Vintage Chicago Tribune: Paul Durica’s September 1924 finds

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September is not quite over, but we’re ready to see what Paul Durica found in his continuing search of the Tribune’s archives from a century ago.

Durica, who is director of exhibitions for the Chicago History Museum, is also chronicling these finds on his website, pocketguidetohell.com.

Chicago history headlines

Sept. 4, 1924: Temples Isaiah and Israel merge

Isaiah Israel Temple at Greenwood Avenue and Hyde Park Boulevard in Chicago, circa Sept. 18, 1924. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)

Rabbis for Temple Israel (53rd Street and South Michigan Avenue) and Temple Isaiah (Hyde Park Boulevard and Greenwood Avenue) unanimously voted to unite their congregations.

The united body would make their home in Kenwood at the new $350,000 (or roughly $6 million in today’s dollars) synagogue, which was designed by Chicago architect Alfred S. Alschuler, who also created the London Guarantee & Accident Building at Wacker Drive and North Michigan Avenue and the former Chicago Mercantile Exchange building. The Byzantine architecture-inspired sanctuary includes an eight-sided dome that rises 80 feet above the floor, a smoke stack disguised as a minaret, stained-glass transoms, and sunburst windows with wreath details. The site was dedicated as the temple on Sept. 12, 1924.

KAM Isaiah Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in Chicago whose former home was Pilgrim Baptist Church, recently embarked on a restoration of the facility.

Sept. 6, 1924: Andy Gump for President

Andy Gump, created by Sidney Smith and launched in 1917 by the Chicago Tribune, is immortalized in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Smith's adopted hometown. (Alan Solomon/Chicago Tribune)
The character Andy Gump, created by Sidney Smith and launched in 1917 by the Chicago Tribune, is immortalized in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Smith’s adopted hometown. (Alan Solomon/Chicago Tribune)

After World War I, as comics were becoming daily staples in an increasing number of papers, the Tribune’s bosses, cousins Col. Robert R. McCormick and Capt. Joseph Medill Patterson, started to cultivate their own comics.

Patterson helped create and nourish, among many other strips, “The Gumps,” which was introduced in the Tribune on Feb. 12, 1917. The patriarch of the family was Andrew (Andy) Gump, whose creator Sidney Smith claimed invented the flower pot and introduced the polka dot tie to the United States.

After announcing his run for president of the United States, "The Gumps" character Andy Gump admired in a comic strip published in the Tribune on Sept. 5, 1924, a statue created in his likeness. (Chicago Tribune)
After announcing his run for president of the United States, “The Gumps” character Andy Gump admired in a comic strip published in the Tribune on Sept. 5, 1924, a statue created in his likeness. (Chicago Tribune)

After a successful run for Congress in 1922, Smith launched an independent presidential campaign for Andy Gump that began with the unveiling of a bronze statue of the character at the entrance to Smith’s estate on the south shore of Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. Tribune “A Line O’Type or Two” columnist Richard Henry Little spoke about Gump’s platform on the cartoon character’s behalf.

“Andy Gump fears no man. He has come among these simple people, and found quiet here, and nearness to nature, simple hearts in these modest huts clustered around the shores of Lake Geneva, because he wants to stay close to the common people,” Little told the crowd. “He is going to save us from all our ills.”

Gump continued to run for president until the popular comic strip ended on Oct. 17, 1959. The statue now watches over the lake near the gazebo in Lake Geneva’s Flat Iron Park.

Also on Sept. 6, 1924: Grant Park Stadium opens

Municipal Grant Park Stadium under construction in 1924. Soon after, it was renamed Soldier Field. (Chicago Park District)
Municipal Grant Park Stadium under construction in 1924. Soon after, it was renamed Soldier Field. (Chicago Park District)

Municipal Grant Park Stadium hosted its first event — an athletic field day for thousands of Chicago police officers.

A century ago, Soldier Field was born as a lakefront stadium, bolstering Chicago’s image as a world-class city

And though the facility, which wouldn’t be called Soldier Field until 1925, has seen its share of football games, a variety of performers, politicians, pastors, civil right defenders and musicians have also set memorable moments inside the historic venue.

Sept. 15, 1924: World flyers land in Chicago — well, just outside it

The U.S. Army World Fliers landed near suburban Maywood on Sept. 15, 1924, during the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
The U.S. Army World Fliers landed near suburban Maywood on Sept. 15, 1924, during the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)

A century ago, Chicagoans’ necks craned skyward looking for a single-engine Douglas World Cruiser bearing their city’s name.

It was on the home stretch of its journey as America’s entry in a 1924 international competition to make the first flight around the world. The United States began the journey with four aircraft named for American cities: Seattle, Chicago, Boston and New Orleans. Flyers from Britain, Portugal, France, Argentina and Italy also participated in the competition, taking off at various times through the year.

Chicago was eager on Sept. 15, 1924, to greet the flight team that was making its way around the world. There was just one problem they couldn't land in the city. (Chicago Tribune)
Chicago was eager on Sept. 15, 1924, to greet the flight team that was making its way around the world. There was just one problem — they couldn’t land in the city. (Chicago Tribune)

America’s flyers took off from Seattle on April 6, taking a westerly route, and were scheduled to arrive in Chicago on Sept. 13 amid a triumphant home leg of their journey. But that was set back by two days of bad weather in Ohio, their previous stopover.

The delay heightened the anticipation for Chicagoans who had followed the flyers’ journey via reports from Tribune foreign correspondents. The pilots were already familiar names as newspapers spewed out a steady stream of stories.

“Radiogram Says Heroes of the Air Are Coming,” a Tribune headline announced on July 27.

But it turned out the aviators couldn’t land their plane in their city. As the Tribune noted in an editorial on Sept. 16: “When the world flyers came out of the South and roared over the city yesterday, Chicago could offer them no airplane landing place.”

So the flyers had to touch down on a small airstrip just outside of west suburban Maywood, from there going into the city to be feted at the Drake Hotel.

But on the whole, the flyers’ visit went well.

Sept. 24, 1924: Passion drives a Little Egypt pastor and his parishioner to poison their spouses

The Rev. Lawrence Hight, bottom left, is held at Mount Vernon, Illinois, and is charged with poisoning his wife in 1924. With Hight is Sheriff Grant Halcomb, right, and Deputy Sheriff Ronald Holcomb, standing. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
The Rev. Lawrence Hight, bottom left, is held at Mount Vernon, Illinois, and is charged with poisoning his wife in 1924. With Hight is Sheriff Grant Halcomb, right, and Deputy Sheriff Ronald Holcomb, standing. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)

On July 30, 1924, the Rev. Lawrence Hight delivered a moving eulogy for Wilford Sweeten. “Brother Wilford was an unbeliever in Jesus Christ and God, and I was sent that he might be redeemed,” Hight said.  “I am unworthy to preach the sermon over the body of this good man.”

A coroner's jury ordered Rev. Lawrence Hight and his confessed sweetheart Elsie Sweeten on Sept. 24, 1924, "held without bail to await action of the grand jury," in the poisoning deaths of their spouses. (Chicago Tribune)
A coroner’s jury ordered the Rev. Lawrence Hight and his confessed sweetheart, Elsie Sweeten, on Sept. 24, 1924, “held without bail to await action of the grand jury” in the poisoning deaths of their spouses. (Chicago Tribune)

The irony of Hight’s words would shortly come back to haunt him. On Sept. 24, he was charged with providing Elsie Sweeten the poison that killed her husband, which she administered in a serving of homemade tomato soup, and with poisoning his own wife, Anna Hight. The Tribune pronounced it “the strangest tragedy southern Illinois has ever known.”

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