As all Americans know, Chicago is known as the “Windy City”, but throughout the years it’s also been known as “Mud City” (possibly its oldest nickname, referring to the fact that the terrain of the city used to be a mud flat) and the “Heart of America" because it’s one of the largest transportation centers in the country and its location is near the center of the US.
And, if you are a Frank Sinatra fan, you will remember his rendition of the song "Chicago." It was a popular song written by Fred Fisher and published in 1922 and has been recorded by many artists, but the best-known version was Sinatra’s. The song mentions evangelist Billy Sunday as having not been able to shut down the city.
If you’re familiar with the song, you know it says that Chicago is a “toddlin' town,” but does anybody know what a toddlin' town is? Back in 1997 a writer for the Chicago Tribune set out to find out and discovered nobody knows what it means.
But, I have gotten off the subject. Most people think Windy City refers to, well, it being windy there, but that can’t be correct because Chicago is nowhere near the top when it comes to average wind speed. According to the National Climatic Data Center, exclusive of Alaska, the cities with the highest average wind speed are: Mt. Washington, NH (35.1mph), St. Paul Island, AK (16.9 mph), Cold Bay, AK (16.8 mph), Blue Hill, MA (15.3 mph) and Dodge City, KS (13.9 mph). Actually, Mt. Washington isn't a city, it's a mountain that is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934, the Mt. Washington Observatory recorded a wind speed of 231 miles per hour at the summit, the world record from 1934 until 1996. Mt. Washington still holds the record for highest measured wind speed not associated with a tornado or tropical cyclone.
Chicago doesn’t even make the top twenty, so the name “Windy City” must have another origin. One popular theory is city's boasting lobbyists and politicians earned Chicago the nickname "Windy City" in the New York press. But, that doesn’t sound right either because that would seem to apply to Washington DC more to than Chicago.
Back to Sidney P. Johnston. He was a graduate of Northwestern University in Chicago and served as an editor of "The American Artisan" magazine. He was also the author of the “Furnace Work Manual” as several magazine articles.
Johnson also served as an officer of the Chicago Chess and Checker Club. It was renamed the Chicago Chess Club in 1961. The club was Chicago's longest-lived metropolitan chess club, enduring at least 89 years from its founding in 1891 to its dissolution in the early 1980s. During that time it was visited by such players as Pillsbury, Lasker, Marshall, Capablanca and Nimzovich.
Johnston drew Harry Pillsbury when he visited the Chicago Chess and Checker Club in 1898 and 1899. In December 1899 and January 1900, Johnston played Marshall a match for stakes of $150. The winner was the first to win seven games. Marshall barely won with a score of 7 -6 =2. Johnston hoped for a rematch, butit never happened.
In July of 1901, Johnston became chess editor at the Chicago Daily Tribune and took over the "Over the Chess Board" (later "Across the Chess Board") column from Louis Uedemann. His final column ran on March 5, 1905, two weeks before his unexpected death at home at the age of 35.
Johnston and Louis Uedemann were generally regarded as the best players in Chicago and in1903, both of them along with Max Judd tied for first place at the Western Chess Association's tournament in Chicago, with a score of 14.5-2.5.
The following game was played on board 2 of correspondence match in 1898 between Chicago and Brooklyn. Johnson’s opponent, Hermann Helms (1870 - 1963) was a player, writer, and promoter and member of the US Chess Hall of Fame. Helms was born in Brooklyn, but spent much of his childhood in Hamburg, Germany and in Halifax, Canada, where a schoolmate taught him chess. He returned to live in Brooklyn at age 17, and settled there.
As a player, Helms won the New York State Championship in 1906 and 1925. A sharp tactician, he had victories over Pillsbury and Marshall to his credit and he played on five cable matches against England, in the early part of the 20th century. He retired from most serious chess competition while in his forties, but remained active in blitz tournaments at the Marshall Chess Club until his late eighties.
Chessmetrics does not have a rating for Helms, but Edo Historical Ratings puts is at about 2350 in the early 1900s based mostly on club matches and the matches with England.
I always thought the lyric referred to the then-popular Jazz Age dance, The Toddle.
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ReplyDeleteIt’s possible! It wasn’t mentioned in the article in the Tribune, but you may be on to something. There was also a variation of the toddle called the Chicago. See: Dancing the toddle on YouTube https://youtu.be/eZwQtpJdVCU Arthur Murray explanation of the toddle https://daletremont.com/2016/01/26/the-south-bend-news-times-discusses-how-to-dance-the-toddle/