History Meets Her Story

Introduction

Sometimes when we talk with loved ones we discover historical events intersect with Their Story. This week’s podcast demonstrates how to expand their story/ That will provide the necessary background for others and bring the story to life as you share it with your children and others.

Internet Resources

Internet resources available online are simply astounding. as I promised I will include a small section about resources in every podcast. I will usually use those resources in the interview section. You will also find a plethora of small resource blog entries added daily. As I scour the web for resources, I will add those little articles to the blog. Mostly they will be a searchable resource for you. Each blog entry will be tagged. This will allow you to access those resources via the search and/or tags.

In this case for this interview, our family story met history one day in 1934. Though you could just hear the story “as is”, for most readers and listeners who did not live then, this would not seem to be a big deal. so, like any good interview, before you “publish” the story, the interviewer / story teller must help set the stage for the reader/listener. And while that might seem to a daunting task, the World Wide Web has many resources available.

YouTube

YouTube is an excellent resource to locate and provide a window into the relatively modern circumstances of our own history. Just “seeing” the world in which our family lived can make Their Stories that much more realistic for us.

Even if you don’t publish the information via a blog or similar tool, The short YouTube address can be easily recorded into a document that summarizes the story. For example, if I use YouTube to look up a movie trailer for a movie that played in 1934, I find it. I can then use the “Share” feature to copy the address to my clipboard and add it right to this text. The movie trailer can be found at “https://youtu.be/RTff7Yr7ZtA”. In most editors, you can suppress the hyperlink to the video. (I didn’t in this case.

Wikipedia

And of course, Wikipedia remains a fully free and viable resource for just about anything. Be careful about using it for “critical” facts (healthcare, illnesses, or other such things). However, the historical information I find very helpful. As you can see below, it provides an excellent example of how much detail can be gathered.

For example, in addition to the textual material, Wikipedia provided several photographs that I can use. Note that it’s important to validate the licensing of the images. In this case all of the photographs are in the public domain. Thus I can use them. However, I try to give appropriate attribution. Someone when to a lot of trouble to make them available. We should point back to the source of the photographs. It might also help others.

But Wikipedia is more than text and photographs. They also point to a wealth of additional online and written resources. For instance, the John Dillinger article pointed to two FBI articles.

Google / Bing / Other Search Engines

But wait! There’s more!

Since we are not searching for a product, the search engine results tend to be much richer in content. Thus you can find more about the historical setting for the family story. But remember to work with reliable sources. Most family stories get distorted with time. We don’t need to add to that trend.

So with all of that n hand, what can we do with it? Well let’s head toward the Interview and set the stage for our listeners.

Interview

One of the fun things that occur from time to time is to discover how our family story meets that of history. As my mother described, both her parents lived in Chicago. As did my mother’s grandparents. And Chicago is nothing if not full of stories that we hear in history lessons.

In our case, the junction of general history and our family history occurs outside the Biograph Theater. The day was July 22, 1934. The Manhattan Melodrama movie was playing at the theater. It starred Clark Gable. Here’s the trailer for the movie.

So how does this relate to my family’s story? Well let’s continue to set the stage. You remember that Chicago in 1934 was still in the grip of the Recession.

It was a time of lawlessness. Gangs, mobs, and criminals threatened the peaceful city of Chicago. With the rise of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, the federal government decided to help clean up Chicago. In particular, various gangsters were listed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. In fact, due to a string of bank robberies, John Dillinger became Public Enemy #1. You can read a brief summary of that adventure at the Indiana State Police website in the article “The Pursuit of Public Enemy #1“, which is a summary of Gangsters, Gunfire, and Political Intrigue: The History of the Indiana State Police by Marilyn Olsen.

Outside the theater outside of which John Dillinger was shot by the FBI. From the FBI files:

At 8:30 p.m., Anna Sage, John Dillinger, and Polly Hamilton strolled into the Biograph Theater to see Clark Gable in “Manhattan Melodrama.” Purvis phoned Cowley, who shifted the other men from the Marbro to the Biograph.

Cowley also phoned Hoover for instructions. Hoover cautioned them to wait outside rather than risk a shooting match inside the crowded theater. Each man was instructed not to unnecessarily endanger himself and was told that if Dillinger offered any resistance, it would be each man for himself.

At 10:30 p.m., Dillinger, with his two female companions on either side, walked out of the theater and turned to his left. As they walked past the doorway in which Purvis was standing, Purvis lit a cigar as a signal for the other men to close in.

Dillinger quickly realized what was happening and acted by instinct. He grabbed a pistol from his right trouser pocket as he ran toward the alley. Five shots were fired from the guns of three FBI agents. Three of the shots hit Dillinger, and he fell face down on the pavement. At 10:50 p.m. on July 22, 1934, John Dillinger was pronounced dead in a little room in the Alexian Brothers Hospital.

See: https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/john-dillinger

Here is the Universal Newsreel report of the death of John Dillinger:

This was a VERY big deal at the time. Imagine if Osama Bin Laden had been killed on the streets of Chicago by Seal Team Six. In fact, shortly after the shooting, crowds gathered around the Biograph Theater.

And at this point, you wonder if this is a waste of your time. Have no fear. That’s the point of this week’s interview with my mother. It’s a bit of family history. You see, my great grandfather helped build the Biograph Theater. As I understand it, he was a day laborer, who would set out in the morning with his carpentry toolbox. He would walk to the job site, saving a nickel for later in the day, so he could ride the tram/trolley system home.

So one job he worked on was the construction of the Biograph Theater. Though it’s not completely clear, he must have worked on it in the 1913 to 1914 range.

Designed by architect Samuel N. Crowen in 1914, the Biograph has many of the distinguishing characteristics of movie houses of the period, including a storefront-width lobby, recessed entrance, free-standing ticket booth, and canopy marquee. The building is finished with red pressed brick and white-glazed terra cotta.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biograph_Theater

Sure. It’s not a huge connection. Nor very direct. But remember how big the shooting of John Dillinger was to the city and country at the time. It was one of the first steps toward taking back the city of Chicago. This is exactly the sort of thing that families remember.

To get a sens of how it might have appeared before the mid 30s, the following photograph shows the interior of the BIograph Theater.

Now that the stage is set, here’s an excerpt from pieces of my interviews with my mother. My mother remembers bits and pieces of stories. So, I find that I spend time stitching them into an order that makes sense.

Here are the excerpts from various interviews about my great grandfather.

And finally, here is the full Podcast for this blog entry.