An Ode to Librarians

Throughout my life, I have found librarians to be incredibly resourceful, enthusiastic, and encouraging people. My experiences during this research project have been no exception! If you are doing a historical research project like this, I highly recommend taking a trip to your local library to glean some helpful tips and information from these knowledge experts.

Recently, Dana & I walked into the Harold Washington Library and approached the Visual & Performing Arts Department's reference desk with high hopes. I told the Chicago/Vaudeville/ancestral story to a friendly librarian who showed me a few research tips, leading us to many Chicago Tribune articles about our ancestors (I will post them in an upcoming post!). The Chicago Public Library has digital access to the full Chicago Tribune archive. She told us in closing that I should also talk to Bob Sloane, their Art Unit Head and dance expert.

I later emailed Bob Sloane with my story, and he came back with an incredible find. Turns out, the Chicago Public Library archived all of the old music union cards, including those from the 1920's. I went back to the library to check out what he found. We talked for nearly an hour, while he taught me how to do various searches & explored various research avenues. I left the library with clear instructions to look up the "Dick Lucke" archive files from the popular vaudeville (and still running strong!) newspaper, Variety , which I soon did. I found about 95 articles! The articles are loaded with the names of venues & other acts that shared the stage with the Luckes! Only the date and an abstract of the article is visible online without a subscription to Variety. The next step is to go back with all of the dates that I found and go through the microfiche Variety collection housed at the Harold Washington Library. The articles can then be copied and used for further research.

I also left with two tangible treasures, unearthed by librarian Bob Sloane:

Here we have a union card from my great grandpa, R.R. (Dick) Lucke, member of the Chicago Federation of Musicians.

Instruments listed: Piano & drums.

Years active: 1924-1930, 1935

Phone number: 0895, the same as the Seery household number from Dottie's 1922 diary. You'll see a lot of cancellations & renewals on Dick's card: librarian Bob Sloane told me that the union clerks were very efficient- the moment your card expired, it was stamped so.

He lists his address as 5119 Dorchester, which I was able to find on Google- http://www.emailflyers.net/email-flyer-2704.htm. Check out the link for interior shots & real estate listing information.

The house is a beautiful Hyde Park greystone, built 1n 1888 in the Victorian style. The going price today is $795,000.

I've never seen this address before on other documents. My guess is it belonged to a friend or was a boarding house that Dick & Dottie used for lodging while travelling the vaudeville circuit. They stayed here and used Dottie's parents' home phone as a contact number, nearby at 1516 E 54th Street. Check out this map of Hyde Park, a close up view of the neighborhood they sometimes called home, after a day/evening of performing together: Dottie dancing with her troupe Marie Veatch and her Chicago Steppers or Chicago Debutantes & Dick playing piano or drums along side his brother Walt with the band, Dick Lucke and His Arcadians.

Here we have Walt Lucke's union card.

Member of the Chicago Federation of Musicians.
Instrument listed: Sax.
Years active: 1931
This must be a second card, as Walt was certainly an active musician in the 1920's.
He lists his address as the Bradley Hotel, Chicago, located on the northwest corner of N. Rush Street and E. Grand Avenue. Check out this map of the downtown area where Walt would rest after a day/evening of playing his saxophone and other reed instruments on stage. The hotel was just one block west of the Mag Mile, right in the heart of all the action.

Chicago Public Library Archives & The Fine Arts Building

Our first stop was the 9th floor of the Harold Washington Public Library in downtown Chicago. Up, up, up a series of escalators and elevators, through the heavy brass doors of an elevator and into a glass topped atrium, down an exhibit hall, and into the archive we went. Bags, pens, cameras and coats were stowed in a locker- only pencils and notebooks are allowed into this treasure trove. Among the scholastic gems kept here are some of the original volumes from the trunks of books donated and shipped across the pond from Europe after the great Chicago fire.

We stayed at the library until closing, sifting through some terrific vaudeville photos, telling our story, and making a good start. Back down the labyrinthine halls, elevators and escalators and out onto State Street, it was already twilight in the city.

We headed east to Michigan Avenue, to try and find Marie Veatch's old 'School of the Dance', where our great grandmother Dorothea Seery wrote about taking soft shoe, pointe, and pantomime lessons downtown. 1920's newspaper ads listed Marie Veatch's downtown studio location as "1010 Fine Arts", so we walked in and took the elevator up to the 10th floor. A seemingly simple act, yet an interesting one here!



 

The Fine Arts Building was designed by Sullivan, and the elevator is original. It's still manned by an elevator operator, who sits atop a stool and takes you wherever you need to go. We whizzed past floor after floor, a ride somehow both smooth and bouncy- and so fast that it was a little scary!

At the 10th floor, we were let off. After checking out the hallway & work studios where architect Frank Lloyd Wright and sculptor Lorado Taft once walked and worked, we didn't come across any dance studios. A flick of a few lights finally revealed a beautiful studio. It wasn't room 1010, but it was probably where Dottie took dance lessons before touring coast to coast on the vaudeville circuit with Marie Veatch and her Chicago Steppers, or Dancing Debutantes, as they were alternately named in the 1920's newspapers and  theater listings, alongside none other than our great grandfather, his brother, and their band: Dick Lucke and His Arcadians.

The view of Michigan Avenue, Lake Michigan, Buckingham Fountain & the glittering city from the tenth floor studio is breathtaking.

We had the room to ourselves, so we decided to set up the camera and strike a pose... then two... then three...

As you can see, we had a ton of fun in this remarkable space! And, of course, it was super cool making this connection to our past.

As we headed back to the elevator, we found Room 1010, where Marie Veatch advertised that her downtown dance classes were located, but it was locked. The elevator operator said that 1010 was definitely not a dance studio now and is heavily guarded with a security system. The mystery continues! I suppose the next step is to find historical records about the Fine Arts Building, or a historian with knowledge of it. If there are vintage photos of artists/patrons/classes/activities there, that would also be fantastic!

Some of the ornate details at Sullivan's Fine Arts Building

South Shore Cultural Center

After our visit to the archives at University of Chicago, we were heading toward Lake Shore Drive and home. Suddenly I had an idea, in the middle of the street, right in front of a cop. "Dana! Please pull over!" Dana pulled over, and the cop cruised on by. "Let's try to find the South Shore Country Club! It should be nearby, just off of the lakeshore." Great Grandma Lucke mentioned going to a dance at the country club in her 1922 diary, and Frances Vandervoort of the Hyde Park Historical Society had mentioned the striking beauty of the place when we first met her over the summer. She said it was open to the public, and that we absolutely had to check it out! Today, Dana & I had a chance to explore the place together. A quick Google Maps search on my smart phone told us to head further south a few miles down Lake Shore Drive. And with that, we were off on another adventure.

We just hoped it would be open late.

And it was!

Columns leading up to the Cultural Center, in the Mediterranean Revival Style.
Horse stables are nearby: in a bygone era, Al Capone housed horses there.
In stark contrast, the horses of Chicago's mounted authority live here today.

It must be mentioned that the folks who work at the Cultural Center are very kind, knowledgable and professional. They showed a genuine interest in our story, and shared the rich history of the place with us.

One hundred years ago, the South Shore Cultural Center was a stylish country club. In the 1970's, it was in severe disrepair and nearly torn down. The Park District purchased it and it is now a historical gem, right on the lakeshore. Such a gem, in fact, that President and First Lady Obama had their wedding reception here. A bit of history: Al Capone had his horse stables here. Today, the stables house the horses for Chicago's mounted authority. 



If these old doors could talk!
From the entrance at the South Shore Cultural Center.
Our great grandmother passed through here,
along with Al Capone and so many other characters.

 

Wild Parrots in Chicago?

Opposite the entrance door is The Parrot Cage, a fine restaurant where today culinary students dish up entrees for politicians like the Daley's and the general public alike.  One hundred years ago, it used to be a tea room, where ladies would host gatherings and parties in our great grandmother's day. According to a super informative and historically passionate host, the Parrot Cage is named after a pet store truck that tipped over some time ago, freeing large green parrots which today thrive in the hundreds in Chicago's south side. Or, as other sources allege, maybe the parrots escaped from a pet store or a home where they were kept as pets.

My fiance recently saw a flock of parrots down there & wondered how that could be possible? Who knew parrots could thrive in our crazy Chicago climate?

While there are no concrete answers, there is lots of great information about and photos of these intelligent, adaptive parrots, compiled by enthusiasts and wildlife experts alike.

Dana did some research and provided me with these links:

http://chicago.about.com/b/2008/11/25/the-parrots-of-hyde-park.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_2323394_find-wild-parrots-chicago.html

http://www.monkparakeet.com/jmsouth/

And from Chicago Wilderness magazine: http://www.chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/winter2003/monkparakeets.html





From Chicago Wilderness Magazine: Chicago's parakeets have built nests
on electric transformer poles, braces under the El tracks,
and (shown here) on the back of a satellite dish. Photo by Joe Nowak.
 http://www.chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/winter2003/monkparakeets.html

  

The truth of the roots of these wild parrots in Chicago may never be known, but it's fun to imagine & speculate!

An insightful response & update from Frances Vandervoort of the Hyde Park Historical Society on December 1st:

...The parrots are another story.  They escaped from a shipment from So. America, where they damage crops.  They've not made it to Illinois farms yet --- there's plenty for them to eat in the city, but they will.  Farmers, watch out!  The birds are aggressive, displacing native species.  Many Hyde Parkers love them, however.  Their first Hyde Park nest was across from Mayor Harold Washington's apt. on east 51st St. near the Lake.  He loved them, and many people love them because he did.

 

Down the hall from the restaurant is the theater room, where dances were held in the 1920's. So, this is one of the places where our great grandmother danced the night away, back in the winter of 1922!

Dana in the theater room where our great grandmother danced in the 1920's.

Me and Dana in today's ballroom. In the 1920's it was a formal dining area.







Hyde Park & The University of Chicago

 On a recent Friday, Dana and I set out to make the most of the vast resources in Chicago. We began in Hyde Park, at the University of Chicago, just blocks from where our great grandmother Dorothea Seery grew up. Frances Vandervoort of the Hyde Park Historical Society invited us to meet at her home, from which she led us to the Regenstein Library. There, Frances helped us get started on our first archival expedition. Her know-how and encouragement continues to fuel us along!
 At the archives, we hoped to find dance or community photographs to help build the Chicago chapter of our ancestors' story. After a few hours of searching through box after box of vintage photos, menus, and other Chicago memorabilia, we found some stunning interior shots of the old Hyde Park Hotel, where Dorothea Seery went dancing in the 1920's. There are still many more boxes to go through... maybe more puzzle pieces will turn up at this archive.
 
 

Dana going through a box, modeling the stylish gloves we wore while searching the archives.



Me, Frances Vandervoort of the Hyde Park Historical Society, and Dana.
Regenstein Library, University of Chicago.



Our vaudeville story is really coming together!



Dick Lucke and His Arcadians & Marie Veatch and Her 8 Chicago Steppers
Great Grandpa is pianist Dick Lucke; Great Grandma is the dancer above him, Dottie Seery Lucke; Walt is Dick's brother, second from left on saxophone.
'Augmented Vaudeville' Stage, ca 1925, staged in Chicago for this photograph by H.A. Atwell.
Augmented Vaudeville: the newest style of vaudeville, with very elaborate staging, costuming and choreography.

 Three days ago, the caption for this photo would have been simply, "Dick Lucke and His Arcadians. Dorothea Seery Lucke above Dick, seated at the piano, on a stage in Chicago. Walt Lucke, second from left on saxophone. Photo by H.A. Atwell." See my most recent post for the story on connecting with David Garrick of  http://www.jazzage1920s.com/, who sent me a 1925 news clipping Friday morning about the Lucke Band and the Chicago Steppers making a huge hit in Vaudeville. That little article was loaded with missing links and clues!! As were the others he sent! Thank you, David.

Slim pickings in the beginning:
Beginning with a vintage pair of toe shoes, a drafting set, a saxophone, some photographs, a band poster, and the story of a legendary big label 78 record lost in a fire over 20 years ago, we've come a long way, baby! Each of these original pieces led to a multitude of new clues. Thanks to the internet and digital archives, we've made so many friends, connections, and discoveries... in the past several months alone. Thanks to http://www.ancestry.com/, I've even found other relatives who are most fascinated, helpful, and encouraging in this story. We still have not found the 78 recording of the Dick Lucke Band, but with any luck, and lots of persistence, we will!

There's so much more to learn about this piece of American dance & music history- and our wily ancestors!
So, my sister Dana Tock will soon be joining me for a big day of research in Chicago. We'll visit the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library, where we'll dig through the archives. We'll visit the Chicago History Museum. We'll make use of Chicago's libraries and their free access to ProQuest's vast collection of digitized articles.

What are we looking for?
Photos, recordings, news articles, and other printed publications related to 1920's vaudeville, 1920's Chicago music and dance, 1920's national tours on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit, stories of romance and adventure, and more... all centering around our fun and charismatic ancestors, Dorothea Seery Lucke, Richard Lucke, and Waldemere Lucke. aka Dick & Dottie & Walt.

Clues & staying organized!
I'll be adding a page to this blog which will include all of the key names of people, places and things discovered along the way, from emails, discussions, articles, books and more... names of actors, singers, musicians, teachers, photographers, social clubs, hot dance spots in Chicago and across the country, national vaudeville theaters, and more.

Missing Links Discovered Today



January 8, 1925
The Urbana Daily Courier

 Yesterday afternoon, I did some digging around on the internet. Going off of Waldo Sundsmo's interview in The Jazz State of Indiana (see below), I thought that checking out the Luckes' contemporaries on the stage might lead somewhere. Waldo specifically mentioned the singers Marion Harris and Margaret Young, so I searched for them. There is a wealth of information about these two beautiful and talented singers available online: stories, posters, music clips, video footage, and so on.

One particular website stood out to me, http://www.jazzage1920s.com/marionharris/marionharris.php.

I decided to email the author of the site, David Garrick. To my delight, he wrote me back this morning, sending along these two wonderful articles.

Here's the link to the article to the left:
http://www.library.illinois.edu/dnc/Default/Skins/UIUC/Client.asp?Skin=UIUC&AppName=2&enter=true&BaseHref=TUC/1925/01/08&EntityId=Ar00601






March 9, 1926
The Reading Eagle

 link to this article: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bKMhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bpgFAAAAIBAJ&dq=dick-lucke&pg=2134%2C1873456

The Jazz State of Indiana

http://www.duncanschiedt.com/

On page 237 of Duncan Scheidt's The Jazz State of Indiana, sax player Waldo Sundsmo reminisces,

"...In the summer of 1923, I went to Clear Lake with a local band... When our season closed that fall, a pianist from Elkhart, Dick Lucke, came around looking for a sax man, and for three years I was a member of his Arcadians. Joe Farren and Ducky Yontz were the trumpet team. Late in that time, we were in vaudeville, part of the first Orpheum road show, hitting the big time with such singers as Marion Harris and Margaret Young, both Brunswick recording artists. There were also the Two Black Crows, the dancer Bill Robinson, and George Jessel, who at the time was just introducing his "Hello Mama" telephone act."

This morning I brought Duncan Scheidt's The Jazz State of Indiana along with me on my early morning train ride. Seems that the passage above is just loaded with clues!!!

I learned about this book & purchased it after record hunting at a vintage phonograph show in Union, IL that my sister & I went to this spring. We didn't find Dick's vintage album that he recorded, but we did meet some fascinating & helpful people. Many pointed to Duncan, and thought that we could find and contact him pretty easily.

Well, I whipped out my Blackberry smart phone and did a quick Google search. Boom! Found him easily, and there was even a phone number!

Dana and I called him right away on speaker phone, right there at the show. We had a wonderful conversation, learning that he's been a jazz photographer since 1939. He remembered our great-grandfather and sent us a great band photo, which is posted in a previous entry below.

Below are photos from Duncan's book, The Jazz State of Indiana, scanned & sent to us from Robert Coon, one of the helpful folks we met at the vintage phonograph show.

Dick Lucke- piano (he played everything except the harp)

Waldo Sundsmo- tenor saxophone

Jimmy Kirkwood- alto saxophone

Walt Lucke- alto saxophone (he played various reed instruments)

Max Williams- trombone

Joe Farren- trumpet

Charles Ducky Yontz- trumpet

"Shady Lane"- banjo

Jimmy Jackson- drums

Don Combs- bassoon

Click on the photo to enlarge.

Cover of Duncan Schiedt's The Jazz Sate of Indiana

Page from The Jazz State of Indiana, showing the context of the passage quoted above.

Walt, Dick & Dottie on a vaudeville stage in Chicago

Photographed by H.A. Atwell, Chicago

This photo poses a mystery. Where was it taken? When was it taken? Was Dottie merely a dancer in the band, or were she and Dick in love? Were they married yet? This photo is poster size, and larger digital copies are available.

• Dick is at the piano.
• Dottie is directly above him, holding a baton.
• Walt is stage left, second from the left, saxophone in hand.

Some other band members' names are known and will be added.

Dick & Dottie's wedding portraits

Dick Lucke at the piano

Dorothea Seery Lucky

Dick Lucke photo, after air brush water damage restoration efforts, under convex glass. That's me in the reflection.

Dorothea Seery Lucke photo, under convex glass. That's me in the reflection.

In the early 1920's, Dick & Walt were touring the country with their band, Dick Lucky and his Arcadians, the Dance Orchestra Unique. Meanwhile, Dottie was busy enjoying life at Hyde Park High School and dancing everywhere from the ballet classroom to the theater stage to Chicago's roaring 20's hotspots. How and when did the two lovebirds meet?

 The front of a tour poster from the 1920's. Note the lucky horseshoe! Dick is at the piano and in the cameo. Walt is in the foreground with two of his saxophones and a clarinet.

Both boys were proficient musicians, influenced by music from every direction.  At home, they were raised in a musical household with a German violinist, conductor, and draftsman as a father. The town they lived in was even filled with music. Elkhart, Indiana, was the original home of Conn Instruments.

Their father Robert was a draftsman at Conn's factory, and the two boys worked there as young men. They worked in the manufacturing, repair and sales areas- on such projects as Big Bertha, the world's largest marching drum! The drum was used by the University of Chicago for many years, and is still used by the University of Texas today. See posts and photos below for more details!

While performing, they used Conn instruments exclusively, as noted on the poster. 





Dick Lucke at Bloom Studio, Chicago, playing the vibes. From my collection- I really need to have this photo & the similar photo above professionally removed from the frame and scanned!



Walt's saxophone case

















Walt Lucke at Bloom Studio, Chicago, saxophone in hand. Clarinet & ? are ready to swap out, as seen on stage!



Walt's saxophone

Photo courtesy of Duncan Schiedt

 

Dottie's Pointe Shoes

Pointe shoes made at the Chicago Theatrical Shoe Company. No information is known about this company yet- nor a good place to have these shoes restored! The original satin color was an apple green, as made evident by a small piece of fabric found in one of the shoes.

In February of 1922, 8 months before the landmark game between Princeton & the University of Chicago, where her husband-to-be would deliver the world's largest marching drum, Dorothea Seery started this diary. She was 16 years old in Chicago, and had a full dance card.

The cursive writing, while pretty, can be difficult to read & will be transcribed in the coming weeks. More pages of Dottie's journaling can be found as a separate page on this blog. They are filled with news of Chicago friends, dances, parties, clubs and gossip. Below her writing are maps and other sections that are quite interesting. At the bottom are mysterious, signed cigarette papers...

These signed cigarette paper rolls were tucked into the back cover of Dottie's diary. These fellows were either University of Chicago frat boys or Hyde Park High students with big dreams. One of them, Dick Irwin, was still a senior at Hyde Park High, slated to graduate later in the year. He would end up in the American National Business Hall of Fame some 60 years later. See below!

One of the signatures above belongs to Dick Irwin. From the American National Business Hall of Fame's website: Dick Irwin used his business to have fun and make a contribution to society. The contribution consisted of collaborating with college professors to produce high quality textbooks, books that influenced the minds of hundreds of thousands of college youth. The fun consisted of doing something that was enjoyable. To be sure, Dick Irwin worked long hours, maintained a heavy travel schedule and took risks daily. But as he put it many years later, "I never had a morning I didn't look forward to going to work." That attitude, combined with hard work and a winning business strategy made the career of Dick Irwin one to be remembered and emulated. And so it will be through the efforts of the American National Business Hall of Fame.*This article, by Alexander N. Davison, was first published in The Journal of Business Leadership Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 1988. http://www.anbhf.org/laureates/rdirwin.html