Mayor William Hale Thompson speaks to a large crowd, circa 1922. The sign on the building across the street refers to the Ogden Avenue extension project that Thompson spearheaded. The long-talked-about plan was to extend Ogden Avenue beyond Union Park.
Mayor William Hale Thompson throws out a pitch in an undated photo.
Former Mayor William Hale Thompson poses for a campaign photo in 1926. Thompson had been mayor of Chicago from 1915 to 1923, when he declined to run for re-election and was succeeded by Mayor William Dever. Thompson decided to run again in 1926 and beat Dever to become mayor from 1927 to 1931.
Mayor William Hale Thompson, fishing, in an undated photo.
An effigy of Mayor William Hale Thompson is hung and burned, circa 1917. The Tribune reported that veterans were angered by the mayor’s attitude on pacifism and the government’s policy concerning World War I.
Mayor William Hale Thompson lays the foundation stone of the Lincoln Turnverein (Lincoln Turner gymnasium), circa 1922. The Lincoln Turner gym offered gymnastics, dancing, swimming and weight training.
Mayor William Hale Thompson casts his vote at the polls on Election Day in this undated photo.
Mayor William Thompson at the opening of South Michigan Avenue.
Former Mayor William Hale Thompson in 1925. Thompson had been mayor of Chicago from 1915 to 1923, when he declined to run for re-election and was succeeded by Mayor William Dever. Thompson decided to run again in 1926 and beat Dever to become mayor from 1927 to 1931.
Former Mayor William Hale Thompson and his boat, the “Big Bill,” at the Wrigley Building in 1924. Thompson said he was going to sail from Chicago to the South Seas to find tree-climbing fish in 1924. The Tribune described the adventure this way: “Perhaps no vessel ever sailed under better advertised circumstances than did the little fore and aft rigged Big Bill.”
Mayor William Hale Thompson used the promise of a five cent streetcar fare as propaganda for his many campaigns during the early 1920s. By 1926, “A half million dollars spent under the mayoral regime of William Hale Thompson in a futile fight for a 5 cent streetcar fare apparently became a total loss yesterday to the taxpayers of Chicago,” the Tribune reported. “Ending four years of costly litigation, C.B. Morrison, federal master in chancery, upheld the present 7 cent fare.”
Mayor William Hale Thompson on a Mississippi trip.
Mayor William Hale Thompson in an undated photo.
The inside of Mayor William Hale Thompson’s Fish Fans Club boat in 1925. The boat was Thompson’s floating speakeasy that usually docked in Belmont Harbor. Following Thompson’s 1927 election victory, so many celebrants gathered on the boat that it sank.
Mayor William Hale Thompson in an undated photo.
People gather for a parade supporting former Mayor William Hale Thompson in 1926 during his re-election campaign. Thompson would win against incumbent Mayor William Dever in 1927 and hold the position until Anton Cermak defeated him in 1931.
Mayor William Hale Thompson’s supporters celebrate his victory on election night in front of the Hotel Sherman on April 5, 1927. Thompson had his headquarters at the hotel.
Mayor William Hale Thompson and his wife, Mary, after receiving the news that he’d beaten William Dever and won the election April 5, 1927. “And do you know one of the things that really elected Mr. Thompson?” his wife asked the group. She then answered the question: “It was Mr. Dever’s own slogan, ‘Think of Chicago.’ Well, the people thought of Chicago and they voted in my husband,” the Tribune reported.
Mayor William Hale Thompson’s Fish Fans Club boat is sunk in Lake Michigan in 1928. After Thompson won re-election April 5, 1927, “thousands rushed for that neighborhood and tried to get on the boat,” the Tribune reported. “The home of the Fish Fans Club, an organization founded by Mayor Elect William Hale Thompson several years ago, this morning rests on the bottom of the lake off Roscoe street” after too many boarded the boat for the big party.
Mayor William Hale Thompson is surrounded by children after winning re-election in April 1927.
Mayor William Hale Thompson, center right, and William Wrigley Jr., center left, at opening day for the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in April 1927.
Mayor William Hale Thompson, in a dramatic speech on behalf of Gov. Len Small in 1928. Thompson said Small “has done more for Illinois than any governor within my memory.”
Mayor William Hale Thompson, center, and the Illinois delegation leave Union Station for the Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Mo., on June 10, 1928. “I’m voting for Coolidge,” said Thompson, who was a delegate and headed a party of 50 Republican leaders.
Mr. and Mrs. William Hale Thompson in an undated photo.
Mayor William Hale Thompson, center, rides into the arena at Soldier Field during the annual rodeo on Aug. 22, 1927. The Tribune reported: “It was ‘Big Bill’ day and Mayor Thompson led the grand parade, mounted on a prancing horse, garbed in sombrero, flannel shirt and chaps, and swinging a lariat.”
Mayor William Hale Thompson at Fort Dearborn Elementary School in 1928. In a controversial move in 1928, Thompson gave all Chicago public school children the day off to attend Riverview amusement park. Needless to say, some parents were not happy. The Tribune reported one parent saying, “I hereby express disapproval of this promiscuous closing of the schools which we feel is detrimental to the welfare of our children. Excursions to such places of amusement as Riverview park, without proper escort, cannot help but lower the general moral character of our children.”
Mayor William Hale Thompson with Melba Cordez, center, and Peggy Hirshburg, in 1928.
Chicago Mayor William Hale Thompson, center in fur, welcomes William Thomas Cosgrave, the first president of the Irish Free State, at the LaSalle Street train station Jan. 21, 1928. The Tribune reported that Thompson shook Cosgrave’s hand enthusiastically and “fairly enveloped him in the fur coat he wore.”
Mayor William Hale Thompson, with a National Air Transport plane, during the dedication and naming of Chicago Municipal Airport on Dec. 12, 1927. The date of the dedication coincided with Thompson’s conference on air travel, held at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago. “‘If you desire progress for your cities, build airports,’ Mayor William Hale Thompson said to the visiting mayors and delegates from thirty states who attended the airport conference here yesterday,” the Tribune reported. Chicago Municipal Airport, at Cicero Avenue and 63rd Street, would be renamed Midway International Airport in 1949.
Mayor William Hale Thompson stumps for incumbent State’s Attorney Robert E. Crowe in 1928.
Mayor William Hale Thompson officially opens the straightened channel of the Chicago River from Polk to 18th streets in December 1929. Aboard the steamship Material Success, the mayor cut the band of ribbon stretched across the new channel, constructed at a cost of about $9 million and opening new streets from the Loop south.
Mayor William Hale Thompson in 1930.
Mayor William Hale Thompson in 1930.
Mayor William Hale Thompson in 1930.
Mayor William Hale Thompson at City Hall, with the evening Chicago American, which shows he beat Judge John H. Lyle by 60,000 votes in the Republican mayoral primary in February 1931. Thompson would go on to lose to Democrat Anton Cermak.
