On September 30, 1914, the Pain Fireworks Display Company at 1329 Wabash Ave, suffered a violent explosion and fire. Thousands of dollars of torpedoes, Roman candles, skyrockets destroyed the building as well as adjoining structures including the Coca-Cola building next door…
Continue reading “Chicago Fireworks Company Explodes!”
Where were you on Tuesday September 22 1959? I was just 15 years old and a sophomore at Lane tech high school
It was a time when we were concerned about the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
Premier Nikita Khrushchev was visiting in San Francisco. On television, Alex Dreyer delivered the evening news, followed by “To Tell the Truth”, the Andy Williams show and Jack Paar. You could watch “Diary of Anne Frank” at the movie theatre or the Blood of Dracula at a drive-in. You could fly to New York for $23. A T-bone steak was $1.09 a pound. A loaf of bread was $.20. A postage stamp was .04. It was the year of those giant fins on cars.
Continue reading “The night Chicago Sirens scared us silly!”
On a cold March evening about 1950, my dad was driving me downtown on Lakeshore Drive when he said “look! There it is!”
He was pointing the iconic Palmolive Beacon. Depending on how old you are and actually had three different names. When it was built in 1929 it was named the Lindbergh Beacon or Lindbergh light named for the aviator Charles Lindbergh was added to the building in 1930. It rotated a full 360 degrees and was initially intended to help guide airplanes safely to Midway Airport. Then a later, it was more commonly known as the Palmolive Beacon . In 1965 it was renamed the Playboy beacon and 919 N. Michigan was renamed the Playboy Building. when Playboy Enterprises purchased the leasehold of the building. It was home to the editorial and business offices of Playboy magazine from that time until 1989 when it was then renamed the 919 N. Michigan building.
Continue reading “Toothpaste in a jar and the story of Chicago’s Palmolive Beacon”
He was without a doubt the most colorful and entertining figure on Chicago streets for decades. If you are old enough like me, you might have met him at his favorite corner of the 63rd and Halsted, or maybe he entertained you on a Sunday morning shopping trip to Maxwell Street. He was also often seen in Chicago’s loop, on the corner of Clark and Diversey or even on elevated trains.
As a kid, I remember seeing him in front of my favorite hobby store, Hobbymodels on the northeast corner of Devon and Western on Chicago’s far north side.
He was known as the Chicken Man or Chicken Charley. The white chicken sitting on his head was named “Mae West” or “Babe” among others. It was said that he raised and trained over 30 roosters in his career.
His name was Anderson Punch who also went by the name of Casey Jones, supposedly born in 1870 in Marshall Texas. The story goes that he came to Chicago in either 1911 or 1914 from Louisiana. He was a charismatic black man in his later years with his snow white hair and wearing a disheveled hat.
He described himself as a show-man, who had played the accordion on the streets for many years prior to his chicken phase. When his accordion gave out, he added the chicken act to his repertoire His original trademark was an old squeeze box in a battered tin case, but you could also recognize him with a cardboard sign around his neck, a long string adorned with such items as a toy telephone, dolls, and even bottles of beer.
But you could not miss the live chicken on his head! If you donated dime, he would place the chicken on the sidewalk, covered with a cloth, and tell it to “go to sleep”. After his performance he would remove the cloth, the chicken would “awake” and scratch dance to the music.
. In 1971, he was still performing on the south side when he celebrated his 101st birthday.
He died on Wednesday June 12 1974 in the Vincennes Manor nursing home 4724 S. Vincennes where he had lived since 1972. His funeral was held at the A.A. Rayner Funeral home at 4141 S. Cottage Grove Ave. followed by a church service at the third Baptist Church.
Please leave a comment below if you remember or had seen Anderson Punch, the Chicken man yourself. Tell us where you saw him.
Chicago and Cook County Cemeteries 