Looking Back/Looking Forward: How Chicago Helped Shape and Build Careers Over the Decades

by Neal Samors, Tom Dreesen (foreword), Gary Johnson (introduction)

This book focuses on how Chicago helped develop and build careers over the decades. The publication includes more than 60 interviews with individuals who were either born and raised in Chicago or came here to shape and build the early and middle portions of their careers whether it was in radio, television or the media, sports, entertainment, restaurants, politics and the law, or in business. The interviews were done from 2000 to 2023 with a wide range of individuals who were in the city during various portions of time from the 1940s through the first part of the 21st Century. Overall, the city of Chicago would have a tremendous impact on the careers of the interviewees included in this book, and it was obvious to each of them how much they enjoyed being in the city by Lake Michigan, visiting the downtown, living in various neighborhoods and suburbs, enjoying the many venues that offered varieties of entertainment, riding along Lake Shore Drive and the Magnificent Mile, travelling the highways, using the city's major airports and railroad depots, and eating at the many great restaurants. Overall, some of the greatest and most influential careers were built over years spent in Chicago.

491 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 21, 2024