The devoted journalists at the Chicago Tribune have been reporting the city’s news for 170 years. As a result, the paper has amassed an inimitable, as-it-happened history of its hometown, a city first incorporated in 1837 that rapidly grew to become the third-largest city in the United States. Since 2011, the Chicago Tribune has been mining its vast archive of photos and stories for its weekly feature Chicago Flashback, which deals with the significant people and events that have shaped the city’s history and culture from the paper’s founding in 1847 to the present day.
Now the editors of the Tribune have carefully collected the best, most interesting Chicago Flashback features into a single coffee-table volume. Each story is accompanied by at least one black-and-white image from the paper’s fabled photo vault located deep below Michigan Avenue’s famed Tribune Tower. Chicago Flashback offers readers a unique perspective on the city’s long and colorful history.
INTRODUCTION
Happy birthday, Chicago
CHAPTER ONE:
Pageantry and Progress
Ferris’ wheel deal
The Second City’s second world’s fair
The dingy city
Raising Chicago out of the mud
In a rush, the river is reversed
The Ward-Field museum fight
Of hobos, tramps and bums
Navy Pier’s zany past
Wrigley: Star of the skyline
Tribune Tower a winner
CHAPTER TWO:
Transportation
‘L’ defines the city
‘Ain’t no road just like it’
Those @#$%&! bridge-tenders!
Before Uber, there was jitney
Land grab to Loop flood
Midway’s ups and downs
Air show daredevils
Chicago, cycling capital
CHAPTER THREE:
Business, Labor and Industry
Built with steel
‘Hog butcher for the world’
Marching off the job
Raise a glass to barmaids
Sears, the Amazon of its day
Arsenal of Democracy
When candy was dandy
Chicago’s original Mad Men
Christmas stockings
CHAPTER FOUR:
Innovation and Social Change
Illinois women win the vote
When polio was defeated
From dog pound to humane society
When King came to town
Saluting the Moon Men
Before Roe v. Wade, the Jane
Collective
CHAPTER FIVE:
Politics
Barack Obama’s historic election
The accidental mayor
Capone’s battle for Cicero
‘Tell Chicago I’ll pull through’
The Lager Beer Riot
Why JFK came to town
Byrne vs. the Machine
Mourning Harold Washington
CHAPTER SIX:
Crime and Vice
Chicago, the sin city
The great grain gamble
White City’s serial killer
No ordinary whorehouse
Darrow’s courtroom eloquence
When gangsters were celebrities
Four who got Capone
When policy kings ruled
Sisters’ deaths changed city
Casino? What casino?
CHAPTER SEVEN:
Passion and Protest
1968’s ‘police riot’
A racial tinderbox
Chicago and the KKK
The Battle of Fort Dearborn
When cab wars were wars
Republic Steel: riot or massacre?
Chaos after King slaying
1970 concert was true riot fest
Disastrous Black Panther Raid
The neo-Nazis vs. Skokie
CHAPTER EIGHT:
Disasters
Mrs. O’Leary’s legend
Three deadly infernos
‘L’ leaps off Loop rails
Eastland: Joy turns to horror
Flu hit hard and fast in 1918
1918 circus train wreck
McCormick Place in ruins
CHAPTER NINE:
Sports
Auto racing’s birthplace
When speedskating was king
Civil war: Cubs vs. Sox
Pulling no punches
Red Grange’s amazing run
Public Enemy No. 1 was baseball fan
Tidye Pickett’s legacy
Girls of summer played in skirts
Go-Go Sox win pennant
Marathoners vs. the mighty lake
Our kind of sport—right off the bat
CHAPTER TEN:
Arts and Culture
When the Stones played Bronzeville
Dance-hall romance
Theaters become movie palaces
Where Hollywood legends changed trains
Buffalo Bill: Urban cowboy
Sinatra and the Chicago mob
The Beatles invade Chicago
Two faces of South Shore
CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Amusement
19th Century ‘Tinder’? Personal ads
Bud Billiken marches on
Summer fun: Go sit in a tree
Remember Riverview?
State Street magic
For orphans, a yearly joy ride
CHAPTER TWELVE:
Colorful Characters
Nelson Algren
Bill Veeck
King of the con men
Polish Robin Hoods
Daniel Burnham
The Washington Porter clan
Captain George Streeter
Mother Jones
Maurine Watkins
‘The world’s richest cop’
Jane Addams
Ralph Metcalfe
