Was Mike Royko the toughest man in Chicago?
We shall see, I suppose, when a one-man play opens here in early September at the Chopin Theatre. Mitchell Bisschop is the author and star in what he has titled “Royko: The Toughest Man in Chicago,” and one afternoon not long ago he was explaining himself and his play to a very curious widow, Judy Royko.
We were sitting in that tavern called the Billy Goat, a place that has long been as close to a journalism museum as you can find and, since his death almost 30 years ago has been a virtual shrine to Royko, whose face stares from photos and columns on the walls, no matter where you might be sitting.
Bisschop told Judy that he was from Barrington and had not read Royko when he was young (he’s 45), but came to his work later in life and was hooked. Though he has yet to read all of the 8,000-some columns Royko wrote in his career, many for the Tribune, he has read enough to have column words form the foundation of his play, which he says will be embellished by video, photos and portions of interviews. It is set to open on Sept. 6.
He performed it for a week in Los Angeles in 2022 and had a one-night stand last year in New York. Reviews were positive but he has since been editing and reworking as he comes across new material.
He will surely visit the Newberry Library’s newest exhibition, a small but engaging presentation, “Chicago Style: Mike Royko and Windy City Journalism,” which opens Thursday in the Hanson Gallery.
It contains 30-some items, from newspaper clips to a hat, an ashtray, coat, Rolodex and some of the many other things that Judy donated to the library a few years after Mike’s death on April 29, 1997.
The exhibit is curated by Sarah Alvarez, the Newberry’s director of exhibitions; Kristin Emery, its director of governance and strategic initiatives; and Bill Savage, a writer and Northwestern University professor.
They all give credit for the exhibit to Paul Durica. When he was working at the Newberry a few years ago — he is now director of exhibitions for the Chicago History Museum — Durica got the Royko ball rolling.
He and Savage created last summer’s “Royko’s Beer Test 50th” at the Old Town Ale House. As an example of the durability of Royko’s work and legend, the event sold out shortly after it was announced.
Few are more knowledgeable about Royko’s work than Savage, who tells me, “In some of my classes I will introduce students to a number of writers they have probably never heard of … (Nelson) Algren, (James T.) Farrell and Royko. Every year, without fail, Mike Royko is the one writer that has the students saying, ‘I want more.’”
They will get a good dose of him through this exhibition but make no mistake. This is not a complete portrait but rather a thoughtful look at Royko’s newspaper career. As such, it enlightens and informs and there is no doubt that it will compel visitors to explore further.
In the exhibit, it’s almost impossible not to be grabbed by many things, including a few edited manuscript pages of “Boss,” his stunning 1971 biography of Richard J. Daley, and an accompanying cartoon, which captures how the mayor’s wife, Eleanor “Sis” Daley, was not happy with the book and, when a Bridgeport grocery store began selling it, demanded it be removed. Of course, it was.
There will be copies of “Boss” and various collections of Mike’s columns available in the Newberry bookstore. Maybe you can buy one of the two biographies, Richard Ciccone’s “Royko: A Life in Print” and Doug Moe’s “The World of Mike Royko.”
His papers are available in the Newberry’s collection. And Savage begins later this month to teach a class, “Mike Royko’s Chicago,” that will use his columns to examine this complicated city through Royko’s writing.
Savage does so in his university classes too and tells me, “In some of my classes I will introduce students to a number of writers they have probably never heard of … (Nelson) Algren, (James T.) Farrell and Royko, Every year, without fail, Mike Royko is the one writer that has the students saying, ‘I want more.’ ”
And add to that with Bisschop’s “Royko: The Toughest Man In Chicago.”
“It’s all very exciting,” said the Newberry’s new president, Astrida Orle Tantillo. “His columns were syndicated, so I was able to read them when I was growing up in Portland. And when I was attending the University of Chicago I read him regularly in order to see the city through his eyes.”
Those eyes saw this city as clearly as any. When he died, I wrote his obituary and this is some of what I wrote: “Mike Royko, a self-described ‘flat-above-a-tavern youth’ who became one of the best-known names in American journalism, wrote with a piercing wit and rugged honesty that reflected Chicago in all its two-fisted charm.
“His daily column was a fixture in the city’s storied journalistic history, and his blunt observations about crooked politicians, mobsters, exasperating bureaucracy and the odd twists of contemporary life reverberated across the nation.”
He was 64 years old, gone a long time now but worth meeting and reading again.
The Newberry exhibit will allow some to discover him. For others it will be a reunion. I’m one of that latter crowd and walking Newberry exhibit it was easy for me to hear what another great and bygone newspaper columnist once said about “Boss.”
“The best book ever written about an American city,” said Jimmy Breslin, “by the best journalist of his time.”
rkogan@chicagotribune.com
“Chicago Style: Mike Royko and Windy City Journalism” runs June 20 to Sept. 28 at the Newberry Library; 60 W. Walton St.; 312-943-9090 and newberry.org
“Royko: The Toughest Man in Chicago” will open in September at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St.; www.chicagomitch.com/royko
