Memorial Bridge Dedication in the Name of Studs Terkel
WHEREAS, Studs Terkel was a man who lived a life of civic engagement and activism and was known throughout the world as a historian of human experience, a chronicler of American lives, an actor, broadcaster, interviewer and a Chicagoan; and
WHEREAS, Studs Terkel, born in New York City on May 16, 2012, moved with his family to Chicago in 1920, where the family ran a rooming house for men at the corner of Ashland Avenue and Flournoy Street and later at Wells and Grand. Terkel graduated from the University of Chicago School of Law, made his home in Chicago with his wife Ida and son Dan, and forged a career as an actor, author, broadcaster and activist and won the Prix Italia and the Pulitzer Prize; and
WHEREAS, Studs Terkel's first book of oral history was Division Street: America named for Division Street in the City of Chicago. It recorded the experiences, ideas and hopes of Chicagoans in all walks of life and, according to the author, the title also serves as a metaphor for the divisions within all of us and the cultural and social divisions that separate us from each other; and
WHEREAS, Studs Terkel contributed to the cultural life and development of Chicago as host ofthe early television show "Studs Place," an exemplar ofthe "Chicago School" of television in the late 1940's and early 1950's. He hosted WFMT radio's "The Studs Terkel Program," interviewing thousands of writers, artists and musicians over 45 years - creating an archive of more than 7,000 audio programs at the Chicago History Museum and now available to the world via the Internet; and
WHEREAS, Studs Terkel wrote prolifically about common and uncommon Americans in the books The Giants of Jazz, Division Street, Hard Times, Working, American Dreams, The Good War, The Great Divide, Coming of Age, My American Century, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Hope Dies Last, The Spectator, Touch and Go, Talking to Myself, P.S. Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of...
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