This guy was an important Chicago institution. I was at Border's in Beverly one Christmas I would have had one opportunity to get a look at him, never took that opportunity. One important reason is that I never either heard his radio program or read his many works. Yet he is so well know about townBTW, I was reading this obituary from the Tribune (hat-tip CapFax) and I gotta kick out of this...
He moved with his family when they purchased the Wells-Grand Hotel, a rooming house catering to a wide and colorful variety of people. He supplemented the life experiences there by visits to Bughouse Square, the park across the street from the Newberry Library that was at the time home to all manner of soap box orators.Reminds me of some of the sights and sounds you'll see in this old time film from one of the fore runners of 20th Century Fox. You'll see scene of people on soap-boxes taking full advantage of their freedom of speech. Why don't we have such a tradition anymore I wonder?
"I doubt whether I learned very much [at the park]," Terkel wrote. "One thing I know: I delighted in it. Perhaps none of it made any sense, save one kind: sense of life."
Does anyone have a Studs Terkel story they'd like to share? I would appreciate it.
Easy question although I understand that there will only be one. Who will be the next Studs? Will it be you?
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