Strange But True: Chicago: Tales of the Windy City

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Strange But True: Chicago brings together the city's most bizarre news items, almost-believable urban myths, incredibly antiquated laws, curious little-known facts, and neighborhood eccentric oddballs and weirdos into one compulsively readable guide. Whether you're a native Chicagoan or just passing through, Strange But True: Chicago is your guide to the Windy City's wackiest, most offbeat, mostly totally true tales, trivia, and events.

* Learn the grisly method used by gangsters to dispose of their victims . . ...

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Guilford, CT 2005 Trade paperback New. Trade paperback (US). Sewn binding. 256 p. Strange But True.

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More About This Book

Overview

Strange But True: Chicago brings together the city's most bizarre news items, almost-believable urban myths, incredibly antiquated laws, curious little-known facts, and neighborhood eccentric oddballs and weirdos into one compulsively readable guide. Whether you're a native Chicagoan or just passing through, Strange But True: Chicago is your guide to the Windy City's wackiest, most offbeat, mostly totally true tales, trivia, and events.

* Learn the grisly method used by gangsters to dispose of their victims . . .      Sausage anyone?
* Meet the eel who is at the cutting edge of biotechnological development  and the  world's grossest nature museum exhibits
* Cheer Bertha Palmer' revenge over the Infanta of Spain five years after the rude royal refused to socialize with an "inkeeper's wife"
* Discover the crooked mayor who received campaign funds from Al Capone, threatened to punch King George V, staged a rodeo in the Chicago City Council, and served the world's largest martini
* Uncover never-repealed laws that forbid "unsightly or disgusting" people from showing their faces in public, the carrying of hatpins, or offering a whiskey or a cigar to your dog
* And much more!

Only in Chicago . . .

is it illegal to take a French poodle to the opera is there a tradition of drag queen galas stretching back to 1907
can British visitors be arrested for not speaking the American language correctly

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
Thomas J. O'Gorman's credentials for Windy City research are impeccable. Not only is he the scholar-in-residence at Chicago's Newberry Library and the historian-in-residence at Chicago's Irish Fellowship Club; he is the author of numerous books about the city, including the critically acclaimed Frank Lloyd Wright's Chicago and Park Life: The Summer of 1977 at Comiskey Park. To uncover the "strange but true" tales of this entertaining book, he tapped rarely used primary sources such as clipping collections, police logs, and other obscure public records.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780762736805
  • Publisher: Globe Pequot Press
  • Publication date: 10/1/2005
  • Series: Strange But True Series
  • Pages: 256
  • Product dimensions: 5.60 (w) x 6.50 (h) x 0.75 (d)

Meet the Author

Thomas J. O'Gorman is a writer, scholar-in-residence at the Newberry Library of Chicago, historian-in-residence of the Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago, a contributor to Town & Country magazine, a political speech writer at Chicago's City Hall, and former managing editor of World of Hibernia magazine. Among other titles, he has authored Architecture in Detail: Chicago; One Hundred Years: A History of the Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago; Park Life: the Summer of 1977 at Comiskey Park; and Frank Lloyd Wright Chicago.

Lisa Montanarelli, has written for numerous publications, including Art and Antiques Magazine, Publishers Weekly, and Playboy Magazine. She is also author of Strange But True: San Francisco.

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Read an Excerpt

In 1860, Queen Victoria's son, "Bertie," the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, was making a tour a Canada and indicated that he wanted to visit Chicago. So a hasty visit was arranged. It was decided that Chicago's Mayor, "Long John" Wentworth would have the honor of introducing the Prince to the members of the Chicago City Council. When the Prince arrived he was ushered into the Chicago assembly and the Mayor stepped up for the formalities. He rose, nodded to the visitor and said, "Prince, the boys. Boys, the Prince." The six foot six inch Mayor had little patience with protocols or formalities.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Strange but True

3. Law and Disorder

4. Urban Myths

5. Oddballs and Weirdoes

6. Only In Chicago

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