Jim Tully, Beggars of Life, and How Chicago Used to Throw an Election Night Party
|
Posted by Meg Nola Nov 6, 2008 |
Pretty much all of America saw the festivities for President-elect Obama in Chicago’s Grant Park this past Tuesday, an undeniably historic celebration with a theme of hope and change. And it also showed how far Chicago has come in terms of Election Night regaling. Jim Tully (1886-1947) was an author and journalist known for his tough, realistic yet occasionally poetic style, and he chronicled Chicago’s Election Night back a century or so ago in his 1924 "hobo autobiography" Beggars of Life.
Tully ran away from an orphanage when he was fourteen to ride the rails, work odd jobs, and pursue his dream of becoming a writer by hanging out in libraries and reading everything he could. He eventually made his way to publication, often recounting tales of his vagabond days. This particular glimpse of what went on in the Windy City post-Election describes the old Coliseum Building packed with ward bosses, saloon keepers, aldermen, powerful lawyers, pickpockets, minstrel show players and the boxer Jack Johnson. Also half-naked dancing girls and numerous other ladies of questionable reputation -- and of course all of those who had voted early and often:
The Coliseum was bedecked this night with flags and bunting…The floor was smooth as a looking-glass. The band played a waltz, and the dance was on.
Crowds of women from the red-light district were seated in boxes above the dancers. Red lilies they were in a carmine atmosphere, and they enjoyed it immensely...After them marched wine agents, keepers of bawdy houses, beefy saloon men, gamblers who resembled ministers, and members of local lodges….
Whiskey and champagne flowed along with racial and ethnic insults, while an electric moon beamed high above. Flags rippled in the air as drunken voices struggled to remember all the words to The Star Spangled Banner, and the evening ended with a speech on patriotism, freedom, and “how the stripes of that flag represent the pure souls of our women.”
Beggars of Life was made into a movie starring Wallace Beery and Louise Brooks, though parts of the book were toned down to fit Hollywood standards of the day. The book itself is an interesting historical read (though not at all politically correct) and a quirky odyssey of life on the road.
To find out more about Jim Tully, his writing, and the reissuance of some of his works, click here. Also, the 1928 movie Beggars of Life is noted as being a great Louise Brooks' performance and occasionally makes the rounds of film festival circuits.