St. Louis Browns’ Fan Club
Salvatore, Eugene
Sam’s Place (Chicago bar)
Sand, George
Sandburg, Carl
Sanger, Margaret
Sarnoff, David
Saroyan, William
Saturday Evening Symphony Hour (WGN radio)
Saylor, Alan
Saylor, Frances Wheeler
Scala, Florence
Scalia, Antonin
Schmidt (Air Force sergeant)
Schomer, Howard
Schreiner, Olive (aka Ralph Iron)
Schriffin, André
Schweitzer, Albert
Schwimmer, David
Scopes (John T.) trial
Seattle General Strike (1919)
Second City
Seeger, Pete
Selma-to-Montgomery March
Semmelweiss, Ignaz
Serb (hotel guest)
Sevareid, Eric
Seward, William Henry
Shahn, Ben
Shakespeare, William
Sharp, Malcolm
Shaw, George Bernard
Shea, Martin
Sheridan, Jim
Sheridan, John
Sheridan, Tom
Sherman, Lowell
Silver Shirts
Simmons, George. See Stauffer, Glenn
Simpson, Wally
Simpson (Washington train man)
Sinclair, Upton
Sinn Fein
Sister Carrie (Dreiser)
60 Minutes (CBS-TV)
Skelly, Hal
Slezak, Joe
Slim, Memphis
Smith, Al
Smith, Dick
Smith, Gerald L.K.
Snow, C. P.
Social Security
Social Workers’ Union
Socialist Party
Somebody in Boots (Algren)
Sounds of the City (radio)
Southern Bell
Southern Conference for Human Welfare
Soviet American Friendship Committee
Soviet Union
Soyinka, Wole
Spears, Britney
Spies, August
Sprague, Ed
Springsteen, Bruce
Stalin, Joseph
Stalingrad, Soviet Union
Stander, Lionel
Stanislavski, Konstantin
Stanwyck, Barbara
Star & Garter (Chicago)
Stauffer, Betty
Stauffer, Glenn (aka George Simmons)
Stein, Hannah
Steinbeck, John
Steinem, Gloria
Stern (Ida’s roommate)
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Stickman’s Laughter (Algren)
Stone, W. Clement
The Story of an African Farm (Iron)
Strachey, John
Stracke, Win
Strange Interlude (play)
Stroheim, Erich von
Strong, Charles
Studebaker Theatre (Chicago)
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Studs’ Place (NBC-TV)
Stuyvesant, Peter
Sullivan, Louis
Sumac, Yma
Summer and Smoke (play)
Sunday, Billy
Swaggart, Jimmy
Sykes, Roosevelt
Sylvester, Long Shot
Szilard, Leo
T-Men in Action (TV)
Talking to Myself (Terkel)
Tarbell, Ida
Taylor, Glen
Taylor, Laurette
Teagarden, Jack
Teapot Dome scandal
Tecumseh, ST story about
Tefft, Sheldon
Telegraph (newspaper)
The Tempest (play)
Terkel, Annie (mother)
appearance/personality of
death of
and Ida
immigration of
marriage of
as mother
move to New York of
moves to New York
picture of
as rooming house manager
Sam’s relationship with
as seamstress
and Wells-Grand Hotel
as Wells-Grand Hotel manager
Terkel, Ben (brother)
childhood of
death of
and Dreamland Ballroom
and Helena Turner
and Ida-Stud’s wedding
picture of
and prostitutes for Studs
as protester
Quinn’s talk with
and Sam-Annie relationship
and ST interest in politics
ST memories of
and Stauffers
ST’s relationship with
and ST’s wedding
and Wells-Grand Hotel
Terkel, Dan (son)
Terkel, Fanny (aunt)
Terkel, Ida (wife)
and Ambassador dinner
and Annie
and bitterness rallies
and characters in ST books
courtship and wedding of
death of
favorite stories about
and FBI
and Minska’s visit
and Pearl Hart
personal and professional background of
personality of
and Rose Rigby
and Royko
as social worker
ST memories of
ST relationship with
and ST in World War II,
and Stud’s Place
and train for March on Washington
Terkel, Mary (sister-in-law)
Terkel, Meyer (brother)
and Annie’s move to New York
and anti-Semitism
as baseball fan
childhood of
as college student
death of
influence on ST of
marriage of
picture of
and Sam-Annie relationship
ST memories of
ST visit with
ST’s relationship with
as teacher
and Walsh as ST hero
Terkel, Sam (father)
Annie’s relationship with
appearance/personality of
death of
Debs as hero of
and elections of 1924
health of
immigration of
marriage of
picture of
and Rambova
and ST interest in politics
ST relationship with
as tailor
and Wells-Grand Hotel
Terkel, Sophie (sister-in-law)
Terry, Peggy
Theatre Guild
They Knew What They Wanted (play)
Thin Man (films)
This Is Our Story (ST radio series)
This Train (ST documentary)
Thomas, John Parnell
Thoreau, Henry David
Thurmond, Strom
Tillstrom, Burr
Tils, Teddy
Time magazine
The Time ofYour Life (play)
Titanic
Tobacco Road (play)
Today (NBC-TV)
Tolstoy, Leo
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de
Townsend, Freddie
Tracy, Spencer
Treasure Island (Chicago supermarket)
Triangle Fire (New York City)
Truman, Harry S.
Truman, Margaret
Truman College
Trumbo, Dalton
Tubman, Harriet
Tugwell, Rexford
Tuller, Frank
Turner, Helena
Twain, Mark
U., Mike
Uncle Win’s Animal Playtime (TV)
Underwood, Oscar
Unemployed Council. See Workers’ Alliance
UNESCO
United Church of Christ Seminary (University of Chicago)
United Nations
University of Chicago
atomic research at
Law School
School of Social Service Administration
United Church of Christ Seminary
University of Michigan
Unrath, Jimmy
US Steel
Utterbach, Harold Hanson
Valentino, Rudolph
van der Rohe, Ludwig Mies
van Gogh, Vincent
Van (neighbor)
van Zandt, Nina
Vanzetti, Bartolomeo
Vaughan, Sarah
Vegetarians
Vic and Sade (TV)
Victoria Diner (Chicago)
Vidal, Gore
Vietnam
Villa-Lobos, Heitor
The Village Voice
Voltaire
Vonnegut, Kurt
Wagner, I. J.
WAIT radio
Waiting for Lefty (play)
Waldheim (Chicago cemetery)
Walker, Jimmy
Walker, Madame C. J.
Wallace, George
Wallace, Henry
Wallace, Mike
Walsh, Thomas
Wambsganss, Bill “Wamby,”
Ward, Solly
Wardman Park Hotel Theatre (Washington)
Warner, Bob
Warner Brothers
Washington, George
Washington Civic Theater Group
Washington Square (Chicago). See Bughouse Square
The Wax Museum (radio show)
Wayne, John
WCFL (Chicago radio)
We Deliver the Goods (radio series)
Weaver, Pat
Weber, Palmer
Weil, Yellow Kid
Weinberg, Sidney J.
Welles, Orson
Wells, Ida B.
Wells-Grand Hotel (Chicago)
description of
guests of
play posters in
Sam leases
Sam as manager of
as SRO
and ST in Air Force
ST “education” at
and ST as oral historian
ST return visit to
See also specific person
Wendorf, Cholly
Wexley, John
WFMT radio
WGN radio
Wheatstraw, Peatie
Wheeler, Burton K.
White, Pearl
Whitman, Walt
Wilde, Oscar
Will the Circle be Unbroken (Terkel)
Willard, Jess
Williams, Aubrey
Williams, Claude
Williams, Freddy
Williams, Tennessee
Willie the Weeper
Wills, Garry
Wilson, Woodrow
Winant, John
Winfrey, Oprah
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winterset (play)
Wolfe, Thomas
Wolff, Mary Lou
Woman in White (soap opera)
Workers’ Alliance (aka Unemployed Council)
Workers’ Theater (Chicago)
Working (Terkel)
Works Progress Administration (WPA)
World Series
World War I,
World War II,
World’s Fair (Chicago, 1933–34)
Wray, Fay
Wright, Frank Lloyd
Wright, Richard
Wrigley, P. K.
Wrigley building (Chicago)
Writers’ Project (WPA)
Yale University
Yeats, William Butler
Yerby, Frank
You Have Seen Their Faces (MacLeish)
You Know Me, Al (Lardner)
Young Lords
Younger, Beverly
Zerbst, Fred
1 A pioneer of modern anthropology; often referred to as “the father of American anthropology.”
2 The Silent Clowns by Walter Kerr (Knopf, 1975).
3 Mateo Falcone is the hero of a short story of the same name by Prospero Merimee (who wrote the libretto for Carmen). Falcone shoots his beloved young son, who has betrayed a fugitive hiding in their barn.
4 Parts excerpted from Chicago (Pantheon, 1985 and 1986).
5 The celebrated opera singer who came from Annie’s hometown of Bialystok.
6 And They All Sang (The New Press, 2005, pp. 73–74).
7 Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist (University of Illinois Press, 1982, p. 328).
8 The scandal involved the leasing of oil-rich pieces of land in Wyoming and California to private interests. Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, went to the pokey; so did his multimillion-dollar buddy, Frank Doheny. What is astonishing in the midst of all this corruption is that President Harding took it upon himself to pardon Gene Debs, who still had about five years to go on his prison term. Cal Coolidge, Harding’s VP, said nothing. In fact, Silent Cal was so silent that Dorothy Parker is reputed to have said on learning that Coolidge had died, “How can they tell?” The loss of money to small investors in the Teapot Dome scandal was considerable, but peanuts compared to Enron. Tom Walsh had been irreproachable as prosecutor of Teapot Dome. Ironically, he died shortly after the convention. Otherwise, he would have been Roosevelt’s choice for attorney general.
9 Carey McWilliams, at the time commissioner of immigration for California.
10 Hard Times (The New Press, 1986, pp. 72–73).
11 Bernard MacFadden published a scandalous tabloid, the Telegraph. One of its memorable exposés concerned the teenaged Peaches and her Daddy Browning. Peaches’ Ma approved.
12 Primarily transient workman who went from one railroad to another.
13 An old pool hall phrase meaning “per game.”
14 In the 1840s there were numerous rebellions in Middle European countries among those seeking independence and thus a better world. They were henceforth known as the “Failed ’48ers.”
15 Château-Thierry was the site of one of the first American actions against the Germans in World War I.
16 Death in the Haymarket by James Green (Pantheon, 2006).
17 Tank Johnson, a player for the Chicago Bears, spent several scandalous weeks in the headlines, charged with weapons possession, aggravated assault, and resisting arrest.
18 Adapted from Talking to Myself (The New Press, 1995).
19 One of three hundred medieval Border Ballads collected by Francis Child, Harvard Philologist.
20 His father was known as Hot Stove Jimmy Quinn, back in the days of Hinky Dink and Bathhouse John early in the century. His father, sitting at the hot stove, named guys he thought should be mayor.
21 In DC, I was the one heterosexual that was accepted at the Deck. And since then? Better than any of the grandest of prizes, I’m in the Lesbian and Gay Hall of Fame of writers—one of the few heterosexuals, perhaps the only one. I also may be the only white in the Hall of Fame of Black Writers. There was a gathering of black writers, and Haki Madhubuti mentioned my name. They all looked up, “Studs?! But he’s not African American, he’s white.” Haki said, “He’s white genetically, but he’s ours spiritually.” I made those two halls of fame, which ain’t half bad.
22 The same reviewer who said of Margaret Truman’s celebrated vocal engagement, “Better she remain a vice president’s daughter,” to which Harry Truman replied, “I’m going to punch him in the nose.”
23 Talking to Myself (The New Press, 1995, p. 150).
24 When the war came along, everyone split up and went different places. Some to the West Coast, others to the East. Charlie DeSheim went to New York and became a member of the Group Theater. He was Nick the bartender in William Saroyan’s The Time of Your Life. Charlie was big—he had an Orson Welles–type contract to go to Hollywood, but he caught phlebitis and died. William Saroyan spoke at his services.
25 Ida always called me Louis, never Studs. The nickname came about during my first appearance in Waiting for Lefty. Two other guys in the cast were named Louis, which made for some confusion. At the time, I was entranced by the writings of James T. Farrell and his Studs Lonigan trilogy. Everyone started calling me Studs.
26 Circuit riders were traveling preachers in the mountain country. They’d stop wherever there was a church, white or black. Their interpretation of the Bible was as a workingman’s book.
27 The Great Divide: Second Thoughts on the American Dream (Pantheon, 1988, p. 106).
28 Also in the group: the great educator Myles Horton, head of Highlander Folk School; Aubrey Williams, an inspiring Southerner, head of the National Youth Administration; and a preacher by the name of Claude Williams, who brought a real Christ of flesh and blood, an organizer, to churches when he organized the tobacco workers—he was tarred and feathered at times, too.
29 Talking to Myself(The New Press, 1995, pp. 127–129).
30 Jan was the son of the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal, who wrote An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy and whose later books were being published by André Schiffrin at Pantheon.
31 Chicago has many Appalachians, mountain people, poor whites, as well as a tremendous number of Southern blacks—the inner migration.
32 Working has now sold over a million copies in various editions. (Ed.)
33 Helene, a good swimmer, drowned trying to save some children in Lake Michigan.
34 From Division Street:America (The New Press, 2006, p. 71).
35 From Division Street:America (The New Press, 2006, p. 63).
36 From Division Street: America (The New Press, 2006, p. 69).
37 From Division Street: America (The New Press, 2006, p. 326).
38 From Division Street:America (The New Press, 2006, p. 325).
39 From Division Street: America (The New Press, 2006, p. 327).
40 From Division Street: America (The New Press, 2006, p. 330).
41 Ida is named Eileen Barth in Hard Times.
42 Talking to Myself (The New Press, 1995, p. 336).
43 She is called Lucy Jefferson in Hard Times.
44 Division Street:America (The New Press, 1993, p. 14).
45 Dr. Marvin Jackson is currently Flight Surgeon, midwestern region of the FAA.