R. Kelly’s Old Lady

CHICAGO’S FREE WEEKLY | THIS ISSUE IN FOUR SECTIONS How FRIDAY, FEB 17, 2006 | VOLUME 35, NUMBER 21 local Chris Ware radio p 16 legend La Donna Tittle got The Works “Trapped The rest of the Red Line? in the p 8 Closet”

Restaurants Vegetarian, vegan, and raw Section 2

A movie about Iraq, a play about Guantanamo, our favorite PLUS moral relativist Jack Bauer, best belt buckle ever, and more Section One Letters 3 Our Town 19 Now that’s a rock ’n’ roll high school Columns Hot Type 4 Reviews Jack Bauer’s real appeal Movies 27 The Straight Dope 5 Eugene Jarecki’s Why We Fight Superhuman strength, continued Art 29 Yutaka Sone at the The Works 8 Can federal funding get the Theater 30 Red Line past 95th? TimeLine Theatre Company’s Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom Antisocial 10 New York Fashion Week Plus What Are You Wearing? 20 Victoriana, taxidermy, and high-rise jeans February 17, 2006 Comic Chris Ware 16 Ink Well 31 This week’s crossword: Discounts

ON THE COVER: NORMAN L. HUNTER FOR JET, 1979 R. Kelly’s Old Lady She’s best known as the DJ who ruled black radio in the 70s and 80s, but La Donna Tittle has always thought of herself as an actress. Now thanks to a cameo in R.Kelly’s epic “” video, she’s ready for her close-up. OM RIGHT) TT PEREZ (LEFT AND BO TY MAR Tittle on the air at WKKC, on the set with R. Kelly as Rosie the nosy neighbor, cosmetics on the console

By Jake Austen or much of the 70s and 80s La Donna Tittle was the her the acting career she’s always dreamed of. queen of local black radio. She was number one in her In one of the videos for “Trapped in the Closet,” R. Kelly’s F time slot, showered with awards, and tens of thou- multipart R & B song cycle, Tittle plays Rosie, the elderly, sands of fans roared when she took the stage at funk and R spatula-wielding “nosy neighbor.” Her brief appearance, & B concerts. A longtime midday fixture on local radio, she mugging like a silent-film actor, is a highlight of the was, as her nickname put it, your Tittle in the Middle. Grammy-nominated series of videos. But even at the height of her radio career she considered herself an actress, doing side work in commercials, industri- ittle grew up in Bronzeville, in the shadow of the Regal al films, and local plays. Those jobs included a turn as a T Theater. As a girl she helped run the cash register at the teacher in a 1997 horror film, The Relic, and a guest role pool hall on 47th Street owned by her father, James O. on an episode of a cop show, Turks, in ’99. Nowadays Tittle Tittle, who’d also worked as a bartender, musician, and appears mostly on humble media outlets like WKKC, longshoreman. He demanded excellence from his five chil- Kennedy-King College’s 185-watt radio station, and dren, doling out “whuppings” for any failings, be they in CAN TV, where she hosts a soul-food cooking show. schoolwork or in his favorite game, chess. “My father didn’t But a nonspeaking cameo may be the role that brings continued on page 21 20 CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 17, 2006 | SECTION ONE

What Are You Wearing? Our Town

continued from page 19 letter jacket. There were fur coats happy to be out of the house with and Zeppelin T-shirts and sunglasses something to do.” worn indoors. Gia Muzzalupo and Oswego East’s auditorium, which her friends had spent all week plan- features an elaborate professional ning their outfits over the phone. lighting rig and an unbelievably loud “We have to dress attractive,” she sound system, is frequently rented for said. “What if we want to marry public events, according to the someone in the band?” school’s theater manager, Todd Once the house music—live Mielcarz. “We mostly just get recitals Warren Zevon—was cut and the in here,” he said. “This kind of show, a lights went down, the VIP rope was punk band, that’s a pretty big deal for moot. Black Wire entered to high- us in a presenting season. Our main pitched screaming, the kids rushed concern is safety. We’re keeping the the stage, and the screaming contin- VIP roped off so people don’t rush the ued throughout a well-honed, Clash- stage. I don’t think they will.” But inspired half-hour set. The kids physical safety wasn’t the only con- screamed when the band danced. cern. Though Forsell had submitted They screamed for guitar solos. A copies of Black Wire’s album, along group of girls from Waubonsie Valley with T-shirts and posters, to the High School screamed “I love you!” UGLIA school’s administrators for approval every time Wilson neared the lip of several months earlier, it wasn’t until the stage. They screamed when he VERIO TR SA the day before the concert that objec- kicked a water bottle and when he Martha Mulholland tions were raised. Several parents took chewed the banana-flavored gum issue with the title “Hard to Love, that had been thrown onstage. They Easy to Lay” and also with the explic- screamed when he announced before Something Old, itness of Forsell’s label name. In order the band’s second song, “This one’s for the concert to go off as planned, about London.” They imitated his “Giant Pecker” had to be blacked out moves: pogoing, rock-steady ska from all posters and promotional dancing, throwing arms to the beat. Something Eew materials, no merchandise could be Wilson, clearly amused, had to catch sold, and the band had not only to himself in the middle of his standard artha Mulholland, 22, grew Just for yourself? and hound belt buckles and stuff. This agree not to play “Hard to Love,” but in-between-song banter, stopping M up in Lexington, Kentucky, Yeah. It’s interesting to see yourself is a greyhound. I remember it was sit- to not say the word lay at all. after he began to thank the kids for and works as a cataloguer for taken out of context, to suddenly look at ting in my mother’s dresser for years The audience, a total of 420 people “coming out tonight.” M. Klein Auctions. yourself and you’re somebody else. It’s and I was always petrified of it. why I collect mirrors too. I like to think including guests and chaperones, ran As their their set progressed the You seem drawn to things What is that around your shoulders? about who used to wear this, how many that are creepy. the gamut from JV basketball cheer- band never once said the word lay, A Victorian silk collar. faces have looked in this throughout I don’t know where that comes from. I leaders (still in uniform) who had although fuck was uttered twice: once Where’d you get it? history and who’s been reflected back. never heard the band to serious fans accidentally by Wilson, and once quite like juxtaposing pretty with macabre, There used to be an old store in How do tight jeans fit into this picture? but I don’t think I like “creepy.” like 15-year-old Charise Walters, who intentionally by an eager young man Kentucky called Just Fabu run by two I thrifted these in Los Angeles. They What about the taxidermy? normally does sound for the theater who grabbed the mike and cussed a gay guys. Every time I went home have the 14-inch rise that makes it vir- I grew up in the country around ani- but tonight was working as a runner female teacher. Then for their final they would let me root through the tually impossible to move. I feel like all mals and now in the city I’m not real- for the band’s soundman. “I got into song, in spite of their promise, they back room. I also have little jackets my organs are being rearranged. and hoop skirts from this little shop. ly around wildlife. So I’m bringing it the band about a year ago,” she said. launched into “Hard to Love.” Wilson That’s very Victorian, actually. What’s into my home. People ask how I can “I heard about them from family in began pulling audience members up What’s with the Victoriana? your belt buckle? have stuffed animals in my house England, actually. It’s really cool that onto the stage, who in turn pulled up I’m a hoarder and I collect things. I This is from when my dad went out of around living animals, my cats. I say they are actually playing my high their friends, and by the song’s second collect antique clothing and antique the horse business. He bred horses, it’s OK because they would’ve been furniture and taxidermy animals—I and business in general was bad for a well dead anyway. I named them all— school.” Other kids took fashion cues chorus, almost the entire audience want to keep them for posterity. while, but he was so attached to this the pheasant is Ferdinand, the squir- from pictures they’d seen of people at was bouncing around up there, I’ll get really dressed up in period equestrian ideal that he opened a rel is Fievel. They keep me and the concerts. One boy wore a dark green jostling for spots next to band mem- costumes sometimes. hoity-toity riding shop. It was full of fox cats company. —Liz Armstrong wool suit he’d borrowed from his bers and screaming into the micro- dad, which was five or six sizes too phones. Eventually Wilson was big for him. Another had on a shirt squeezed off, and as his band finished that simply read REGGAE under his the song, he watched the kids. v CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 17, 2006 | SECTION ONE 21

Tittle

continued from page 1 take no shit,” Tittle says. “You worked your ass off, you kept things clean.” Her mother, Juanita, among other jobs, managed the pool hall and also a record store, McKee’s Bop Shop, at 47th and South Park Way (now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive). Tittle recalls being a young girl watching DJs Al Benson and McKee Fitzhugh do remote broadcasts in the store window; if they were running late, her mother would jump on the air herself to spin records. Tittle tended to her four younger siblings, and she picked up odd jobs as well. Working behind the candy counter at the Regal, she fell in love with R & B music. “Seeing those shows was like watching Christmas,” she says. “The lights and the music just surrounded you. I would see artists like Jackie Wilson, Big Maybelle, the Blue Notes before they were Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes— Cookin’ they were so Wit’ Tittle handsome. We TV: would try to WHEN Thursdays 7 get their atten- PM, Fridays 2 PM tion, but they (rerun), CAN TV knew we were just little girls. RADIO: I always had WHEN Fridays 10 music around AM-2 PM, WKKC me because my 89.3 FM father played horn. When he was a bartender at the Brass Rail under the 47th Street el tracks, I would be in the office while my mother was doing the books, and I would see guys like Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons come in and play with my father. It was a wonderful time.” Her parents separated in the early 60s, and with her mother

and siblings Tittle became one of OOKING) the first tenants of the Robert

Taylor Homes. As a teenager she PEREZ (C TY witnessed the slow decline of the MAR projects—vandalized elevators, Cookin’ Wit’ Tittle on CAN TV, a Victor Skrebneski shot from 1970, with Oprah in 1980, at WBMX in 1977 dangerous incinerator chutes, gang activity—taking refuge in reading of Dial M for Murder, dancer Donald Griffith. the term they used, but you had one for Purex. This business the projects’ rec centers, where and soon she began studying With Griffith’s encouragement, to be multitalented to keep compels you to expand. But I some of the key players in with Johnson and ETA’s other Tittle registered with a talent working. I was doing voice-overs never knew I was destined to do Chicago’s black arts movement founder, Abena Joan Brown, at agency as a model after she grad- for McDonald’s, runway model- radio. I had no idea, even when I were teaching. Drama instructor Stateway Gardens. Through uated from Dunbar Vocational ing at Marshall Field’s, photo used to see my mother doing it.” Okoro Harold Johnson, later the them Tittle met other luminar- High School, and she soon found bookings. I was in the New York After high school she attended cofounder of the ETA Creative ies, including AACM cofounder modeling and acting work. “Back Times after modeling at ‘market Loop Junior College, and in 1966 Arts Foundation, gave Tittle her Phil Cohran, jack-of-all-trades then being a model was not just week’ in New York. My first tele- she married Ronald Horton. “My first acting role as the wife in a Oscar Brown Jr., and ballet modeling,” she says. “That was vision commercial was a national continued on page 22 22 CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 17, 2006 | SECTION ONE

Tittle

continued from page 21 husband and I loved dancing, and we’d go to a social club on 48th and Wabash called the Times Square,” she says. “Ronald introduced me to the DJ at the dances, Herb Kent, and he was the one who told me I had a good voice for radio.” “I was her first teacher,” says Herb “the Kool Gent” Kent, who in the 60s was a key member of the “Good Guys,” an influential group of black DJs on WVON. “She would come over to my office and I would teach her. She wanted to get into the right pro- fession—she was born with the voice and was very personable, and she was just a gorgeous woman. I often wondered how someone who looked like that could live in the projects.” Horton was eager to have chil- dren but she wasn’t. She recalls telling him, “Twelve babies are not coming out of me!” Horton volunteered for army service; in 1969, shortly after returning from Vietnam, he was killed in a car wreck at Fort Hood, Texas. Tittle continued as a student, graduating from Chicago State University in 1971 with a degree in art, theater, and secondary education. She had also earned a certificate from a broadcasting trade school, and she parlayed a gig reading PSAs on an AM station, WBEE, into a full-time on-air job after she graduated. In CHING) 1973 she jumped to WBMX, an

FM R & B station that was PEREZ (TEA TY

becoming the predominant black MAR station in Chicago. At first she Tittle teaching video at Cook Elementary and radio at Kennedy-King College, with Isaac Hayes in 1979 read news and worked overnight slots, but after a year she moved Leonard Chess, died in 1969 the hat made Tittle such a and there was something casting and theater department. to weekday afternoons; her pres- station’s fortunes had declined, W success was that voice: her comforting and wise in her low, “She simply had the perfect ence on the mike, combined with but until Tittle arrived Kent had deep, husky timbre was seductive, melodic voice. Still, her girlish female announcer’s voice.” WBMX’s rising stature, made still ruled the roost. “I got clob- but her style was casual and personality came through. “She In 1978 WJPC, owned by her the number-one midday bered, and I wasn’t too happy,” he playful. At WBMX she maintained has a smile when she talks, and Johnson Publishing’s John H. radio DJ in Chicago. says. “Having someone I trained a dignified, mellow manner to you can hear it,” says Virgil Johnson, lured Tittle away from She’d wrested the title from beat me like that was like being complement the smooth adult R Hemphill, an instructor in WBMX, doubling her salary. Herb Kent. After WVON’s owner, shot with my own gun.” & B the station specialized in, Kennedy-King College’s broad- Popular DJ Tom Joyner had the CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 17, 2006 | SECTION ONE 23

morning slot; in between Joyner was a lousy fit for Tittle’s person- and early-evening DJ Bebe D. Tittle got laid off from WGCI the same year her ality. Eventually she was buried Banana, Tittle became Tittle in in the 2-to-6 AM slot. In 2000 the Middle. WJPC quickly mother died. “I went through this really terrific funk the station shifted to automated became a powerhouse, sponsor- overnight broadcasts, doing away ing major concerts like a for about a year and a half,” she says. “I was drinking with the need for a late-night DJ, Parliament-Funkadelic show at and Tittle was laid off. Soldier Field in 1978. Joyner cognac, I was cussing out a lot of people, and I was Her dismissal happened the was also WJPC’s program direc- same year her mother died. “I tor, and under his leadership engaged for six months to a person I hated.” went through this really terrific DJs were free to break away funk for about a year and a from the smoothness that typi- Johnson treated her like a queen, family. He supported her as she In December 1989 John H. half,” she says. “I was drinking fied black radio; they appeared she never acted stuck-up.” finished college, and guided her Johnson sold WJPC, ending cognac, I was cussing out a lot together on a novelty Christmas Unlike the DJ with the prover- through her early radio career; Tittle’s run at the station. After of people, and I was engaged hip-hop single, “Christmas bial face for radio, Tittle had the he also pushed her to do volun- brief stops at a Joliet blues sta- for six months to a person I Delight,” on which Tittle rapped looks to match her voice, which teer work and connect with the tion and smooth-jazz radio at hated.” Eager to do “anything to and crooned intentionally off- Johnson Publishing capitalized community. (Tittle’s worked with WNUA, she began working full- get away from corporate radio,” key. On the air, Tittle was silly, on by regularly publishing pho- the Midwest Association for time at WGCI in 1992, beginning she began doing some interior raucous, and loud: she joked tos of her in some of its national Sickle Cell Anemia, Operation nine difficult years there. “This decorating, and she continued with callers, gossiped about magazines, including Ebony, PUSH, and Omega Baptist was the beginning of corporate to take acting jobs, landing one recording artists, and had her Black Stars, and Jet . In 1979 she Church, among others.) She radio,” she says. “It pays good, in Five Rooms of Furniture at mother, “Mama T,” call in to was featured as a Jet “Beauty of spent years turning down his good benefits, but it is so format- the Organic Theater. During offer advice and comments on the Week” wearing a bikini made marriage proposals. “That was ted, and it is not fun. You have one such gig a WHPK DJ and current events. of WJPC bumper stickers. “It my biggest mistake,” she says. “I no control over the music you fellow actor, Sterling “the Jazz “She used to come to work in was a real honor to be a Jet cen- was thinking about my career play. You had a list of songs Doctor” Watson, told her about the most far-fetched outfits,” says terfold,” Tittle says, scoffing at and didn’t want to rush into any- [and] you just play exactly what his experience at CAN TV cre- Denise Jordan Walker, who the notion that the photo was thing after Ronald.” comes up and in that order. At ating public-access TV shows. worked with Tittle at WJPC in exploitative. “It was a sexy look Johnson died of a brain ’JPC they trusted your knowl- The prospect of doing her own the 80s and later at WNUA. “She for a sexy time. And those were tumor in 1981. “I began to think edge of the music.” show appealed: “After all I’d might wear a red boa or a fur real bumper stickers on real skin. I was jinxed,” Tittle says. “Both Tittle drew strong ratings, but been through I knew I should coat in an exotic color—one time And yes, it hurt coming off.” times I coped by throwing she was bounced between be doing my own television I think she came to work in a After her husband died Tittle myself heavily into my work. WGCI’s AM and FM stations show,” she says. “I wanted to be ballet tutu. When she came in began dating John E. Johnson More and more my career was and asked to work different the one responsible for show- the whole room lit up. She was a (no relation to John H. Johnson) therapy to deal with the loss of shifts. The AM station moved to casing my talent.” real diva, but though Mr. of the Johnson hair-care product two great people in my life.” a gospel format in 1998, which continued on page 24 24 CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 17, 2006 | SECTION ONE

Tittle

continued from page 23 TV. As if to prove just how a ball,” says WKKC station man- Each part ends with a cliff- Inn downtown, where the rawing on her showbiz con- sweaty her work in the kitchen ager Dorian Jones. hanger plot twist, and as the sev- auditions were being held. D nections, Tittle started out in can get, Tittle tends to show a lot Just before the Fourth of July enth draws to a close Sylvester “[The casting director] had a 2001 with an interview show, of skin on the show, often wear- weekend, around the same time (Kelly’s gun-happy character) little dog that she had to take The La Donna Tittle TV/Radio ing something low-cut and she started at WKKC, Tittle got a and Twan (Sylvester’s hotheaded outside,” Tittle says. “As I was Show, where she chatted up sleeveless under her apron. call from her agent, tipping her ex-con brother-in-law) have their going in her dog noticed me. entertainers like the Temptations Tittle’s now back behind a to an audition for the R. Kelly cocked firearms aimed at the front [The casting director] later and actor Chester Gregory. But radio mike as well. Last summer video. In early 2005 Kelly door, ready to terminate the inter- told me that she almost stopped after catching an exhibit dedicat- she took a position at Kennedy- released “Trapped in the Closet,” loper on the other side. The door me to ask me right there to ed to soul food at the Bethel King College as part of a pro- a five-part melodrama that fea- opens to reveal the first overtly come up to the audition.” Cultural Arts Center, she decided gram in which radio veterans tured him singing a convoluted comedic moment of the epic: an “It wasn’t hard to bring Rosie to recast her program as a cook- mentor college DJs; with her narrative over a spare track addled old lady wielding a spatu- to life,” she says. “I always come ing show. Cookin’ Wit’ Tittle students observing, she broad- punctuated by heartbeatlike la. “It’s Rosie the nosy neighbor / to a shoot with my hair in rollers debuted in 2003, taking a sensu- casts Fridays from 10 AM to 2 surges. The songs, and the soap- Oh, with a spatula in her hand / to give the stylist a fresh set to al approach to soul food—the PM on WKKC, 89.3 FM. (You opera-like videos that accompa- Like that’s gon’ do something work with. When the director camera zooms in often for inti- need to be on the south side to nied them, quickly became a against them guns,” Kelly sings. saw me in my rollers, he said, mate shots of the ingredients, pick it up: Northwestern’s sta- national phenomenon. Kelly has Under the cap, robe, and ‘That’s it!’ I brought my spatula and Tittle boasts that she’s the tion, WNUR, has that frequency eagerly responded—he’s released curlers is Tittle, who practically from home, my nightcap. All they first person ever to clean notori- on the north side.) “She can play 12 parts thus far and has prom- had the role even before she put me in was the robe. When R. ously malodorous chitterlings on anything she wants, and she has ised there are more on the way. stepped into the Hilton Garden Kelly saw me in costume getting

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into character he said, ‘Rosie, you “We actually got something requests for this story.) “I don’t Kennedy-King College, she me and hugged me. He had this are something else. I love you.’” coming up for Rosie,” R. Kelly think he’s made the connection,” teaches video and photography to little area on one side, and I had The arrival of Rosie the nosy said in October when he appeared Tittle says. “And that is excellent, students at Barton and Cook ele- my little fan area on the other side neighbor, not to mention a defe- on Jimmy Kimmel Live, which because I want to believe that he mentary schools, and she occa- of the VIP section. So I had my cating, asthmatic midget stripper showed Tittle’s scene multiple just thinks I’m a good actress. sionally substitutes at high fan, and I was staring at him, and a shotgun-toting white-trash times. Kelly said he was consider- This is what I want to do—to schools—including her alma getting all up into the character. adulteress (sung by Kelly in a hill- ing adapting the song cycle for the bring a character to life.” mater, Dunbar Vocational. Later he was coming down the billy accent), ignited parodies on stage; later that week he told USA These days Tittle’s datebook is Last fall she and a friend couldn’t steps, singing while he walked, Saturday Night Live, MADtv, and Today that a sitcom version was packed: she’s been working in resist the opportunity to track and he looked at me and said, ‘You South Park. Late last year the LA also a possibility. commercials and industrial films down Kelly when they were at the know, I got a lot of work for you.’ chapter of the Upright Citizens Though Kelly almost certainly for clients like Walt Disney World same club. “There was a VIP room “That’s good, I thought, Brigade, a comedy troupe started listened to Tittle growing up, he and U.S. Cellular, and she’s also upstairs, and I told security I was because I want to be Rosie in Chicago, hosted a pseudo sym- hasn’t publicly equated Rosie with begun work on her memoirs and Rosie the nosy neighbor, and I forever,” she says. “I want to posium on the series (with the Tittle in the Middle. (His publicist a cookbook based on her TV bogarted my way up there,” she make enough money to really pooping midget as guest speaker). did not respond to interview show. In addition to her work at says. “When Kelly came in he saw live next door to R. Kelly.” v

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