Friday, August 5, 2016

August 5, 1970 -- Janis Joplin Appears at Ravinia




August 5, 1970:  With 200 police officers gathered from seven other suburbs on hand, Highland Park’s Ravinia Park gives its stage to Janis Joplin and the Full Tilt Boogie Band.  The Chicago Tribune describes the scene as a mob consisting of “20,000 clapping screaming youths listening to the Full Tilt Boogie band . . . Highland Park Police Chief Michael Bonamarte waiting for a riot.”  [Chicago Tribune, August 6, 1970]  “In her satin hooker clothes,” Tribune music critic Linda Winer writes, “no less than a full fall of purple feathers sitting atop her tangled hair, foot stamping, bottom waving, Southern Comfort swigging Miss Joplin could almost convince you to just watche her sing all night.”  Eight days after the concert at Ravinia Joplin gives her final public concert at Harvard Stadium.  On October 4, in the middle of recording her album Pearl, she fails to show up at the studio, and at the age of 27 she is dead of an overdose at Hollywood’s Landmark Hotel.
Posted by Chicago Old and New at 2:30 AM 0 comments
Labels: ,

Thursday, August 4, 2016

August 4, 1903 -- Marshall Field Offers the City a Museum



August 4, 1903:  President Foreman of the South Park Board receives a letter from Marshall Field in which the merchant and real estate baron shares his desire to move forward with his offer to pay for the Field Columbian Museum as soon as the lakefront ground is ready for the site.  In the letter Field writes, “I am ready to go forward with the building whenever materials and labor are at reasonable figures, which probably will be as soon as the ground is ready for building.  Regarding the exact location, I think that can be safely left to your board.”  [Chicago Daily Tribune, August 5, 1903]  The site the park board ultimately chooses for the museum is exactly the location of today’s Buckingham Fountain, east of the railroad tracks and at the foot of Congress Street, extending north and south from Van Buren to Harrison.  Foreman responds to the offer, saying, “The Field museum will be the central gem in the greater Grant Park.  It will stand on a slight elevation, will be visible from all directions, and will present an especially imposing view.  The building, I am sure, will be the finest of its kind in the world.  Mr. Field is not in the habit of doing things half way or half-heartedly.”  Field would die in 1906, and it would be another 15 years after his death before his namesake museum would be opened after a decade of acrimony and lawsuits contesting the choice of the original site in Grant Park.
Posted by Chicago Old and New at 2:30 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , , ,

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

August 3, 1906 -- Art Institute Assume Ownership of monumental El Greco Work




August 3, 1906:  The Chicago Daily Tribune reports that at a recent meeting the trustees of the Art Institute of Chicago approved the purchase of El Greco’s “Assumption of the Virgin” for the price of $40,000.  The canvas, measuring 13 feet by two inches high and seven feet by six inches wide, will be the largest painting on display at the Art Institute.  It was commissioned by Don Diego de Castilla in 1577 as an altar piece for the convent church of San Domingo El Antiguo in Toledo, Spain.   The Art Institute today describes the priceless work in this way, “The artist’s use of flickering, high-keyed colors and broad brushwork further lend the work an ecstatic feeling sought after by Catholic Church patrons during the Counter-Reformation.  El Greco used such bold colors and figural arrangements to arouse a spiritual fervor in the viewer and impart the deep sense of faith he himself felt.”  The work may be found In Gallery 211 in the European Painting and Sculpture section.
Posted by Chicago Old and New at 2:30 AM 0 comments
Labels: , ,

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

August 2, 1934 -- Police Raid at the Century of Progress



Faith Bacon
August 2, 1934:  Led by Chief Investigator John O’Donnell a police squad raids six villages at the Century of Progress World’s Fair and closes down two performances judged to be risqué.  Gambling wheels are confiscated at the exhibitions of Paris, Tunis, Ireland, Mexico and Spain and in a section called the Bowery.  At the last site an exhibition called “The Red Light Girls” is closed and a fan dancer, Faith Bacon, is forced to put on pants for her final appearance.   The general manager of the fair, Major Lenox R. Lohr, unleashes the police on the concessions after giving them a warning to clean up their act.  After allowing the sale of liquor at lunch counters within the grounds, agreeing to more signage within the grounds promoting attractions, and reducing the charges for electricity and garbage removal at venues, Lohr warns the venders, “We’ll give you all the help within reason and more money will be spent by A Century of Progress during the month of August than has been spent in any month in 1934 or 1933 . . . but the lid is not off.”
Posted by Chicago Old and New at 2:30 AM 0 comments
Labels: , ,

Monday, August 1, 2016

August 1, 2001: Kamin Interviews Trump



August 1, 2001:  Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin reports on a “freewheeling interview” he has had with Donald Trump, a “brash New Yorker who would bring the world’s tallest building [to Chicago].”  Kamin concludes, “This is a man, who it became clear as we talked, gives the bottom line the top priority.”  One of the topics Kamin discusses with the developer concerns the possibility that Trump might build the tallest building in the world on the site of the former Sun-Times building.  Trump’s reacts by saying, “Would I like to do that?  The answer is yes.  Does it have marketing value?  I think the answer is yes.  But the fact is, it’s very costly.  Does the additional cost justify it?  That’s a determination I’ll have to make.”  Kamin bookends his reporting with observations from architect Stanley Tigerman who “almost hissing” said of Trump, “He’s Mr. Glitz.  He’s shown an utter incapacity for doing great buildings.  He has no taste . . . He’s a Gucci carpetbagger . . . You’ve got to have a great client to do a really good building.  You’re lucky if Trump doesn’t get financing.”
Posted by Chicago Old and New at 2:30 AM 0 comments
Labels: , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)