Chicago History | Fall/Winter 2021

CHICAGO HISTORY

Vice President of Marketing and Communications

Thema McDonald

Editors

Heidi A. Samuelson

Esther D Wang

Designer

Bill Van Nimwegen

Photography

Timothy Paton Jr

Copyright © 2021, 2022 by the

Chicago Historical Society

Clark Street at North Avenue Chicago, IL 60614 6038 312 642 4600 chicagohistor y org ISSN 0272 8540

Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts and America: Histor y and Life

C H I C A G O H I S T O R I C A L S O C I E T Y

O F F I C E R S

Daniel S. Jaffee

Chair

Mar y Lou Gorno

First Vice Chair

Warren K Chapman

Second Vice Chair

Mark D Trembacki

Treasurer

Denise R . Cade Secretar y

Donald E L assere

Edgar D. and Deborah R. Jannotta President

H O N O R A R Y T R U S T E E

The Honorable Lori Lightfoot Mayor, City of Chicago

T R U S T E E S

James L Alexander Denise R Cade Paul Carlisle

Walter C Carlson

Warren K Chapman Rita S. Cook

Patrick F Daly

James P Duff A Gabriel Esteban

L afayette J Ford T Bondurant French

Alejandra Garza

Timothy J. Gilfoyle

Gregor y L Goldner

Mar y Lou Gorno

David A. Gupta

Brad J Henderson

David D Hiller

Tobin E Hopkins

Daniel S Jaffee

Ronald G K aminski

R andye A Kogan

Judith H. Konen

Michael J Kupetis

Donald E L assere

Robert C Lee

R alph G Moore

Maggie M Morgan

Stephen R ay

Joseph Seliga

Steve Solomon

Samuel J Tinaglia

Mark D Trembacki

Ali Velshi

Gail D Ward

L awrie B Weed

Monica M Weed

Jeffrey W Yingling Robert R . Yohanan

H O N O R A R Y L I F E T R U S T E E

The Honorable Richard M. Daley

The Honorable R ahm Emanuel

L I F E T R U S T E E S

David P Bolger

L aurence O Booth Stanley J Calderon John W. Croghan Patrick W Dolan Paul H Dykstra Michael H Ebner Sallie L Gaines Barbara A Hamel M Hill Hammock

Susan S Higinbotham Dennis H Holtschneider C M Henr y W. Howell, Jr. Edgar D Jannotta Falona Joy Barbara L Kipper W. Paul Krauss

Josephine Louis R Eden Martin

Josephine Baskin Minow Timothy P Moen Potter Palmer

Cover: Three little girls lined up to speak with Santa and Mrs Claus, location unknown, c. 1960. Photograph by Vivian Maier; ICHi 181660 © The Estate of Vivian Maier

John W Rowe

Jesse H Ruiz

Gordon I Segal

L arr y Selander Paul L Snyder

T R U S T E E S E M E R I T U S

Catherine L Arias

Bradford L Ballast

Gregor y J Besio Michelle W Bibergal

Matthew Blakely

Paul J Carbone, Jr

Jonathan F Fanton

Cynthia Greenleaf

Courtney W Hopkins

Cher yl L Hyman

Nena Ivon

Douglas M Levy

Erica C Meyer

Michael A Nemeroff

Ebrahim S Patel

M Bridget Reidy

James R Reynolds, Jr

Elizabeth D Richter

Nancy K Robinson

April T. Schink

Jeff Semenchuk

Kristin Noelle Smith

Margaret Snorf

Sarah D Sprowl

Noren W Ungaretti

Joan Werhane

*As of June 30, 2021

The Chicago Histor y Museum acknowledges support from the Chicago Park District and the Illinois Arts Council Agency on behalf of the people of Chicago

Fr o m p a i n t i n g t o p h o t o g r a p h y t o m u s i c t o c o l l e c t i n g , a r t n o t o n l y t o u c h e s u s p e r s o n a l l y b u t reflects the broader world and the city we live in and engage with In this way, art shapes and tells histor y, and in this issue of Chicago Histor y, we explore different forms and ways of under standing art

Before there were films and immersive experiences like virtual reality, there were cycloramas, massive paintings hung in specially designed circular buildings to give visitors the feeling of being inside a partic ular scene from histor y or myth, including the Great Chicago Fire The Chicago Fire Cyclorama was cre ated to capture the audience of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition just a little over twenty years afterward so attendees could get an idea of the devastating event. The artists who created the painting were highly skilled and formally trained, dividing and conquering on the composition, buildings, people, and animals to create a vivid experience for visitors

Earlier this year, we opened Vivian Maier: In Color for our visitors to experience Chicago through the var ious perspectives of photographer Vivian Maier Frances Dorenbaum, the exhibition’s curator, spoke to Jeffer y Goldstein, one of the main collectors of Maier ’ s work, and whose donation to the Museum, which included Maier ’ s color transparencies, negatives, and slides, were printed and featured in the exhibition In their conversation, Dorenbaum and Goldstein discuss what it means to collect, take care of, and share Maier ’ s work

While art can be a matter of single person ’ s perspective through a camera, it can also reflect a particular community within the city. Chicago is home to a large Polish American population, and in the mid twen tieth centur y, Walter Jagiello, better known as Li’l Wally, was a household name Sometimes referred to as Chicago’s Polk a King, Li’l Wally created a style of polk a with a tempo slower than the popular East Coast style, making music that ever yday people could dance to, with a mix of Polish folk songs and lyrics based on the common experiences of working class immigrant life.

Capturing real life was also the job of the photographers of the Chicago Sun Times, sometimes known as “ C h i c a g o ’ s P i c t u r e N e w s p a p e r ” O u r f i n a l e s s a y o f t h i s i s s u e i n c l u d e s a r e f l e c t i o n o n t h e a r t i s t r y a n d access that Sun Times photographers had not only to the major events that have taken place in the city, but to the people and neighborhoods of Chicago From joy to grief, pride to rage, Sun Times photogra phers were artists in their own right, documenting and at times humanizing the city and its stories

Fi nally, on a more somber not e, i n our M ak i ng H i st or y Aw ard s sect i on, w e h onor t h e lat e Dr J oanne S m i t h , w h o p a s s e d a w a y i n S e p t e m b e r 2 0 2 1 S m i t h w a s t h e r e c i p i e n t o f t h e M u s e u m ’ s 2 0 2 0 E n r i c o

Fermi Making Histor y Award for Distinction in Science, Medicine, and Technology, and we honor her enduring legacy in Chicago as a driving force in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation. Her vision led to the remark able Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab, which served 50,000 patients in 2020 alone

The Chicago Fire Cyclorama

C A R L S M I T H

Early in 2013, Olivia M ah oney, a senior curat or at the Chicago Histor y Museum, was exploring t h e p a i n t i n g a n d s c u l p t u r e s t o r a g e a r e a i n t h e M u s e u m ’ s b a s e m e n t i n s e a r c h o f s o m e t h i n g t h a t m i g h t i n s p i r e a C H M b l o g p o s t a n d p e r h a p s e v e n contribute to a future exhibition Like most similar insti tutions, CHM can only exhibit a small fraction of its vast holdings at any one time, keeping the rest in one of its storage facilities.

M a h o n e y r e c a l l s , “ I w a s s e a r c h i n g t h r o u g h s o m e white wooden bins when I spotted a large tube, wrapped in muslin ” The tube aroused her curatorial curiosity, but it was far too ungainly for her to examine then and there. S h e n o t i c e d a t a g , h o w e v e r, w h i c h i n c l u d e d t h e w o r d s , “Fire Cyclorama Study ” Mahoney went to CHM’s third f l o o r r e c o r d s r o o m , w h i c h c o n t a i n s t h e M u s e u m ’ s o l d c a r d c a t a l o g . I n s h o r t o r d e r s h e d i s c o v e r e d a c a r d p r e pared in 1905 that identified the piece The painting was a study for a much better known one, the Chicago Fire Cyclorama.

L arge as the study was, it was only about a tenth as big as the final version, which measured approximately fifty by 400 feet, almost a third as wide as a football field and forty feet longer. It was on display to paying viewers from the spring of 1892 to the autumn of 1893 in a spe cially constructed building on Michigan Avenue between Monroe and Madison Streets in downtown Chicago

T h e m a i n f e a t u r e o f t h e b u i l d i n g w a s i t s c a p a c i o u s central circular room, sixty feet high and almost 130 feet i n d i a met er, on w h ose w a ll t h e enormous p a i nt i ng w a s m o u n t e d A s t a i r w a y l e d v i s i t o r s t o a p l a t f o r m i n t h e c e n t e r o f t h i s r o o m , w h e r e t h e y f o u n d t h e m s e l v e s s u r rounded by what advertisements in the Chicago papers proclaimed was “ a marvelous representation of an event that is without parallel in the histor y of civilization ”

The scale of this colossal artwork, its 360 degree vista with multiple vanishing points and its meticulous atten tion to detail, combined with a seamless visual transition b e t w e e n v i s i t o r s a n d t h e p a i n t i n g , w e r e a l l i n t e n d e d t o simulate the experience of being present at the actual fire. A successful cyclorama such as this one much like a 3D film or a set of virtual reality goggles provides an exciting and even unnerving visual and psychological experience.

B y t h e 1 8 9 0 s , c y c l o r a m a s w e r e a c o m m o n f o r m o f metropolitan entertainment more than a centur y old The earliest examples appeared in London in the late 1780s, q u i c k l y f o l l o w e d b y c y c l o r a m a s i n c i t i e s a c r o s s E u r o p e a n d i n t h e y o u n g A m e r i c a n r e p u b l i c . Fa v o r e d s u b j e c t s included contemporar y local settings but usually places

Before there were movie theaters and virtual reality there were hand-painted cycloramas that allowed visitors to immerse themselves in a scene.

Theater advertisements placed above the Chicago Fire Cyclorama advertisement in the Chicago Tribune on April 3, 1892

(Above) The Inter State Exposition Building was located at Michigan Avenue and A dams Street, c 1980; J W Taylor, photographer (Below) The cyclorama buildings at Wabash and Hubbard (with the round roofs) can be seen in this view looking south, while on the left work is being done in what would become Grant Park, c. 1895.

and moments more distant in space and time Among the latter were natural wonders like Niagara Falls, dramatic scenes from the Bible like the Crucifixion, and, most of a l l , g r e a t h i s t o r i c a l e v e n t s s u c h a s t h e d e s t r u c t i o n o f Pompeii and especially famed sea and land battles

The heyday of the cyclorama in the United States was t h e l a s t t h r e e d e c a d e s o f t h e n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y, b y w h i c h t i m e t h e r a p i d l y u r b a n i z i n g n a t i o n c o n t a i n e d a s u b s t a n t i a l n u m b e r o f c i t i e s w i t h e n o u g h p e o p l e w h o h a d t h e d i s c r e t i o n a r y i n c o m e a n d t i m e n e e d e d t o s u p p o r t a t t r a c t i o n s t h a t w e r e c o s t l y t o p r o d u c e . B e t w e e n 1 8 5 0 a n d 1 8 8 0 , t h e n u mb er of U S mu n i c i p a l i t i es w i t h 100,000 or more people jumped from six to twenty By 1 9 0 0 t h e r e w e r e t h i r t y e i g h t s u c h c i t i e s , h a l f o f t h e m with a population of over 200,000.

T h e b a t t l e s o f t h e C i v i l Wa r, f r e s h i n m e m o r y, w e r e the most popular subjects for cycloramas in the United States Americans could transport themselves to the epic engagements at Bull Run, Vicksburg, Missionar y Ridge, S h i l o h , Fo r t D o n e l s o n , C h a t t a n o o g a , a n d At l a n t a , a n d multiple versions of Gettysburg, not to mention the clash between the ironclad ships Monitor and Merrimack. Soon

p o s t C i v i l Wa r m i l i t a r y e n c o u n t e r s , n o t a b l y t h e 1 8 7 6 d e f e a t o f C u s t e r a n d h i s c a v a l r y m e n b y t h e L a ko t a a n d other Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains, would join the cyclorama repertoire

A single cyclorama remained on view in a particular venue for several months, perhaps even a year or longer if it kept drawing customers. A single cyclorama would o f t e n “ p l a y ” i n a s c h e d u l e d s e r i e s o f c i t i e s A m i d s t t h e hurly burly of urban cultural life, cycloramas and related j a w d r o p p i n g v i s u a l p r o d u c t i o n s c o m p e t e d w i t h m a n y o t h e r f o r m s o f s t a g e d e n t e r t a i n m e n t s . At t h e t i m e t h e C h i c a g o Fi r e C y c l o r a m a o p e n e d , l o c a l t h e a t e r g o e r s ’ o p t i o n s i n c l u d e d t h e C h i c a g o O r c h e s t r a c o n d u c t e d b y maestro Theodore Thomas, Gilbert and Sullivan’s H M S Pinafore, the Lillian Russell Opera Comique production o f L a C i g a l e , t h e C o r n e l l U n i v e r s i t y G l e e a n d B a n j o C l u b s , H a v e r l e y ’ s M i n s t r e l s , a n d t r a i n e d a n i m a l s h o w s s u c h a s K o h l & M i d d l e t o n ’ s E d u c a t e d E q u i n e s T h e r e w e r e a l s o s p o r t i n g e v e n t s a n d a r a n g e o f m u s e u m s , w h e t h e r o f p a i n t i n g a n d s c u l p t u r e , a n i m a l a n d p l a n t specimens, or historical artifacts and oddities that were frequently as dubious as they were fascinating.

View of the Chicago Fire Cyclorama Building (in oval) from R and McNally & Co ’ s Bird’s Eye Views and Guide to Chicago, 1893

As one of the countr y ’ s biggest cities and the center of its transportation and communications network, Chicago was a prime location for cycloramas The first cyclorama in Chicago was apparently a view titled Paris by Moonlight mounted in 1874 in the immense Inter State Exposition Building With a quarter million square feet of floor space, that structure had been erected the year before for a trade fair whose main purpose was to declare that Chicago had indeed risen from the flames Located along the east side of Michigan Avenue and centered on Adams Street, it would host many other events and activities until it was torn down in the early 1890s to make way for the Art Institute of Chicago, which, much expanded, occupies the site today

By the mid 1880s there were three permanent cyclo rama buildings in downtown Chicago Two were across the street from one another, on the southeast and south west corners of Wabash Avenue and Hubbard Court, now B a l b o S t r e e t T h e o n e t o t h e w e s t h o s t e d t h e m o s t enduring cyclorama in Chicago one of French artist Paul P h i l i p p o t e a u x ’ s s e v e r a l r e n d i t i o n s o f t h e B a t t l e o f Gettysburg When the Chicago Fire Cyclorama opened in 1892, the Gettysburg painting had been on display for a full decade In the same ten years, the cyclorama building on the east side of Wabash Avenue had hosted The Siege of Pa r i s , T h e B a t t l e o f L o o ko u t M o u n t a i n , J e r u s a l e m a n d t h e Crucifixion, and Niagara Falls

T h e C h i c a g o Fi r e C y c l o r a m a b u i l d i n g b e t w e e n M a d i s o n a n d M o n r o e S t r e e t s o n M i c h i g a n Av e n u e w a s six blocks to the north and one to the east of the venues on Wabash, on land owned by the family of mechanical r e a p e r m a g n a t e C y r u s M c C o r m i c k . I t w a s e r e c t e d i n 1885 to host The Battle of Shiloh W h e n p l a n s w e r e a n n o u n c e d f o r t h e 1 8 9 3 Wo r l d ’ s Columbian Exposition, the certainty of a major spike in visitors to Chicago inspired backers of all sorts of enter tainments to tr y to cash in R and McNally & Company ’ s Bird’s eye Views and Guide to Chicago, first published in 1 8 9 3 i n a n t i c i p a t i o n o f t r a v e l e r s f r o m a r o u n d t h e countr y and world, stated that there were now five cyclo ramas in the city During the run of the fair, there would b e s i x T h e t h r e e n e w e r o n e s i n a d d i t i o n t o t h e t h r e e a l r ea d y d ow n t ow n w er e i n t emp or a r y q ua r t er s c l os e t o the main exhibition buildings of the Exposition, which w er e l o c a t ed a l o n g t h e l a kef r o n t b et w een Fi f t y S ev en t h and Sixty Seventh Streets in Jackson Park

On the Midway Plaisance, next to such attractions as C a r l H a g e n b e c k ’ s p e r f o r m i n g w i l d a n i m a l s , t h e r e c r e ation of a street in Cairo, and the first Ferris Wheel, one could view cycloramas of the Hawaiian volcano Kilauea a n d t h e S w i s s A l p s A f e w b l o c k s a w a y, a t S t o n y I s l a n d Av e n u e a n d Fi f t y S e v e n t h S t r e e t , w a s T h e B a t t l e o f Chattanooga, whose opening was delayed when, in April, what was described as “ a medium wind” blew down the flimsy structure intended to house it.

T h e e n t r e p r e n e u r s b e h i n d t h e C h i c a g o Fi r e C y c l o r a m a w e r e I s a a c N R e e d a n d H o w a r d H G r o s s , w h o s e p a r t n e r s h i p i n c l u d e d s i m i l a r p r o j e c t s i n Melbourne and London as well as Chicago According to cyclorama scholar Eugene B. Meier Jr., Gross had a hand i n c l o s e t o t h i r t y c y c l o r a m a s G r o s s a l s o o v e r s a w t h e p r e p a r a t i o n o f s e v e n l a r g e p a i n t i n g s o f s c e n e s o f California for the state’s Spanish colonial style building at the Columbian Exposition.

I t w a s G r o s s w h o i n 1 9 0 5 d o n a t e d t h e p r e l i m i n a r y version of the painting that curator Mahoney came upon 1 0 8 y e a r s l a t e r. C H M ’ s r e c o r d s i n d i c a t e t h a t G r o s s d i d n o t g i v e t h e p a i n t i n g d i r e c t l y b u t t h r o u g h p r o m i n e n t C h i c a g o g r a i n c o m m i s s i o n m e r c h a n t Fr a n k G L o g a n Logan was a collector both of Native American artifacts and items relating to John Brown and Abraham Lincoln.

T h e N a t i v e A m e r i c a n a r t i f a c t s w e r e ex h i b i t e d i n t h e A n t h r o p o l o g y D e p a r t m e n t o f t h e 1 8 9 3 Wo r l d ’ s Columbian Exposition, the Brown and Lincoln materials in the fair ’ s Illinois Building.

T h e H a w a i i K i l a u e a C y c l o r a m a o n t h e M i d w a y a t t h e Wo r l d ' s Columbian Exposition in 1893

Isaac N Reed (left) and Howard H Gross (right), from A Stor y of the Chicago Fire (1892) by Rev David Swing

This document (left), issued April 13, 1891, shows the distribution of shares among the Chicago Fire Cyclorama Company ’ s stockholders The company was incorporated on June 9, 1891, as seen in this document (right) signed by Illinois Secretar y of State Isaac N Pearson

As Mahoney also discovered, Logan accompanied the study's deed of gift with several legal documents These d o c u m e n t s r e v e a l t h a t t h e C h i c a g o Fi r e C y c l o r a m a Company filed its incorporation papers with the State of Illinois on April 13, 1891, and received approval on June 9 It gave its address as an office building on Dearborn Street. Daniel J. Hubbard, a real estate man whose office was in the same building, was officially the president of the company, though Gross was the driving force behind the production of the cyclorama He was also by far the main investor. Of its 1,250 shares of stock, valued at one h u n d r e d d o l l a r s e a c h , G r o s s o w n e d 9 3 5 T h e t w o n ex t largest backers, one of whom was Hubbard, owned only f i f t y s h a r e s A n o t h e r i n v e s t o r, w i t h t w e n t y f i v e s h a r e s , w a s p i on eer i n g p r of es s i on a l b a s eb a l l p l a y er a n d exec u tive Albert G Spalding

Gross, Hubbard, Spalding, and the other owners stated that the purpose of their corporation was “to buy and sell, and to exhibit, Cycloramas, and particularly to exhibit a Cyclorama of the Chicago Fire of the year A D 1871, and for the purpose of conducting any other amusement or amusements, connected with such exhibition.”

A n o t h e r d o c u m e n t s t a t e s t h a t a t a s p e c i a l m e e t i n g on Januar y 18, 1892, the stockholders approved a dou bling of the number of shares to 2,500 and of its valua t i o n t o $ 2 5 0 , 0 0 0 T h i s f i g u r e w a s c i t e d i n n e w s p a p e r advertisements that claimed the fire cyclorama was the “Most Expensive Work of Art Created in the Histor y of the World.”

Reed and Gross hoped to begin admitting viewers to the Chicago Fire Cyclorama on October 11, 1891, almost exactly twenty years after the fire When they missed this d e a d l i n e , t h e r e a s o n g i v e n i n t h e n e w s p a p e r s w a s “ t h e difficulty in procuring data” on the fire and “the absolute n e c e s s i t y o f ex a c t n e s s o f d e t a i l i n t h e d r a w i n g ” G r o s s c l a i m e d t h a t h e h a d s p e n t m o r e t h a n a y e a r g a t h e r i n g information, in which time he had collected 8,500 pho t o g r a p h s a n d c o n d u c t e d i n t e r v i e w s w i t h s o m e 1 , 3 0 0 people, at a cost of $120,000 He placed ads in the local newspapers appealing to those who had experienced the f i r e t o c o m e f o r w a r d . H e a l s o p u r c h a s e d p h o t o g r a p h s from P B Greene, one of the several local photographers who marketed stereographs of the disaster Gross appears t o h a v e t r i e d u n s u c c e s s f u l l y t o i n t e r v i e w C a t h e r i n e

O’Lear y. All this effort, he insisted, ensured the fidelity of the painting to its subject Gross challenged any survivor of the fire “to point out a single detail which was not his torically and architecturally accurate ”

By the late nineteenth centur y, cyclorama makers fol l o w e d a s t a n d a r d s e t o f p r o c e d u r e s a n d t e c h n i q u e s Working from the documentar y records that Gross had a s s e m b l e d , a r t i s t s c r e a t e d a o n e t e n t h s c a l e v e r s i o n , o f w h i c h t h e C h i c a g o H i s t o r y M u s e u m ’ s p a i n t i n g i s a n ex a m p l e At t h i s s t a g e , t h e y w o r ke d o u t c o m p o s i t i o n a l i s s u e s a n d h o w t h e y w i s h e d t o h a n d l e c o l o r a n d l i g h t

The next step was to transfer this version in detailed out line to the full size cyclorama To accomplish this, they divided the former into a grid of 100 squares and pho t o g r a p h e d t h e s e s q u a r e s o n t o g l a s s p l a t e s T h e y t h e n projected these images at ten times actual size onto the much larger final canvas (or linen) and used these pro j e c t i o n s t o t r a c e t h e s m a l l e r v e r s i o n o n i t A s w a s t h e case with the Chicago Fire Cyclorama, the artists made n u m e r o u s a l t e r a t i o n s b e t w e e n t h e p r e l i m i n a r y a n d t h e final version, though not in the overall composition

An artist working on the Chicago Fire Cyclorama, as depicted in A Stor y of the Chicago Fire (1892), by Rev David Swing Note the reference books, drawings, and camera, all of which were important to the creation of a cyclorama

To r e a c h e v e r y w h e r e o n t h e l a r g e r s u r f a c e , a r t i s t s w o r ke d f r o m s e v e r a l m u l t i l e v e l w o o d e n p l a t f o r m s t h a t m o v e d a l o n g a s e t o f c i r c u l a r t r a c k s i n f r o n t o f t h e p a i n t i n g . J u s t h a n g i n g o r t a k i n g d o w n t h e e n o r m o u s w o r k w a s a d a u n t i n g t a s k , r e q u i r i n g n o t o n l y b r u t e s t r e n g t h b u t a l s o a c e r t a i n d e l i c a c y, s i n c e c y c l o r a m a s , which weighed several tons, were easily damaged There were many injuries, some fatal, most attributable to falls from or the collapse of a platform

The artists treated the floor area between the center s p e c t a t o r s ’ p l a t f o r m a n d t h e p a i n t i n g a s a s t a g e s e t o f s o r t s , u s i n g l a n d s c a p i n g a n d p r o p s i n c o n s t r u c t i n g a three dimensional foreground designed to blend into the two dimensional painting on the wall In addition, they h i r e d l i v e m o d e l s f o r t h e d r a w i n g o f f i g u r e s . T h e y a r r a n g e d l i g h t i n g t o c r e a t e t h e m o s t d r a m a t i c e f f e c t s Many cyclorama buildings had skylights, but cyclorama makers also skillfully employed artificial illumination By t h e c l o s e o f t h e n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y t h i s m e a n t e l e c t r i c l i g h t s T h e p r o m o t e r s m i g h t a l s o a d d l i v e o r, l a t e r o n , recorded music A guide or even an orator might be on hand to enrich the viewers’ visit

This call for information on the experience of the fire, with specific pleas for proof of how the fire started and for old photographs, ran in the Chicago Tribune

L i ke o t h e r c y c l o r a m a i m p r e s a r i o s , R e e d a n d G r o s s recruited a talented group of artists to recapture the fire i n a l l i t s v i v i d i n t e n s i t y S a l v a d o r M é g e o f Pa r i s a n d E d w a r d J a m e s Au s t e n o f L o n d o n , b o t h ex p e r i e n c e d c y c l o r a m i s t s , l a i d o u t t h e c o m p o s i t i o n a n d d ec i d ed o n the colors employed Austen suffered serious injuries in a fall from a platform, which contributed to the delay in completing the project Oliver Dennett Grover, a faculty member of the School of the Art Institute (which dates t o 1 8 7 9 ) , w a s r e s p o n s i b l e f o r t h e m a n y f i g u r e s i n t h e p a i n t i n g , w i t h a s s i s t a n c e f r o m C h a r l e s C o r w i n a n d E d g a r S . C a m e r o n , w h o w a s a l s o a n a r t c r i t i c f o r t h e

T h i s A p r i l 1 8 9 2 a d v e r t i s e m e n t f o r t h e C h i c a g o Fi r e C y c l o r a m a appeared in the Chicago Tribune

C h i c a g o Tr i b u n e . Pa u l W i l h e l m , a C h i c a g o a n f r o m Dusseldorf, Germany, did much of the foreground work, including the vessels on the main branch of the Chicago Ri ver Th e h orses w ere d one by ani mal p ai nt er Ri ch ard L o r e n z , a G e r m a n b o r n a r t i s t b a s e d i n M i l w a u k e e . Another Frenchman, Albert Francis Fleur y, was credited f o r t h e s t r u c t u r e s b y t h e l a k e a n d r i v e r, w h i l e C H C o l l i n s ’ s h a n d i s s e e n i n t h e b l o c k s o f b u i l d i n g s destroyed by the fire

Some of these artists accomplished other important and enduring things in Chicago besides their contribu tions to this and other cycloramas. Fleur y, who also was associated with the School of the Art Institute, executed m a n y s u p e r b d r a w i n g s o f t h e C h i c a g o c i t y s c a p e a n d p a i n t e d t h e l a r g e m u r a l s o n t h e s i d e s o f t h e i n t e r i o r o f the Auditorium Theatre that accompany architect Louis S u l l i v a n ’ s o d e s t o s p r i n g a n d f a l l i n s c r i b e d o n t h e s e walls Corwin would later specialize in another form of virtual reality, the backgrounds of dioramas in the Field M u s e u m , w h o s e c u r r e n t b u i l d i n g o p e n e d i n 1 9 2 1 . William Leftwich Dodge, who had studied with another fire cyclorama artist, Jean Léon Gérôme, at the École des B e a u x A r t s i n Pa r i s , a l s o d i d m u r a l s f o r t h e Ad m i n i s t r a t i o n B u i l d i n g a t t h e C o l u m b i a n E x p o s i t i o n (and the Librar y of Congress in Washington, DC)

The Chicago Fire Cyclorama opened at 7:00 p m on We d n e s d a y, A p r i l 6 , 1 8 9 2 N o t i c e s s t a t e d t h a t t h e p a i n t i n g c o u l d b e v i e w e d t w e l v e h o u r s a d a y, f r o m 1 0 : 0 0 a m t o 1 0 : 0 0 p m , s e v e n d a y s a w e e k R e g u l a r a d m i s s i o n w a s f i f t y c e n t s ( h a l f t h a t f o r c h i l d r e n ) , t h e s a m e p r i c e a s e n t r y t o t h e e n t i r e Wo r l d ’ s C o l u m b i a n

Cover of A Stor y of the Chicago Fire (1892) by Rev David Swing

E x p o s i t i o n m a i n g r o u n d s o r a s i n g l e r i d e o n t h e Fe r r i s W h e e l T h i s w a s a t a t i m e w h e n a l a b o r e r m i g h t e a r n f i v e o r s i x d o l l a r s a w e e k R e e d a n d G r o s s r a n l a r g e advertisements in the daily papers declaring their latest marvel “the most thrilling spectacle art ever presented to human vision ”

In addition to paying their admission, visitors could s p e n d a n o t h e r t e n c e n t s o n a n i l l u s t r a t e d s o u v e n i r booklet Titled The Stor y of the Chicago Fire, it consisted m o s t l y o f a p e r s o n a l a c c o u n t o f t h e d i s a s t e r b y t h e Reverend David Swing, one of the most popular minis ters in the city. This was followed by factoids pertaining t o t h e f i r e ( “ T h e l o s s i n p r o p e r t y w a s a m i l l i o n d o l l a r s ever y five minutes!”) and the painting, as well as profiles of Reed, Gross, and their artists The booklet calculated that the almost 20,000 feet of surface area was covered w i t h n e a r l y t w o t o n s o f p a i n t s a n d o i l s , a d d i n g , “ T h e w o r k , i f i t h a d b e e n d o n e b y o n e m a n , w o u l d h a v e required over twenty years to complete ”

T h e f i r e c y c l o r a m a r e m a i n e d o n d i s p l a y f o r s o m e nineteen months, until the Columbian Exposition closed i t s d o o r s a t t h e e n d o f O c t o b e r 1 8 9 3 I t w a s f o r c e d t o s u s p e n d o p e r a t i o n s f o r a s h o r t p e r i o d w h e n i n N o v e m b e r 1 8 9 2 t h e n e i g h b o r i n g I l l i n o i s At h l e t i c Association (also called the Chicago Athletic Association, a n d n o w t h e C h i c a g o At h l e t i c A s s o c i a t i o n H o t e l ) n ex t d o o r c a u g h t f i r e I n b a t t l i n g t h e b l a z e , t h e f i r e d e p a r t m e n t d e m o l i s h e d t h e Fi r e C y c l o r a m a b u i l d i n g ’ s g l a s s roof and flooded its interior, forcing considerable repairs Ac c o r d i n g t o o n e r e p o r t e r, “ T h e b o y s m i s t o o k t h e painting for the real fire.”

of 10 cents

The Chicago Fire Cyclorama appears to have done a decent but not remarkable business The R and McNally & C o g u i d e b o o k t o t h e c i t y s t a t e d t h a t t h e n u m b e r o f p a t r o n s i n t h e f i r s t y e a r w a s 1 4 4 , 0 0 0 , b u t t h i s i s n o t authoritative and might be based on an exaggerated claim by the promoters Given that many visitors were children, who were admitted at a discount, it seems likely that the enterprise either made little money or even failed to break even. In any event, Gross and Reed did not keep it open after the close of the Columbian Exposition

Gross proposed another cyclorama, this one a grand vista of the Exposition Backers of the proposal included noted Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, who had been t h e f a i r ’ s h i g h l y p r a i s e d d i r e c t o r o f c o n s t r u c t i o n ; financier and future US Treasur y Secretar y Lyman Gage; r a i l r o a d c a r m a n u f a c t u r e r G e o r g e P u l l m a n ; C h i c a g o Tribune owner Joseph Medill; and Bertha Honoré Palmer, w i f e o f h o t e l i e r Po t t e r Pa l m e r, b e n e f a c t o r o f t h e A r t Institute and the leader of Chicago society

B u t b y t h e m i d 1 8 9 0 s , a f t e r a b o u t a d e c a d e i n t h e cyclorama business, Gross left it to pursue not only other commercial ventures but also several civic minded under takings Throughout his career he moved from one pro ject to another or was engaged in a few at the same time. When Chicagoans learned the Fire Cyclorama’s days w er e number ed a nd t h a t t h er e w a s t a lk of mov i ng i t t o London, some called for finding it a permanent home in t h e c i t y. T h e l e a d i n g s u g g e s t i o n w a s t o p l a c e i t i n a b u i l d i n g i n o n e o f t h e c i t y ’ s p a r k s t h e We s t S i d e ’ s Garfield Park was the most frequently mentioned candi d a t e w h e r e a d m i s s i o n w o u l d b e n o m i n a l o r w i t h o u t charge. Nothing came of this. In 1900 Gross offered to donate the cyclorama on the condition that it be prop e r l y h o u s e d a n d f r e e t o t h e p u b l i c A g a i n , t h e r e w a s a p r o p o s a l t o l o c a t e i t i n a h a n d s o m e n e w b e a u x a r t s b u i l d i n g i n a p a r k , b u t t h i s , t o o , w e n t n o w h e r e . T h e mammoth fire cyclorama painting remained rolled up in storage near Gross’s home a few blocks west of the South Side’s Washington Park. In 1913, by which time it prob

ably had deteriorated a great deal, it was sold as scrap to a junk dealer for two dollars

By then the era of the cyclorama had passed Over the previous decades artists and inventors were developing even more arresting visual displays. Of special interest is s o m e t h i n g c a l l e d t h e S c e n o g r a p h , c r e a t e d b y Fi r e Cyclorama artist Edward James Austen, which opened in t h e s u m m e r o f 1 8 9 4 i n N e w Yo r k ’ s M a d i s o n S q u a r e Garden before moving to Boston Its central subject was Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition (it is not clear whether this had any connection to the project in which G r o s s h a d b e e n i n v o l v e d ) . T h e S c e n o g r a p h w a s n o t a 360 degree vista but a broad bird’s eye view, as if from a balloon 6,000 feet out into the lake and 600 feet in the air As a result, it encompassed not only the fair but also metropolitan Chicago and the surrounding countr yside. The Scenograph received rave reviews in the New York and Boston papers Critics noted how successfully Austen overcame the major liability of the cyclorama its static q u a l i t y. Wo r k i n g w o n d e r s w i t h l i g h t i n g e f f e c t s , Au s t e n s o m e h o w m a d e t h e s u n r i s e a n d s e t a s b o a t s g l i d e d across the lake and trains bustled along their tracks

T h e r e w a s n o w a y c y c l o r a m a s c o u l d c o m p e t e w i t h the latest big step in virtual reality, the motion picture. W i t h i n a d e c a d e a f t e r t h e C h i c a g o Fi r e C y c l o r a m a c l o s e d , t h e C h i c a g o f i r m o f E s s a n a y S t u d i o s , w h i c h e m p l o y e d C h a r l i e C h a p l i n a n d n u m e r o u s o t h e r s i l e n t film notables, was making movies downtown and plan n i n g a m o v e t o n e w f a c i l i t i e s i t w o u l d c o n s t r u c t o n Argyle Street in Uptown, which still stand

Cycloramas continued to play in Chicago and other cities for a while, but most cyclorama buildings that did n o t c l o s e s u r v i v e d b y f i n d i n g o t h e r u s e s T h e y h o s t e d political conventions, flower exhibitions, dog shows, reli gious revivals, boxing matches, bicycle races, and other events that needed large open interior space In 1895 the s t r u c t u r e t h a t h a d p r e s e n t e d t h e C h i c a g o Fi r e C y c l o r a m a , c o m m o n l y c a l l e d t h e Pa n o r a m a B u i l d i n g , accommodated an exhibition of druggist’s products. The next year it presented a pure food show with all kinds of e d i b l e g o o d i e s S o o n d o g s w o u l d d i s t u r b t h e c a t s a t a h o u s e h o l d p e t s h o w h e l d w i t h i n i t s w a l l s , w h i c h a l s o contained the 1897 poultr y and pigeon show sponsored by the National Fanciers’ Association of Chicago One of t h e b u i l d i n g ’ s f i n a l u s e s w a s a s t h e s i t e f o r t h e c i t y ’ s grateful welcome to sailors returning from the 1898 war in the Philippines.

S h o r t l y a f t e r t h a t , S t a n l e y M c C o r m i c k , C y r u s ’ s youngest son, commissioned the top architecture firm of Holabird & Roche to build two buildings on the site of the Panorama Building and a third just to the south. The t h r e e b u i l d i n g s , e r e c t e d i n 1 8 9 8 9 9 , w e r e o r i g i n a l l y leased to prominent wholesale milliner y companies The northernmost of the three, known as the Gage Building,

T h i s c a r d f o r s t u d e n t s g a v e t h e m e n t r y i n t o t h e C h i c a g o Fi r e Cyclorama at the discounted cost

was soon raised to its current height of twelve stories Its o r n a m e n t a l e n a m e l e d t e r r a c o t t a f a ç a d e , d e s i g n e d b y Louis Sullivan, is one of the few buildings in Chicago on which he worked that remain.

C y c l o r a m a s d i d n o t c o m p l e t e l y d i s a p p e a r T h e C h i c a g o H i s t o r y M u s e u m ’ s s t u d y f o r t h e C h i c a g o Fi r e Cyclorama was evidently exhibited in Marshall Field’s in 1921 as part of the department store’s commemoration o f t h e f i f t i e t h a n n i v e r s a r y o f t h e G r e a t Fi r e A r e c e n t count lists about three dozen cycloramas throughout the world. Extant American cycloramas include a relatively

e a r l y ex a m p l e , a r t i s t J o h n Va n d e r l y n ’ s 1 8 1 8 v i e w o f Versailles Originally exhibited in a building constructed i n l o w e r M a n h a t t a n , i t n o w h a n g s i n t h e M e t r o p o l i t a n Museum of Art. Two others are in Atlanta, Georgia, and G e t t y s b u r g , Pe n n s y l v a n i a T h e y b o t h a r e ex t e n s i v e l y r e s t o r e d n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y p a i n t i n g s o f t h e C i v i l Wa r battles that took place nearby

T h e w e b s i t e o f t h e B a t t l e o f A t l a n t a c a l l s i t “ o n e o f A m e r i c a ’ s l a r g e s t h i s t o r i c t r e a s u r e s ” I t a d d s t h a t t h e Atlanta Histor y Center, where the painting is mounted, “ u s e s t h i s r e s t o r e d w o r k o f a r t a n d e n t e r t a i n m e n t , a n d

This Fire Insurance Map from the R ascher Insurance Map Publishing Company ’ s 1893 Block Book of Chicago shows the location of the cyclorama building (here referred to as the Panorama Building) on Michigan Avenue between Monroe and Madison Streets

the histor y of the painting itself, as a tool to talk about the ‘big picture ’” The Battle of Gettysburg cyclorama calls it “the largest oil on canvas painting in North America ” Its website claims that its effect on the viewer is to create t h e i l l u s i o n o f b e i n g i n t h e m i d s t o f t h e d r a m a , “ a n immersive experience” that visitors describe as “moving,” “ riveting,” and “breathtaking ” The same could be and was said about the Chicago Fire Cyclorama.

Fa s t f o r w a r d t o 2 0 1 3 Wo r d o f c u r a t o r O l i v i a M a h o n e y ’ s d i s c o v e r y o f t h e s t u d y q u i c k l y s p r e a d through the Museum’s staff, who were as excited as she was and as eager to see it. Handling an aged and fragile o b j e c t l i ke t h i s p a i n t i n g i s a c o m p l i c a t e d u n d e r t a k i n g , however, even for museum professionals After much dis c u s s i o n a n d l o g i s t i c a l p l a n n i n g , t h e p a i n t i n g w a s v e r y carefully unrolled on a long table, with several curators, c o n s e r v a t o r s , a n d ex p e r t s i n a t t e n d a n c e N o t s u r p r i s i ng ly, t h er e w er e c r a c k s t h r oug h out i t s sur f a c e, but t h e work was st i ll a vi sually st unni ng represent at i on of t h e city on fire. Like the final version, most impressive is its attention to detail, especially in its depiction of terrified Chicagoans fleeing the fire And, while it has taken eight more years, Mahoney ’ s h o p e t h a t s h e m i g h t f i n d s o m e t h i n g w o r t h y o f d i s p l a y has come true in multiple ways A full size reproduction of the study plays a featured role in the Museum’s City o n Fi r e : C h i c a g o 1 8 7 1 ex h i b i t i o n , w h i c h o p e n e d o n O c t o b e r 8 , 2 0 2 1 , t h e 1 5 0 t h a n n i v e r s a r y o f t h e G r e a t Fi r e I n a d d i t i o n , t h e o n l i n e C h i c a g o 0 0 P r o j e c t ( h t t p s : / / c h i c a g o 0 0 o r g / ) , l e d b y J o h n Ru s s i c k , C H M ’ s S e n i o r V i c e P r e s i d e n t , a n d G e o f f r e y A l a n R h o d e s , f i l m maker and Professor of Art and Design at Shanghai Jiao

Tong University, has turned the study into an interactive immersive digital experience that enables contemporar y viewers to put themselves in the center of the fire as did visitors to the Chicago Fire Cyclorama in 1892 93. Special thanks to Gene Meier

Carl Smith, a professor emeritus at Northwester n University, is the author of several books on Chicago histor y, including most recently Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City

I L L U S T R A T I O N S | Illustrations are from the collection of the Chicago Histor y Museum unless otherwise noted Page 4, Chicago Tribune, April 3, 1892 5, top: ICHi 064394; bottom: ICHi 005715. 6, Chicago Histor y Museum staff. 7, top: ICHi 092991; bottom: Chicago Histor y Museum staff; 8, Chicago Histor y Museum staff 9, top: Chicago Histor y Museum staff; bottom: Chicago Tribune, August 16, 1891 10, left: Chicago Tribune, April 3, 1892; right: ICHi 178847 001 11, ICHi 178847 004 12, Chicgao Histor y Museum staff 13, top: Chicago Histor y Museum staff; bottom: courtesy of Carl Smith

T h e s e v e n s t o r y r e d b u i l d i n g a n d t w e l v e s t o r y b u i l d i n g t o i t s l e f t

F O R F U R T H E R R E A D I N G | “Cyclorama: The Big Picture,” Atlanta Histor y Center, https://www atlantahistor ycenter com/ ex h i b i t i o n s / c y c l o r a m a / ; B e r n a r d C o m m e n t , T h e Pa i n t e d Pa n o r a m a ( N e w Yo r k : H a r r y N A b r a m s , 1 9 9 9 ) ; T h e o d o r e R D a v i s , “ H o w a G r e a t B a t t l e Pa n o r a m a I s M a d e , ” St Nicholas 14, no 2 (December 1886): 99 112; “Gettysburg C y c l o r a m a , ” G e t t y s b u r g Fo u n d a t i o n , w w w g e t t y s b u r g f o u n d a t i o n o r g / g e t t y s b u r g c y c l o r a m a ; R a l p h H y d e , e d , “ D i c t i o n a r y o f Pa n o r a m i s t s o f t h e E n g l i s h S p e a k i n g Wo r l d , ” https://www bdcmuseum org uk/uploads/uploads/biographical dictionar y of panoramists2 pdf; “Moving a Cyclorama,” Boston D a i l y G l o b e , D e c e m b e r 7 , 1 8 9 0 , 2 3 ; “ C y c l o r a m a Pa i n t i n g , ” N a t i o n a l Pa r k S e r v i c e , w w w n p s g o v / g e t t / p l a n y o u r v i s i t / cyclorama htm; Stephen Oettermann, The Panorama: Histor y of a M a s s M e d i u m ( N e w Yo r k : Z o n e B o o k s , 1 9 9 7 ) ; D a v i d S w i n g , The Chicago Cyclorama (Chicago, 1892)

now occupy the site of the Chicago Fire Cyclorama building on the west side of Michigan Avenue

M u s e u m s t a f f ( f r o m l e f t ) We n d y G r e e n h o u s e , J o h n R u s s i c k , a n d Olivia Mahoney examine the unrolled cyclorama study at CHM

Looking Again

F R A N C E S D O R E N B A U M

To collect objects means to care for them. In this conversation, Vivian Maier: In Color curator Frances Dorenbaum talked about art collecting and caretaking with Jeffrey Goldstein, who recently donated a portion of his Vivian Maier images to the Museum. Many of these color images are on display in the exhibition.

People collect for all sorts of reasons: the excite ment of chancing upon a piece that resonates w i t h s o m e t h i n g i n t h e u n c o n s c i o u s , t o m e e t others who share a passion for objects, to dis play art or other items in one ’ s home, to donate and con tribute to a larger cultural histor y, or as an investment just t o n a m e a f e w W h e t h e r t h e i n t e n t i o n o f c o l l e c t i n g i s practical or intuitive, collecting involves a sense of care.

The idea of care encompasses many different consid e r a t i o n s , b e g i n n i n g w i t h t h e s e l e c t i o n p r o c e s s o f acquiring an item As the new caretaker of an object, one m u s t t h e n t h i n k a b o u t i t s c o n d i t i o n : D o e s i t n e e d r e p a i r i n g ? H o w c a n i t b e s t o r e d s a f e l y ? Ac c e s s i b i l i t y i s a n o t h e r f a c t o r o n e m i g h t c o n s i d e r w h e n p u r c h a s i n g something rare: What does it mean to bring an item into o n e ’ s p r i v a t e c a r e v e r s u s s h a r i n g i t w i t h a l a r g e r a u d i ence? And if the item is to be shown to others, the care taker must consider what context the object is presented i n a n d h o w i t s h i s t o r y i s t r e a t e d O b j e c t s a c c r u e a l i f e a n d s t o r y o f t h e i r o w n a s t h e y p a s s t h r o u g h d i f f e r e n t hands and times, and these chapters weigh in on one ’ s understanding of an object

J e f f r e y G o l d s t e i n i s a c o l l e c t o r a n d c u s t o d i a n o f a r t objects, who gifted 1,804 color slides and transparencies made by Vivian Maier to the Chicago Histor y Museum in 2020 He has one of the three largest independent col lections of Maier ’ s work and, along with his team, who help with tasks from archiving to printing, has champi oned Maier ’ s photography over the last decade

T h e i m a g e s i n h i s g i f t t o t h e M u s e u m a r e c o l o r f u l depictions of life in Chicago and its suburbs from around

1954 to 1974. The developed film was donated with the envelopes from the print labs, which reveal the pictured l o c a t i o n s a n d d a t e t h e r o l l s G o l d s t e i n a n d h i s t e a m a t t e m p t e d t o o r g a n i z e t h e m a t e r i a l c h r o n o l o g i c a l l y s o they could better understand Maier ’ s trajector y.

T h e s e i m a g e s h a v e a l r e a d y h a d s e v e r a l c a r e t a ke r s , b e g i n n i n g w i t h M a i e r, t h e n m o v i n g t h r o u g h s t o r a g e lockers, an auctioneer ’ s hands, and various buyers, even t u a l l y m a k i n g t h e i r w a y t o G o l d s t e i n a n d n o w t h i s C h i c a g o i n s t i t u t i o n I t s e e m s f i t t i n g t o r e f l e c t o n t h e journey of this collection and the care surrounding the unique posthumous life of this body of work. Goldstein joined me on Zoom in September 2021 to speak about h i s e v o l v i n g r e l a t i o n s h i p w i t h M a i e r ’ s w o r k , t h e c o m p l ex i t y o f d e t e r m i n i n g h o w t o b e s t s u p p o r t h e r p h o tographs and legacy, and letting go of this set of images.

F r an ce s D orenb aum : I w a n t t o s t a r t o f f b y t a l k i n g about your thoughts on the exhibition I think our audi ence would be excited to hear some of your insights.

J e f f r e y G o l d s t e i n : I t ’ s a l w a y s exc i t i n g t o s e e a c u r a t o r ’ s v i s i o n t h a t f u r t h e r ex p a n d s t h e w a y w e v i e w t h i n g s . T h i s c u r a t i o n a d d s a n o t h e r l a y e r o f i n s i g h t a n d appreciation to Maier ’ s work I liked the presentation of viewing the work from different angles and perspectives I t e n g a g e s t h e v i e w e r a s i f t h e y t h e m s e l v e s w e r e i n s i d e t h e c a m e r a . Yo u r c u r a t i o n h a s t h e f e e l o f t a k i n g a l o n g w a l k a l l t h e w h i l e q u i z z i c a l l y c r a n i n g a n d b e n d i n g a n d looking Walking through the exhibition is a reflection of the walks the photographer herself took.

Kodak processing envelopes, flyer, and special customer service note belonging to Maier, 1971 The flap is stamped with the date July 19, 1971, and a note reads: Print Regardless. The order was placed at Lyman Sargent, Inc. 751 at 1138 Central Avenue in Wilmette, Illinois.

FD: I appreciate that. You have been a caretaker of Maier’s work so much longer than my role in her stor y, so it was nice to have your trust when preparing the exhibition

JG: The nature of the project’s successes comes from it being ver y collaborative from the start Ever ybody con tributing has a field of expertise, and all those life experi ences create a life of its own The nice thing is, to have that, the project has to keep growing, and in order to do that it has to have new people come in, and they have to be able to have the space to add their own perspective

Nobody else has ever brought her work together as you have, with these different points of viewing. I think there is profundity in the basics, and we forget those details, l i ke h o w w e v i e w t h i n g s L i ke i n h e r p o r t r a i t u r e , M a i e r d o e s t h i s i n a d v e r t e n t l y w i t h t h e R o l l e i f l ex , w h e r e s h e c a t c h e s t h e b o t t o m o f s o m e o n e ’ s c h i n , w h i c h m a ke s t h e m b i g g e r t h a n l i f e , b e c a u s e w h a t i t d o e s i s s h r i n k you the viewer down, so those points of perspective are really quite fascinating.

F D : T h i s p r o j e c t w a s i n t e r e s t i n g f o r m e b e c a u s e I w a s online working remotely the whole time, which is some thing I have never done before

JG: That’s hard.

FD: It was so strange, Jeff As you know, the prints in this ex h i b i t i o n w e r e m a d e f o r t h i s o c c a s i o n P r i n t i n g w a s a challenging step to encounter and think through with our team, particularly from afar, because I have never had the responsibility of determining how an artist would print their work Dealing with color and then color correction added a whole other level. So, I was curious to hear what y o u t h o u g h t i t w a s l i ke t o s e e t h e i m a g e s p r i n t e d , h o w you thought they might have transformed And, did you print any of these color images in the past and go through your own experience of tr ying to interpret them?

JG: You had a much more difficult project than we had, because we stuck with black and white. With the black

and white, we only used the technology that would have been available when the film was shot, so that’s why it’s darkroom silver gelatins, hand spotted

We never printed any color That’s because the tech nology available now to print color is digital. Color is all over the board, especially with today ’ s printers and dig ital files and what can be done The prints in the exhibi tion look great. They had a sense of authenticity of the color matching the subject matter

F D : Ye s , w e w a n t e d t o m a t c h t h e i m a g e s w i t h n a t u r a l light as much as possible without changing other details. I, along with the team, collected as much information as possible from people like you, who are close to Maier ’ s work, about their printing choices, and conservators or others who have dealt with color correction, so we could figure out the most ethical and minimally intrusive way o f i n t e r p r e t i n g t h e w o r k T h e r e w e r e n ’ t c l e a r- c u t s t a ndards for a project of this nature Was uniformity ever important, because the different c a r e t a ke r s o f M a i e r ’ s w o r k c o l l a b o r a t e w i t h d i f f e r e n t p r i n t e r s , s o e v e r y o n e h a s t h e i r o w n i n t e r p r e t a t i o n a n d set of technical specifications to use? Is that something you all discussed or were those decisions made indepen dently based on your parts of the collection?

JG: They were based independently on what we adopted a s o u r p e r s o n a l m i s s i o n s J o h n [ M a l o o f ] , a n o t h e r c a r e taker, made works with Howard Greenberg, so he’s New York Steve Rifkin, the printer they work with, will print a s a N e w Yo r k p r i n t e r, a n d s o h i s p r i n t s s i d e b y s i d e t o R o n [ G o r d o n ] a n d S a n d y [ S t e i n b r e c h e r ] ’ s h a v e a d i f ferent feel in look and tonal range to them It’s a regional sensibility. What was so good about the printers I work with, Ron and Sandy, is that they are Chicago blue collar workers, and Ron was in essence printing in the same era a s M a i e r S o , w i t h o u t r e a l i z i n g i t , y o u e n d u p w i t h Chicago printers that make Chicago sensibility type of p r i n t s w i t h a n o f r i l l s , b l u e c o l l a r a p p r o a c h I n e v i t a b l y that adds to the interest

FD: How did you get interested in photography and col l e c t i n g ? Yo u m e n t i o n e d a m i s s i o n , b u t d o y o u h a v e a general philosophy on collecting?

JG: Well, it’s a personal passion. I was born in Florida, and as a kid, I loved to collect seashells and things along t h e e d g e o f t h e w a t e r T h a t ’ s p r o b a b l y w h e r e m y c o l lecting sensibilities started I had dreams for years about b e i n g a t t h e o c e a n a n d w a t e r r o l l i n g b a c k o u t a n d a l l these beautiful seashells and things there And then we

Eight cameras in their boxes on a table with a basket of artificial flowers, location unknown, c 1974

(Above) Pigeons fly by the Prudential Building (now One Prudential Plaza) at 130 East R andolph Street, Chicago, c 1974 (Below) Children ice sk ate on a makeshift outdoor rink, location unknown, c 1965

m o v e d t o L a s Ve g a s , a n d w e u s e d t o g o o u t i n t o t h e desert and go fossil hunting, and many of the fossils we f o u n d w e r e s h e l l s , s o I w a s s t i l l c o l l e c t i n g s h e l l s , b u t o n e s t h a t w e r e m i l l i o n s o f y e a r s o l d T h a t p e r s p e c t i v e c r e a t e s a n i n t e r e s t i n t h e h i s t o r y o f w h a t y o u a r e c o l lecting, how things fit together, passages of time

T h e n , w h e n I w a s i n s c h o o l , t h e f i r s t p i e c e o f a r t I b o u g h t w a s a J i m N u t t e t c h i n g . I t w a s o n a s t u d e n t ’ s budget , and i t was really expensi ve at t h e t i me $200, right from the galler y I remember bringing it back and s h o w i n g m y p r i n t m a k i n g t e a c h e r, s i n c e I w a s a p r i n t maker, and he hated it the paper, the image. He was a traditional printmaker, but his reaction almost made me l o v e i t e v e n m o r e , e v e n t h o u g h I h a d a l o t o f l o v e a n d respect for him So I started collecting works on paper

Yo u p u t a s t o r y t o g e t h e r w h e n y o u c o l l e c t i t ’ s a n enhancement of my life while I’m in Chicago, passionate a b o u t t h i s g r o u p o f p e o p l e I m e e t o r w o r k w i t h , a n d I h a v e p a r t s o f t h e m a n d t h e i r w o r k h a n g i n g o n m y w a l l that I get to live with ever y day.

People collect for all sorts of reasons For me it’s a life enhancement, but there’s also a thing where you tr y to p u l l t o g e t h e r s o m e c o n s i s t e n c y i n w h a t y o u a r e c o l l e c t i n g . I t ’ s a l m o s t l i ke c o l l e c t i n g s h a r d s o f a p o t . Yo u never have all the pieces, but that’s part of the fun of it Yo u ’ r e a l w a y s s t i l l l o o k i n g f o r m o r e t o a d d , i t ’ s n e v e r completely formed, but it’s all these pieces that interlock a n d f i t t o g e t h e r. I t ’ s a g r e a t w a y f o r m e t o l e a r n a b o u t things by going through that process

When you buy an original piece of artwork, in a way, y o u ’ r e a l s o b u y i n g t h e p e r f o r m a n c e a n d t h e t i m e t h e a r t i s t s p e n t m a k i n g t h a t p i e c e , s o t h e r e w a s a n a c t i v i t y a n d n o w y o u h a v e t h a t , s o y o u a r e c o n s e r v i n g a l i t t l e slice of the artist and their work In some ways, Maier ’ s vintage prints are more dear to me, because those were Vi vi a n M a i er ’ s w ork E ven t h oug h t h ey a re d i mi nut i ve, t h e y t e l l h e r s t o r y a s c l e a r l y a s p o s s i b l e t h e t i m e , h e r circumstances, her decision making they ’ re her DNA

FD: You are in a unique position as one of the major col lectors of Maier ’ s work because you got her work a little while after the initial auctions Did you know about her work before you owned any? How did that come about? Maybe there were murmurs already?

J G : I t w a s r u m o r s R o n S l a t t e r y, a n o t h e r c a r e t a ke r o f Maier ’ s work, actually got me started with fifty seven vin t age print s I k new Ron for a number of years from t h e A l l s t a t e A r e n a ’ s [ Wo l f f ’ s ] F l e a M a r ke t I t w a s o n l y a rumor, and I’ve been in the arts long enough, ever yone sort of wishes for something like this, but it never mate rializes

FD: It’s kind of chance that you got into this then?

c 1974

JG: Oh, absolutely! So that kind of got me getting more into her Then I had an opportunity to make purchases from one of the original buyers. I was lucky to come in. There were great chances I took a couple times, because s h e e a s i l y c o u l d h a v e b e e n a f l a s h i n t h e p a n I w a s not quite sure what I was going to do with her work

FD: At what point in the collecting process did you start to reach out to others to begin the collaborative effort of s o r t i n g t h r o u g h t h i s c h u n k o f w o r k ? A n d h o w d i d y o u find your team?

JG: It started with Anne Zakaras She was working for an appraisal company that I had contacted to do some appraisal work Anne ended up leaving that company and staying with me She has really great skills related to the arts She and I spent a year just archiving, which is tedious, difficult, time consuming, and there is no monetar y reward in doing that, but I felt there was nothing we could do until we had a better understanding of the material

F D : Wo u l d y o u ex p l a i n a l i t t l e b i t a b o u t h o w y o u archive? What did that mean for you and what was the process of doing that?

JG: The material came pell mell. All this material was in f o u r s t o r a g e l o c ke r s A l l t h e p a p e r w o r k a p p a r e n t l y h a d been thrown away because RPN Sales & Auction House, r u n b y R o g e r G u n d e r s o n , p u r c h a s e d t h e f o u r l o c ke r s , and paperwork doesn’t sell. The remainder was removed, shuffled around, and the negatives were separated You h a v e t o e n v i s i o n b oxe s a n d b oxe s o f l o o s e m a t e r i a l , s o the first step is tr ying to put things together physically by date, which is maybe written on the glassine sleeve, but m a y b e n o t , s o y o u h a v e t o m a t c h i t I t ’ s l i ke f o r e n s i c s : y o u h a v e a m e s s y m u r d e r s c e n e , a n d y o u h a v e t o s o m e h o w p i e c e t h i s w h o l e s t o r y b a c k t o g e t h e r. T h i s

A g o l d e n m a p l e l e a f c a u g h t i n t h e c h r o m e f e n d e r o f a w h i t e c a r, location unknown,

material had gone through so many hands and had been moved from Chicago to Indiana pack aged, repack aged, m o v e d To g o b a c k t o t h e a n a l o g y o f a p o t a n d s h a r d s , it’s like the shards are broken up and separated in boxes with other shards, and you have to put together as much of it as you can using small pieces of information

The vintage photographs may have a stamp number from the developer, so you find all the photographs that are spread all over the place that match that format and have that number, and then you can put together a roll At that point, then, you can start scanning and archiving a n d c o m i n g u p w i t h a d i g i t a l l i s t o f t h i n g s t h a t h a v e some type of chronological flow to them or may have the inclusion of topics

FD: It sounds like this step was using just the material you had in front of you before you conducted any research

JG: Right Before any exhibitions

F D : Since this was not something you had been antici pating, you weren’t originally searching for her work, was it nerve racking to quickly become one of the key care takers of her work?

JG: It was nerve racking because it was something bigger t h a n u s I t w a s n ’ t s o m e t h i n g w e c r e a t e d I t w a s s o m e t h i n g w e h a d t o c h a s e a n d s t a y u p w i t h . We w o u l d b e getting requests, and I rarely ever turned anybody down

FD: I think that’s the right attitude, but it’s a lot of work

JG: It did create full blown insomnia, which I embraced, because it gave me more hours

The core team, and I cannot speak well enough about t h e m A n n e , S a n d y, R o n , a n d m y s e l f w e w e r e a l l e q u a l s E v e r y b o d y c o n t r i b u t e d s o m e t h i n g t h a t w a s essentially priceless We felt we were in a privileged posi tion because we had something to share.

F D

: Even if your intention was to let the work take the front p osi t i on, y ou are t h e sp eakers and t h e i nfrast ruc t u r e o f b u i l d i n g t h e l e g a c y I p e r s o n a l l y f e l t a l o t o f weight tr ying to think about what might Maier be ok ay with, how to not impose myself too much onto her stor y, h o w t o r e s p e c t h e r l i f e a n d p r i v a c y i n a w a y b y n o t focusing on her biography, but instead on her work and v i s i o n , a n d b y t r y i n g t o r e s p e c t a n d u n d e r s t a n d t h a t many other people already spent so much time with her w o r k t h a t I w a s b r i n g i n g s o m e t h i n g n e w, b u t m a y b e didn’t know as much about it I had to balance a lot of people’s different ways of caring for this stor y and work.

It’s tricky because I work with a lot of contemporar y artists, so we can meet and speak with each other, get to k n o w e a c h o t h e r a n d b u i l d t h a t r e l a t i o n s h i p b e f o r e w e start delving into a project. I can only imagine, realizing the mass of what you were taking on as it was happening, t h a t y o u m u s t h a v e t h o u g h t a b o u t o r a s ke d a b o u t t h i s issue of ethics and responsibility

JG : T h e r e s h o u l d b e a q u e s t i o n i n g p r o c e s s a b o u t t h i s Why are you printing this size? Why are you printing in t h i s m e t h o d ? E s p e c i a l l y i n t h i s d a y a n d a g e A n d a b i g part of that had to do with who we were. In our team we h a d p eo p l e i n t h ei r 3 0 s , 4 0 s , 5 0 s , a n d 6 0 s , s o a s f a r a s the decision making process, we had a nice range of ages

Of course, I had plenty of time to think about these things. As far as an artist has a responsibility throughout t h e i r l i f e o f e d i t i n g t h e i r w o r k , a n d u l t i m a t e l y d o i n g s o m e t h i n g w i t h t h e i r w o r k e v e r y o n e w h o m a ke s a r t a n d h a s a b o d y o f w o r k k n o w s i f y o u d o n ’ t d o s o m e t h i n g , i t ’ s a t t h e w h i m s a n d m e r c i e s o f w h a t e v e r t a ke s p l a c e w h e n y o u ’ r e g o n e V i v i a n M a i e r g r e a t l y c a r e d f o r this work She moved it multiple times There’s consid erable cost in storage and it was stored well, even though o u t o f h e r h a n d s t h i n g s g o t m i xe d u p B u t f o r d e c a d e s t h i s m a t e r i a l w a s w e l l s t o r e d , s o t h e q u e s t i o n g e t s t o b e d o e s o n e h a v e t h e r i g h t t o m a ke p r i n t s a n d s h a r e ?

A collection of cheap novels in a cardboard box, location unknown, c 1974

S h a d o w s c a s t b y t h e i n n e r h a r p a n d f r a m e o n t o t h e l a m p s h a d e , location unknown, c 1974

(Above) The east façade of the Chicago Cultural Center, formerly the Chicago Public Librar y, at 78 East Washington Street, c 1964 (Below) The Everett McKinley Dirksen US Courthouse at 219 South Dearbor n Street during construction, as seen looking west from State Street c 1964

A n e l d e r l y m a n i n a p l a i d s h i r t , g r a y j a c ke t , a n d f e d o r a , l i ke l y i n H i g h l a n d Park, Illinois, c 1965

Po r t r a i t o f a n u n i d e n t i f i e d w o m a n wearing a pink wool coat, likely in the Chicago suburbs, c 1960

H a s t h i s s e r v e d a b i g g e r a n d b e t t e r g o o d b y b e i n g exposed than if it was never exposed? And hands down, this brought so many more people into an art fold It was inspirational, especially for younger people who we com municated with a lot.

For example, one of the last projects I did was with a renowned high school marching band in South Dakota, who wanted to celebrate Vivian Maier and the theme of a c c e p t a n c e A l o t o f t h e s e p r o j e c t s d o n ’ t h a v e t h e funding, so in this case we paid for banners and images for them I think one of the bigger things that came out of this effort was you can’t really judge the person along side of you without really knowing them

I t w o u l d b e p r e t t y h a r d t o a r g u e t h a t t h i s w a s n ’ t a r e a l l y g i v i n g a r t i s t a n d a r e a l l y g i v i n g p r o j e c t We s o l d prints, which we had to do to make money to make exhi bitions These sales allowed people to go and see exhibi tions at no cost to them They were basically paid for by t h e c o l l e c t o r s T h e c o l l e c t o r s w e r e t h e g r e a s e o n t h e tracks that allowed us to do the shows.

F D : We ’ v e u s e d t h e w o r d “ c a r e t a ke r ” i n t h i s c o n v e r s a tion I interpret care as it is needed to house and manage a photography or any art collection. Care could appear in t h e f o r m o f k n o w i n g w h e n t o a s k f o r h e l p , a n d t h e n working with experts; providing facilities and resources t o c o n s e r v e t h e w o r k ; p e r f o r m i n g t h o r o u g h r e s e a r c h ;

being sensitive with stor ytelling; etc. How did the con cept of care play into your relationship to Maier ’ s work?

JG: It’s really enormous because, ultimately, I don’t feel anybody, especially when it comes to art, owns anything. We are nothing but the caretaker, so you picked the per fect word for that Your job if you ’ re a responsible, caring c o l l e c t o r i s t o c a r e f o r i t . I t ’ s k i n d o f a p a i n a t t i m e s , since it’s constant care I ’ v e a l w a y s g r a v i t a t e d t o w a r d s w o r k s o n p a p e r There’s a logistical sense to that because they ’ re easy to s t o r e , t h e y d o n ’ t t a ke u p a l o t o f s p a c e , a n d t h e y d o n ’ t weigh a lot However, they ’ re also fragile There’s always the concerns of acidity, storage, and humidity, so this is stuff that I was well aware of from my days in college as a p r i n t m a ke r. I ’ v e w o r ke d w i t h p a p e r c o n s e r v a t o r s . When I see something that is damaged, I have an inkling of what needs to be done

FD: Had you collected photography before this work?

J G : I d o h a v e s o m e c o l l e c t i o n s o f o t h e r t h i n g s t h a t include press photos That was kind of simultaneous

FD: Where do you store these photos?

JG: They are in archival and fireproof storage

A busy city cor ner of R andolph and State Streets with buses, cars, and crowds, Chicago, c 1967

FD: Returning to the exhibition, do you have a favorite image in this newest exhibition, one that excited you?

JG : Yea h , I w ould p i c k t h e one of t h e t w o k i d s beh i nd the sprinkler. Especially in conjunction with the show ’ s t h e m e s , w e ’ r e l o o k i n g t h r o u g h s o m e t h i n g , l o o k i n g t h r o u g h w a t e r I t h a d t h a t k i n d o f a b s t r a c t i o n t a k i n g place, and most ever ybody knows the sound of a sprin kler going back and forth and the feel of a sprinkler on a hot day I think it’s one that viscerally we relate to, and v i s u a l l y I t h i n k i t i s j u s t a b s o l u t e l y s t u n n i n g i n s o f a r a s the composition and the format. Her spontaneous com positions are just unbelievable

She has such a great sense of empathy for her subject m a t t e r, e s p e c i a l l y t h e r o u g h e r s i d e s o f l i f e I t h i n k s h e recognized that we are all just one step away from being there ourselves I think in some ways photography kept Maier grounded In a sense, she was a collector of these moments, which I think gave her a sense of purpose

F D : L a s t l y, n o w t h a t y o u ’ v e h a n d e d t h i s w o r k t o t h e Chicago Histor y Museum, what might the CHM add to it?

JG: I have all these collections and I had a goal that by age seventy I was going to start deaccessioning, basically

just having half a dozen key works that I love. I know a handful of collectors that held onto their works way too long, and they know they need to let them go, but they can’t, so the question gets to be who owns what Do they own their collections or do their collections own them?

T h e r e ’ s a s e n s e o f r e l i e f t o l e t t h i n g s g o o n t o o t h e r people, let them be involved with it, and go through the process of sharing. I was going to ask you a closing ques tion? Do you think by curating exhibitions, is that not a form of collecting?

F D : That’s really interesting. I would say yes, I am col lecting experiences, so much knowledge, relationships t h a t ’ s k i n d o f h o w y o u ex p a n d y o u r n e t w o r k a n d y o u r knowledge I collect books, so I added many more to my collection through this project, but I don’t feel as if I am a c o l l e c t o r i n t h e s a m e w a y a s “ c o l l e c t o r s , ” s i n c e I a m ver y temporarily with the objects and interact with them w i t h s o m e d i s t a n c e T h e t h i n g I k i n d o f c o l l e c t e d f r o m Maier is a sense of the complexity of dealing with work of this nature where the artist isn’t around, doesn’t have clearly stated intentions, but definitely had clear passion, and now their work is out there in the world This expe rience is something I had never encountered before, and it’s not traditional in the museum world

A boy and a girl, unidentified, just visible behind a screen a water from the sprinkler they are standing on, Highland Park, Illinois, c 1962

Three little girls lined up to speak with Santa and Mrs Claus, loca tion unknown, c 1960

JG: Ever ything you answered is exactly why people col lect What I love most about art, whether you make it or collect it, it’s like a passport, you go to places you nor m a l l y n e v e r w o u l d g o a n d m e e t p e o p l e y o u n o r m a l l y n e v e r w o u l d m e e t , s o y o u m e e t y o u r p e o p l e Yo u h a v e t h i s r e a l l y u n i q u e p o s i t i o n a s a c u r a t o r, y o u a r e a c o l l e c t o r i n t h e s e n s e w h e n y o u p u t t h i n g s t o g e t h e r i t ’ s ex a c t l y l i ke w h a t a c o l l e c t o r i s d o i n g y o u a r e i n t h e enviable position where you don’t have to buy, own, or store the work

FD: I just collected all the knowledge and had access for a short period of time

JG: Right, and saw how it fit together. A good collector will come in with a narrative in a sense: why they are col l e c t i n g c e r t a i n p i e c e s a n d h o w t h e y i n t e r c o n n e c t w i t h one another They ’ re just not random selections, so col l e c t i n g , d e p e n d i n g o n h o w s e r i o u s y o u a r e , w i l l h a v e a certain level of difficulty to it

M o s t c o l l e c t o r s , m y s e l f i n c l u d e d , d o n ’ t c o l l e c t t h i n k i n g “ t h i s i s m y m i s s i o n . ” At a c e r t a i n p o i n t y o u

A variety of rose blooms in the midst of autumn leaves and damp grass, location unknown, c 1974

stumble across something, and it’s like “oh wow, this is so fabulous” and suddenly your collection starts to take a t u r n . I t ’ s l i ke a n o r g a n i c t h i n g t h a t c h a n g e s w i t h t h e collector ’ s sensibility

F r a n c e s D o r e n b a u m i s a c u r a t o r a n d a r t h i s t o r i a n f r o m To r o n t o who specializes in the histor y of photography. She has collaborated o n ex h i b i t i o n s a t t h e A r t I n s t i t u t e o f C h i c a g o , N o r t h w e s t e r n U n i v e r s i t y ’ s B l o c k M u s e u m o f A r t i n E v a n s t o n , I l l i n o i s , a n d t h e Morgan Librar y & Museum in New York, among others She holds a M A f r o m t h e S c h o o l o f t h e A r t I n s t i t u t e o f C h i c a g o a n d i s p u r suing a PhD in Art Histor y & Visual Culture at York University

I L L U S T R A T I O N S | I l l u s t r a t i o n s a r e f r o m t h e c o l l e c t i o n o f the Chicago Histor y Museum All images by Vivian Maier © The E s t a t e o f V i v i a n M a i e r Pa g e 1 4 , I C H i 1 8 0 2 5 7 1 6 , I C H i 1 8 0 2 4 9 A 1 7 I C H i 1 8 1 5 5 0 1 8 , t o p : I C H i 1 8 1 4 6 1 ; b o t t o m : ICHi 181087 19, ICHi 181513 20, top: ICHi 181596; bottom: ICHi 181551 21, top: ICHi 180779; bottom; ICHi 180790 22, top: ICHi 180216; bottom: ICHi 180976 23, ICHi 181122 24, ICHi 180871 25, left; ICHi 181660; right: ICHi 181502

Promotional materials from Jay Jay Records often featured Walter “Li’l Wally ” Jagiello’s likeness

Polka King “Li’l Wally” Jagiello and the Chicago Sound

R O B E R T M . M A R O V I C H

Fo r Po l i s h A m e r i c a n s , Wa l t e r J a g i e l l o w a s a s m u c h a h o u s e h o l d n a m e a s Fr a n k S i n a t r a a n d Bing Crosby Known by many monikers Maly W l a d j i u , M r H a p p i n e s s , t h e O n e M a n B a n d , and Chicago’s Polk a King, but mostly as Li’l Wally he helped Chicago reclaim its polk a music prominence by i n v i g o r a t i n g a n o l d e r, r u r a l s t y l e w i t h p e r f o r m a n c e e l e m e n t s d r a w n f r o m D i x i e l a n d j a z z a n d r o c k ’ n ’ r o l l Wa l l y ’ s e a r t h y a n d m o r e d a n c e a b l e a l t e r n a t i v e t o t h e s w i f t a n d s o p h i s t i c a t e d m u s i c o f E a s t e r n b a n d s l e d b y Frankie Yankovic and Frank Wojnarowski became known as the Chicago style.

Walter Edward Jagiello was born in Chicago on August 1, 1930, to John J and K atherine S Mirek Jagiello According to his naturalization papers, John was born Jan Jagiello in 1886 in the village of Ochotnica, Poland, an area in Galicia where folk polka music thrived K atie, born in 1893, came from the Polish village of Jordanow John arrived in the US in 1905 and K atie in 1911; they were married in Chicago in 1913.2 Moving around the Polish area of the North Side, the Jagiellos lived at 1336 North Huron (where Wally was born), at 1444 West Erie in 1940, and by 1942 at 1517 West Cortez 3

The youngest of four boys, Wally helped his family dur ing the Great Depression by managing two paper routes, working in a baker y, and cleaning out the backrooms of businesses and restaurants Evenings, he eavesdropped on conversations emanating from his parents’ kitchen. “I learned more by listening about the old times, old countr y, villages, how times are today, who got hurt,” he remem bered 4 Wally’s relentless drive and a sympathetic under standing of Polish immigrant life would inform his career as a musician, songwriter, and entrepreneur

For Polish immigrants like the Jagiellos, Sunday after noons in the countr yside were much needed respites

from city life. Picnic areas such as Polonia Grove, Dan Ryan Woods, and Caldwell Woods teemed with immi grants eating, drinking, gossiping in Polish, and, what Wally liked best, dancing to polk a bands perched atop makeshift bandstands. Wally would write and record “Polonia Grove Polk a ” and “Caldwell Woods Polk a ” in

to this early influence on his music

O n e S u n d a y a t C a l d w e l l Wo o d s o n t h e c i t y ’ s Northwest Side, an eight year old Wally fell under the spell of bandleader and concertina player Eddie Zima He s a n g a l o n g t o t h e Po l i s h l y r i c s o f Z i m a ’ s p o l k a s Overhearing Wally ’ s prepubescent soprano, Zima invited him to sing on stage When he returned to Caldwell Woods the following Sunday, Wally discovered an appre ciative audience awaiting him Other polk a bands asked him to sing Polish tunes on their bandstands. Soon pic nickers were paying Wally to entertain at private events 5 Wally was also fascinated with the Polish American nightlife closer to home “He would slip out of his bed room window at nights to listen to the polk a music on D i v i s i o n S t r e e t , ” h i s s i s t e r i n l a w D o r o t h y K o z a k F l a n a g a n r e c a l l e d 6 T h a t s t r e t c h o f D i v i s i o n S t r e e t between Ashland and Damen Avenues was known as Polish Broadway. It was the epicenter of North Side Polish culture and nightlife Taverns like the Gold Star, the Midnight Inn, Zosia’s, the Orange L antern, and Stanley “Stas” Korzeniak’s Lucky Stop featured live polk a music.7 According to polk a musician Chet Kowalkowski, the Lucky Stop was the heart of Polish Broadway 8 In other words, if Polish Broadway was to polk a music what Forty Third Street was to blues and jazz, the Lucky Stop was the polk a equivalent of Pepper ’ s Lounge. In 1942, at age twelve, Wally joined Zima’s ensemble, but a year later, after teaching himself to play drums and then con certina, he became a solo act.

“Li’l Wally Jagiello, he’s the one started the business about singing the Polish lyrics, he’s got a good voice, before him hardly ever anything but instrumental polkas ”

E. Annie Proulx, Accordion Crimes1

homage

Wally ’ s last day of eighth grade at Holy Innocents Elementar y School was his last day of formal education R ather than enter high school, he accepted Korzeniak’s request for him to organize a band to perform at his Lucky Stop.9 To supplement his music income, Wally took a job at the Chicago Casket Company “He worked late hours playing polk a music,” Flanagan recalled, “ so some nights he’d slip in and sleep in one of the caskets so he’d be there the next morning, ready for work ”10 Wally ’ s breakthrough appearance was not at the Lucky Stop but at Chicago’s Roman Catholic Union, where his ensemble drew such crowds that he was engaged to play the South Side’s Grove Ballroom 11 He earned the nick name “Li’l Wally ” (Maly Wladjiu in Polish) for his diminutive frame

By the mid 1940s, polk a music was ubiquitous in Chicago’s Polonia, or Polish American community Born in Bohemia around 1835, the polk a dance and its musical accompaniment had by the mid 1840s become the darlings of the European urban elite. Polk a first appeared in Polish cities sometime prior to 1860 12 Salon, or urban, polk a music was an almost strictly instrumental style performed by trained musicians who were often, though not exclusively, graduates of European music conservatories The wiejsk a or village style, on the other hand, was a combination of Polish folk songs and per formance techniques of self taught rural players set to the polyrhythmic accompaniment associated with the krakowiak, a dance similar to the polk a 13 Although the salon polk a gradually disappeared from society ball rooms, wiejsk a persisted in European rural areas such as Galicia 14 But when Polish immigrants entered the US at the end of the nineteenth centur y, they brought both the salon and wiejsk a forms with them

Transplanted Poles seeking “the music they could hear casually in their neighborhoods, or the music they remembered from the rural villages and countr yside of their homeland” could find it at the Sajewski Music Store on Milwaukee Avenue.15 With guidance from t r a i n e d m u s i c i a n Fr a n t i s e k P r z y b y l s k i , W l a d i s l a w Sajewski and his son Alvin became the first Polish music publishers in the United States.16 Their store made Polish tunes available on sheet music, piano rolls, and recordings 17 Many of the earliest Polish discs, going back to 1915, were made by locals such as Francisek

A Po l i s h n e i g h b o r h o o d a r o u n d D i v i s i o n S t r e e t a n d M i l w a u ke e Avenue in the 1950s 60s Stephen Deutch, photographer

Carl Fleischhauer, photographer

Dukla and Wladislaw Polak, who the Sajewskis “discov

Columbia Records 18 Ethnic music authority Richard Spottswood considers Dukla, a Galician émigré like the Jagiellos, the first artist to represent on record the true wiejsk a style of lead fiddle, clarinet, two harmony fid dles, and cello 19 Recordings by Dukla and Polak por tended Li’l Wally and Chicago style polk a music by fea turing Polish lyrics set to uncomplicated rural melodies performed by amateur singers and musicians instead of classically trained professionals

By the 1930s and ’40s, American born children of Polish immigrants shifted their entertainment prefer ences from ethnic to mainstream popular music But Victor Greene argues in A Passion for Polk a that assimila

tion did not necessarily toll the death knell for tradition al ethnic music R ather, it was reborn through a revived passion for dancing, an inexpensive entertainment alter native for Depression era youth The invention of the jukebox made records like “Beer Barrel Polk a ” and “Pennsylvania Polk a ” national hits, leading to a resur gence of interest in polk a music 20

The renewed appetite for polk a was satiated in the 1930s and ’40s by Eastern style bands, so called because they hailed from East Coast cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Bridgeport, Connecticut 21 These large aggregations based their musical architecture on then popular swing bands and ballroom orchestras Often led by trained musicians, they performed from printed a r r a n g e m e n t s e v e n i n s t r u m e n t a l s o l o s w e r e p r e

Li’l Wally and the original Harmony Boys, (from left) Don Ptak on trumpet, Eddie Noga on saxophone, Joe Koldon on accordion, Li’l Wally on drums, and Frank Janus on bass

planned. Also, at 132 beats per minute, their tempos were brisk “like a bat out of hell,” remembered Chicago polk a musician Bernie Gorak 22 They were, in effect, a modernized version of the salon polk a The “singing drummer ” shtick of Connecticut bandleader Walter Solek, known as the “Polish Spike Jones,” may have influenced Wally ’ s reliance on humorous lyrics and his preference to sing behind a drum kit.23

Of all the Eastern bands, Frankie Yankovic’s orchestra w a s t h e m o s t s u c c e s s f u l a n d t h e o n e t h a t m o s t A m e r i c a n i z e d e t h n i c d a n c e m u s i c 24 A S l o v e n i a n , Yankovic presented a spit polished pop polk a designed to appeal to all audiences 25 So did Frank Wojnarowski, a Polish bandleader whose 1948 “Jedzie Boat” (“Ferr yboat Polk a”), issued on Walter Dana’s eponymous label, was a surprise hit, appealing to both Polish American and gen eral audiences 26 By the early 1950s, however, the Eastern sound had become stuck in a predictable groove, what historian Janice Kleeman calls a “stylized monotony ”27 As typically happens when a music genre becomes inert, the landscape is ripe for a young lion to shake things up For polk a, that lion was Li’l Wally

In the late 1940s, Chicagoan Edmund “Eddie” Terlikowski needed a new vocalist for his Eastern style polk a band He sought advice from his brother in law, polk a power broker Alvin Sajewski Sajewski recom mended Wally “I saw that he had good possibilities,” he told Spottswood years later.28 In 1949, a nineteen year old Wally recorded eight sides with Terlikowski’s orches tra for Columbia Records, including his compositions “Lucky Stop Waltz” and “Ludzie Moje Ludzie.”

But these were not Wally ’ s first records He entered the record business a year earlier, in 1948, when he and his Harmony Boys band rented a Chicago recording stu dio to cut two sides: “Nasze Rozlaczenie (Our Break Up Polk a)” and “Z Chicago Wyjezdzam Waltz (Away from Chicago) ” Wally pressed 78 rpm copies on his own Amber label, but because his musicians were not union members, disc jockeys were hesitant to play the record on their broadcasts 29 Undaunted, Wally hawked the discs himself, hauling a portable phonograph and copies of the record around Polish Broadway and to local churches. By 1949, when he and Chicago polk a music promoter Chet Schafer secured a half hour broadcast called “ The Lucky Polk a Hour ” on WCRW, Wally could play his record on his own radio show 30 Wally ’ s natural salesmanship and announcing skills attracted so many sponsors that he soon secured sufficient financial back ing to move the broadcast to WOPA, a radio station with wider coverage than WCRW 31

In 1951, newly married to Jeanette L azarz, with whom he would father three children, Wally founded Jay Jay Records with start up capital from Korzeniak and the Lucky Stop. According to Harmony Boys trumpeter Don

Ptak, who first met Wally in 1952, Leonard and Phil Chess, founders of Chess Records, gave Wally pointers on the independent record business The first Jay Jay h e a d q u a r t e r s w a s l o c a t e d a t 2 6 0 3 We s t Au g u s t a Boulevard, and the first release was a reissue of the two Amber sides The earliest Jay Jay recordings were made on a simple tape deck “ They used to record in the din ing room, ” Chet Kowalkowski said. “ Wally hung a microphone from the chandelier, pulled the table out, and they stood around the chandelier and recorded ”32

To Wally, the 132 beat per minute tempo of Eastern style bands like Terlikowski’s was too quick. “A polk a was never supposed to be played fast,” he told Charles Keil “Ordinar y people can’t learn that fast stuff They ’ re not pros They dance to enjoy a dance It’s nice to watch someone else dance fast, but that is for a performance. Now, don’t get me wrong [Eastern musicians] are good musicians They play ver y well Eastern style may be musicians’ music, but I don’t play for musicians I play for the public.”33 Wally slowed his polk a tempo to a more manageable 112 beats per minute

But the foundation for the Li’l Wally sound, or what would become known as the Chicago or honky style, had already been laid by artists Wally admired at the Sunday picnics, such as Eddie Zima, Steve Adamczyk, and Johnny Bomba They, too, maintained a slower tempo than their Eastern counterparts and incorporated synco pated rhythms associated with the krakowiak. They tended to improvise on original compositions arranged for clarinet, one or two trumpets, accordion or concerti na, and drums. Instrumentalists played hot solos like Dixieland jazz musicians To this, Wally added easy to learn melodies, some based on Polish folk songs and mil itar y marches; lyrics expressing the common joys and sorrows of love and loss, and of working class immigrant life; and raucously rendered instrumentals between cho ruses Songs were sung in English and Polish, with some in both languages, such as 1957’s “Hello Stash Polk a ” and the 1962 hit, “Puk a Jasiu (Johnnie’s Knockin’).” Wally ’ s yelps and whoops of unadulterated jubilance punctuated his polk as

Arguably the most notable difference between Wally and his Chicago style compatriots was his self taught drumming technique He drove the slower tempo ideal for musical improvisation between verses with rapid fire attacks on the toms that evoked marching band rhythms. Like R&B and rock drummers, Wally often accented the downbeat Principal personnel for his band, known as the Harmony Boys and the Lucky Harmony Boys, included Don Ptak and Paul Stanczyk or Frank (Lefty) Lewandowski on trumpet, Eddie Noga on clarinet and saxophone, Frank Janus on bass, and Casey Siewierski or Joe Koldon on accordion Wally played drums and concertina.

Wally and the Harmony Boys’ early and mid 1950s singles, such as “Pocaluj Mnie Polk a, ” “Hello Stash Polk a, ” and “Up and Down Polk a, ” captured the devil may care atmosphere of Polish Broadway Slower songs, like 1956’s “Memories Waltz,” evidenced the charming high tenor that earned Wally adulation among Caldwell Woods picnickers Just as the exuberance of 1960s garage rock bands and 1970s punk rock units shook commercial pop in its shoes, Li’l Wally and the Lucky Harmony Boys upended the predictability of Eastern bands R aw and urgent, the first few dozen singles were Wally ’ s equivalent of Elvis Presley ’ s Sun Records.

But not ever yone was enthralled with Wally ’ s style “ The Eastern establishment,” Keil wrote, “laughed at the slow tempo, the loose phrasing, the whining squeeze box concertina, the unembarrassed vocals ‘ from the heart,’ and above all the one man band aspect of the whole thing Polk a disc jockeys returned Wally ’ s first records marked ‘defective,’ ‘too slow,’ or ‘ go practice some more.’”34

As if in defiant response, Wally pumped up disc pro duction Unhappy with how long Musical Products, a South Side record pressing plant, took to manufacture Jay Jay records, Wally brought most of the recording and production processes in house He purchased a small pressing plant on the South Side “ We had two presses: one for 45 rpm and one for 33 rpm, ” Ptak said “Chet Schaefer made the album covers. ” Wally also outsourced manufacture of the metal masters used to press the final discs 35 This almost complete vertical integration of the disc production process allowed Wally and the Harmony Boys to saturate the polk a market with their music and quickly cover hit songs by other artists 36

Wally further extended his music enterprise in 1952 when he and his oldest brother Joe purchased the Palace B a l l r o o m a t T h i r t y Fi r s t S t r e e t a n d C e n t r a l Pa r k Boulevard At one point, Marion Lush, a polk a musician and future founder of Dyno Records, was the Palace’s bartender.37 Ptak recalled that the polk a music pumping out of the Palace on Sunda so loud that between fifty and one h dred people would regularly set up portable chairs in a vacant lot next to the bar “to listen to free Li’l Wally music!”38

Given his ubiquitous presence on radio, records, and in live per f o r m a n c e s , Wa l l y b e c a m e t h e undisputed star of the 1950s polk a scene He was the first polk a artist to play the Aragon Ballroom on the

“ Wish I Was Single Again” was the first nati hit in 1955 for “Chicago’s Polk a King ”

city ’ s North Side “ Wally was so popular that he used to book two or three gigs on one night,” said Kowalkowski “Make an appearance on one set over here, hop in his car and go to another one ”39 Drummer and trumpeter Bernie Gorak, who played drums occasionally with the Harmony Boys, recalled some particularly memorable appearances: “In Milwaukee one time, the band had to walk from the main gate to the stage I thought Wally was going to be mobbed before we got to the stage! Another time, in West Virginia, we were pulling up to this place in a van They must have got word that we were there because they crowded the van and we almost couldn’t get out!”40

The frenetic pace of touring took its toll. At a 1953 Stevens Point, Wisconsin, engagement, Wally, just twen ty three years old, fell gravely ill Rushed to a local hos pital, he was diagnosed with a bleeding ulcer One doc tor gave him two years to live if he didn’t under ger y Another put him on a strict diet d suggested he spend three weeks onvalescing in the Florida sunshine Boarding an airplane for the first time in his life, Wally traveled to M i a m i B e a c h “ N o t e l e p h o n e calls, no smoking, no drinking, no sex, nothing,” he told polk a music radio announcer and pro moter Patrick Henr y 41 He recu perated and returned to Chicago

Ironically, Wally ’ s first national it single was neither a polk a nor g in Polish “ Wish I Was Single ga , ” released in 1955, was a waltz varia

T h e A r a g o n B a l l r o o m l o c a t e d a t 1 1 0 6 W L a w r e n c e Av e i n Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood on the North Side, 1973 Charles Krejcsi, photographer

its B side

tion of an American folk song that had more in common with the “oompah” Dutchman brass band tradition than Chicago style On the other hand, its lament over the loss of happy go lucky bachelorhood was in keeping with Wally ’ s good natured barroom lyricism Over the years, Wally and the Harmony Boys performed and recorded many humorous singles, including “ We Left Our Wives at Home,” “My Wife She Got Drunk,” “No Beer in Heaven,” “Fisherman’s Widow,” and an answer song to their own hit, “Now That I’m Single Again ” In Wally ’ s hands, traditional Polish foodstuffs became sex

ual metaphors, such as “I Like Your Golabki” and “She Likes Kiolbasa ” Jay Jay albums of songs with adult con tent were sung in Polish to prevent children from figur ing them out.

To compose a song, Wally often arrived at the lyrics first, then worked out a head arrangement and recorded each part on a tape recorder He sang each part to his instrumentalists so they knew what to play.42 “ Wally was good at humming,” Ptak said “At a recording session, he would sit next to me and say, ‘Here’s how I want you to play this song, ’ and he would hum it, and ‘Now play that

on your trumpet.’ He’s teaching me a song. He’d toot or hum the melody out to me and then, ‘Ok ay, let’s record it!’”43 Wally once told Gorak: “I can take a piece of paper and grab my concertina and in two minutes, I’ll have a song.”44 Wally ’ s improvisational methodology of creat ing, learning, and performing songs reinforces Keil’s con tention that the Chicago style “ was much more in tune with the rhythm and blues and rock ’ n ’ roll of the 1950s” than the Eastern style’s big band arrangements 45

Ptak has his reservations, however, about Wally ’ s over sized claims that “ Wish I Was Single Again” sold a million copies. “ We never sold a million records of anything,” he said “If Wally was selling a million records, [Al] Sajewski would be ordering a hundred at a time He ordered three of these, four of those ”46 Wally ’ s official biography on the International Polk a Association website offers a more modest but still impressive 150,000 copies sold 47

Around 1956 or 1957, Jay Jay Records moved from Augusta Boulevard to a larger headquarters at 2452 South Kedzie Avenue. Alfred Pompeii of Pompeii Home Builders, a radio show sponsor, built a recording studio at the Kedzie facility, enabling Jay Jay to graduate to two tape decks and a Telefunken microphone 48 The display windows, festooned with Li’l Wally photos, records, and ephemera, were as spectacularly shambolic as Jay Jay album cover designs By September 1957, Wally had established his first subsidiar y, Banana Records (“Hi Fi Music with Appeal”), with recordings made at their new

Jay Jay Records at its second location at 2452 South Kedzie Avenue in the Little Village neighborhood on the city ’ s Southwest Side.

studio on Kedzie One Banana release, a cover of two songs on Cash Box’ s Top 60: Will Glahe’s “Liechtensteiner Polk a ” and Patti Page’s “I’ll Remember Today,” featured Wally and his band, but otherwise Banana was for music that didn’t fit within Jay Jay ’ s established polk a idiom Releases included rock abilly artist Cliff Davis and the Kentucky Play Boys, a white doo wop group called the Three Twins, and four solo sides by radio staff singer and future television star Mike Douglas The subsidiar y, Ptak recalled, enabled Wally to service radio stations that did not program Polish language polk a music.49

Li’l Wally ’ s Band Wagon, here parked in front of Jay Jay Records headquarters on Kedzie Avenue, advertised for Li’l Wally ’ s 10 a m Sunday mor ning slot on WSB C 1240

The year 1959 produced another national hit, once again in English: “Seven Days Without You ” By then, Wally was hosting Li’l Wally ’ s Polk a DJ Show ever y Saturday night on WLS and daily on WSB C and WTAQ 50 From Club 505 in Hegewisch, he did live remote broadcasts over Hammond, Indiana, radio station WJOB He standardized his record label logo to a blue and white motif the motto “Be Happy and Gay with J

According to Flanagan, “ Wally ” used birds on the logo because he believed birds made people happy 51 That same year, the Jagiellos welcomed their third child, daughter Julianne (she was Wally ’ s inspiration for arranging 1960’s “Julianne Polk a”).

By controlling most of the recording and production processes, Wally could capitalize on an opportunity almost immediately No special event or fad eluded his

entrepreneurial instinct. A veritable P. T. B a r n u m o f p o l k a , Wa l l y w r o t e a n d recorded songs saluting radio stations and the products of his sponsors He released records about the Twist dance craze, the assassination of President John F Kennedy, the Beatles’ first American tour (with Chicago’s Venturas), the Vietnam War, the US Bicentennial Celebration and, later, his own induction into the Polk a Music Hall of Fame For the 1959 single, “Doodle Doo Doo Polk a, ” Wally assembled the Jay Jay Records office staff into an impromptu background cho rus 52 Copies of “Green Meadow Polk a ” were pressed on green vinyl A lifelong baseball fan, Wally wrote the Chicago White Sox anthem “Go Go White Sox” with Al Trace and had Captain Stubby and his Buccaneers record it on Drum Boy, a Jay Jay subsidiar y established in 1963 for nonpolk a releases “ Wally would tr y anything,” Ptak recalled “One time, he put Eddie Noga, the clarinet

This promotional photograph shows Li’l Wally in the studio at WSB C, which featured a wide variety of ethnic programming since it began broadcasting in 1925

player, in the toilet with a microphone: ‘I want to sepa rate the sound, for stereophonic sound ’ Another time, Wally changed the playback speed on the tape decks so we sounded like the Chipmunks!”53 Wally ’ s Chipmunks knockoff single was credited to the Singing Wabbits.

In July 1965, Wally entered the travel business, tak ing anyone with interest and financial capacity on a tour of Europe, including Poland. Wally was so inspired by

the trip that he dedicated an album to his homeland visit “ The villages came out in droves They knew who he was, ” Flanagan recalled 54

Once again, nonstop performing and multiple week ly radio assignments, now coupled with a feverish recording schedule and vigorous participation in the high life, took its toll Jeannie kicked Wally out of their two flat near Belmont and Pulaski; the couple later divorced For a time, Chicago’s Polk a King slept in Ptak’s apartment above the Jay Jay offices on Kedzie

The Polk a King had fallen in love with Miami Beach in 1953, and by 1966, he and his second wife “Polk a ” Jeanette Kozak, a radio host and Jay Jay Records employ ee, made Miami their permanent home “I think his doc tor meant you have to go down to Florida and rest,” Flanagan said, “but Wally thought it was much better to live there ”55 Flanagan wound down Jay Jay ’ s Chicago operations and shipped all the files, tapes, and records to Florida

From his new headquarters in Miami Beach, Wally resumed work, including singing and playing concertina on the March 19, 1966, episode of the nationally tele vised L awrence Welk Show 56 He rummaged through his Rolodex in search of musicians to accompany him on national tours Wally ’ s 2:00 a m telephone calls to band members back home in Chicago became the stuff of leg end “I think he slept a lot during the day!” Gorak laughed.57 “ We recorded at 4:00 a.m., ” Ptak added. “ That was when Wally was at his best ”58 Although Wally continued recording from his new studio at 35 NE Sixty Second Street in Miami, the volume

green vinyl

During Li’l Wally ’ s 1965 tour of Europe, the group made a stop at Versailles

This itinerar y from 1961 shows stops that span states from the Midwest to the Northeast, including one stop in Ontario, Canada

of Jay Jay singles fell precipitously after 1966 Roughly 80 percent, or 250 of Jay Jay ’ s catalog of nearly 300 singles, were released between 1951 and 1966 The remainder appear to have been issued between 1971 and 1973

Album production proceeded apace, however, likely due to a marketplace shift in demand, starting in the late 1960s, for albums over singles (Ptak contended that albums had always been Jay Jay ’ s money makers and that singles were sold mainly to jukebox operators).59

Meanwhile, a generation of polk a bands inspired by Wally and the Harmony Boys presented new competi tion. Artists such as Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones and Wally ’ s former bartender Marion Lush were taking the raw Chicago style into new and arguably more sophisti cated, salon like territor y Lush’s “dyno” style, for exam ple, combined the rehearsed sound and quicker tempos of the Eastern style with Wally ’ s trenchant two trumpet formula Blazonczyk’s “push” style polished even more ruddiness off the honky original His emphasis on the bellow shake, or push, of the accordion created a surge in volume that electrified each shift in musical motif 60

N e v e r t h e l e s s , w h e n t h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l Po l k a Association inaugurated its Polk a Hall of Fame in 1969, the initial inductees were Wally and Frankie Yankovic. But Wally wasn’t ready to retire not yet He had pur chased a recording studio in Florida and owned a lounge there for a while 61 In 1978, when Polish Cardinal K arol Wojtyła was selected as Pope, Wally ’ s chest nearly burst open with pride He wrote “God Bless our Polish Pope,” and was invited to the Vatican to perform the polk a before the Pontiff himself Wally told Henr y that after his papal audience: “I was putting my concertina away. I was soaking wet, so nervous The Cardinal comes over and said the Pope wants me to continue playing I wasn’t pre pared to play any religious hymns. The Cardinal said, ‘No, play your polk as! That’s what he wants!’ We played for two hours and eighteen minutes, continuously ”62

Though often found behind the drum kit, here Li’l Wally entertains a crowd on his concertina.

Wally traveled to the Vatican to see Pope John Paul II, but the pope also visited Chicago in October 1979 Here, he waves to people outside Holy Name Cathedral at 730 North Wabash Avenue

Here Wally and his second wife, “Polk a ” Jeanette Kozak, enjoy some time on vacation

Though suffering from arthritis, Wally continued to perform at weddings, Polish festivals, and fairs through out the 1980s and ’90s, while also managing several res idential properties in Florida.63 By then, he had written or arranged more than 2,000 songs, while Jay Jay released around 300 singles and half as many albums But Wally ’ s drinking often got the better of him Musicians recall Wally arriving at performances under the influence Ptak received scads of letters and 4:00 a m t e l e p h o n e c a l l s f r o m h i s f o r m e r b a n d l e a d e r, boohooing about the good old days “He couldn’t han dle not being famous,” Patrick Henr y opined.64

Walter E Jagiello died in Miami Beach on August 17, 2006 The last time most of the Harmony Boys and other polk a musician friends saw Wally was at a surprise 75th birthday party they threw for him the year before. Held at the Red Apple Polish restaurant, the party overlooked Caldwell Woods, where Li’l Wally ’ s polk a tour began

R o b e r t M . M a r o v i c h i s t h e a u t h o r o f A C i t y C a l l e d H e a v e n : C h i c a g o a n d t h e B i r t h o f G o s p e l M u s i c ( U n i v e r s i t y o f I l l i n o i s Press, 2015) and Peace Be Still: How James Cleveland and the A n g e l i c C h o i r C r e a t e d a G o s p e l C l a s s i c ( U n i v e r s i t y o f I l l i n o i s

Press, 2021) He is a Grammy nominated album notes writer and has written articles on music for publications such as the Chicago Reader, New York Times, Living Blues, and Chicago Histor y

I L L U S T R A T I O N S | Illustrations are courtesy of the author u n l e s s o t h e r w i s e n o t e d Pa g e 2 8 , t o p : C H M , I C H i 1 7 5 5 8 1 ; bottom: Librar y of Congress, AFC 1981/004: 196 29, courtesy o f D o r o t h y K o z a k F l a n a g a n . 3 1 , t o p : S T 4 0 0 0 0 8 0 4 0 0 0 1 , Chicago Sun Times collection, CHM 33, courtesy of Dorothy Kozak Flanagan 35, courtesy of Nancy Kozee and Dan Ferone 3 6 , c o u r t e s y o f D o r o t h y K o z a k F l a n a g a n 3 7 , b o t t o m : S T 1 9 0 7 0 0 7 6 0 0 1 7 , C h i c a g o S u n Ti m e s c o l l e c t i o n , C H M . 3 8 , courtesy of Dorothy Kozak Flanagan

F O R F U R T H E R R E A D I N G | Charles Keil, Polk a Happiness (Temple University Press, 1992); Victor Greene, A Passion for Po l k a : O l d Ti m e E t h n i c M u s i c i n A m e r i c a ( U n i v e r s i t y o f C a l i f o r n i a P r e s s , 1 9 9 2 ) ; M a r i o n J a c o b s o n , S q u e e z e T h i s ! : A C u l t u r a l H i s t o r y o f t h e A c c o r d i o n i n A m e r i c a ( U n i v e r s i t y o f I l l i n o i s P r e s s , 2 0 1 5 ) ; J o h n R a d z i l o w s k i a n d A n n e Hetzel Gunkel, Poles in Illinois (University of Southern Illinois Press, 2020)

1 E Annie Proulx, Accordion Crimes (New York: Scribner, 1996), 268

2 Illinois, Federal Naturalization Records, for John Jagiello, 1940 1991 According to his unpublished memoir, Wally cites Tarnow as his father ’ s birthplace and Rzeszow as his mother ’ s birthplace

3 Ibid ; 1940 US Census; Walter E Jagiello unpublished memoirs

4 Charles Keil, Polk a Happiness (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992), 51

5 Keil, Polk a Happiness, 51

6 Dorothy Kozak Flanagan, interview with author, June 18, 2020

7 Keil, Polk a Happiness, 52

8 Chet Kowalkowski, interview with author, May 6, 2019

9 Keil, Polk a Happiness, 53; Flanagan, interview with author

10 Flanagan, interview with author

11 Keil, Polk a Happiness, 53

12 Janice Ellen Kleeman, The Origins and Stylistic Development of Polish American Polk a Music (Berkeley, CA : University of Berkeley Press, 1982), 19, 25 26; Greene, 50

13 Kleeman, 66

14 Kleeman, 19

15 Spottswood, 141

16 Victor Greene, A Passion for Polk a: Old Time Ethnic Music in America (Oakland: University of California Press, 1992), 58; John R adzilowski and Anne Hetzel Gunkel, Poles in Illinois (Carbondale: University of Southern Illinois Press, 2020), 123; Dick Spottswood, Ethnic Music on Records: A Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893 1942, 133

17 Spottswood, 134

18 Kleeman, 67

19 R adzilowski and Gunkel, 124

20 Spottswood, 149 50

21 Greene, 114 18

22 Bernie Gorak, interview with author, May 8, 2019

23 Greene, 199; Kleeman, 137

24 Greene, 235

25 Greene, 235 36, 242

26 Greene, 204

27 Kleeman, 138

28 Spottswood, 151

29 Keil, Polk a Happiness, 56

30 Keil, Polk a Happiness, 55 The show was probably named after the Lucky Stop, its main sponsor

31. Keil, Polk a Happiness, 56.

32 Kowalkowski, interview with author 33 Keil, Polk a Happiness, 57

34 Keil, “In Pursuit of Polk a Happiness,” Cultural Correspondence, 5:5 11; 74 (Summer Fall 1977), quoted in Kleeman, 144

35 Don Ptak, interview with author, June 26, 2019

36 Examples include Will Glahe’s 1957 hit “Lichtensteiner Polk a ” and Elvis Presley ’ s 1960 “ Wooden Heart ” 37 Ptak, interview with author 38 Ptak, interview with author 39 Kowalkowski, interview with author 40 Gorak, interview with author 41 Wally Jagiello interview with Patrick Henr y 42 Kleeman, 197, 201 43 Ptak, interview with author 44 Gorak, interview with author 45 Keil, Polk a Happiness, 47 46 Ptak, interview with author

47 “Li'l Wally Jagiello Living Categor y Inducted 1969,” International Polk a Association, https://www ipapolk as com/ blog/otw pm portfolio/lil wally jagiello living categor y inducted 1969/, accessed September 28, 2020 48 Ptak, interview with author 49 Don Ptak, correspondence with author, November 23, 2020 50 Billboard, October 26, 1959, 22 51 Flanagan, interview with author 52 Ptak, interview with author

53 Ptak, interview with author

54 Flanagan, interview with author

55 Flanagan, interview with author

56 Cash Box, Februar y 26, 1966

57 Gorak, interview with author

58 Don Ptak, correspondence with author, November 24, 2020

59 Ptak, interview with author, June 26, 2019

60 Kleeman, 150, 154

61 Dorothy Kozak Flanagan, communica tion with author, October 26, 2020

62 Wally Jagiello interview with Patrick Henr y

63 Flanagan, communication with author

64 Patrick Henr y, interview with author, June 26, 2019

Th e b o o k ’ s f i r s t p h o t o g r a p h t h e o p e n i n g s h o t i s a s t u n n e r A n evocative nighttime image of R andolph Street’s old restaurant row. T h e p h o t o g r a p h l o o k s l i ke a s c e n e s n a t c h e d f r o m a l o n g l o s t

Chicago film noir

Lighted and neon signs break the downtown darkness Toffanetti restau rant, near Dearborn Street. Famous Henrici’s. Hoe Sae Gai, with its marquee of faux Chinese script slashing the night like scimitars Next door: Sunny Italy, boasting “ The Finest Italian Food in Town ” And: Round the Clock, a 24 hour coffee shop at R andolph and Clark.

ST 17600001, Chicago Sun Times collection, CHM

This article is a reprint of the “Introduction” t o C h i c a g o E x p o s e d : D e f i n i n g M o m e n t s f r o m t h e C h i c a g o S u n Ti m e s P h o t o A r c h i v e , e d i t e d b y R i c h a r d C a h a n a n d

Michael Williams Copyright © 2021 by CityFiles Press

To shoot the photo from atop the Greyhound Bus Terminal was a master stroke The station was across the street from the restaurants; the sign bearing the bus company ’ s galloping mascot is in the foreground. The angle, against the darkened street, gives the image a dreamlike yet melancholy feel of an era that was about to come to an end

In fact, that’s exactly what hap pened The photograph was taken December 26, 1961, and within eighteen months, the entire block was wrecked and hauled away to make room for what is now the Richard J Daley Center

But before the bulldozers rolled down Randolph, an unnamed Chicago Sun Times photographer was there

What could’ve been a routine p h o t o a s s i g n m e n t b e c a m e a r t brought to Sun Times readers for pocket change And it happened vir tually ever y day, with ever y edition, through the work of photographers who were the best in the business.

B o r r i e K a n t o r D a v e M a n n J a c k D y k i n g a H o w a r d D S i m m o n s A l Po d g o r s k i A s h l e e R e z i n G a r c i a T h e l i s t g o e s o n . T h e s e p r o f e s s i o n a l s c a p t u r e d t h i s t o u g h , b r a w l i n g , p r o u d a n d o f t t r o u b l e d c i t y, a n d d i d s o w i t h s t y l e , t r u t h , u r g e n c y, a n d b e a u t y

A n d t o t h i n k m u c h o f t h i s w o r k i n c l u d i n g t h e m a r v e l o u s restaurant row image was headed to oblivion just a few years ago Following a blunder by the newspa per ’ s previous owner, the photo negatives for five million images from the 1940s through the early 2000s ingloriously wound up in Dixon, Illinois

T h e y w e r e r e s c u e d b y t h e Chicago Histor y Museum

I ’ v e b e e n exc i t e d a b o u t t h i s trove of photographs ever since I’ve spent more late nights than I dare admit looking through the thou sands of the Chicago Sun Times Collection online images

In one dramatic photo, Bob Kotalik captures two firefighters tension etched across their faces urgently carr ying a nun down a ladder during the fatal Our L ady of Angels School fire of 1958 It’s a heart stopping image We don’t know if she lived or was among the ninety five students and nuns who perished.

ST 17500648,

Chicago Sun Times collection, CHM; Bob Kotalik, photographer

Almost thirty years after that fire, Sun Times photographers captured the euphoria at a downtown parade honoring the freshly crowned Super Bowl XX champs, the Chicago Bears Revelers are frolicking on a packed L aSalle Street, which was carpeted in ankle deep ticker tape People climbed atop a traf fic lights to get a better view Shirtless men defied 8°F weather and a 29°F windchill

It’s as if parade goers somehow knew they were attend ing a once in a lifetime event And the Bears have done their best to keep it that way

Black Chicago is particularly well represented Sun Times photographers captured newsworthy images of the peril and pain sometimes found on the city ’ s South and West Sides Photographs of mother Mamie Till, ripped by anguish as she viewed the tortured body of her son, Emmett lynched by Southern racists in 1955 are as searing now as they were nearly seventy years ago

But the Sun Times also produced remarkable images that captured the spirit and humanity of the Black community. For instance, there is a 1974 photo essay on East Forty Seventh Street in the predominantly Black community area of Grand Boulevard Areas like these are easy pickings for grim, voyeuris tic photography that does little but showcase tired stereotypes about poor and working class Black neighborhoods

ST 50004224 0025, Chicago Sun Times Collection, CHM

ST 17600006, Chicago Sun Times Collection, CHM

Clockwise from top: ST 14003584 0059, ST 14003584 0081, ST 14003584 0006, Chicago Sun Times collection, CHM

Sun Times photographers found laughing children and an Afro’d young mom posing with her bright eyed toddler There’s a fashionably dressed Mack in a wide brimmed hat even in black and white, you can still tell he’s colorfully attired proudly posing next to his fabu lous and tricked out Cadillac Eldorado

Browsing the collection, I found myself smiling at a sequence of 1967 photographs showing Muhammad Ali holding up and playing with a baby outside the old Senate Theatre on West Madison Street.

ST 50000444 0004, Chicago Sun Times collection, CHM; Pete Peters, photographer

Just three months earlier, Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title for refusing induction into the US Army But here, on the West Side, just before attending a donation drive at the theater to help hungr y Mississippi families, Ali is surrounded by admirers not to mention that beautiful baby, who’d be a woman in her 50s now and greeted like the champion he is

Much of the documentation of Chicago’s Black neighborhoods was done by a talented group of African American photographers who knew and respected the communities they covered.

And the respect and admiration were returned Countless times as a young reporter in the 1990s, I’d hit the streets with photographers John H White, Bob Black, or Brian Jackson They were greeted like celebrities Indeed, when I told my mother about my first day at the Sun Times back in 1992, her first question was: “Did you meet John White yet?”

I did And now you can, too, along with scores of other Sun Times pho tographers artists, really through the powerful work in this book

John H White (left) won the “outstanding photography ” award at the 1985 Chicago Association of Black Jour nalists awards, while his Sun Times colleague Clem Richardson (right) won for “outstanding reporting ” ST 10002084 0002, Chicago Sun Times collection, CHM

Chicago Exposed can be found in our Museum Store

The Transformation of Rehabilitation in Chicago: Interview with Dr. Joanne C. Smith

T I M O T H Y J . G I L F O Y L E

Sadly, Dr. Joanne Smith died on September 6, 2021, shortly after this article was completed and submitted. The Chicago Histor y Museum and Chicago Histor y magazine hope it serves to promote the humane vision of Dr. Smith and the enduring legacy she leaves to Chicago.

The histor y of modern physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) can be divided into three periods Much, if not all, of it happened in Chicago. First, the orthopedic surgeon Paul Magnuson founded the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) in a Near North Side ware house in 1954 Almost a decade later, Dr Henr y Betts joined RIC In a matter o f y e a r s , B e t t s n o t o n l y s p u r r e d t h e c o n s t r u c t i o n o f a n e w n i n e t e e n s t o r y m e d i c a l f a c i l i t y i n 1 9 7 3 , b u t t r a n s f o r m e d t h e e n t i r e f i e l d o f P M & R . 1 S i n c e 1991, U S News & World Report has annually identified RIC as the leading rehabilitation institution in the United States, the only hospital of its kind to hold this distinction.2 Finally, in 2017, RIC opened a new hospital Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab under the leadership of Dr Joanne Smith, who redefined P M & R w i t h a n e w v i s i o n : t o b e t h e g l o b a l s o u r c e o f s c i e n c e d r i v e n b r e a k throughs in human ability 3

The transformation of RIC into Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab was the culmina t i o n o f J o a n n e S m i t h ’ s l i f e t i m e g o a l o f r e d e f i n i n g P M & R Af t e r S m i t h w a s appointed president and chief executive officer of RIC in 2006, she quickly b e c a m e a w i d e l y r e s p e c t e d t h o u g h t l e a d e r a n d a d r i v i n g f o r c e i n p h y s i c a l medicine and rehabilitation, evidenced by invitations to speak at the inau gural Wall Street Jour nal Future of Ever ything Festival in 2018 and the Aspen I d ea s Fes t i v a l i n 2 0 1 9 I n 2 0 2 1 a nd 2 0 1 9 , s h e w a s i d ent i f i ed a s one of t h e

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n i n S c i e n c e , M e d i c i n e , a n d Te c h n o l o g y i n 2 0 2 0 ; p h o t o g r a p h © K a t r i n a W i t t k a m p T h e p r e v i o u s y e a r, s h e s p o ke a t t h e A s p e n Ideas Festival (below).

Dr Joanne Smith received the Enrico Fermi M a k i n g

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To p 2 5 Wo m e n L e a d e r s ” b y M o d e r n H e a l t h c a r e 4 N a m e d i n h o n o r o f S h i r l e y We l s h R y a n , a n a t i o n a l l y r e c o g n i z e d a d v o c a t e o f e a r l y c h i l d h o o d d e t e c t i o n and intervention in motor, sensor y, and c o m m u n i c a t i o n d e v e l o p m e n t , t h e n e w medical facility was a medical and archi tectural landmark.

Joanne Smith was born in Detroit on N e w Ye a r ’ s D a y 1 9 6 1 , t h e s e v e n t h o f n i n e c h i l d r e n , t o L a w r e n c e O t i s S m i t h a n d M a r y J a n e Fa r r e l l S m i t h . 5 “ I w a s b o r n i n t h e o l d H a r p e r G r a c e H o s p i t a l t h a t s t i l l ex i s t s , ” S m i t h ex p l a i n e d S h e spent her early childhood on Wildemere S t r e e t , j u s t o f f S i x M i l e R o a d a n d Woodward Avenue “I lived in a middle c l a s s c o m m u n i t y w i t h r o w h o u s e s , o r s m a l l l o t s w i t h h o u s e s We l i v e d i n a three bedroom home, so five girls in one bedroom and four boys in the other, a n d m y p a r e n t s h a d t h e i r o w n ” S m i t h r e m e m b e r e d t h a t “ t h e g i r l s ’ r o o m always h ad a crib because we always h ad a baby And th en it h ad a double bed, which two girls slept in, and a bunk bed ” She admitted, “there wasn’t really much room for anything else.”6

Smith’s mother originated from County Longford in Ireland, immigrated to Quebec City when she was a little girl, and then eventually moved with her f a m i l y t o M i c h i g a n “ M y f a t h e r, w i t h h i s f a t h e r, o w n e d a p r i v a t e b u s i n e s s , ” Smith recounted. “ They were sole proprietors of a wood flooring, premium lumber distribution, and wholesale business ” The enterprise is still in business, S m i t h p r o u d l y p r o c l a i m e d “ I t ’ s c a l l e d Smith Wood Floors. My brothers run it to this day, so it’s three generations ”7 S m i t h a t t e n d e d t h e l o c a l p a r o c h i a l s c h o o l w i t h i n w a l k i n g d i s t a n c e o f h e r home. “I went to a small Catholic school i n t h e a r e a c a l l e d G e s u , w h i c h h a d a n adjoining parish ” In 1968, however, the Smith family moved to West Bloomfield i n s u b u r b a n D e t r o i t . T h e r e , S m i t h attended local public schools and even tually graduated from Our L ady of Mercy H i g h S c h o o l , a n a l l g i r l s s e c o n d a r y school in Farmington Hills.8

College beckoned, and Smith elected t o a t t e n d n e a r b y O a k l a n d U n i v e r s i t y i n R o c h e s t e r, M i c h i g a n “ I s t a r t e d o u t i n p r e n u r s i n g a n d t h e n I r e a l i z e d I d i d n ’ t w a n t t o b e a n u r s e I d i d n ’ t l i ke t o t a ke orders,” Smith admitted More precisely, “I didn’t like not understanding why the order was happening.”9

D u r i n g h e r s o p h o m o r e y e a r, S m i t h worked in the emergency department at M e r c y H o s p i t a l i n Po n t i a c , M i c h i g a n .

( L e f t ) T h e w e d d i n g o f S m i t h ’ s p a r e n t s , M a r y J a n e a n d L a w r e n c e ( R i g h t ) B a b y photo taken of Joanne c 1961

Yo u n g J o a n n e ( b o t t o m l e f t ) w i t h s e v e n o f her siblings in a holiday photograph

“

That was an intense environment because it was kind of a rough and tumble area, ” remembered Smith “I liked interacting with the doctors I was doing CPR [cardiopulmonar y resuscitation] on gunshot wound patients with blood ever ywhere without any PPE [personal protective equipment]. It was crazy, but that stoked my confidence ”10 Smith became a biology major in the premed program and ultimately earned her B S, cum laude, in 1984 She then entered m e d i c a l s c h o o l a t M i c h i g a n S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y i n L a n s i n g , w h e r e S m i t h w a s inducted into the national medical honor society Alpha Omega Alpha before graduating in 1988

Smith intended to specialize in orthopedic surger y or anesthesiology when she was assigned to the Area Child Amputee Clinic at Mar y Free Bed Hospital in Grand R apids, Michigan Smith remembered walking into the recreational area “ There were kids from ever y place around the Midwest, ever y skin color, with missing body parts, running around, jumping, playing, throwing balls, laughing, giggling.” She was stunned, in her words, “to see these happy, joyful, just ecstatic children that were happy to see each other who were, by all adult measures, severely impaired What is this place, I wondered?”11

O n e p a t i e n t s t o o d o u t i n S m i t h ’ s m e m o r y “ S h e w a s b o r n w i t h s p i n a bifida, and back then they would cut off half your body as a baby since you didn’t have any nerve supply to your legs ” But this young patient used her arms as legs “She could run around and jump and play and just hoot and h o l l e r, a n d s h e w a s f r e e a n d a b l e a n d a w e s o m e , ” S m i t h o b s e r v e d B u t h e r mother wanted her to sit in a prosthetic in a wheelchair because she did not l i ke t h e w a y h e r d a u g h t e r l o o ke d “ I r e m e m b e r w a t c h i n g t h e d a u g h t e r, a beautiful teenage girl, in psychological pain because her mother was ashamed that she didn’t have half of a body, because her mother wanted her to sit in a c h a i r w i t h a l i t t l e s k i r t o n , w i t h p l a s t i c l e g s , a n d u s e t h a t i n s o c i e t y a s opposed to running around on her hands ”12 This memor y became a leitmotif for Smith, a stor y she frequently invoked to both personify and humanize her approach to PM&R . 13

A l l n i n e S m i t h s i b l i n g s t o g e t h e r a s a d u l t s w i t h t h e i r m o t h e r, M a r y J a n e J o a n n e i s second from right

The visit to Mar y Free Bed Hospital proved to be a pivotal point in Smith’s s e l f d i s c o v e r y “ T h a t m o m e n t t u r n e d m y i n t e r e s t t o w a r d s t h i s f i e l d , ” s h e acknowledged Smith elected to become a physiatrist (or PM&R physician) “I liked all of the entanglement of the social, emotional, spiritual, psycholog ical, physical, functional, as opposed to just ‘ what’s wrong with the bones, can we just fix that,’” Smith explained “I really liked the complexity of the dynamics around rehabilitation ”14

S m i t h w a s a c c e p t e d f o r h e r r e s i d e n c y a t N o r t h w e s t e r n U n i v e r s i t y, f i r s t i n t e r n i n g a t E v a n s t o n H o s p i t a l i n 1 9 8 9 , a n d t h e n s p e n d i n g h e r f i n a l t h r e e y e a r s a t R I C U p o n c o m p l e t i n g h e r r e s i d e n c y, S m i t h j o i n e d R I C a s a p r a c ticing physician in 1992 15

D u r i n g h e r N o r t h w e s t e r n U n i v e r s i t y r e s i d e n c y a n d t h e n a s a p r a c t i c i n g physician at RIC, Joanne Smith came under the tutelage of Dr Henr y Betts, o n e o f t h e p i o n e e r s i n r e h a b i l i t a t i o n m e d i c i n e 16 S m i t h b e l i e v e d B e t t s w a s inspired by Martin Luther King Jr to create equality for those with disabilities “Henr y ’ s movement was really about getting patients out of nursing homes, because that’s where they mostly were relegated, and allowing them to live in society not only with equipment, accessibility, and adaptation, but also in city s t r e e t s , i n b a t h r o o m s , i n b u s e s ” 17 B e t t s , i n d e e d , w a s i n s t r u m e n t a l i n c o n v i n c i n g M a y o r R i c h a r d J . D a l e y t o p r o v i d e c u r b c u t s , o r c u r b r a m p s , a t a l l C h i c a g o s t r e e t c o r n e r s , e n a b l i n g t h o s e i n w h e e l c h a i r s t o m o r e e a s i l y m o v e across the city ’ s street intersections 18

Northwest view of buildings and construction o n t h e C h i c a g o c a m p u s o f N o r t h w e s t e r n University in 1926. The Feinberg School of M e d i c i n e ’ s M o n t g o m e r y Wa r d M e m o r i a l Building is on the left

Betts quickly recognized Smith’s original thinking, leadership qualities, and business acumen In 1997, he asked her to serve as an RIC consultant at t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f C h i c a g o H o s p i t a l s t o b e t t e r u n d e r s t a n d t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p s between physicians in acute “ cure based” medicine and those in postacute c a r e r e h a b i l i t a t i o n . 1 9 W h e n S m i t h r e s i s t e d , B e t t s r e c o m m e n d e d : “ Yo u g o home and you talk to your husband, and then tomorrow morning you can come back and tell me yes ”20

“I got the hint,” laughed Smith.21 But in a ver y short time, Smith realized she enjoyed learning about the health care marketing associated with rehabil itation medicine and the strategic aspects of medicine that were never part of h e r m e d i c a l e d u c a t i o n S m i t h t h e n e n t e r e d t h e M B A p r o g r a m a t t h e University of Chicago Booth School of Business, graduating in 2000.22 I n 2 0 0 6 , J o a n n e S m i t h w a s n a m e d P r e s i d e n t a n d C E O o f R I C , t h e f i r s t w o m a n t o h o l d t h e p o s t S h e i m m e d i a t e l y a d d r e s s e d a s e r i e s o f f i n a n c i a l p r o b l e m s , ex p a n d e d s e r v i c e s b e y o n d I l l i n o i s , a n d c o n v i n c e d t h e U S Department of Defense to allow soldiers access to care at RIC facilities. Smith w a s s o o n r e c o g n i z e d a s o n e o f C h i c a g o ’ s l e a d i n g p h y s i c i a n s i n C h i c a g o Magazine and “ a woman to watch” in Crain’s Chicago Business 23

Most significant, however, was that Smith concluded that RIC specifically a n d r e h a b i l i t a t i o n m e d i c i n e i n g e n e r a l w a s s u f f e r i n g f r o m a v i s i o n c r i s i s . Rehabilitation had “lost its power and its mojo in the domain of medicine,” Smith believed Scientific research was insufficient, and acute care hospitals overemphasized cure when none existed Patients were then dismissed “to lower levels of care, ” Smith lamented.24 Rehabilitation medicine was, in her words, “ ripe for transformation ”25

Ac c o r d i n g t o S m i t h , h e r v i s i o n c a m e i n 2 0 0 6 “ S h o r t l y a f t e r I b e c a m e CEO, I literally had an epiphany in a lecture,” she recounted “I realized that science was evolving to the point where it now could be used in the environ ment of rehabilitation ” In neurology, biology, engineering, computing, and other sciences, smart devices were getting smaller and smaller Innovative and previously unimagined applications were increasingly possible in rehabilita tion medicine Implantable batteries for prosthetic devices, for example, were being developed “ That really stoked me, ” remembered Smith “ Why can’t we now bring this into the environment?” she wondered “ Why can’t we encircle the patients with scientists who know this stuff and who can better under stand what our patients’ needs are and help us to direct what’s most impor tant first in terms of basically curing?”26

A w e d d i n g p h o t o o f J o a n n e w i t h h e r h u s band Ror y Repick y

Joanne and Ror y with their daughter Claire and son Michael on a family vacation

S m i t h p r o m o t e d h e r n e w v i s i o n . R e h a b i l i t a t i o n m e d i c i n e n e e d e d t o “become someth ing th at is not even in th at space anymore, ” sh e declared, “ s o m e w h e r e b e t w e e n a c u t e c a r e a n d s t e p d o w n c a r e ” I n t h e e r a o f H e n r y B e t t s , “ t h e r e r e a l l y w a s n ’ t a n y s c i e n c e , ” S m i t h a c k n o w l e d g e d 27 B u t i n t h e emerging applied sciences of tissue engineering and regeneration, brain map ping projects, and energy storing materials for prosthetics, science could now be harnessed with clinical care in ways that “patients who can’t be ‘cured’ in the acute care world actually have great hope and opportunity for a cure at this level ”28 Smith envisioned surrounding patients with scientists and vice versa in a collaboration of simultaneous discover y and treatment Smith chal lenged the medical and scientific communities: “[let’s] build a building where we actually force the collision of physicians and clinicians and patients and s c i e n t i s t s s o t h a t t h e p a t i e n t i s a t t h e c e n t e r o f t h i s c o l l i s i o n , ” s h e a r g u e d “Scientists can kind of marinate in the juices, if you will, and help us to figure out how to fix what’s not working rewire it, reengineer it, replace it, substi tute for it, you name it.”29 For Smith, this was about “ raising all boats,” about “carving a new niche in medicine” for those experiencing strokes and injuries of the brain, spinal cord, and nervous system 30 Smith recognized her vision required not only a new medical philosophy but also an entirely new physical structure. She began raising money for a new RIC building “I went to visit Pat Ryan early in the fundraising campaign and asked if he would like to be the naming donor,” Smith recalls “And he said thank you ver y much, but he wasn’t interested then ” But Smith was not easily dismissed She remained in contact with Ryan, the founder of the Ryan Specialty Group and Aon Corporation, sharing information about the progress of the campaign Soon, Smith befriended Ryan’s spouse, Shirley Welsh Ryan In retrospect, Smith recounted seeing “ a twinkle in Pat’s eye, but he never really let us know that nothing had ever been named after Shirley in all of their extraordinarily gen erous philanthropic activity ”31 Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab would change that S h i r l e y R y a n a n d J o a n n e S m i t h q u i c k l y realized they shared both a common philos o p h y a n d l a n g u a g e E a c h w a n t e d t o c h a l l e n g e h e a l t h c a r e p r o f e s s i o n s , d i s r u p t medical conventions, and transform the lex i c o n o f “ d i s a b i l i t y ” R y a n , f o r ex a m p l e , rejected use of the word “handicap,” a term which at best invoked stereotypes and more often generated discrimination and psychological harm.32 Simply put, “ our words matter,” concurred Smith. “ They change perceptions and they change behavior ”33 R y a n a n d S m i t h a d o p t e d t h e w o r d “ a b i l i t y ” o v e r “ c u r e ” b e c a u s e a b i l i t y can be customized or individualized “ What I want to do in my life may be completely different than what you believe is worthwhile in your life,” Smith pointed out “ That is the unique focus we ’ re going after: the individual decla ration of the patient of what they want to be able to do ”34 Why are patients a t t h e h o s p i t a l ? T h e y w a n t “ t o g e t m o r e a b i l i t y, ” a n s w e r e d S m i t h 35 S m i t h a r g u e d e l s e w h e r e , “ l e t ’ s d i t c h t h e ‘ D i s ’ a n d f o c u s o n w h a t ’ s t h e r e i n a l l o f us Ability!”36 In 2016, Shirley and Pat Ryan presented RIC with the single l a r g e s t g i f t t h e y h a d g i v e n a t t h a t t i m e t o a n y o r g a n i z a t i o n t o c o m p l e t e t h e new facility, which was named Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab.37

( A b o v e ) Pa t a n d S h i r l e y R y a n w i t h S m i t h at a June 2016 gala where the name of the n e w h o s p i t a l w a s a n n o u n c e d ( B e l o w ) Smith at the AbilityL ab groundbreaking in July 2013

S m i t h w a n t e d a f a c i l i t y t h a t e m p h a s i z e d p a t i e n t o u t c o m e o v e r p a t i e n t experience But integrating therapeutic and clinical services, state of the art medical research, and a wide range of medical and research professionals in o n e p h y s i c a l s p a c e h a d n e v e r b e f o r e b e e n a t t e m p t e d N o a r c h i t e c t u r a l o r design model existed. Smith was undaunted. “I guarantee if you build to the patient outcome, they will have a great experience because they come in par alyzed, and if we make them not paralyzed they will love us, ” she believed “ T h e y w i l l t r a d e o f f a l i t t l e b i t o f c o m f o r t c a r e f o r b e i n g a b l e t o w a l k . ” Fo r that reason, Smith told all planners, designers, and architects: “I want you to design to outcomes with science at the center ”38

S m i t h r e s o r t e d t o w h a t c a n b e s t b e d e s c r i b e d a s a h y b r i d p r o g r a m w i t h multiple designers and architects. She began from the inside out, first asking the human domain design firm IDEO of San Francisco to test the concept S h e t h e n e n l i s t e d s e v e r a l a r c h i t e c t u r a l f i r m s H D R o f O m a h a , N e b r a s k a , Gensler of Chicago, and Clive Wilkinson Architects and EGG Office of Culver C i t y, C a l i f o r n i a t o d e s i g n s p a c e s w h i c h f u l l y i n t e g r a t e d m e d i c a l r e s e a r c h a c t i v i t y, t h e p h y s i c a l c l i n i c a l e n v i r o n m e n t , a n d p a t i e n t c a r e S h e i m a g i n e d patients directly engaged in the research process in each of the five “ability labs,” research laboratories and therapeutic spaces 39

The Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab opened in 2017. The $550 million, 1.2 mil lion square foot facility was the first of its kind: a “translational” research hos pital designed to be “ a living laborator y ” to “embed research into the clinical environment,” according to Smith 40 Integrating researchers, clinicians, tech nologists, patients, and families in shared spaces sought to stimulate collabo ration and discover y through the application (or “translation”) of research in real time 41 “Most of the spaces are open, ” Smith pointed out “It’s never been done in a hospital before Nobody has their own office spaces Even the vice presidents have open or no doors.” In Smith’s words, “I wanted collaborative space ”42 In 2020, Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab served more than 50,000 patients annually from around the world 43

S h i r l e y R y a n A b i l i t y L a b h a d i t s o f f i c i a l r i b b o n c u t t i n g i n M a r c h 2 0 1 7 H e r e , Smith joins Pat and Shirley R yan

This portrait of Smith was taken inside Shirley R yan AbilityL ab located at 355 E Erie Street in Chicago; photograph © Robin Subar

Architecture and design communities quickly acknowledged the unprece dented importance of Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab The facility has received more than twenty eight prestigious local, national, and international architecture and design awards, including: the American Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture & Design, merit awards from the Chicago Building Congress and the Illinois Chapter of the American Society of L andscape Architects, and various awards from the American Institute of Architects 44

Smith’s leadership generated invitations to serve on multiple boards: the H e a l t h c a r e R o u n d Ta b l e a d v i s o r y g r o u p f o r M a d i s o n D e a r b o r n Pa r t n e r s , Hillenbrand Industries, Inc and Hillrom (spinoff), AptarGroup, Inc , the Aon Memorial Education Fund, and Performance Health Ltd 45 And she attracted m a n y a c c o l a d e s : U n i v e r s i t y o f C h i c a g o B o o t h S c h o o l o f B u s i n e s s Distinguished Alumni Award (2008), Chicago Magazine’ s 100 Most Powerful Chicagoans (2012), the Chicago Business Hall of Fame (2017), the Women of C o n c e r n H u m a n i t a r i a n Aw a r d ( 2 0 1 8 ) , b e i n g n a m e d o n e o f t h e 2 5 M o s t Powerful Women in Chicago Business by Crain’s Chicago Business (2018), the Dr Frederic A Gibbs Discover y Award from the Brain Research Foundation ( 2 0 1 8 ) , M o d e r n H e a l t h c a r e ’ s 5 0 M o s t I n f l u e n t i a l P h y s i c i a n E xe c u t i v e s a n d Leaders (2018) and Top 25 Women Leaders (2019 and 2021), and the Enrico Fe r m i M a k i n g H i s t o r y Aw a r d f o r D i s t i n c t i o n i n S c i e n c e , M e d i c i n e , a n d Te c h n o l o g y f r o m t h e C h i c a g o H i s t o r y M u s e u m ( 2 0 2 0 ) 4 6 I n 2 0 2 1 , s h e received Illinois’s highest award, the Order of Lincoln, posthumously S m i t h a t t r i b u t e d h e r p r o f e s s i o n a l a n d c i v i c a c c o m p l i s h m e n t s t o e a r l y events in her life. She often thought about her medical school visit to the chil dren’s clinic at Mar y Free Bed Hospital in Grand R apids “I wish I could go back now and sh are wi t h t h at y oung t een t h e h uge lesson sh e t augh t me, ” she reflected, “how she gifted me with early insight, and how she shaped my career sparking the fire now blazing within me.”47

Timothy J Gilfoyle teaches histor y at L oyola University Chicago and is the editor in chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Urban Histor y (Oxford University Press, 2019) I L L U S T R A T I O N S | I l l u s t r a t i o n s a r e c o u r t e s y o f t h e f a m i l y o f D r J o a n n e S m i t h unless otherwise noted Page 49, DN 0082418, Chicago Sun Times/Chicago Daily News collection, CHM

F O R F U R T H E R R E A D I N G | Information on Dr Joanne Smith appears in Matthew Weinstock, “Q&A with the Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab’s CEO Dr Joanne Smith: ‘Ability is our code word for recover y, ’” Moder n Healthcare, Oct 7, 2017, accessed Sept 11, 2020, https://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20171007/NEWS/ 171009946/q a with the shirley r yan abilitylab s ceo dr joanne smith ability is our code word for recover y; “Joanne C Smith, MD,” Shirley R yan AbilityL ab, 2020, accessed Februar y 6, 2020, https://www sralab org/staff/joanne c smith md; and Bob Goldsborough, “Dr Joanne Smith, 1961 2021: CEO of Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab revamped patient rehabilitation,” Chicago Tribune, Sept 9, 2021, p 12 Useful introductions to the architectural and social design of the Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab can be found in Edie Cohen, “Three Major Firms Collaborate on Massive Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab in Chicago,” Interior Design, July 7, 2017, accessed Februar y 10, 2020, http://m interiordesign net/projects/13417 three major firms collaborate on massive shirley r yan abilitylab in chicago/; and Ian Volner, “Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab,” Architect, May 2019, accessed Feb 14, 2020, https://www architect magazine com/project galler y/shirley r yan abilitylab o Lists of the many architectural and design honors awarded to the Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab can be found at: “Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab,” HDR , 2021, accessed Feb 20, 2021, https://www hdrinc com/portfolio/ shirley r yan abilitylab; and “Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab,” Gensler, 2021, accessed Feb 21, 2021, https://www gensler com/projects/shirley r yan abilitylab

1 On Magnuson and Betts, see Timothy J Gilfoyle, “East Coast Transplants: Interviews with Henr y B Betts and Robert V Remini,” Chicago Histor y, vol 32, no 3 (Spring 2004): 48 63; Bob Goldsborough, “Dr Henr y Betts, Leader in Field of Rehabilitation Medicine, Dies at 86,” Chicago Tribune, Jan 5, 2015, accessed Feb 20, 2021, https://www chicagotribune com/ news/obituaries/ct henr y betts obituar y met 20150105 stor y html; Henr y Betts, “ The Rehabilitation Experience,” in Comprehensive Rehabilitation Nursing, eds Nancy Martin, Nancye B Holt, and Dorothy Hicks (New York: McGraw Hill, 1981); Betts, “Sex for the Handicapped,” in The Ann L anders Encyclopedia A to Z (New York: Doubleday, 1978), 977 79; “ The Physician and the Handicapped,” Chicago Medicine 81 (Nov 1978): 1015 16 On the construction of RIC, see “Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago,” Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, 2021, accessed Sept 1, 2021, https://www skyscrapercenter com/ building/rehabilitation institute of chicago/23808

2 Debbie Overman, “Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab R anks #1 for the 30th Consecutive Year,” Rehab Management, July 28, 2020, accessed Sept 12, 2020, https://www rehabpub com/industr y news/company news/shirley r yan ability lab ranks 1 for the 30th consecutive year/

3 “Smith,” Shirley R yan AbilityL ab; “Joanne C Smith, MD,” Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine, 2020, accessed Februar y 6, 2020, https://www feinberg northwestern edu/ faculty profiles/az/profile html?xid=16461

4 “Joanne C Smith, MD,” Shirley R yan AbilityL ab, 2020, accessed Februar y 6, 2020, https://www sralab org/staff/ joanne c smith md

5 Bob Goldsborough, “Dr Joanne Smith, 1961 2021: CEO of Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab revamped patient rehabilita tion,” Chicago Tribune, Sept 9, 2021, p 12 (New Year ’ s Day); Mar y Jane Farrell and L awrence Otis Smith, Sept 17, 1949, Michigan Marriage Records, 1867 1952; Film: 366; Film Title: 82 Wayne 443360 446739, Michigan Department of Community Health,

Division of Vital Records and Health Statistics; L ansing, MI, available at Ancestr y com, accessed Feb 20, 2021, https://search ancestr y com/cgi bin/sse dll?indiv=1&dbid=9093&h=4 242964&tid=&pid=&quer yId=4a377 0478eea5b287a219fe6904f730e&usePU B=true& phsrc=FlY22& phstart=succ essSource

6 Dr Joanne C Smith, oral histor y inter view by Timothy J Gilfoyle, Januar y 19, 2021, deposited in the collection of the Chicago Histor y Museum (hereafter, Smith, interview)

7 Smith, interview

8 Smith, interview

9 Smith, interview

10 Smith, interview

11 Smith, interview

12 Smith, interview

13 For examples, see Joanne C Smith, “Ditching the ‘Dis,’” Aspen Ideas Festival, May 8, 2019, accessed Februar y 6, 2020, https://www aspenideas org/ articles/ditching the dis; Goldsborough, “Dr Joanne Smith ”

14 Smith, interview

15 “Smith,” Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine

16 Gilfoyle, “East Coast Transplants”; Goldsborough, “Dr Henr y Betts ” 17 Smith, interview

18 On Betts and street corner cuts, see Gilfoyle, “East Coast Transplants,” 59 60; Smith, interview; Goldsborough, “Dr Henr y Betts ”

19 “Joanne C Smith, ’00,” Chicago Booth, 2004 2020, accessed Februar y 6, 2020, https://www chicagobooth edu/daa/hon orees/joanne smith

20 Smith, interview

21 Smith, interview

22 “Joanne Smith, M D Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago: Taking Patient Care to the C Suite,” Forté, 2018, accessed Februar y 6, 2020, http:// business360 fortefoundation org/ how an mba helped joanne smith m d take patient care to the c suite/

23 “Joanne C Smith, ’00 ” Chicago Booth

24 Matthew Weinstock, “Q&A with the Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab’s CEO Dr Joanne Smith: ‘Ability is our code word for recover y, ’” Moder n Healthcare, Oct 7, 2017, accessed Sept 11, 2020, https://www modernhealthcare com/arti cle/20171007/NEWS/171009946/q a with the shirley r yan abilitylab s ceo dr joanne smith ability is our code word for recover y

25 Smith, “Ditching the ‘Dis ’”

26 Smith, interview

27 Smith, interview

28 Weinstock, “Q&A with the Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab’s CEO Dr Joanne Smith ”

29 Smith, interview

30 Weinstock, “Q&A with the Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab’s CEO Dr Joanne Smith ”

31 Smith, interview For more on Shirley Ryan and her role in the creation of the Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab, see Timothy J Gilfoyle, “ Transforming Disability into Ability: Interview with Shirley Welsh Ryan, Chicago Histor y, vol 45, no 1 (Spring 2021), 42 52

32 Shirley Welsh Ryan, oral histor y inter view by Timothy J Gilfoyle, December 7, 2020, deposited in the collection of the Chicago Histor y Museum

33 Smith, “Ditching the ‘Dis ’”

34 Smith, interview

35. Weinstock, “Q&A with the Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab’s CEO Dr Joanne Smith ”

36 Smith, “Ditching the ‘Dis ’”

37 On the Ryan gift being the largest single donation at one time to any institution, see Smith, interview On the renaming of the RIC, see Susan B Noyes, “Inspiration and Transformation: Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab Combines Pathways and RIC,” Better, June 24, 2016, accessed Feb 20, 2020, https://better net/ chicago/philanthropy/shirley r yan abilitylab ric pathways/

38 Smith, interview

39 Ian Volner, “Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab,” Architect, May 2019, accessed Feb 14, 2020, https://www architectmagazine com/ project galler y/shirley r yan abilitylab o

40 Smith, “Ditching the ‘Dis ’” On opening in 2017, see “Smith,” Shirley R yan AbilityL ab

41 Overman, “Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab R anks #1 for the 30th Consecutive Year ”

42 Smith, interview

43 “Smith,” Shirley R yan Ability L ab

44 The many architectural and design honors awarded to the Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab can be found at: “Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab,” HDR , 2021, accessed Feb 20, 2021, https://www hdrinc com/ portfolio/shirley r yan abilitylab; and “Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab,” Gensler, 2021, accessed Feb 21, 2021, https://www gensler com/projects/ shirley r yan abilitylab

45 On Smith’s service on various boards, see “Smith,” Shirley R yan AbilityL ab; “Business Leaders: Joanne C Smith,” MarketScreener, 2020, accessed Sept 11, 2020, https://www marketscreener com/ business leaders/Joanne Smith 05F4J8 E/biography/

46 On Smith’s various awards, see “Smith,” Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine; “Smith,” Shirley Ryan AbilityL ab; “85 Joanne C Smith,” Chicago Magazine, Feb 14, 2012, accessed Sept 11, 2020, https://www chicagomag com/ Chicago Magazine/March 2012/100 Most Powerful Chicagoans Joanne C Smith/; “Joanne Smith,” Aspen Ideas Festival, n d , accessed Februar y 6, 2020, https://www aspenideas org/ speakers/joanne smith; “2020 L aureates Announced by Gov Pritzker,” The Lincoln Academy of Illinois, Nov 15, 2019, accessed Sept 11, 2020, https://thelincolnacademyofillinois org/ 2020 laureates announced by gov pritzker/

47 Smith, “Ditching the ‘Dis ’”