Posted By: Michael Sweeney
Oct. 31, 2008
So, the first question I’ve got to ask myself is, well, how much of an actual tragedy is it when a 96-year-old man who has lived maybe four or five very full lives (and whose very dear and beloved wife has preceded him by nine years) peacefully succumbs to the end that awaits us all? I mean, isn’t that the sort of life that nearly any of us would seek to emulate – perhaps even trade our own lesser, shorter, more reckless lives for? …But, then, beyond that generic description, all you need to hear is that the departed man is Chicago’s own patron saint of self-made authors and fiercely thinking and fighting liberals, Studs Terkel…then, suddenly, even 96 is far too few years. Pardon me while I shed a few tears. A quick summary of his background…Louis Terkel came to Chicago (with his tailor father and circus-performer mother) at an early age around 1920; their life running a rooming house exposed him to a wide and deep variety of people and their opinions. He picked up a law degree in the early days of the Depression, but decided he would rather be a performer of some sort. "Studs" was bestowed on him by a theater director to differentiate him from another "Louis" in the cast (he was reading one of James Farrell’s "Studs Lonigan" books at the time). He worked as a federal W.P.A. writer, an actor, a radio announcer, and all-around raconteur. He had an early television show, was later blacklisted for not naming names, and ended up coming into Chicago’s homes and ears every weekday for 45 years via a show on WFMT, the classical music FM station. But Studs’ fame and influence was spread the widest by the books – mostly "oral histories" – he wrote, collecting voices and ideas and memories and attitudes and personalities with his tape recorder, then translating them into spun, interconnected stories, exposing and updating the past and the heart of America from the street level on up. Division Street, Hard Times, Working, The Good War (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985), Will the Circle Be Unbroken – in these best-known volumes (plus more than a dozen more) he chronicled the voices and choices of the men and women who witnessed history, not made it; he elevated all jobs to the level of "worth knowing about," not just those of politicians or doctors or lawyers or celebrities… I learned of him in my 20s, listening to the WFMT show. One day, he might have Loudon Wainwright III on; the next day, it might be an old-time union leader; later in the same week, Leonard Bernstein. Authors, artists, musicians, politicians, thinkers – unique voices, like those in his books…that’s what he brought us. Through his work, his attitude, and the devotion of his followers and friends (like Roger Ebert, who never tired of writing up his latest encounters with his beloved ol’ Studs), I grew to love him and what he brought to the fore and what he meant to this city. Sure, Chicago is the land of Daley – and for more than 50 years now (with a shortish interruption), they and their people have run things here. But other names – usually of a very liberal and populist bent – have popped up along the way, keeping the true attitudes of "the people" important and their concerns up-front and in the faces of the ruling class…Saul Alinsky, Nelson Algren, Fred Hampton, Bill Singer, Harold Washington…but before and since them all, there was always Studs Terkel. Just last week, a piece on Huffington Post covered a recent call the writer made to Studs, asking his feelings about the election and Barack Obama’s assumed ascendancy. The nearly deaf, but always intellectually sprightly (even after a recent fall that limited him) Terkel went off, calling Palin "Joe McCarthy in drag!" and hoping Obama would recall his organizing roots and stay progressive. He ended the call by saying "I'm very excited by the idea of a black guy in the White House, that's very exciting." …I wish I could have ever even spent half-an-hour sitting and listening to him (I wouldn’t dare deign myself into such a "conversation" with the man)…and I wish he could’ve lived to see the important, progressive results I expect on Tuesday night. Godspeed to you, Studs. We Chicago liberals and free-thinkers – and, indeed, the entire world of ideas – are down one irreplaceable lion… For more coverage of Illinois politics, look for my regular, weekly posts (usually on Wednesdays) here on The Stonecipher Report. (And, for a free subscription to my twice-weekly e-mail column on politics and pop-culture, "And, in the News…" send a note to: m_l_sweeney@hotmail.com)
