[« Thought for the Day:] [Thought from the Seventh Inning Stretch.... »]
06/12/2005: Karen's Chicago Trivia Q (part 2):
End of the Line by Nancy Watkins (from the Chicago Tribune Archives) is a historical Tid-bit about the last of the Chicago street cars put out of commission in 1958. (Missing on-line is the hard copy picture of Streetcar to make the June 21st Clark to Wentworth run.)FEW TEARS WERE shed at the running of the last streetcar in Chicago. Trolleys were noisy, what with all the clang-clang-clanging. They carried high labor costs. They were unable to detour around accident scenes or traffic jams, and in fact they often caused traffic jams.
Still, it was the end of an era, and scores of passengers wedged into old NO. 7213 in hopes of a souvenir or bragging rights. AL CARTER (watch this space for more about Al) went home with both: the distinction of being the last rider, and his transfer autographed by the conductor.
Number of streetcars operating in Chicago at their peak in the 1930s: 3,742. Number in use by the last day: 56.
What replaced the streetcar named Desire in New Orleans in 1948: A BUS NAMED DESIRE.
Streetcar fare in 1880: 5 cents. CTA fare in 1958: 25 CENTS.
Foot-warming device on the floors of early Chicago streetcars: STRAW.
- 0 -Now every shadow that I meet, they all know my name /And they whisper, 'What's the matter, hon, /Don't you know you're riding on the ghost train? '
--RICKIE LEE JONES, "GHOST TRAIN"
This dovetails with my Chicago Q Trivia (Part 2):
Just to commemorate Lens’ recent foray to the hinterlands of the Windy City and His Photo Post of the City. Here is another Trivia Q&A about Chicago – and because we haven’t had one in ages. *smile*
1) Len posted a picture of a Chicago place used in a Steve McQueen movie (The Hunter –1980) featuring a car chase scene with an "action-stunt" of the vehicle plunging off the parking garage and landing in the Chicago River below - What is the name of this building/landmark?
a) RR Donnelley Center
b) Lake Point Tower
c) Chicago Tribune Tower
d) Marina City Tower
e) The Merchandise Mart
2) As another Movie Q: What Chicago “landmark” frequented by Chicago gangsters and dating back to the era of prohibition, did they blow up in the movie "Thief" with James Caan?
a) The Green Mill Lounge
b) The Cubby Bear Tavern
c) Berghoff’s
d) The Biograph Theater
3) What was the first Movie Palace built in Chicago in 1921?
a) The Oriental Theater
b) The McVickers theater
c) The Esquire Theater
d) The Chicago Theater
e) RKO Place Theater
4) A Chicago reporter gave this U.S. Dept. of Justice Prohibition Unit it’s name back in 1929 – What were they called?
a) Ness’s Squadron
b) The Untouchables
c) Operation Al-Anon
d) Eliot’s Eleven
5) What was the name of the short lived Federal League baseball team that first played in Wrigley Field in 1914?
a) The Chicago Stoats
b) The Bear Claws
c) The Weeghman Warriors
d) The Wrigleyville Waves
e) The Chicago Whales
6) Chicago was the home to many famous “puppeteers” and Lawry’s: The Prime Rib was originally a puppet theater. What puppets appeared there?
a) The Kuklapolitans: Kukla, Fran and Ollie
b) The Kungsholm Puppet Theater
c) Garfield Goose and Friends
d) King Friday the Thirteeth and Mr. Rodgers
7) The term “The Windy City” was aptly coined for both the meteorological conditions of the Great Plaines weather and the Political “long winded-ness” of Boastful Chicago Politicians. It first became a phrase used in 1885 in what newspaper?
a) The Hearst Chicago Examiner
b) The Chicago Daily Mail
c) Cleveland Gazette
d) The Louisville Courier-Journal
e) The Chicago South Side Daily Sun
8) Bonus: This nick name “The Windy City” is shared by what other city?
a) Wellington, New Zealand
b) Bradenton, Florida
c) Seward, Alaska
d) Bathurst, Brunswick, Canada
Karen on 06.12.05 @ 11:41 AM CST
