Does Royko's Chicago still exist anywhere? (Hoffman Estates, Hoffman: appointed, crime, high schools)

[linicx]

He talked a lot about the Billy Goat Tavern being in the shadow of Wrigley Field when he was kid. He talked about the authors like Saul Bellow, he met there. One of the authors, was from Oak Park. They were older than Royko, and well known in their time. He was a journalist and master story teller who wove facts with fiction and made us believe it.

Originally Posted by emathias

No, I don't think that Billy Goat location was even open while Royko was alive.

Royko wrote from the oldest existing location, under Michigan Ave near the Tribune Building, which is also the location poked fun at by SNL skits. That location had a lot of newspapermen at the time because of the proximity of both the Tribune and the Sun-Times headquarters.

[knitgirl]

No, you're flat out wrong. The BIlly Goat was by the Wrigley BUILDING and the Trib, NOT Wrigley Field.

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by knitgirl

No, you're flat out wrong. The BIlly Goat was by the Wrigley BUILDING and the Trib, NOT Wrigley Field.

Yes, I visited the Billy Goat once years ago....really nothing special.

I also think that Royko took some cues from Studs Terkel, as well...

[jonnynonos]

Some newspaper people still hang out at the Goat but it's kind of just theater.

You are more likely to meet vegan yoga teaching reporters now than drunk chain smokers.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by knitgirl

No, you're flat out wrong. The BIlly Goat was by the Wrigley BUILDING and the Trib, NOT Wrigley Field.

What the heck would a Hyde Parker like Saul Bellow being doing at the Goat?

Next thing you know she'll be telling us Ernest Hemingway and Frank Lloyd Wright used to toss back Zombies at Hala Kahiki.

[chicagobear]

Royko himself ended up in very posh Winnetka on the North Shore with a young second family.

[Irishtom29]

Ask the Mexicans, Arabs and Poles, they're the ones "off the boat" and with the current ethnic neighborhoods. Not many post here though.

[williepotatoes]

Royko always wanted to be Nelson Algren, but he was smart enough to know that he would die broke and hungry going that route. Instead he became a daily muckraker who literally explained Chicago to people from a barstool. He was very good at it until he went to the Trib in the 80's where he really lost his mojo. From then on his writings got progressively less humorous and much more snarly and bitter.

His kind will never be seen again, the world has changed too much. Supposedly, the last thing he told his son before he fell ill was "never, never turn into a Sox fan".

[MassVt]

He also had more than a little ethnic humor, which wouldn't play as well today, although his last columns weren't all that long ago...

In his biography, the author seemd to emphasize the stress that writing a daily column had on him, even though he had a full-time assistant helping him do the legwork....a pretty good introduction into old-time journalism, at least post-1957, or so...

Royko's exposes on the Chicago under Daley I were pretty fascinating, though..

[JacksonPanther]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

Ask the Mexicans, Arabs and Poles, they're the ones "off the boat" and with the current ethnic neighborhoods. Not many post here though.

Yep, this is the real answer. Those old ethnic enclaves are dead and gone. Mostly replaced by new ethnics who happen to not be white, so of course theyre not considered cool.

As for who posts on this board, I wonder how many posters are actually from Chicago - I mean born and raised. In all my years working in various Chicago high tech companies, I can count the number of White people actually from Chicago on one hand. They were always from down state, small town Iowa, or the suburbs.

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