Rick Kogan – Page 62 –

We need Lenny Bruce like never before, and he’s coming to Chicago in new show ‘Not a Comedian’

October 25, 2019 at 2:58 p.m.

In a tavern not very far from the bygone nightclub where Lenny Bruce made his Chicago debut one August night in 1958 — saying, among many things, "If God made...

A park bench dedicated for Doug Brown, near West LaSalle and North Stockton Drives south of Lincoln Park Zoo.

Check the next Chicago park bench you sit on — it may be in someone’s memory

October 14, 2019 at 1:13 p.m.

On Monday morning, as chilly as it was, two old men sat on a bench at the northern edge of Grant Park. Three pigeons strolled nearby and for more than...

Files and photos of former Chicago police officer John DiMaggio, kept by daughter Debra DiMaggio, a Chicago attorney.

‘Sarge’ is the untold story of a real Chicago cop, brought to life with the help of his daughter

October 7, 2019 at 7:56 p.m.

In his insightful, agreeably rough-and-tumble and entertaining new memoir, "Sarge: Cases of a Chicago Police Detective Sergeant in the 1960s, '70s and '80s" (Crossroad Press 2018), the late John A....

Art teacher Haman Cross III in his Art and Change on the West Side class at Nichols Tower in Chicago.

A journalist is walking across the world, retracing the steps of first humans. Chicago has joined in.

October 4, 2019 at 11:19 a.m.

Where in the world is Paul Salopek? "He is on his way to Myanmar," Julia Payne said. Where in the world is Paul Salopek? "Well," said Haman Cross III, "I'm...

For a decade, his brother has investigated his death in Vietnam for ‘Jimmy in Saigon’

September 26, 2019 at 12:10 p.m.

The scars of the Vietnam War remain. You can see them in the haunted eyes of now aged and homeless veterans, trying to scratch out a living selling Streetwise on...

Have you ever used a typewriter? ‘Tools of the Trade’ reminds us there’s magic in those old machines

September 23, 2019 at 5:45 p.m.

For many years now I have used a computer keyboard to do most of the writing I do and, though the computer does the obligatory job, I still use, and...

Irish American Movie Hooley is back at the Siskel, bringing flying dreams and ‘Misty Button’

September 23, 2019 at 1:00 a.m.

We all dream, but dreams have a foul way of fading as we age. In time, we realize that we will not play for the Bears, not marry a movie...

Chicago Bears Nick Sacrinty, left, is given pointers on accuracy by Sid Luckman, right, during a practice session on Oct. 16, 1947. Sacrinty is the understudy for Luckman.

The dark secret behind the success of Sid Luckman, the greatest Bears quarterback ever

September 16, 2019 at 8:32 a.m.

In one of the loveliest of father-son traditions, a little boy was given his first football by his dad. Sid Luckman would spectacularly throw that ball and many others through...

Make an appointment with dark shadows and desperate heroes at the Music Box Theatre’s ‘Noir City’ fest

September 6, 2019 at 8:14 a.m.

You are old if you remember seeing any of the 18 movies of the "Noir City" festival at the Music Box Theatre Friday through Sept. 12 when they first played...

The comedian Tom Dreesen, left, born and bred in Harvey, visits the restaurant Gibsons on Rush Street in Chicago and talks with with Steve Lombardo, one of the restaurant's owners.

The life and times (good and bad and with Sinatra) of comic Tom Dreesen

September 4, 2019 at 1:00 a.m.

Everybody wants to talk about Frank, of course, because Frank Sinatra, dead since 1998, remains, well Frank Sinatra. He is immortally intriguing, and so, every time comic Tom Dreesen sits...

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