Today in Chicago History: ‘Grease’ is born in a converted trolley barn

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Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 5, according to the Tribune’s archives.

Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.

Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)

  • High temperature: 56 degrees (1946)
  • Low temperature: Minus 17 degrees (1979)
  • Precipitation: 0.81 inches (1909)
  • Snowfall: 7 inches (1907)

1954: Lyric Theater of Chicago (later Lyric Opera) debuted to a sold-out audience with a performance of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” at the Civic Opera House with Nicola Rossi-Lemeni in the starring role. The show repeated the next night. The success of those first two performances made possible a three-week autumn season consisting of 16 performances of eight operas; 12 of those performances sold out.

Tribune critic Claudia Cassidy called it “a big, bold performance with the full quota of stage bands, a performance so Mozartean in its play of light and shadow that it spun all of a piece the splendor of Eleanor Steber’s Donna Anna, the silky textured tenor Leopold Simoneau bestowed on Don Ottavio, the mischievous glint of Bidu Sayao’s Zerlina, and the other sides of the comic face, from the rue of Irene Jordan’s Elvira, the peasant not quite bumpkin that was Lorenzo Alvary’s Masetto, and the knowing Leporello of John Brownlee, who used to sing the Don.”

Tribune critic Will Leonard wrote “this has to be one of the most screamingly funny shows in town,” in his review of “Grease,” which was staged by Chicago’s Kingston Mines Theater Co. in February 1971. (Chicago Tribune)

1971: “Grease” was performed for the first time — at June Pyskacek’s Kingston Mines Theatre Co., 2356 Lincoln Ave., Chicago, in a building that was a converted trolley barn.

The musical was later adapted for Broadway and the 1978 movie, which Tribune critic Gene Siskel gave three stars.

DURING ANTHONY PORTER'S RELEASE FROM PRISON TODAY FEB. 5, 1999. 6036.7 Tribune photo by Heather Stone 2/5/1999 ORG XMIT: 990205/6036.7
Anthony Porter hugs his mother in her South Side home after he was released from prison on Feb. 5, 1999. Porter spent nearly 16 years behind bars. In September 1998, Porter had an execution date that was stayed only two days before he was to die. (Heather Stone/Chicago Tribune)

1999: Anthony Porter, who had come within 48 hours of execution, became the 10th exonerated death row prisoner in Illinois, thanks in part to Northwestern journalism students.

Anthony Porter, ex-death row inmate whose case was ‘Exhibit A’ in prompting Illinois to halt executions, dies at 66

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