Illinois State Society of Washington, DC

Illinois Hall of Fame: Bob Newhart

By Mark Rhoads

Bob Newhart almost never uses vulgar words in his comedy material for shock value.  About the most shocking thing he has ever been known to say is in his Driving Instructor routine when he shouts at another driver, "Same to you fella!"  He tells another, "No sir, I don't suppose it is so damn funny."  Newhart's commedy is universal and never offends his audience.  He is an innovative comedy pioneer who has starred and succeeded in many venues including films, record albums, night clubs, and television.  Bob was born on Sept. 25, 1929 in Oak Park, Illinois and grew up there.  He claims it was only a coincidence that the stock market crashed a month after his birth. 

Bob attended high school at St. Ignatius College Preparatory School in Chicago.  He graduated from Loyola University of Chicago in 1952 with a degree in business. He was drafted into the Army right after college during the Korean War but did not leave the U.S. and was discharged in 1954.  From 1954 to 1958, Bob worked as an accountant for United States Gympsum Corporation in Chicago but later claimed that his motto "close enough" did not endear him to his colleagues in the accounting department.

By 1958, Bob was writing advertising copy for Fred Niles, one of the largest independent film and TV producers in Chicago.  At the Niles Company, Bob and a co-worker invented long imaginary and funny phone calls that they would use as audtion tapes for voice-over commercial work. The tapes evolved into a staple of Bob's comedy routines, one-way imaginary phone conversations with people such as "Nutty Walt" from the colonies also known as Sir Walter Raleigh. "You do what? You roll up this big leaf of tobacco and then you stick it in your mouth and you light it on fire?  Then what?  You breathe in the smoke?  Is this one of the guys in the back office?  Is this a rib?"  In another classic, he gives PR advice to Abraham Lincoln on how to phrase the Gettysburg Address for best effect. He begs Lincoln not to change "four score and seven years" to just "87 years" because it would not sound as good. "Abe, that would be like Marc Antony saying, 'Friends, Romans, countrymen, I got something I want to tell ya."  In still another phone conversation, he represents Parker Brothers game company as he patiently listens to Abner Doubleday try to explain the complex rules of the new game of baseball.  "How many couples?  Nine?!  What do you mean nine men on a team?"  According to legend, in about 1959 Chicago radio DJ Dan Sorkin introduced Bob to the head of talent for Warner Brothers Records.  Spoken word albums were new then and the talent head came up with the idea of recording some of Bob's stand-up comedy routines at Chicago-area night clubs. Bob was living in Oak Park when at age 31, he began to enjoy great success with his new comedy style. In 1960, various club recordings in front of a live audience were assembled in Bob's first comedy album, The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart.

The Button Down Mind was a huge instant success that went to number one on the charts.  The popularity was unheard of for a non-musical album. It sold better than a competing Elvis Presley album and the cast album from the Broadway stage version of The Sound of Music.  Bob won a Grammy Award in 1961 and an award for "Best New Artist" that same year from the recording industry.  All at once, he recorded a sequel to the first album called The Button Down Mind Strikes Back and he was offered a comedy/variety show of his own on NBC-TV.  The 1961 incarnation of The Bob Newhart Show only lasted one season but the show won Bob both an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award.  Two of his memorable film roles in early years included an Army private in Hell is for Heroes (1962) that worked in a phone conversation in a bunker for the benefit of listening German intelligence officers.  "Please don't send any more reinforcements to our sector, we already have too many troops here."  He also played the role of "Major Major" in Catch 22 (1970) with an all-star comedy cast ranging from Orson Welles and Norman Fell to Buck Henry and Alan Arkin.  In all, he has been in about twenty feature films for theatrical release.

Over the last 44 years, Bob has appeared many times as a guest on the old Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and The Dean Martin Show.  Bob was also a substitute guest host for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show 87 times and he was host of Saturday Night Live twice.  Buddy Hackett introduced Bob to a woman that Buddy called "a nice Catlick girl" named Virginia Quinn, whose father was an actor.  Bob married Virginia in 1964 and the couple raised four children and now have grandchildren.  They are close social friends with Don Rickles and his wife.  Bob has a sister who is a Roman Catholic nun.  From 1972 to 1978, Bob starred on TV as Dr. Bob Hartley, a psychiatrist working in Chicago, on The Bob Newhart Show.  The show was one of the most popular of the 1970s.  His second very successful series called Newhart went on the air in 1982 in which Bob played the role of a Vermont innkeeper.  That show lasted eight seasons to 1990 and featured one of the funniest surprise ending shows in TV history.  Bob tried two other series ideas in the 1990s but neither lasted more than a season.  Even now in his middle seventies, Bob Newhart never stops working.  He continues to appear in Las Vegas and on college campuses. In just the last three years, he performed in funny character roles including a Watergate Hotel doorman with Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde II (2003) and as Papa Elf in Elf with Will Farrell also in 2003.  He appeared on the TV series Desperate Housewives three times last year and is currently filming a TV movie, The Librarian 2: Return to King Solomon's Mines.  He has also been a guest performer on ER and with his own voice on The Simpsons, a show that features fellow Cook County native Dan Castellaneta who long admired Newhart. 

Although he has lived in California for most of the last forty years, Bob neverthless stays close to his old friends in Illinois and has frequently come back to Chicago to benefit various causes. He has been extremely generous with his time in helping to raise money for his alma mater, Loyola University of Chicago.  Bob served on the Loyola Board of Trustees from 1999 to 2002 and was the April 2001 commencement speaker at Loyola.  He was given an honorary doctorate in humane letters almost fifty years after he received his business degree from Loyola.  For a list of major films and TV shows of Bob Newhart, click here.

By Mark Rhoads

Bob Newhart almost never uses vulgar words in his comedy material for shock value.  About the most shocking thing he has ever been known to say is in his Driving Instructor routine when he shouts at another driver, "Same to you fella!"  He tells another, "No sir, I don't suppose it is so damn funny."  Newhart's commedy is universal and never offends his audience.  He is an innovative comedy pioneer who has starred and succeeded in many venues including films, record albums, night clubs, and television.  Bob was born on Sept. 25, 1929 in Oak Park, Illinois and grew up there.  He claims it was only a coincidence that the stock market crashed a month after his birth. 

Bob attended high school at St. Ignatius College Preparatory School in Chicago.  He graduated from Loyola University of Chicago in 1952 with a degree in business. He was drafted into the Army right after college during the Korean War but did not leave the U.S. and was discharged in 1954.  From 1954 to 1958, Bob worked as an accountant for United States Gympsum Corporation in Chicago but later claimed that his motto "close enough" did not endear him to his colleagues in the accounting department.

By 1958, Bob was writing advertising copy for Fred Niles, one of the largest independent film and TV producers in Chicago.  At the Niles Company, Bob and a co-worker invented long imaginary and funny phone calls that they would use as audtion tapes for voice-over commercial work. The tapes evolved into a staple of Bob's comedy routines, one-way imaginary phone conversations with people such as "Nutty Walt" from the colonies also known as Sir Walter Raleigh. "You do what? You roll up this big leaf of tobacco and then you stick it in your mouth and you light it on fire?  Then what?  You breathe in the smoke?  Is this one of the guys in the back office?  Is this a rib?"  In another classic, he gives PR advice to Abraham Lincoln on how to phrase the Gettysburg Address for best effect. He begs Lincoln not to change "four score and seven years" to just "87 years" because it would not sound as good. "Abe, that would be like Marc Antony saying, 'Friends, Romans, countrymen, I got something I want to tell ya."  In still another phone conversation, he represents Parker Brothers game company as he patiently listens to Abner Doubleday try to explain the complex rules of the new game of baseball.  "How many couples?  Nine?!  What do you mean nine men on a team?"  According to legend, in about 1959 Chicago radio DJ Dan Sorkin introduced Bob to the head of talent for Warner Brothers Records.  Spoken word albums were new then and the talent head came up with the idea of recording some of Bob's stand-up comedy routines at Chicago-area night clubs. Bob was living in Oak Park when at age 31, he began to enjoy great success with his new comedy style. In 1960, various club recordings in front of a live audience were assembled in Bob's first comedy album, The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart.

The Button Down Mind was a huge instant success that went to number one on the charts.  The popularity was unheard of for a non-musical album. It sold better than a competing Elvis Presley album and the cast album from the Broadway stage version of The Sound of Music.  Bob won a Grammy Award in 1961 and an award for "Best New Artist" that same year from the recording industry.  All at once, he recorded a sequel to the first album called The Button Down Mind Strikes Back and he was offered a comedy/variety show of his own on NBC-TV.  The 1961 incarnation of The Bob Newhart Show only lasted one season but the show won Bob both an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award.  Two of his memorable film roles in early years included an Army private in Hell is for Heroes (1962) that worked in a phone conversation in a bunker for the benefit of listening German intelligence officers.  "Please don't send any more reinforcements to our sector, we already have too many troops here."  He also played the role of "Major Major" in Catch 22 (1970) with an all-star comedy cast ranging from Orson Welles and Norman Fell to Buck Henry and Alan Arkin.  In all, he has been in about twenty feature films for theatrical release.

Over the last 44 years, Bob has appeared many times as a guest on the old Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and The Dean Martin Show.  Bob was also a substitute guest host for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show 87 times and he was host of Saturday Night Live twice.  Buddy Hackett introduced Bob to a woman that Buddy called "a nice Catlick girl" named Virginia Quinn, whose father was an actor.  Bob married Virginia in 1964 and the couple raised four children and now have grandchildren.  They are close social friends with Don Rickles and his wife.  Bob has a sister who is a Roman Catholic nun.  From 1972 to 1978, Bob starred on TV as Dr. Bob Hartley, a psychiatrist working in Chicago, on The Bob Newhart Show.  The show was one of the most popular of the 1970s.  His second very successful series called Newhart went on the air in 1982 in which Bob played the role of a Vermont innkeeper.  That show lasted eight seasons to 1990 and featured one of the funniest surprise ending shows in TV history.  Bob tried two other series ideas in the 1990s but neither lasted more than a season.  Even now in his middle seventies, Bob Newhart never stops working.  He continues to appear in Las Vegas and on college campuses. In just the last three years, he performed in funny character roles including a Watergate Hotel doorman with Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde II (2003) and as Papa Elf in Elf with Will Farrell also in 2003.  He appeared on the TV series Desperate Housewives three times last year and is currently filming a TV movie, The Librarian 2: Return to King Solomon's Mines.  He has also been a guest performer on ER and with his own voice on The Simpsons, a show that features fellow Cook County native Dan Castellaneta who long admired Newhart. 

Although he has lived in California for most of the last forty years, Bob neverthless stays close to his old friends in Illinois and has frequently come back to Chicago to benefit various causes. He has been extremely generous with his time in helping to raise money for his alma mater, Loyola University of Chicago.  Bob served on the Loyola Board of Trustees from 1999 to 2002 and was the April 2001 commencement speaker at Loyola.  He was given an honorary doctorate in humane letters almost fifty years after he received his business degree from Loyola.  For a list of major films and TV shows of Bob Newhart, click here.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Dick Van Dyke

By Mark Rhoads

Dick Van Dyke was star of one of the most popular situation comedies on television in the early 1960s. According to TV legend, Dick beat out Johnny Carson for the role of Rob Petrie in what became The Dick Van Dyke Show. Along with his series co-star, Mary Tyler Moore, Van Dyke presented a clean cut image for young marrieds during the Kennedy Administration.  The enduring popularity of re-runs of the show even today on cable TV outlets is testament to the timeless appeal of the show.

Dick was born December 13, 1925 in West Plains, Missouri.  His family moved to Danville, Illinois when Dick was a baby and his brother, actor Jerry Van Dyke, was born in Danville in 1931.  The family's first house was at 930 Hazel Street and their second home was at 923 Grant Street.  Both houses are still standing and are still private homes.  Dick and Jerry attended Danville High School and were active in school plays and plays produced by the community theater company called The Red Mask Theater.  Both brothers have since raised money for a building in Danville for that theater.  Dick graduated from Danville High School in 1944 but enlisted in the Army Air Corps a few weeks before his graduation ceremony.  He was an announcer for the Armed Forces Radio Network in the US and did not go overseas.

Dick returned to Danville after World War II to start up an advertising agency.  His big break came on Broadway in 1960 when he starred in the stage version of the musical Bye Bye Birdie.  Dick played the same role in the film version of Bye Bye Birdie in 1963.  That film also included the second major film role for actress Ann-Margaret who graduated in 1959 from New Trier High School in Winnetka. Her first film in 1960 had been Pocketful of Miracles playing the daughter of Betty Davis as Apple Annie. In May 1988, there was a reunion of the "five stars of Danville" to raise money for the Fischer Theater in Danville.  The five stars, all Danville natives, were actors Dick Van Dyke, Jerry Van Dyke, Donald O'Connor, Gene Hackman, and jazz pianist Bobby Short.  For a complete list of the TV shows and films of Dick Van Dyke, readers may want to visit this link to his page on the Internet Movie Data Base.

By Mark Rhoads

Dick Van Dyke was star of one of the most popular situation comedies on television in the early 1960s. According to TV legend, Dick beat out Johnny Carson for the role of Rob Petrie in what became The Dick Van Dyke Show. Along with his series co-star, Mary Tyler Moore, Van Dyke presented a clean cut image for young marrieds during the Kennedy Administration.  The enduring popularity of re-runs of the show even today on cable TV outlets is testament to the timeless appeal of the show.

Dick was born December 13, 1925 in West Plains, Missouri.  His family moved to Danville, Illinois when Dick was a baby and his brother, actor Jerry Van Dyke, was born in Danville in 1931.  The family's first house was at 930 Hazel Street and their second home was at 923 Grant Street.  Both houses are still standing and are still private homes.  Dick and Jerry attended Danville High School and were active in school plays and plays produced by the community theater company called The Red Mask Theater.  Both brothers have since raised money for a building in Danville for that theater.  Dick graduated from Danville High School in 1944 but enlisted in the Army Air Corps a few weeks before his graduation ceremony.  He was an announcer for the Armed Forces Radio Network in the US and did not go overseas.

Dick returned to Danville after World War II to start up an advertising agency.  His big break came on Broadway in 1960 when he starred in the stage version of the musical Bye Bye Birdie.  Dick played the same role in the film version of Bye Bye Birdie in 1963.  That film also included the second major film role for actress Ann-Margaret who graduated in 1959 from New Trier High School in Winnetka. Her first film in 1960 had been Pocketful of Miracles playing the daughter of Betty Davis as Apple Annie. In May 1988, there was a reunion of the "five stars of Danville" to raise money for the Fischer Theater in Danville.  The five stars, all Danville natives, were actors Dick Van Dyke, Jerry Van Dyke, Donald O'Connor, Gene Hackman, and jazz pianist Bobby Short.  For a complete list of the TV shows and films of Dick Van Dyke, readers may want to visit this link to his page on the Internet Movie Data Base.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Fran Allison

By Mark Rhoads

"What I need is a girl who can talk to a dragon."  - Burr Tillstrom, 1947.

During the 1950s just after supper, twenty million Americans would tune into NBC-TV to watch Kukla, Fran, and Ollie.  There was no rehearsal and there was no written script.  Fran Allison would just improvise conversation, music, and jokes with two hand puppets.  The "plot" could be something a simple as Ollie the dragon fending off a tooth ache.  Ollie was definitely a dragon and Kukla was mostly bald.  But exactly what manner of person or animal Kukla might be has been a topic of speculation and debate for decades.  Host Fran Allison personified a warm-hearted family member who brought her love and calm reassurance to the turbulent adventures of Kukla and Ollie and the world they lived in as created by Burr Tillstrom. 

Fran Alllison is a famous Illinoisan in her adult life who nevertheless must be shared with Iowa where she was born and raised.  But after all, since Iowa is mostly western suburbs of Rock Island, some people look at her time there as preparation to be an Illinoisan in training.  Fran was born on November 20, 1907 in La Porte City, Iowa.  She graduated from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and started to work for Iowa radio stations.

In 1937, Fran moved to Chicago to work as a staff personality and singer at the NBC Radio studios at the Merchandise Mart.  Chicago rivalled both New York and Los Angeles in that unique broadcasting era as a hub of creative new programming for the national audience.  Fran Allison worked on several programs including as a singer on one of the most popular variety radio shows of the age, The Breakfast Club with Don McNeill.  The Breakfast Club orginiated "from the cloud room of the Allerton Hotel on Chicago's magnificent mile."  It started on NBC radio on 1933.  While it remained mostly anchored at the Allerton Hotel, the network changed its name to NBC Blue Network in the 1940s and then to ABC Radio in the 1950s.  Fran Allison was associated with The Breakfast Club at different times for 25 years before it went off the air for the last time in 1968.

Fran Allison was almost forty when the unlikely new medium of television started her rise to Illinois and national fame.  The adventure started at WBKB in Chicago on October 13, 1947 when puppet master Burr Tillstrom needed someone who could actually act with puppets held and voiced by him behind a stage.  The show ran to 1957 and came back a few times in revivals and reunions.  Fran was so good at relating to the puppet personalities, it actually would take her a few weeks sometimes just to get use to working with a new puppet character.  She had to "get to know them."  Fran had starred briefly on her own network radio show in 1939 based on a character she created called "Aunt Fanny."  A decade later she also shared some hosting duties with Quizmaster Al Kelly for The Quiz Kids on NBC Blue at The Merchandise Mart.   But is was during Kukla, Fran, and Ollie that Fran was dubbed by some publications as "The First Lady of Chicago Broadcasting."  From left to right in the picture at right is Kukla, the show's creator Burr Tillstrom, Fran Allison, and Ollie the Dragon. 

Because of its time slot right after the supper hour in the midwest, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie was supposed to be a children's show. But sometimes the humor got very sophisticated.  Among the shows fans were Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas.  There were many references to the adventures of Ollie getting lost on the streets of Chicago or in stores such as Marshall Field's.  There were even subtle references by Kukla to personalities on other networks and other shows.

According to Bruce DuMont's terrific web site of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, Burr Tillstrom once tried to explain the audience appeal for the unique combination of Fran and his puppets.  "She laughed, she sympathized, loved them, sang songs to them.  She became their big sister, favorite teacher, babysitter, girlfriend, mother."  Burr went on to say that Fran considered each puppet her friend and "by expressing genuine warmth and affection for them, made the audience feel the same way."  If a puppet show with no script sounds like something from a much more innocent age, it was certainly more innocent and yet the humor was timeless.  Fran joined Kukla and Ollie again from 1971 to 1979 to host Children's Film Festival on PBS.  Fran has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  She was married to Archie Levington for more than forty years.  Fran Allison died on June 13, 1989 in Sherman Oaks, California.

For more on Fran Allison, visit the the Chicago Historical Society web site.  Another great source on Fran Allison may be found at the Museum of Broadcast Communications which will be located at 400 North State Street in Chicago (Phone: 312-245-8200).  The founder and president of this great museum is native Chicago radio host Bruce DuMont who paid tribute to Burr Tillstrom when Bruce received his "Outstanding Illinoisan Award" from the Illinois State Society of Washington, DC in January 2001. Still a third source on the personal life of Fran Allison with a contemporary magazine article and pictures may be found by clicking here on Ultinet.

By Mark Rhoads

"What I need is a girl who can talk to a dragon."  - Burr Tillstrom, 1947.

During the 1950s just after supper, twenty million Americans would tune into NBC-TV to watch Kukla, Fran, and Ollie.  There was no rehearsal and there was no written script.  Fran Allison would just improvise conversation, music, and jokes with two hand puppets.  The "plot" could be something a simple as Ollie the dragon fending off a tooth ache.  Ollie was definitely a dragon and Kukla was mostly bald.  But exactly what manner of person or animal Kukla might be has been a topic of speculation and debate for decades.  Host Fran Allison personified a warm-hearted family member who brought her love and calm reassurance to the turbulent adventures of Kukla and Ollie and the world they lived in as created by Burr Tillstrom. 

Fran Alllison is a famous Illinoisan in her adult life who nevertheless must be shared with Iowa where she was born and raised.  But after all, since Iowa is mostly western suburbs of Rock Island, some people look at her time there as preparation to be an Illinoisan in training.  Fran was born on November 20, 1907 in La Porte City, Iowa.  She graduated from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and started to work for Iowa radio stations.

In 1937, Fran moved to Chicago to work as a staff personality and singer at the NBC Radio studios at the Merchandise Mart.  Chicago rivalled both New York and Los Angeles in that unique broadcasting era as a hub of creative new programming for the national audience.  Fran Allison worked on several programs including as a singer on one of the most popular variety radio shows of the age, The Breakfast Club with Don McNeill.  The Breakfast Club orginiated "from the cloud room of the Allerton Hotel on Chicago's magnificent mile."  It started on NBC radio on 1933.  While it remained mostly anchored at the Allerton Hotel, the network changed its name to NBC Blue Network in the 1940s and then to ABC Radio in the 1950s.  Fran Allison was associated with The Breakfast Club at different times for 25 years before it went off the air for the last time in 1968.

Fran Allison was almost forty when the unlikely new medium of television started her rise to Illinois and national fame.  The adventure started at WBKB in Chicago on October 13, 1947 when puppet master Burr Tillstrom needed someone who could actually act with puppets held and voiced by him behind a stage.  The show ran to 1957 and came back a few times in revivals and reunions.  Fran was so good at relating to the puppet personalities, it actually would take her a few weeks sometimes just to get use to working with a new puppet character.  She had to "get to know them."  Fran had starred briefly on her own network radio show in 1939 based on a character she created called "Aunt Fanny."  A decade later she also shared some hosting duties with Quizmaster Al Kelly for The Quiz Kids on NBC Blue at The Merchandise Mart.   But is was during Kukla, Fran, and Ollie that Fran was dubbed by some publications as "The First Lady of Chicago Broadcasting."  From left to right in the picture at right is Kukla, the show's creator Burr Tillstrom, Fran Allison, and Ollie the Dragon. 

Because of its time slot right after the supper hour in the midwest, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie was supposed to be a children's show. But sometimes the humor got very sophisticated.  Among the shows fans were Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas.  There were many references to the adventures of Ollie getting lost on the streets of Chicago or in stores such as Marshall Field's.  There were even subtle references by Kukla to personalities on other networks and other shows.

According to Bruce DuMont's terrific web site of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, Burr Tillstrom once tried to explain the audience appeal for the unique combination of Fran and his puppets.  "She laughed, she sympathized, loved them, sang songs to them.  She became their big sister, favorite teacher, babysitter, girlfriend, mother."  Burr went on to say that Fran considered each puppet her friend and "by expressing genuine warmth and affection for them, made the audience feel the same way."  If a puppet show with no script sounds like something from a much more innocent age, it was certainly more innocent and yet the humor was timeless.  Fran joined Kukla and Ollie again from 1971 to 1979 to host Children's Film Festival on PBS.  Fran has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  She was married to Archie Levington for more than forty years.  Fran Allison died on June 13, 1989 in Sherman Oaks, California.

For more on Fran Allison, visit the the Chicago Historical Society web site.  Another great source on Fran Allison may be found at the Museum of Broadcast Communications which will be located at 400 North State Street in Chicago (Phone: 312-245-8200).  The founder and president of this great museum is native Chicago radio host Bruce DuMont who paid tribute to Burr Tillstrom when Bruce received his "Outstanding Illinoisan Award" from the Illinois State Society of Washington, DC in January 2001. Still a third source on the personal life of Fran Allison with a contemporary magazine article and pictures may be found by clicking here on Ultinet.

Illinois Hall of Fame: L. Frank Baum

By Mark Rhoads

Lyman Frank Baum was born near Syracuse, New York in 1856.  HIs father worked as a barrel maker but later became wealthy in the oil business.  In the 1870s as a young man, Baum's father put him in charge of managing some theaters and in 1881 he wrote and published a successful musical play called The Maid of Arran.  He married Maud Gage in 1882 whose mother was a major figure in the campaign for woman's suffrage and was a friend of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  He tried to be a newspaper publisher but his early ventures failed, including a newspaper in South Dakota.  Frank often struggled with poor health.  He moved to Chicago in 1891 to work as a reporter for the Chicago Evening Post.

During the Columbian Exposition of 1893 and after, Frank worked at many jobs including selling china and creating Christmas displays for store windows.  But writing was his passion, particularly history and fairy tales for children. Frank Baum's first book for children in 1897 was Mother Goose in Prose which was a modest success.  Other books for children followed including Father Goose--His Book written by Baum and illustrated by William Wallace Denslow.

In 1900 the team of Baum and Denslow took their new book to Chicago pubisher George M. Hill Company.  The book was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  It became an instant success and eventually was one of the most popular and best-selling children's books of all time.  In 1939, twenty years after Frank Baum passed away, the story of Oz found new life again as the foundation for one of the most successful children's movies of all time.  Pictured at right are the stars: Burt Lahr as The Cowardly Lion, Jack Haley as The Tin Man, Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale from Kansas, and Ray Bolger as The Scarecrow.  One actress not pictured was Billie Burke who played Glinda The Good Witch of the North.  In the 1920s, Billie Burke was married to Florenz Ziegfield, Jr. who was a native of Chicago and the producer of The Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway.  HIs father, Florenz Sr., ran a Music School in Chicago and was Director of Music at the Columbian Exposition.  His most famous student was Lillian Russell.

One key difference between Frank Baum's book and the Hollywood film is that in the book the journey to Oz is a journey to a real place whereas in the film the journey is portrayed as a dream for Dorothy who was knocked unconscious during a cyclone.  Nevertheless, the movie gains millions of new young fans every year on television.  Frank Baum wrote several more books about the characters of Oz in the early 1900s and all but the first were published by another Chicago publishing house called Reilly & Lee.  After 19 years of writing and publishing his most important books in Chicago, Frank Baum moved to Hollywood, California in 1910 and he died there in 1919.   

By Mark Rhoads

Lyman Frank Baum was born near Syracuse, New York in 1856.  HIs father worked as a barrel maker but later became wealthy in the oil business.  In the 1870s as a young man, Baum's father put him in charge of managing some theaters and in 1881 he wrote and published a successful musical play called The Maid of Arran.  He married Maud Gage in 1882 whose mother was a major figure in the campaign for woman's suffrage and was a friend of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  He tried to be a newspaper publisher but his early ventures failed, including a newspaper in South Dakota.  Frank often struggled with poor health.  He moved to Chicago in 1891 to work as a reporter for the Chicago Evening Post.

During the Columbian Exposition of 1893 and after, Frank worked at many jobs including selling china and creating Christmas displays for store windows.  But writing was his passion, particularly history and fairy tales for children. Frank Baum's first book for children in 1897 was Mother Goose in Prose which was a modest success.  Other books for children followed including Father Goose--His Book written by Baum and illustrated by William Wallace Denslow.

In 1900 the team of Baum and Denslow took their new book to Chicago pubisher George M. Hill Company.  The book was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  It became an instant success and eventually was one of the most popular and best-selling children's books of all time.  In 1939, twenty years after Frank Baum passed away, the story of Oz found new life again as the foundation for one of the most successful children's movies of all time.  Pictured at right are the stars: Burt Lahr as The Cowardly Lion, Jack Haley as The Tin Man, Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale from Kansas, and Ray Bolger as The Scarecrow.  One actress not pictured was Billie Burke who played Glinda The Good Witch of the North.  In the 1920s, Billie Burke was married to Florenz Ziegfield, Jr. who was a native of Chicago and the producer of The Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway.  HIs father, Florenz Sr., ran a Music School in Chicago and was Director of Music at the Columbian Exposition.  His most famous student was Lillian Russell.

One key difference between Frank Baum's book and the Hollywood film is that in the book the journey to Oz is a journey to a real place whereas in the film the journey is portrayed as a dream for Dorothy who was knocked unconscious during a cyclone.  Nevertheless, the movie gains millions of new young fans every year on television.  Frank Baum wrote several more books about the characters of Oz in the early 1900s and all but the first were published by another Chicago publishing house called Reilly & Lee.  After 19 years of writing and publishing his most important books in Chicago, Frank Baum moved to Hollywood, California in 1910 and he died there in 1919.   

Illinois Hall of Fame: Eliot Ness

By Mark Rhoads

If you have ever seen the 1987 movie called The Untouchables, starring Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness and Sean Connery as Officer Jim Malone, you likely saw a very entertaining action film.  The problem is that characters in the film were given the names of real historical figures such as Al Capone played by Robert DeNiro.  Some people might still think that movie was based on real events which it was not. It was a good movie at the level of fictional entertainment.  But apart from the character names, it is important for Chicagoans to understand that the film is a work of fiction and had no connection at all to real Chicago history in the 1930s.

I cannot think of a single scene in the movie that actually happened the way it is portrayed.  It is true that Ness had a close friend killed in what was likely an attempt on the life of Ness.  But the character played by Sean Connery is fictional and not a stand in for any actual police officer nor is he "a composite character." The real Untouchables task force of US Treasury agents tried to have little contact with the Chicago Police Department for fear of leaks of information to Capone through officers on his payroll.  Most of all, the dramatic climax of the film never happened.  The film shows Eliot Ness murdering Capone's lieutenant Frank Nitti by throwing him off the roof of the Criminal Courts Building in a revenge killing for Sean Connery's character during Capone's income tax evasion trial in 1931.  It never happened, not even close.  The real Frank Nitti died 12 years later on March 19, 1943.  He had claustrophobia and was in dispair over the idea that he might go back to a tiny prison cell.  Nitti went for a walk near his home in Riverside and fatally shot himself in the head.  Eliot Ness was 700 miles east in Washington, DC at the time.  The historical distortions in the screenplay are really outrageous in places and that fact is all the more puzzling since the screenplay was written by Cook County native David Mamet who should have known better.  Mamet is a fine writer who grew up in Flossmoor and only three years before this movie he won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for his play Glengarry Glen Ross.  But the need for dramatic action seemed to trump any semblance of real history in this film and many viewers now believe false history as a result.

Like other movies of late, it is a shame that the producers refused to put a disclaimer on the movie to clarify it was not real history but a work of fiction that appropriated the names of real historical figures.  The real lives of Eliot Ness, Al Capone, and Frank Nitti were far more interesting and complex than either the movie or the 1950s TV series starring Robert Stack as Ness.

Eliot Ness was born in Chicago in 1903.  He earned a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1926 and also earned a Master's Degree in criminolgy at the U. of C.  Eliot was working the Chicago territory as an investigator for Retail Credit Company of Atlanta, Georgia when he got a call from his brother-in-law.  Eliot's sister was married to Alexander Jamie, the head of the Bureau of Investigation Prohibition detail in Chicago.  The agency became the FBI in 1935.  Jamie encouraged Eliot to join law enforcement agents working for the Treasury Department. In a former post about Vice President Charles Dawes of Evanston (serving with President Coolidge 1925-1929) it was noted that Dawes, Ambassador to England under President Herbert Hoover, asked Hoover on behalf of prominent Chicago business leaders for special help to clean up the city and convict Capone for whatever crimes the federal prosecutor could prove. The business leaders were scared that their investment in plans for the 1933 World's Fair were ruined by the St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929 when Capone's gang killed six members of the gang of Bugs Moran.  They worried that if Chicago did not radically change its reputation for gangland murders, families would be too afraid to bring children to Chicago for the fair.  The federal prosecutors and investigators decided to focus on any violations of income tax laws or the Volstead Act of 1919 (prohibition of the sale of liquor) as the two most promising avenues they could investigate to indict and convict Al Capone.

In early 1930, Ness formed the Untouchables, so called because Capone could not bribe them as he had routinely done with police officers, prosecutors, judges, and jurors in the past.  The Treasury Department agents led by Ness did conduct raids on illegal breweries and "speak easy" hidden bars controlled by Capone.  But the case against Capone for income tax evasion was stronger than the one for violations of Prohibition.  The business leaders called The Secret Six, Ness and his team, Jamie and his team, all got their wish on Oct. 24, 1931 when a federal jury convicted Capone of income tax evasion and he was sentenced to eleven years in federal prison.  Many law enforcement people in several agencies played a major role in bringing down Alphonse Capone, pictured at right.  It is ironic that Capone was a ruthless murderer and bootlegger but the easiest case to document against him was income tax evasion because federal prosecutors had a paper trail to rely on.  Some federal agents went undercover at great danger to themselves to get Capone.  Some historians have argued that popular culture gave too much credit to Ness in contrast to the efforts of his less publicity prone brother-in-law Alexander Jamie and other agents.  The truth is that all the lawmen on the case deserved great credit for heroic work and Ness played a major role in freeing Chicago from the scourge of the Capone era.  When the Century of Progress World's Fair closed after two seasons in 1934, more than 46 million visitors had come from all over America and the fair actually made a profit for Chicago even during the Depression.  Ness went on to work as Director of Public Safety in Cleveland.  In the 1950s Ness was a director of Diebolt Safe Company and he co-authored a book about his experiences with sports writer Oscar Fraley.  The best-selling book was also called The Untouchables and it became the basis for the TV series starring Robert Stack.

Eliot Ness died in 1957 and is buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland where President James A. Garfield is also buried.

By Mark Rhoads

If you have ever seen the 1987 movie called The Untouchables, starring Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness and Sean Connery as Officer Jim Malone, you likely saw a very entertaining action film.  The problem is that characters in the film were given the names of real historical figures such as Al Capone played by Robert DeNiro.  Some people might still think that movie was based on real events which it was not. It was a good movie at the level of fictional entertainment.  But apart from the character names, it is important for Chicagoans to understand that the film is a work of fiction and had no connection at all to real Chicago history in the 1930s.

I cannot think of a single scene in the movie that actually happened the way it is portrayed.  It is true that Ness had a close friend killed in what was likely an attempt on the life of Ness.  But the character played by Sean Connery is fictional and not a stand in for any actual police officer nor is he "a composite character." The real Untouchables task force of US Treasury agents tried to have little contact with the Chicago Police Department for fear of leaks of information to Capone through officers on his payroll.  Most of all, the dramatic climax of the film never happened.  The film shows Eliot Ness murdering Capone's lieutenant Frank Nitti by throwing him off the roof of the Criminal Courts Building in a revenge killing for Sean Connery's character during Capone's income tax evasion trial in 1931.  It never happened, not even close.  The real Frank Nitti died 12 years later on March 19, 1943.  He had claustrophobia and was in dispair over the idea that he might go back to a tiny prison cell.  Nitti went for a walk near his home in Riverside and fatally shot himself in the head.  Eliot Ness was 700 miles east in Washington, DC at the time.  The historical distortions in the screenplay are really outrageous in places and that fact is all the more puzzling since the screenplay was written by Cook County native David Mamet who should have known better.  Mamet is a fine writer who grew up in Flossmoor and only three years before this movie he won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for his play Glengarry Glen Ross.  But the need for dramatic action seemed to trump any semblance of real history in this film and many viewers now believe false history as a result.

Like other movies of late, it is a shame that the producers refused to put a disclaimer on the movie to clarify it was not real history but a work of fiction that appropriated the names of real historical figures.  The real lives of Eliot Ness, Al Capone, and Frank Nitti were far more interesting and complex than either the movie or the 1950s TV series starring Robert Stack as Ness.

Eliot Ness was born in Chicago in 1903.  He earned a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1926 and also earned a Master's Degree in criminolgy at the U. of C.  Eliot was working the Chicago territory as an investigator for Retail Credit Company of Atlanta, Georgia when he got a call from his brother-in-law.  Eliot's sister was married to Alexander Jamie, the head of the Bureau of Investigation Prohibition detail in Chicago.  The agency became the FBI in 1935.  Jamie encouraged Eliot to join law enforcement agents working for the Treasury Department. In a former post about Vice President Charles Dawes of Evanston (serving with President Coolidge 1925-1929) it was noted that Dawes, Ambassador to England under President Herbert Hoover, asked Hoover on behalf of prominent Chicago business leaders for special help to clean up the city and convict Capone for whatever crimes the federal prosecutor could prove. The business leaders were scared that their investment in plans for the 1933 World's Fair were ruined by the St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929 when Capone's gang killed six members of the gang of Bugs Moran.  They worried that if Chicago did not radically change its reputation for gangland murders, families would be too afraid to bring children to Chicago for the fair.  The federal prosecutors and investigators decided to focus on any violations of income tax laws or the Volstead Act of 1919 (prohibition of the sale of liquor) as the two most promising avenues they could investigate to indict and convict Al Capone.

In early 1930, Ness formed the Untouchables, so called because Capone could not bribe them as he had routinely done with police officers, prosecutors, judges, and jurors in the past.  The Treasury Department agents led by Ness did conduct raids on illegal breweries and "speak easy" hidden bars controlled by Capone.  But the case against Capone for income tax evasion was stronger than the one for violations of Prohibition.  The business leaders called The Secret Six, Ness and his team, Jamie and his team, all got their wish on Oct. 24, 1931 when a federal jury convicted Capone of income tax evasion and he was sentenced to eleven years in federal prison.  Many law enforcement people in several agencies played a major role in bringing down Alphonse Capone, pictured at right.  It is ironic that Capone was a ruthless murderer and bootlegger but the easiest case to document against him was income tax evasion because federal prosecutors had a paper trail to rely on.  Some federal agents went undercover at great danger to themselves to get Capone.  Some historians have argued that popular culture gave too much credit to Ness in contrast to the efforts of his less publicity prone brother-in-law Alexander Jamie and other agents.  The truth is that all the lawmen on the case deserved great credit for heroic work and Ness played a major role in freeing Chicago from the scourge of the Capone era.  When the Century of Progress World's Fair closed after two seasons in 1934, more than 46 million visitors had come from all over America and the fair actually made a profit for Chicago even during the Depression.  Ness went on to work as Director of Public Safety in Cleveland.  In the 1950s Ness was a director of Diebolt Safe Company and he co-authored a book about his experiences with sports writer Oscar Fraley.  The best-selling book was also called The Untouchables and it became the basis for the TV series starring Robert Stack.

Eliot Ness died in 1957 and is buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland where President James A. Garfield is also buried.