Kup's Chicago - Irv Kupcinet [29]
For a time, in silent-movie days, Chicago was the feature film capital of the world. The old Essanay lot on Argyle Street, now the property of Wilding Studios which produces industrial films, was the nation’s busiest – with such stars as Gloria Swanson, Wallace Beery, W. C. Fields, Francis X. Bushman, and Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin’s bosses had tried to keep him out of contact with competing studios, but it was from Essanay that Chaplin was finally spirited away to Hollywood by a rival who got to him dressed as an extra. It was also from Chicago that former furrier Adolph Zukor moved to help build what became Paramount Pictures, and clothier Carl Laemmle emigrated to found the Universal-International Studios. The lure of California sunshine, plus an antitrust suit that all but wiped out Essanay, ended Chicago’s movie-production reign.
Louella Parsons, one of Hollywood’s great personalities, has vivid recollections of those early days when Chicago was Movieland. A stage-struck girl from the small Illinois town of Dixon, she came to the Big City to write scenarios for Essanay. When Francis X. Bushman was a matinee idol, Louella knew what the public was not supposed to know – that he was actually the father of five children. Louella also knew a cross-eyed office boy who confided to her that his great ambition was to be a movie comedian – and he soon was. His name was Ben Turpin. And then one day Louella decided to capitalize on her experience and contacts at Essanay. She walked into the office of William Handy, publisher of the old Chicago Record-Herald, and made this suggestion:
“How about a column about the movie stars, what they are like off the screen, whom they go with, what they wear?”
Handy accepted the idea at once, and Chicago gave birth to the first movie column. And when the Record-Herald folded, Louella took her idea West to continue making her fortune.
New Orleans may be the birthplace of jazz, but Chicago is the town where it grew up. The old Lamb’s Café at Clark and Randolph spelled it, “jass.” And Thirty-fifth and State, just a hot note from Comiskey Park, marked the center of the most music-filled neighborhood in the nation. “Just stand there with a horn,” someone once said, “and it’ll blow by itself.” Joe (“King”) Oliver, Leon Bismarck (“Bix”) Beiderbecke, Louis (“Satchmo”) Armstrong, Earle (“Fatha”) Hines, and Chicago’s own Francis (”Muggsy”) Spanicr, Ben Pollack, Benny Goodman, and Gene Krupa, all performed in Chicago saloons and speak-easies, transforming jazz from a localized folk art into an international craze.
It was in the old Panther Room of the Sherman Hotel where Fats Waller was asked, “Mr. Waller, what is jazz?”
“Lady,” Fats replied, “If you have to ask, don’t fool with it.”
Nationally famous Chicago ballrooms such as the Aragon and Trianon launched the big swing bands, including Wayne King, Guy Lombardo, and Lawrence Welk.
Many of the leading network shows in the golden era of radio originated in Chicago – Red Skelton, Dr. IQ, Amos ‘n’ Andy, Paul Whiteman, Kay Kyser, Ben Bernie, the Quiz Kids, Ma Perkins, the late-afternoon adventure serials which hooked millions of decoder-clutching youths, these were the symbols of its reign. Enduring partnerships were formed, such as that of Garry Moore and Durward Kirby, who met on the old Ransom Sherman Club Matinee program. The excitement of that age is over, but many of its luminaries remain as stars.
Two of the most renowned pioneers of the movie palaces were Chicagoans: the late Abe Balaban and Sam