“Sirens in the Loop” book give us City News in all its glory
Many of their names helped define Chicago journalism and many of their names mean nothing to you and many of their names are lost to yellowed newsprint.
They worked for a place called the City News Bureau, and yet you benefited from the work done by thousands of people, mostly young and enthusiastic, roaming the city for generations collecting news both good and bad, bloody and mundane.
It began in 1890 as a collective to provide a number of Chicago newspapers with around-the-clock coverage of the latest local news, assembled by aspiring journalists (and others) who didn’t care about low wages, harsh bosses, and brutal schedules.
It is gone today and ended twenty years ago, after 115 years. It died a whimper, but in its noisy, frenetic heyday it was a breeding ground for journalists, less a finishing school than a military training camp.
A new book, “Sirens in the Loop: A History of the City News Bureau of Chicago,” tells this story. It looks like a huge high school yearbook, littered with the names of successful kids, like, first and foremost, Mike Royko, but also journalists like Seymour Hersh (subject of the currently available documentary “Cover-Up”), Pam Zekman and Charles MacArthur, co-author (with Ben Hecht) of the play “The Front Page.”
As Hersch once said: “The basics you learn at City News are the basics of business. I would say you could learn a lot better there than you did in journalism school.”
The book tells the great stories, old and relatively recent. There is the burning of the Iroquois Theater and the sinking of the Eastland. There’s Richard Speck and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the kidnapping and murder of young Suzanne Degnan, the Tylenol murders and the burning of Our Lady of the Angels, John Wayne Gacy.
Most CNB alumni have pursued careers in journalism. Some became spokespeople for politicians or academics, and a few prospered in fields such as theater (Melvyn Douglas), novel writing (Kurt Vonnegut), and art (Claes Oldenburg). Most of them had vivid memories of their time on the streets of the city. As Vonnegut once said, “I’m proud of the work I did there. It was like being a soldier.”
The book was written by James Elsener and primarily by Paul Zimbrakos, who worked for CNB for over 40 years, and was a relatively gentle man compared to some of the tough, barking bosses of CNB’s early years, mostly as city editor (i.e. boss). He began what would become this book in the late 1990s, contacting his elders for their memories, their anecdotes and, in many cases, their thanks.
Following Zimbrakos’ death, the documents he had collected were picked up by former City News Bureau kid (early 1970s) and Tribune veteran Elsener.
He writes, with admirable humility: “When I began work on this book, I thought the writing task would be overwhelming…I discovered that another journalist had already written a story that surpassed anything I could have written…My task was to organize the information and edit the manuscript. »
He’s done a wonderful and terrifically entertaining job, although by focusing on the 1950s and beyond he misses all the stories of my father Herman Kogan’s time there, which took place in the late 1930s. This is understandable, as is my awkward flirtation with CNB in the late 1960s, which ended with me working as a taxi driver.
But it was a pleasure reading about good friends, colleagues and CNB alumni such as Royko, Anne Keegan, Bob Billings, Susan Kuczka, Bernie Judge, Maury Possley and many others. There’s even a chapter devoted to the Billy Goat Tavern.
As Elsener writes, “Paul’s vision was for this book to serve as a text for journalism students. I did not see it that way. The City News Bureau existed because of the vitality of a growing and prosperous Chicago. CNB recorded a daily story of the city and its residents, in partnership with the daily newspapers. …I am sure that journalism professors and students can benefit from the City News story, but the media world has changed too radically for it to serve something other than a testimony to the history of a great city and its distinctive brand of journalism.
This is not a textbook at all, but rather an intimate look at a bygone era. It overlaps somewhat with the only other book of its kind, 1983’s “Behind the Front Page,” by longtime CNB boss Arnold “Dorny” Dornfeld, who is credited with the immortal phrase in journalistic circles: “If your mother says she loves you, take a look.” »
Royko wrote the introduction to this book, in which he said of its author: “The first thing you noticed was the eye. I don’t remember if it was the left eye or the right eye, but it seemed to be much larger than the other… The eye had the effect of a harsh, blinding lamp that the cops used to illuminate the face of a suspect they were interrogating. You wanted to confess, to admit your sins, to plead guilty – anything to distract that unblinking eye.”
This book captures a truly remarkable place, one that once prompted Time Magazine to write: “(City News) is probably the most successful school of practical journalism in the United States, and its alumni are as well-known as they are obscure.” »
Many of us in the news business (especially those of us with graying hair) tend to romanticize the past, embellish the stories we cover, and glorify the people we know. This good book also does some of that, and no one needs to complain.
rkogan@chicagotribune.com
