In 1971, Richard J. Daley won the fifth of what would ultimately be six Chicago mayoral elections (he died of a heart attack during his sixth term, in 1976). A little musical called Grease started its very first run at a Lincoln Avenue theater called Kingston Mines. And that summer the Union Stockyards closed for business, leaving a trail of their own kind of grease in the rubble on south Racine Street.
- Bonnie Koloc performs “Angel From Montgomery,” by her friend John Prine, in 1972.
As for the ad, no one could tell me who exactly had placed it in the Reader. But it’s a safe guess that someone at the Old Town School, which bought advertising elsewhere in that first issue (and has advertised in basically every Reader since), doubled up by placing the free notice to support a musician who was bringing notoriety to the school’s developing community of folkies.
