As regular blog readers know, I grew up in Chicago and moved to Denver back in 1981. However, I still like to catch up with what is happening in my old hometown, which is why I subscribe to Chicago Magazine. It is my opinion that the magazine is a bit elitist, almost exclusively focusing on the north side of the city (I grew up on the south side), reviewing trendy restaurants that specialize in items I would never consider eating even under threat of death. It also features full-page ads for condos in the million dollar plus range, which would seriously strain my budget.
However, it still does have some interesting articles, often featuring fascinating bits of the city's history, some of which I remember. This month there is a story about Billy Jurges, a Chicago Cubs infielder who was shot by a girlfriend he had recently dumped. The year was 1932, and the Cubs were headed to the World Series. His ex went to Jurges hotel room near Wrigley field, intending to shoot him and then herself. When she walked into the room, she put the gun to her head, and Jurges attempted to wrestle the gun out of her hand, getting shot in the process. Happily, Jurges was not seriously hurt, decided not to prosecute, and his ex-girlfriend went on to star as a showgirl, billing herself as the "Girl who Shot for Love." Twenty years later a writer named Bernard Malamud, writing his first novel, remembered the story and wrote The Natural, which became a movie starring Robert Redford, and is my all time favorite baseball film. Certainly worth the price of a subscription.
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