Tales of Forgotten Chicago

Based on Rich’s latest book, “Tales of Forgotten Chicago” which was published in the fall of 2020 by Southern Illinois University Press, the presentation covers forgotten (and some familiar) episodes from the Windy City’s colorful history, spanning the Gilded Age up through the mid-20^th Century.   Did you know that America’s first automobile race, run on a snow-packed Thanksgiving Day in 1895 from the Museum of Science and Industry up to Evanston inaugurated the age of the horseless carriage on a grand scale?  Charlie Weeghman, a name mostly lost to history, built Wrigley Field but suffered irreversible financial and personal misfortune and never received credit for his ingenuity and the gift of the North Side ballpark bearing the Wrigley name.  Rich’s talk is spiced with memorable anecdotes and even a ghost story – the magnificent Peter Schuttler mansion was the crown jewel of Chicago society in the post-Civil War period but fell into decay and ruin amid a generational family curse that extended into the 1950s.  Rich introduces listeners to Moe Snyder and Ruth Etting – the songstress and the gangster who inspired the movie “Love Me or Leave Me”; Elisha Gray of Highland Park invented the telephone – not Alexander Graham Bell – and the mad poisoner of the University Club who attempted to murder 200 dinner guests at a formal banquet honoring Archbishop George Mundelein in 1916. All this and much more.

Rich will be presenting in the library, please join us in the library or on Zoom.