THIS CRAZY DAY IN 1972: The second coming of Bernie Neistein, a 6-foot snow bunny and The Godfather
THIS CRAZY DAY IN 1972: The second coming of Bernie Neistein, a 6-foot snow bunny and The Godfather
Weekly Compilation March 27-April 2, 1972
To access all contents, click HERE.
Why do we run this separate item peeking into newspapers from 1972? Because 1972 was part of the ancient times when everybody read a paper. Everybody, everybody, everybody. Even kids. So Steve Bertolucci, the 10-year-old hero of the novel serialized at this Substack, read the paper too—sometimes just to have something to do. These are some of the stories he read. If you’d like, keep up with the 1972 papers every day on Twitter, @RoselandChi1972.
March 27, 1972
Chicago Daily News: Schools win out on hair
UPI
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that lets states expel or punish students with hair longer than school rules allow.
It’s not a new question--the Supremes just refused to review all the other school hair cases to come their way until now.
The ACLU represented seven students. Their brief: “The issue will continue to be raised so long as school boards persist in regulating the hair length of their male students and those students insist that the Constitution affords them the right to make such decisions for themselves.”
March 27, 1972
Chicago Daily Defender: A.S. Doc Young’s GOOD MORNING, SPORTS!
Allen’s Sox Beef
Doc Young, who’s said he considers Dick Allen a friend, is clearly worried about him. “According to wire reports,” he writes, Allen met with Sox GM Stu Holcomb, turned down a $125,000 offer, and left.
“Since I wasn’t there, I do not know for sure that Rich said he was ‘going home to Momma,’ but I do know….Rich Allen is a hard man to understand.”
"On the basis of his experience in Philadelphia…he probably has every right to be cynical. But Rich hurts himself sometimes. There are times when he gets too hung up on race. If he reads this column, I hope he understands that I am making a constructive criticism.”
“Rich Allen, if he’d join in, could lead a team to a pennant. He could have led the Los Angeles Dodgers to a pennant, the manager not withstanding, if he hadn’t ‘sulked’ during the first half of 1971.”
“Baseball needs the Rich Allens. But the Rich Allens need baseball. Somewhere along the line, the twain should meet.”
March 27, 1972
Chicago Today: Middle-man costs killing food buyers
by Warren Shore and Tom Watts
Every single day right now brings more stories about soaring inflation. Most newspapers are running article series advising readers on how to beat inflation with cost-cutting tricks. Chicago Today’s entry today:
“You’re probably feeding your family better now than you did five years ago, but, as your budget and the government’s cost-of-living index clearly show, you’re paying for it. Dearly.
“It’s costing you $11.36 today to buy the same kind, quality and amount of foods that cost $10 in 1967.
…. “Why?
Bottom line: “There is no real consensus among the experts.”
But there is one point that no one seems to dispute: The farmers aren't the ones reaping a big profit. “While retail prices have soared 40 per cent, farm income has inched up only 6 percent.”
An official from the federal Office of Consumer Affairs says by the time consumers get a product, “a hell of a lot of expenses are added on….The question is—what are the markups and the transportation costs and are they justified?”
One expert blames consumers for buying convenience foods like frozen foods, rather than buying, say, a sack of fresh potatoes, cooking them all, and having potatoes left for more meals.
But: “Jane Byrne, Chicago’s commissioner of Consumer Sales, Weights and Measures, points out that some frozen foods are now under price controls, since they’re processed, while fresh produce is not. In such cases, the processed foods may be better buys.”
“What can one family do to cut food costs?
“Buy less, if possible—even a partial boycott by consumers might force prices down.
“Try cheaper cuts of meat—pot roast instead of rolled rib, fruits and vegetables in season, when prices are lower.
“Do it yourself and save by curtailing the use of more costly, if more convenient, prepackaged foods.
“Check the food ads in CHICAGO TODAY for the money-saving specials, and shop around.”
And last, a signature Chicago Today surprise ending:
“Have you considered dieting?”
March 27, 1972
Chicago Tribune: Clarence Peterson TV column
More Eyes Turned on Eyewitness News
Trib TV critic Clarence Peterson reports the latest ratings show Channel 7’s “Eyewitness News” team—Fahey Flynn, Joel Daly, John Coleman and Bill Frank—is firmly in first place “in Chicago’s hotly contested 10 p.m. news ratings race.”
Channel 7 has been “jockeying” for first with Channel 5’s Floyd Kalber for the past year, but now Channel 7 has won both the Nielsen and ARB ratings for late February-early March.
“The channel 7 news team was assembled four years ago, when it quickly displaced channel 2’s 10 o’clock newscast as channel 5’s principal rival. Ironically, channel 2’s new TV 2 News with Bob McBride is a significant factor now in channel 7’s victory,” writes Peterson.
That’s because Channel 7 hasn’t added viewers, but Channel 5 has lost viewers to Channel 2. Channel 2 officials are surprised, Peterson reports—they thought Bob would take away viewers from Channel 7’s “happy talk” format, not from serious Floyd Kalber.
Peterson calls channel 2’s ratings a ‘surprising early success” by Bob “in breaking channel 2’s pattern of decline. He not only stopped it in a matter of weeks but reversed it.” Or was it Channel 2’s crazy ad campaign?
Clarence also gives us some radio ratings snippets:
At WGN, “Wally Phillips’ 6 to 10 a.m. audience was up from a year ago by 44,000 listeners per average quarter hour for a total of 497,000; Roy Leonard’s 10 a.m. to noon audience was up 37,000 for a total of 106,000….the most impressive gain was in the 4 to 7 p.m. period where Bill Berg’s audience of 190,500 exceeded Howard Miller’s 163,000 total a year ago.”
…. “Sounds of jubilation are also being heard from WBBM-FM, where Bob Sirott’s 6:30 to 10 a.m. ratings are up 39 per cent from a month ago and 192 per cent from a year ago. With 32,700 listeners per average quarter hour, the show ranks in the top 10 among all morning radio drive-time shows, an unprecedented ranking for an FM radio program.”
March 27, 1972
Chicago Daily Defender Editorial: Postmortem
“Though muffled, the overriding issue in the Hanrahan stunning victory in last Tuesday’s primary was not the controversial State’s Attorney’s defiance of the Democratic Party organization, it was not his stand on law and order, nor was it his promise to make the streets safe for decent citizens. The silent issue which brought him an unprecedented triumph was his conduct in the Black Panther killing case and his indictment for obstructing justice.
“The vote was in effect an approval of the murder of the two Black Panther leaders. It was a psychological white backlash with an intensity seldom reflected in American politics.
“That the Democratic Party organization had a hand in the Hanrahan victory is not at all an improbable assumption….The victory was no accident, nor was it brought about solely by Republican voters who ignored their party label.
“It was a well planned conspiracy to keep in power a racist, a man who, as State’s Attorney, has demonstrated his antipathy to black people through his administration of justice. The most sinister aspect of the whole drama is the support Hanrahan is getting for his anti-racial policy and attitude. It is a kind of demonstration that will sustain and give currency to the advocacy of black separatism and strengthen the pillars of black power.”
March 28, 1972
Chicago Today: 500 protesters jam Crosstown hearing
by Michael Hirsley
“More than 500 persons joined in the strongest public outcry to date against the Crosstown Expressway, demanding that the federal Highway Administration withdraw its permission allowing the state to buy land for the 22-mile route.”
The Crosstown Expressway insanity is heating up. This is the one expressway that Mayor Daley wouldn’t get. The city has been buying land for the Crosstown without filing an environmental impact statement—which is supposed to be illegal under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.
“The crowd jammed into the meeting room at St. Genevieve Church, 4346 W. Montana St. last night and lined stairways and halls outside the room.”
“They demanded that Alvin L. Frank, regional federal highway administrator, act to void purchase of land for Phase 3, between the Stevenson Expressway and Midway Airport, by the Illinois Division of Highways.”
But Phase 3 was, as a whole, approved in 1968—the year before the environmental impact statement requirement became law.
The largest group now opposing the Crosstown, the Citizen Action Program (C.A.P.), tried to make Frank sign a statement saying he’d void the Crosstown land purchases. Frank refused, claiming the Environmental Act wasn’t retroactive. C.A.P. says they were told the act IS retroactive—by the federal department of Environment and Urban Systems.
C.A.P. co-chairman Father Leonard Dubi said the meeting’s attendance showed “the people are sick and tired of having multimillion-dollar projects rammed down their throats without any accountability from the government.”
“Two actions were agreed upon in unanimous voice votes:
“Opponents will stage a mass protest march May 21, along the proposed Crosstown route.
“They will demand that debates between Gov. Ogilvie and Dan Walker include the gubernatorial candidates’ views on Crosstown.”
And another official at the meeting claimed that building Phase 3’s 3.5 mile stretch of the Crosstown between the Stevenson Expressway and Midway Airport didn’t mean the rest of the expressway would get built.
March 28, 1972
Chicago Daily Defender: Richie ready to sign Sox pact?
No byline
“Richie Allen will be suiting up with the White Sox most any time now.
“He’s ready.
“He finally has finished his ‘personal business’ in Clearwater, Fla., which happens to be the training site of one of his old clubs, not his new one, but who’s counting?”
Sox GM Stu Holcomb “nearly went bananas Sunday in Sarasota. That is where Allen should be because that’s where the White Sox are. A hotel receptionist told Holcomb a Mr. R. Allen had telephoned from Clearwater and had left a number to call but in writing it down, the receptionist inadvertently left out one of the digits.
“Can you picture Holcomb? He tried all 10 numbers as a substitute for the missing digit, which gives you some idea how anxious he was to get Allen back, but all he wound up with was seven wrong numbers and three no answers.
“The White Sox already have offered Allen $125,000; now they may throw in part of the concessions.”
March 29, 1972
Chicago Today: ‘Mod’ Marines hit hair policy
by David Ross
“As Marine Corps battles go, this one ranks as the hairiest of them all.
“Sixty-seven reservists at the Glenview Naval Air Station have petitioned three United States senators and Rep. Roman Pucinski [D., Ill.] to get their help in changing the Marine Corps strict regulations on hair, mustaches, sideburns, and beards.”
The reservists attend meetings two days per month. “‘We’re not asking to look like hippies,’ explained Lance Corp. Mike Zizzo. ‘We just want to be able to wear our hair a little longer.’”
March 29, 1972
Chicago Daily News: Ad for “The Godfather”
March 29, 1972
Chicago Daily News: Wall opens
Daily News Wire Services
“BERLIN—Families separated for years by the Communist wall through Berlin wept and embraced Wednesday as the East Germans opened the border to West Berliners for seven days of Easter holiday visits.
“‘I have been waiting for this moment for six years,’ said an East Berlin factory worker who greeted his West Berlin sister in a restaurant near the Friedrichstrasse Station. ‘The wall keeps us in, but at least this year I can see my only sister again and her little boy.’"
“West Berliners passed through nine crossing points in the wall built by the East Germans in August, 1961. They carried flowers, coffee, nylon shirts, panty hose and other items rare or expensive in the East.
“Mothers kissed sons and daughters they had not seen for years and grandchildren they had never seen. Men wept openly.”
Don’t miss the latest chapter! In which Steve’s Nonna, a Gately’s doughnut and a Roseland All-Stars Little League hat combine to teach young Steve the heartbreaking truth—that you can’t have everything.
March 29, 1972
Chicago Daily News: Official ear saves bunny
by Henry Hanson
The gigantic headline on the front page today is “Snow jams city traffic” with the smaller hed: “Hundreds of auto accidents.” A spring snowstorm overnight “dumped more than six inches of snow” and “was accompanied by thunder and lightning.”
The result: “Morning rush-hour traffic was virtually halted. There were hundreds of accidents….The city’s three airports were shut down all morning.”
And downtown, at Civic Center Plaza, which we now know as Daley Plaza, Henry Hanson writes that “Two playful Loop lawyers erected a 6-foot snow bunny in front of the Picasso sculpture”.
“‘It started out as a snowman,’ said Robert K. Downs, who sculpted the bunny with Howard M. Rubin. ‘But with the Easter spirit around, it turned into a bunny—a nice bunny with ears and a tail. A very well done bunny, in fact.
“‘Then these two city workers with shovels said they were ordered to tear it down. At first we wanted to change ourselves to the bunny in a Save-The-Bunny movement. Then we decided to fight back.’”
Rubin guarded the 6-foot bunny while Rubin went up to the 7th floor office of Civic Center manager Elmer Hallberg.
“‘Your bunny doesn’t have a permit,’ snapped Hallberg.
“‘The snowstorm doesn’t have a permit either,’ retorted Downs.”
Downs went over Hallberg’s head. As he pled his case to Robert Christensen, executive director of the Chicago Public Buildings Commission, another Civic Center employee downstairs ordered workmen to “tear that thing down.”
Still in the plaza, Rubin defended the Bunny, declaring that an emergency appeal was under way.
Luckily, Christensen ordered a stay of execution.
“Manager Hallberg scowled down from his office, ‘We’ll let nature dissolve the question. Bunnies multiply, you know.’”
Downs and Rubin had law offices at 33 N. Dearborn, overlooking the bunny.
“They said they were thinking of adding baby bunnies around the big bunny,” Hanson finishes.
See the November 26, 1971 item “Bulldogger at stock show rodeo” for a look at reporter Henry Hanson. I love imagining how Henry Hanson came across this story. Did someone phone it in to the Daily News office, maybe one of the young whimsical lawyers? Was Hanson on his way to another story when he happened across a 6-foot bunny near the Picasso? I just wonder.
Look for an update next week on Robert K. Downs and Howard M. Rubin. I had a feeling that two young lawyers who would take the time to make a 6-foot snow bunny would be worth checking up on, 50 years later. And I was right.
March 28, 1972
Chicago Tribune
“‘The Godfather’ has broken the one week box-office record of ‘Love Story’ in only six days.
“The Mafia epic, which is running 19 hours a day at the Chicago Theater, will gross approximately $215,000 [$1,451,250 in 2022 dollars] in its first seven days, shattering the old mark of $174,500 set by ‘Love Story’ in the same theater during Christmas week, 1970.
“A top admission price of $4 [$27 in 2022 dollars] and a special 12:30 a.m show helped put ‘The Godfather’ on top.”
It’s business, Love Story. It’s not personal.
March 29, 1972
Chicago Today: Adlai bill blasts FHA
by Patricia Anstett
“Sen. Steven planned to introduce new legislation today to reimburse homeowners who have bought used homes with structural defects” purchased through FHA’s standard low down payment program—about 70% of homes bought with FHA mortgages.
So far, only buyers using a different federal housing program called the “interest subsidy plan” got reimbursed for bad houses.
Stevenson says the law is needed to protect homebuyers from “unscrupulous real estate brokers” and “inadequate FHA inspections.”
As Anstett notes, “criticism has arisen against FHA inspections which some have characterized as ‘totally inadequate.’….On a recent tour of FHA homes on Chicago’s West Side, Stevenson said he found defects that even ‘the most cursory inspection’ would have found.’”
March 29, 1972
Chicago Daily News: Today’s chuckle
The Daily News uses an absolutely awful, often sexist, joke as filler on its front page most days. Today’s entry:
March 29, 1972
Chicago Daily Defender: Hit recording of slayings by cops
by Tony Griggs
Remember Chicago attorney Marshall Patner, who represented the IVI and BGA in challenging Judge Raymond Berg’s petitions to get on the primary ballot to run for the Democratic nomination for State’s Attorney? Mike Royko broke the story that Machine flunkies allegedly engaged in an orgy of forging voter signatures on those petitions, since they had five hours to get 6,000 signatures. That lawsuit never went anywhere.
But Patner’s back—this time as chairman of the Chicago Law Enforcement Study Group. Patner and the group issued a report that found “59 of 79 civilians killed by police during a 1969-70 period were black,” writes Griggs.
At a press conference at the Sheraton-Chicago Hotel, the group “called for the establishment of an independent agency to keep records of civilian deaths by Chicago policemen.”
“‘A black person living in Chicago was over six times as likely to be killed by police as was a white person,’ (Patner) said. ‘When a higher arrest rate for blacks is taken into account the black death rate was still twice as high as the white death rate.’”
“Minutes later, Supt. of Police James B. Conlisk Jr. released a statement in which he denounced the report’s 104-page study, as an ‘odious comparison between the Chicago Police Department and the departments of other cities.”
March 30, 1972
Chicago Daily News editorial: Challenge to the police
“The report that Chicago police kill proportionately more civilians than do police in other major cities points to the need for a thorough and impartial inquiry. Only a careful sifting of the facts can determine whether the local force is more ‘trigger happy’ than the others, as one of the sponsors of the report charged, or whether the fatal shootings were for the most part justified.
“The report, prepared by the Chicago Law Enforcement Study Group and Northwestern University’s Center for Urban Affairs, contends that police may have been criminally. liable in at least 10 of the 79 deaths examined…”
“By and large Chicago police have some impressive evidence on their side. The steadily declining crime rate here contrasts sharply with the picture in most other big cities, and is a tribute to the efficiency of the department as a whole. Moreover, a larger proportion of Chicago police have been killed in the line of duty than is the case in other cities. During the nine-month period between July, 1970 and March, 1971, that the study covers, seven Chicago police were slain—a larger percentage than in New York Los Angeles, Philadelphia or Detroit….But the loss of police lives—tragic though it is—can obviously be no defense for unjustified killings of civilians.”
“Conlisk should cooperate in the creation of a special inquiry board of reputable and impartial citizens to look into the charges made by the study group.”
March 30, 1972
Chicago Today: Dem cash on ‘write-in’ Neistein
By Ray McCarthy
“Has Foxy Bernie Neistein done it again?
“The smart money is betting that the former state senator, now under indictment in the Illinois race track scandals, today is to be proclaimed Democratic ward committeeman of the 29th Ward.
“The proclamation of Neistein, who for years insisted he lived in the all-black ward…tho his home is on the Gold Coast, is reportedly to be made by Judge Harry G. Comerford, the presiding judge of the Cook County Circuit Court.”
“No one ran for Democratic ward committeeman. Neistein had been told by his party chiefs not to run….But the cigar-chomping, violin-playing Bernie was not to be outdone. He garnered 1,200 write-in votes…although he will staunchly deny that he had anything to do with waging a campaign. Yet after the March 21 primary funny little cards were found which strongly urged voters to write in Neistein’s name.”
Note: The cards were found before the primary. Independent Democratic candidate for state’s attorney Donald Page Moore held a press conference on March 20 blowing the whistle on Neistein’s ploy:
Democratic precinct captains in the ward each received hundreds of little cards that read, “To the Judges of Election, I am a Democratic voter and am unfamiliar with the operation of the Voting Machine and would like help from the Judges to Vote the following numbers: 3A-5A-8A-15A-17A-17B-29A-31A and Write in Neistein.”
Donald Page Moore charged that the Neistein cards were illegal campaign literature, because they didn’t show the name and address of the sponsoring organization.
Recall that Bernie Neistein has lived for years at 1040 N. Lake Shore Drive instead of his poverty-stricken West Side ward. The Daily News notes today that his condo is worth over $100,000 (that’s over $675,000 in 2022 money), and he claims to live at 4123 W. Harrison “where he hasn’t been seen in some time.”
Neistein is currently under indictment for violating state ethics laws for not declaring ownership of stock in one of the race tracks involved in the Paul Powell race track stock scandal. The stock was in Neistein’s wife’s name.
Back when the Daily News first broke this story, it reported that Neistein claimed the stock was worth maybe $4,800--just under the $5,000 required for disclosure. The Daily News said the stock was worth more like $20,000. In 2022 money, that’s $135,000.
If convicted, Neistein would be forced to resign his state senate seat, but providently, he did not run for re-election.
The Sun-Times reported last week that after years of Neistein living on the Gold Coast rather than in his ward, Mayor Daley finally found him too toxic to endorse for re-election to his senate seat or the ward committeeman seat, presumably due to the indictment.
And yet, miraculously, Mayor Daley didn’t slate somebody else for 29th ward committeeman. And nobody else decided to run in time to get on the ballot, either.
What’s this race track stuff again, you say? Former Illinois Governor (and current federal judge) Otto Kerner and four co-defendants are about to go on trial over that shady race track stock. The charge, basically, is that they schemed together to promote the creation of two new racing entities, Washington Park Trotters and Chicago Harness Racing, in exchange for getting some of the newly issued stock at rock bottom prices for themselves and other favored politicians.
March 30, 1972
Chicago Daily News: I can’t give Hanrahan my backing: Adlai
by Robert Gruenberg
“WASHINGTON—Sen. Adlai E. Stevenson (D-Ill.) won’t support State’s Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan in his bid for re-election.
“Although Mayor Richard J. Daley has held out the olive branch to the controversial prosecutor, the senator told The Daily News he ‘could not…support for any office a man under indictment.’”
Regular readers must know this by heart, since my fingers type it automatically: Hanrahan is under indictment with 13 others for alleged conspiracy to obstruct the investigation of his office’s pre-dawn police raid in 1969 on a Black Panther apartment that killed Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.
…. “Stevenson’s position is his first open break with Daley since they made a fragile peace in 1970 when the mayor endorsed Stevenson in his successful bid to unseat Republican Sen. Ralph Tyler Smith.”
Hanrahan’s comment: “When did he ever stand up in behalf of law enforcement?”
March 30, 1972
Chicago Today: ‘Housing order’ suit attacked
Five Black alderman allied with Mayor Daley filed suit asking U.S. District Court Judge Richard B. Austin to change his current order forcing the CHA to locate the next 700 public housing units in white neighborhoods, and 3/4 of public housing after that.
Since Austin and Mayor Daley’s CHA began wrangling over public housing locations, no new housing has been built—for two years.
Ald. Claude Holman (4th), the council’s president pro team, leads the group looking to overturn Austin’s order. They claim Black citizens are denied housing because of the delay, and if housing is built in white neighborhoods, they would be forced to leave their own neighborhoods and communities, and deal with “new, strange and maybe hostile merchants”.
Ten black aldermen didn’t join the suit. One of them, Ald. William Cousins (8th), said the suit supports “a separate but equal doctrine” when “the emphasis should be on getting the city and the CHA to abandon segregationist policies rather than getting blacks to accept them.”
Friends don’t let friends read the 1972 newspapers without reading Mike Royko too. Check out MIKE ROYKO 50 YEARS AGO TODAY here.
March 30, 1972
Chicago Today
Movie prices
“With no justification other than the fact that ‘The Godfather’ is proving to be a big box office hit, the ABC Chicago Theater simply raised its admission price $1.
“At a time when Loop movies need all the patrons they can get, it seems ridiculous to turn off customers with a greedy admission cost increase.
“Yet, I suspect large numbers of people will probably pay the exorbitant price, proving once again that the public likes to be had.”
KEN GREENBERG
Job open
“To Richie Allen:
“Where I work we also need a ‘cleanup’ man. My boss is also willing to pay $125,000.
“However, it will take 30 years to earn it.”
SAM J. SCHNEIDER
Defends Hanrahan
“Who does Jesse Jackson think he is, calling the people who voted for Ed Hanrahan racists?
“I live in Proviso Township and we gave Hanrahan more votes than any other township. I know my neighbors and they are not racists. My candidate for governor did not win, but I’m not going around calling names.
RICHARD DeLAZZER
Check out the chapter on Chicago Newspapers, Circa 1972 here!
March 31, 1972
Chicago Daily News: Neistein wins, Lizak loses in rulings on write-in votes
Stanley T. Kusper, chairman of the election board, said “his office accepted the judgment of precinct election judges that the initials ‘B.N.’ on a ballot were intended to be votes for” Bernie Neistein for 29th Ward Democratic committeemen, in a stealthy write-in campaign by the indicted, just-retired Illinois state senator.
“He did not file formally for re-election, reportedly on order from Mayor Richard J. Daley, but ‘the word went out’ that a write-in campaign was acceptable. He got 1,731 votes, while seven opponents got 55, according to the official canvass released Thursday.”
A Republican write-in candidate for committeemen of the 45th ward was out of luck though. Kusper’s people ruled that his entire last name, “Lizak,” was not enough to count as a write-in vote.
March 31, 1972
Chicago Today: Allen may fight Sox thru players’ union
by Sandy Padwe
“PHILADELPHIA—People couldn’t understand it when Curt Flood, who was making a very healthy salary with the St. Louis Cardinals, stood up and accused baseball of slavery.
“Dick Allen says he understands Flood’s feeling of powerlessness.
“Powerlessness of course, is an abstract, which baseball players don’t usually discuss.
“Allen said he felt Flood’s fight against the reserve clause—now in the Supreme Court—was important for the players.
“‘What say do I have in my professional life?’ he asked. ‘They tell you to go here, they send you a piece of paper and say this is your salary, accept it….What if I don’t want to play in Chicago? What choice have I got?’”
GM Stu Holcomb still wants to avoid any action against Allen, but wouldn’t discuss what the sticking point still is between the Sox and Allen. “We want Dick Allen to be part of this ball club. I know how he feels about not feeling part of a team because he’s been bounced around. But we want him to help us build the White Sox into a winner.”
More quotes from Allen:
“‘You ever wonder why baseball loves big dumb farm boys?’ Allen said here yesterday. ‘Farm boys don’t say very much.’”
“‘I feel so deflated,’ Allen said. ‘I’m tired of bouncing around. It’s hard on a family, on kids. When I left the Phillies, I went to St. Louis and wanted to prove something. I played my heart out. Then I got traded again to the Dodgers, now to the White Sox.
“‘People who own horses try to find a nice home for a horse when it comes time to retire the horse from racing. I’d do at least all that for a horse.
“‘Face it, ball players are horses. But when an owner is thru with a ball player, he doesn’t care about that player’s future.
“‘I feel I can play eight more good years….I’d like to stay in baseball after that in some way and help the young black kids coming up to avoid the mistakes I did…to avoid the traps, the things that are below the surface.’”
March 31, 1972
Chicago Daily News: Sox set to resolve Allen’s situation
by Dave Nightingale
GM Stu Holcomb “has called a Saturday morning press conference to announce the team’s decision in the case of the still-absent Dick Allen,” Nightingale reports from Sox spring training in Sarasota.
Holcomb says the Sox could ultimately put Allen on the “restricted list” which means no pay or benefits until he plays, but Nightingale figures they won’t since they’re trying to keep things friendly.
Mainly this is an article about Stu Holcomb telling Dave Nightingale what Dick Allen told the Philadelphia reporter whose article appeared in Chicago Today on the same day this article appeared in the Daily News.
Holcomb: “He (Dick Allen) told a Philadelphia writer that his next move might be to ask the help of the players’ association. To be honest with you, I really don’t know what the players’ association can do to ‘help’ him…unless it wins the Curt Flood case in the Supreme Court. And in that case, everything might be changed.”
“‘I guess he also said he was tired of bouncing around the majors. He’s said that before and all I can say to him is what I’ve said before: He can have a good home in Chicago playing for a manager who wants him more than any other manager in baseball.”
March 31, 1972
Chicago Today editorial: And now, the ghost candidate
“If there is a book about ghost voting in Chicago, State Sen. Bernie Neistein has just provided material for an eerie new chapter. Neistein appears to have been a ghost candidate, running an invisible campaign in a nonexistent race. Even more uncanny, he won it by 1,200 votes.”
…. “Neistein has been an unseen presence in the 29th; he doesn’t even live there, tho he does keep an address in the ward which he presumably haunts now and then. He didn’t breathe a word—publicly, at least—about wanting to be committeeman, and he didn’t run for re-election to the Senate, either….
“And yet Bernie returned from the dead, politically speaking, having been summoned by mediums who cast 1,200 write-in votes for him. Skeptics might not believe that many residents knew he existed, let along being able to spell ‘Neistein.’”
…. “when the Cook County Central Democratic Committee meets Monday, it should consider whether it wants a ghost candidate as a member. Who wants to argue politics at a seance?”
March 31, 1972
Chicago Daily News: ‘Bangladesh Concert’
by David Elliot
Daily News rock critic Elliot reviews “The Concert for Bangladesh” documentary of George Harrison and friends performing in August 1971 at Madison Square Garden to raise funds for Bangladesh, which has just gone through a war with India.
“The movie is as simple and gracious as Harrison’s explanation, in a short speech to the assembled multitude, of how the concert came to be: ‘I was asked by a friend if I would help, that’s all…”
March 31, 1972: The Mighty IC
The constant IC train delays and breakdowns—like a 30-train back-up during morning rush hour earlier this year that made about 12,000 passengers late for work—have not made front pages. But this fare increase is above the masthead headline material for the Daily News.
“The Illinois Central R.R. was granted a 7-per cent increase in commuter fares Thursday, but the Illinois Commerce Commission also ordered it to make immediate improvements in its equipment, maintenance, signal system and stations,” writes the Daily News in a brief but front-page article.
An ICC spokesman cited the IC’s reported $1 million dollar loss last year as a prime reason to allow the rate increase, which can go into effect within five days after the I.C. files its new fare schedules with the I.C.C.
“An IC spokesman said the new fare will be filed with the commission immediately.”
Notably: “The commission directed the IC to continue to keep its 40-year-old cars in top shape until new cars, now on order, are received.”
That just has to be a response to a Tribune interview last month with nine top IC executives. The IC executives blamed the current avalanche of IC train breakdowns and delays on the old train cars, but also admitted that they decided four years ago “that no major overhaul work or other major repairs would be made to the old commuter cars. Instead of spending money to rebuild the old cars for 10 to 15 more years of operation, the Illinois Central officials specified that the cars be kept running on a safe basis at a minimum of maintenance expense.”
Chicago Today: New ICC hearing scheduled
by Robert Glass
The South Shore Chamber of Commerce plans to challenge the IC’s approved fare increase in court. Plus, Today’s Robert Glass reports that the ICC scheduled “a hearing into the railroad’s financial relationship with its parent company, Illinois Central Industries” on May 9.
“The hearing, part of an investigation begun by the commission nearly a year ago, will stress financial transactions between the two companies, the railroad’s expenditures for service improvement and the sale of part of the railroad’s assets by the parent company.”
It’s left unsaid, but that probably means the IC’s sale of air rights in two key downtown lakefront locations to high-rise developers. That is:
The old Fort Dearborn site on the south bank of the Chicago River, which 2022 Chicagoans will know simply as most of the high-rises now crowded between Randolph and Wacker, east of Michigan Avenue.
The vast IC rail yards on the south end of Grant Park, currently fronted on 12th Street/Roosevelt Road by the old Illinois Central Station depot pictured below. Chicagoans in 2022 have probably lost track of the high-rises that have since sprouted up there, along with the Central Station townhouse development. And that, incidentally, is why it’s called “Central Station.”
Did you miss the post explaining why we care about the IC?
It’s the South Side commuter line that Steve took downtown with his family from Roseland as a kid. Grown-up Steve takes the IC to work now from Hyde Park. But more importantly, the IC is a crucial part of Chicago’s history. Check it out here.
April 1-2, 1972
Chicago Daily News: No such thing as a ‘black racist’
Lu Palmer column
“I have frequently been called a black racist,” writes Lu Palmer in his regular weekend column.
“The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson and Prof. Thomas N. Todd, president and Vice President respectively of Operation PUSH, have been labeled black racists by Cook County State’s Attorney Edward V. Hanrahan.
…White racism, a factor in the lives of blacks from the beginning of America, became an acknowledged concept among most whites for the first time when the Kerner Report isolated and publicized it….
“It is not surprising, then, that white racists seek to further their insidious. acts of oppression against blacks by trying to discredit those who battle this oppression by pinning on them the racism label.
“But anyone who understands the nature of racism realizes that the loaded phrase ‘black racism’ is built from a false premise. It is contradictory. It is an utterly impossible concept.
….“In short, in American society, it is impossible to be a black racist.”
Palmer writes that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ pamphlet “Racism in America and How to Combat It,” by Chicagoan Anthony Downs, who is white, defines racism as “any attitude, action or institutional structure which subordinates a person or group because of his or their color.”
In America, “power is concentrated in the hands of whites. Political, economic, educational, religious and military powers have always been and still are the exclusive property of whites….Now, the point very simply is that blacks are powerless in the American system….Since the essence of racism is subordination, and since the vehicle of subordination is power, it is utterly ridiculous to see a black person as a racist.
“Blacks have no means to subordinate whites, even if they wanted to….As the tempo of aggressive resistance to white racism continues to pick up, there will be more and more accusations of ‘black racism’ thrown around.
“It is important, then, for Americans to understand that such a label is not only totally false in concept and utterly impossible in implementation, but it is one more clever weapon of the white racist.
“But it’s a weapon that’s a dud once it is exposed for what it is.”
April 1-2, 1972
Chicago Daily Defender: Citizens unite on FHA protest
by Robert McClory
“There is one thing that white racists, black militants, and even middle-of-the-roaders agree on. They’re all mad at the Federal Housing Authority, and they want its policies changed now,” writes Robert McClory.
“Two weeks ago, a national conference on housing was held in Chicago at St. Sylvester School, 3027 W. Palmer. Representatives of hundreds of neighborhood and community organizations from 30 states attended. There were white ethnics, blacks, Latins and even Orientals present.
“Although they could agree on little else, they all found the FHA and…the Department of Housing and Urban Development, woefully unresponsive to their needs. Even Mayor Richard Daley, who addressed the convention, lambasted FHA policies.”
“On the South side today, in the West-of-Ashland area, where Ald. Francis X. Lawlor holds forth, a large scale movement is underway to force FHA to declare a six-month moratorium of subsidized housing. Strangely enough, the movement has the backing of reportedly anti-black organizations, like the Southwest Associated Block Clubs, and more pro-integrationist groups, like the Southwest Community Congress.”
That’s because, McClory reports, groups of all backgrounds report that FHA tends to do three things: It over-assesses homes, fails “to note glaring defects and housing violations,” and sells homes to people who can’t afford them—adding up to defaulted mortgages.
“Father Lyons said a study of 34 mortgaged homes in the West-of-Ashland area last year indicated that 22 resulted in foreclosures because the new owners couldn’t make it.”
April 1-2, 1972
Chicago Daily News: Allen to get $120,000
by Dave Nightingale
Baseball strike on.
by Armand Schnelder
“SARASOTA, Fla. - Hold-out baseball star Dick Allen signed a one-year contract with the Chicago White Sox Saturday for an estimated $120,000 plus benefits.
“‘This is the first time in my career that I really feel wanted,’ Allen said at a press conference announcing the signing.”
“‘At least the strike will give me a chance to get in better shape and catch up with the rest of them,’ he said.
“The contract was signed about 9 a.m. Saturday.
“Allen said the key reason for his long holdout was that he had been upset by the fact that he had been traded for four consecutive seasons. But he said the Sox ‘finally have convinced me that they want me.’”
Meanwhile, steeee-rike! The first major league strike ever halted the exhibition game schedule, and puts next week’s season openers on thin ice.
Marvin Miller, executive director for the players’ association, met with the player representatives Friday. The vote to strike was 47-0 with one abstention.
“Miller, whom many owners view as the villain of the piece, said the strike would end only in one of two situations:
“If a settlement is reached with the owners for the hefty increase being sought in the health-care part of the pension package.
“If the owners agree to binding arbitration by a neutral and prominent person, such as President Nixon, former President Lyndon Johnson or former Chief Justice Earl Warren.”
April 1-2, 1972
Chicago Daily News: It’s time we got the message
Letter to the Editor
“I see where ‘The Ten Commandments’ is being shown again. I guess God looked around and decide it was time for a rerun.
LEONA W. TOPPEL
Naperville”
April 1-2
Chicago Daily News: Daley faces challenge on 59 delegates
by Terry Shaffer
“A group of Chicago lawyers and independent Democrats will attempt to have Mayor Richard J. Daley’s bloc of 59 delegates thrown out of the Democratic National Convention on the ground that their election violated several party reform rules,” write Terry Shaffer.
The group is led by Ald. Bill Singer (43rd). They’ve asked the DNC to send a hearing officer to consider evidence, which “Singer told The Daily News will include letters from precinct captains, affidavits from volunteers who questioned local party workers and testimony from some anti-Daley Democrats including Ald. Seymour Simon (40th).”
Ald. Simon is 40th ward Democratic committeeman—even though he’s an independent Democrat after a previous life as a Machine loyalist—so that means he attends party meetings. Simon “is prepared to testify that during a meeting with key party officials on Feb. 24, he heard Daley say he ‘didn’t give a damn’ about the national party’s reform rules.”
Simon didn't join the group of challengers because of his “ambiguous” position—he’s one of the delegates.
Simon says he reminded the meeting about the new reform rules—one rule “prohibits any party official holding office prior to the primary from endorsing convention delegates and forbids any support by a regular party organization.”
In other words, people on the ballot for convention delegate can’t be slated, endorsed, and backed by the Machine (or any other political organization).
But according to Simon, Mayor Daley said, “You interpret them (the rules) the way you want and I’ll interpret them the way I want.”
Ald. Singer says he has a “prima facie case” just from the sample ballots the Machine distributed at polling places with the Daley Machine’s uncommitted convention delegates listed—about 46 people.
The Daley bloc also violates other reform rules, says Singer, “including the small percentage of women, ‘young voter’ representatives and minority group delegates”.
Did you dig spending time in 1972? If you came to THIS CRAZY DAY IN 1972 from social media, you may not know it’s part of the novel being serialized here, one chapter per month: “Roseland, Chicago: 1972” —FREE. It’s the story of Steve Bertolucci, 10-year-old Roselander in 1972, and what becomes of him. Check it out here.
