“The Windy City” comes by its name honestly. By the time Max and I left Chicago on Sunday
afternoon, the temperature was about three degrees, but the wind chill was well
below that. Fortunately, I had taken my
big coat to keep me warm, and Max had taken his stocking cap; his head was more
at risk than mine because he had to walk about a block to get the car in that
frigid temperature. We had parked at
that garage because the charge was $30 per day while our hotel’s parking cost
was $67 per day. Regardless of the
outrageous parking, that hotel, the Blackstone, was a lovely piece of Chicago
history, including a hidey-hole for Al Capone’s Prohibition liquor!
Max and I had gone to Chicago with six of my William Jewell
friends to see Terry Teachout’s play, Satchmo
at the Waldorf. Max and I had seen the play in Beverly Hills
last summer, but Terry was going to be in Chicago for opening night, and we
decided that it would be worth the trip to get to talk to him.
I got the tickets for the group, and then another friend told
us that she knows the concierge at the Blackstone Hotel on Michigan
Avenue. We got in touch with her, and
she arranged for us to all stay on the 19th floor, overlooking,
depending on which side of the hotel the room was on, either the City, or Grant
Park and Lake Michigan. Max and I drove,
but the rest of the group, one from Springfield, two from Austin, Texas, and
three from Kansas City, flew in. The
earliest arrivals scored a tour from Shannon, the concierge, who shared the
hotel’s story with them.
Twelve presidents have stayed at that hotel, including John
F. Kennedy, who didn’t stay very long; while he was there, he found out about
the Cuban missile crisis. A barber shop
on the lowest level has a secret hatch leading to a hidey-hole for Al Capone’s
Templeton Rye during Prohibition – and a hidey-hole for Al Capone himself when
Chicago’s finest were out looking for him.
Movie stars such as Rudolph Valentino, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn,
Spencer Tracy, and Lena Horne stayed at the hotel, which opened in 1910; Enrico
Caruso was honored at the hotel’s opening gala.
And speaking of movies, several have been filmed at the Blackstone: The
Untouchables, The Color of Money, Only the Lonely, and My Best Friend’s Wedding. I would have liked to have been around for The Color of Money because Paul Newman
was there. I would have liked to have
been anywhere Paul Newman was.
After we all arrived on Friday, we ate dinner at Seven
Lions, which is about five blocks from the hotel. It was fun to sit around and reminisce about
the old days – which are, by now, about 40 years old. How is it possible that we graduated so long
ago!? The food was good, but Max and I
had brought munchies and wine, so we all had enjoyed a little cocktail party in
our room before our 8:15 dinner reservation, so we were pretty full – of
food. There’s always room for more wine!
We did get to meet up with Terry on Saturday over
lunch. It was so good to see him and to
hear how the play came about. He had
first written the book Pops, and
someone he didn’t know sent him an e-mail saying that the book was good and
that a play dwelled somewhere in the pages.
After a little research, Terry found out that the unknown encourager was
a theater producer. Terry figured that
guy knew what he was talking about, and so over a period of four days, the
first draft of Satchmo came into
being. From there, things fell into
place quite nicely.
It was, while not like old times, lots of fun to eat
barbecue (The Pork Chop) and drink Bloody Marys and talk about what’s been
happening since 1976.
Then we saw the final Chiefs game of the season at Jimmy
Green’s, a sports bar around the corner from the hotel, and finally, the pièce
de résistance, Satchmo at the
Waldorf. It was kind of cool to walk
in and know the playwright! And then,
after the play, we met the star of the show, Barry Shebaka Henley; that was
pretty cool, as well. He was sort of
nonplussed that we had come to see Terry first and him second.
All in all, our trip to Chicago was a nice little break in
the day-to-day living of life. The next
time we take that trip north, however, I hope the temperature is more than
three degrees.
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