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Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago Before Stonewall
"Chicago Whispers" illuminates a colorful and vibrant record of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people who lived and loved in Chicago from the city's beginnings in the 1670s as a fur-trading post to the end of the 1960s. Journalist St. Sukie de la Croix, drawing on years of archival research and personal interviews, reclaims Chicago's LGBT past that had been forgotten, suppressed, or overlooked.
Included here are Jane Addams, the pioneer of American social work; blues legend Ma Rainey, who recorded "Sissy Blues" in Chicago in 1926; commercial artist J. C. Leyendecker, who used his lover as the model for "The Arrow Collar Man" advertisements; and celebrated playwright Lorraine Hansberry, author of "A Raisin in the Sun." Here, too, are accounts of vice dens during the Civil War and classy gentlemen's clubs; the wild and gaudy First Ward Ball that was held annually from 1896 to 1908; gender-crossing performers in cabarets and at carnival sideshows; rights activists like Henry Gerber in the 1920s; authors of lesbian pulp novels and publishers of "physique magazines"; and evidence of thousands of nameless queer Chicagoans who worked as artists and musicians, in the factories, offices, and shops, at theaters and in hotels. "Chicago Whispers" offers a diverse collection of alternately hip and heart-wrenching accounts that crackle with vitality.
Included here are Jane Addams, the pioneer of American social work; blues legend Ma Rainey, who recorded "Sissy Blues" in Chicago in 1926; commercial artist J. C. Leyendecker, who used his lover as the model for "The Arrow Collar Man" advertisements; and celebrated playwright Lorraine Hansberry, author of "A Raisin in the Sun." Here, too, are accounts of vice dens during the Civil War and classy gentlemen's clubs; the wild and gaudy First Ward Ball that was held annually from 1896 to 1908; gender-crossing performers in cabarets and at carnival sideshows; rights activists like Henry Gerber in the 1920s; authors of lesbian pulp novels and publishers of "physique magazines"; and evidence of thousands of nameless queer Chicagoans who worked as artists and musicians, in the factories, offices, and shops, at theaters and in hotels. "Chicago Whispers" offers a diverse collection of alternately hip and heart-wrenching accounts that crackle with vitality.
312 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
21 people are currently reading
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 26, 2016
This was interesting and well written but very broad. It was a good introduction and overview to some pre Stonewall people and places of Chicago that were LGBTQ related. I enjoyed it; but not enough for it to make the best reads pile. A good book when you want an overview and a few paragraphs on each topic or person and then you can pick and choose what you might like to learn more about. An extensive resource list in the back. I enjoyed it and parts of it were fascinating especially if you live in Chicago.
July 6, 2023
This is a chock-full history of queer Chicago with a heavy emphasis on queer folk living in the early to mid-20th century but with a fair amount of folk from earlier as well. The author even manages to find specific references to queer members of the local native tribes that populated the area of land that came to be Chicagoland, showing that there have always been queer people in Chicago.
The only thing that kept me from ranking this higher is because it is such a broad-reaching history, there were times I wanted to know much, much more about the dozens and dozens of people profiled that the format of the book just couldn't allow for. As such, it's almost better as a survey or an introduction that can whet the appetite for more in-depth stories about these fascinating people in another source. As such it can sometimes feel a mile wide and an inch deep, but I believe that's was the author's intent - to show how broad and wide the presence of queer life has been to Chicago, even though most of it is a history that remains firmly hidden.
I was also relieved to find the prose is entertaining and well-paced. Sometimes histories like this can dry out after a time or become repetitive, but the author keeps the reader's attention well, even when moving quickly from one time to another.
The only thing that kept me from ranking this higher is because it is such a broad-reaching history, there were times I wanted to know much, much more about the dozens and dozens of people profiled that the format of the book just couldn't allow for. As such, it's almost better as a survey or an introduction that can whet the appetite for more in-depth stories about these fascinating people in another source. As such it can sometimes feel a mile wide and an inch deep, but I believe that's was the author's intent - to show how broad and wide the presence of queer life has been to Chicago, even though most of it is a history that remains firmly hidden.
I was also relieved to find the prose is entertaining and well-paced. Sometimes histories like this can dry out after a time or become repetitive, but the author keeps the reader's attention well, even when moving quickly from one time to another.
August 14, 2024
This is an incredible work of nonfiction, but also some chapters are painful to read. History is blunt and often unkind. This book is chock full of Chicago’s Queer history and I am very glad to have read it! But also very glad to be done reading it!
I would recommend reading it in whatever way works best for you, which doesn’t have to be reading starlight from Intro-Chapter 1-Index.
There are so many fascinating and incredible people and art and history here and there are also terrible things that part of me wishes I didn’t know. So history/humans as usual.
Honestly, nothing like a glimpse of the past to make you very thankful for the people who fought for our rights before us and to remind you that all of it has been fought for with violence, mostly unfortunately with violence against queer people.
I would recommend reading it in whatever way works best for you, which doesn’t have to be reading starlight from Intro-Chapter 1-Index.
There are so many fascinating and incredible people and art and history here and there are also terrible things that part of me wishes I didn’t know. So history/humans as usual.
Honestly, nothing like a glimpse of the past to make you very thankful for the people who fought for our rights before us and to remind you that all of it has been fought for with violence, mostly unfortunately with violence against queer people.
March 5, 2020
useful
September 2, 2023
I usually don't flock to history books, but I had to for this one. It was recommended to me by the huge pile of dust on it at my public library. I have grown up in Chicago and neighboring Evanston, and this was by far one of the best trove of facts I have uncovered about either. I had absolutely NO IDEA how lively and expansive the queer community was in this city. De La Croix packs so much into this book, I actually had to whip out a notebook and take notes. I filled 40 pages. I literally could not put this down. Being trans, queer, and a person of color, I found this book to be incredibly encapsulating of all these aspects for myself personally. He covers plenty of intersections like the Civil Rights movement, communist movements, and other smaller ones. Truly comprehensive and informative, I cannot recommend this enough.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews