My blog had a baby

I’m thrilled to announce the much delayed arrival of my new blog, Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium Remembered. The poor child is not quite standing on its own feet yet, but eventually I hope to report on the history, the built environment and the people who passed through this important public health facility. The posts I [...]

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Goodbye to a friend

Goodbye to a friend

I met Marshall Rosenthal about two years ago. While I immediately learned he was a great source for information on Chicago past and present, I didn’t get a chance to know him well enough. I never knew the details of his storied career in Chicago journalism until I read his obituary earlier this week.

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A few things

A few things

In a previous post I recalled Chicago Daily News (and Sun-Times) columnist Sydney J. Harris and my fondness his weekly columns titled “Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things.” I’d like to close out 2011 with a post in a similar vein, without elaborating on the fact that now we all learn things “While Looking Up Other Things” on the Internet.

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Name that school

Name that school

It took a while, but self-described vinyl junkie and Roosevelt High School alum Mike Wolstein tracked down which Chicago public school was memorialized in rock and roll history.

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This was Deborah

This was Deborah

For more than 40 years I’ve been passing this building. How did I not see, not admire, those sharp, clean lines and angles jutting outwards from the corner of Kimball and Ainslie?

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Everyone knew his name

Everyone knew his name

From Montrose to Peterson, Kedzie to Pulaski and far beyond, generations of Chicago kids knew Ned Singer’s Sports.

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The Bungalow

The Bungalow

Guest blogger Charlene (Powitz) Gelber recalls Central Park Avenue in Hollywood Park. It was really like the country, because we had the TB sanitarium on one side and the Boys Parental School across the street. There were no houses across from us and it was beautiful.

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When Ray Kroc Came to Hollywood Park

When Ray Kroc Came to Hollywood Park

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know milestones of this magnitude are few and far between in the history of Hollywood Park.

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Oh, I love the night life

Oh, I love the night life

A parade of stars once swept through the doors of 610 N. Fairbanks Court in Streeterville. Lines formed around the block to see the likes of Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Milton Berle, Sophie Tucker, Jimmy Durante, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Bob Hope performing at the Chez Paree supper club.

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Nighthawks in Old Albany Park

Nighthawks in Old Albany Park

It’s not New York, it’s not a diner, it’s not an image of urban loneliness, but Allan Zirlin’s photograph of Segal’s Shoes at the corner Lawrence and Sawyer reminds me of Edward Hopper’s painting, Nighthawks. Zirlin shot this photograph out a car window sometime in the 1950s.

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