Steve Balkin, professor of Economics at Roosevelt University in Chicago, had this to say to Tom Palazzolo, compiler and editor of At Maxwell Street: Chicago's Historic Marketplace Recalled in Words and Photographs:
" I was very impressed with your book. Of all the photographers that shot the Maxwell Street area, your photos best capture the soul and spirit of the place. They are works of art -- the subject matter and the photographs. It was the last place that connected the old world to the new, a remarkable place of authentic folk culture. I appreciate your sensitivity to Maxwell Street's gritty urban beauty. You are a hero for history. But for all the bastards that destroyed Maxwell Street, they should spend eternity in Schaumburg. "
-- http://faculty.roosevelt.edu/balkin/
And also, the following excerpted comments about this book:
"His book serves as a historic record about the phenomenon that was Maxwell Street … To see Maxwell Street through the eyes and lens of Tom Palazzolo with the help of photos and stories of his students, friends and wife, is to be transported back to a place that engages all the senses: images of the people, including merchants, shoppers and street performers, the products, and outsider art on a massive scale; the sounds of jazz and blues; the smells of street food, of Polish sausage sandwiches (of particular interest to Tom); and the feel of the market and the goods being sold by vendors, hawkers and pullers who drew people into the stores."
-- CHRISTINE VERNON Contributing Reporter -- Chicago Journal
see http://chicagojournal.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=6713&SectionID=5&SubSectionID=5&S=1
Bob Sirott, host of WGN AM 720 Radio, the Noon Show, calls this book, “quite a nice little keepsake.” http://wgnradio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46757&Itemid=557
Book Information:
AT MAXWELL STREET: CHICAGO’S HISTORIC MARKETPLACE RECALLED IN WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS
Compiled by Tom Palazzolo
With Introduction by Jack Helbig & Foreword by Lori Grove
$45, Hardcover with DVD, ISBN 978-0-9789676-1-1 Wicker Park Press -- http://www.wickerparkpress.com/
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Author of Water Tanks of Chicago to be featured on WGN TV’s Midday News with Steve Sanders on Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Larry W. Green, a Chicago artist, will talk about his 2007 book Water Tanks of Chicago: A Vanishing Urban Legacy ($19.95, paperback, ISBN 978-0-9789676-0-4, Wicker Park Press) on WGN TV Midday News program on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at approximately 11:25 am. This is local Channel 9, and nationally syndicated on Cable TV through WGN America.
Water Tanks of Chicago remains the only book on the subject of Chicago’s disappearing rooftop water tanks. Tony Jones, Past President of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where Green is a 1975 graduate, says in his foreword to the book: “Chicago’s crumbling water-tanks take on a new significance when seen in Green’s paintings – surely we knew they were there, they’d registered, but they weren’t the star of the street-show. But we’ve woken up to them, become part of his celebration of them as dynamic incidents in what is clearly a Chicago landscape.”
Water tanks have been omnipresent in Chicago for the past 136 years, but are often overlooked and/or taken for granted in the urban environment. Green’s vibrant images of these iconic structures gently remind readers of their historical and cultural significance to the city. The tanks, strong symbols of the city’s industrial past, are rapidly becoming extinct. It is a primary mission of this book to call attention to the plight of the water tanks, and to raise awareness of the urgent need to preserve them.
Green’s paintings are currently being featured in the Museum of Science and Industry’s ongoing Black Creativity Exhibit and Program (January 15 – March 1, 2009). This is a juried art show, and it is a good chance for museum visitors to see Green’s colorful and distinctive paintings of the city’s water tanks up close. For more information about this groundbreaking exhibit, visit www.msichicago.org
Mayor Richard M. Daley was quoted in the Chicago Tribune in 2005 in a speech at the Chicago Cultural Center saying, “This is all about the history of the city of Chicago, the architects, engineers and tradesman who built these wonderful tanks basically reflect the great history of Chicago.” Water Tanks of Chicago is both an artist’s bold statement about the plight of the tanks, and a clarion call to save these picturesque rooftop structures from demolition and the industrial scrapheap of history.
Water Tanks of Chicago remains the only book on the subject of Chicago’s disappearing rooftop water tanks. Tony Jones, Past President of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where Green is a 1975 graduate, says in his foreword to the book: “Chicago’s crumbling water-tanks take on a new significance when seen in Green’s paintings – surely we knew they were there, they’d registered, but they weren’t the star of the street-show. But we’ve woken up to them, become part of his celebration of them as dynamic incidents in what is clearly a Chicago landscape.”
Water tanks have been omnipresent in Chicago for the past 136 years, but are often overlooked and/or taken for granted in the urban environment. Green’s vibrant images of these iconic structures gently remind readers of their historical and cultural significance to the city. The tanks, strong symbols of the city’s industrial past, are rapidly becoming extinct. It is a primary mission of this book to call attention to the plight of the water tanks, and to raise awareness of the urgent need to preserve them.
Green’s paintings are currently being featured in the Museum of Science and Industry’s ongoing Black Creativity Exhibit and Program (January 15 – March 1, 2009). This is a juried art show, and it is a good chance for museum visitors to see Green’s colorful and distinctive paintings of the city’s water tanks up close. For more information about this groundbreaking exhibit, visit www.msichicago.org
Mayor Richard M. Daley was quoted in the Chicago Tribune in 2005 in a speech at the Chicago Cultural Center saying, “This is all about the history of the city of Chicago, the architects, engineers and tradesman who built these wonderful tanks basically reflect the great history of Chicago.” Water Tanks of Chicago is both an artist’s bold statement about the plight of the tanks, and a clarion call to save these picturesque rooftop structures from demolition and the industrial scrapheap of history.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Harry W Schwartz Bookshops: An Appreciation
On Inauguration Day, a day filled with hope and promise as Barack Obama takes office as President in Washington, D.C., I just got the news that this storied bookstore chain in Milwaukee is closing in a couple months. I cut my teeth selling books to A. David Schwartz in the mid 1980s. He was a tough buyer, and always swore by his weekly reports which he poured over while I sat there. I would daydream, staring out the window while he worked, and one time I had the audacity to yawn, and he would look up from his printout and say, “Am I boring you?”
David would mumble things like “unacceptable” as he looked over the printouts, sighing over the poor sales, and getting him to order from certain publishers was like pulling teeth. On the other hand he was a raging lefty, and publishers that had books that were left-of-center he would buy in bulk and load them up in his stores. Sometimes I could not write fast enough ...
He was supportive in other ways. I went to his house on more than one occasion to do holiday title presentations to the bookstore staff. I got up there and gave my spiel, and I remember David once telling me that my talk was laced with equal parts humor and terror. It made me think, and I respected him as an elder statesman in the business, one that we inherited from his father, Harry W. Schwartz.
Over time Schwartz stopped buying books direct from publishers and instead went to Ingram Book Company, a major distributor in Tennessee . They would buy some books direct from publishers, and when they moved into their Third Ward downtown offices it was always a pleasure to meet with them. David sadly passed on, but his wife and daughter took over the business, and they had incredibly loyal employees like Daniel Goldin, senior buyer, Elly Gore, children’s buyer, Nancy Quinn, coop manager, Jason Kennedy, small press buyer, and Jack Covert of 800-CEO-READ. These are all fine people, consummate professionals who know their business inside out.
It’s sad when a bookstore chain dissolves, and this one was extra special. The good news in all of this is that Daniel Goldin is planning to open a store, called Boswell's, in their flagship location on Downer Avenue, doors down from the original Schwartz location that opened in 1925 or 1926. Their Mequon location, a suburban store that always surprized me with the kind of books they could sell, is also being brought back by Lenora Hurley, manager of the Schwartz store there. It will be called Next Chapter Books in the same location. Life goes on, but it's always important to remember the past, as I'm sure President Obama will eloquently reiterate later today in his Inaugural Address.
For more, check out the story in the Miwaukee Journal-Sentinel and ShelfAwareness.
David would mumble things like “unacceptable” as he looked over the printouts, sighing over the poor sales, and getting him to order from certain publishers was like pulling teeth. On the other hand he was a raging lefty, and publishers that had books that were left-of-center he would buy in bulk and load them up in his stores. Sometimes I could not write fast enough ...
He was supportive in other ways. I went to his house on more than one occasion to do holiday title presentations to the bookstore staff. I got up there and gave my spiel, and I remember David once telling me that my talk was laced with equal parts humor and terror. It made me think, and I respected him as an elder statesman in the business, one that we inherited from his father, Harry W. Schwartz.
Over time Schwartz stopped buying books direct from publishers and instead went to Ingram Book Company, a major distributor in Tennessee . They would buy some books direct from publishers, and when they moved into their Third Ward downtown offices it was always a pleasure to meet with them. David sadly passed on, but his wife and daughter took over the business, and they had incredibly loyal employees like Daniel Goldin, senior buyer, Elly Gore, children’s buyer, Nancy Quinn, coop manager, Jason Kennedy, small press buyer, and Jack Covert of 800-CEO-READ. These are all fine people, consummate professionals who know their business inside out.
It’s sad when a bookstore chain dissolves, and this one was extra special. The good news in all of this is that Daniel Goldin is planning to open a store, called Boswell's, in their flagship location on Downer Avenue, doors down from the original Schwartz location that opened in 1925 or 1926. Their Mequon location, a suburban store that always surprized me with the kind of books they could sell, is also being brought back by Lenora Hurley, manager of the Schwartz store there. It will be called Next Chapter Books in the same location. Life goes on, but it's always important to remember the past, as I'm sure President Obama will eloquently reiterate later today in his Inaugural Address.
For more, check out the story in the Miwaukee Journal-Sentinel and ShelfAwareness.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Filmmaker Tom Palazzolo records Maxwell Street Market history in his new book
Memoir of Place
from Wednesday Journal - Oak Park, IL - 1/13/2009
CHRISTINE VERNON Contributing Writer
Tom Palazzolo's new book, At Maxwell Street, is described by his wife, Marcia, a contributor to the book, as a "memoir of place." Over the years, Tom has filmed what has become, with the passage of time, historic, archival footage of the city of Chicago, going back to his days as a student at the School of the Art Institute more than 40 years ago.
Growing up in St. Louis, he watched as many landmarks were torn down but when he arrived in Chicago in 1960, he was happy to see that many landmarks still remained here. The 50 or so films he has made include footage of Riverview, Clark Street, and the '68 Democratic Convention but Palazzolo always had a particular love of and appreciation for Maxwell Street, or The Maxwell Street Market, as it was properly called. The book serves as a record of the phenomenon that was Maxwell Street. Along with oral histories in the book, there is a DVD made with students from the School of the Art Institute in 1982. The book includes still shots of the people, places and things, showing the market in three layers: storefronts, tables on the street, and small huts.
Maxwell Street, as seen through the lens of Tom Palazzolo and friends, is a collection of merchants, shoppers, street performers, products, found and outsider art on a massive scale, jazz and blues being performed by original artists, food being cooked and prepared by street vendors (including Polish sausage sandwich, of which Palazzolo seems particularly fond), and the dynamics of the market-goods being sold by vendors and hawkers and "pullers" who drew people into the stores.
The documentary accompanying the book opens with Casey Jones, Chicken Man (aka Chicken Charlie), a one man band who was seen around Chicago, often at Maxwell Street, with his accordion and trained chicken. Populated with characters from all aspects of society, there are no bad actors on this set; everyone contributes to the festivities, which Palazzolo calls "more fun and more real than modern malls, sometimes dangerous, and often funny." Accompanied by students, he found the people he filmed more open and interested in talking to him.
Asked if Maxwell Street should have been saved, he responds, "Absolutely. It is an antidote to the slickness the city is becoming." The book is a manifesto of his love of the sociology, culture and aesthetics of Maxwell Street. "Chicago soul," he calls it and "a distinctly American phenomenon." The book and accompanying DVD, brings a heightened awareness of what Maxwell Street was really about and what has been lost in the sanitizing and extinction of a unique street market.
Many Chicagoans have personal memories of Maxwell Street. William Cowhey, former real estate professional with Arthur Rubloff & Co. and former head of the Civic Federation of Chicago, recalled that Maxwell Street was always the place to go on Sundays when the other stores were closed, and he remembers how much fun it was to go there as a teen. The heydey of Maxwell Street he said was in the 1930s and late '40s. Kathy Coleman English has memories of her great grandfather Katzen, a rabbi, who came to Maxwell Street from Georgia in Russia. Jose Alvarez, owner of Renaissance Furniture Restoration, in business 40 years, says that you will find "real" Mexican food there but shares Palazzolo's passion for the "Polish and black" sandwich, which he says you can smell from a mile away and is best with grilled onions and mustard.
Palazzolo began documenting Maxwell Street for a class at the School of the Art Institute taught by Ken Josephson. He would complete an assignment at the last minute by rushing to Maxwell Street on a Sunday and getting his prints ready for Monday class. "Socially conscious work" he says he favored back then. As he visited Maxwell Street with his girlfriend, Marcia Daehn, a photography student at IIT, he would pick up the tab for her "Polish," a sure sign for the woman who became his wife, collaborator, and mother of his three children.
Market history
Often referred to as the largest open air market in the U.S., Maxwell Street was named after Dr. Philip Maxwell, an early settler and it first appeared on a map in 1847. From 1880 to 1920, the area was a magnet for poor Eastern European Jews and even as late as 1982 when Palazzolo made his documentary, one black clerk in a store referred to the area as "Jew Town." His Jewish boss noted there were only 10 Jewish merchants left at that point. But as one historian wrote, "the only color that mattered was green."
Maxwell Street Market became the official name in 1912. It was a gateway both for foreign immigrants and domestic immigrants who relocated from the South, providing them with an outlet for their entrepreneurial skills, a livelihood, a social network and a sense of community, not to mention goods and services needed for everyday living. It ran from the late 1800s until 1994 when the University of Illinois at Chicago expanded and developers positioned themselves for the coming real estate feeding frenzy. The area was labeled "blighted," buildings were condemned, services and improvements were withheld and the decline to justify redevelopment was assured.
Although preservation authorities cited numerous buildings of significance, many were taken by eminent domain and lost to by the 1970s and '80s "erasing yet another chunk of the city's soul," as Palazzolo says. The area shrank with the construction of the Dan Ryan in 1957. At one time, the center was Maxwell Street and Halsted but the market eventually shriveled to five blocks, from Morgan to Halsted, then one block from Halsted east to Union. By the time preservationists mounted an effort to save this unique treasure, it was too late. They judged it "an irretrievable loss of historic integrity." A rich repository of information about the battle to save Maxwell Street can be found online.
After a stint on Canal Street, the market moved to DesPlaines Street between Harrison and Roosevelt (2008) and it is there you will find it today with space for more than 500 vendors every Sunday of the year, weather permitting. Roosevelt University Professor Steve Balkin, who maintains a website on open air markets, wants the public to know that the New Maxwell Street needs consideration and encouragement from the City of Chicago in order to thrive. He calls the area now "a sliver of a sliver, at great risk because of mismanagement by the city." In order to thrive, he suggests the city lower vendor fees (there was a recent substantial fee hike); allow vendors to park near their sites (rather than at remote parking areas); provide more parking; provide easy access for blues and other entertainers to perform there; and, eliminate "the harshness, capriciousness and corruption of market regulations enforcers."
Camera-ready couple
Tom and Marcia Palazzolo first met in the Art Institute of Chicago where Marcia was a waitress in the Garden Restaurant and Tom was a guard outside. They didn't even speak the first year except through a glass window.
As a couple, the Palazzolos' involvement on the Chicago and Oak Park art scene is extensive. Marcia was president of the Oak Park Art League for six years and before that a board member. Tom was frequently enlisted in the mechanics of maintaining the building. Now Tom serves on the OPAL board. Marcia has been involved in the Historical Society of OP-RF for over 30 years.
Oak Park historian Gary Schwab says the new book helps him to recall his own roots-a grandfather who took him to Maxwell Street almost every Sunday morning. "Our house and my father's camera shop were filled with stuff from Maxwell Street, much of which I still have," Schwab said. "My father was born in the neighborhood of Maxwell Street in 1910, and his family lived there until moving to the North Side. Maxwell Street was a great place to learn about Chicago outside of one's usual insular neighborhood experience."
Both Palazzolo resumes include years of teaching. Tom spent 36 years at Daley College where he taught photography, art and art history. He also taught film at the School of the Art Institute.
Marcia's jobs were closer to home. She spent 17 years teaching at Dominican University, two years at Concordia University and 21 years on the faculty of Elmhurst College where she has taught photography, bookbinding, water color, and printmaking.
With this labor of love concluded, Tom Palazzolo is interested in painting and completing forgotten projects from the past, mining old work that is still meaningful to him. In filmmaking, he admits he doesn't find learning all the new technology very interesting. At the same time, he notes the quality of modern filmmaking is improving. He appreciates the recent explosion of social documentaries, a genre he prefers over "artsy" works. When he was making his films, there were only about 10 other people doing the same kind of work in Chicago. He still finds people and places energizing but doesn't expect to be "in the thick of things," filming events on the street, as he did at the Democratic Convention of 1968.
When he shot Maxwell Street with his students, he had an inkling it might be a historic opportunity. There were rumors that Daley wanted to eliminate the market and make the city a showcase. He said it was the perfect venue to teach sound and lighting. He loved the "ruggedness" of it and the fact that it was the antithesis of Hollywood. "No one paid attention to the people at the lower end of society. People loved it when the students paid attention to them; they opened up, were sweet."
from Wednesday Journal - Oak Park, IL - 1/13/2009
CHRISTINE VERNON Contributing Writer
Tom Palazzolo's new book, At Maxwell Street, is described by his wife, Marcia, a contributor to the book, as a "memoir of place." Over the years, Tom has filmed what has become, with the passage of time, historic, archival footage of the city of Chicago, going back to his days as a student at the School of the Art Institute more than 40 years ago.
Growing up in St. Louis, he watched as many landmarks were torn down but when he arrived in Chicago in 1960, he was happy to see that many landmarks still remained here. The 50 or so films he has made include footage of Riverview, Clark Street, and the '68 Democratic Convention but Palazzolo always had a particular love of and appreciation for Maxwell Street, or The Maxwell Street Market, as it was properly called. The book serves as a record of the phenomenon that was Maxwell Street. Along with oral histories in the book, there is a DVD made with students from the School of the Art Institute in 1982. The book includes still shots of the people, places and things, showing the market in three layers: storefronts, tables on the street, and small huts.
Maxwell Street, as seen through the lens of Tom Palazzolo and friends, is a collection of merchants, shoppers, street performers, products, found and outsider art on a massive scale, jazz and blues being performed by original artists, food being cooked and prepared by street vendors (including Polish sausage sandwich, of which Palazzolo seems particularly fond), and the dynamics of the market-goods being sold by vendors and hawkers and "pullers" who drew people into the stores.
The documentary accompanying the book opens with Casey Jones, Chicken Man (aka Chicken Charlie), a one man band who was seen around Chicago, often at Maxwell Street, with his accordion and trained chicken. Populated with characters from all aspects of society, there are no bad actors on this set; everyone contributes to the festivities, which Palazzolo calls "more fun and more real than modern malls, sometimes dangerous, and often funny." Accompanied by students, he found the people he filmed more open and interested in talking to him.
Asked if Maxwell Street should have been saved, he responds, "Absolutely. It is an antidote to the slickness the city is becoming." The book is a manifesto of his love of the sociology, culture and aesthetics of Maxwell Street. "Chicago soul," he calls it and "a distinctly American phenomenon." The book and accompanying DVD, brings a heightened awareness of what Maxwell Street was really about and what has been lost in the sanitizing and extinction of a unique street market.
Many Chicagoans have personal memories of Maxwell Street. William Cowhey, former real estate professional with Arthur Rubloff & Co. and former head of the Civic Federation of Chicago, recalled that Maxwell Street was always the place to go on Sundays when the other stores were closed, and he remembers how much fun it was to go there as a teen. The heydey of Maxwell Street he said was in the 1930s and late '40s. Kathy Coleman English has memories of her great grandfather Katzen, a rabbi, who came to Maxwell Street from Georgia in Russia. Jose Alvarez, owner of Renaissance Furniture Restoration, in business 40 years, says that you will find "real" Mexican food there but shares Palazzolo's passion for the "Polish and black" sandwich, which he says you can smell from a mile away and is best with grilled onions and mustard.
Palazzolo began documenting Maxwell Street for a class at the School of the Art Institute taught by Ken Josephson. He would complete an assignment at the last minute by rushing to Maxwell Street on a Sunday and getting his prints ready for Monday class. "Socially conscious work" he says he favored back then. As he visited Maxwell Street with his girlfriend, Marcia Daehn, a photography student at IIT, he would pick up the tab for her "Polish," a sure sign for the woman who became his wife, collaborator, and mother of his three children.
Market history
Often referred to as the largest open air market in the U.S., Maxwell Street was named after Dr. Philip Maxwell, an early settler and it first appeared on a map in 1847. From 1880 to 1920, the area was a magnet for poor Eastern European Jews and even as late as 1982 when Palazzolo made his documentary, one black clerk in a store referred to the area as "Jew Town." His Jewish boss noted there were only 10 Jewish merchants left at that point. But as one historian wrote, "the only color that mattered was green."
Maxwell Street Market became the official name in 1912. It was a gateway both for foreign immigrants and domestic immigrants who relocated from the South, providing them with an outlet for their entrepreneurial skills, a livelihood, a social network and a sense of community, not to mention goods and services needed for everyday living. It ran from the late 1800s until 1994 when the University of Illinois at Chicago expanded and developers positioned themselves for the coming real estate feeding frenzy. The area was labeled "blighted," buildings were condemned, services and improvements were withheld and the decline to justify redevelopment was assured.
Although preservation authorities cited numerous buildings of significance, many were taken by eminent domain and lost to by the 1970s and '80s "erasing yet another chunk of the city's soul," as Palazzolo says. The area shrank with the construction of the Dan Ryan in 1957. At one time, the center was Maxwell Street and Halsted but the market eventually shriveled to five blocks, from Morgan to Halsted, then one block from Halsted east to Union. By the time preservationists mounted an effort to save this unique treasure, it was too late. They judged it "an irretrievable loss of historic integrity." A rich repository of information about the battle to save Maxwell Street can be found online.
After a stint on Canal Street, the market moved to DesPlaines Street between Harrison and Roosevelt (2008) and it is there you will find it today with space for more than 500 vendors every Sunday of the year, weather permitting. Roosevelt University Professor Steve Balkin, who maintains a website on open air markets, wants the public to know that the New Maxwell Street needs consideration and encouragement from the City of Chicago in order to thrive. He calls the area now "a sliver of a sliver, at great risk because of mismanagement by the city." In order to thrive, he suggests the city lower vendor fees (there was a recent substantial fee hike); allow vendors to park near their sites (rather than at remote parking areas); provide more parking; provide easy access for blues and other entertainers to perform there; and, eliminate "the harshness, capriciousness and corruption of market regulations enforcers."
Camera-ready couple
Tom and Marcia Palazzolo first met in the Art Institute of Chicago where Marcia was a waitress in the Garden Restaurant and Tom was a guard outside. They didn't even speak the first year except through a glass window.
As a couple, the Palazzolos' involvement on the Chicago and Oak Park art scene is extensive. Marcia was president of the Oak Park Art League for six years and before that a board member. Tom was frequently enlisted in the mechanics of maintaining the building. Now Tom serves on the OPAL board. Marcia has been involved in the Historical Society of OP-RF for over 30 years.
Oak Park historian Gary Schwab says the new book helps him to recall his own roots-a grandfather who took him to Maxwell Street almost every Sunday morning. "Our house and my father's camera shop were filled with stuff from Maxwell Street, much of which I still have," Schwab said. "My father was born in the neighborhood of Maxwell Street in 1910, and his family lived there until moving to the North Side. Maxwell Street was a great place to learn about Chicago outside of one's usual insular neighborhood experience."
Both Palazzolo resumes include years of teaching. Tom spent 36 years at Daley College where he taught photography, art and art history. He also taught film at the School of the Art Institute.
Marcia's jobs were closer to home. She spent 17 years teaching at Dominican University, two years at Concordia University and 21 years on the faculty of Elmhurst College where she has taught photography, bookbinding, water color, and printmaking.
With this labor of love concluded, Tom Palazzolo is interested in painting and completing forgotten projects from the past, mining old work that is still meaningful to him. In filmmaking, he admits he doesn't find learning all the new technology very interesting. At the same time, he notes the quality of modern filmmaking is improving. He appreciates the recent explosion of social documentaries, a genre he prefers over "artsy" works. When he was making his films, there were only about 10 other people doing the same kind of work in Chicago. He still finds people and places energizing but doesn't expect to be "in the thick of things," filming events on the street, as he did at the Democratic Convention of 1968.
When he shot Maxwell Street with his students, he had an inkling it might be a historic opportunity. There were rumors that Daley wanted to eliminate the market and make the city a showcase. He said it was the perfect venue to teach sound and lighting. He loved the "ruggedness" of it and the fact that it was the antithesis of Hollywood. "No one paid attention to the people at the lower end of society. People loved it when the students paid attention to them; they opened up, were sweet."
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Honolulu Star-Bulletin's Amazing Feature Story on all things Charlie Chan
The return of Charlie Chan
By Burl Burlingame
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 11, 2009
Authors know that sometimes novels take on a life of their own during the writing. Sometimes a secondary character is so full of verve and life that they wind up taking center stage, and the writer doesn't know where it comes from, because it's magical and unbidden, but there the character is, and the spotlight shifts to where the action is.
So it was with mystery novelist Earl Derr Biggers, who paid a lot of attention to Honolulu during a sojourn here and knocked out a murder mystery, "House Without a Key," that is chockablock with keen observations about Hawaii in the early '20s.
And there's a minor character, Honolulu Police detective Charlie Chan, who grows to dominate the book, which became a best-seller. Biggers immediately knocked out a sequel, "The Chinese Parrot," which made Chan a central character, and this was such a hit that it became a film.
Biggers, knowing now that Charlie Chan was buttering his bread, wrote four more novels featuring the rotund policeman who lived on Punchbowl's slopes and spoke in aphorisms. Biggers died in the early '30s, about when Charlie Chan films became a cottage industry, even spawning also-ran competition like Mr. Moto. Although Detective Chan himself was generally played by Caucasians, his extended family gave work to a whole generation of struggling Asian actors.
The original Biggers' novels are coming back into print, courtesy publishers Academy Chicago and copyright owners 4Kids Entertainment, who also represent, among other things, the Royal Air Force. The first two, "The House Without a Key" and "The Chinese Parrot," are out now. "Behind That Curtain" and "The Black Camel" will be published in May, and "Charlie Chan Carries On" and "Keeper of the Keys" will be released in the fall.
"The Chan novels by Biggers have lasting appeal because they are such compelling reading. Biggers was a great writer," said Eric Miller, vice president of Academy Chicago. "Whether he was writing about Punchbowl Hill in Honolulu or about San Francisco where he once lived, Biggers was the consummate stylist. His books have stood the test of time very well. In fact, in some ways they were ahead of their time."
Hawaii pop-culture guru DeSoto Brown said Charlie, as an Asian character, was groundbreaking in American culture at a time -- the 1920s into the '40s. Asian immigration was restricted, and Asian characters in fiction were usually sinister and mysterious. "Charlie Chan, conversely, was not only the good guy, but was in fact actually better at crime-solving than the haole characters. In the movies, he is always treated with respect for his intelligence and talents."
This is certainly the year for the return of Charlie Chan. Biggers will be "Ghost of Honor" at the "Left Coast Crime" annual mystery fans convention, to be held in Hawaii this year, March 7 to 12 at the Marriott Waikoloa Resort.
Here's another point of relativity, courtesy Brown: "Both Charlie Chan and Barack Obama have a similar sort of background -- both originated in 'exotic' Hawaii, but they also went on to greater fame in the larger outside world. Their actions and abilities are rooted in their innate abilities, and, they move beyond what others of their respective races had previously been able to accomplish."
Case closed.
Original novels put Chan back in perspective
The books that launched Charlie Chan are pretty much forgotten today, hidden behind the many movies and comics and TV appearances by the Chinese detective, whose presence even today raised raises a suspicion of subliminal racism. Academy Chicago's relaunch of the original series puts Chan back into his proper perspective, that of a literary sleuth acting within a well-plotted page-turner.
"The House Without a Key"
and "The Chinese Parrot"
By Earl Derr Biggers
(Academy Chicago)
$14.95 each
Reading these books is a definite pleasure. Author Biggers is a smooth strategist, clever plotter and keen observer, and the novels give the same escapist tingle as the best of Agatha Christie. No less than Rex Stout -- creator of the Nero Wolfe series -- declared that Charlie Chan was one of the best fictional detectives ever, right up there with Sherlock Holmes.
"The House Without a Key" focuses on the travails of young John Quincy Winterslip, a stuffy Boston-Brahmin investments broker who is paying a visit to the family black sheep, a rich swindler who lives in a mansion on Waikiki Beach -- found dead the day John Quincy arrives.
Honolulu at the time is described most vividly by Biggers, who has a discerning eye for the polyglot social structure of the islands, including a detective of Asian origin in a position of authority and respect. This was written at the height of "yellow peril" hysteria, mind you.
In "The Chinese Parrot," Chan is taken out of familiar tropical surroundings and plopped into the California desert, and still manages to outwit incompetent local police.
In both books the central character is a young, feckless chap who manages to grow up over the course of the investigation, as well as fall under the sway of a charming young lady. But Chan is the polarizing figure, the catalyst and clearly the smartest guy in the room.
Is Chan a racist stereotype? Maybe. But he'll track down whoever killed you and solve the case.
By Burl Burlingame
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 11, 2009
Authors know that sometimes novels take on a life of their own during the writing. Sometimes a secondary character is so full of verve and life that they wind up taking center stage, and the writer doesn't know where it comes from, because it's magical and unbidden, but there the character is, and the spotlight shifts to where the action is.
So it was with mystery novelist Earl Derr Biggers, who paid a lot of attention to Honolulu during a sojourn here and knocked out a murder mystery, "House Without a Key," that is chockablock with keen observations about Hawaii in the early '20s.
And there's a minor character, Honolulu Police detective Charlie Chan, who grows to dominate the book, which became a best-seller. Biggers immediately knocked out a sequel, "The Chinese Parrot," which made Chan a central character, and this was such a hit that it became a film.
Biggers, knowing now that Charlie Chan was buttering his bread, wrote four more novels featuring the rotund policeman who lived on Punchbowl's slopes and spoke in aphorisms. Biggers died in the early '30s, about when Charlie Chan films became a cottage industry, even spawning also-ran competition like Mr. Moto. Although Detective Chan himself was generally played by Caucasians, his extended family gave work to a whole generation of struggling Asian actors.
The original Biggers' novels are coming back into print, courtesy publishers Academy Chicago and copyright owners 4Kids Entertainment, who also represent, among other things, the Royal Air Force. The first two, "The House Without a Key" and "The Chinese Parrot," are out now. "Behind That Curtain" and "The Black Camel" will be published in May, and "Charlie Chan Carries On" and "Keeper of the Keys" will be released in the fall.
"The Chan novels by Biggers have lasting appeal because they are such compelling reading. Biggers was a great writer," said Eric Miller, vice president of Academy Chicago. "Whether he was writing about Punchbowl Hill in Honolulu or about San Francisco where he once lived, Biggers was the consummate stylist. His books have stood the test of time very well. In fact, in some ways they were ahead of their time."
Hawaii pop-culture guru DeSoto Brown said Charlie, as an Asian character, was groundbreaking in American culture at a time -- the 1920s into the '40s. Asian immigration was restricted, and Asian characters in fiction were usually sinister and mysterious. "Charlie Chan, conversely, was not only the good guy, but was in fact actually better at crime-solving than the haole characters. In the movies, he is always treated with respect for his intelligence and talents."
This is certainly the year for the return of Charlie Chan. Biggers will be "Ghost of Honor" at the "Left Coast Crime" annual mystery fans convention, to be held in Hawaii this year, March 7 to 12 at the Marriott Waikoloa Resort.
Here's another point of relativity, courtesy Brown: "Both Charlie Chan and Barack Obama have a similar sort of background -- both originated in 'exotic' Hawaii, but they also went on to greater fame in the larger outside world. Their actions and abilities are rooted in their innate abilities, and, they move beyond what others of their respective races had previously been able to accomplish."
Case closed.
Original novels put Chan back in perspective
The books that launched Charlie Chan are pretty much forgotten today, hidden behind the many movies and comics and TV appearances by the Chinese detective, whose presence even today raised raises a suspicion of subliminal racism. Academy Chicago's relaunch of the original series puts Chan back into his proper perspective, that of a literary sleuth acting within a well-plotted page-turner.
"The House Without a Key"
and "The Chinese Parrot"
By Earl Derr Biggers
(Academy Chicago)
$14.95 each
Reading these books is a definite pleasure. Author Biggers is a smooth strategist, clever plotter and keen observer, and the novels give the same escapist tingle as the best of Agatha Christie. No less than Rex Stout -- creator of the Nero Wolfe series -- declared that Charlie Chan was one of the best fictional detectives ever, right up there with Sherlock Holmes.
"The House Without a Key" focuses on the travails of young John Quincy Winterslip, a stuffy Boston-Brahmin investments broker who is paying a visit to the family black sheep, a rich swindler who lives in a mansion on Waikiki Beach -- found dead the day John Quincy arrives.
Honolulu at the time is described most vividly by Biggers, who has a discerning eye for the polyglot social structure of the islands, including a detective of Asian origin in a position of authority and respect. This was written at the height of "yellow peril" hysteria, mind you.
In "The Chinese Parrot," Chan is taken out of familiar tropical surroundings and plopped into the California desert, and still manages to outwit incompetent local police.
In both books the central character is a young, feckless chap who manages to grow up over the course of the investigation, as well as fall under the sway of a charming young lady. But Chan is the polarizing figure, the catalyst and clearly the smartest guy in the room.
Is Chan a racist stereotype? Maybe. But he'll track down whoever killed you and solve the case.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
New York Times Book Review chimes in about Charlie Chan
"When did publishers get so smart about reissuing out-of-print mysteries? For the longest time, paperback reprints were just last year’s best sellers, but not anymore. Pioneers of 1950s American noir like Ross Macdonald are shown true respect when Vintage Crime’s Black Lizard imprint reissues their books in sturdy editions with properly sleazy covers. The classic English mystery of the 1930s and ’40s also lives on so long as Rue Morgue keeps the faith by reprinting master craftsmen like Nicholas Blake and Michael Gilbert. But it takes a special kind of wit to resurrect Charlie Chan, as Academy Chicago has done with THE CHINESE PARROT and THE HOUSE WITHOUT A KEY (paper, $14.95 each), ingenious puzzle mysteries written by Earl Derr Biggers in the 1920s. Another brainstorm, on the part of Felony & Mayhem, has brought THE PEKING MAN IS MISSING (paper, $14.95) back into print. This speculative novel was written by Claire Taschdjian, an amateur archaeologist who was one of the last people to handle the bones of Peking Man before they were lost — or stolen — during World War II. Last year’s best seller? Don’t make me laugh."
-- Marilyn Stasio - from CRIME - Revenge Theory
-- Marilyn Stasio - from CRIME - Revenge Theory
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Enter Charlie Chan, hero of the Honolulu Police
Academy Chicago will launch (bring back) Charlie Chan in the fall of 2008! The books, 6 total by Earl Derr Biggers about the legendary Chinese-Hawaiian Police Inspector, still are compelling to read. A list of the titles is below. ACP will do two each for the next three seasons in paperback at $14.95.
An interesting back story: -- considerable research went into finding the rights to the books. Biggers wrote them in the mid-1920s to early 1930s after a trip to Hawaii. They were renewed by his widow, Eleanor Biggers, in the mid 1950s, and assigned to a company called Leisure Concepts. LC were the ones that sold the rights to all the movies you still see on television, primarily with Warner Orland playing the dimunitive detective. CC became a Hollywood icon. The last movie was made in 1971. However, Twentieth Century Fox, a News Group Company, and the owners of Harper Collins are the license holders for all things CC. They renewed their last option to make a movie in 1996 (or 1997). Since the mid 1980s, LC became a mega-licensing company called 4 Kids Entertainment (type "4 Kids Entertainment" into Google or Yahoo and you will see the have a ton of cartoon-like characters). They are located on Ave. of the Americas in NYC and do a land-office business.
ACP (that is, me) called 4 Kids (once I found out they owned the rights) and said we were interested in publishing the 6 CC mysteries by Biggers. Because of the late Rep Sonny Bono (R-CA), copyrights were extended another 90 years beyond the life of the author, that's life + 90 years. 4 Kids didn't even know they owned the rights (as a trademark) to CC until I called them! They had to get the contract out of a cold storage vault! They were required to ask Twentieth Century Fox if they wanted to do the books, and they declined! So 4 Kids was free to sign a contract with ACP, and now we are doing the first two in September 08.
It gets better. Two English companies had Biggers CC books that they published in 1996 and 1997, figuring they were in the public domain. Leonaur and Echo Library are selling POD editions of the first two CC titles, primamrily on Amazon.com, Amazon has since promised to yank those titles from their site, since they violate 4 Kids as the copyright holder to the books.
Charlie Chan books by Earl Derr Biggers:
Academy Chicago has already issued the first two books in the series, The House without a Key and The Chinese Parrot. In Spring 2009 they will issue three and four in the series, Behind that Curtain and The Black Camel. In Fall 2009, Academy Chicago will complete the series by publishing numbers five and six, Charlie Chan Carries On and The Keeper of the Keys.
An interesting back story: -- considerable research went into finding the rights to the books. Biggers wrote them in the mid-1920s to early 1930s after a trip to Hawaii. They were renewed by his widow, Eleanor Biggers, in the mid 1950s, and assigned to a company called Leisure Concepts. LC were the ones that sold the rights to all the movies you still see on television, primarily with Warner Orland playing the dimunitive detective. CC became a Hollywood icon. The last movie was made in 1971. However, Twentieth Century Fox, a News Group Company, and the owners of Harper Collins are the license holders for all things CC. They renewed their last option to make a movie in 1996 (or 1997). Since the mid 1980s, LC became a mega-licensing company called 4 Kids Entertainment (type "4 Kids Entertainment" into Google or Yahoo and you will see the have a ton of cartoon-like characters). They are located on Ave. of the Americas in NYC and do a land-office business.
ACP (that is, me) called 4 Kids (once I found out they owned the rights) and said we were interested in publishing the 6 CC mysteries by Biggers. Because of the late Rep Sonny Bono (R-CA), copyrights were extended another 90 years beyond the life of the author, that's life + 90 years. 4 Kids didn't even know they owned the rights (as a trademark) to CC until I called them! They had to get the contract out of a cold storage vault! They were required to ask Twentieth Century Fox if they wanted to do the books, and they declined! So 4 Kids was free to sign a contract with ACP, and now we are doing the first two in September 08.
It gets better. Two English companies had Biggers CC books that they published in 1996 and 1997, figuring they were in the public domain. Leonaur and Echo Library are selling POD editions of the first two CC titles, primamrily on Amazon.com, Amazon has since promised to yank those titles from their site, since they violate 4 Kids as the copyright holder to the books.
Charlie Chan books by Earl Derr Biggers:
Academy Chicago has already issued the first two books in the series, The House without a Key and The Chinese Parrot. In Spring 2009 they will issue three and four in the series, Behind that Curtain and The Black Camel. In Fall 2009, Academy Chicago will complete the series by publishing numbers five and six, Charlie Chan Carries On and The Keeper of the Keys.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)