From the Vault of Art Shay: Hizzoner
The only way to show our little giant AND City Hall- was with a 180 degree Fisheye lens.
Time passed up this frame for his 1963 cover for one showing many more chins and a night-time background view of the city shot by the great still photographer Arthur Siegel, and pre-photoshop etched as a background for my portrait from Meigs Island.
Hizzoner, at left, on a joyous day in front of City Hall in 1959, addresses the passing parade of players and celebrants hardly able to believe the Sox had won the pennant. The Dodgers went on to beat them 4 games to 2 in the World Series. I think that\'s Bill Daley holding the sign, and bald Bill Veeck shifting uncomfortably on his one real leg. Daley often bolluxed his favorite Veeck anecdote, which was basically: \"Bill had to have his leg amputated a few years ago for reasons of his health. And he says even with great Chicago medical care it cost him an arm and a leg.\"
With the King and Queen of Denmark gaping at Chicago Avenue, Da Mare looks ahead at Michigan Ave., his favorite prospect.
The King of Denmark and Mayor Daley march past City Hall.
After dark but before blackout glass, Daley escorts the Royal Danes on a quick tour - here passing the Water Tower en route to the Art Institute.
Mayor Daley escorts astronauts down Wacker Drive to ticker tape parade on Michigan Ave and La Salle Street,but seems to have something else on his mind.
In front row box, Daley exults in feats of his beloved White Sox.
Mayor Daley loved the camera and vice versa,
At a memorial service, his prodigious memory, no doubt, often brought tears of recollection to his sage old eyes.
Not unlike Lon Chaney, the man of many faces in the Silents, Mayor Daley\r\ncould change the mood of his visage to suit the circumstances.
Here, at a City Council meeting he sits a few chairs away from Governor (and, alas, jailbird to be) Otto Kerner.\r\n\r\n
Political posturing was Mayor Daley\'s life\'s blood, as here with, I think, a Martin Luther King daughter.
Along the route to McCormick Place, 1963 pickets politely make their points.
Presidents,like Lyndon Johnson here in 1964, often enjoyed sharing a platform with Da Mare.
Two of the greatest politicos of their time join shoulders on behalf of the Party in 1962,
Daley sets down the party line as he sees it just before the \'68 Democratic Convention.
Time Magazine used this picture of Hippies at the Hilton as the closing page of their Convention coverage.
Daley at the Hancock Building campaigning in 1968. It\'s not generally known that Sears wanted to build their tower near the Hancock. But Daley prevailed on them to build it where it is - to bulk up his patronage on the near South side and keeping the skyscrapers spread out.
In 1959, pushing the Pan American games, Daley ventured to an Hispanic ward to demonstrate his skill on the Irish harp crossed over party lines. Payed off.
About a decade ago I realized that I'd been shooting pictures of Mayor Richard J. Daley since 125,179 Chicagoans - including unions like the janitors who contributed $215,000 in cash - elected Da Mare in 1955. His Excellency used the number (the people, not the cash) on his license plate until he died in 1976.
It was impossible not to like the scalawag, our resident Mayor Malaprop. What other Mare could ad lib, "Together we must rise to ever higher platitudes," "It's amazing what they'll be able to do once they get the atom harassed," and "I resent the insinuendos." It wasn't the money alone that assured his replacing colorless Martin Kennelly. He took the trouble to make deals with some 48 of the 50 City Council members. He didn't even bother to campaign against the intellectual and well-qualified Republican Robert Merriam. "I'm not better'n anybody else," Daley assured one and all. "I don't wanna look like a fellow who tells other people what to do." When I shot him for a Time cover, he said, "Make me look tough, like Chicago."
So there I was amassing many of my Daley pictures and favorite quotes- to do a stage comedy - when the Trib's drama critic, Chris Jones, attending my "Where Have You Gone, Jimmy Stewart" opening at the ATC Theater, said, "If you're planning a Daley play, there's a big fat actor you oughtta sign up- Neil Giuntuli - looks just like Daley."
Long story longer- it turned out that Neil had just finished writing his own Hizzoner - it was much better than my Report to Da Council - spot on with all the Catholic stuff and political swapmeets- not as funny as mine- but a three year hit with my new friend, Neil, playing his own lead. Giuntuli ended up using 25 of my Daley photos for the play.
So now, while patiently awaiting the promised call from Johnny Depp on a movie about Algren's affair with Simone de Beauvoir, I occasionally say ,"Yeah, that was in..." when my archivist Erica turns up another batch of Daley pictures. So here's a partial screening for those of you not completely suffused with the minor league shenanigans that have just passed for some vigorously contested political hardball. As my favorite author, Nabokov, once said, echoing the hawkers of tsotshkas on the NY subway, "Let me pass out a few cards."
If you can't wait until this time every Wednesday to get your Art Shay fix, please check out the photographer's blog, which is updated regularly. Art Shay's book, Chicago's Nelson Algren, is also available at Amazon.
