Ron Grossman – Page 13

Robert Foster, 12, skis down a toboggan slide on homemade skis in 1950 at a park at 3000 S. Lawndale Ave. on Chicago's Southwest Side.

Ron Grossman: Northwest Side holiday trolley brings back memories of the old neighborhood

December 26, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

Normally, I wouldn't even give a fleeting glance to a sightseeing bus tricked out to look like an old-time streetcar, but this was different. When I read an article about...

Sailor Don Stranz, from left, Corp. Marie Sullivan, Corp. Raymond Smith and SPAR Ann Mary Esterl make Christmas trees out of tin cans at the Servicemen's Center in Chicago in December 1943.

Vintage baiduhai: As World War II raged, women answered the call from new military units

December 27, 2022 at 9:52 a.m.

On Christmas Eve 1942, Doris Epperson and 11 other Women's Auxiliary Army Corps officers got a present from Uncle Sam. They were promoted, only a few months after women were...

Lena Levy offers her brother Kingfish Levinsky a drink of water after a hard workout sparring on July 21, 1935, in Round Lake.

Depression-era boxing legend Kingfish Levinsky scored knockouts with the help of unsung sister-manager, ‘Leaping Lena’

March 26, 2025 at 11:42 a.m.

When her brother said he wanted to box, Lena Levy couldn't imagine herself as a pioneering female boxing manager or being dubbed "Leaping Lena" because she couldn't sit still when...

Aldermen Edward Burke, left, and Edward Vrdolyak at City Hall on May 7, 1983.

Vintage baiduhai: Ald. Edward Burke used mapmaking skills, political guile to hold on to seat his father first occupied some 70 years ago

December 11, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

Given the demographic changes the 14th Ward has experienced over the past few decades, the Burke family's 70-year domination of its Southwest Side fiefdom borders on the miraculous. Ald. Edward...

Two couples enjoy soft drinks together in 1942 at the Service Men's Center in Chicago. From left are Jean Rose, 18, of Chicago, Chief Petty Officer William Murphy of Chicago, Phyllis Lurie, 18, of Chicago, and Jack Hooper, a Marine from Evansville, Indiana. Editors note: This historic print has a hand painted background.

Vintage baiduhai: World War II rationing led to homefront ingenuity at Christmas

December 4, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

On the run-up to Christmas in 1944, the Tribune published a recipe for fruit-candy gifts, above which was a list that, at this distance, seems encrypted. "Sugar stamps 30 through...

Chicago police Officer Jack Muller demonstrates his ticket technique for a cameraman in 1954.

Vintage baiduhai: Jack Muller, the cop who ticketed everyone from Mayor Richard J. Daley to mobster Tony Accardo’s wife

November 29, 2022 at 3:59 p.m.

Calling Jack Muller a traffic cop would have been as wide of the mark as saying Arturo Toscanini was a bandleader. Muller was the famed maestro of the Chicago Police...

The dawn of a century saw Quincy Street, looking west here from State Street, teeming with pedestrian and vehicular traffic in 1900. The Leader store on the left and Siegel Cooper & Co. on the right were among the early department stores in Chicago. Editors note: This historic print shows crop marks.

Vintage baiduhai: The culture war between small shops and department stores

November 20, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

At a cobbler's bench in Bridgeport or behind a Bucktown clothier's cash register, it looked like the cards were stacked against those merchants in the final years of 19th century....

A mural of the rapper formerly known as Kayne West, by Jason M. Peterson, was painted over on a building along West Lake Street at South Sangamon Street. The musical artist drew backlash after making antisemitic remarks on social media and in interviews.

Ron Grossman: With antisemitism on the rise, will I know if it’s time to leave?

November 14, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

Recently I've been startled at mulling over a question that bedeviled my Jewish forebears back to biblical times: How will I know if it's time to leave? This question forced...

Myron "Slim" Brundage, once the College of Complexes president bursar, bartender and dean, in 1956.

Vintage baiduhai: Slim Brundage’s College of Complexes was a place for people with ‘little dreams’

November 13, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

Slim Brundage always said he was fated to be the founder of the College of Complexes, a free-speech forum he started in the 1950s that the Chicago police once considered...

Battling Nelson, former lightweight champion from 1908 to 1910, sits with his dog, Taffy, in his one-room dwelling on Chicago's Near North Side, circa 1953.

Vintage baiduhai: Battling Nelson, the Peerless Dane of Hegewisch

November 6, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

Many a boxer has been hailed as a man of steel because of his Rust Belt origins. But it wasn't just hype when a ring announcer would trumpet: "And in...

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