Chicago and Cook County Cemeteries

It is late on Christmas Eve and the cemetery gate is locked. The rest of Chicago is a mix of holiday activities and wintry winds.

Families are busy with the things of the living, shopping for last minute gifts, Christmas recipes, and attending church services to celebrate His birth.  Hanukkah too is also so special for our Jewish friends. But as we celebrate  we feel the empty space left by the people missing in our lives. Christmas can be  a difficult time for people who have lost a loved one,

Although going to a graveyard might seem an unlikely activity for the festive season, There are exceptions worth noting. In Finland, hundreds of graveside candles glowing in the snow make a wonderful holiday statement. Placing candles on the graves of deceased relatives at Christmastime is a wonderful tradition.  As many as three-quarters of Finnish families visit a cemetery at Christmas, mostly on Christmas Eve.

 For many years,  florists and cemeteries themselves offer “grave blankets” or a wreath for the mausoleum door. They are commonly made of a variety of evergreen boughs. Most also have colorful, seasonal decorations such as ribbons, ornaments or pine cones. They seem to have been most popular in the upper Midwest where early settlers went out into the woods gathering pine branches to cover an ancestor’s grave. They seem to be less popular these days, but still create a graveside focal point and a way to reminisce and remember. The grave blanket covers the ground at the base of the grave and symbolizes the caring and warmth that friends and family feel toward the deceased person and gives some level of comfort during the holidays .

You may find other holiday  decorations on graves ranging from small Christmas trees, or even toys. Cemeteries often has rules on how long they can remain or may prohibit them entirely.

Back about 1900, Rosehill Cemetery on Chicago’s north side actually had a horse drawn sleigh to transport family to and from the gravesite. An outdoor fireplace offered warmth on cold winter day and offered an afternoon of Christmas music, refreshments and  “holiday cheer“. In a cemetery out east people gather around a 15-foot Fir tree  A children’s choir sing hymns and Christmas carols; a tent holds hot drinks and pastries. The Archbishop blesses the tree, and visitors are invited to hang spherical glass ornaments on the tree in memory of loved ones.

The carol says, “Sleep in heavenly peace”. The Latin, coemeterium or from the Greek κοιμητήριον (koimētḗrion), from κοιμάω (koimáō, translate to  “I put to sleep”) The beloved Christmas carol is well applicable to our cemeteries.  We also seek peace, peace between God and man, peace on earth.

I take this moment to wish you and your family a very blessed Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah, May you find  abundant peace as you remember the family members who have gone before us.  As the words in Silent Night so aptly proclaim, may they “sleep in heavenly peace.”

For those who have read my blog  “THE EXPLODING ACCORDION” at https://chicagoandcookcountycemeteries.com/2018/12/05/the-exploding-accordion/ this is somewhat of a humorous sequel. The Exploding Accordion was the story of my Uncle Jack Erschen, (stage name Jack Rich) who carved out a ten year career on vaudeville stages across the country. Later, in life he became a professional Hammond organist in Illinois clubs and restaurants. Even if you have not yet read his story, read on…

Continue reading “He died at the keyboard!”

On a warm summer night my Father, Fred Fleig, would drive me to the Milk Pail on Devon for our weekly gallon of milk from Blanche. With a twinkle in his eye, he would say, “Would you like to stop at Kiddieland?”

We all thank the Klatsco and the Acciari families for Hollywood Kiddeland,  first opened about 1948. It was a fun and safe place on Chicago’s far north side,  at 6301 McCormick Blvd,. (the Southeast corner of Devon and McCormick) and just across the street from Thillen’s Stadium. Lincoln Village Shopping center was just to the south.  The park was a small, but memorable assortment of rides, ponies, refreshments, an arcade and the train.

Continue reading “Hooray for HOLLYWOOD!”

 

The year is 1932. Jack Erschen, (stage name “Jack Rich”)  was making his mark on the vaudeville stage with his silly invention,  a tricked out accordion, his “gimmick” as he would say.  It would play only a few notes before he would hit a secret button,  causing it to fly apart all over the stage, accordion keys and parts everywhere, sending loads of candy into the delighted audience!

 

This was Vaudeville!

 

The word “vaudeville” is said to have been derives from “voix de ville,” or “voice of the city.” Or possibly the French vau-de-vire, referring to the Valley of the Vire in Normandy, where itinerant singers amused the crowds . Vaudeville theaters in America featured musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, animal acts, magicians, ventriloquists, strongmen, impersonators, acrobats, jugglers, one-act plays and more!

If you had the right stuff, you picked up the dance steps, the vocal style, the comic timing that could make you a star. In 1919  vaudeville was truly an important industry in Chicago. the sidewalks on the corners of N. Dearborn and W. Randolph Sts. were crowded daily with vaudeville performers seeking work at a number of the vaudeville booking agencies

Continue reading “The Exploding Accordion”

He died on December 6^th 1985 in Palm Springs,  California at the age of 68. He was buried in Rosehill Cemetery, 5700 North Ravenswood, Chicago. He was born Franklin Burr Tillstrom  on October 13 1917 in Chicago to Dr. Bert (a foot specialist) and Alice Burr Tillstrom. We all knew him as “Burr”, a winner of five emmy’s,  a genius, our lost treasure, and best remembered for his creation of “Kukla, Fran and Ollie”, the Kuklapolitan Players. The show was an important part of everyday life in the ’50s.

He was a true Chicagoan living on Lakewood Avenue, Granville, and Sherwin in his early years, then along Lake Michigan later on. He graduated from Senn High School on Ridge and then briefly attended the University of Chicago. He became a puppeteer as early as his high school days, using teddy bears and dolls to entertain neighborhood children. While attending the University of Chicago, he joined the WPA-Chicago Parks District’s Puppet Theater, In the mid-Thirties took his act to carnivals, fairs, and night clubs, developing his own puppets.

He was the brilliant creator, puppeteer, and raspy voice of Buelah Witch and many other memorable characters known as the Kuklapolitans. Burr Tillstrom developed his concept of Kukla, Fran and Ollie within the RCA Victor exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, where he performed more than 2,000 shows. He met radio singer Fran Allison, who would join his troupe for just a 13-week trial  but she ended up staying an additional ten years. the show was simple: Fran Allison stood in front of a small stage and Burr did the rest.

From old in the newspaper broadcasting as early as, I found a May 31 1939 newspaper television listing for exactly “Kukla, Fran and Ollie” on WNBC channel 6 and WNBT channel 4 both flagship stations of the NBC television network. This predates the Chicago show. Also In 1939,  he put on a weekly Saturday morning puppet show for children at Marshall Field and Company in Chicago.  He then did the first Balaban and Katz telecast over experimental station W9XBK in 1941 which later became WBKB TV in September of 1946.

The series “Kukla, Fran and Ollie” began locally in Chicago on WBKB on October 13 1947 when the majority of television sets were located in taverns and saloons. It is reported that there were only 20,000 sets in Chicago. The show was originally called Junior Jamboree, a key part of the “Chicago School” of broadcasting. Always ad-libbed, the show had no writers and appealed to both children and big people. The popularity of the show was because it was its own unique world of make-believe.

The show went to Chicago’s WNBQ and on NBC’s Midwest network on nov 29 1948 and then later to ABC, opening to the East Coast in 1949 and the West Coast in 1951. In some markets, it came on after the Lone Ranger, Break the Bank, or even just after the station’s test pattern. At the height of the show’s popularity, the cast received 15,000 letters a day. By its third season, the show had six million viewers. A five minute version of the show ran between 1961-1962 on NBC. There was a PBS revival which ran between 1969-1971 and then a final syndicated version which ran between 1975-1976. There have been many reruns since.

Buelah was an alumnus of Witch Normal,  a school of rigid traditions. She had a nose resembling a malformed coathook that ended with a pronounced wart for good measure. She had a severe temperament visible on most occasions. You did not mess with Buelah who almost always prevailed. She had a warm heart despite her gruff exterior. She preferred black fashion but does have an ermine coat donated by a viewer. According to “sources”,,  Buelah Witch was arrested by Interpol for flying too low over the United Nations building.

 “Kukla” was developed in 1936, the Russian word for “doll” by ballerina Tamara Toumanova during a visit to the United States. There were at least eight well worn out Kukla puppets over the years.  Kukla was the “star” of the show, although we are not quite sure what he really was, maybe a small boy or a clown or ? As young as he appeared with a high pitched voice, he had no hair, was somewhat unsure of himself, but made up for it with his kindness and understanding.

Oliver J. Dragon (Ollie),  an alumnus of Dragon Prep,  was a one-of-a-kind mischievous, one-toothed sweet dragon,  living within what appeared to be a leopard skin of sorts. He often would boast the he indeed was the star of the show,  not Kukla. He had a good heart but had no hands, so he relied on Kukla or Fran to hold the phone to his ear or get something from the stage. If Ollie needed Kukla not to run away, Ollie would use his mouth holding onto Kukla’s red nose while talking. Billed as ”Mr. Oliver J. Dragon, American Baritone,” Ollie sang with the Boston Pops Orchestra in the 1954 Midwest premiere of ”St. George and the Dragon” at the usually staid Chicago Opera House. An ancestor of Ollie’s supposedly once swam the Hellespont and took in too much water and thereby drowned the family’s fire-breathing ability.

Ollie’s mother was Olivia Dragon and Ollie’s niece was Dolores Dragon  who was left when her parents went away.  Over time, we watched Dolores grow from a noisy infant into a teenage dragonette.

Grand dame Madame Ophelia Oglepuss,  a prima-donna former opera diva, a retired red-haired lady, much like Buelah,  had a horribly crooked nose slightly bent so she could look down on others. She brandished a quite hefty untreated wartlike growth on her right cheek. Her expensive wardrobe included a real mink stole, a gold party dress, a genuine fox hat and matching muffler, four wigs and jewelry.  There was  “Stagehand” Cecil Bill  who spoke a “toy to toy toy” language somewhat incomprehensible unless you were another Kuklapolitan.  Colonel Richard Hooper Crackie, was a suave Southern gentleman supposedly once engaged to Madam Oglepuss. There was the floppy-eared Fletcher Rabbit, the postman to the troupe. There also was the  naughty child Mercedes, Clara Coo Coo, Goultar, and others, all from Burr’s fertile imagination.

Fran Allison was born Francis Helen Allison on November 20, 1907 in La Porte City Iowa to Jesse and Anna Halpin Allison.  She began her career as a schoolteacher, later a songstress on Iowa radio programs and eventually moved to Chicago in 1937, where she was hired as a singer and personality on NBC Radio. On the KFO show she was the comforting, ever patient, easygoing hostess, kind of the ‘straight man’,  and according to Tillstrom,  “bigsister, favorite teacher, baby-sitter, girlfriend, and mother.” Fran died on June 13, 1989 at the age of 81 in Sherman Oaks California. She was buried in her home state in Mount Calvary Cemetery, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

And lastly, Beulah Zachary born August 13, 1911 was the executive producer of the Kukla, Fran and Ollie show and who was the namesake of Buelah Witch (note intentional misspelling). She died February 3, 1959 in a New York City plane crash.

We will miss each and every one of the kids, Fran and especially Burr who entertained us all in a far simpler time with innovative and quality entertainment. Thank you.

 

 

At 2:42PM on December 1, 1958 on the sixth floor of Chicago’s City Hall, William Bingham,  the senior alarm operator within the Chicago Fire Alarm Office took a phone call from  rectory housekeeper Nora Maloney.

 

Immediately, the loudspeaker at the firehouse at 3700 West Huron crackled with: “Engine 85 , truck 35, Squad 6, Battalion 18, Patrol 7, a still alarm , 3820 Iowa, 3-8-2-0 Iowa”.

 

 

Those first firetrucks arrived within three minutes, despite that the fire was actually around the corner at 909 N. Avers.

In the meantime the fire alarm office received a second  telephone call from Barbara Glowacki, the owner of a candy store who used the private telephone in her apartment behind the store to say she sees flames. Fifteen more phone calls soon followed.

A school was on fire! Continue reading ““Never witnessed a sight so terrible””

Cemetery records are a rich source of genealogical information, especially when a death certificate cannot be found or expensive. They may reveal valuable extra information such as the place of death, last home address, and even more. However, cemetery records were never designed with the idea that they would be someday be valuble for genealogical research. In a cemetery office, ledger books and burial cards are two of the most common recordkeeping systems. Often the entries in a ledger book may be in chronological order making a search a bit difficult when you do not know a death date. Burial cards, on the other hand, are stored in one or more file drawers and are filed alphabetically, making a name search much easier without much further information.

Burial cards for Chicago area Catholic cemeteries are available online. The Chicago Archdiocese of the Catholic Church manages 45 cemeteries in Chicago, Cook County, and Lake County, from Ascension Cemetery in Libertyville serving Northern Cook and Lake to Assumption Cemetery in Glenwood to the south.,

There are FOUR different ways to access burial information in the Chicago Archdiocese for your Uncle Louie. If you are seeking a person buried in a Chicago area Catholic cemetery.
Continue reading “Burial Cards: John’s left foot”