Kup's Chicago - Irv Kupcinet [85]
I first met the brilliant Luckman when Halas asked me to take him under my wing in my sportswriting days. Sid was then a young All-American fresh out of Columbia University, who had never been west of the Hudson River and contended that he never wanted to. Today, the former pride of Brooklyn is one of Chicago’s foremost citizens. Like many another footballer, he chose to make his home in the city where he gained professional stardom. And he has more than duplicated his gridiron success in the business world. Sid is one of Chicago’s nicest millionaires, thanks to his adroit management of his cellophane packaging firm.
Calling Luckman “nice” is not loose use of the adjective. His efforts to please everybody led him into this trap, involving the football used in the game in which the Bears defeated the New York Giants, 24-14, for the National Football League championship.
A few days after the game, in which Luckman had performed brilliantly, he presented a football to Charlie Baron, with this inscription: “To the dearest friend I have in the world – this is the ball used by the Bears in winning the 1946 championship.” For weeks Baron displayed this trophy on the mantel of his Lake Shore Drive Hotel apartment. No visitor could depart without first paying homage to the Luckman football and its endearing inscription.
Then, by chance, Baron visited the home of another Luckman friend, John McGuire. There, on the mantel, Baron saw another football presented by Sid – with the same affectionate inscription, word for word! And slowly it developed that Luckman had presented “the championship football” to no fewer than a dozen of his dearest friends, including Joe DiMaggio, Lou and Cecil Wolf-son, Leonard Schaller, and Lou Zahn.
7. Night Life, Anyone?
Nightfall in some cities means it’s time to roll up the sidewalks. Not in Chicago. It is rather the signal to the Prairie Giant that it is time to turn off his blowtorch and get ready to play. And when he does, as in everything else, he insists on two things: quality and variety. There is plenty of both to be found in the night life of Chicago, which has long held the reputation of being one of the liveliest after-dark towns in the nation.
There is the Near North Side night-club district, second only in size to that of Las Vegas. As twilight descends, walk along Rush Street, the heart of the district. A carnival of light and color will come to life before your eyes.
Or take a late-evening stroll in the fluorescent daylight of the Loop theater district, “The Little White Way,” centered about Randolph and State. Broadway after-theater crowds may be larger, but the enthusiasm and excitement of our theatergoers are just as intense.
Night life even has come to the Chicago suburbs. A new “strip,” along Mannheim Road and adjacent to O’Hare International Airport, now houses the Sahara Inn, which has taken up the slack created by the demise of the Chez Paree. Here the biggest names on the café circuit appear – and, surprisingly enough, lure huge crowds. A few years ago, a big-name night club on the outskirts of the city would have been folly. Today, with expressways that merge urban with suburban, the distance is no drawback. Other cafés are springing up along the Mannheim strip and may indicate the trend of tomorrow.
Right here I’d like to correct a couple of widespread misconceptions among visitors regarding Chicago’s reputation as a leading convention center in the nation. Contrary to popular belief, what makes Chicago a convention capital is not the availability of wine, women, and song. It is the city’s central geographical location and its vast number of hotel facilities that are responsible for Chicago’s popularity with conventioneers. And as for our reputation as a wide-open town, statistics of the Chicago