Avenue

Chicago, Illinois 60614

(312) 642-4600

FROM THE EDITOR For the first time in American history cats outnumber dogs as household pets 56 to 52 million.

Not since the ancient Egyptians declared cats sacred in the 5th and 6th dynasties (about 2,500- 2,200 B.C.) has Felius catus enjoyed such popularity. Morris the Cat's meteoric rise to stardom, Andrew Lloyd Weber's record-breaking Broadway musical Cats, and the ubiquitous Garfie ld al l point to a special position cats enjoy today in American society. The status we give our pets reveals much about how we view ourselve .

Historically, the dog has been our most cherished pet; it was a lso the first. Early man domesticated clogs to hunt and to provide protection some 10,000 years ago . Living in packs, Canis Jarniliaris's early ancestors had a hierarchical social structure similar to man's and thus transfeJTed their a ll egiance Lo human masters more eas il y than did other an ima ls. A mutual bond of need and affection grew over the centuries, and through se lective breeding, man made the dog an ideal companion, valued for his sociability, courage, and loyalty.

By the 1950s dogs had achieved a special status in America. The dog was the perfect symbo l for a postwar American society that valued obedience, loyalty, and authority above a ll other qualities, and clogs were treated as integral members of the nuclear fami ly. Dogs also abounded in the decade's popular cu lture: Disney gave us Lady and the Trarnp and Old Yeller; television brought Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, and Richard Nixon's spaniel, Checkers, into our J1omes; and Elvis Presley sang"Hound Dog." But in the years fol lowing this decade, as America's yo uth ch a ll enged authority, questioned obedience, and tested the concept of loyalty, the dog's status in the pet world began to change.

The cat's history is very different. Cats were first domesticated around 4,000 B.C. by the Egyptians, who held them in great esteem as hunters and as affectionate family pets. By 500 B.c. they had become popular pets in China and Japan. But cats were dreaded in Medieval Europe.

Because of their nocturnal habits and independent, wi llful , and stealthy character, they were suspected of practicing black magic and sorcery. Cats became, along with women, the unfortunate victims of witchcraft scares that gripped Europe for several centuries. Black cats, thought to be witches in night disguise, were attacked by citizens and maimed to break the ir malevolent spell. This fear and hatred of cats grew so great that many communities set out to exterminate them; thousands of cats were burned monthly in Paris until King Louis XIII halted the practice in the 1630s. Only a dramatic increase in the urban rat population saved the cat from total annihilation. Yet even after the witchcraft paranoia ended, the torturing and killing of cats continued as a popular amusement in Europe well into the nineteenth century. Although cat superstitions arc sti ll observed, cats have become one of our favorite pets.

For the past twenty-five years America has been slowly moving from a dog- to a cat-centered society. This shift is tied lO a redefintion of the pet. Animal rights have become a major political issue. More and more Americans are protesting the inhumane use of anima ls in product testing and medical and scientific experiments. The notion that animals are subservient to man is being replaced by the belief that they have inalienable rights,just as do humans. We now recognize pets as individuals, but also as a political power: the National Instin.1tes for Health recently recommended that pets be included in the 1990 cen us. An independent, free-spirited anima l, the cat conforms better to our new image of the pet than the duty-bound dog. New, smaller family units arc also changing the way we view pet . For the growing numbers of single urbanites who have turned to pets to fill a \'Oid in their lives, the cat is the perfect urban partner. But our national infatuation with the cat al o re!lects our social value . Whether we are "go ing for it" or "getting our share," the rampant individualism of the day is mirrored in the rise of the cat to top dog of the pct world.

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Pleasure Garden on the Midway

by Paul Kruty

An undisputed ma,sterpiece by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Midway Gardens was also a pioneering effort to merge urban cosmopolitanism and popular entertainment in a concert garden setting.

The name "Midway Gardens" evokes dual images-of fairground and park, carniva l and cafe, public spectacle and private enjoyment. To Chicagoans it was once all of these things and more. Like Chicago itself, it was a "city in a garden." The idea of Midway Garden stirred the imagination of its architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, and eli cited one of the most extravagant designs of his career. It prompted a real estate speculato1~ Edward C. Waller, Jr.; an amateur musician, Charles H. Matthews; and a builder, Paul F. P Mueller, to join forces.

This difficult, underfinanced project, planned for an unlikely part of the city, promised almost no hope of financial success.

Yet Midway Gardens was built. During the fifteen years it existed, 1914-29, it was home to a first-cl ass restaurant, a private club, a symphony orchestra, and a jazz band. It ho ted a ballet company, many society dinner parties, the annual balls of an avant-garde art group, and countless vaudeville acts. Chicago's urban concert garden not only stands as one of the undisputed masterpieces of its architect, it also holds a signifi cant place in the histories of American classical and Paul Kruty teaches architectural history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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popular music, dining in Chicago, and the fight over Prohibition.

The de\'elopments that led to this extraordinary building are as numerous as they are diverse.

Traditionally, l\lidway Gardens has been appreciated almost exclusively as the product of its architect's imagination. Certainly it is Wright's geniu that has secured a place for Midway Gardens in tJ1e history of modern arrhitecture. But the building can be fully understood only by studying its contemporary sources: its relationship to outdoor parks and beer halls in Chicago and to the city's music scene, its legacy from the World's Columbian Exposition, and the intentions of Wright's original clients. Wright' ideas were greatJy influenced by each of these factors. He also drew upon his own earli er projects for amusement buildings. Finally, he was able to respond to the dream of his clients because of his personal experiences in Europe in 1910. Regard less of Wright's great design, without the dedication and sacrifice of the contract01~ Paul Mueller, the building could not have been constructed. Midway Gardens was the result of a shared vision and the complete co llaboration of client, architect, and buildec Midway Gardens was de igned and built in 1913-14. The large comp lex, 300 feet on each side,

consi. ted of an outdoor bandshell and a restaurant building facing one another across an open tenacecl summer garden courtyard. Contained within the larger winter garden block was a threetory hall with tiers and balconies fc>r dining, flanked by a private club and a tavern. Above the main hall, supported by steel trusses, was a roorgarden.

Wright dcrnrated the reinforced-concrete building with murals and sculptu re, ornamented some of the cream-co lored brick walls with a veneer of thin concrete blocks, and trimmed t11e canti levered eaves with a decorated metal fucia.

The ma in pavilion fronted 011 the west side of Couage Grove Avenue south of 60th Street.

Although Midway Gardens was a symmetrica l building, Wright did not provide an en tranceway at the center as on' would expect. Instead, he designed acce~s at the corners, marking each wi th a tower or "belvedere." From the north belvedere at 60th and Cottage Grove, visitors could enter the dining hall by walking south through a ga ll eried promenade. They entered the summer garden by wa lking west a long the covered walkway a short distance, and, as they turned left, the whole garden opened in full view. Concert-goers continu ed to the end of the covered walkway, where they descended directly to the seats set before the

tage. The five leve l. of the summer garden were separated by planters of bushe. a nd flowers.

Midway Gardens bordered upon Frederick Law Olmsted's Washington Park and Midway Plaisance- the ame Midway then a ociated in most Ch icagoans' minds with th e carn ival district a t the World's Co lumbian Exposition twe nty year before. Within sight of the Univers ity of Chicago and the intellectual commun ity of Hyde Park, Midway Gardens was surrounded by th e workingclass Woodlawn neighborhood, which conta in e d beer halls and two amusement parks, including White Ci ty severa l blocks south.

The block bordered by 60th treet, 61st Street, Cottage Grove Avenue, and Langley Avenue had been the site of entertainme nt concessions long before Midway Gardens. During the Co lumbi an Exposition the Ferdinand and Isabe lla Pavilion and Theater stood on the southeast corner of the block, while on the north end of the property, the Garden C ity Obsen1atio n Wheel Company maintained a rival to the great Fenis Wheel tJ1at stood on the Midway. Standing in 1895 on the corner where the Gardens would be built was Old Vienna, a restaurant and beer garden whose name recalled one of the star attractions on me Midway during th e world's fair. The Forty-Niners 5

Sans Souci amusement park in 1908, one of the many entntainment co11crssiom llwl orcu/1ied tizf block bordered by 611th and 6 /sl 1/ rl'l'I\ and Collage Grove and Langley aven ues. Right, frank Lloyd \\ 'right, c. 190./. In /913 Ed \1hller fir.it askt,c/ \\ 'ritlzt to remod1•/ 11x remai11mg Sam Soun buildings, which he later abandoned for the ,\lidway Carden, /1rojert.

Mining Camp occupied ano th e r part of th e largely und eveloped parcel of la nd.

In 1898 th e C hi cago C ity Railway Compa ny acquired th e wh o le city bl ock a nd ann o un ced th e creation ofa casino and pavilion call ed Sans So uci (carefree), na me d afte r Fred e ri ck th e Great's pl easure park o utsid e o f Be rlin . Located betwee n Washingto n Pa rk a nd th e Washingto n Park Race Track, Sans So u ci was we ll se rved by pu b li c tra nspo rtati o n, a nd it pros pe red . By 1908 a full compl e me nt o f stru ctures had bee n added to th e original buildings, in cluding Wo nde rland , Midge tland , La ughing Ga ll e ry, Od eo n , a J a pa nese building, a bandstand, a miniature railway, a me rrygo-round, and a penny arcad e. In 1912 a rival amuse me nt park, White City, o pe ned a few bl oc ks away. But with th e race track now gone a nd th e competition stiff, th e manage me nt o f Sa ns So u ci was unable to retire a five-year mo rtgage o n a $100,000 loa n, and tl1 e pa rk was cl osed .

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In J an uary 1913 Ed ward C. Wa ll e r, Jr. and hi s partn e r Oscar J. Fri edma n bo ught th e Sa ns So uci p ro perty. Fri edm a n was a H rd e Park no ri st wh ose o nl y co ntribu tio n to th e pa rtn e rship a ppears to have bee n fin ancial. Ed Wa ller was IJ1 e so n o f o ne of Wright's most importa nt earl y cl ie nts, C hi cago develo per Edwa rd C. \Valier. While IJ1 e cider Waller had established his business th ro ugh careful investme nt, yo ung Wa ll er was a n im pe tu o us entre prene ur who saw his fo rtune come a nd go several tim es in hi s life. ·w a ll e r did no t bring Wrig ht, wh o was in J a pa n bu ying prints (and winning tJ1 e commissio n fo r th e Imperial Ho te l in th e process), into th e proj ect for anoth e r six mo nths. In th e mea ntim e, he made pre limin ary pl a ns to reta in and lease six o f tJ1 e a muse me nt buildings o n th e south half o f tJ1 e pro perty a nd re pl ace th e rest with some so rt of beer gard e n. Because Sa ns So uci had bee n fumous fo r its summe r band co nce rts, Wa ll er wa nted hi s

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

Post card view of Bismarc/1Garden, Chicago~ olde;t and mast papularberrgardm during therarly decades of 111,, twe11til'lh ct'nlwJ ln<j)lrr,/ hy it.1rn:y atmosphere and lively musical entertainment, T:d \\ al/er and his /Hlrl11en lwj;ed to build a C.mnan m11Cl'rl gardm that would rival the /Ji111wrrh.

new garden to exploit Sans Souci's reputation for lively musical entertainment.

Waller often dined at the University Club on Michigan Avenue with a group of amateur musicians that included Livingston Fairbank, an heir to one of Chicago's meat-packing families, and Charles H. Matthews. "Music-mad Charlie," as Wright later called him, had lived in Dresden, studied conducting in Germany and Austria, and was a friend of composer Richard Wagner's son, Siegfried. He suggested that Waller use the north half of the property for "a German concert garden, not a beer garden with incidental music." This kind of garden would necessitate , he explained, a full symphony orchestra that could play throughout the summer months. The men's enthusiasm mounted by the clay until they all agreed to become financial partners and, a Matthews said , make "a go ofit!" Incorporated in West Virginia in 1913, the Midway Gardens Company included Waller and Friedman, presidents; Fairbank, vice-president; and Matthews, treasurer.

In the early teens Chicago hosted a wide range 8

of summer entertainment gardens for all tastes and classes. Local beer halls abounded, often with a fe\\' tabl es in back. Several beer gardens, however~ were elaborate affairs. One of the largest was the Green Mill Sunken Gardens at Broadway and Lawrence Avenue, with a central open courtyard separated from the street b) arcaded walkways and an enclosed restaurant building. Whil e each beer garden usually had a small band, Green Mill used an ensemble of twenty-five players. The oldest and most popular beer garden in Chicago was the Bismarck Garden, "that attractive bit of Vienna or Berlin" (as the Evening Post described it in 1914) at Broadway and Halsted Street. This establishment served the large Gem1an population as a haven of "gemutlichkeit" since 1895. Fearing competition from its new South Side rival , the Bismarck added a fifty-piece orchestra for its 1914 season. Both the Green Mill and the Bismarck were remodeled and enlarged extensively that same season.

Ravinia Park on the North Shore, summer home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1905, was then a decade old. It was in a different class

Pleasure Carden

for his design of ,\I idway Gardens, Frank Lloyd \ \'right drl'W mi his fond memories of dining at many of Berlin's outdoor concert gardens, such aJ 7errtL~wn am I lal/enser Oerraces on Lake I fallen), during a visit to the city around 19 /0.

from other entertainment gardens. Its ample grounds, casino, concert hall, and outdoor pavilion made it the summer pilgrimage spot for Chicago's serious music lovers as well as its social elite. Midway Gardens was planned to combine the best elements of all of these parks-formal and informal dining, public bar and private club, background music and seriou classical concerts.

In planning Midway Gardens, Frank Lloyd Wright, like Wall e r and Matthews, had the Green t\lill Gardens, Bismarck Garden, and Ravinia to borrow from and improve upon. Wright, however, had his own dreams about the possibilities of an entertainment park such as Midway Gardens. For twenty years he had retained vi,·id memories oft he Columbian Exposition-of crowds strolling past festive buildings, of colonnades reflected in pools of water, of flags fl ying and music playing in open-air bandstands. Although he often decried tl1e architectural style of the fuir's buildings, \,\'right employed clements of plan and organintion from the fair in several public commissions before t\fidway Gardens.

These included a large project witli pavilions and a bandstand for Cheltenham Beach, located south of Jackson Park at 79t11 Street, which he designed in the mid-1890s . Two years later, he created a small beer garden called Mozart Gardens at 55th and State streets and an immense development on Wolf Lake near the Indiana border combining restaurants, piers, casinos, and an enormous water chute.

When approached by Waller about tlie Midway Gardens project, Wright not only had experience designing pleasure parks, he also had personal knowledge of the type of concert garden that Matthews was urging Waller to build. While in Berlin three years earlier, Wright had the opportunity to dine at many outdoor concert gardens, such as the Tenasse n am Hallensee (Te1Taces on Lake Hallen), a twin-towered, t11ree-level outdoor restaurant on one of Berlin's suburban lakes tliat presemed nightly orchestral concerts. During this same trip Wright also had become intrigued by the extent to which his European colleagues used sculpture and mural decoration to enhance t11eir 9

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 buildings. The commission for Midway Gardens provided the perfect opportunity to combine all of Wright's interests in the complete work of art and the chance to restore his name and reputation in Chicago, which he had so badly tarnished by his love affair with Mr . Cheney.

Although Wright later recounted that he shook the scheme out of his sleeve in a single weekend, evidence suggests that the building had a much longer genesis. Among almost two hundred surviving drawings for Midway Gardens are three separate versions of the concert garden, as well as a remodeling plan for Sans Souci. In these drawings. it is possible to trace Wright's changing conception of the project and his response to Waller's continuing budget reductions as the great cost became apparent.

In Wright's first scheme, which he completed during the last part of 1913, long covered walkways leading to separate buildings (presumably racing Washington Park) encompassed fully half of the Sans Souci property. A freestanding bandstand was to be suJTounded with an artificial lake. The plans changed in early 1914. Although the entire north half of the block had been cleared, it was decided to build the Gardens only on the northeast corner of the property. At first this somewhat reduced plan of the Gardens was left open at its inside corner and connected by covered walkways to the remaining Sans Souci buildings. For the final design, completed by mid-February, Wright created a self-contained structure racing Cottage Grove Avenue that was closed to the rest of the block. A bandshell now replaced the bandstand.

As in the earlier plans, water was to be an important part of the scheme-a naJTow reflecting pool would separate the orchesu-a from the audience.

Wright immediately assigned his trusted builde1~ general contractor Paul Mueller, to the project, and Mueller started hiring subcontractors. Mueller had already erected the Larkin Building and Unity Temple for Wright. (After the completion of Midway Gardens he would supervise construction of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.) Wright began to assemble his team of artists. For sculpture, he first turned to his long-time associate, Richard Bock.

Bock recommended hiring Stanislaus Szukalski, a young Polish emigre studying at the Art Institute who later became one of the city's most radical artists, but the meeting between Wright and Szukalski ended in mutual rejection. Wright's son IO

John then suggested a California acquaintance and pupil of sculptor Gutzon Borglum, Alfonso Iannelli, who was hired in mid-February. Decisions about muralists were put off for several months.

During March and April, Wright and his staff worked furiously to complete the models and presentation and working drawings. At his home and studio near Spring Green, Wisconsin, Wright created sketch after sketch, and his talemed draftsman Emil Brodelle turned them into elegant perspective drawings. Architect Hany Robinson ran Wright's Orchestra Hall office in Chicago, while at the construction site John Lloyd Wright acted as supervisor to Paul Mueller.

When the annual exhibition of the Chicago Architectural Club opened on April 9, the public saw a large display of Wright's latest work, including many drawings and models for Midway Gardens. In the Chicago Tribune, an excited HaJTiet Monroe, editor of Poetry magazine, called Midway Gardens "perhaps the most complete opportunity which Mt~ Wright has had as yet to express his ideas in a group of buildings."

Meanwhile, Matthews and Waller were aJTanging for the entertainment and food services. By the

Pleasure Garden

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Below, an aerial pPrspeclive of Frank U oyd Wrights first scheme for Midway .Gardens. Abol){', Wrights second scheme for the Gardens looking north across Collage Crol){' !\l){'nue. The winter garden building, nestled. between the two entry lowers, or "belvederes, "opened. onto the tm-aCl'd summer garclen where concerts were peiformed, but the rear comer was left opm to the Sans Souci buildings.

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Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987- 88

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winte r o f 1914, C harlie Matth ews had convin ced Max Be ndix to sho ulde r th e task of o rganizing th e new orches tra. Be ndix, who was in New York pursuing a dual career as co ndu ctor a nd vi o linist, had a long associa tion with C hi cago . H e began hi s caree r in C in cinna ti , wo rked in Phil adelphia a nd New York, a nd th e n came to Chi cago in 1886, pe1-fon11ing with the Th eodore Th omas Orchestra in th e Inte rstate Industri al Expos iti o n Building in wh at is now Gra nt Pa rk. He had bee n co ncertmaster o f th a t o rchestra during its fu mo us e ngageme nt a t th e 1893 wo rld 's fuir. Sin ce th e n he had ta ke n up co ndu cting as we ll. News o f Be ndi x's a ppo intme nt appeared in tJ1 e press on Fe bru a11 20.

By May Musical America re po rted th at th e best playe rs of th e Chi cago Ope ra orchestra had j o ined Be ndi x' ne w Na tion a l Symph o ny Orc hes tra.

Fo ndl y reca lling his first days in Chi cago , Be ndix ann o un ced h e wo uld prese nt music "s uch as no o ne has heard o n summ e r nights in C hi cago sin ce tJ1e o ld d ays o f T heod o re Th o mas in th e Expos iti o n Build ing." T he first tria l co nce rts 11·ere he ld in ea rl y Jun e at th e Auditorium Th eatre, a nd o n Jun e 20 th e gro up 1110\'ed to th e busy co nstru ction site th at was Midway Gard e ns. Th a t eve ning, th e first tri al co nce rt in th e ba ndshe ll ope ned with th e pre lud e to Wagne r's Die ,\leisln:singer.

Matth ews form ed a board to administe r tJ1 e o rchestra th at includ ed Chi cago co mposer J o hn Ald e n Ca rp e nte r a nd his broth e r Be nj a min (wh o was Fairba nk's broth er-in -law), business man and composer Edso n Ke it11, a nd lawyer Arthur Dyre n fo rth , all me mbe rs o f tJ1 e Uni ve rsity Club. l\fatth ews also acquired notabl e mu sic libra ri e fro m two co ndu ctors- Anto n Se idl , Wagne ri a n condu ctor at New York's Me tropo lita n Ope ra, a nd rece ntl y d eceased C heva lie r N. B. Ema nu el, a local co nducto r a nd music co ll ector. Matth ews h elped Be ndi x locate musicia ns fo r th e o rchestra and began co nsulting on possibl e d es igns fo r th e bandsh ell. Whil e Matth ews was providing fo r fir tra te mu sica l fu re, Ed Wall e r contracted with a we ll-known resta urateur, J o hn Z. Voge lsa ng, to manage th e food service, which was to include a restaurant, bar, priva te club, and outdoor dining.

Work bega n at th e co nstructio n site in earl y

\V,ight incorporated muro/s and sculpture into his Midway Gardens design lo create a more complete work ofart. Sculptor Alfo11so lan11elli s abstract female Jom,s, called sprites, were cast in concrete and placed along the gardm .

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f>INLmre Carden April. Wright remembered that "soon all or old Sans Souci there was left in plain sight was a rusty old stee l-towe1~" Meanwhile, Bock and lanne lli worked in a tarpaper shack a long with craftsman and Italian immigrant Ezio Orlandi oft h e Orlandi Statuary Company, whom Bock had e nli sted to crea te the molds fi>r Wright's e laborate ornament and to cast the sculpture as well. As lll<' number of decorated concrete pieces began to mount into the hundreds, a special sprinkler system had to be installed in the yard lo cure them properl y before they were set in place. Soon rows of smiling sprites screened the two sunken gardens, their abstracted, faceted forms matching th e geometric patterns on the walls, while the winged figure called the"Queen of't he Garden" framed both the interior and exterior farndes of the winter garden, as well as the bandshell. Four free-standing spri tes dominated the space in the main hall, each based on a geometric l<>rm - [cmale figures or circles and triangles, and males of cubes and dodecahedrons .

A~ wo, k progressed, Wright tu111cd his attention 10 the interior murals and hired two teachers from the Chicago Academy of'Finc Ans,.John W. Norton and William P I lcndcrson. I lenderson l>rought his best pupil, Katherine Dudley, to join the ensemb le. Last of all, Wright secured the services of Chicago's "post-impressionist," .Jerome Blum, although he could not induce Blum's friend, cubist painter Manicn-c Dawson, to work on the Gardens\ murals. As with hi~ srulptors, Wright clearly made allcmpts to find the most innovative artists in Chicago to create designs that would harmo11i1e with his building. Both Norton and I lcnderson created schematic human figures based on sq uarcs, circles, and triangles and placed them in idyllic settings 111im1ring- the outdoor scenes soon 10 occur in the summer g-arden.

In addition to his plans for the grounds and building~. Wright also clcsig11<'d furniture , fixtures , and dinnenvare filf Midway (;ardcns. one of Wright's \C\'(-ral designs for rurniturc was ever reali1ed. Instead, the place was furnished with white-painted wooden tables and chairs similar LO those found in tl1e Bismarck and Green Mill gardens-or in almost any contemporary German beer or concert garden. But Wright's lamp design \\'as produced , and his patterns for china were turned over to the Chicago representative of Bau cher Porcelain, Arthur Schiller, who had them applied Lo stock fonns and cast in Weiden, Gem1any.

II I I

·i... :' I

i

13

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

View of the bandshell looking west across the summer garden. The row ofsprites in the foreground screened the su11ken garden from the larger .summer garden area.

When Matthews returned from "run[ning] around the United States interviewing musicians," as W1-ight later described his client's efforts, he began giving the architect advice about the bandshell to insure proper acoustics. While Wright had designed several bandstands (none of them ever built), this was his first bandshell. The two men quaneled over the height and sides of the shell and about a possible canvas tent. Wright was furious about the effect alterations would have on his design, but he worked out a compromise with Matthews and made changes nevertheless. Music critic Felix Borowski reported the row in the Tribune: "There can be no doubt, however, that whatever the orchestra shell may do to diminish the artistic effect of the remainder of the architecture, the 14

acoustic results are of the most admirable kind."

Wright himself was so pleased with the result that for the rest of his life he remembered the bandshell design as his own idea.

Construction continued at a frantic pace, and the inspired Wright made numerous changes at the site without new drawings. The morning before the official opening, Saturday,] une 27, the Tribune reported that the grind of concrete mixers and the shouts of the gang bosses drnwned out the rehearsing orchestra. The few visitors who succeeded in dodging the long trail of wheelbarrows carrying rubbish out and flowers in were too interested in the construction work to pay much attention to Mr. Bendix. Instead they watched William Henderson and john Norton putting the first strokes on the mural panels.

Pleasure Garden

The high(\' lexlured s11 1ji:iff1 of the belvederes rejlrct the abstracl geometric pa11m,i11g of the indoor and outdoor sculpture.

By evening an audience of several thousand had a1Tived for the opening festivities, while almost as many more were turned away By July 19, the Tribune reported that attendance figures for the first three weeks were "a lmost frightening. La t Saturday and Sunday, we a re told, a total of more than 17,000 persons crowded imo the place." In addition to a healthy dose of Richard Wagner (as well as a weekly "Wagner Night" on Friday), Bendix included his own music on the programs. He even urged Charlie l\lauhews to conduct now and again. Calling Midway Gardens "the final word in al-fresco amusement retreats," the Evening Post explained that "it has the metropolitan charm or Bismarck Garden and the musical quality of Ravinia."

The Mmic News was happy to report that what

made Midway Gardens different from "Bismarck Garden, Riverview, White City and other summer gardens," was the unique seating aITangementthe "650 seats for those who wish to listen to music merely, [where] the audience can sit in peace, unof:fendecl by obstreperous waiters and undisturbed by the chatter of people at tables."

1\1 id way Gardens opened cl u ting one of Chicago's most exciting musical seasons. Musical America reported with amazement one Sunday in April when there were "Nine Concerts in One Day in Chicago," including recitals by Mischa Elman and Dame Clara Butt and the world premiere of Leo Sowerby's violin sonata. The sixth orth Shore Festival opened in Evanston in June with international stars such as Alma Gluck and Herbert 15

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

Interior view of the winter garden. In addition to the grounds and ti1R buildings, \\'right designed the lamp fixtures and china pallems.

16

Pleasurfl Garden

\\'nght grew rfomrhanted with tht' repre,l'ntational jimn.1 in the original mural designs and replaced them with hi:, own abstract compositiom. This 11wral was one 11 two \\'right designs for the md zoal/J oj th,• tavem room.

17

Chicago Hi-Story, Fall and Winter 1987-88

National Symphony Orchestra of Chicago Max Bendix, Conductor Initial Concert Given June 9, 1914, at the Auditorium COMMENTS OF DAILY PRESS :

Maurice Rosenfeld , Chicago Examiner-"'Thc orcheqra ~howed that it, organi1atio11 i, a wel l bala nn:d band of pla, er, all rouri11ed in the higher hra11che, of orchest ral <lrt . 11 ho pla~ 11 ith good rh~ th1111c .1cn:11t. 11 ith dynamic ,lud111g, and 11 1th tt:L·h11ical fini,11."

accu racy and the mu,1ua11, 111terpretul t heir m us ic "ith ahu11d.\llt l·nthu,ia~ n1."

Karleton Hac kett , Eve ning Post-''ThuT 11.1, .1 gnp to

Gunn ,

the thing from the 1er~ fir,t note, of the ' .\l u,ter,111ger O ,erturc' chat 011!_1 ,-,h()\1, it-.df II hen .i 111,t"lcr h.111d ha.s adt:quare 111.itcr,.tl 11 ith which tu 11 o rk."

Chicago Tribun e - .. 1\ l r.

Stanley 1(. Fa y, Chicago

Glenn

Dillard

Bcndi, read the n,crture of 'The .\ lc"ter,111gt:r' \\' i th fint.: t.:mpha,i, nf it, lyric and dramatic 1,1lue,."

Daily Ne ws-" I 11 hi, Pre\lax Bcndb.

Felix Borows ki , Chicago Record H e rald-"The tont.: of both tht.:.,tr ing!:> a11d the 11 ind, i, e,celknt. T he execution ldr littk to be des ired as to

lude, the ditf1..re11r I o,ce, were diq111L"t and l1.1r111011iou:-.I~ beautiful."

Edward C. Moore, Journ al-" ,\ ! r.

Bendix' tempi \1ere pract1call.1 pcrfeL"t, he d ircct1.:d \\ irh fine L·onrr;ht,. great lx:aut> of tone and e,celknt cl11rn"e,."

AT THE

MIDWA V

GARDENS

The Midway and Cottage Grove A venue

June 27th to September 7th UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE

NATIONAL SYMPHON Y ORC HEST RA ASSOCIATION Add ress: CHAS. H. MATTHEWS, Pres.

68 W. Washington Street, Chicago

Max Bendi.x, who had performed as a violinist in Chicago in the 1880s and 1890s with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, relumed in 1914 lo conduct llze Natimwl Symplwny Orchestra. After a series of trial concerts al the Auditorium Theatre, the Orchestra petfonned the first trial concert in the Midway Gardens bandshell onju.ne 20 in the midst offrantic construction.

18

Pleasure Garden

..

•,,I•

........'Ir;-~

..,.-:~

A//lwugh \ \'right would later tak, Juli credit for the excellent acoustics of the bandshell. they were artw:,lly the result of a compromise between Wright and ,\latthews, who insisted that the architect modify his original design.

Witherspoon. Dancer Ruth St. Denis began the season at Ravinia . On the popular side, the Tribune reported that although a few )'Cars ago there were not more than fort)' theaters in all Chicago, now there are 750, and in at least 200 of them vaudeville pe rformers arc emplo)'ecl to help our moving pictures. ln addition , there are well paid engagements for IO0 or more pe1-fonners in the downtown restaurant , while out ide the loop almost ever)' eating place in town-to say nothing of th e big summer parks-employs musicians and singers .... :--;ever was the demand so insi tent for noise and co nstant motion.

At Midway Gardens, work continued on the interiors until September. They were never decorated as Wright intended them , however. His relationship with the muralists wa disastrous. Many of the wall dimensions for I otton's and Henderson's designs were changed during construction, and their carefully planned compositions no longer

fit. Wright painted over other murals even though he had approved them. Finally, the architendecided to create his own murals. In early August he produced two compositions that eliminated all representational forms, however abstract, and used only circles of varying sizes and colors. On August 15, 1914, with these panels drawn , Wright received the honific r.ews tJ1al the cook at his home in Wisconsin had murdered his beloved Mrs. Cheney, her children, and members of his staff, and had burnt down part of Taliesin . His personal life devastated , Wright's involvement witJ1 Midway Gardens thus came to an abrupt encl. It was left to his son John to transfer tJ1e two designs (using oil stains and gold leaf) to the encl walls of the tavern room.

Ed Waller was having his own less tragic troubles. There simply was no money. When Paul Mueller realized that Waller had begun construction with about 70,000 instead of$250,000 as he had claimed, Mueller agreed to continue on credit 19

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

Openi11g nigh/, Salurday,june 27, 1914. Sl'V('ra/ thousand peojilNmwed al Midway Garril>iLljorth,, grand openmg, and almost a:, many more wl'te turned away. The critical and finrmcial succe!>S of Midway Gardens seemed cntai11 only wet'kS aft Mil opened, as llwmanrli of Ch,cagor11L1 (locked to the South Side to sa111/1le lhe w1ique selling and wuwwl blend of dining and entrrtainmt•n/. Photograph by.J. W 7hy/m:

The subconU"actors were not so generous, however, and started filing liens as early as July. By December nineteen such suits had been filed.

Creditors lost faith by October and tried to foreclose. Heated negotiations led in late December to a $200,000 loan in the form of 455 promissory notes, guaranteed by Chicago Title and Trust Company.

Throughout these troubles, the Gardens stayed open and busy, playing to full houses and rave reviews. After Bendix's last concert on September 7, Music News lamented the dispersal of the National Symphony. Announcing that "there is room for a second symphony orchesU"a in Chicago" (especially one whose talented conductor had studied with Theodore Thomas), it pleaded, "Bendix, 'blieb bei uns, und geh' nicht fort!' [Stay with us and don't go away!)"

The first winter schedule went into effect with the outdoor garden closed. In the winter garden

20

building, now billed as the "Re nd ezvo us oft.he Smart Set," cntertai nment incl ucled ,·auclevi Ile acts and instruction in the latest society dances led by Carlos Sebastian and his wife, Dorothy Bentley.

Miss Georgene Faulkner, Hyde Park' "S1ory Lady," read to ch ildren, and Mme. Rosa Olitzka, contralto at tJ1e Met, sang to their parents. And, of course, Vogelsang's served its famous cuisine to, among others, guests at a private banquet for Mrs. Potter Palmer. Special events in the winter garden included an "Artist's ight" in May 1915, hosted by Lorado Taft, a fashion show that Jul y, and an automobile fair in September witJ1 a guest appearance by dancing "superstar" Vernon Castle.

In spring of 1915 the Midway Gardens managers scored a major coup when they signed Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who had danced at me Auditorium Theatre on April 25, to appear as part of their summer program. Dance critic Percy Hammond reported breathlessly in the Tribune that

llllflS AND

MIDWAY

I IY EITISSEIENTS OF 10 I LD FAME CIWICm NICITLY

GARDENS

• EAUTIP'UL IIEEK THEATRE IN THI:

• l:GINNINQ IIT. EVI., ,uL' a

..

10th STREET AND COTTAGE GROVE AVE.

PAVLOWA and the Comi,lete

IMPERIAL RUSSIAN BALLET THEODORE STIER, Conduotor

National Symphony Orcheatra

LAIBEST BALLET ORGANIZATION Of TIIE

IOILI

M~!_:!:i~x

RESERVED S-EAT_S_ AT

lYON & HEAL rs

EVENING P'IIICQ

$1.10 te IOo

p.._ H.W.1 MaL MIN., al J,.

All Seata 600

THE WORLD'S FINEST SUIIIIER ENTEi· TAINIENT

R1mian ballerina Anna Pavlova, o,u, of the mo t celebrated dancen of her timP, began afour-week mgagement at ,\lidway Gardem inJuly 1915. Her popular /Je>fonnance; drl'W audiences from th rouglwul the ,\ Iidwe.\l.

they had arranged to have Pavlova "beautify further their oasis on the south side by dancing there throughout July. If this Midway Gardens is not, during July, the most joyous site in the middle west I shall be cynically serene in my belief that Chicago is the Caliban of cities."

After two weeks of rehearsing and a complete reconstruction of the stage, Pavlova began her four-week engagement on July 3 before an audience of 4,500. The next day she signed a contract with Universal Films to make a movie of Auber's opera La Muette de Portici. 1'vo days later, behind the Midway Gardens bandshell in the rubble of Sans Souci, Anna Pavlova's only movie began its filming. Pavlova's engagement became the stuff of which legends are made. By the third week, the Evening Post reported tJ1at the episode had attracted visitors from "the four corners of Chicago and within a radius of many hundred miles." Fifteenyear-old Ruth Page, who later became one of

Chicago's most renowned dancers, travelf'd from Indianapolis to see her idol.

Despite the phenomenal success of Pavlova's run, Midway Gardens had encountered more bad luck the second season. In June, the gala reopening of the summer garden had been twice rained out, the wardrobe concession had sued the management, and the notorious James "Toronto Jimmy" Johnson and his band of"yeggmen" blew the safe and stole $12,000. After Pav lova's performances the rain returned to further dampen attendance figures despite Max Bendix's best efforts to program inviting concerts. The end of the 1915 summer season saw the return of what Wright called "ugly suspicions" about funds.

On October 5, 1915, a month after the second winter season had begun, Mayor William Hale Thompson decided to enforce an old Sunday closing law concerning the sale of alcohol. This political skirmish between tJ1e "wets" and the "drys" 21

effectively closed establishments such as Midway Gardens on one of their busiest days. The next day the Tribune reported that Thompson's order "has had the immediate effect of driving the Midway Gardens into a receivership." The following day a judge ordered the gates padlocked.

As new lawsuits appeared, including one filed

by Clarence Darrow on behalf of disgruntled members of the private Garden Club, Waller became reconciled to the impossibility of resurrecting Midway Gardens. Failing to solve the problems during the winter of 1915-16, Waller filed for bankruptcy on March 31, 1916. In May the property was quietly acquired from the three principal stockholders by Schoenhofen Brewery as an outlet for their Edelweiss 22

Beer. Workers began remodeling small portions of the interior in early June.

The neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Kenwood had been dry for many years. Since 1896 the Hyde Park Protective Association had been waging legal battles with liquor establishments bordering the dry areas. Extended lawsuits were fought with the Germania Beer Garden and the original Edelweiss Garden, both on the north side of Washington Park. When news of Midway Gardens had appeared in February 1914, long-time prohibitionist Rev. M. P Boynton of Woodlawn led the protest, fearing that yet another cheap beer garden was coming to the borders of Washington Park. Although opposition had subsided and Midway Gardens had

Pleasure Garden

The Carden Club provull'd Ifs memben with private spaces awayjrom crowds in the summer and winter gardens. Two club members (left) descending ,tam to the lowe1t tmrice !l'Vl!I to hear a mncert. Above, club membns relax on the second level of the south arcade.

flourished for two seasons, some circles met the closing of the Gardens with a sense of relie f. With the reappearance of the Schoenhofen Company, the opposition prepared for a new confrontation. [n mid-June 1916 the new management made an enormous publicity blunder when it announced tJ1at it was changing tJ1e name of Midway Gardens to Edelweiss Gardens, the name of the old Washington Park beer garden. The incredulous Tribune explained, "Memories of the old Edelweiss summer garden at the northwest corner o[ 51st Street and Collage Grove Avenue, which disappeared in a refc)tm wave years ago, are recallect by the announcement that the now closed Midway Gardens will be renamed 'Edelweiss Gardens'." The "drys" were

mobilized and succeeded in having an amusement license denied.

Schoenhofen Brewery apparently wished to continue to attract the clientele of the original garden. Arthur Dunham , a respected conductor, composer, and organist, was hired to organize a new orchestra. In publicity statements, Dunham even repeated Bendix's enticing promise that the programs were to be "modeled on the old Theodore Thomas programs which were given in the Exposition building." A strange state of affairs continued for a month, with protesters dec11·ing the Garden's adverse moral effect on the young, while Dunham's orchestra played Beethoven and Brahms nightly to a "very

23

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

The owners of Lhe Midway Dancing Gardens remodel.ed 1111' original wi11Ler gardt>11 (ahove) into a ballroom in till' 1920s. The ,Vo:fw)' Soril'ty of Artists. Chicago~ radical arl gronp, sponsored several fund-raising danrrs there.

fu.shionable audience" who had to be admitted free of charge until a license was i sued. Mayor Thompson finally soh·ed the problem in a democratic way by local plebiscite. The "wets" won OYCrwhelmingly, and the license was granted.

To Frank Lloyd W1ight all of this was unimponant compared to the harm about to come to his building. In early july,John Norton reported to William Henderson that he had recently seen Wright, who talked of the fate of the Gardens. Wright had said that it was "to be painted over," and that he was going"to sue to stop them." But in the encl, he was powerless to prevent these changes. Wright later bemoaned the new management's desire to "add obnoxious features out of balance and nasty" and explained that "the whole effect was cheapened to suit a hearty bourgeois taste."

Although this was not the proprietors' original intention, it is, indeed, what happened during their tenancy. For the second season, Dunham's orchestra was replaced by Francisco Ferullo's band . The new "hearty bourgeois" attractions of the 1917 season also included "four fountains

24

[which] have been placed in a bed of rocks surrounded by vines and trees, [and] three open dance pavilions" as well as a "new elaborate lighting system" and "ru tic decorations."

As a local center for vaudeville, cabaret, and ragtime, Edelweiss Gardens thrived. Novelist Edna Ferber, living in Hyde Park at the time, reveled in the Gardens' ambience. In ThP Girls (1921), Ferber captured the Oavor of her lavorite terraces: "IL was deliciously cool there in that great unroofed space.

There was even a breeze, miraculously caught within the four walls of the Garden .... A row of slim trees showed a la.ii) frieze above the tiled balcony." Chicago novelist Robert He1Tick also frequented the Gardens and its terraces. In Waste (1924), Herrick used the building (calling it "Bellevue Gardens") as the model for the masterpiece of the novel's hero, an embattled architect.

After a wartime hiatus during 1918, Edelweiss reopened for two more years. Contrary to modern accounts, it remained extremely popular and surprisingly did not close after the passage of Prohibition. Edelweiss weathered the 1920 season as a

Pleasure Garden

~

----

25

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 dry estab lishment. Perhaps Ted Lewis, with his "famous aggregation of Jazzists'," temporarily made up the difference.

Edelweiss Gardens closed, however, in 1921.

After the Midway Automobi le Tire and Supply Company acquired the property, owner Edward C. Dietrich announced plans in August to convert the winter garden building into a ballroom, remove the restaurant, and enclose the summer garden.

This ambitious undertaking was apparently infeasib le. Two years later work did begin on a more mode t remodeling of the winter garden, including a makeshift cloakroom at the north entrance.

By September of the following year, 1924, the building inspector could report that the hall was occupied, although work was not complete. The "Midway Dancing Gardens," as new signs proclaimed, was ready to dazzle Chicagoans with the latest in popular dance music.

A second "Golden Age" had already an-ived, alth ough Matthews, Bendix, Dunham, or even Wright probably would not have recognized it as such. When the Gardens reopened, the new ballroom hosted Art Kassel's band, "Kassels in the Air:' As early as December 1923, Kassel's "Midway Gardens Orchestra" was making its first records.

Kassel's dance band included several jazz players.

When fifteen-year-old Benny Goodman joined them for the summer of 1924, a new hot sound flowed through the hall and its balconies, much to Kassel's amusement and his audience's pleasure. The following summer, Bix Beiderbecke sat in with the group to lighten the spirit oflannelli's concrete sprites.

The winter garden, remodeled as a ballroom, was the site of several fund-raising dances sponsored

by Chicago's radical art group, the o:Jury Society of Artists. "Cubist Balls," attended by artists dressed as works of abstract art, were held at the Gardens on October 13, 1924, and January 29, 1926, on the eves of the third and fourth exhibitions of the society.

During the tenancy of Midway Dancing Gardens, German architect Eric Mendelsohn visited Chicago. In 1ovember 1924 Wright's fom1er pupil, Ban-y Byrne, took Mendelsohn on a tour of Wright's buildings. After visiting the Coonley house in Riverside, they traveled to the Midway Gardens dance hall, which to the ecstatic Mendelsohn symbolized the Dionysian side of Wright's genius. In its battered state in the mid-1920s, however, Midway

26

Gardens did not inspire the same feelings in its changing clientele. To Studs Lonigan, the protagonist of James Farrell's famous novel set in the neighborhood around Washington Park, Midway Gardens had become little more than a good place to pick up girls.

In 1926 Floyd Towne and his band took over music making at the Gardens. Towne's associates included famous jazzmen such as Muggsy Spanier, Frank Teschemacher, and Jess Stacy. When Stacy first arrived on a cold winter evening, Spanier directed him to one of the upper balconies because "we got all the gin upstairs." Spanier recalled that the band lasted "for t\\'O glorious years" before quitting in a row over mu ic and uniforms. He also claimed that "as soon as we left business fell off. It got so bad that in no time at all the place was torn clown and turned into a garage."

Whatever the reason for the decline of Midway Dancing Gardens, Edward Dietrich gave up trying to recover his investment and closed the doors.

Social historian Lewis Mumford, traveling to see Chicago's architectural masterpieces, found the Gardens boarded up. Finally, in the spring of 1929, Dietrich leased the corner to the Sinclair Refining Company who, according to the terms of the lease, agreed to "completely wreck and remove the building commonly known as the 'Midway Gardens Building'."

When demolition was nearly complete in Octobe1~ Wright was contacted by the Daily NPws. He ernkecl an image of his all-but-forgotten concert garden a it should have been by then: [Its walls] would be covered with the climbing iV) the scheme craved with a natural h ungcr. The solidly built place would now be polished, mellowed, enriched by \Cars of good care, hallowed b> pleasant associations-a proud possession of any great city.

Wright ended by asking the questions that so many have asked since: ls there no Chicago honor for such love as made the Midway Gardens an oasis of beauty? In the wilderness of smoky dens, car tracks, and drug stores, is there no place for a rendezvous such as its backers knew Chicago needed and believed Chicago wanted?

By the spring of 1930, a gas station stood on the corner of Cottage Grove Avenue and 60th Street.

At the back of the lot, a forgotten remnant of wall stood for another quarter of a century. Today only bits and pieces of Midway Gardens survive in

PIRasure Gardm

frank U()yd \l'nght was aghast al lhe changes .11Jfoequent owners madR to hi, Inn/ding. /nil he was powerless to stop them. 17ie Midway Dancing Gm·drns clo,rd m lhR s/nwg ,if 192':I, and withm a ymr virtually all of \\ 'nght:, bwld11110 had been dRmolishRd.

rnrious collection around Lhe country.

Gi\'en Lhis commission by co mopolitan friends, Wright had created a setLing for relaxed dining and seriou Ii tening. Tailored to the Chicago societ) that the architect knew . o well, it reflected at the same time Wright's encounters with new fonm of Old World culture and pleasure. Chicago responded heartily to the great dream o f\\.'ri ght, Wall er. and J\1atth ews, but when the dream turned into a financial nightmare, no worth) Maecenas stepped forward to its rescue . A decade later, a second chance to al\'age and re tore Lhe remnants of ~fid\\'a\ Gardens was met \\ ith silence, and Chicago's great concen garden disappeared.

In 1915 Prairie chool architectjohn Van Bergen. another tud e nt of Wright's, had procl a im ed Midway Gardens "the most vital, living example of Ame1ican architecture oflhis class yet produced ... a monument which will stand unparalleled for many years ." Midway Gardens is long \'anished , but its design remains "unparalleled " in uniting all th e a ns in the creation of an a rchitecture of pl eas ure.

For Further Read ing :'1-tost of the numerous published account of the :'llidwa:, Garden, s1011 are ba ed o n Frank Lloyd Wright's An Autobiograph)' (New York: Horirnn Press, 1977). Ln the CHS Library collection see .\fidway Gardens (C hi cago: R. F. We lsh, 191{) a nd TIIR Midway Gardem, 191-1- 1929 (Chicago: The Cni ,·ersity of Chi cago Pres~, 196 1). The sculptors' contributions to :'11idway Gardens are discussed in J oseph Griggs, ''.A.lfo nso Iannelli, the Prai1·ie Spirit in Sculptme," Prairie School Review, vol. II, no.-+ (19G5) and Donald Ha llmark, "The :'llature Collaborations:· Prairie School Review, \'O I. VIII, no. 2 (1971).

Illustra ti ons 4-5, from Midway Gardens (191'+). CHS Library; 6, CHS, D:S.:-6357; 7, coune y ofthe Frank Lloyd Wright Home and tudio Foundation, Oak Park, fllinois; 8-9, courteS} of Paul Kruty; 10-11 top and bottom , copyright© The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation 1988; 12-13, from The Midway Gardens 1914-1929(1961), CHS Library; 14-17, courtesy of Paul Kruty; 18, Music Division , The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and Tilde n Foundations; 19, courtesy of Paul Kruty; 20, CHS, ICHi-01436; 21. © Copyrighted, Chicago Tribune Co., a ll rights reserved, used with permission; 22-23, fro m Midway Gardens (1914), CHS Libra1-y; 24-27, courtesy of Paul Kruty.

27

All photographs are courtesy of The Library of Congress . All photographs

by Jack Delano unless otherwise noted .

28

Frank Williams, Illinois Central Railroad.

SOLDIERS WITHOUT GUNS

by Perry R. Duis

Chicago during World War II was recorded by Office of War Information photographers.

This photographic essay traces the agency's efforts to convey a posttive image of the home front to the nation. he faces of an era nearly half a century and a million experiences ago stare from the photographs: a grizzled railroad machinist with part of his lunch-time sandwich in his mouth , the proud black owner of a business, the patriotic boy who has delivered a wagonload of scrap to a neighborhood collection center. These are the faces of American heroes of the Second World War, not fighting on the battlefields, but working, playing, and hoping at home in Chicago.

Images of their contributions were recorded for posterity by'a little-known division of what was probably the most controversial wartime governmental agency: the Office of War Information (OWi) . Created on June 13, 1942, by executive order of President Franklin 0. Roosevelt, the OWi had the difficult task of generating federal war propaganda . The Overseas Branch, directed by playwright Robert Sherwood, reported and interpreted the war effort in a number of languages. Its radio division, the Voice of America, gathered battlefield information and used the latest technology to beam broadcasts at both friend and foe in Western Europe, and later at Japan. Listeners learned how quickly American factories could turn out everything from battleships to bullets. The Overseas Branch produced posters, leaflets, magazines, movies, and even a cartoon biography of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Powerful graphic images needed little translation to instill hope among the beleaguered Allies and fear among the Axis powers.

The Domestic Branch of the OWi had the much more delicate and difficult task of shaping American opinion. Director Elmer Davis and his assistant, poet Archibald MacLeish , remembered World War I when some midwestern German-Americans displayed considerable reluctance to fight against their former homeland. They also recalled overzealous efforts to suppress dissent during that war, which had resulted in the loss of personal liberties for some German- and Russian-Americans, and an anti-Bolshevist hysteria that followed the war. Officials also feared that the Great Depression had so demoralized large segments of the population that they could no longer be aroused to enthusiastic support of their nation. In addition, many Americans felt that any manipulative government propaganda smacked of totalitarian mind control.

Perry R. Duis is associate professor of history at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a regular contributor to Chicago History.

29

Regardless of its sensitive position, the Domestic Branch had to confront a genuine need to alter some aspects of American behavior to aid the war effort. Realizing that it could create an image of the war to which most Americans would subscribe, it sought to build support for the Allies. The OWi also had to teach Americans the virtues of rationing gasoline to preserve natural rubber supplies that had become scarce when Japan cut off access to Southeast Asia . Some foods were also rationed, much to the chagrin of workers who once had no money to buy, but now had money and nothing to buy. The OWi tried to explain double-digit inflation, the need to recycle scrap metals, and the importance of food conservation . The central problem was to convince Americans that what they did as individuals was collectively important. To accomplish that goal, the agency cranked out thousands of news releases, supplied packaged play scripts to small radio stations, distributed free pamphlets, and used its influence in Hollywood to promote popular films with patriotic war-effort themes.

Critics of the OWi complained that its hard-sell propaganda techniques included censorship and bordered on a fascist demand for conformity. The Chicago Tilbune accused the OWi of harboring draft dodgers and radicals. In June 1943 the rising tide of criticism nearly caused Congress to eliminate the organization's appropriation altogether, and it survived only barely in a reduced form for the rest of the war.

Photographs were especially important to the OWi's publishing efforts. To supply them the organization extended the photography program that had been carried on since 1935 by the New Deal Farm Security Administration (FSA) . The photographic division of the FSA had been headed by Roy Stryker, a former Columbia University economics instructor. He had assembled a talented crew of photographers to document the impact of the depression and drought on American farms and to find out what kinds of lives former farmers had made for themselves in northern cities. The FSA had already begun photographing the home front after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and much of its staff and their work were easily absorbed into the OWi's publications division.

The photographers who visited Chicago included young talents who would later become famous in their field. John Vachon, self-taught in photography, had worked his way up from FSA messenger, while Russian-born Jack Delano had trained for a decade at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Esther Bubley, another FSA veteran, displayed a special sensitivity to the new role of women in the wartime military and work place. They did most of their Chicago work between early 1942 and mid-1943, when funding was slashed. They produced documentary photography at its best, a clear depiction of unposed reality, yet artistic in its composition. There is something hauntingly memorable about many of the faces. They are physically close to the camera, yet somehow distant and lonely. The war had disrupted many of the everyday patterns of work and domestic life, and OWi photographers captured their subjects' sense of uneasiness and detachment. The stark character of the images is made even more distinct by the use of sharp contrast and deep shadow.

30

-~- - - ~ - - ~ Railroad help wanted.

31

An ace Junior Block Ranger.

Neighborhoods hicago's neighborhoods formed the backbone of the local war effort. Civilian Defense, designed to mobilize citizens for the possibility of military invasion or bombing, was organized in a hierarchy that reached from the mayor's office to each block. There were also 151 selective service boards within the city limits that registered and inducted thousands of young people from every part of the city.

32

/ Neighbors shared each other's pride , anxiety, and sometimes grief over friends and relatives at the front. Symbols were everywhere . A window card bearing a colored star meant a son in the military; a gold star marked a family's supreme sacrifice.

Flagpoles dedicated at little ceremonies throughout the neighborhoods became shrines reminding neighbors of the names of the "kids down the block" who were in the service . This day-to-day participation in the war provided OWi photographers with numerous opportunities to record the patriotic activities of average citizens.

33

Talking things over with Pvt. WJ. Miller.

34

To the residents of Block 8.

35

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EKMAN M00hTG-AT. LLIAM J.MILLER. F.COPELAND. UL W. ARNElT. BERTA.STUMPE. ARLES J.JACKLIN. STER NELSON. ANLEY W.THOMPSON. fi R.ThuR fuc.ss,,; fo.Tp/¢1( BLcoM

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Neighbors in the service.

37

Family of Edward Vaughn. Ida B. Wells housing project.

Blacks uring the Great Depression. the FSA focused special attention on blacks who had migrated from the South to northern cities. These pictures of poverty had not always presented the best image of America. The DWI shifted the focus to depict the positive contributions of blacks to the domestic war effort as well as social mobility and contentment in the black community. The Roosevelt administration wanted to diffuse the negative publicity that grew out of the Detroit and Harlem riots of 1943. publicity that aided enemy propagandists. Although critics complained that the OWi placed a disproportionate emphasis on blacks. the agency thought it most important to combat the notion that the patriotism of black Americans was any less than that of whites, even in a discriminatory society.

38

Typesetter, Chicago Defender.

39

·

40

At the Henry C. Taylor Store for Men.

41

42

In honor of black soldiers killed in World War I.

43

Provident Hospital.

44

Boy Scouts of Troop 446. Ida B. Wells housing project.

After dinner. Ida B. Wells housing project.

45

Greyhound Bus Term inal. Photograph by Esther Bubley.

Transportation Hub hicago's traditional function as a transportation hub took on special importance during the war, and OWi cameras were there to preserve images of it. Tens of thousands of soldiers arrived and departed in special "troop sleepers" - little more than boxcars fitted with bunks and painted dull Pullman green - and military personnel had priority seating on regular trains. Despite the bustle of the railroad and bus stations and the activities provided by the local United Service Organization (USO). loneliness was pervasive, and OWi photographers captured it on film .

46

USO lounge, Union Station.

47

48

Fred Harvey Restaurant, Union Station.

49

Union Station.

50

Conto111 •tt, IJnion '.;1,111ur1

51

Member of the Women's Army Corps, Union Station.

Women omen participated in the war effort in unprecedented numbers, serving in various capacities in the Women Marines, Women's Army Corps (WAC), and Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES) and playing an essential role in solving the civilian manpower shortage. Women wearing coveralls and carrying lunch buckets became a familiar sight at factory gates. Others remained in the traditional role of homemaker and performed countless hours of volunteer work for service organizations.

52

Selma Barbour, manager of the Cecilian Specialty Hat Shop.

53

54

Mail department, Union Station.

55

Ladies' restroom, Greyhound Bus Terminal. Photograph by Esther Bubley.

56

After midnight, Union Station.

57

58

The Perfect Eat Shop.

59

Lunch time, Chicago and North Western Railroad repair tracks.

War Industries hicago, the nation's civilian workshop, became one of the leading producers of military equipment.

The Douglas Aircraft Company in suburban Park Ridge produced huge C-54 Skymaster cargo planes in the world's largest wooden factory building . The Dodge Chicago Plant, an aircraft engine facility on South Cicero Avenue, was the largest manufacturing structure ever built. Hundreds of other factories accepted military contracts and worked overtime to meet herculean quotas. Machinery that sat idle during the depression broke down from overuse in the forties, and unemployment rates that had soared over 25 percent in the previous decade plummeted to less than 1 percent during the war. Of equal importance were the hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans who went about their everyday jobs, followed the government guidelines on rationing, bought bonds, and supported neighborhood war efforts. The OWi made it clear that they were war heroes, too.

60

In the roundhouse. Illinois Central Railroad yard .

61

62

Mechanized equipment vital to the health and security of America . Photographer unknown.

63

Clarence Darrow: Lawyer for the People

by Arthur and Lila Weinberg

On the fiftieth anniversary of his death, Darrow '.S' biographers recount the life of one of this century'.S' most celebrated civil liberties lawyers.

For more than fifty years, until his death at age eighty-one on March 13, 1938, Clarence Darrow was the best-known, the most controversial, and generally the most skilled defense attorney in the nation. He was a social philosopher, a debunker, a lecturf'r, a gadfly. But he was also much more. He was the spokesman for labor when unions were young and weak, not only defending them in the courtroom but often acting as an arbitrator in labor confrontations. An ardent defender of the First Amendment, he insisted that even an opinion that differed from the majority had a right to be heard. A consistent opponent of the death penalty, he fought it from countless podiums. All his life he advocated civil rights and civil liberties for all people. He dedicated his life to fighting prejudice, hate , and ignorance. In all his years of practicing law he represented the rich and the poor, the weak and the strong, but never the strong against the weak.

Clarence Darrow is a study in contradictions-a pessimist who loved life, an agnostic Bible student, a sophisticated attorney with the mannerisms of a country lawyer. Always he lived by his practice, not for it. He was troubled by man's inhumanity to man, and all his writings, lectures, and debates reflect this. He used many of his cases as platforms from which to espouse a specific cau e. Hi summations were lectures on social justice and appeals for tolerance and understanding, for sanity and mercy. His words were explosive weapons, arguing, reasoning, rationalizing, . debating. His pleas were beautifully crafted essays that he delivered extemporaneously, rarely referring to notes. They appealed to tl1e emotions more than to the law, and they were effective.

Uam1rP Dam,w around the tune of his defms1' of ,\ 'a/han Leopold and R1clwrd Loeb 111 /92·/.

Darrow's pleas, lectures, and debates reflect the story of his life. He consistently applied his broad interests to the defense of the damned: from his speech at the single tax convention headed by Henry George in 1888 to his discussion of conspiracy laws as they related to the Kentucky miners in Harlan County in the mid-1930s; from his essay "The Rights and Wrongs of Ireland" (1895) to his debate "Is Zionism a Progressive Policy for Israel and America?" ( 1927); from his participation in a symposium on "What I Think of Nazi Germany" (1933) to his defense oflabor and other minorities.

In one of his classic talks Darrow urged prisoners at the Cook County Jail at the turn of the century to learn a more "legitimate" way of stealing. "There is no doubt there are quite a number of people in this jail who would pick my pockets," he told the assembly of imprisoned men.

And still I know this-that when I get outside pretty nearly everybody picks my pocket. There may be some of yo u who would hold up a man on the street, if you did not happen to have something else to do, and needed the money; but when I want to light my house or office the gas company holds me up. They charge me one dollar for something that is worth twenty-five cents.

Still all these people are good people; they are pillars of society and support the churches, and they are respectable .... IfI do not want to full into the clutches of th e gas trust and choose to bum oil instead of gas, then good Mr. Rockefeller holds me up, and he uses a certain portion of his money to build universities and support churches which are engaged in telling us how to be good .

Darrow's speech was printed in pamphlet form.

In the pamphlet's introduction he wrote that since The Weinbergs are Chicago writers whose books include Attorney for the Damned and Clarence Darrow: A Sentimental Rebel. Arthur is a 1988-89 Lloyd Lewis Fellow at The Newberry Library.

65

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 many people felt he should not have spoken as he did to inmates of a jail, nor should all types of people hear such words, he had "caused these remarks to be printed on rather good paper and in a somewhat expensive form. In this way the truth does not become cheap and vulgar, and is only placed before those whose intelligence and affiuence will prevent their being influenced by it." The pamphlet sold for five cents.

Clarence Darrow was born in Fanningdale, a small Ohio hamlet, on April 18, 1857. His lifetime encompassed the years of the country's shift from an agrarian-commercial economy to an urbanindustrial one, from weak, craft-oriented unions to strong industrial labor organizations. He was born when the country was struggling with the conflict over slavery, in the same year the U.S. Supreme Court decided Congress had no power to prohibit slavery. He died in 1938, the same year Germany annexed Austria. Three years later the United States entered World War II as a superpower, and the country was never the same.

Darrow's father, Amirus, was the town furnituremaker, undertaker, and agnostic, a dreamer who let orders for his handcrafted furniture pile up while he lost himself in his books-English, Latin, Hebrew, Greek. His mother Emily, who died when he was fourteen, was active in the suffrage movement. Their home was a station on the Underground Railroad, and so began Darrow's lifelong efforts on behalf of blacks.

Darrow spent a year at the University of Michigan Law School and then read law in Youngstown, Ohio. He appeared before the bar in Youngstown and received his certificate the same day. It is not surprising, then, that he did not deem a formal law school education requisite for admission to the bar. "The doors ought to be opened as wide as we can open them, and we ought to trust to the examination that he must pass to know whether he is qualified." Darrow argued that "nature and life" should weed out the unfit. "Whether a lawyer has been to college or whether he has not been to college, he is gradually weeded out, and those fitted and qualified,just as everywhere in life, are the ones who succeed."

After practicing several years in Andover and then in Ashtabula, Ohio, Da1Tow moved with his wife and young son to Chicago. When they anived in the late 1880s, Chicago was a city in turmoil, a city of boycotts and strikes, and a center of

66

radicalism as workingmen and women struggled for the eight-hour day. Almost immediately, Darrow became active in the amnesty movement to pardon the Haymarket "martyrs;' the eight anarchists charged with conspiring to throw a bomb into a meeting called to protest police brutality at the strikebound McCormick Reaper Works.

In Chicago Darrow worked for the office of city corporation counsel and, late1~ became corporation counsel for the Chicago and North Western Railroad. His work on the railroad was enjoyable; the possibilities for a successful future stretched ahead without limit. The Pullman Strike of 1894, however, brought everything to a halt. Darrow found it increasingly difficult to reconcile his own feelings regarding the strike with those of the corporation he represented .

The strike grew out of a demand for better wages that the railroad refused to meet. The federal government, in response to the railroad's request, issued an iajunction against the strikers.

Thirty-year-old Eugene Victor Debs, president of the American Railway Union, and all the members of the union board were indicted by a federal grand jury for "conspiracy" to interfere with the mails. Upon Debs's arrest, Darrow resigned as attorney for the railroad to defend him and the other union officials. Although Debs was found guilty and sentenced to prison, Darrow became known as the attorney for the defense of labor and the advocate for the unpopular cause.

Four years after his defense of Debs, Darrow defended Thomas I. Kidd, general secretary of the Amalgamated Woodworkers International Union, and two other union officials. They were accused of "criminal conspiracy" to i1~ure the business of the Paine Lumber Company in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. nder Wisconsin law the state does not have to indict, so in the Kidd case the district attorney had filed the complaint. In his defense of Kidd, Darrow showed that George M. Paine, head of the lumber company, had requested that the district attorney file the complaint. To Darrow, the fundamental question posed by the case was whether a group that strikes in an effort to better its conditions can be put in jail. The state called him an outsider and a troublemaker. In his plea, he reflected on what the jury's decision would mean to history, a modus operandi he would use in many of his cases. It was not so much who he was defending now, he said, as what this would

ClarmcP n nrrow

When he wci5 in his early twenties, Da1Tow marriedJessie Ohl. Their son Paul was born in 1883, and /he family moved to Chicago several years late,:

67

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 mean for future generations. "Men do not build for today, they do not build for tomorrow. They build for the centuries, for the ages. It has fallen to your lot, gentlemen," Darrow told the Kidd jury, "to be leading actors in one of the great dramas of human life." The jury's verdict, he said, would "be a milestone in the history of the world, and an inspiration and hope to the dumb, despairing millions whose faith is in your hands."

The jury took two days to reach its verdict ofnot guilty. Danow received a token fee of$25 and the union's promise to publish his summation in pamphlet form and distribute it to union members.

William Dean Howells, a major literary critic of the day and editor of the Atlantic Monthly, commented that the final summation was "as interesting as a novel."

In 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed a seven-man arbitration board to settle the coal miners' strike that involved an estimated 150,000 anthracite miners in Pennsylvania. Darrow was campaigning for state representative (he served for two years and helped to enact a workman's compensation law) when he was invited to represent the United Mine Workers in tl1e arbitration hearings. He eagerly accepted this opportunity to represent the union's cause.

In his closing speech to the arbitration board, Darrow noted that the operators were "smarter" than the miners and had all the advantages. "Their social advantages are better, tl1eir religious p1ivileges are better, they speak the English language better. They are not children. They can hire good lawyers and expert accountants, and they have got the advantage ofus in almost every particular, and we will admit all tl1at." The commission chairn1an interrupted: "Except the lawyers."

Darrow discussed trade unions and their function. He admitted that "trade unionism is not all good. I have been its friend in my own way for a good many years. I have fought some of its battles with the best ability and all tl1e sincerity that I could give to its cause, for I believe in it ... These men are not perfect. No men are pe1fect. No organization is perfect:' He recounted his dream of a universal republic where every man is a man equal before his Maker, governor of himself .. . where none will be excluded; where all will be included; where the work of the trade union is done and trade unions have melted and dissolved. And I love trade unions, because I believe they

68

are one of tJ1e greatest agencies that the world has ever known to bring about this time ... and toward forming that ideal republic which has been the hope and the aspiration and the dream of every great soul that ever lived and wrought and died for his fellow man.

Darrow spoke for eight hours. The commission went into executive session to study the 10,000 typewritten pages of testimony. A little more than a month later, in March 1903, the arbitration commission ordered a 10 percent pay raise and several million dollars in back pay for tl1e miners and the establishment ofan eight-hour day for certain categories of work in the mines. The commission also criticized the employment of children and prohibited discrimination between union and nonunion miners. The settlement, however, did not recognize the union as a responsible party in labor-management relationships but recommended a board of conciliation to handle future disputes between miners and operators.

In 1907, less than five years after representing the conservative United Mine Workers, Darrow was asked to defend officials of the militant Western Federation of Miners. William "Big Bill" Haywood , the radical secretary-treasurer of the Western Federation ; was one of the founders of the lndusu-ial Workers of the World (IWv\l). He and 1wo other federation officials were charged with the murder of the former governor of Idaho, Frank H. Steunenberg.

The murder was the culmination of years of labor difficulties and confrontations, of bitterness and betrayal in the 1-ich mining district around Coeur d 'Alene, Idaho. By 1899 a biner strike had erupted over union recognition. The mine owners and their private detectives and scabs lined up on one side; the union and its sympathizers, on 1he other Am1ed union men were pitted again tanned nonunion men in battles that resulted in property damage and death. The mine owners insisted that the entire county was in a state ofinsunection and asked Governor Steunenberg for help. He complied by sending military a si tance. Since Steunenberg had been elected twice with labor support, labor felt betrayed and denounced him as a traitor to its cause.

After his second term the governor retired.

Almost ix years late1~ as he opened the gate to his home in Caldwell, Idaho, a bomb exploded, killing him instantly. The townspeople were outraged and held the union responsible.

COME and Hear

IACHINES are Conspiracitis

CLARENCE DARROW

against the People.

PROF. T. V. SMITH

in Debate With

of tho U niversity of Chicago

Beware of their Candidates, Weak-kneed and vicious!!

Question :

"Is the Individual Responsible for His Conduct "

You will hear all about machmes at

Alfgeld Mass Meeting

Sunday,February,10,1929

Garfield Turner Hall,

Joliet Chamber of Commerce

Sunday, March 26, 3 ~~ M.

Admission 50 Cents

at 3 O ' C lock in t he A ftern oon

SPEAKERS CLARENCE S. DARROW. JOS. W . ERRANT, CONSTANTINE GOLDZIER,

1mh ward Alt[~ld Ilmnotratv

in Germ an )

and lhe Ald,•rurn.nio lnJ~pclldPol CaudidatA•

J A COB G . GROSSBERG. Mr. /.)srro"\,. wil l n ot n1f.!111 U8 th l ., tlmo.

Throughout his career; Danow, always willing to expound 011 his strong beliefs, was in com ta 111 demand as a speaker and debater.

llleets

Evuy Night at 8 o'clock

,.., , . , '4,Ji;. . _,;

}tit'!?&~~

le"~~ M!lw~ukee Avenue, Every Citizen favor·11g the liuil.Jing up of ;1. progrcssivc l>t:moc:ra, .\"

Mass Meeting on Friday, March 17th, at 8 P. M.

Wendel's Large Hall, Milw}~~:Ave, The Intellectu al and Fearless

CLARENCE S. DARROW w,IJ

peak.

\!so

WALTER F. COOLINC,

Editor of the "Municipal 0wnership Bulletin "

Jacob Engenthran J •

,

A. T. Johnson

I. W. Hicks

l'n!o l'rm ·r Ti"•l"..'06-..rhorn ~t

69

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 e'er-do-well Harry Orchard, bodyguard for union president Charles H. Moyer and a participant in some of the union's strikes, confessed to the murder. He said he acted on the order of the federation's "inner circle" composed of Haywood, Moyer, and George Pettibone.

At the time ofSteunenberg's murder tJ1e three were in Colorado. Colorado officials arrested William Haywood in a rooming house in Denver, and Charles Moyer was captured at the railroad station as he waited to board a train for Iowa, where he was scheduled to visit the smeltermen's union. George Pettibone was picked up at his home in Denver. A train transported the three to Idaho, where a carriage took them to the Idaho penitentiary in Boise.

Attorneys for the union officials challenged the method used to get the three men into Idaho.

They appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the extradition was illegal, but since the prisoners were already in Idaho, the case was out of its jurisdiction. One Supreme Court justice, however, dissented. "l(jdnapping is a crime pure and simple," said Justice Joseph McKenna, who charged that the officers of the state exerted "illegal power" and "deprived the accused of a constitutional right." He then asked, "But how is it when tJ1e law becomes the kidnapper, when the officers of the law, using the forms and exerting its power, become abductors?"

Darrow was brought into the case after the Supreme Court ruling. Labor had raised a defense fund of $250,000, $35,000 of which was DaJTow's fee. President Theodore Roosevelt tagged the defendants "undesirable citizens:• To show their support, Eugene Debs and union men throughout the country began to wear large buttons with the inscription, "I am an Undesirable Citizen:• Haywood was the first to be tried in what the Chicago Tribune called an "epoch making" trial. The main witness against him was Harry Orchard, who had undergone a religious conversion while in jail. In his testimony Orchard admitted he was a bigamist who had deserted his children, that his true name was Albert Horsely, that he was responsible for murders, dynamite blasts, and an unsuccessful "attempt to blow up a gang of non-union miners." He accused Haywood of paying him to blow up a depot at Independence, Idaho. He admitted setting the bomb that was attached to the Steunenberg fence. He said he had 70

an understanding with Haywood and the other two union officials "that when I got done with this business they would give me money to buy a ranch."

After twenty-six hours of cross-examination, Orchard broke down in tears, saying, "I began to think about my past life and the unnatural monster I had been and I didn't care much what happened to me. I was afraid to die, too, for I came to believe that the grave did not end it all." If he repented, he said, he knew he "would be forgiven" and thus "decided to make a clean breast of it all." He had "never been in doubt of having been forgiven from that moment."

Da1Tow focused on the state's star witness in his summation. He decried Orchard's conversion. "[I]f Harry Orchard has religion now," Darrow hoped that he himself would never get it. "I want to say to this jury that before Harry Orchard got religion he was bad enough, but it remained to religion to make him totally depraved." He called Orchard a "monstrous liar.... bred to cheat and to lie ....

Gentlemen, is there any man that can ever think of Harry Orchard ... except in loathing and disgust?" Yet, believing that all life is worth saving, DaJTow said, "[I]f the time should ever come that somebody pronounced against him the decree of death and nobody else asks to save his life, my petition will be there to save it. I do not believe in man taking away the life of his fellow-man." ln keeping with the procedure he first developed in the Kidd case-to speak less of the defendant than of the larger issue-DaJTow told thejury that Haywood was not his main concern.

He can die if this jury decrees it; but, oh, gentlemen, do not think for a moment that if you hang him you will rrucify the labor movement of the world; do not think that you will kill the hopes and the aspirations and the desires of the weak and the pom: ... It is not for him alone that I speak. I peak for the po01~for the weak, for the weary, for that long line of men, who, in darkness and despair, have borne the labors of the human race.

The Haywood plea was a plea for labor~ a passionate composite of DaJTow's views of labor and of society. He spoke for eleven hours. The jut)' acquitted Haywood. The Chicago Tribune, reporting die case, said that Darrow's summation "was an address not to 12 jurors in front of him but to Socialists throughout the country."

Clarence Da,,-ow by Xathaniel P Steinbe,g, c. 1932.

Clarence Darrow

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71

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 Pettibone, the next to be tried, was also acquitted, and the case again t Moyer was dropped. For the murder of the governor Orchard was given the death sentence, which was later commuted to life imprisonment by the Idaho Board of Pardons.

He died in prison on April 13, 1954. Haywood was eventually ousted as secretary-treasurer of the Western Federation of Miners because of his militancy as a member of the Socialist party and as an official of the Industrial Workers of the World.

While awaiting trial, Pettibone contracted tuberculosis and died shortly after his acquittal. Moyer resumed his activities with the federation. Darrow returned to Chicago with his second wife Ruby, whom he had married in 1903. They rented a large, airy, nine-room aparunent in Hyde Park at 1536 East 60th Street, only a few blocks from the University of Chicago.

In 1908 hysteria flared in the eastern European Jewish community in Chicago near Hull-House.

The Russian government was trying to extradite Christian Rudovitz, a Russian revolutionist living in Chicago. Thirty-five-year-old Lutheran-born Rudovitz had joined the Russian Social Democratic party in 1905 because "there was a revolution there ." He admitted participating with his comrades in raids to "exprop1iate" arms and attending a meeting at which the party voted to kill three spies. Rudovitz, one of the party leaders identified

by Russian agents, fled to the United States where he settled in West Pullman, Illinois, and worked as a carpenter. He was arrested on the complaint of tl1e Russian consul in Chicago, who requested he be returned to Russia. Rudovitz insisted he was a political refugee seeking asylum in the United State . The Jewish community feared that if the extradition was carried out, other revolutionists among them would also be endangered. The case aroused the interest of Jane Addams, director of Hull-House, and many oflhe settlement workers there, as well as federal judge Julian Mack and the Immigrants' Protective League. The league asked Darrow to represent Rudovitz. Along with friend and fellow attorney Peter Sissman and Charles C. Hyde of orthwestern University, Darrow appeared before the U.S. commission that heard the case.

Martin J urow, another Russian revolutionist and the chief wimess for Rudovitz, testified that his own brothers, aged sixteen and twelve, had been tortured when they refused to divulge his hiding

72

place. The purpose of the revolution,Jurow said, "was to overthrow the present government [of Russia] and establish one by the people. We robbed the barons and disarmed the soldiers. We broke into houses and stole guns and ammunition. We adopted resolutions that those who give evidence against our leaders should be killed."

Da1Tow charged in his closing argument that "Czar Nicholas II is plotting to reach the hand of despotism into the United States and drag back, no one knows how many, political offenders of Russia. If the crime was committed in Russia and it was not a political offense then it is the duty of this court to return him there [or trial:' But the Rudovitz case was something different. To Da1Tow the circumstances were similar to those of the American Revolution. He argued that tl1e passion that moved Rudovitz was similar to tl1e "same eternal ideal that inspired that band of men who were the great-great-great-grandfathers of the daughters and sons of the American Revolution who went out and burned houses and cut throats and shot on sight. This is not an ordinary case," Darrow insisted.

The com mi sione1~ however, did not agree with the defense and recommended that the State Deparunent extradite Rudovitz to Russia. The case was appealed to the State Department. The appeal insisted that at the time the spies were killed there was "a political uprising throughout the Baltic provinces and [it] extended over a large portion of the Russian Empire." Secretary of State Elihu Root denied the deportation order. He n.1led that under the terms of a treaty that had been in effect between the U.S. and Russia since 1893 Rudovitz was not extraditable because the acts of violence were "inextricably connected with the revolutionary activity."

Commenting on the State Department's verdict,Jane Addams said, "It is cenainly true that i[ the decision of the federal office in Chicago had not been reversed by tJ1e Department of State in Washington , the United States government would have been committed to returning thousands of spirited young refugees to the punishment of the Russian autocracy:' Almost from the beginning of his legal career Darrow had wanted to write as an avocation. The New York Times quoted him in 1925: "For twentyseven years my ambition has been to turn my attention to writing, but the law has so absorbed

Clarr,nce Darrow

Darrow married his second wife Ruby Hamerstrom in 1903. She proved a formidable companion who supported and challenged Darrow through.out his life.

73

Chicago H istory, Fall and Winter 1987-88

He denounces people's pet notions and makes them like it!

Astounding bargain!

Best liberal reading -1,157 pages, 300,000 Words.

Almost Two Pounds for $1 !

$

·

~

Works of

i

DARROW 0

Clarence Darrow

18 THRILLING SECTIONS Containing these 27 Titles: Faclns Life Fearleuly, The Lord's Day Alliance. A brief againat Blue Sundays_ h:aaecta and Men: Instinct and ~ Voltaire, the Man Who Foolecl Prlut and

Kinar,

h Capital Puniahment Juatl6-clT Debate vs_ Judge Alfred J_ Talley. la Prohibition tu.ht?

Debate vs- John 1:laynea Holmeela Life Worth Li•ln1T Debate ve_ Frederick Starr_ la the ftuman Race Cettlns Anywhere?

Debate VB- Frederick Starr-

The Skeleton in the Closet. Famous lectureEaaay on Walt Whitman.

Eaaay on John P. Altceld.

Realism in Literature and Art. Euay on Robert Burne, Eaaay on Ceorse Burman Foster.

EASILY WORTH $3 ALL YOURS FOR $1 This is the '""teet bargain in the history of printmgl The worke of Darrow, the aanoi,tic and liberal lawyer, 1,157J)8Cell._ 300,000 words, almoet two pounda-oruy 11 postpaid! Send a dollaT bill with the blank at richt_ We pay the poetace!

Haldeman-Jullua Publlcatlona, Dept. W•IO Girard, Kuaua

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Some Parasrapha Adclreuecl to Socialists.

The Ordeal ol Prohibition.

The Edwardaea and the Jukeaea, Question of heredity diecueeedAre We MachlneaT Debate ve- Dr- Will Duran.t .

Can the lndlridual Control His Conduct?

Debat.e vs- Prof_ T- V. Smith.

Dn-Law Pro and Con.

Debate vs. Wayne B- WheelerDo Human Belnas Haye Free WUif Debate VS- Prof- Geo- Burman Foater.

Realat Not ETII. Doctrine of non-resistance diecuaaed.

An Eye for an Eye. Complete novelPlea in Defense of Loeb and Leopold, the Boy MurdeNn, Darrow n. Bryan ln the Famous Scopea Anti-Evolution Trial.

Defense ol a Nearro, Famous Dr. Sweet trial in DetroitA Day with Clarence Darrow,

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1 SEND $1 WITH THIS BLAN~ I Haldeman..J\1111111 Publlcatlona, I Dept. W-tc. Clrard, Kan..., I enclose 11 for the "Works of Darrow" in 18 thrilling I sectione, 27 title.a, to be eent poetpaid to the address I below: I Name ., _____ ,,, ______ ,,,, •.•• • ..••••..•..••• - -- ·

I~~---_-_-_-_-.-_-:.·::::::::::::::::~~~:: ::: :::::::

Clarence Darrow my attention that I have been unable to do so." evertheless Dan-ow accomplished much in the literary world. His first work, A Persian Pearl and Other Essays, appeared in 1899. In the title essay Danow discussed his feelings of kinship with the poet Omar Khayyam 's pessimistic philosophy. In another essay he affirmed the belief of Robert Burns that man was tJ1e "divine king of rights." He sympathized with Walt Whitman , comrade and friend of the poor, the weak, and the outcast. In "The Skeleton in the Closet," Dan-ow wrote of the subconscious mind long before Sigmund Freud came forward with his theories of psychoanalysis.

The book illustrates a literary bent one would not expect to find in a lawyer.

In J902 the Chicago Evening American ran a series of essays by Danow. Publisher William Randolph Hearst, a clientofDan-ow's, indulged him by printing the stories but did not pay him for them.

Called "Easy Lessons in Law," tJ1e series was based on actual cases that revolved around two points of law that Dan-ow considered unjust to the worker: the Doctrine of Assumed Risk and the Doctrine of Fellow Servants.

Danow told tJ1e story of Tony, a brakeman whose leg was cut off by a train while he was cleaning switches. Under the Doctrine of Assumed Risk, me judge told the jury that "ifTony did not know better than to work in such a dangerous place, he assumed t-he risk and they must return a verdict for the defendant [the railroad]."

The Doctrine of Fellow Servants ays the employer is not liable if an injury to one worker is caused by the negligence or enor of another.

Danow told the story of two men-Mc Bartlett, a wealthy passenger, and Mr. Hunt, a brakemankilled during a railroad accident caused by a conductor's negligence. Bartlett's widow was given $5,000 compensation. The judge told the Widow Hunt that her husband 's death was caused by "the negligence of the conductor ... that the conductor and brakeman were fellow servants," and mus the company held no responsibility. Da1Tow concluded his piece sardonically: Bartlett' widow went Lo France to soothe he r SOITO\'>' ; Hunt's widow "is now doing washing for her neighbors."

"Little Louie Epstine" -the story ofa nine-yearoldjewish new boy from the slums-was an ironic Christmas commentary, "a Christmas card for One oj Dmrows p11b/1Jhers offered thiJ '"aslou11di11g bargain·· in 1927.

muckrakers." It appeared in 1903 in a small magazine called The Pilgrim. In it Darrow told the world about the brutality oflife in the slums, the struggle for survival, the poignant hopelessness, and the futility of striving.

DaITow's sharply delineated characters, his compassion and sensitivity for the despoiled, and his concern for the impersonal feelings of business and the inequities of the legal machinery, effectively showed the suffering the workingman and tJ1e poor endured in a hostile system. Today his stories seem exaggerated and sentimental, but they foreshadowed the work of muckraker Upton Sinclair in his novel The jungle.

Darrow published Resist Nol Evil in 1902. The theme concerned violence and puni hment, nonresistance and pacifism. As a pacifist, Darrow wrote that the doctrine of nonresistance need not "only be held by dreamers and tJ,eorists" but could also have a "place in daily life." He insisted tJ1at while government is the personification of violence and force , the instinct for nonviolence is as old as life itself.

Darrow completed Farmington , a semi-autobiographical novel, while on his honeymoon with Ruby. Published in 1904, it is the story of his own childhood in rural America, a celebration of his youth. In the prestigious Dial magazine, one critic wrote that Farmington "is a book for boys, for women-but above all, it is a book for men who have once been boys:' A year after Farmington, Danow published An J:,ye for an J:,ye, his only novel. Its plot focused on murder and retribution, crime and punishment.

Danow again showed his compassion for the lower class, brutally treated by life. The book is probably the first example of what would come to be called the "proletarian literary school." All Darrow's writings combined realism and romanticism, and he contributed significantly to the development of realistic writing in America.

In 1903 DatTow formed a law practice with poet Edgar Lee Masters, who had yet to write his classic Spoon River Anthology. The partnership was troubled from me start. The two men were totally incompatible, and both had entered the partnership for the wrong reasons. Masters was primarily interested in literature and expected that his association with Darrow would lead to financial secu1ity and leave him free to write. DaITow counted on Masters to relieve him from the details of the 75

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 law so that he could attend to larger issues. Masters soon discovered that Darrow was not so much interested in making money as in lecturing and debating and in defending the unpopular, the poor, the damned, and the just cause. During the three years Darrow spent in Los Angeles-from 1910 to 1913-the partnership dissolved.

In 1910 Los Angeles was a mecca for the open shop, influenced by the anti-union philosophies of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the powerful Los Angeles Times. He used his paper to propagandize against union organization. The fight was bitter. Early one morning in October 1910, a bomb exploded in the Los Angeles Times building, killing twenty workers and injuring many more. The American Federation of Labor blamed Otis and his supporters, who in turn accused the union. Eventually, two labor men, brothers John J. and James B. Mc amara, were arrested for the bombing.

Organized labor rallied to their cause, pledged union support, and asked Darrow to be their chief counsel.

Clarence and Ruby went t.o Los Angeles, where he gathered a staff and started to investigate the details of the case. As Darrow examined the evidence he began to believe that his clients were indeed guilty, but he agreed with muckraker Lincoln Steffens that their act was a "social manifestation of a condition" in the struggle between labor and capital. He realized that only plea-bargaining could save their lives. "I can't stand to have a client of mine hanged," he told Steffens, who had come to discuss the case with him. As the jury was being selected Darrow stunned the court, the prosecution, and the nation's labor movement when he changed the pleas of the brothers from not guilty to guilty. The labor movement, outraged with the change in plea, labeled Darrow a traitor and abandoned him. The hero became an outcast.

But there were more shocks to come. Negotiations for a settlement in the McNamara case were in progress when Da1Tow himself was charged with attempt.ingto b1ibe two prospect.ivejurors. He faced a one-to-ten-year jail sentence plus a $5,000 fine for each indictment. The greatest defense attorney in the country now needed an attorney to defend him, and he chose Earl Rogers, the noted \Vest Coast criminal lawyer. Darrow also took an active part in the trial proceedings. On May 15, 1912, the Darrow trial opened in Los Angeles. He pleaded

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not guilty to the bribery charges.

The principal witness against Darrow was a former investigator hired by Darrow in the McNamara case. He said that the money he had used to bribe prospective jurors came from Darrow. Among Darrow's character witnesses were the former president of the Illinois Bar Association, several former distTict attorneys, a Catholic priest, the president of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, and Steffens.

The country's newspapers featured daily stories of the trial. The courtroom was jammed when a beleaguered and weary Darrow started his final summation to the jury: What am I on trial for, gentlemen of the jury? You have been listening here for three months. What is it all about? If you don't know then you are not as intelligent as I believe. I am not on trial for having sought to bribe a man named Lockwood. There may be and doubtless are many people who think I did seek to bribe him, but I am not on n-ial for that, and l will prove it to you. I am on trial because I have been a lover of the poor, a friend of the oppressed, because I have stood by labor for all these years, and have brought upon my head the wrath of the criminal interests in tl1is country....

I have lived my life, and I have fought my battles, not against the weak and tl1e poor-anybody can do thatbut against powe1~against injustice, against oppression, and I have asked no odds from them , and I never shall.

If you should convict me, there will be people to applaud the act. But if in your judgment and your wisdom and your humanity, you believe me innocent, and return a verdict of ot Guilty in thi case, l know that from thousands and Lens of thousands and yea, perhaps millions of the weak and the poor and the helpless throughout the world, will come thanks to this jury for saving my liberty and my name.

The jury took thirty-four minutes to find Darrow innocent. Three months later Darrow was brought to trial on the second bribery charge, but that jury could not reach a verdict. Eventually the indictment was dropped.

The Darrows returned to their Hyde Park apartment in 1913. His law partnership with Master defunct, Darrow started over again . But labor was not yet ready to accept him as its defense counsel; new clients with other legal problems were slow to come. In time, very slowly, with the help of Peter Sissman , the attorney he had befriended years Dmrow's plea left "no di)' ey<' or unmoved heart in the crowc/Rd courtroom,. according lo this /1ublishe1:

Clarence Darrow

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Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 earlier, his practice grew until he became once again a leading defense attorney in the country.

The World War I years were unhappy for Darrow.

Until the United States entered the war he was a pacifist, but the German invasion of Belgium and stories of their atrocities against Belgian children led him to forsake his belief. He became very active in the war drive, speaking at Liberty Bond rallies and defending the government's war efforts.

He was never a "professional patriot," and he understood and sympathized with those who differed with him regarding the wac He often went to government offices in Chicago to save dissenters from imprisonment for opposing the war. He said the principles he had espoused in Resist Not Evil were still valid, but his error "as I see it now, was the belief that you could make a general rule of life that would cover every case." In a foreword to a revised edition of the book published in 1925, he wrote that his "scientific studies" had convinced him that "man can never reach a state of nonresistance. His structure is fixed ... and under sufficient inducement the primal emotions will sweep away all the inhibitions and restraints that culture has woven around him. This was fully demonstrated in the great war [World War I]:' During World War I and its aftermath in the 1920s, a "red scare" gripped the United States.

Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer rounded up radicals of all descriptions in what have become known as the Palmer raids. Some of these radicals were indicted, brought to trial, and convicted.

Others were deported. This hysteria led to the executions of anarchists icola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were unjustly convicted of robbery and murder in a prejudiced trial.

About half of the states passed espionage laws that Darrow described as "forbidding free discussion either orally or in the press." When Illinois passed such a law in 1919, twenty members of the Communist Labor party were arrested in Chicago and charged with advocating the overthrow of the government by force. Among the defendants was Winnetka, Illinois, millionaire William Bross Lloyd, son of Henry Demarest Lloyd, the author of Wealth Against Commonwealth and one of the founders of the Communist Labor party in America. Darrow took on the task of defending the twenty Communists.

In his summation to the jury, Darrow presented an eloquent and dramatic appeal for the First

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Amendment. "I am interested in the verdict of this jury," said Darrow, "as to whether this country shall be ruled by the conscienceless men who would stifle freedom of speech when it interferes with their gold, or whether this jury will stand by the principles of the futhers and, whether so fur as you can, you will stop this mad wave that threatens to engulf the liberty of American citizens."

He said he would not argue whether the defendants' ideas were right or wrong.

I am not bound to believe them right in order to take their case, and you are not bound to believe them right in order to find them not guilty. I don't know whether they arc right or wrong. Butl do know this-I know that the humblest and the meanest man who lives, I know that the idlest and the silliest man who lives, should have his say. I know he ought to speak his mind. And I know that the Constitution is a delusion and a snare if the weakest and the humblest man in the land cannot be defended in his right to speak and his right to think as much as the greatest and the strongest in the land. I am not here to defend their opinions. I am here to defend their right to express their opinions.

He asked the jury to protect "our Constitution as our fathers gave it."

Protect it not in the letter but in the soul. I do not know what the future holds in store for America or the human race. I am willing to take my chance, and I want to take my chance by leaving every man free to bring his contribution to the world; by leaving every man free to express his thought; by leaving every man free to throw his opinions into the great crucible that we may work it out.

This is freedom. It is freedom we have believed in. It is the freedom we have worked for, and , gentlemen , it is the freedom I urge you to protect and save.

In closing, Darrow urged the jury to stand for the right of men to think; for the right to speak boldly and unafraid; the right to be master of their souls; the right to live free :md to die free. There is no other cause that is so much worth while. There is no other sentiment or emotion that ever moved the human soul as p1-iceless as this.

After a ten-week trial, the jury deliberated only a few hours before bringing in a guilty verdict.

The defendants were fined and sentenced to terms ranging from one to five years. The case was appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court, which affirmed the decision. ChiefJustice Orrin Carter, however, dissented. "Under the Illinois Act of 1919, it would seem that provisions were designed not

Clarence Darrow

Chicago modernist Rudolph Hh1enborn mad,, lhis portrait of Darrow in 1923.

so much perhaps to punish those who commit vio lent acts to overthrow the government, but rather it was drafted for the purpose of forbidding any person who held opinions distasteful to the majority of our citizens to express these opinions:' Illinois governor Len Small, quoting from tl1e dissenting opinion, pardoned the defendants before they had served a day of their sentence.

Four years late1~ in 1924, Darrow defended atl1an Leopold and Richard Loeb, two brilliant young men charged with the kidnapping and murder of a fourteen-year-old neighbor from Chicago's Hyde Park. The boys had attempted to construct and execute the "perfect crime." When they were ~aught their multi-millionaire families asked Darrow to save their sons from a death sentence.

DaJTow agreed to take tl1e case; for him it provided a national platform from which to speak out against capital punishment.

The trial opened in the courtroom of Judge John R. Caverly, chief justice of the Criminal Court of Cook County. The public and the press were startled when Darrow approached the bench,

changed the plea from not guilty to guilty, and asked the court for permission to offer evidence as "to the mental condition of these two young men, to show the degree of responsibility tl1ey had. We wish to offer iliis evidence in mitigation of the punishment." He said he would not introduce evidence of insanity but intended "to show that our clients are mentally diseased." Under these conditions it would be the judge, not a jury, who would decide the fate of the boys.

Newspapers headlined a million-dollar defense, but Darrow retorted that tl1ere would be no excessive use of money. Psychiatrists (then called "alienists") were used as expert witnesses and would be paid on a per diem basis, DaJTow said, and the attorneys would receive "such amount as the officers of the Chicago Bar Association may think is tl1e proper amount." Both the defense and the prosecution used psychiatrists as witnesses.

DaITow spoke for twelve hours in his summation.

Your Honor stands between the past and the future.

You may hang these boys . . . until they are dead. But in

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Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

doing it you will turn your face toward Lhe past. ... I am pleading for Lhe fuLure; I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will noL conLrol Lhe hearts of men, when we can learn by reason and judgment and undersLanding and faith that all life is worth saving, and thaL mercy is the highest auribute of men.

On September 24, 1924, the chief justice rendered his verdict. He sentenced the boys to life imprisonment on the murder charge and to ninety-nine years on the kidnapping indictment.

Twelve years later Loeb was killed in a prison fight.

Leopold served until March 1958, when he was released from prison under a five-year parole agreement and was discharged after that period.

The Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925, gave Clarence Darrow the opportunity to debate the constitutionality of the Tennessee anti-evolution law. John T. Scopes, a high school teacher, had been indicted for teaching evolution in his class.

In his arraignment of the law, Darrow argued:

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If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, Lomorrow you can make ii a crime to teach it in the private schools, and the next year you can make it a crime to teach it from the hustings or in the church. At the next session you ma) ban books and the newspapers. Soon you may set Catholic against ProtestanL and Protestant against Protestant, and Lry to foist your own religion upon the minds of men.

Battling Darrow in tJ1e Scopes trial was William Jennings B11•an, former secret al)' of state and tJ1reetime Democratic candidate for president of the United States. During the trial, the small town of Dayton became a combined Cerney Island, revival meeting, and circus featuring hot-dog stands and lemonade vendors, fundamentalists and anarchists, Wobblies and Holy Rollers. More than a hundred newspapermen from across the country converged on tJ1e town. The highlight of the trial was Darrow's examination ofRryan, who believed

Clarence Darrow

ThP Leopold mu/ l.oeb case catapulled Darrow into the national spotlight. I IP gladly med the o/Jportunity to speak out against capital punishment.

Lift, he claimed in hi.1 defe,w /hat Nathan Leupold (seated, left) and Richard Loeb (seated, right) were mentally ill rather than insane, and therefore worthy 1f rehabilitation. Above, /Jam,w and colleague Benjamin Baclwmdt listen as the state'.1 allomey dmounce1 the defn,s1•.

he was fighting th e evils of ath e ism , agnosti cism , and no nbe li evers. Darrow's examinatio n o f Bryan lasted a full day.

D: Do yo u be li eve th a t after Eve ate th e apple, o r gave it to Ada m, whi cheve r way it was, th at God cursed Eve, and at th a t time decreed th at all wo ma nkind th e ncefo rth and fo rever sho ul d suffe r th e pains o f child birth in th e reprodu c1i o n of th e ea rth ?

B: I believe wh at it says, an d I be li eve the fac t as full yO: T hat is what it says, doesn't it?

B: Yes. D: An d fo r tha t reason, eYery woma n born of wo ma n, 1vho has to ca n y o n 1he race, th e reaso n th ey have child birth pains is beca use Eve te m pted Adam in th e Garde n o f Eden?

B: I will be lieve j ust wha1 th e Bi ble ays. I ask to p ut th at in th e langu age of the Bi ble, for I p re fer th a t to )'O ur language. Read th e Bib le an d I will a nswe1: D: All right, I will d o th at: "A nd I will pu t e nmi ty betwee n th ee a nd th e woman"-tha t is re fening to th e serpe nt?

B: T he se rpe nt.

D: [reading] "and betwee n thy seed a nd he r seed ; it sha ll bruise th y head , a nd th o u shalt bruise his heel. Unto th e wo ma n he said , I will grea tl y multipl y thy son ow a nd thy co nce ptio n; in son ow th o u shalt bring fortl1 child re n; a nd thy d esire sha ll be to thy husband, and he sha ll rul e ove r th ee." Tha t is righ t, is it?

B: I acce pt it as it is.

D: And yo u be lieve that came a bo ut because Eve tempted Ad am to ea t th e fruit?

B:Just as it says.

D: And yo u be lieve th at is th e reaso n th a t God made th e se rpe nt to go o n his be ll y afte r he te mpted Eve? B: I be lieve th e Bible as it is, a nd I do not pe rm it yo u to put yo ur la nguage in tl1 e place o f th e la ngu age of th e Alm ighty. Yo u read th e Bi ble and as k me qu esti o ns, a nd I will answe r th e m. I will no t answe r q uesti o ns in yo ur language.

After o ne d ay th e judge re fu sed furth er qu estioning of Bryan and ordered his testimony stricken fro m th e record . Darrow as ked th at th e jury be 81

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

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Clarence Darrow

With char1ulen111c ual, /)a,TOw argues Leopold and Loeb'., mse before judge j ohn R. Caverly.

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Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

Throughout the sweltering summer of 1925, Darrow defender/john T Scopesjin· teachingevolution in the small town of Dayton, 7enne.tw. r:ve,Jone Juul an opinion; the proceeding5 elicited bagfuL5 of mail.

instructed to return a guilty verdict so that the defense could appeal to a higher court and receive a decision on the constitutionality of the antievolution law. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100. Bryan died a few days after the trial ended.

On appeal the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision on a technicality-the court, not the jury, had set the fineand the case was dismissed. The anti-evolution law remained on the statute books until April 1967, when the Tennessee House of Representatives and the State Senate repealed it.

Of all his cases, Darrow considered that of Dr. Ossian Sweet to be one of the most important. He came to the defense of Dr. Sweet naturally. "Ever since I can remember," he wrote, "I have been

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possessed of the feeling of injustice that has been visited upon the egro race." The black population in Detroit had exp loded during World War!, when southern blacks came north in search of jobs. Until the war 12,000 blacks lived in the city; by the time the Sweets were arrested in 1926, that population had jumped to 64,000. The factories of postwar Detroit had room for them, but the shortage of housing there was critical.

Dr. Sweet, a gynecologist, was caught in this housing dilemma. He had just returned with his wife and child from a year of study in Europe. He found a two-story bungalow in a lower-middleclass white neighborhood and negotiated for its purchase. He expected no hostility from neighbors because he knew the white woman who sold

Clarence Darrow

The Scope; trial w<JS the first lo be broada,st over the airwaVPs, and WGN carried ii in Chicago. Bu.t sroem/ days of the /1roreedings pc1SSed before the 1ra11.11nilling equipml'llt fw1clionNI /1roperly.

the house to him was married to a black man. He did not know that the community was unaware of the mixed marriage.

Keenly aware of the long history of violence perpelrated against blacks, Dr. Sweel and his wife moved into lhe house with furniture and a supply of guns and ammunition. Ossian's two brothersOtis, a dentist, and Henry, a law student-and seven friends helped them move. The first night a crowd galhered around the house wilhout incident. On lhe second night the crowd grew larger, angrier, and more boisterous, shouling racial slurs and showering Lhe house with stones and bricks.

Shols were fired from inside the house; a man in the crowd was killed and another wounded.

Police who had been stationed around the

house to prevent disorder entered it following the shots. They arrested all eleven blacks inside and charged them with murder. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) hired Darrow for the defense. Joining him were Arthur Garfield Hayes, a prominent white New York attorney who was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and three black lawyers from Detroit, Cecil 0. Rowlette, Charles H . Mahoney, and Julian W. Perry. Frank Murphy, who would become governor of Michigan and eventually a U.S. Supreme CourtJustice, presided at the trial.

As expected, it was difficult to impanel a jury because almost everyone had an opinion, most of them not favorable toward the defendants. Not

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Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 one of the jurors was black. Darrow made much of this in his summation.

oi

r~_; , J h TDAScY_ION, _TENN._ 1

~: ,1 ·

,·

o n . opes goes on tna1 for teaching evolution' Throng fills Tennessee village as legal Napoleons begin battle testing Anti-Darwin statute.

PATHE NEWS

It is not an easy matter to talk or to listen to a case of this sort. ... Back of it is the everlasting problem of color and race. lfl thought you had an opinion against their race, I would not worry. You can change a man's opinion but not his prejudices. If it had been a white man defending his home from a member of a egro mob, no one would have been arrested or put on trial.

I speak for a race which will go on and on to heights never reached before. I speak for a million blacks who have some hope and faith remaining in the institutions of this land. I speak to you in behalf of those whose ancestors were brought here in chains. I speak in behalf of the faces, those black faces, which have haunted this courtroom since this trial began. I ask you in behalf of yourselves, our race, to see that no harm comes to them.

I as k you in the name of the future to do justice in this case.

Darrow wiped the tears from his eyes upon concluding. The jury, out for three days, said it could not reach a verdict.Judge Murphy declared a mistrial.

A second trial opened five months later, also in Judge Murphy's court. This time there was only a single defendant-Henry Sweet, who had confessed to firing the shots. The prosecution recalled the same witnesses. The main witness for the defense was Dr. Ossian Sweet. Through his examination Darrow introduced into the court record the history of race riots and the fears of the men in the house at the time of the shooting.

As in the first trial, Darrow talked of the prejudices of whites in the crowd. He denied the prosecution's contention that this was a murder case, and that it had nothing to do with race. "I insist," Darrow claimed,

Stills from o newsreel made in Dayton capture the carnival atmosphere SU?Tounding the Scopes trial.

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that there is nothing but prejudice in this case .... Here were eleven colored men penned up in the house. Put yourselves in their places. Make yourselves colored for a little while. It won't hurt you, you can wash it off ... just make yourself black for a little while; long enough gentlemen, to judge them, and before any of you would want to be judged, yo u would want your juror to put himself in your place. That is all I ask in this case, gentlemen. They were black, and they knew the history of the black. ...

I am the last one to come here to stir up race hatred , or any other hatred. I do not believe in the law of hate. I may not be true to my ideal always, but I believe in the law of love, and I believe you can do nothing with hatred. I would like to see a time when man loves his fellow-man, and forgets his color or his creed. We will

Clarence Darrow never be civilized until that time comes. I know the Negro race has a long road to go. I believe the life of the Negro race has been a life of tragedy, of injustice, of oppression.

Gentlemen, what do you think is your duty in this case? I have watched day after day, these black, tense faces that have crowded this court. These black faces that are now looking to you twelve whites. Their eyes are fixed on you, their hearts go out to you, and their hopes hang on your verdict.

Darrow's plea lasted seven hours. The jury was out three and a half hours. Its verdict: not guilty.

The charges against the other defendants were eventually dropped.

The AACP published Darrow's second plea in pamphlet form because "of its historical, legal, and humanitarian value:' Danow believed that his "long sympathy for the colored people" helped him "to make one of the strongest and most satisfactory arguments that I had ever made:' into the late 1920s Darrow's office at 140 North Dearborn Street continued to be a haven for the disinherited, the famous, and the unknown, for workers seeking legal advice, literati passing through Chicago, and representatives of black organizations asking him to speak at fund raisers.

A constant stream of people wanted his help, and much of Darrow's time was taken up with lectures and debates. "Does Man Have Free Will ?" "ls Man a Free Agent?" "Is Life Worth Living?"

Darrow answered no. To the questions "Is Man a Machine?" and "Is Civilization a Failure?" Darrow, the pessimist, said yes.

Darrow closed his office and, for all practical purposes, retired from the practice of law in the late 1920s. In 1932, at the age of seventy-five, he came out of retirement to defend Navy lieutenant Thomas Massie in Honolulu. The trial grew out of the rape of Massie' wife, Thalia. The Massies had been at a party when Mrs. Massie decided to walk home after a quarrel with her husband . She was accosted by five nonwhites who were later arrested and identified by Mrs. Mas ie as her assailants.

They were brought to trial, but the jury could not reach a verdict, and they were released on bail.

While awaiting retrial, the leader of the assailants was kidnapped by Lt. Massie, Mrs. Grace Fortescue (Thalia's mother), and two enlisted Navy men. The quartet forced him to confess, and as he did he was shot and killed.

Darrow was asked to represent the lieutenant

and the others. He was reluctant to take the case because he feared racial prejudice might become a part of the trial. Hawaii was seething with discontent-first because of the assault on Mrs. Massie, then over the disagreement of the jury in the rape case, and finally over the murder. U.S. Navy men clashed with the natives; white women were being molested.

Danow's acceptance of the Massie defense puzzled many of his friends. Everything about it was at variance with what he believed. He was now defending the military establishment. Darrow himself had difficulty explaining his involvement. "I was not sure then, and am not sure now," he wrote in an addendum to a new edition of his autobiography, The Story of My Life.

I had never been to that part of the Pacific ... and the more I thought of those islands in the Pacific, the more I investigated the strange and puzzling case, the more I felt I had better go .. . . Then, too, the so-called depression swept away practically all the savings that I thought I had for keeping me comfortable to the end, and I needed the fee. I do not know the relative importance of these motives, but I know that these reasons, and others, took me to Honolulu.

Reportedly, he had been promised $30,000 plus expenses for the case.

Jury selection was accomplished four days after the trial opened. The final jury consisted of five men of American descent, one Dane, one German, one Portuguese, three Chinese, and one a combination oflrish, Hawaiian, Scottish, Tahitian, and French ancestry. From the Hawaiian population, Darrow had been unable to select a jury based on the formula he had developed. He explained that formula in an article in the May 1936 Esquire magazine where he advised against accepting Presbyterians, Baptists, Lutherans, prohibitionists, and wealthy men. He prefened, he explained, to have on his jury Englishmen and Ge1mans, Unita1ians, Universalists, Congregationalists, Jews, and agnostics.

Commenting on Darrow's plea to the Massie jury, the Honolulu Advertiser reported that "with words that unfolded like the immortal pages of a Greek tragedy, Clarence Darrow said before the Massie-Fortescue jury the reasons upon which he is asking their freedom."

While awaiting the jury's decision, Darrow spoke at the Representative Club in Honolulu. His topic

87

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

Clarence and Ruby at home on his 79th birthday, April 18, 1936.

88

Clarence Darrow was crime and criminals. "If we can get people to stop hating and to understand each other, if we stop punishing and try to cure, we will get where we want to go ... . Cure poverty and you will cure most of C1ime." The theme was familiar. Darrow had repeated it often during his lifetime. Back in 1902 he told the inmates in the Cook County Jail: "If every man and woman and child in the world had a chance to make a decent, fair, honest living, there would be no jails and no lawyers and no courts."

For two days the jury in the Massie case debated before finding the defendants guilty of manslaughter. But it recommended clemency. Darrow later wrote that "of course, all the attorneys for the prosecution and those for the defense as well as the judge knew that legally my clients were guilty of murder. Everyone, however, was talking about the 'unwritten law'." Before the defendants had served more than an hour, the governor of Hawaii commuted their sentences and freed them. Clarence and Ruby sailed for home.

Soon after his inauguration in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order creating the ew Deal to move the nation out of the economic depression in which it had been engulfed the past several years. The ational Recovery Administration (NRA), a part of this legislation, was intended to help revive business and reduce unemployment. When complaints of favoring big business were leveled against the RA in 1934, Roosevelt apppointed Darrow chairman of a National Recovery Review Board. The board held forty-seven public hearings and came out with three reports, the third of which acknowledged the NRA'.s efforts to abolish child labor and shorten the workweek. It charged, however, that the NRA'.s actions with regard to business were encouraging monopoly and harming the small businessman.

General Hugh Johnson, head of the National Recovery Administration, fumed: 'y\ more superficial, intemperate and inaccurate document than the report I have never seen!' The Darrow report did not reflect the administration's views. However, it was the prelude to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to declare the ational Recovery Administration unconstitutional in 1935.

Clarence Darrow has a unique place in American history. As he went from courtroom to courtroom in defense of his clients, Darrow was also pleading for a cause-for a world where under-

standing, equality, and compassion would rule the hearts of men. He was the spokesman for the weak, the insecure, the speechless, the damned.

In his sixty years of practice, he defended more than a hundred clients who faced the hangman's noose. Only one was executed-the assassin of Mayor Carter Harrison of Chicago whose case he took on appeal. "I may hate the sin but never the sinner," were words he lived by.

Clarence Darrow, fifty years after his death, remains-as he was during his lifetime-an American folk hero.

For Further Reading In addition to Arthur and Lila Weinberg's six books on Clarence Darrow and his own philosophical and autobiographical writings, many accounts ofDarrow's furnous coun cases are available. See L. Sprague de Camp, The Great Monkey Trial (New York: Doubleday, 1968) for a detailed analysis of the Scopes case. For more on the so-called "perfect crime" see Hal Higdon, The Crime of the Century: The Leo,po/,d and Loeb Case (New York: Putnam, 1975) and athan Leopold, Life Plus 99 lilars (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1958). The Massie case is described in Peter van Slingerland, Something Terrible Has Happened (New York: Harper and Row, 1966) and Theon Wright, Rape in Paradise (New York: Hawthorne Books, 1966). In The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1931), Steffens gives his account of the bribery case against Darrow.

Illustrations 64, CHS, ICHi-09953; 67, Gertz Collection, Special Collections Depanment, Nonhwestem University Libraiy; 69 top right, CHS, ICHi-20661 ; 69 top left, CHS, ICHi-20660; 69 bottom, CHS, ICHi-06405; 71, CHS, ICHi-09952; 73, CHS, ICHi-09954; 74, from Clarence Darrow's Two Great Trials (1927), CHS Library; 77, CHS Library; 79, courtesy of Gilman /Gruen Galleries; 80-88, Gertz Collection, Special Collections Department, orthwestern University Library.

89

Eye-Catching Music

by David M. Guion

A center for music publishing in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Chicago has also been the inspiration for many popular songs.

Everyone knows the old standards "Chicago, That Toddling Town" ( 1922) and " My Kind of Town" (1964). But does anyone remember " I'm from Chicago" ( 1917), a ragtime tune published in New York by Waterson Berlin & Snyder? How about " Push Along, Chicago!" ( 1922), an odd mix of pop song and civic anthem?

"Molly, the Gal from Chi" ( 1927) was the title song from the Warner Brothers motion picture The Girl from Chicago, with Myrna Loy. "C-H-1-C-A-G-O Spells Chicago" ( 1903) attempted to capitalize on the success of "Mister Dooley'' ( 1901 ), a once-popu lar song about the alter-ego of Chicago columnist Finley Peter Dunne.

"Chicago Rhythm" ( 1929) has an eye-catching cover and a snappy text, but its clumsy tune does not fit the words well.

Memorable or not, much of the music about Chicago is left

90

to us in a rich legacy of sheet music. Chicago's first music publisher began operations in 1848.

Not long thereafter, music about Chicago began to appear. At first, most of it was typical piano music. By the 1860s the United States boasted more than a hundred piano manufacturers who produced 25,000 pianos annually. The piano was the home entertainment center for many American families . Marches, waltzes, polkas, and other short, light pieces for piano were enormously popular, and composers produced them by the dozen.

They apparently did not write this music for concert artists, but for amateurs seeking simple pieces to play at home.

History has not been kind to this music or to its composers.

The repertoire remains unexplored and unexamined, while the music is valued only for the attractiveness of its covers, if at all. Even the most successful composers remain unknown , excluded entirely from contemporary and modern biographical reference works. Yet the sheer volume of such music offered for sale speaks of its importance.

These pieces often bore the names of prominent people, organizations, places, and events.

Chicago publishers issued music with Chicago references in the titles: "Clark Street Polka" ( 1861 ) , "Chicago Quadrilles" (n.d.), "Lake Shore Schottische"

( 1856) , " Hyde Park Hotel Galop" ( 1860), and many others.

Publishers all over the country brought out similar music and relied largely on local composers.

Rivals to the piano began to appear as early as the 1880s when, spurred by the popularity of bands led by Patrick Gilmore and John Philip Sousa, amateur concert bands began to spring up in almost every large town in the nation. Songs remained viable because the leading entertainers performed and promoted them, but demand for the kind of piano music that, for a while, was the backbone of the music publishing industry ceased early

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David M. Guion has written extensively on the history of music.

All sheet music is from the CHS Library.

1

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 songs sold as many as 200,000 copies. These conditions forced marginal publishing companies out of business entirely.

The recent Chicago song contest sponsored by Mayor Jane Byrne and the city council in 1982, which attracted more than 2,000 entries, shows that such songs are still being written despite the decline in sheet music publishing. ( Nothing ever came of the contest because the winner was not selected until after Byrne left office, and her successor, Mayor Harold Washington, refused to acknowledge the results .) Tape recordings have replaced sheet music as the songwriter's primary means of distributing work, and the expense and imagination once lavished on attractive sheet music covers is now reserved for record jackets.

THE

Booster Songs

in the twentieth century. Nonetheless, piano pieces about Chicago continued to appear sporadically. As late as 1967, Dominick Alberti wrote "Chicago Dynamic Concert March" and dedicated it to Mayor Daley and the aldermen. Instead of taking it to a commercial publisher, he published it himself.

Like light, popular piano music, the publishing of sheet music has declined greatly.

Before 1920, popular hits sometimes sold in the millions. Many American stores featured sheet music departments complete with a pianist demonstrating the newest songs. With major publishers selling hundreds of

92

thousands of copies of even moderately successful music, smaller publishers could do quite nicely if they endowed their publications with sufficiently attractive covers.

But the 1920s saw some dramatic changes in the music business. A nationwide printers' strike and a paper shortage increased the price of sheet music. The invention of records, radio, and motion pictures meant that people no longer had to play music on their pianos at home in order to enjoy it. The depression accelerated the demise of sheet music as the leading means of disseminating new music. In the 1930s only the most successful new

Songs about Chicago can be conveniently classified by topic.

Some cover Chicago in general.

Others focus on specific events, people, organizations, places, and things. Most of the general songs are booster songs. Composed for a variety of occasions

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Although most booster songs were published in Chicago or a suburb, usually by a small company or by the songwriters themselves, " Push Along, Chicago'" and "The Rhythm of State Street" ( 1937) were published in New York , apparently in the hope that this might help them become famous. The choice of New York publishers over those of national stature in Chicago betrays a curious second-city complex. The cover of" Push Along, Chicago!" proclaims that it was the official song of the second annual Pageant of Progress in 1922. It was also included in an "opera" called Push Along. Inside the front cover of " The Rhythm of State Street" is a photograph of the songwriter presenting the autographed manuscript of the song to Mayor Edward Kelly and the mayor's official letter of thanks . The caption announces that the State Street Council adopted it as its official song. " C-H-l-C-A-G-O," by Jimmie O'Brien and Aubrey Stauffer, won

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at least local acclaim. Written in 1909, its chorus was included in the 1941 edition of the University of Chicago Song Book. Like many popular songs of the day, it is a lilting waltz. "Chicago Beautiful" ( 1955 ), on the other hand, has more artistic pretentions. The piano part imitates seagulls, a foghorn, and traffic noises.

Many booster songs are musical and poetic embarrassments, or at best, barely competent. " Onward, Chicago" transcended the typical booster song not only because of its musical merit, but also because of its prominence, thanks to marketing by the songwriter, Howard Johnson.

After composing it in 1929,

Johnson secured both U.S. and international copyright and sent military and concert band arrangemen ts, at a personal expense of $11,000, to every outstanding musical organization in the country. A recording of it was played several times every day on the grounds of A Century of Progress International Exposition in 1933. The United States Naval Academy adopted it as one of five official marches. According to Johnson , the leading military, university, and circus bands all performed "Onward, Chicago," and President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to make it the national anthem.

But Johnson longed most for

93

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

Publi.shed by

J(el\t'g Det1111tfwsi, ,Couse 75,1 Chicago to adopt it as the official civic anthem. In 1956 he was still trying to get the necessary ordinance passed. He failed, and his song has been neglected.

Perhaps no one in city government knew it existed in 1982, when the abortive song contest was announced.

Music About Events Chicago has celebrated three centennials and hosted two very successful world's fairs. The largest and showiest of these events, the World 's Columbian Exposition of 1893, inspired music about the fair rather than the city. Piano pieces dedicated to the fair were published as early as 1889, even

94

103- 10'.) ~ANDOLPH <:JT. CHICAGO .

before Congress chose Chicago as host city. The souvenir shops sold music about specific attractions, like "Ferris Wheel Souvenir," and specific occasions, like "Chicago Day Waltz:' The exposition did inspire Chicago's earliest booster song: "Are You Going to the Fair at Chicago?"

In 1903 Chicago celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Ft. Dearborn.

The centennial inspired songs about the city's accomplishments. " The Pioneers," identified on the cover as "the official march song and poem," remembers the hardships of the first settlers and declares that they would be proud of the great city

that their children built. " Chicago Was a Village Then" counts a number of changes " since that old fort was new, my friends, since that old fort was new." Among them were the fire, the growth of the city, the raising of the street level " up from the mire," and Chicago's nickname ( Garden City) and slogan ( I Will ). "The March of Chicago" contains the greatest number of historical references: Ft. Dearborn and the massacre, the fire, the Haymarket anarchists, charitable works for the poor, the World's Columbian Exposition, parks, churches, and more.

To mark its one hundredth year as a town, Chicago threw a big party in 1933 called A Century of Progress International Exposition and invited the whole world. The fair generated the largest number of songs of any of the centennial celebrations. Most of them were booster songs either inviting or welcoming visitors to Chicago.

Two of them , " Greetings" and " Meet Me at the Great World's Fair," claim to be Chicago's official song. One 1933 booster song, "Go. Go Chicago," makes no reference to the fair or to anything else specific. On the other hand,

95

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 " Metropolis on Lake Michigan, I Salute Thee, City," written for the charter jubilee of 1937, has twelve verses that mention nearly everything that could conceivably be crammed into a laudatory poem.

Smaller gatherings also had their songs, or at least piano pieces, including three triennial conclaves of the Knights Templar ( 1880, 1910, and 1913), the dedication of an evangelistic building in 1910, and the Chicago Railroad Fair of 1948.

Chicago has known its share of disasters and calamities, and many songs have been written about them. The first song written in Chicago after the Grea t Fire of 1871 was probably "Pass ing Through the Fire:' With its facilities in ruins, the publisher, Root & Cady, could not produce the beautiful lithographed covers that made its sheet music so successful. A Boston publisher responded to the news with an especially elaborate cover for "Pity the Homeless'.'

Songs were also written about the fatal fire at the World's Columbian Exposition and the burning of the Iroquois Theatre in 1903. Besides fires, the 1859 sinking of the passenger ship lady

96

Elgin and the death of a newsboy run over by a trolley ca r also inspired songs.

Negative Songs Surprisingly, not everyone likes Chicago. One of the earliest songs about Chicago, "Chicago," came from the pen of a disgruntled unknown visitor. It was set to music in 1868 by H. M. Higgins, a Chicago music publisher who wrote: Some slanderous writer in a Pittsburg [sic] paper vents hi s spleen upon the "Queen of the Lakes" in a manner most disrespectful and cheeky.

He must have fa llen into very bad company to have formed such an unjust estimate of our city and c itizens. His rhyme is good, though its sen tim en t is atrocious. For the gratification of our St. Louis, Cinc innati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee friends, we have set it to music, well knowing that Chicago· can "Hoe out its own row."

There are four verses in all , expressing a peculiar tonguein-cheek moral ou trage: I have been to the orth, I have been to the South But in trav' ling a man may afar go To the jumping-off place before he will find A town to compare with Chicago.

If you never have altered your name in you r life, Nor ever did up to the bar go, Or else run away with another man's wife, They won't let you live in Chicago.

Chorus: 0 Sodom was some, and Gomorrah was great And in Venice each man's an Iago, But nothing out there can a moment compare With the sweet state of thin gs in Chicago.

In 1926 WC. Handy published "Chicago Gouge," a lament about high rents and slum co nditions.

"Loyalty Day '69," referring to the way medieval courtiers used to kiss the king's ring, smirks for more than twenty verses about modern "courtiers" lining up to kiss a more intimate part of Mayor Richard Daley's anatomy.

The mirthless "Chicago Damn" ( 1974) vents an unfocused anger Even songs with a positive outlook contain humorous references to unpleasant conditions.

The patter section in "Chicago, That Todd ling Town" leads back to the middle of the chorus with jarring result: They've got the "Stock Yards," so I heard the people say.

I just got wind of it today, today On State Street, that great street...

"C- H-1-C-A-G-O Spells Chicago" observes: Ch icago's not a healthy place to li ve, I don't know why.

The streets are dirty and for smoke, you never see the sky.

I've oft been told by Brother Bill That's what made Chicago III. And William Dooley never told a lie.

Music About People The rough-and-tumble world of Chicago politics has several times been commemora ted in music, beginning with "Long John Polka'.'

In 1860 John Wentworth became mayor for the second time, and John B. Donniker, a member of th e fam ous Christy Minstrels, chose to honor him musically.

At least one other piece, " Long John's Grand March" ( n.d.), appeared after his term was over.

Perhaps the most imaginative song dedicated to a Chicago

A~w-Catching Music

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mayor was inspired by a comment by Carter H. Harrison II. At one point in his running battle with Charles T Yerkes, the scoundrel who controlled public transportation, he declared to reporters," If Yerkes can pass an ordinance over my veto, I'll eat that old brown fedora: · That hat became the focus of a campaign song, although for some reason , it never made it to the cover.

that, as mayor, " Ten Dollar Tom " will " cut all the graft, be a square man like Taft, and will meet everyone face to face: · Others besides politicians earned musical tributes. The very popular Col. Elmer Ellsworth, commander of th e Zouave Cadets, was the first officer killed in th e Civil War. Composers and publishers all over the country rushed to the presses with musical tributes. No one in all of Chicago's history can match Ellsworth for the amount of music dedicated to him.

Edward Payson Weston , a professional long-distance walker who walked to Chicago from it

Portsmouth, Maine, in twentysix days, was honored in a song written for piano and guitar.

J. M. Brunswick, a shopkeeper,

d-.

'Tis a shocking hat, we know it; Old and out of style besides.

You could find a " lid" to match it In the alley if you tried.

But Chicago people like it, For a common fame has said That a fearless fellow owns it, And it roofs a level head.

Out of style in point of fashion , But in honor up to date Is the ancient brown fedora That our Carter never ate.

More clever is the cover of "Meet Me Face to Face" ( 1909) .

Tom Murray, publisher and subject of the song, owned a men's clothing store and unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for mayor in 1909. The first two verses of the song advertise the large selection and low prices at the store. The third promises

97

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

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and John Dillon, whose identity is unknown, were also the subjects of songs.

Songs have even been written about fictitious characters, espe-

cially Mr. Dooley, a creation of Chicago columnist Finley Peter Dunne. The " Robert Brierly Schottische" ( n.d.) was "dedicated to Frank E. Aiken, Esq. in

admiration of his masterly interpretation of that character in the 'Ticket of Leave Man' at the Woods Museum'.'

99

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 Dedicated to M1~ Frank. Chw1.ce

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Other Chicago Sheet Music In this day of thirty-second commercials, advertising jingles cannot be very long. Not so long ago, companies commissioned full-length songs or piano pieces.

George Schleiffarth provided the "Schoninger Grand March" ( 1890) for the B. Schoninger Co., one of Chicago's piano manufacturers. Advertising songs include " Staver March Song" (Staver Carriage Co. , 1911) and "Wheeling Together" (El Dorado Cycle Co., 1896).

Music about local corporations and businesses is not limited to 100

advertising. " The Calumet Shop March Song" ( 1927) was aimed at the workers: Early every morning when the gateman drops the bars We begin the marching around the Pullman cars.

Happy tho'ts while working and cheerful all day long, Merry voices singing the music of this song.

At least three songs have been written about the Cubs, but Sox fans have apparently not rushed to pay homage to their team.

Someone dedicated a piano

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piece, " The Base Ball Galop" ( c. 1865), to Lyon & Healy's company baseball club. George Root dedicated " Home Run Galop" ( 1867) " to the Atlantic Club of Chicago, the boys who make 'em'.'

"O Meet Me at Riverview Park" ( 1908), one of two songs about the large amusement park, is a fairly standard boy-meets-girl song. Even though it sounds like an advertisement, " Let's All Take a Trip Out to Riverview" ( 1911 ) was published by a major publisher that had several millioncopy hits.

Local universities, especially The University of Chicago, have generated numerous songs, including sentimental hymn-like songs, football fight songs, and music for satirical revues.

Anything can be the subject of a song, even a balloon. In 1908 Charles Coey, who had opened Chicago's first public automobile garage and started its first taxi company, set a hot-air balloon long-distance record that stood for more than twenty years.

A local songwriting team capitalized on Coey's fame with " Won't You Come Up and Spoon in Coey's Balloon" ( 1908).

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Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

PUBLISHED BY RO OT & CADY

A. J. Vaas and George Schleiffarth were among the most prolific of Chicago's early composers of sheet music, writing hundreds of pieces, including at least ten each with Chicago references.

Vaas, the older of the two, was director of the Chicago Light Guard Band. All of his pieces appeared between 1859 and 1861. Chicago ·s two most important publishers at this time, H. M.

102

Higgins and Root & Cady, both published Vaas's music.

Root & Cady made distribution agreements with publishers in five other cities, and the success of Vaas's "Zouave Cadets Quickstep" (1860) established the firm's national reputation.

The Zouave Cadets, a Chicagobased military company, completed a nationwide tour and returned with national acclaim

shortly before the piece was published. The Chicago Tribune reported that Root & Cady received hundreds of orders daily from all over the country and attributed the piece's success to the brilliance of the music, the popularity of the Zouaves, the fact that their band played the piece on the tour, and the extraordinarily attractive lithograph on the cover.

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11 I'

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its publisher opened for business, and 1888, the year Wentworth died later pieces bear no opus number Schleiffarth also composed music under the pen name of George Maywood.

City directories list Schleiffarth after 1870, although he must have arrived in the city at least a year earlier He apparently left Chicago after the fire and did not return until 1874. The earliest

directories identify him as a bookkeeper; the later ones, as a salesman. Only in 1877 is he listed as a musician (in addition to his other work). Although he was Chicago's most frequently published composer during the last thirty years of the century, Schleiffarth is not mentioned in any of the local histories or biographical works covering the period

103

YESTERDAY'S CITY BY LARRY ANDERSON

Steele MacKaye's Grandiose Folly

t .. i

104

During the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, Chicago was a showcase for Lhe era's kaleidoscopic variety of popular entertainment. The art, architecture, and technological marvels on display at Lhe White City represenLed a high-minded exercise in the cultural beLterment of the American people. The nearby Midway Plaisance, on Lhe other hand, "d istinctly exotic, polyglot, cosmopolitan, festal," drew crowds wilh such attractions as hootchykootchy dancers, Lhe original Fen-is Wheel, and dozens of other sensational acts and spectacles.

And throughout Chicago, entrepreneurs sought to profit from tJ1e visitors, all eager to be entertained, who flocked to the city during tJ1e world's fair.

Theaters, music halls, vaudeville shows, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, dime museums, and otJ1er attractions-as well as brothels, saloons, and gambling parlors-all vied for Lhe tourist business.

On paper, SLeele MacKaye's Spectatorium, a colossal theatrical enterprise planned for the Columbian Exposition, seemed to ep itomize Lhis entertainment frenzy. In realiLy it ranked among tlie great disasters of American show business. In its grandiose, eccentric conception and ultimate failure, the Spectatorium mirrored MacKaye's career in American popular entertainment. All who have attempted to describe his quixotic personaliLy and colorful career, be tlley contemporaries or historians, have re orted to superlatives. Called the "era's great erratic genius," and Lhe "master spectacle-maker oftlie American Lheatre," MacKaye was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1842. As an actor, director, teacher, playwright, inventor, producer, and free-spender, he had achieved a substantial measure of fame and notoriety during tl1e 1870s and 1880s.

Despite his prodigious talents, MacKaye lacked any business acumen. Indeed, his acquaintance Thomas Edison once commented tliat MacKaye "had all Lhe charm oftliose peculiar men who give no thought to commercialism ." But the venturesome dramatist possessed a sure sense of America's appetite for grandiose diversions. For the Chicago fair, MacKaye conceived his theatrical pleasure dome as a hybrid of the most popular amusements of his time. The gigantic 10,000-seat theater that The MacKaye Spectato,ium, by American impressionist Child£ Hassam. Hassam exaggerates both the seal£ and the grandeur of the Spectatorium in this 1893 watercolor. Schweitzer Gallery.

Larry Anderson is a freelance writer living in Rhode Island.

l05

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 MacKaye named the "Spectatorium" would be an entire building full of his mechanical inventions.

The entertainment there would include elements of panoramas and cycloramas, musical drama on a Wag11erian scale, and elaborate scenic techniques prefiguring those soon to be employed in the nascent medium of motion pictures-all combined with a generous measure of pure Barnumesque hokum. The theme of the world's fair-the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Americas-was the basis for the story that MacKaye intended to depict. His dramatization of the epic quest, which he titled variously The Great Discovery and Tiu World Finder, would take the form of a "spectatorio," a performance genre that MacKaye had developed (the name presumably an amalgam of "spectacle" and "oratorio"). The six-act "metaphysical musical poem" would be staged as a giant pantomime involving 1,200 actors, 500 singers, a huge troupe of dancers, an orchestra, and MacKaye's remarkable collection of mechanical and lighting devices.

Part of MacKaye's inspiration for the Spectatorium came from the panoramas, cycloramas, dioramas, and cosmoramas that had attracted crowds throughout the century. Americans were thrilled by the famous battles, landscapes, and other scenes and events depicted on these huge painted murals displayed in variou ingenious formats. MacKaye himself had once prepared an oration for a popular twelve-panel Civil War panorama that traveled the country in the micl-1880s.

And in something of a last gasp for the genre, several panoramas portraying scenes such as the Battle of Gettysburg, Niagara Falls, the Chicago Fire, the Kilauea Volcano, and the Bernese Alps, were on display throughout Chicago during the Columbian Exposition.

The Spectatorium, as it took shape in MacKaye's fen1 id imagination, was to incorporate all the dramatic and mechanical ideas he had conceived since bursting onto the American theatrical scene in the early 1870s. MacKaye had been a vigorous proponent of the "Delsarte Method," an acting technique that involved a rigorous battery of exercises in physical movement, facial expression, pantomime, and other "harmonic gymnastics."

MacKaye's technical discipline was combined with a genuine, if sometime eccentric, talent for mechanical invention that he developed during the reconstruction of several New York theaters. He 106

took credit for being the first to introduce electric lighting to the city's stage. His "double stage," a two-story elevator operated by four men , was designed to speed set changes and to raise the orchestra from ·tage level to a position above the proscenium arch. And he patented a folding theater seat-an invention that, when first introduced, caused him no small emban-assment by snapping shut like rifle-fire when patrons arose during performances. in 1880 MacKaye wrote and produced one of the most popular plays of his era, the melodramatic Hazel Kirke. (Characteristically, he allowed himselfto be duped out of the play's huge profits.)

He was equally well known for his skill in staging the reali tic and elaborate scenic effects that were then the staple of American theater. His 1887 play Paul Kauvar, set during the French Re\'olution , won renown for a ten-ifying mob scene of"inclescribable carnage" and a haunting tableau of the guillotine. Perhaps the best showcase fi>r Mac Kaye's unique talents was his collaboration with Buffalo Bill Cody and 'ate Salsbury. In 1886 MacKaye restagecl Cody's Wild West Show in 'cw York's Madison Square Garden. The Wild West Show had previously been staged as a series of unrelated skits and exhibitions. MacKaye, as designer and director, transformed it into the Drama of Civiliwlion, depicting the exploration and seulement of the West. The show's popularity was magnified by exciting and lifelike (if sometimes malfunctioning) special effects such as a stampede of live cattle, a herd of graLing elk, the attack of a wagon train by authentic Indians on horseback, a prairie fire, and a dust storm, all set against a series of huge , movable panoramic murals.

MacKa)'e's pioneering technical innovations fc>r the theater reflected his impatience with the limitations and impe1fectibility of the actor~ The World Finder would include no dialogue or spoken parts.

The awe-inspiring "stage pictures" MacKaye planned to create in his Spectatorium represented the culmination of his desire to control e\'ery aspect of his productions. His aim, one scholar has suggested, was to create "a tJ1eater wid1out people, a theater of machines."

Mac Kaye first proposed his project for the As an actor, MacKa:ye trained extensively in the "Delsarte Method."

He demonstrates this "science of hannonic txpression" as Hamkt in Paris, 1872. Dartmouth College Library.

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Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

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This 1885 newspaper cartoon pokes fun al MacKa:ye's innovative theater seats. He was well known for his pioneering, if sometimes impractical, theatrical devices. Dartmouth College Library.

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Chicago fair in late 189l and eventually won the support and the financial backing of some of the city's leading citizens and businessmen. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who attended one of MacKaye's inspiring presentations, called the dramatist's p lan "the noblest artistic scheme I have ever heard of' After obsen·ing MacKaye's demonstration of a small working model of the Spectatorium, prominent, wealthy figures such as George Pullman and banker and future secretary of the treasury Lyman Gage saw an opportunity to support MacKaye's artistic vision - and also the prolit potential of a ground-floor investment in the Spectatorium. MacKaye assured Chicago 's shrewdest men of finance that the theater might attract as many as 45,000 patrons a day to its continuous performances, producing a $5 mi llion profit within six months.

In July 1892 MacKaye was named directorgeneral of the newly formed Columbian Celebration Company. The elaborate legal and financial structure of the company was based primarily on the inflatecl value of MacKaye's theatrical inventions, which he had pledged in lieu of cash for his stock in the company. With the sale of more than $500,000 in bonds to finance the enterprise , Mac Kaye began constructing his grand and complex Spectatorium in September.

The company leased a lakeshore site just outside the fairgrounds at the north end of Jackson Park on the corner of East 56th Street and Everett A\·enue. The exposition managers had rejected 1\1acKaye's appeal for a ite on the fairgrounds proper because the proposal was late, and also because they were understandably wary of the final outcome of the strange building: would it be a high-minded artistic endeavor or a frankly commercial amu ement? The exposition relegated lowbrow popular entertainment to the Midway Plaisance while attempting to maintain the architectural, economic, and "spiritual" integrity of the \-\Thite Cit). The Spectatorium. which attempted to be all of these things, was too enigmatic for exposition managers to agree upon or to approve.

The Chicago architectural firm of Jenney and Mundie, which had pioneered the steel-frame construction techniques used to build the first skyscrapers, was commissioned to design the Spectatoriurn. The structure itself-the "largest building ever erected in the world for amusement purpose ," its promoters claimed-was to be 480

Yesterdays City

MacKaye patented his "double stage," designed to speed set changes, in 1879. While actors pe1fonn on the lower stage, the upper stage is being prepared for the next act. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library.

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Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88 feet long, 380 feet wide, and 270 feet high at the top of its crowning dome. Roof gardens, restaurants, vast lobbies, observation floors, a Turkish bath, a barbershop, and an array of elevators were among the attractions included in the building's design.

MacKaye hoped to achieve in th e Spectatorium a degree of visual and aural verisimilitude-the "mechanical duplication of Nature," as another critic put it-the like of which no other American showman had ever dared to attempt on a comparable scale. "The rear of the building was a vast

semi-circular reservoir, the surface dimensions of which were over 100,000 square feet," MacKaye explained. The reservoir was designed to accommodate a moving, fully manned replica of Columbus's three-ship fleet. What MacKaye described as the theater's "scenic department" or "scenitorium" was a 17-million-cubic-foot space rising 170 feet from its foundation to the iron framework supporting the building's roof.

The scenitorium would include twenty-five "te lescopi c stages" ca rrying sets and scenery "of an entirely new species devised by myse lf," MacKaye

Columbus's three ships approach the New \,\.orld in this remarkably realistic model of a scmitorium set. J\tacKaye's variom lighting device; simulated clouds, shadows, sunlight, and stars. Dartmouth College Librmy.

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Yesterdays City proclaimed. The floating and sliding stages accommodating the three-dimensional set ,mulct ride on more than six miles of railroad u·ack. His "proscenium-adjuster," a sort of enormou adjustable lens aperture, consisted of a series of 1110\'able panel surrounding the theater's stage. "The frame of the stage pictures ,ms 150 by 70 feet," \IacKaye said, "and the full range of the ,·ision of the public, at the horizon of the picture, 1,·ould ha1·e been over 400 feet... All of this equipment ,ms to be p01rered by the building' own 1,200horsepower generator: the "cyclone·· machinery alone would require 400 horsepower.

\lacKaye also aimed to reproduce a breathtaking ,·ariety of lighting effects. His opaque screen of light in front of the stage, or '·luxauleator," would replace a fabric curtain. His "nebulator" would produce the effects of cloud and their shadows. His "illumiscope" or "colourator" would simulate the different shades of light throughout the clay. He planned other devices to replicate the con tellations and other phenomena of the nighttime sky. And \[acKaye's "silent unfolding announcer." two huge shield on either ide of the proscenium, would narrate the tory ''in letters of fire a foot long, a sentence at a time.''

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By December the structural framework o[ the Spectatorium had reached the roof garden. But despite indications of progress as the 1\Iay opening approached, MacKaye's project seemed headed for disaster By February the company had already committed itself LO more than $800,000 in expenses; but it had not raised any additional capital since the original sale of bonds, and construction of the theater was only half completed. Labor shortages, strikes, and severe late winter "·eather hindered the work. The company's directors and stockholders had left most of the details and responsibilities for the building's construction in MacKaye·s hand , believing him to be the only person who full)' comprehended its scope and operation. But the financiers realized too late tJ1at while their directorgeneral may have been a man of vast ambition and vision, he was inept as an administrator The national financial crisis of 1893 finally finished off the Spectatorium, as nervous investors refused to pour more money into the project. Despite MacKaye's last-ditch efforts to salvage his dream, now so close to realization , creditors pressed for payment. On May 31, 1893, work on the Spectatorium ended; the Columbian Celebration Company was declared bankrupt.

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Exhaust~d from his exertions and gravely ill with cancc,; i\.lacKaye watch ed helplessly as bankruptcy rece i\'(' rs sold th e Spectatorium to a wrecking company for $2,250. But the entertainer did not give up the hope or producing a version of his spectatorio. ;\lacKaye, using funds promised by longstanding financial backers such as Lyman Gage and Alben Spalding, formed a new Chicago Historical Entertainment Co. and managed to raise enough mone)· to lease the Chicago Fire Cyclorama Theater at 130 N. i\.lichigan J-\\·cnue. He renamed it the ;\lacKaye Scenitorium and set to work constructing ne\1· copies o[h is inventions for a scaled-dmrn adaptation of' The \\hrld Findrr.

MacKaye opened the Scenitorium on February 5, 1894. From his seat on the stage , the ailing dramatist summoned up his remaining strength and hi. fom1idable oratorical talents. To the accompaniment of' a chorus and orchestra-he could not afford to use actors, as he had planned-he narrated the events displayed in his mobile panoramas. Those in attendance, one critic wrote, "saw no actors, they heard no poet; but they were gorged with scenery and nothing but scenery. The eye was feasted and the imagination was starved."

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Mac Kaye's poor hea lth co mbin ed to d oom th e Sce nito rium. Seve ra l fa ithful be nefacto rs, includ ing George Pullm an, pro vid e d the im pecuni o us but proud dra mati st with a pri vate ra ilroad ca r fo r a tri p to Ca liforni a, wh ere MacKaye ho ped to recove r fro m his illn ess. But he di ed e n ro ute o n Fe bru a ry 25, 189..J . l\ lac Kaye's fun e ra l se rvice was he ld in th e Sce nito rium , whi ch th e re upo n closed its d oo rs, a to ta l fin a ncia l loss fo r its investors.

Part of :\lac Kaye's fin a l fa ilu re i exp la in ed by th e untim e lin ess o f his ,·isio n. He was caug ht be twee n two e ras o f popul a r th eatri ca l e nte rta in me nt -a newl y e m erg ing stagec ra ft f<> r th e th ea ter and th e rea listic illusio n of the cin e ma. He im agined th at hi s Specta to rium wo uld re prese nt a revo luti o n in dra ma ti c a rt. But th e m ost success ful d rama ti c im presarios o f hi s e ra , such as ;\l acKave's sh re wd riva l Dav id Be lasco, co ntinu ed to a ttract a ud ie nces in to th e 1920s by produ cing co n ve nti ona l melodramas a nd com edi es th at th ey staged with ex tnl\'aga nt sce ni c e £Tects. Du ring the earl y yea rs o f th e twe nti eth ce ntury, mo rem·e1~ a new ge nera ti o n of Am er ica n a nd Europea n stage d esigners a nd directo rs in cluding Ad o lph e Appia, Edwa rd Go rd o n Cra ig, Max Re inh ardt, and 'o r-man Be l Gedd es mas te red th e po te nti a l o f e lectri c

light.ingancl ever-improving stage techno logy Th ese p ractiti o ne rs o f th e "new stagec ra ft," whi le surpassing ma ny of the compli cated a nd impress ive visua l e Cfect th at Mac Kaye had e n vi io ned , did no t share his slavi sh d evo ti o n to sce ni c rea lism.

Re fl ecting changing th eatri ca l id ea ls, th ey used th e ir tec hni ca l capabiliti es in a mo re sparing a nd suggestive fas hion , leaving pa no ra mi c realism to th e cin e ma.

T here was, at the White C ity, o ne ge nuin e harbinge r of th e mo m e nto us cha nge abo ut to ta ke place o n th e Am e ri ca n e nte rta inm e nt sce ne . At th e El ectri city Building, Th o mas Ediso n displ ayed , am o ng m any o th e r inve nti o ns, his newl y pa te nted " Kin e tosco pe," th e p ee psh o w moti o n pi cture mac hin e th at qui ck! )' becam e a po pul a r arcad e a tt ractio n . And within a year a fte r Mac Kaye's d ea th , th e first p rojecte d m o ti o n pi cture was ex hibited to th e publi c. Be fore 1910 more th a n 5,000 "nickel od eo n" movie th eaters were o pe rating across th e co untry. On th e eve o f th e age o f cin e ma, i\lac Kaye had atte mpted , with his a1Tay of e lectro mecha ni ca l d ev ices, to create th e life like e ffects a nd larger-tha n-Iife images th at 11·o u lei m ake mo ti o n pi ctures so success ful. "A.II he need ed at th e time wo uld ha,·e bee n a mo t.io n picture ca mera 113

Chicago History, Fall and Winter 1987-88

The Spectatorium rises up from behind the Iowa.building at the Worlds Columbian Exposition. Construction 011/y reached the roofgarden level before the enterprise went bankrupt and the building was demolished. CHS Prints and Photographs Collection, ICHi-20560.

and a sensitized ribbon of celluloid. Eve11·thing else he had provided," one cinematographer wrote during the 1920s. "It is evident to any one familiar with the art of motion picture that [he] was attempting to produce the same effects that pictures rather tJ1an the stage can give, and in practically the same manner." But unlike Edison and other cinematic pioneers, MacKaye had not yet comprehended the entertainment possibilities inherent in projected photographic images.

114

If Steele l\lacKaye was, in certain respects, ahead of his tim e, his failed Spectatorium was nonetheless a product and a symbol of his era.

The attributes displayed by the effervescent dramatist and his unique theater-ingenious invention, ostentatious excess, extraordinary ambition, and romantic spectacle-reflected the spirit of nineteenth-century American popular entertainment, and perhaps of the American people, as one century gave way to the next.