Chicago - The Glamour Years (1919-1941)

The years between the two World Wars constituted a golden age for the city of Chicago. It was a time of culture, when Carl Sandburg was writing of the `City of Big Shoulders.' Theodore Dreiser was penning Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy and James T. Farrell was telling the world about Studs Lonigan. Great architecture was springing up, most of it from the creative geniuses of the Chicago School of architects, which included such towering innovators as Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies van der Rohe. It was a time of flamboyance, when Mayor Big Bill Thompson was threatening to punch the kind of England in the nose if he came to Chicago. It was a time for entertainment, when jazz and swing were king. Harry James and the Dorseys played the Aragon and Trianon ballrooms. Mammoth stage shows were mounted at the State-Lake and Chicago Theatres, and the Rialto burlesque theatre had a dazzling chorus line. Movie stars congregated at the Pump Room of the Ambassador East Hotel, and Frederick Stock was building what would become the greatest symphony orchestra in the world. Illustrated with over 250 black and white and colour illustrations from this fascinating period, Chicago provides a unique panorama of those turbulent decades in an American city like no other. From gangsters and gun molls to the Cubs and the White Sox, and from the Chicago World's Fair to operas and opulence , this book relives a wonderful era...