Illinois Review

The Best GOP Governor was a Democrat

by Mark Rhoads

Last Wednesday I was at the U.S. Capitol to see new members of Congress from Illinois sworn in and go to a reception for the Illinois delegagtion. Since I have a modest reputation in obscure circles as a historian of Illinois politics, Congressman-elect Joe Walsh asked me who I thought was the best GOP governor of Illinois in the last one hundred years. I instantly said Gov. Frank Lowden who led the from 1917 to 1921.

But then we altered the criteria a little to focus on who could do the best job helping the state financially. So I had to change my answer and said the best GOP governor was a Democrat. I am talking about Gov. Henry Horner who was elected in 1932 during the FDR landslide and started office in January 1933. He was the best fiscal manager, and one of the most honest men ever to hold the office.

Tough Times In “Greece by Lake Michigan?” Not for “Shorty Capone”

by Teri O'Brien

Exciting news, Kids. It’s time for another edition of “Connect the Dots.” Consider the following stories, and see if you, Smart Reader, can discern any relationship among them. From yesterday’s Chicago Sun-Times:

Two firms awarded contracts by Cook County President Todd Stroger's administration can't be found on state or county business registries, yet they received upfront payments in deals that investigators are now looking at, according to state and county officials and documents obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

The businesses aren't registered with the state or county as Cook County requires, but that didn't stop officials from hiring the firms this spring and quickly paying them to promote composting and other energy conservation programs.

Paul Harvey: One of Chicago's Great Broadcasters

By Mark Rhoads

Three years ago I posted an short tribute to Paul Harvey here on Illinois Review as part of the Illinois Hall of Fame series I was then writing often.  Mr. Harvey died on Saturday, Feb. 28 at the age of 90. In the post I tried a little to immitate the way Paul sounded on radio but without much success in matching his distinctive style.  CLICK HERE to read that IR post from 2006.

One story I can share just for fun comes from my friend James R. Evans who was President of L.G. Evans Machine Tool in Lombard and was president of the Illinois Conservative Union from 1974 to 1981.  Jim and his wife Dori knew Paul and Angel Harvey as social friends through the Chicago Golf and Country Club.  I told Jim that I expected Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nevada) to come to Du Page County in the fall of 1975 and Jim suggested we invite both Laxalt and Harvey to lunch at the Country Club and they both came. 

The Real Heroes Who Took Down Capone

By Mark Rhoads  

In the last few years I have profiled about 200 people on IR who have been famous Illinoisans.  Pictured at right is one of the least famous, but most effective crime fighters who ever served the people of Chicago.  He was so secretive and not famous that this photo from the Chicago Daily News archives might be the only known photograph of him in the files of Chicago newspapers during the Prohibition era.  His name was Alexander Jamie, a former Chief Investigator for the Prohibition Bureau of the Department of Justice.  Jamie was married to the sister of Eliot Ness, who became far more famous than his older brother-in-law due to a book he wrote with Oscar Fraley in 1957 that led to a TV series starring Robert Stack as Ness.  If you have seen the movie called "The Untouchables" with Kevin Costner and Sean Connery, feel free to enjoy the movie as an action drama.  But please don't confuse that movie with real Chicago history.

February 6 -- American Minute with Bill Federer

A graduate of Eureka College, IL, 1932, he announced for radio stations in Iowa. He married Jane Wyman and had children Maureen and Michael.

He was a Captain in the U.S. Army Air Corp during World War II, then became an actor, appearing in over 50 films.

He was President of the Screen Actors Guild, switched from Democrat to Republican, and became Governor of California.

His second marriage, to Nancy Davis, 1952, had children Patti and Ron. His name was Ronald Reagan, born FEBRUARY 6, 1911, and died June 5, 2004.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Chester Gould

By Mark Rhoads

Chester Gould, the creator of the Dick Tracy comic strip, was born on Nov. 20, 1900 and was raised in Pawnee, Oklahoma but moved to Illinois in 1921 to complete his undergraduate years at Northwestern University in Evanston.  He graduated from NU in 1923 and was hired by The Chicago Evening American, a Hearst newspaper, to draw several different comic strips including "Radio Catts."  He met and married Edna Gauger in 1926.  In 1931 he was hired by The Chicago Daily Tribune where he created and introduced the Dick Tracy cartoon series. For the next 46 years, Gould quietly lived and worked from his home in Woodstock, Illinois.  He twice won journalism's Reuben Award in 1959 and 1977 and also received a special Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1980. 

Illinois Service Families come to DC for Tribute

by Mark Rhoads

Seventy-three military service family members from Illinois were part of 2,500 people from 45 states who came to the grounds of The Washington Monument in DC yesterday for the Day of Remembrance to pay tribute to their loved ones who were lost in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001.

The 73 honored family members included the Bitton family from Chicago, the Caruso family from Naperville, the Delatorre family from Aurora, the Eyer family from Rantoul, the Gilbert family from Downers Grove, the Hollinsald family from Malden, the Lopez family from Aurora, the Naschansky family from Byron, the Nurnberg family from McHenry, the Schultz family from Galena, the Spencer family from Sullivan, the Torres family from Chicago, the Tracy family from Palestine, and the Vinson family from Nashville.

The Dream of a Century Before the Hoopla Starts

by Mark Rhoads

I admit this is a non-political post that does comment on the importance of hope. As of this afternoon, Sept 18, the political, financial, and social worlds are in turmoil but one American institution chugs along. The magic number for the Cubs is now two.

Light years went by in the last sixty years when one would chuckle hysterically if you heard the phrase "magic number" and "Cubs" in the same breath but this year's team has our attention. Today's Cubs with 92 wins and 59 loses is a confident team atop the league and marching to the playoffs through the front door, not by the wild card route.

The Illinois Roots of Memorial Day

by Mark Rhoads

In Decatur, Illinois in 1866 a national organization of Union veterans was founded called the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).  It would eventually include more than 400,000 members in the 1880s.  Former Union Democrat Congressman John A. Logan of Murphysboro, who later became a Republican to campaign for the re-election of Abraham Lincoln in 1864, stood against popular sentiment in southern Illinois to support the Union.  He became a major general during the Civil War.  After the war, Logan was a Republican congressman who managed the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson.  He later became a US Senator from Illinois and the 1884 GOP Nominee for Vice President on a ticket with James G. Blaine which lost to Grover Cleveland.  It was Logan, who as Commander of the GAR on May 5, 1868, issued General Order Number 11 to create Memorial Day, the object of which was primarily to decorate the graves of those who had fallen during the Civil War with flowers.  For many years in the South, the same day at the end of May was called Decoration Day.  Today, Logan is remembered in the Illinois State Song in verse four: Not without thy wondrous story, can be writ the nation's glory, on the record of thy years, Abra'm Lincoln's name appears, Grant and Logan and our tears, Illinois.

Illinois-born actor Charlton Heston died last night.

by Mark Rhoads

Illinois native Charlton Heston died last night in Beverly Hills at the age of 84.  Heston was born in Evanston on Oct. 4, 1923 and his name at birth was Charles Carter. His parents moved to St. Helen, Mich., where his father, Russell Carter, operated a lumber mill. Charles's parents divorced, and she married Chester Heston, a factory plant superintendent in Wilmette. After a few lonely Michigan childhood years, Charles had some trouble adjusting to the large New Trier High School where he took refuge in the drama department.

"What acting offered me was the chance to be many other people," he said in a 1986 interview. "In those days I wasn't satisfied with being me."

Calling himself Charlton Heston from his mother's maiden name and his stepfather's last name, he won an acting scholarship to Northwestern University in 1941. He excelled in campus plays and appeared on Chicago radio. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Force and served as a radio-gunner in the Aleutians.

In 1944 he married another Northwestern drama student, Lydia Clarke, and after his army discharge in 1947, they moved to New York to seek acting jobs. Finding none, they hired on as codirectors and principal actors at a summer theater in Asheville, N.C.  Heston was best known for his roles as Moses in The Ten Commandments, Judah Ben Hur, Andrew Jackson, and other great character roles.  His political views were varied at different points on the spectrum.  In the 1960s he was considered a liberal for his active involvement with Civil Rights marches.  But in the 1990s he took on the presidency of the National Rifle Association.

The Mood at CPAC on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008

by Mark Rhoads

I attended a dinner last night at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. I did not get there until about 5 pm after the speeches by Romney, McCain, and Ron Paul. There were several thousand people wearing the CPAC ID name tags but I was told only 500 could be admitted to the room where those speeches were made. The speeches were covered live by CSPAN, CNN, CNBC, and MSNBC. While in Virginia earlier in the day, I saw both the Romney and McCain speeches live on CNN. Both seemed to me to have a very positive message but of course McCain had the more difficult assignment of trying to make his points and still honestly acknowledge his mistakes and differences of opinion with some, but not all, of the conservatives attending.

Cook County Board Passes Resolution Honoring Hyde

by Tyler Jones

Kudos to Commissioner Tony Peraica - and the Cook County Board for unanimously passing - a resolution honoring the life and accomplishments of former Congressman Henry Hyde ... interestingly enough, the resolution contained language that may make this the most conservative accomplishment of any Cook County board in recent memory:

WHEREAS, the Republican Party had no better spokesman for its traditional views on life, liberty and fiscal discipline; and

WHEREAS, Henry Hyde was deeply committed to protecting the lives of the unborn in America and he was the author of the pro-life Hyde Amendment which ended the funding of abortions by the federal government; and

WHEREAS, Henry Hyde was a larger than life figure who was not afraid of tackling controversial issues head-on; and

WHEREAS, when many sharply criticized Henry Hyde for leading the House Managers in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, Hyde responded: "The Members of the House who voted to impeach a president for actions many members of his own party concede were felonious have nothing to apologize for. We did our duty;" ...

Roskam comments on Hyde's passing

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Peter J. Roskam (R-IL) today issued the following statement on the death of former Congressman Henry Hyde:

“Congressman Hyde unequivocally embodied the title of statesman in every sense of the word.  His leadership when speaking on the House floor drew attention from each member in the chamber.  The clarity of his thoughts, the wisdom of his foresight and the principled values he espoused were unmatched.

“When I worked for Henry more than 20 years ago it was obvious I was in the presence of a man whose convictions, beliefs and actions were one in the same.  Henry truly represented Illinois’ 6th Congressional District with the utmost distinction and will forever be remembered for his work.

“It is an honor to succeed him in Congress, however there is no replacing Henry.  My thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Hyde family.”

Illinois Hall of Fame: Jerry Hadley, Rest in Peace

By Mark Rhoads

The life of internationally-known opera star and tenor singer Jerry Hadley came to a tragic end on July 18, 2007 as a result serious injuries from a suicide attempt a few days ago at his home in Clinton Corners, New York.  Hadley won three Grammy Awards and had a world-wide following of fans.  He was 55, divorced, and had two sons.  Newspapers in New York say he was battling depression.  He was highly regarded in the music world.

Jerry Hadley was born on June 16, 1952 in Manlius, Illinois in Bureau County and grew up nearby in the tiny town of Thomas.  He attended Bureau County public schools and graduated from Bradley University in Peoria in 1974.  He earned his masters degree in voice at the University of Illinois School of Music at Champaign-Urbana.  After further music study in Illinois and roles with regional companies, in 1978 he left Illinois when he was recruited by the famed opera singer Beverly Sills for the New York City Opera. His many friends, classmates, and admirers in central Illinois mourn his death.

Illnois Hall of Fame: Donald K. Sundquist

by Mark Rhoads

There has always been a diaspora of native Illinoisans raised or educated in Illinois but who achieved political success in other states. They have included New Jersey Gov. John Corzine (D) who was seriously injured in an automobile accident three months ago but is recovering.  Corzine was a native of Taylorville, Illinois. He graducated from the University of Illinois and from the University of Chicago Business School. The late Republican U.S. Senator from North Carolina, John P. East, was born and raised in Springfield, Illinois and graduated from the University of Illinois Law School in 1959. He served from 1981 to 1986.

Illinois Hall of Fame: George Beverly Shea

By Mark Rhoads

The recent death of Ruth Bell Graham, wife of Rev. Billy Graham, recalls a very early entry in summer 2006 to this Illinois Hall of Fame feature series in Illinois Review.  Billy and Ruth met at Wheaton College in Du Page County when both were students there during World War II.  There is a legend in my family that on their honeymoon night, Billy and Ruth only drove as far from Wheaton as my grandmother's house in Western Springs because gas rationing severely limited their radius. 

Gov. Jon Corzine in Critical Condition

By Mark Rhoads

Gov. Jon S. Corzine (D-New Jersey) was in critical condition last night after his SUV hit a guard rail.  A New Jersey state trooper was driving but was not seriously hurt because he was wearing a seat belt.  Gov. Corzine was riding in the front seat but was not wearing a seat belt as required by New Jersey state law and his injuries are described by doctors as very serious even though they differ about whether the injuries are life-threatening. He has a broken collar bone, 12 cracked ribs that make it hard to breathe, and several craked bones of various kinds. Gov. Corzine was on his way to Princeton to attend the reconciliation meeting with fired talk show host Don Imus and the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Burr Tillstrom

By Mark Rhoads

Children's television pioneer and puppet master Burr Tillstrom was born in Chicago on Oct. 13, 1917. He attended Senn High School and the University of Chicago where he became interested in puppetry.  In 1936 he created a puppet with a mostly bald head and a large round nose.  A Russian ballerina named Tamara Toumanova called the puppet "kukla" which is the Russian word for doll.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Jack Brickhouse

By Mark Rhoads

Award-winning sports broadcaster Jack Brickhouse (Hey Hey!!) was born in Peoria, Illinois on Jan. 24, 1916.  He announced for more sports events than any other American broadcaster.  Jack attended Peoria public schools and was only 18 when he started working as an announcer for WMBD radio in Peoria in 1934. He briefly attended Bradley University and covered Bradley sports teams on radio.  After six years of radio work in Peoria, Jack was hired by WGN radio in Chicago in 1940.  With the exception of military service, he worked for the next 41 years for both WGN radio and television.  In fact, Jack was the first broadcaster face to be seen on WGN-TV when it went on the air in 1948.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Georgie Anne Geyer

By Mark Rhoads

Georgie Anne Geyer is one of America's foremost columnists on foreign affairs.  Now with the Universal Press Syndicate, "Gigi" or "Gee Gee" Geyer began her journalistic career on the South Side of Chicago.  Gigi was born in Chicago on April 2, 1935. She was salutatorian of her class at Calument High School in 1952 and graduated from the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism in 1956 where she was a member of the Chi Omega sorority.  After Northwestern, Gigi attended the University of Vienna on a Fullbright Scholarship. Gigi's first job as a reporter was for The Southtown Economist.  From 1959 to 1974 Gigi was a reporter for The Chicago Daily News where she started out on society news but progressed to general news assignments and finally was stationed overseas as a foreign correspondent. She left The Chicago Daily News in 1974 to become an independent nationally syndicated columnist.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Pat Sajak

By Mark Rhoads

Emmy Award-winning TV host Pat Sajak is anchor of Wheel of Fortune, the highest-rated and longest-running syndicated game show in American TV history. Pat was born in Chicago to Polish-American parents on October 26, 1946 and is the oldest of three brothers. Pat attended Goethe Elementary School and Gary Elementary School.  He graduated from Farragut High School at 2345 S. Christiana Avenue in 1964.  In 1965 Pat won a contest to be a "guest teen deejay" on the Dick Biondi Show on WLS Radio. Biondi was sick the night Pat was to appear so Pat went on the air for one hour on a Saturday night with Biondi's replacement guest host Art Roberts.  Pat read news and commercials and was inspired that experience to pursue broadcasting.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Mel Torme

By Mark Rhoads

Mel Torme was one of the best American male jazz singers and composers of the 20th Century. He wrote or co-wrote more than 250 songs including a Christmastime standard that opens with the lyrics "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire." It was recorded by fellow Chicagoan Nat King Cole in 1946.  He was also a movie star, radio and TV star, and an author.

Notwithstanding his fame for seasonal songs of Christmas, Mel Torme was born on the south side of Chicago to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants on Sept. 23, 1925.  From about the age of four he was recognized as a child prodigy. While barely in grade school he was singing as a child star for the Coon Sanders Orchestra at the Blackhawk Restaurant at 139 N. Wabash.

Mel was only age seven in 1933 when he won a talent competition for child singers at the Century of Progress World's Fair.  The competition led to his work as a child star on two of the most famous radio serials of the time, The Romance of Helen Trent and Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Stephanie Pace Marshall

By Mark Rhoads

Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall has served as the founding president of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) in Aurora, Illinois since the school started in 1985. She has announced recently that she will retire from that post in June.

A former Superintendant of Schools in Batavia, Dr. Marshall is one of the most respected high school educators in the nation. She attended Queens College in New York and received her MA from the University of Chicago and her Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Industrial Relations from Loyola University of Chicago. She also has been given honorary doctorates from North Central College, Aurora University, and Illinois Wesleyan University.

Illinois Hall of Fame: John Peter Altgeld

By Mark Rhoads

John Peter Altgeld was the first foreign-born governor of Illinois.  He was also the only Democrat to be elected during a long era of Republican dominance in the governor's office over fifty-six years between 1856 and 1912. Altgeld was born in the village of Nieder Selters in the state of Hesse in Prussia (now part of Germany) on Dec. 30, 1847. His parents brought John to America when he was a child and they settled on a farm near Mansfield, Ohio.

John lied about his age to join the Union Army in 1864. He almost died of fever while on a campaign with the Army of the Potomac in Virginia.  After his war service he worked on his father's farm, got additional schooling at a seminary in Ohio, and read for the law while working on a railroad gang in Missouri.  In 1874 John was elected district attorney of Andrew County in Missouri but only served a year before resigning to move to Chicago in 1875 where he was the founder of a prosperous law firm that included Clarence Darrow. He returned to Ohio briefly in 1877 to marry Emma Ford.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Bob Balaban

By Mark Rhoads

Movie actor Bob Balaban comes from a show business family famous in both Chicago and nationally.  Bob was born in Chicago on Aug. 16, 1945.  His father Elmer and four of his six uncles created the Balaban and Katz (B&K) movie theater chain in the 1920s. The chain eventually had about 100 theaters in Chicago and suburbs.  The landmark Chicago Theater at 175 N. State Street was the crown jewel of the B&K chain that was built as the first lavish theater palace designed speficially for movies when it opened on Oct. 26, 1921. The famous Uptown Theatre near Broadway and Lawrence was also a landmark B&K Theater in the Depression era. The Balaban family also created Chicago's first commercial television station, WBKB on Channel 4, (Balaban & Katz Broadcasting) in the 1940s.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Scott Turow

By Mark Rhoads

Scott Turow has lived in the Chicago area most of his life.  He is currently practicing criminal law in Chicago and is also one of America's most popular novelists who specializes in intricate crime mysteries. Three of his books have been made into feature films starting with Presumed Innocent in 1990 starring Illinois-native Harrison Ford. Scott was born in Chicago on April 12, 1949 and raised in the northern suburbs. He graduated from New Trier High School in 1966.  In 1970 Scott graduated with honors with a B.A. in English from Amherst College.  He went on to study writing at Stanford University where he received an M.A. in 1974.

Scott taught at Stanford from 1972 to 1975 and attended Harvard Law School from 1975 to 1978 when he received his Juris Doctor degree. He became a trustee of Amherst in 2002.  From 1978 to 1986, Scott was an Assistant U. S. Attorney for the Northern District in Chicago. He was one of the prosecutors in the tax fraud trial of former Illinois Treasurer and Attorney General William J. Scott and was also a prosecutor of Cook County judges in the Operation Greylord cases.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Harold Ramis

By Mark Rhoads

"You can have a pretty wonderful artistic life and never leave Chicago."

-- Harold Ramis

Harold Ramis is a very successful TV and movie actor, director, writer, and producer who is best known for his innovative comedies.  He was born in Chicago on Nov. 21, 1944 and currently makes his primary home on the North Side even though he also stays part time in California when he is making films.  When he was growing up, his parents Nate and Ruth Ramis owned a store on the West Side called Ace Food and Liquor Mart. At age seven, Harold started working in the store on weekends. Harold attended Senn High School at 5900 N. Glenwood where he wrote in his yearbook that he wanted to be a neurosurgeon.  Harold was on the fencing team at Senn and his older brother Steve Ramis was city champion in fencing in the middle 1960s.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Richard J. Oglesby

By Mark Rhoads

Maj. Gen. Richard James Oglesby served three times as governor of Illinois in the 19th Century but none of the terms were consecutive and one term lasted for only ten days. He also served one term as a U.S. Senator from Illinois.

Oglesby was born in Floydsburg, Kentucky on July 25, 1824. He was orphaned as a young child and was raised by his uncle and aunt in Decatur, Illinois. According to his congressional biography, he received a limited schooling; worked as a farmer, a rope-maker, and carpenter.  He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1845 and started a practice in Sullivan, Illinois. 

Illinois Hall of Fame: George Gobel

By Mark Rhoads

"My uncle was the town drunk, and we lived in Chicago."

- George Gobel in the 1950s

Emmy Award-winning comedian and TV host George Gobel was born in Chicago on May 20, 1919.  He grew up in Albany Park and graduated from Roosevelt High School at 3436 West Wilson Avenue in 1937. George came from a show business family.  Even before high school, George was a child star on radio singing and playing guitar as the "littlest cowboy" and "Little Georgie Gobel" on The National Barn Dance. The popular national radio show was aired by NBC and produced by WLS Radio in Chicago.  

Illinois Hall of Fame: John Gunther

By Mark Rhoads

John Gunther was the best selling author of 28 books including Inside Europe in 1936 and many "Inside" geo-political travel books.  John was born on the North Side of Chicago on Aug. 30, 1901. He attended Lake View High School at 4015 N. Ashland Avenue and wrote for the student magazine.  At age 16, he wrote an article on the Russian Revolution and would revisit the topic of Russia many times in his life culminating with his 1958 book Inside Russia Today. As an English major at the University of Chicago, he was 20 years old when he started writing book reviews for the campus newspaper, the Daily Maroon. John graduated from the University of Chicago in 1922 and was awarded a Phi Beta Kappa key.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Joe Mantegna

By Mark Rhoads

Tony Award-winning actor Joe Mantegna is a proud Illinoisan through and through. He was born in Chicago on Nov. 13, 1947. He graduated from Morton East High School in Cicero in 1965 and from the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago in 1969.  The Goodman School has since been re-named as the Theatre School at De Paul University. Joe made his acting debut in a 1969 production of Hair.

Based on his many afternoons watching the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Joe created the concept for and was one of eight writers of the award-winning play Bleacher Bums which was first performed at Chicago's Organic Theater in 1977. Another contributor was Dennis Franz of Maywood who played Detective Andy Sipowicz on NYPD Blue. The play ran five years in L.A.  The play was put on WTTW in Chicago in 1979 and an updated version won an Emmy Award for Joe when it was broadcast on the Showtime channel in 2002.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Betty Friedan

By Mark Rhoads

Betty Friedan was a controversial author who advocated a radical brand of feminism.  She was born on Feb. 4, 1921 in Peoria, Illinois and raised in the city. Her birth name was Bettye Naomi Goldstein.  Her father Harry Goldstein was an immigrant to Peoria from Kiev, Russia who peddled buttons on the street when he first arrived and became the proprietor of a jewelry shop in Peoria that he advertised as "the finest jewelry store in the middle west." One family member called the store "the Tiffany's of Peoria" perhaps in a humorous vein and perhaps not.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Gillian Anderson

By Mark Rhoads

Emmy Award-winning actress Gillian Anderson won over a large number of TV fans in her role as FBI Special Agent Dana Scully on The X-Files from 1993 to 2002. During the run of the show, she won the Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a drama series in 1997, two Screen Actors Guild Awards for best performance by a female actor in a drama series in 1996 and 1997, and the 1997 Golden Globe Award for best performance by and actress in a TV dramatic series.

Gillian was born in Chicago on Aug. 9, 1968.  Her family moved several times after her birth to Puerto Rico and to London, England where her father studied film production at the London School of Film Technique. Gillian went to high school in Grand Rapids, Michigan where she was voted the "Class Clown."  Her mother described her as a tomboy who wanted to be a marine biologist but also showed a flair for acting. She was also a rebel who spent time in the principal's office and was sometimes made fun of for her English accent.  After graduating from high school in 1986, Gillian returned to Chicago to study at the Goodman Theater School of DePaul University. Gillian graduated from DePaul with a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts in 1990.

Click here to see a full list of films and TV shows with Gillian Anderson.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Charles Percy

By Mark Rhoads

Charles H. Percy was the last U.S. Senator from Illinois to complete three full terms in office. He served for 18 years from 1967 to 1985. Chuck Percy was born on Sept. 17, 1919 in Pensacola, Florida but he was raised in Chicago and Winnetka. He attended schools in Illinois and graduated from New Trier High School. In 1941, he graduated from the University of Chicago. At the age of only 22, he was working for and became a director of the Bell and Howell Camera Company in Chicago. The company was then headed by Joseph McNab who was Percy's Sunday School teacher and who became Percy's business mentor.

During World War II, Percy enlised in the U.S. Navy as an apprentice seaman was was honorably discharged in 1945 as a lieutenant.  He rejoined Bell and Howell and at the age of 29 early in 1949, he was voted in as president of the company after the death of his predecessor Joseph McNab.

Illinois Hall of Fame: George Wendt

By Mark Rhoads

TV and film actor George Wendt played Norm Peterson in all 273 episodes of Cheers over 11 years from 1982 to 1993. Norm was from Boston but George is a died in the wool native of Illinois.  He invented a recurring character on Saturday Night Live who was one of the ultimate beer-guzzling fans of "da Bulls" and "da Bears."   He has played a wide variety of comic and serious roles from the voice of Garfield the cat to one of the jurors in a stage production of Twelve Angry Men.

George was born in Chicago on Oct. 17, 1948. He was raised in Illinois and attended public schools until boarding at Campion High School, a Jesuit school in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.  He attended Notre Dame University and another Jesuit school, Rockhurst College in Kansas City where he received a B.A. in Economics.  George was a member of the regular cast at Second City from 1974 to 1980. 

Click here for a complete list of George Wendt movies and TV shows.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Valdus Adamkus

By Mark Rhoads

Valdus Adamkus, the current president of Lithuania, was born in his native country but was a citizen of Illinois most of his life.  He lived in Chicago and suburbs for 49 years from 1949 to 1998.  His life story so far has been an amazing testament to his personal courage, integrity, and leadership.

Adamkus was born on November 3, 1926 to a Roman Catholic family in Kaunus, the second largest city in Lithuania. They escaped from Soviet-occupied Lithuania during World War II.  Adamkus attended the University of Munich in Germany before emigrating to Chicago in 1949.  He worked as an automobile draftsman and graduated with a degree in civil engineer from the Illinois Institute of Technology with the class of 1960.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Eric Ruske

By Mark Rhoads

Eric Ruske is rated by most international music critics as the best French Horn player in the world.  Eric was born in Chicago in 1963 and raised in La Grange where he attended public schools. He graduated from Lyons Township High School in 1981.

At the age of 20, Eric was an associate principal horn player with the Cleveland Orchestra. He graduated from Northwestern University in 1985 and toured in Europe with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  In 1988 he captured the highest prize in the Concours International d'Interpretation Musicale in France. He has performed as a soloist with the Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee symphonies, the Boston Pops, the Orchestre National de Chambre de Toulouse and the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia.

Illinois Hall of Fame: W. Clement Stone

By Mark Rhoads

"All I want to do is change the world."  - W. Clement Stone

Pictured at right is philanthropist and insurance tycoon William Clement Stone and his wife Jessee who founded the Clement and Jesse Stone Foundation in 1955.  Clem Stone was born in Chicago on May 4, 1902. Except for a brief time selling insurance for his mother in Detroit when he was 16, Clem lived almost all of his 100 years in Illinois.  He was only 3 when his father died and by age 6 he was selling newspapers to help his mother with family finances.  He personified the values of the Horatio Alger stories that were so popular in his youth. He was in fact a member of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans.

Clem was in his mid 20s when he founded Combined Insurance Company of America headquartered in Chicago.  He was 28 in 1930 when he had more than 1,000 agents selling insurance for him in all regions of the US.  Clem built his company to a value of $1 billion by 1979 when it merged with the Patrick G. Ryan Group and Aon Corporation in 1987. 

Illinois Hall of Fame: Miles Davis

By Mark Rhoads

Miles Davis is found on any short list of great jazz musicians in the 20th Century.  He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Miles was born on May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois. He grew up mostly in East St. Louis from 1927 to 1944 and attended local schools.  Miles was from a relatively well-off family.  His father Dr. Miles Henry Davis was a dentist and the family also owned a ranch. His mother was Cleota Henry Davis who was a blues pianist. She wanted Miles to study classical music and the violin. But at age 13, Dr. Davis gave Miles a trumpet and arranged for a local music teacher and trumpet player Elwood Buchanan to teach Miles a variety of musical styles that embraced classical, dance music, and jazz.

During his high school years, Miles had diverse musical experiences.  He studied trumpet with members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.  Miles was also hired for a three-week temporary job to play third trumpet with Billy Eckstein's band when Billy was on tour in southern Illinois and Missouri in 1944.  He met trumpet legends Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie ("Bird") Parker who were with the band.  In the fall of 1944, Miles left Illinois for New York to attend the famous Julliard School of Music on a scholarship.  But his real goal was to get back together with Gillespie and Parker to play, write, and arrange jazz compositions. 

Illinois Hall of Fame: Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

By Mark Rhoads

"Less is more."  -- Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe was one of the most influential architects of the Twentieth Century. Mies was born in Germany on March 27, 1886.  His simple designs avoided ornamentation using glass, marble, exposed steel, and stone.  They came to be copied widely as typical of modern design.  As a young man, Mies worked in his father's stone carving shop before moving to Berlin to establish his own office before World War I.  After the Nazi government took power in 1933, Mies had little work to do in a country where everything including architecture was supposed to serve the state.

In 1937 as Germany prepared for war, Mies left his homeland and moved to Chicago to head the architecture school at the Armour Institute of Technology. In 1940, the Armour Institute merged with the Lewis Institute to form what is now called the Illinois Institute of Technology. Over the next decade Mies designed and supervised the construction of about 20 buildings on the IIT campus in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side.

In 1944, Mies became an American citizen. He lived the last thirty-two years of his life in Illinois and that was also the most productive part of his professional life.  He designed the IBM Plaza in Chicago, The Seagram Building in New York, and many distinctive buildings all over the country in addition to the campus of IIT.  One of his most unusual buildings in Illinois was The Farnsworth House located on a 60-acre estate 55 miles southwest of Chicago on the Fox River near Plano, Illinois. It was built between 1945 and 1951 for Dr. Edith Farnsworth, a kidney specialist in Chicago.  The small glass and steel house has only one large room and fourteen hundred square feet in a secluded and wooded area where Dr. Farnsworth went on weekends to pursue her hobby which was translating poetry. 

Merry Christmas Illinoisans in Service

By Mark Rhoads

People think it was started by some families of southern Illinois National Guardsmen in 2003.  Somehow, pictures of Operation Illinois Flag Overseas began to appear not just from Guard units but also from Illinoisans in regular Army, Marine, and Air Force units stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Samples of the pictures are shown on the Operation Home Front web site.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Marva Collins

By Mark Rhoads

Most Americans first heard about Marva Collins in 1981 when she was potrayed by Cicely Tyson in a made for TV movie called The Marva Collins Story that also co-starred Morgan Freeman.  She was offered the position of Secretary of Education by President Ronald Reagan but she preferred to stay a teacher. Marva is an outstanding Illinois educator who has won national praise for her results-oriented old-fashioned approach to teaching by the Socratic method.  She believes that every child can learn and wants to learn in a respectful teaching environment.  She believes that challenging children is a more direct path to true self-eteem and self confidence than any artificial or contrived dumbing down of lessons.

Illinois Hall of Fame: George Halas

By Mark Rhoads

"Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it."  --George Halas

George Halas was a lifelong Illinois resident who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall Fame with the first class in 1963. He was a founder of the National Football League in 1920 and the only founder still active with the league on its 60th anniversary in 1980.  He owned the Chicago Bears for sixty-three years from 1920 to 1983 and was head coach of the Bears for forty years in four different periods.

George was born in Chicago on Feb. 2, 1895 to a family of Czech immigrants.  He graduated from Crane Tech High School in 1913. George was 20 years old during the summer of 1915 when he had a temporary job with Western Electric. On Saturday morning, July 24, he set out from home on his way to join 7,000 thousand company employees on five boats leaving the Chicago River to sail for Michigan City, Indiana for the fifth annual company picnic.  If he had been on time, George was supposed to ride along with 2,500 other passengers on the tour boat SS Eastland.  A light rain was falling and Bradfield's Orehcestra was playing on the promenade. George was running late and by the time he arrived at the wharf between Clark and LaSalle after 7:30 AM, The Eastland had already rolled over on its port side when a large number of people had suddenly surged to one side of the top-heavy boat.  Almost 841 passengers, all Western Electric employees, were killed or drowned when the boat rolled over.  Almost all were in the language of that time, "Bohemian" or Czech residents of Cicero. There were also more than 1,500 survivors. George Halas was not among either group because he was late.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Edgar Rice Burroughs

By Mark Rhoads

Famous American author Edgar Rice Burroughs was the creator of Tarzan and other popular literary characters in the early part of the 20th Century. Edgar was born in Chicago on Sept. 1, 1875. He was the youngest in the family after two of five brothers died as infants. His father was a former Union officer, Maj. George Tyler Burroughs and his mother was Mary Burroughs. The family lived in a three-story brick house at 646 Washington Boulevard on the West Side between Lincoln and Robey Streets.

When Edgar was growing up in Chicago there were often contagious diseases that spread among children and caused the shut down of classes and interruption of school work.  Edgar's parents tried to protect him from a dangerous influenza in 1891 by putting him on a train to Idaho where is older brothers George and Harry worked on a cattle ranch.  Edgar loved the life on the frontier ranch for a half-year but then was send to Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. But he did not like Andover so his father sent him to Michigan Military Academy at Orchard Lake. It is believed that Edgar drove the first "horseless carriage" or automobile in Chicago in 1893 due to his father's position with American Battery Company. Burroughs graduated from MMA in 1895 and stayed on for a while as an instructor. In 1896 he went to Arizona to join the 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, former regiment of George Armstrong Custer, but he was discharged a year later with no adventure to add to his resume.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Chris O'Donnell

By Mark Rhoads

Actor Chris O'Donnell was born on June 26, 1970 in Winnetka, Illinois. By Hollywood fan magazine standards, Chris is considered a rare boy scout who has never been in a scandal. He is the youngest of three sons and four daughters in a lace curtain-Irish Catholic family. His father was an executive at WBBM-TV Channel 2 and Chris was a White Sox fan growing up.  In 1988 Chris graduated from Loyola Academy, an elite Jesuit HIgh School in Wilmette.  According to his biography on IMDB, Chris's Loyola "Rambler" classmates voted him "Most likely to run off and join the circus." He was a model and appeared in commercials and print ads for Marshall Field while he was still in high school. He appeared with Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan in a McDonald's commercial and "da Bulls" are his favorite team.  He won a part as Jessica Lange's son in Men Don't Leave (1990).

Chris attended Boston College where he majored in marketing and later attended UCLA School of Law but did not finish the law degree program.  In 1991 he appeared in Fried Green Tomatoes. Twice in 1992 he played somewhat close to type as a prep school student in School Ties and in Scent of a Woman with Al Pacino. Chris made two blockbuster fims as Robin in Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997).  Also in 1995 he earned good reviews for his role opposite Minnie Driver in Circle of Friends.  Chris married Caroline Fentress, a former teacher, in 1997 and the couple had their fourth child in 2006. Chris is a good golfer who often plays in charity matches.  For a complete list of films and TV shows with appearances by Chris O'Donnell, click here to see his page on the Intermet Movie Database.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Lee Phillip

By Mark Rhoads

For decades tens of thousands of fans thought of Lee Phillip as one of the nicest TV personalities in Chicago.  The reputation was well justified.  Emmy Award-winning TV producer and host Lee Phillip studied microbiology at Northwestern University. Her family owned Phillip's Florists in La Grange Park and other western suburbs in the 1950s.  One day Lee went with her brother to the Channel 2 studio to help him with a show on flower presentation. She took over that show and eventually hosted her own daytime variety talk show on WBBM-TV that won 16 Chicago Emmy Awards.  Lee married TV writer and producer William J. Bell in 1954 and the marriage lasted until his death in 2005. With her husband she was co-creator of the national daytime soap opera called The Young and the Restless.  Lee won a national daytime Emmy in 1975 for that show.

Lee and William also co-created another soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful. She served as co-executive producer of that show during the 1980s. In 1977, Lee was the first woman to receive the Governor's Award from the Chicago chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.  Lee is the mother of William J. Bell, Jr, Lauralee Bell, and Bradley Bell who have all acted in soap operas. She also has six grandchildren.  Part of Lee's legacy to Chicago includes her generous donation of $500,000 in 2006 to Bruce DuMont's new Museum of Broadcast Communications Building located at State and Kinzie Streets on the North Side of Chicago.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Harold L. Ickes

By Mark Rhoads

Chicago attorney Harold L. Ickes was a key political advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt.  He served as the 32nd Secretary of the Interior for 13 years from 1933 to 1946, longer in that post than any other person. His name is pronounced as if it were "Ick-eez." Sixty years after Harold L. Ickes started in President Roosevelt's cabinet, his son, Harold M. Ickes, became Deputy White House Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton.

Harold was born on a farm near Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania on March 15, 1874. His family moved to Chicago in 1890 when Harold was 16 and he graduated from Englewood High School in 1892. In 1893, he started to work his way through the University of Chicago to earn a B.A. degree and graduate with the first class of 1897.  He worked as a newspaper reporter for The Chicago Record and for The Chicago Daily Tribune while he studied law at night.  In 1907, he earned a law degree from the University of Chicago School of Law. But he did not practice much law and preferred to work on reform political causes.

By Mark Rhoads

Chicago attorney Harold L. Ickes was a key political advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt.  He served as the 32nd Secretary of the Interior for 13 years from 1933 to 1946, longer in that post than any other person. His name is pronounced as if it were "Ick-eez." Sixty years after Harold L. Ickes started in President Roosevelt's cabinet, his son, Harold M. Ickes, became Deputy White House Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton.

Harold was born on a farm near Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania on March 15, 1874. His family moved to Chicago in 1890 when Harold was 16 and he graduated from Englewood High School in 1892. In 1893, he started to work his way through the University of Chicago to earn a B.A. degree and graduate with the first class of 1897.  He worked as a newspaper reporter for The Chicago Record and for The Chicago Daily Tribune while he studied law at night.  In 1907, he earned a law degree from the University of Chicago School of Law. But he did not practice much law and preferred to work on reform political causes.

Illinois Hall of Fame: Paul Douglas

By Mark Rhoads

Paul Douglas was an educator, economist, a decorated Marine Corps officer, and a Democratic U.S. senator. He was often called an unconventional or maverick liberal because he was an avocate of civil rights but also fought for fiscal spending controls.  He was an internationalist in favor of liberal values and human rights but he was also a staunch anti-Communist who wanted to work through the UN to stop Communist expansion. Paul was born on March 26, 1892 in Salem, Massachusetts and mostly grew up in Newport, Maine.  He graduated with honors from Bowdoin College in 1913 and later received both a Master's Degree and a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University. He married Dorothy Wolff in 1915 who was also a Ph.D. from Columbia. From 1915 to 1920, Douglas taught at different schools including the University of Illinois.

In 1921, Paul accepted a position with the faculty of the University of Chicago in the economics department. The Cobb-Douglas Function in economic theory was named for Douglas. Through meetings with social reformer Jane Addams, the founder of Hull House, Douglas became interested in political activism.  His teaching career at the University of Chicago was interrrupted in the late 1920s when his first wife Dorothy wanted him to teach near her in the East. They divorced in 1930 and in 1931 Paul married his second wife Emily Taft, who was from a socially prominent family in Chicago and was also a social reformer.  She was also a distant cousin to President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft of Ohio.   

Illinois Hall of Fame: Louis Sullivan

By Mark Rhoads

Louis Sullivan was one of the great Chicago architects of the 19th Century. He is best remembered for his design for the Auditorium Theater at Roosevelt University and for the Carson, Pirie, Scott Store at the corner of State and Madison.

Sullivan was born on Sept. 3, 1856 in Boston and studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He worked with Frank Furness in Philadelphia. Sullivan first came to Chicago in 1873 to work for William LeBaron Jenney, "the father of the skyscraper." Chicago was in the middle of a building boom to rebuild the city after the Great Fire of 1871. He completed his formal studies in one year at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and returned again to Chicago when he was just 19.

In 1879 he went to work for the great stuctural engineer Dankmar Adler and two years later they formed the archtectural firm of Adler and Sullivan. They remained partners for the next 15 years until about 1896 during a period of creative experimentation with new building materials such as steel girders that made taller buildings possible.  Sullivan had creative differences and feuded over style with Daniel Burnham, planner for the Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park in 1893 and with one of his students, Frank Lloyd Wright. Sullivan taught his associates that "form follows function" by which he meant that the purpose of a building dictated how the building would be designed.   

Illinois Hall of Fame: Ralph Bellamy

By Mark Rhoads

Tony Award-winning actor Ralph Bellamy was born in Chicago on June 17, 1904.  He was the oldest of three children of Charles Rexford Bellamy and Lilla Louise Smith. Ralph's father worked for the Barnes Crosby Advertising Agency. Ralph lived with his father, mother, a brother, a sister, and his maternal grandmother in an apartment at 5709 South Kimbark Avenue just east of the campus of the University of Chicago. At age 5 in 1909, Ralph's family moved to Wilmette where he grew up attending public school and working at odd jobs such as a newspaper delivery boy and a grocery delivery boy for Brinkman's Grocery. He also beat rugs, raked and burned leaves, and worked as an usher at a local movie theater and as a soda jerk.

Ralph was president of the Drama Club at New Trier High School but he unfortunately was expelled for smoking on school property before graduation. He developed his acting craft in the late 1920s by going on tour. He was only 22 when he formed his own stock company called "The Ralph Bellamy Players" based in Evanston and which existed from 1926 to 1930.