Vintage Chicago Tribune: Revisiting Election Day in the city — including ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’

Kori Rumore, Steve Rosenberg, Chicago Tribune
·4 min read
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Election Day is our Super Bowl, Chicago.

Reporters, editors, designers and photographers at the Tribune have been planning for Tuesday since the primary election concluded on June 28.

I have fond memories of working late on election nights past, which has always been an adrenaline rush. Though I don’t write about individual races or interview the candidates, my job in the newsroom is usually to help keep tabs on results and figure out how to display them visually while also watching local and national news networks for updates.

I tracked Electoral College results in 2016, for example, using Chia versions of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Some hairy situations have popped up in previous Election Day campaigns in our fair city, as my former colleagues Mark Jacob and Stephan Benzkofer wrote about in their 2011 column — 10 things you might not know about Chicago elections. I’ve expanded on a few of them in this newsletter — including the most infamous headline in the Tribune’s 175-year history.

And whatever your plans are on Tuesday, please take time to vote by visiting your designated polling place or returning your mail-in ballot. I can’t wait to see your “I voted” stickers on social media.

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Thanks for reading! See you at the polls!

— Kori Rumore, visual reporter

Chicago history | More newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper edition

William Hale ‘Big Bill’ Thompson: Chicago’s unfiltered mayor

When elected mayor in 1927 — with support from Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone — jubilant supporters flocked to his Fish Fans Club boat, well known as a floating speakeasy in Belmont Harbor. So many people climbed aboard that the boat sank into the mud, inspiring a joke that so much gin was spilled into Belmont Harbor that it became the world’s largest martini.

Thompson — a Republican — served three terms as mayor, from 1915 to 1923 and 1927 to 1931. He was defeated in 1931 by Anton Cermak, beginning the still-uninterrupted run of Democratic Party control of City Hall. Read more.

  • Photo gallery: “Big Bill” Thompson: Chicago’s most notorious mayor

  • Rick Kogan: Filling “Big Bill’s” britches

  • Photo gallery: Chicago’s Mayor Anton Cermak and the assassination attempt that did him in

Chicago’s ‘cleanest’ election and its surprising partner — Al Capone

The 1928 Republican primary in Chicago was so violent it was called the “Pineapple Primary,” named for the grenadelike devices thrown around. But the general election that November was the city’s cleanest in years. Who deserved credit? Al Capone, whose henchmen were involved in the earlier violence.

After the bloody primary, Chicago Crime Commission founder Frank Loesch visited Capone and demanded he stop the violence. Capone’s response? “All right. I’ll have the cops send over squad cars the night before the election and jug all the hoodlums and keep ‘em in the cooler until the polls close.” Read more.

  • Frank Loesch was a crime-fighting crusader nearly unparalleled in Chicago’s history.

  • The city that gave the world the mother of all explosive devices and ushered in the Atomic Age also endured the Pineapple Primary, a particularly violent March and April in 1928 that saw scores of grenades and other explosives tossed between warring factions battling for political control of City Hall. In short, Chicago has a history of bomb attacks.

  • From the archives: The mighty Capone muscles in on labor unions

‘Dewey Defeats Truman’: The most famous headline in Tribune history

The presses rolled at 10:30 p.m. the day before and no one, and I mean no one, believed the result of the presidential election would favor Harry Truman, Tribune columnist Rick Kogan wrote. Read more.

Richard J. Daley — ‘The Boss’ — is elected mayor

On April 5, 1955, Richard J. Daley was elected the 48th mayor of Chicago. That night, at his tavern on North Avenue, not an unfamiliar place to newspaper reporters, 43rd Ward Ald. Mathias “Paddy” Bauler, a famous City Council clown since the 1930s when he used to amuse Mayor Anton Cermak by rolling around on the floor in wrestling matches with his 275-pound self, uttered a phrase that would echo for decades: “Chicago ain’t ready for reform.” Read more.

Tribune wins Pulitzer Prize for uncovering election fraud in 1972

In March 1972, the Tribune teamed with the Better Government Association to send 30 people undercover as election judges and poll watchers. They found widespread fraud. The newspaper didn’t stop there. Reporter William Mullen was hired as an election board clerk and worked covertly for three months. At one point, board chairman Stanley Kusper Jr. held a staff meeting and demanded loyalty: “Come November, there aren’t going to be any cracks in the wall of this office. Nobody has cracked this office from the outside.” Mullen was standing 15 feet away. The stories won a Pulitzer Prize. Read more.

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Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Ron Grossman and Marianne Mather at rgrossman@chicagotribune.com and mmather@chicagotribune.com.