Kup's Chicago - Irv Kupcinet [2]
Along the way we’ll puncture a few myths. There is a story that Chicago’s name means “onion” or “skunk.” Actually, its name derives from the Indian word chicagou, which meant “anything powerful or great.” Nor is it true that Chicago is the crime capital of the nation. FBI statistics now award that dubious distinction to Los Angeles.
“Hog Butcher for the World,” sang Chicago’s favorite poet, Carl Sandburg. Not so today. Thanks to modern transportation, Kansas City and Omaha now share the lead in cattle slaughtering; and due to Chicago’s rapid growth and diversification, meatpacking is only one of its many industries.
I would be remiss in my loyalty to my home town if I failed to dispel the canard inspired by Charles Dana that Chicago is the nation’s “Windy City.” Not long ago a Chicago advertising executive, Harry Cohen, launched a campaign to explode this ancient fallacy. His gust of statistics from the United States Weather Bureau showed that eighteen other cities are windier. And guess what city topped the list. Dana’s New York – with an average hourly wind speed of 14.5 mph, as compared to Chicago’s zephyr-like 9.8.
The chalk-white Wrigley Building, the twin lions outside the Art Institute, the outdoor market on Maxwell Street, the Water Tower that survived the Chicago Fire, the quaintness of Chinatown, the eccentrics of “Bughouse Square” – they are all symbols of the Chicago I love.
But Chicago isn’t my only love. My job itself is another – an assignment that has encompassed and provided more glamour and adventure than I ever dreamed I could be a part of. So we won’t stop with Chicago and its suburbs. We’ll examine the kaleidoscope of events which make up the unique world of a big-city columnist: events which include a private audience with Pope Pius XII in the Vatican; visits with Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman in the White House; the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of England. My job has taken me to Alaska and the Far East on Christmas trips with Bob Hope; to Palestine and the Displaced Persons Camp in Europe on a “Mission of Mercy” with Chicago philanthropists; into the lives and homes of movie and TV stars.
And I would like to share with you the experiences of my television show, At Random, now in its fourth year on Chicago’s CBS station, WBBM-TV. At Random, “a conversational show for controversial people,” is syndicated and seen in a dozen cities. Every Saturday I assemble a small group of articulate persons from various professions for a free exchange of ideas that continues from midnight into the early hours of Sunday morning. Former Presidents, future Presidents, Senators, governors, foreign dignitaries, authors, educators, producers, playwrights, and stars of sports and show business – all have participated in the informal, no-holds-barred discussions that comprise At Random.
I also do football broadcasts every Sunday during the season. Football and journalism long have been twin obsessions with me. Through my high school and college years they complemented each other to the exclusion of practically all other interests. My playing days ended after a brief fling at professional football with the Philadelphia Eagles. However a few years later I was not only covering football and other sports for the old Chicago Times, but also officiating in the National Football League. As a matter of fact, the most running I ever did in my football career was on a Sunday late in 1940, when I was one of the officials in the unforgettable championship game in which the Chicago Bears slaughtered the Washington Redskins, 73-0.
When my officiating and sportswriting days ended, I moved into the radio booth to do the “color” on the Bears