If you ask most people what kind of pop-culture references they think of when they think of Chicago, I think some of the more common replies you might hear would be Oprah, Ferris Bueller, Smashing Pumpkins, Kanye West, and of course, The Blues Brothers, which celebrates the 30th anniversary of its release date on June 20th. Turning 35 near the same date as the BB movie, I basically grew up with that film being my first exposure to Chicago in pop-culture.
An article in the Chicago Tribune about the Blues Brothers film’s milestone got me thinking… What was Chicago known for in pop-culture BEFORE that movie came out. Obviously, there were Chicago based television shows, movies, and musicians before that movie - but what and who were they? What did people think of when you mentioned Chicago before June 20th, 1980?
An episode of Happy Days had Richie, Potsie, and Ralph travelling to Chicago with their school choir. Fonzie asks them to being back a sample of grease from the garage where the St. Valentine’s Day massacre took place.
This is what I would have guessed, although my living memories don’t go quite that far back, so I can’t say for sure.
I can say that internationally, Al Capone has, in my experience, been the first thing to come to people’s minds when I mentioned I was from Chicago. That is, until Michael Jordan supplanted him in the mid-90s as the iconic figure most associated with Chicago (thankfully.)
I don’t know if it counts as pop culture, and I don’t know how well know it was, but there is a great quote about Chicago in Citizen Kane:
“I warn you Jedediah, you’re not going to like it in Chicago. The wind comes howling in off the lake and gosh only knows if they ever heard of Lobster Newburg.”
There is a 1937 film “IN OLD CHICAGO” with Tyrone Power, Don Ameche, and Alice Faye. It is the story of the O’leary family and there rivalry between two brothers. Oh and there’s a fire.
Plenty of stuff. Movies like The Blues Brothers and Ferris Buehler celebrated things that were already well known about Chicago. As a side note, I would also wager that WGN’s presence as a basic cable channel in most packages added to Chicago’s image in pop culture. Harry Carey didn’t become a nationally beloved broadcaster until he began broadcasting for the Cubs, whose games were broadcast nationally on the Superstation. Despite the fact that he called St. Louis Cardinals games for years starting in the late 1940s until the late 60s. Heck, he was the voice of the White Sox just before he moved over to the North Side. But those games weren’t nationally broadcast on WGN.
Is it better quality than the Mary Tyler Moore statue on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, or the Fonzie statue in Milwaukee? Because TVLand appears to have immense quality control issues with those things.