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STUDS TERKEL TOAST APRIL 9, 1991 STUDSTERKEL TOAST IN SUPPORT OF THE CENTER FOR NEIGHBORHOOD TECHNOLOGY The Center For Neighborhood Technology has throughout the 80s honored “rich and famous” Chicagoans at an annual fundraising event. “Rich” in that they had experiences of struggle to make Chicago a better place and “famous” because they were popular in a town that knows how to spot phoneys. The list of honorees is impressive: John Egan, Stan Hallett, Florence Scala, June LaVelle and Scott Bernstein. This year is special. Studs Terkel has consented to let the Center For Neighborhood Technology toast him. What an opportunity for all of us who have resonated to this Chicago voice which has for years been able to rally us or make us reflect on the important issues. Studs has been more than a voice. He has given us fellow Chicagoans a place, here in town, to be heard and respected. For that we love him. We hope to use this occasion not only to toast Studs but also to celebrate together with others who share some vision of community. -Lew Kreinberg Masters of Board of Directors Scott Bernstein Ceremony Ramiro Borja PRESIDENT MISSION STATEMENT Leon Despres CHAIRMAN Aaron Freeman Nancy Mathews Founded in 1978, the Center for Neighborhood Technology James Hadley EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR VICE CHAIRMAN seeks affordable, appropriately scaled, locally controlled Stephen A. Perkins ways for city residents to meet basic needs-for food, Charles Hill, Sr. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR housing, jobs, and a healthy environment. The Center Co-Chairs VICE CHAIRMAN pursues this mission through a combination of public interest Dr. Whitney Addington engineering work, research, information, and advocacy. It Jane Alexandroff Jeremy Warburg Russo has earned a reputation for analyzing complex issues of Margaret Burroughs TREASURER energy, economics, housing, and the environment, and Msgr. John (Jack) Egan implementing solutions that create new options for low- and Sherry Goodman Christopher Burgess moderate-income neighborhoods, both in Chicago and other Lew Kreinberg SECRETARY Special Guests urban settings. Seven program divisions make up the Center: Sen. Richard Newhouse Richie Havens Energy Services, Housing, Industrial Environmental Carole Nolan Sonia Bloch Fred Holstein Ray Nordstrand Leila Botts Bonnie Koloc Services, Public Transit, Public Issues, Neighborhood Mike Royko Jonathan Boyer Polly Podewell Investment, and The Neighborhood Works. Bernard Sahlins Bliss Williams Browne Pete Seeger Toshi and Peter Seeger Irving (Gus) Cherry Dr. Quentin Young Elizabeth Densmore Richard DeVries Sharon Feigon Maurice Gamze Ric Gudell Ruth Louie Event Planning Toasters Richard Luecke Committee Paul Carroll Harvey Lyon Scott Bernstein Cyrus Colter Jerald I. Much Sharon Feigon Msgr. John (Jack) Egan Mary Nelson James Hadley Leon Despres Harold Olin Julie Johnson Vernon Jarrett Art Perez Lew Kreinberg Lew Kreinberg Michael Perlow Chuck Olin Victor Navasky Angelo Rose Darlene Pearlstein Norman Pellegrini Sam Sains Michael Perlow Dr. Jorge Prieto Michael Scott Dr. Jorge Prieto Mike Royko Art Smith Florence Scala Florence Scala Steven Starr Michael Scott Dr. Quentin Young Paul Thanos Michaela Touhy Beverly Younger Kathryn Tholin Penny Tyler STUDSTERKEL TOAST IN THE LOBBY.. PROGRAM The Center For Neighborhood Technology invites you to examine the literature displayed on tables located in the lobby area. Materials are available that explain the mission, goals andagenda 5:30 RECEPTION of the The Center For Neighborhood Technology. Music by Joe Johnson. The following groups are also represented: The Chicago Recycling Coalition, The Chicago Electric Options Campaign, The Campaign 6:30 PROGRAM (Participants In Order Of Appearance.) For Responsible Ownership and CNT’s Information Service, The Neighborhood Works. Aaron Freeman Scott Bernstein We hope that you will take a moment to review the materials Nancy Mathews offered by these important community organizations. Individuals Leon Despres are available to answer any questions you might have. Polly Podewell Gene Esposito Beverly Younger Cyrus Colter Norman Pellegrini Lew Kreinberg Richie Havens Msgr. John (Jack) Egan Florence Scala Paul Carroll Victor Navasky Pete Seeger SOUVENIRS OF THE STUDS TERKEL TOAST Jorge Prieto Mike Royko ARE AVAILABLE . Vernon Jarrett Quentin Young Henry Blakely Why not purchase a Studs’ mug to commemorate this occasion? Ramiro Borja James Hadley or Studs Terkel Fred Holstein Obtain a copy of “Chicago” for Studs to autograph! Bonnie Koloc Cash bars are located in the lobby area. They will remain Souvenirs can be purchased in the lobby area. All proceeds help support the Center open until 9:00 P.M. for your convenience. For Neighborhood Technology in the continuing effort to Build Sustainable Communities. THE ORGANICTHEATER COMPANY Kroch’s & Brentano’s SALUTES salutes Studs Terkel There are ninny American dreams in the city STUDS of Chicago Not all are found on DIVISION AND street or with the giants OF JAZZ, or with those who fought the Good War or even with those who fell on Hard Times.They can be found THE CENTER FOR anywhere and everywhere ... even among those NEIGHBORHOOD wearing red-checked shirts and red v-neck sweat- ers. There is a Great Divide however, between TECHNOLOGY those who do and those who don’t have a dream. Kroch &. Brentano’s would like to thank Studs Terkel for Working so diligently on his dreams ONTHE MAINSTAGE which have produced the kinds of books that American Enterprise---A great Chicago story about make us proud to be booksellers. George Pullman, the Pullman Strike and the early days of the labor movement. INTHE GREENHOUSE Erotica: Little Birds- A rollicking adaptation of erotic tales by Anais Nin. SATURDAY MORNINGS AT 11 Jim Post’s Cookie Curmb Club--a participatory concert for children and their grownup friends. One Chicago institution visits another Studs Terkel autographs copies of Chicago at Kroch’se &. ORGANIC Brentano’s on Michigan Ave. THEATER Kroch’s & Brentano’s THE FULL SERVICE BOOKSTORES* 3319 N.Clark St. 29 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, IL 60603 (312) 332-7500 3 12/327-5588 Studs - Vox populi Studs is palatable to his fellow Americans not because they always agree with him. They do not. But because he is a mixture By Kenan Heise of debater and singer, of talker and listener and of scholar and light-hearted humorist. Studs Terkel is often described with a one-word modifier, “Chicago’s.” A radical whom conservatives respect because he is authentic. A gabby character who people listen to because he entertains and This raspy-voice, very direct bundle of energy, this Studs Terkel has something to say. A conscience who is heard because he is genuine and quintessential Chicago. With him, what you see speaks of freedom. Studs is all of these. is what you get. Studs is a man of the worker, the poor, the intellectual and the In the finest Chicago tradition, he eschews elitism, deflates underdog. A man, yes, but one who shares very many feminine pomposity and flames in anger at all those who crassly espouse qualities, thanks to a large extent because of the very special trickle-down politics, economics and culture. human being, Ida, with whom he shares a marriage and commitments to a much better world. His ways are without blahness, flabbiness or compromise and he is democratic all the way through to his least pretentious impulse. He is the true super-patriot without being a super-nationalist. He believes in the Bill of Rights, even when it is protecting the Studs would more easily be on a Maxwell Street merchant’s best other guy, though that person be a criminal, a traitor or even a dressed list than on one from Marshall Field’s. He looks Republican. authentically funky, with his loosened red knit ties, checked shirts, gray trousers and blue blazers. Little wonder, then, he was cast Of him, John Kenneth Galbraith said, “If Studs did not exist, as a sports scribe in the movie, “Eight Men Out.” some suitably qualified supernatural authority would have had to intervene and invent him. And that, admittedly, would have been In Studs, deep down, are stoked the smouldering convictions a difficult task.” of Haymarket martyr Albert Parsons, the enlighting spark of architect Louis Sullivan’s mind and the boisterous enthusiasm of Studs Louis Terkel is Chicagoan by choice. He was born in New sports owner for the people, Bill Veeck. He has shared the fire York City, moving here as a boy. He adopted not only the city, with such fellow Chicago authors as Theodore Dreiser, James T. but also the nickname, Studs, from Studs Lonigan, James T. Farrell, Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks and Nelson Algren. Farrell’s fictional Chicago character. Studs is Clarence Darrow, who never practiced law; John Peter He worked first as a clerk at the Wells-Grand Hotel, which his Altgeld, who never held office; Jane Addams, who never ran a family owned. He studied law at the University of Chicago and settlement house; Carl Sandburg, who never published poetry; earned a law degree, but never practiced, seeking rather to be and Ida B. Wells, who is not black. an actor. He reminds us of the anonymous hobo on a 1930s Bughouse It was in the 1930s, not a good time for gainful employment in Square soapbox as well as the unnamed jazz player from a acting, except perhaps in radio soap operas. He took a job for Prohibition era South Side speakeasy. the federal government, got radio parts as best he could and joined the Writers Program of the Works Progress Administration. There, he wrote and performed in WPA plays. When live television out of Chicago became a tour de force in “Working,” his saga of the lives of ordinary working people; the late 1940s, he was at the heart of it. He hosted “Studs’ Place,” part of the legendary Chicago School of Television. “Talking to Myself: A Memoir of My Times”; “Studs’ Place” was about conversation and he proved he could “Chicago”; be the master of it.

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