John P. Walsh is an art historian, writer and photographer. He has an M.A. in Modern Art History, Theory and Criticism from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and taught Modern Art History at Northwestern University.
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Feature image: Frank J. Baker House, Frank Lloyd Wright, 1909, Wilmette, Illinois. Frank J. Baker (1864–1922) was a driving force in Wilmette’s early growth — a sharp‑minded engineer and influential executive with the North Shore Electric Company and Commonwealth Edison who helped bring electricity to the North Shore. He is most remembered for the remarkable 1909 Frank J. Baker House, a Prairie‑style landmark designed for him by Frank Lloyd Wright. A civic leader as well as an innovator, Baker co‑founded the First National Bank of Wilmette. He died in his Wright‑designed home just a week before Christmas in 1922 at 58 years old. December 2017. 99% 7.20mb DSC_0560. Author’s photograph.
The Frank J. Baker House, situated at 507 Lake Avenue in Wilmette, Illinois, is a 4,800‑square‑foot residence that stands as a significant example of Frank Lloyd Wright’s evolving Prairie School vocabulary. Designed in 1909, the house incorporates five bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, and three fireplaces, yet its architectural importance lies less in its programmatic elements than in its role within Wright’s broader experimentation with spatial organization and structural expression during this period.
By the first decade of the twentieth century, Wright had begun to move beyond the predominantly single‑story Prairie houses of the late 1890s, exploring the potential of vertically layered two-story domestic space. The Baker House reflects this transitional moment through its T‑shaped floor plan—a configuration Wright employed in several contemporaneous works, including the Isabel Roberts House (below) built the previous year in River Forest, Illinois.
Isabel Roberts House, 603 Edgewood Place, River Forest, Illinois, 1908, Frank Lloyd Wright. It was remodeled in the 1950s. 69% 7.99 mb Author’s photograph.
The T‑plan allowed Wright to choreograph circulation along a dominant longitudinal axis while creating subsidiary wings that modulated privacy, light, and spatial hierarchy. In the Baker House, this plan form becomes a mechanism for integrating interior volumes with the surrounding landscape, reinforcing the Prairie School’s emphasis on horizontality and environmental continuity.
The exterior composition demonstrates Wright’s mature command of Prairie Style principles: a pronounced horizontal orientation, low‑pitched rooflines, and deeply cantilevered overhangs that visually anchor the structure to its site. These elements work in concert to diminish the building’s vertical massing, producing the characteristic “sheltering” effect that Wright associated with Midwestern domestic architecture.
Frank Lloyd Wright in 1903, likely a self-portrait. Public Domain.In 1909 42-year-old Frank Lloyd Wright reportedly personally brought the plans to Baker in Wilmette by horseback. Public domain. see – New owners to breathe life into 1909 Wright home – Wednesday Journal – retrieved March 30, 2026.
The two‑story living room is the spatial and symbolic core of the house. Its brick fireplace—an archetypal Wrightian hearth—functions as both a literal and conceptual center, organizing the surrounding spaces and reinforcing Wright’s belief in the fireplace as the spiritual heart of the home. The sloped ceiling and continuous band of leaded‑glass windows along the north wall create a dynamic interplay of light and volume, while the vertical expansion of the room contrasts deliberately with the home’s otherwise horizontal emphasis. Few surviving Wright houses retain this particular combination of a T‑shaped plan and a two‑story principal interior, making the Baker House an important artifact in understanding Wright’s spatial experimentation.
The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 8, 1974, acknowledging its architectural significance. A comprehensive restoration initiated in 2020 under new ownership has sought to preserve both the material integrity and the spatial logic of Wright’s original design.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie‑style design features strong horizontal porches framing a two‑story diamond‑leaded glass window wall in the living room. The home includes five large bedrooms, three‑and‑a‑half bathrooms, and three fireplaces. The second level offers a primary suite with en‑suite bath, fireplace, and private porch, plus two additional en‑suite bedrooms, two more bedrooms, and a sitting room. The kitchen and breakfast room overlook the expansive yard. Wright designed the home’s 1922 addition. Public Domain.
Interior Analysis.
Upon entry, the visitor encounters a twenty‑two‑foot dining room articulated with diamond‑patterned leaded‑glass windows, a pitched ceiling, and extensive wood trim. This space exemplifies Wright’s strategy of compressing and releasing volume: the relatively intimate proportions of the dining room heighten the dramatic expansion experienced upon entering the adjacent living room.
The main‑floor kitchen, accompanied by a modest breakfast nook, reflects Wright’s early efforts to modernize domestic workspaces by integrating them more fluidly into the overall plan. The living room, by contrast, adopts a quasi‑ecclesiastical spatial character. Its cantilevered ceiling, which extends into a loft above, creates a sense of upward movement unusual in Prairie houses. The continuous horizontal and vertical window bands dissolve the boundary between interior and exterior, a hallmark of Wright’s belief that architecture should mediate rather than separate human habitation from the natural environment.
At the center of the home stands the principal brick fireplace, accompanied by an overhead balcony that provides an elevated vantage point and reinforces the vertical layering of the space. On the second floor, the master bedroom includes one of the home’s three fireplaces and a private enclosed balcony, further demonstrating Wright’s interest in creating intimate, retreat‑like upper‑level spaces within an otherwise horizontally oriented composition.
Feature image: “De la Serie Pachamama” by Juan Vélez is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.Pachamama, meaning “Mother Earth” in Quechua and Aymara, is the Andean goddess of fertility and nature—a living, nurturing force central to indigenous culture. For centuries she has embodied the unity of space, time, and land, and is honored through reciprocal agricultural rituals to ensure abundant harvests.
The inauguration Mass of Pope Francis took place on March 19, 2013, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. The ceremony marked the official start of his ministry as the 266th pope and was attended by thousands of faithful, religious leaders, and political dignitaries from the global community. “The Inauguration Mass For Pope Francis” by Catholic Church (England and Wales) is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Within Christian theology, Yahweh and Abba are understood as designations for the same God, each highlighting a different dimension of the divine identity: the LORD. Yahweh (YHWH), the sacred name revealed in the Hebrew Bible, emphasizes God’s self‑existence and covenantal sovereignty. Abba—an Aramaic term meaning “Father”—is used by Jesus and later by Paul to express an intimate, relational mode of addressing that same Creator. The relationship of Father and Son regarding Yahweh and the Messiah comes from the Hebrew Bible in a prophecy of Nathan. Together, the terms reflect both the transcendence and the personal closeness attributed to God in Christian thought.
God smote the land with all manner of plagues, but still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.“These things were ordered by themselves, not by God.”Released by Paramount Pictures, The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American epic directed, produced, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille. Starring Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Pharaoh, the film dramatizes the biblical story of the Exodus.
The account of the first plague in Exodus—when the Nile turned to blood—has long been understood in Christian tradition as a dramatic assertion of the LORD’s sovereignty over creation. Water, earth, sun, moon, and all natural forces fall under His command. In the ancient world, this act was not merely a disruption of nature but a direct theological confrontation. The Nile was revered as a divine source of life, and Egyptian religion associated it with deities such as Hapi, Khnum, and Osiris. By transforming the river into blood, the LORD demonstrated His supremacy over these gods and exposed the futility of idolatry.
This theme—God’s judgment against false worship—runs throughout Scripture. The first commandment forbids the worship of other gods, and Deuteronomy 6:13–16, later cited by Jesus during His temptation in the desert (Matthew 4), reinforces the call to exclusive fidelity to the LORD and warns against “testing” Him through divided allegiance and idol worship. The plagues, therefore, are not arbitrary punishments but theological signs: they reveal the consequences of idolatry and call both Israel and Egypt to recognize the one true God.
Contemporary Catholics argue that this same principle applies today when Church leaders engage in or appear to endorse rituals involving non Christian deities. Critics of modernist tendencies point to events such as the Pachamama ceremonies during the Amazon Synod, interpreting them as a departure from the first commandment and a dangerous blurring of the line between respect for indigenous cultures and participation in religious acts incompatible with Christian worship. Such actions echo the temptation Jesus resisted who obeyed his Father’s will and relied on his Providence —instead of in the least seeking harmony or power through compromise with spiritual forces outside the covenant.
This tension recalls the famous exchange between Margaret More and her father, St. Thomas More. When she urged him to outwardly conform to an oath while privately dissenting, he replied: “What is an oath then but words we say to God?” His point was that fidelity requires integrity of both heart and action. To critics of modern syncretistic gestures, the same principle applies: one cannot outwardly participate in rites honoring a pagan goddess while inwardly claiming a different intention.
Seen through this lens, the first plague is not harsh but proportionate to the spiritual crisis it confronts. It transforms a symbol of life into a sign of judgment, exposing the emptiness of Egypt’s gods and warning Pharaoh of the consequences of hardened idolatry. The narrative becomes not only an ancient story but a perennial reminder: whenever God’s people flirt with rival spiritual powers, the result is confusion, disorder, and a call to return to the LORD with undivided hearts.
There was a Pachamama ceremonial rite attended by Pope Francis in the Vatican Gardens during the Amazon Synod on October 4, 2019. Several related events followed in the subsequent days and weeks. On October 7, 2019, statues identified as Pachamama and other indigenous figures were carried from St. Peter’s Basilica to the Synod Hall and placed before the main altar. After several of these statues were removed and thrown into the Tiber River, Pope Francis ordered their recovery and had them returned to the main altar between October 21 and 25, 2019. During the Synod’s closing Mass on October 25, the pope accepted a bowl associated with ritual practices involving Pachamama and placed it on the altar. See – Pope Francis apologizes that Amazon synod Pachamama statues were thrown into Tiber River and The Pope, the Amazon, and Pachamama | FRANCIS X. CLOONEY, S.J. – retrieved March 23, 2026. As part of the post‑synodal process, Pope Francis issued the apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia on February 12, 2020, which included a brief reference to Pachamama. Although the pope did not explicitly define whether the contested image represents a goddess, a symbol of Mother Earth, or simply a pregnant woman, he framed its presence within Christian liturgical contexts as an expression of respect for indigenous cultures. He therefore cautioned against hasty judgments and argued that “it is possible to take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily considering it as idolatry.” See – “Querida Amazonia”: Post-Synodal Exhortation to the People of God and to All Persons of Good Will (2 February 2020) – retrieved March 23, 2026.
The papal text drew criticism from numerous sectors within the Church, including Catholic women’s organizations, which noted a central tension: while the document speaks eloquently about sensitivity to and acceptance of indigenous religious practices, it simultaneously overlooks the fact that women play indispensable liturgical and pastoral roles in Amazonian communities, even as the Catholic Church continues to bar women from ordained ministry.
Some commentators further argued that the document reflects a distinctly Jesuit interpretive lens, reviving debates reminiscent of the Chinese Rites Controversy (c. 1630s–1742). That earlier dispute—an intense, century‑long conflict within the Church—centered on whether Confucian and ancestor‑veneration rituals were compatible with Christian practice. Jesuits advocated for cultural accommodation, permitting converts to retain these rites, whereas Dominicans and Franciscans condemned them as pagan superstition. The controversy ultimately ended with a papal prohibition, a defeat the Jesuits neither forgot nor forgave. Their later suppression by Pope Clement XIV in the 1773 brief Dominus ac Redemptor further cemented the episode’s significance in Jesuit memory.
Against this backdrop, Querida Amazonia was interpreted by some as a cultural manifesto that reopens historically contentious questions about inculturation without offering concrete pastoral or structural proposals for the Church’s mission in the region. Critics argued that its “Pan‑Amazonian” vision implicitly legitimized the use of “Pachamama” figures in ecclesial settings—objects some labeled as idolatrous—and risked advancing a syncretistic or pantheistic ecclesiology. In this view, the document’s strong emphasis on indigenous spirituality blurs the line between respect for local cultures and a theological reconfiguration in which the natural environment itself appears to be divinized.
THERE’S NOTHING “PAGAN” TO SEE HERE: VATICAN SPOKESMEN.
Vatican officials repeatedly stressed that the Pachamama figures—those smooth wooden carvings that appeared throughout the Amazon Synod—were meant to embody life itself, nothing more. Yet the debate refused to settle. Reporters and commentators kept circling back, probing whether these images carried echoes of Amazonian spiritual traditions, perhaps even the mystical or magical practices woven into the forest cultures from which they emerged.
Paolo Ruffini, head of the Vatican’s communications office, stepped forward in October 2019 with a firm, almost weary clarity. The figure, he insisted, “fundamentally… represents life. And enough.” He brushed aside attempts to brand Pachamama as “pagan” or “evil,” pushing back against the swirl of speculation. To him, the symbol was no more sinister than a tree—another universal emblem of fertility, rootedness, and the continuity of creation. Ruffini’s comparison was deliberate: a reminder that symbols can be shared across cultures without carrying the weight of worship, and that the Church, in this moment, was choosing to see Pachamama not as a rival deity but as a poetic gesture toward the sacredness of life. see – Pope Francis apologizes that Amazon synod Pachamama statues were thrown into Tiber River – retrieved March 23, 2026.
Recent reports have drawn attention to Pope Leo XIV—widely regarded as a protégé of Pope Francis—regarding his participation in Pachamama-related ceremonies during his missionary work in Peru in the mid‑1990s. The resurfacing of these accounts in 2026 has generated considerable debate. Critics have questioned how the pope can, on the one hand, caution clergy against relying on advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence in their homiletic preparation, while on the other hand urging restraint in judging indigenous religious practices and appearing to support primitive rituals that some observers interpret as forms of non‑Christian worship.
The discussion intensified after photographs emerged from an Augustinian symposium in South America, depicting a mid‑forties Fr. Robert Prevost kneeling in a circle during what has been described as an indigenous agricultural ritual. For those who do not view such practices as conflicting with the First Commandment, the images may seem unremarkable. For others, however, they raise theological and pastoral concerns about syncretism and the boundaries of legitimate cultural engagement within the Church.
Feature Image: December 2015. Main Entrance, Metropolitan Tower (1924), Chicago. 4.89 mb DSC_0963 (1). Author’s photograph.
Located at 310 South Michigan Avenue on the southwest corner of Jackson Boulevard, Metropolitan Tower originally served as corporate headquarters for S.W. Straus and Co., a banking and investment firm. The building was erected in 1924 by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White in their signature classical style. The architectural firm was one of the largest in the first half of the twentieth century and went on to build Chicago’s Civic Opera Building in 1929. Founded in 1912, the firm was the successor to D. H. Burnham & Co. by way of partner, Ernest R. Graham (1868-1936), and Burnham’s sons, Hubert and Daniel Jr. Five years later the Burnhams left to form their own firm (Burnham Brothers) and Graham partnered with others of the firm’s members: William Peirce Anderson (1870-1924), Edward Mathias Probst (1870-1942), and Howard Judson White (1870-1936). No expense was spared for the Straus Building’s interior, though of the original lobby’s opulence all that remains are the elaborate bronze elevator doors. The entrance’s coffered bronze doors by Italian sculptor Leo Lentelli (1879-1961) were destroyed. see – Saliga, Pauline A., editor, The Sky’s The Limit A Century of Chicago Skyscrapers, Rizzoli New York, 1990, p. 117.
Ernest R. Graham (1868-1936).
William Peirce Anderson (1870-1924).
Edward Mathias Probst (1870-1942).
Howard Judson White (1870-1936).
Leo Lentelli (1879-1961). The Italian sculptor created the original main entrance doors for Metropolitan Tower that were later destroyed. Public Domain.
The 30-floor classical-style Straus Building was renamed over the years for other of its famous inhabitants including Continental National Insurance Co. and Britannica Center for Encyclopedia Britannica. Metropolitan Tower was the first building in Chicago that took advantage of the new 1923 zoning ordinance for skyscrapers that allowed buildings taller than 260 feet (30 or more floors) with the necessary setbacks. Metropolitan Tower’s required setbacks begin at the 21st floor on which sits a nine-story tower until there is a second setback and then the final two stories. Crowned by a stepped pyramid and possessed of a powerful beacon that opened in 1924, the building is Chicago’s first Michigan Avenue skyscraper.
Unused for years, the building’s 1,500-pound carillon bells were restored in 1979 for Pope John Paul II’s visit to Chicago. Just steps from Metropolitan Tower, the papal visit included an outdoor mass in Grant Park on October 5, 1979, which attracted over one million attendees, the largest gathering ever in Grant Park history up to that time. see – CBS Chicago Vault: Pope John Paul II enthralls Chicagoans on 1979 visit – CBS Chicago – retrieved March 18, 2026.
At one time, the thirtieth floor was the Straus Tower Observatory, which was open to the public for viewing the city in all four directions. see – Home | Metropolitan Tower – retrieved February 24, 2026. Home to the Continental National Insurance Company soon after it was built, this iconic skyscraper is located within Chicago’s Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District. The glass “beehive” supported by four bison figures at the top of the building held the blue light of a four-direction beacon. The ensemble, symbolizing industry, strength, and thrift, saw its beacon, signifying global reach, permanently shut down in 1934 following the financial failure of the S.W. Straus and Company during the Great Depression. The building was converted to residential condominiums in 2007. see – Metropolitan Tower | Powered by Baird & Warner– retrieved February 24, 2026; AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Alice Sinkevitch, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, page 42.
Feature Image: The 1976 cover of Boz Scaggs’ Silk Degrees, photographed by Moshe Brakha at Casino Point in Avalon, California, features a pensive, cool, well-dressed Scaggs seated on a jade green and white bench overlooking the sea. In a sun-drenched, somewhat lonely coastal setting, Scaggs is joined by the partial view of a woman’s hand and her high-heeled foot, suggesting a story of lost love or longing. The cover is iconic, not unlike an advertisement for a men‘s fragrance, here of smooth, soulful pop and jazz by Scaggs released on Columbia Records. “Silk Degrees – Boz Scaggs” by Brett Jordan is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
The song about a hustler looking for his next big score, Lido Shuffle was the fourth and final single released from Boz Scaggs’ 1976 album, Silk Degrees, in February 1977, about one year after the album’s February 1976 release. It’s Over (No. 38), Lowdown (No. 3) and What Can I Say (No. 42) already had been released as singles from an album that debuted in March 1976 on the Billboard 200 and peaked at no. 2 on September 18, 1976. Though Silk Degrees spun off the chart in May 1978, 115 weeks after it first appeared, Scaggs’ 7th studio album had best-selling staying power, remaining in the top 20 (no. 17) at the end of 1976 and higher at no. 8 at the end of 1977. Before its chart departure, Silk Degrees had been certified Platinum by the RIAA and is certified 5x multi-Platinum today. see – Boz Scaggs | Biography, Music & News | Billboard – retrieved February 18, 2026.
Lido Shuffle is a breezy, upbeat number that hit no. 11 on the Hot 100 in 1977. LYRICS Lido missed the boat that day he left the shack But that was all he missed and he ain’t comin’ back At a tombstone bar in a jukejoint car, he made a stop Just long enough to grab a handle off the top Next stop Chi town, Lido put the money down and let it roll He said one more job ought to get it One last shot ‘fore we quit it One more for the road Lido, whoa-oh-oh-oh He’s for the money, he’s for the show Lido’s waitin’ for the go Lido, whoa-oh-oh-oh He said one more job ought to get it One last shot ‘fore we quit it One more for the road Lido be runnin’, havin’ great big fun, until he got the note Sayin’ toe the line or blow, and that was all she wrote He be makin’ like a beeline, headin’ for the borderline Goin’ for broke Sayin’ one more hit ought to do it This joint ain’t nothin to it One more for the road Lido, whoa-oh-oh-oh He’s for the money, he’s for the show Lido’s waitin’ for the go Lido, whoa-oh-oh-oh One more job ought to get it One last shot and we quit it One more for the road Lido, whoa-oh-oh-oh He’s for the money, he’s for the show Lido’s waitin’ for the go Lido, whoa-oh-oh-oh…
November 3, 1962: Fats Domino in Amsterdam. “Fats Domino (1962)” by Hugo van Gelderen / Anefo is marked with CC0 1.0.
The idea for, and beat of, pop-rock Lido Shuffle was inspired by songs by Carl Perkins (1932-1988) and Fats Domino (1928-2017) and whose lyrics are about a gambler who left home to chase bets (even to Chicago) and ends up losing more winning.
Though promising to do better, the big gambler gets wrapped up in bets, so that each time is the last time – until the next time. “He’s for the money, he’s for the show, Lido’s waitin’ for the go.” Spending wildly and getting deeper and deeper into debt, he’s having fun. That is, until the note finally comes due and the big gambler has to go for broke running for the border – or that’s the plan. Because he can neither escape his gambling addiction nor his debts he goes for one more gambling hit “goin’ for broke” expecting a bailout that won’t be coming. Like the American buffalo hunted to extinction so ends up the gambling Lido Shuffle.
A sales turnaround for Silk Degrees started in Cleveland, Ohio. It’s Over, the album’s first, and up to that point, only single, had modest top 40 success and Scaggs had no plans to release anything more. But an enterprising Cleveland R&B radio DJ at WJMO- AM started playing the Steely-Dan-styled Lowdown right off the album to Ohio’s North Coast – and the public response was massively positive. Scaggs’ label, Columbia, sent the song around to other R&B and Top 40 radio stations across the country and released Lowdown as a single in June 1976. By October 1976 Lowdown was no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and, always having had crossover appeal, was no. 5 on the Hot Soul Singles chart. Lowdown was no. 1 on the Cash Box Top 100 and sold over one million copies to be certified Gold. It also won that year’s Grammy Award for Best R & B song making 32-year-old Boz Scaggs the first white musical artist to ever win in that award category.
Lowdown is the standout hit on Silk Degrees. Released on June 4, 1976, the smooth, jazzy R&B ballad became the breakthrough hit of the album, peaking at no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and winning the 1977 Grammy for Best R&B Song. LYRICS Baby’s into runnin’ around, hangin’ with the crowd Puttin’ your business in the street, talkin’ out loud Sayin’ you bought her this and that And how much you done spent I swear she must believe it’s all heaven sent Hey, boy You better bring the chick around To the sad, sad truth The dirty lowdown (Oohooohooohooo I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who) Taught her how to talk like that (Oohooohooohooo I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who) Gave her that big idea Nothin’ you can’t handle, nothin’ you ain’t got Put your money on the table and drive it off the lot Turn on that old lovelight and turn a “Maybe” to a “Yes” Same old schoolboy game got you into this mess Hey son Better get on back to town Face the sad old truth The dirty lowdown (Oohooohooohooo I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who) Put those ideas in your head (Oohooohooohooo I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who) Yeah Come on back down, little son Dig the low, low, low, low, lowdown! You ain’t got to be so bad, got to be so cold This dog eat dog existence sure is getting old Got to have a jones for this, jones for that This runnin’ with the Joneses, boy, just ain’t where it’s at, no, no… You gonna come back around To the sad, sad truth The dirty lowdown (Oohooohooohooo) I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who) Got you thinking like that, boy (Oohooohooohooo I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who) I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who Said I wonder, wonder, wonder, I wonder who Oh, look out for that lowdown (I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who) That dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty lowdown (Ooohooohooohooo) I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who Ooohooohooohooo I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who Got you thinkin’ like that Got you thinkin’ just like that (Ooohooohooohooo) (I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who) Lookin’ that girl in the face is so sad I’m ashamed of you I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who
It was Silk Degree’s producer, Joe Wissert, who introduced Scaggs and David Paich of the future Toto, and Lowdown was the first song on the album they wrote together. The song came about when Scaggs and Paich took off to a weekend getaway spot outside L.A. and pounded out song ideas. When they returned to the city, they immediately recorded funk-disco Lowdown with the band. To talk about “the lowdown” is a slang term for “what’s really going on” – what’s factual and not just fancied. In Scaggs’s Lowdown, the singer looks to convey to the man in the song that he face “the sad, sad truth” about his woman. “The dirty lowdown” is that she is “into runnin’ around, hangin’ with the crowd” and not appreciating him or what he gives to her. Though she is “Puttin’ your business in the street,” the singer understands and is sympathetic to what the man wants. He seems to identify with the man’s hope that there’s “Nothin’ you can’t handle, nothin’ you ain’t got, Put your money on the table…Turn a Maybe to a Yes.” But the singer concludes that the man’s rosy outlook, born of overconfidence or desperation, is missing the mark: “Same old schoolboy game got you into this mess…” The singer could legitimately wonder “who got you thinking’ like that” but then iterates the lowdown: “Lookin’ that girl in the face is so sad I’m ashamed of you…”
“WJMO – Radio – 11821 Euclid Ave” by Timothy Culek (photographer) Cleveland State University, Michael Schwartz Library, Special Collections is marked with CC0 1.0.
Following this success that Scaggs admitted was the pure “accident” of a chain of events that had Lowdown released as a single, Lido Shuffle landed on the pop chart within a couple of weeks in March 1977, peaking at no. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1977 (no. 6 on Cash Box) and remaining on the pop chart throughout that summer. Like Lowdown, Lido Shuffle was co-written with David Paich who was featured on keyboards. The track also featured drummer Joe Porcaro and bassist David Hungate, all of whom formed the band Toto later in 1977. Of Silk Degrees Robert Christgau of the Village Voice gave the album a “B PLUS (Later A-)” observing: “Scaggs is criticized for his detachment, but I say it’s subtlety and I say thank god for it. In the past, he’s sometimes bought (not to mention sold) his own lushness, but this collection is cooled by droll undercurrents–white soul with a sense of humor that isn’t consumed in self-parody. Inspirational Verse [from Lowdown]: “Gotta have a jones for this/Jones for that/This runnin’ with the joneses, boy/Just ain’t where it’s at.” See – Robert Christgau: Consumer Guide July 12, 1976 – retrieved February 18, 2026.
It’s Over is the second track on side two of Boz Scaggs’ 1976 album, Silk Degrees, and was its lead single released in March 1976. Co‑written by Scaggs and David Paich, the track distills Silk Degrees into one smooth hit — a blue-eyed soul, tight R&B, soft-rock glide. Paich, Jeff Porcaro, and David Hungate anchor the groove, the same trio that would launch Toto later that year. It’s Over cracked the top 40 at no. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100. LYRICS Your baby doesn’t love you any more Golden days before they end Whisper secrets to the wind Your baby won’t be near you anymore Tender nights before they fly Send falling stars that seem to cry Your baby doesn’t want you any more It’s over It breaks your heart in two To know she’s been untrue But, oh, what will you do? When she says to you There’s someone new We’re through, we’re through It’s over, it’s over, it’s over All the rainbows in the sky Start to weep, then say goodbye You won’t be seeing rainbows anymore Setting suns before they fall Echo to you that’s all that’s all But you’ll see lonely sunsets after all It’s over, it’s over, it’s over It’s over
Feature Image: December 2015. Beaux-Arts elevator bank (1907). Congress Plaza Hotel, Chicago. 6.20 mb DSC_0617 (1). Author’s photograph.
The initial North Tower was built in 1893 during The World’s Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago from May 1 to October 31, 1893. It was built by famed developer R.H. Southgate and designed by Clinton J. Warren (1860-1938), a leading young hotel designer in the city. Warren moved to Chicago from Massachusetts in 1879 and the next year joined the firm of Burnham and Root. When he left the firm in 1886 to start his own firm he designed a long list of Chicago hotels. These included The Virginia Hotel (1889–1890), a ten-story building on the northwest corner of Ohio and Rush Streets, The Metropole Hotel (1891) an eight-story building on the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and 23rd Street, The Plaza Hotel (1891–1992) at 1553 N. Clark Street at the southeast corner of Clark and North Avenue, The Lexington Hotel (1892) at 22nd and Michigan Avenue and The Auditorium Annex/Congress Hotel at 504 S. Michigan Avenue (1893), which is today The Congress Plaza Hotel. By 1900 Warren returned to Boston, Massachusetts, and died in San Diego, California, in 1938, by then his active years as an architect in Chicago obscured. His obituary in the New York Times failed to mention Warren’s training with Daniel Burnham, his influence on Chicago architecture by way of numerous prominent buildings over two decades in the city nor his work’s association to Al Capone by way of the gangster’s moving his headquarters to the Lexington Hotel in 1928 until 1931. Warren’s NYT obituary reads in full: “Clinton J. Warren SAN DIEGO, Calif., March 17 (AP). – Clinton J. Warren, architect, who designed buildings in Europe, Mexico and Eastern United States, died at his home here last night at the age of 80. Mr. Warren formerly lived in Winchester, Mass. His widow and two sons, Clinton Jay Jr. of San Francisco and John of New York, survive.” see – TimesMachine: March 18, 1938 – NYTimes.com and The Chicago Hotels of Architect Clinton J. Warren – Owlcation – retrieved February 22, 2026.
December 2015. Beaux-Arts elevator bank, 504 S. Michigan Avenue (1907), Chicago. 3.99mb DSC_0958 (2). Author’s photograph.
Originally named the Auditorium Annex it opened in 1893 to swarms of tourists and has remained open in this role continuously since to today (and is famous for its ghost hauntings). The Auditorium Annex became the closest major hotel at the time to two large train stations: Dearborn Station and Illinois Central Station both five blocks away. It was also the southernmost major hotel in Downtown Chicago and just a block and a half away from the elevated train station that took visitors to the World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds in Jackson Park. The gold elevator bank, featuring ornate gilded, Beaux-Arts styling, is located within the South Tower of the Congress Plaza Hotel, added between 1902 and 1907 designed by architects Holabird & Roche. see – Holabird & Roche. See- Chicago Landmarks – Architect Details – retrieved February 22, 2026.
William Holabird (1854-1923) and Martin Roche (1855-1927) of the architectural firm of Holabird & Roche that designed the South Tower of today’s Congress Plaza Hotel between 1902 and 1907. Public Domain.
This addition includes a luxurious banquet hall called the “Gold Room.” By 1908, the hotel had over 1,000 guest rooms and, in 1911, changed its name to the Congress Hotel inspired by its location on Congress Parkway (today’s Ida B. Wells Drive) and across from Grant Park. Several U.S. presidents have stayed in the Congress Hotel and could have used these golden elevators including Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Warren Harding, and Calvin Coolidge. See – Congress Plaza Hotel History | Congress Plaza Hotel – retrieved February 22, 2026.
ROSA LEE: I LOVE YOU, YOU KNOW? EVERY NIGHT WHEN I SAY MY PRAYERS AND I THANK THE LORD FOR HIS BLESSINGS AND HIS TENDER MERCIES TO ME, YOU AND SONNY HEAD THE LIST. Tender Mercies – 11. “Blessings and Tender Mercies” – retrieved February 16, 2026.
Robert Duvall died February 15, 2026, at his home in Middleburg, Virginia, at 95 it was announced February 16. In Tender Mercies, a 1983 American drama film set in Texas, Robert Duvall played washed-up country singer Mac Sledge in a performance that won that year’s Academy Award for Best Actor. In this scene, Duvall’s friend, Wilford Brimley, played Harry, Mac’s former manager, and Tess Harper played a widow named Rosa Lee who develops feelings for Mac. Coming off a bitter break up with his wife Dixie Lee, a superstar country singer, who won’t let her ex-alcoholic husband near herself or their grown daughter, Mac, a once legendary country music star in his own right, lives and works quietly at a gas station operated by Rosa Lee who lives with her young son. As Mac tries to rebuild both his career and life on the Texas badlands, he finds he has keener, if less flashy, success with the latter. Nominated for 5 Academy Awards, Tender Mercies also won Oscar for Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen (Horton Foote). In his 60-year film career, Duvall made scores of films, receiving seven Academy Award nominations in the process. Duvall also received four Golden Globe Awards. From his film debut in 1962 as Boo Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird, Duvall appeared in some of the most iconic feature films of his era and in iconic roles both on screen and behind the camera as producer, writer and director. Notable film titles include: True Grit (1969), M*A*S*H (1970), The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Great Santini (1979), Tender Mercies (1983), The Natural (1984), The Apostle (1997), Open Range (2003), and Wild Horses (2015). At 91 years old, Duvall’s final film, The Pale Blue Eye, was released 60 years after his first, in 2022.
Robert Duvall played Lieutenant Colonel William “Bill” Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, a 1979 war film directed by Francis (Ford) Coppola. Commanding the 1st Battalion, 9th Air Cavalry Regiment during the Vietnam War, Kilgore is depicted as an adrenaline-fueled “gung-ho” officer who embodies the insanity of the war. (6) Apocalypse Now UHD (1979) – Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (1/11) | 4K Clips – YouTube – retrieved February 16, 2026.
Based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972) is one of the greatest films of all time. Robert Duvall plays cool-headed Tom Hagen, the Irish-German consigliere and lawyer for the Corleone crime family. Since youth Hagen was unofficially adopted into the New York-based Italian American family by the Godfather, Vito Corleone. Hagen is dispatched to Hollywood by the Godfather to secure a film role for Johnny Fontaine, a singer and Vito’s godson, and produced by Jack Woltz (John Marley). When Woltz refuses Tom Hagen’s first offer for Johnny to star in his picture, and Tom Hagen returns to New York, the Godfather makes the reluctant film producer a second offer he can’t refuse.
Feature Image: October 2015. Chicago. 5.85mb DSCN1452 (1). Author’s photograph.
October 2016. Chicago 4.90mb DSC_0104 (1)
Chicago skyline from Museum Campus promontory (Northerly Island).
October 2015. Chicago. 5.85mb DSCN1452 (1). Author’s photograph.
Wacker Drive and Wabash Avenue looking east, Chicago. From left: Trump International Hotel and Tower, Adrian Smith, architect (2009). Trump Tower Chicago is a 98-story skyscraper at 401 N Wabash Ave, completed in 2009. Rising 1,389 feet with its spire, it includes 486 condos, a 339-room hotel, and ranks as the 4th tallest building in the United States.
401 N Michigan Avenue (Equitable Building), Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1965/Facelift 1992/Renovation 2016). The plaza (Pioneer Court) of the Miesian 401 N. Michigan draws over 22,000 pedestrians daily from busy Michigan Avenue. Apple’s global flagship store shares the plaza that provides immediate access to the Riverwalk via the Spanish Steps. see – 401 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611 – Office for Lease | LoopNet – retrieved February 13, 2026.
360 N. Michigan Avenue (London Guarantee & Accident Building), Alfred S. Alschuler, architect (1923).
85 E. Wacker Drive (London House).
75 E. Wacker (formerly Lincoln Tower, originally Mather Tower), Herbert Hugh Riddle, architect (1928) and Harry Weese & Assocs. (Renovation/1983).
71 E. Wacker Drive (The Royal Sonesta Chicago Downtown, formerly Executive House Hotel), Milton Schwartz, architect (1959). 71 E. Wacker Drive is the first high-rise hotel in Chicago since the Great Depression. see – Executive House Hotel, 71 E. Wacker, Chicago – retrieved February 13, 2026.
May 2015. Chicago. 99% 7.92mb DSC_0468. Author’s photograph.
Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Street looking west on Van Buren, Chicago. Left: Chicago Club, 81. E. Van Buren, Granger & Bollenbacher, architect (1929).
Right: CNA Center (333 S. Wabash Avenue), Graham, Anderson, Probst, architect (1972).
Near background: 333 S. State, DePaul Center (formerly Goldblatt’s, originally Rothschild & Co. Store), Holabird & Roche, architect (1912), renovation 1993.
Far background: Fisher Building (343 S. Dearborn Street), D.H. Burnham & Co., architect (1896) and Northern Addition, Peter J. Weber, architect (1907). Restoration and adaptive Reuse, 2001.
October 2015. Chicago. 4.28mb DSC_0061 (1) Author’s photograph.
Adams and Dearborn Streets looking north along Dearborn, Chicago. Left: 55 Xerox Center, 55 West Monroe, Chicago, Helmut Jahn, architect (1977-1980). Behind (partially hidden): Chase Tower (originally First National Bank of Chicago), Perkins & Will; C.F. Murphy Assocs. (1969).
Background: 2 N. State/1 N. Dearborn Streets (originally, Boston Store), Holabird & Roche (1906; 1917), renovation (2001).
November 2015. Chicago. 3.77mb DSC_0384 (1). Author’s photograph.
Halsted Street between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard looking east, Chicago. Union Station Tower (MidAmerica Commodity Exchange), Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1971). Willis Tower (originally, Sears Tower), Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1974).
December 2015. Chicago. 2.40mb DSC_0577 (2). Author’s photograph.
Balbo and Wabash Avenues looking north on Wabash. Left: (with Columbia College wall sign) 33 Ida B. Wells Drive building, Alfred S. Alschuler, architect, (1925/1926). DePaul University College of Law, 25 E. Jackson and, beyond, 230 S. Wabash, a 21-story building built in 1910.
Center: Trump International Hotel and Tower, Adrian Smith, architect (2009).
At right: Roosevelt University: Auditorium Building, Adler & Sullivan, architect (1887-1889) and The Wabash Building, a 32-story zigzagging glass structure, Christopher Groesbeck, AIA, architect (2012). CNA Center (333 S. Wabash Avenue), Graham, Anderson, Probst, architect (1972).
December 2015. Chicago 3.60mb DSC_0986 (2)
From left: Old Colony Building, 407 S. Dearborn Street, Holabird & Roche, architect (1894), Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center, 71 W. Van Buren Street, Harry Weese & Associates (1975), Fisher Building, 342 S. Dearborn Street, D.H. Burnham, architect (1896) and Northern Addition, Peter Weber, architect (1907) and Sears Tower, 233 S. Wacker Drive, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1974).
July 2016. Chicago 5.33mb DSC_0743 (1)
Lincoln Park looking over South Pond towards downtown. At left: (partial view) Water Tower Place, 845 N. Michigan Avenue, Loebl, Schlossman & Hackl, architect (1976); John Hancock Building, 875 N. Michigan Avenue, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1969); 900 North Michigan Avenue, Kohn Pedersen Fox, architect (1989); Park Tower, 800 N. Michigan Avenue, Lucien LaGrange & Assoc., architect (2000); The Aon Center (formerly, Amoco Building; originally, Standard Oil Building), 200 E. Randolph Street, Edward Durell Stone; Perkins & Will, architects (1973); Trump International Hotel and Tower, Adrian Smith, architect (2009); At right: James House, 1560 North Sandburg Terrace, Solomon Cordwell Buenz, architect (1971).
July 2016. Chicago. 3.28 mb DSC_0045 (1)
Looking north on Wabash Avenue from Randolph Street, the Chicago elevated train follows a north-south route along Wabash Avenue and has been part of downtown since the late 1890’s. The “Kemper” sign is on the relatively dull modernist Kemper Building, now One East Wacker, Shaw, Metz & Assoc., architect (1962). Followed by 35 East Wacker Drive (formerly Pure Oil Building; originally, Jewelers Building) with its distinctive dome, Glaver & Dinkelberg; Thielbar & Fugard, Assoc. Archs., architect (1926). Partial view is Trump Tower.
September 2016. Chicago.3.89mb DSC_0740 (1)
Right to left: The 233 E. Wacker Drive building (known as Columbus Plaza) in Chicago is 48-story apartment building, Fujikawa Conterato Lohan and Associates, architect (1978-1980). The 111 E. Wacker Drive building (known as One Illinois Center) in Chicago, is a 30-story Modernist building featuring bronze anodized aluminum and dark-tinted glass, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in association with Joseph Fujikawa, architect (1967-1970). The Swissôtel Chicago at 323 E. Wacker Drive, is a 45-story, triangular, all-glass luxury hotel, Harry Weese and Associates, architect (1989). The 345 E. Wacker Drive building (known as Coast at Lakeshore East) in Chicago is a 40-story residential apartment tower, bKL Architecture LLC, architect (2013).
September 2016. Chicago. 4.93mb DSC_0745 (1)
From the Riverwalk looking north along N. St. Clair Street: at right, the 27-story spandrel glass and metal panel 633 N. St Clair St. building, Loebl Schlossman [later; Dart] & Hackl, architect (1991). At left, the 63-story pinkish, rose-hued Swedish granite 161 Chicago Avenue East building (known as Olympia Centre) is a mixed-use retail, office, and residential skyscraper, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1984-85). At right, the 74-story gray marble facade Water Tower Place, the first vertical shopping center on Michigan Avenue (8 floors), also includes the Ritz-Carlton hotel, luxury condos, and office space, Edward D. Dart (Loebl Schlossman Bennett and Dart), architect (1975). The John Hancock Center—now officially 875 North Michigan Avenue—is a 100‑story, tapered mixed‑use skyscraper known for its iconic X‑bracing. Often described as a “vertical city,” it is considered one of the first major mixed‑use skyscrapers in the world and includes office space (floors 13–41), about 700 condominiums (floors 44–92), and the highest indoor swimming pool in North America on the 44th floor. Its 94th‑floor observation deck offers panoramic views of Chicago and Lake Michigan. Bruce Graham of the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1969). It was engineered by Fazlur Rahman Khan, who pioneered the tubular structural system used in the tower.
September 2016. Chicago. 5.06mb DSC_0756 (2)
The Carbide and Carbon Building rises from 230 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago like a gleaming Art Deco toast to the Jazz Age, Burnham Brothers, architect (1929). The 37‑story tower is instantly recognizable: its base wrapped in polished black granite, its shaft clad in deep green terra cotta, and its crown shimmering with 24‑karat gold leaf. Legend has it the architects shaped the building to resemble a champagne bottle — a fitting symbol for a city that never stopped celebrating its own ambition.
FEATURE IMAGE: On March 3, 1934, John Dillinger (left in a mug shot) used the second floor of this three-flat building on Chicago’s north side as his first hide out after he and another criminal, murderer Henry Youngblood, drove directly here from a jail in Crown Point, Indiana following their break-out. In January 1934 Dillinger had been extradited to Indiana from Arizona. Public domain. Author’s photograph. May 2014.
In the Great Depression many banks had failed wiping out entire savings of millions of ordinary Americans. Banks that stayed open saw their primary business becoming foreclosures on ordinary American’s homes, farms, and businesses. And the economy was not improving. Bank robberies were viewed by some as a sort of just retribution in desperate times or even sometimes more favorably since bank robberies could involve the destruction of bank records, including mortgages, so that the bank could not as easily foreclose. There was a myth of the glamorous getaway involving handsome celebrity robbers. Such was the story of John Dillinger (1903-1934) with his gangs including Harry “Pete” Pierpont, Lester “Baby Face Nelson” Gillis, John “Red” Hamilton, and Homer Van Meter and their girlfriends. John Dillinger, declared Public Enemy No. 1 by the FBI in June 1934, epitomized the early 1930’s Depression-era bank robber in America as he terrorized the Midwest following his release from jail from September 1933 until July 1934. In this period other robbers included “Pretty Boy” Floyd, “Machine Gun” Kelly, and Bonnie and Clyde who died in a hail of gunfire in May 1934 as these territorial and nomadic robbers’ crime sprees were splashed across newspaper headlines that the public consumed like that week’s latest movie serial.
FBI photograph of the Biograph Theater in 1934 shortly after the shooting of Public Enemy No.1, John Dillinger. Public Domain
New federal anticrime laws targeted interstate criminals that made bank robbery, the transport of stolen goods or the flight of a felon over state lines, a federal crime and came under the jurisdiction of the FBI. That is where this three-flat in Chicago enters criminal and criminal law history. About midway between Lake Michigan and Wrigley Field in Chicago sits John Dillinger’s Hideout, a red brick three-flat at 3512 N. Halsted in the Uptown neighborhood. After his Indiana jail break on Saturday, March 3, 1934, John Dillinger, with murderer Henry Youngblood, headed directly to Chicago and hid out for one night in this building. Dillinger stayed on the second floor of an apartment owned by Frances “Patsy” Frechette, the half-sister of Dillinger’s girlfriend, Evelyn “Billie” Frechette (1907-1969). This break out gave FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover his first big chance to apply federal anticrime laws after Dillinger broke out of the “escape-proof” jail in Crown Point, Indiana, having used a fake gun, stole Sheriff Lillian Holley’s car and drove the 50 miles or so across state lines to this building in Chicago, Illinois. Dillinger violated the Dyer Act and put himself in the jurisdictional sights of the FBI. On March 7, 1934, Hoover mounted a special operation to capture Dillinger, dead or alive, that would come to a successful, and bloody, conclusion on the evening of July 22, 1934, outside the Biograph Theater, about a mile and half straight south from this site. On a swelteringly hot night, Dillinger went to the air-conditioned movies and, having been set up there by the “Woman in Red,” would find himself hours later chilling in a morgue.
John Dillinger mug shot. Public domain.
Dillinger started early in a life of crime so that when he was 21 years old, he was serving what would be a nine-year sentence in an Indiana prison for robbery. Originally from Mooresville, Indiana, near Indianapolis, Dillinger and Chicago were paired for much of his adult criminal life. He joined the US Navy in Chicago in 1923 to escape an auto theft rap in Indiana. But 6 months later Dillinger gave up the ship, the USS Utah, and was dishonorably discharged. He was behind bars for that nine-year sentence for robbery starting in fall of 1924. When he was paroled in 1933, the ex-con turned to a life of violence as a bank robber. During his final 10-month crime spree Dillinger and his gang killed at least 10 people including a sheriff during one of their three jail breaks, and wounded seven more.
John Dillinger (left) with navy buds. Public domain.
To go from this hideout on March 3, 1934, to Dillinger’s death on July 22, 1934, was nearly half of Dillinger’s final 10-month episodic crime spree. In late January 1934 Dillinger and Billie and most of his gang was in Tucson, Arizona, with Dillinger checking escape routes to Mexico. Some of the gang was on the lam from a bank robbery in East Chicago, Indiana. Caught by local police, Dillinger was extradited by airplane to Indiana via Chicago and jailed in Crown Point, Indiana. It was there that he first hired Louis P. Piquett, a Chicago attorney known for close ties to the Chicago mob. Billie Frechette visited Dillinger at Crown Point in mid-February 1934. But, on March 3, 1934, Dillinger broke out of the jail and remained free until his death in late July 1934 at the hands of law enforcement.
3512 North Halsted, Chicago. Author’s photograph. May 2014.
There are many hideouts for Dillinger and his gang as they were highly peripatetic. But this hideout is significant since it is the first hideout for Dillinger on his final way to capture and death as Public Enemy No. 1 but also an American folk anti-hero. Dillinger arrived at the apartment of Patsy Frechette to hide out and reunite with Billie after crossing the state line in the stolen sheriff’s car. Dillinger was here for a significant rendezvous and transition though for too short a time for any law enforcement raid occurring at this specific address during his stay. The hideout is just steps – a literal 3-minute walk – from the long-established (1872) 42nd Precinct “Town Hall” police station. Instead, the FBI’s first major violent confrontation with the Dillinger gang following his escape took place weeks later at the Little Bohemia Lodge in northern Wisconsin in April 1934.
The next day, March 4, 1934, Dillinger set out for Minneapolis with Billie and rented an apartment (the Indiana sheriff’s stolen car was ditched in Edgewater) at Lincoln Court Apartments, Unit 303, at 95 Lexington Parkway in St Paul. On March 6, 1934, escaped con man Dillinger driving a 1934 Packard robbed a bank in Sioux Falls, North Dakota with gang members Homer Van Meter, Eddie Green, Tommy Carroll, and Baby Face Nelson. In the robbery a policeman was wounded and the gang took almost $50,000 ($1.2 million in 2026). One week later, on March 13, 1934, Dillinger, driving a Buick, robbed a bank in Mason City, Iowa, with the same gang members plus John Hamilton. Taking $52,000 in cash ($1.25 million today), a bystander was wounded as was Dillinger and Hamilton who returned to St. Paul for medical attention. That same day (March 14, 1934), Henry Youngblood, the murderer who escaped prison with Dillinger less than two weeks before, was shot and killed by law enforcement in Michigan. A deputy sheriff was killed in the capture.
Two days later, March 16, 1934, Dillinger and Billie return to Chicago. Days later he and Billie are back in St. Paul living together in the apartment under an alias (rent is $60 a month – about $1440 today). The criminal bank robber Dillinger drove to Ohio to see if he could spring from jail his mentor and partner Harry Pierpoint who had an impending death sentence but Pierpont, on October 17, 1934, was executed in the electric chair. On March 30, 1934, Dillinger was back in St. Paul with Billie and his gang members with girlfriends. At the same time, the FBI was tipped off as to Dillinger’s whereabouts and when three agents arrived at the apartment to investigate on March 31, 1934, Dillinger and Billie escaped though Dillinger was wounded in the leg. He sought medical attention across town in Minneapolis where he recovered during the next week though Eddie Green was shot and mortally wounded. The FBI, hot on Dillinger’s trail, raided the house of Dillinger’s half-brother Hubert in Indianapolis after Dillinger and Billie bought a car there with hot money and listed Hubert’s address as theirs. On Monday, April 9, 1934, Dillinger and Billie were back in Chicago where Billie was arrested at 416 North State as Dillinger escaped. Billie was held on a $60,000 bond ($1.44 million today) in response to the pair’s fleeing that shootout with law enforcement in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her trial in May 1934 resulted in a conviction. By Friday, April 13, 1934, Dillinger with Homer Van Meter had robbed a police supply station in Warsaw, Indiana, and stole firearms (Dillinger was partial to .38 revolvers throughout his career) and bulletproof vests.
Billie Frechette (1907-1969) was born on a Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin. After her arrest she was tried and convicted of violating a federal law of harboring a criminal and served a two-year prison sentence without parole in a federal pen in Milan, Michigan. Public domain.
FBI wanted poster for Billie Frechette. Public Domain.
The next day Dillinger and Van Meter were in Cedar Rapids, Iowa where they broke into a tourist camp and stayed in a cabin for a few days. Dillinger then drove to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan with John Hamilton. Meanwhile Homer Van Meter, Marie Comforti, and Pat Reilly arrived at Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish, Wisconsin where that evening of Friday, April 20, 1934, Dillinger, Hamilton, and others arrived for a three-day paid stay. The lodge was owned and built in 1929 by a Dillinger friend. The proprietor’s wife, hoping to secure the FBI’s $10,000 reward for Dillinger’s capture (about $250,000 today), tipped off law enforcement on many fronts after an elaborate feint of trust/ mistrust among the lodge’s owners and Dillinger’s gang. The G-men immediately chartered two airplanes full of agents from St. Paul and Chicago to Rhinelander Airport. Agents in communities surrounding the lodge were summoned to assist in the raid. There were complications: the weather was bad (snow and ice), and the agents on arrival found they had only one car when they needed 6 or 7. Meanwhile Dillinger announced he changed plans and was leaving the Lodge early. After renting cars agents arrived by nightfall of April 22, 1934, and surrounded the lodge on foot. The agents were protected by bulletproof vests and armed with machine guns, revolvers, and tear gas.
Little Bohemia Lodge where the FBI bungled the capture of Dillinger on April 22, 1934, and killed an innocent guest. It was a human and public relations disaster for the newly minted federal law enforcement group. Built in 1929, bullet holes can still be seen from that night in the northern Wisconsin lodge building today. “Little Bohemia Lodge” by nanaze is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Inside the Lodge, it was Sunday night and the bar was busy with patrons. John Morris and Eugene Boiseneau, two young CCC workers, and a gas station attendant named John Hoffman had just finished their Sunday dinner and were about to leave. The snow in the night obscured everyone’s vision and when they approached the exit of the lodge they were ordered to halt by the FBI who thought they were Dillinger and his gang. The FBI soon opened fire. Their bullets pierced the car’s steel and hit its three occupants – wounding Morris and Hoffman and killing Boiseneau.
Mug shot of Lester Gillis, aka “Baby Face” Nelson. On July 22, 1934, Dillinger was ambushed and killed by FBI agents outside the Biograph Theater in Lincoln Park, Chicago. The next day the FBI announced that “Pretty Boy” Floyd was now Public Enemy No. 1. On October 22, 1934, Floyd was killed in a shootout with agents including Melvin Purvis. Subsequently, J. Edgar Hoover announced that Nelson was now Public Enemy No. 1. Unlike Dillinger who could be polite, the owners of the Little Bohemia Lodge thought Nelson was a “psychopath.” He died from gunshot wounds sustained in a fierce shootout with FBI agents on November 27, 1934, near Barrington, Illinois, though he managed to kill both agents. Fleeing, Nelson died in a safe house in Wilmette, Illinois.Public domain.
This gunfire alerted Dillinger inside the lodge playing cards to law enforcement’s presence. Agents then surrounded the Little Bohemia Lodge and opened fire with a hailstorm of bullets believing Dillinger and his gang inside. But Dillinger, Homer Van Meter, John Red Hamilton and Tommy Carroll escaped as did Baby Face Nelson who killed one agent and left the proprietor and wife with their other guests to suffer the carnage. The FBI left emptyhanded but for some of the gang’s girlfriends who surrendered without incident.
Head of the FBI case in Chicago to get Dillinger and his gang dead or alive was Melvin Purvis. Public domain.
Later that day (April 23, 1934), Dillinger, Van Meter and Hamilton engaged in a gun battle with police in Hastings, Minnesota, near St. Paul. When Hamilton was wounded Dillinger drove back to Chicago but failed to get him medical attention so that, a few days later, Hamilton died in Aurora, Illinois, and was buried by Dillinger and others in a gravel pit near Oswego, Illinois. The getaway car Dillinger stole in Wisconsin that night after escaping the lodge was found blood stained in Chicago at 3333 North Leavitt on May 2, 1934. The raid, led by FBI chief in Chicago Melvin Purvis (1903-1960), who liked publicity, was heavily criticized in the press for the agents’ brutal methods and stupidity and was one of the worst public relations fiascos in FBI history.
John “Red’ Hamilton. Mug shot. Public domain.
With the FBI in hot pursuit of Dillinger and his gang, episodes of violence occurred between law enforcement and gang members and other criminals throughout the Chicago area where people were killed. Dillinger, who had become an internationally known superstar criminal, had been thinking about getting plastic surgery to conceal his identity. His legal counsel, Louis P. Piquett, put Dillinger in touch with an off-the-books operating room by way of James Probasco, another of Piquett’s clients. The surgery price was high and almost all profit for Probasco: $80,000 cash (about $2 million today). Probasco recruited Dr. William Loeser, a German immigrant who fled to Mexico to escape serving time for violating the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Act of 1914 and developed a procedure to remove fingerprints. He was assisted by Dr. Harold Cassidy. Dillinger moved into Probasco’s home on Chicago’s north Crawford Road (now Pulaski Road) on May 27, 1934. The surgery took place the next day, with Dillinger opting to receive a general anesthetic. But a glitch in its application (Dillinger was swallowing his own tongue) made him choose a local anesthetic. For the next several hours, the doctors removed a mole from his forehead, dimple from his cheek, and changed the shape of his face and erased seams in his cheeks. They employed Loeser’s acid method to burn off Dillinger’s fingerprints.
Tavern owner James Probasco’s house at 2509 N. Crawford Road in Chicago where Dillinger underwent plastic surgery on May 28, 1934. Public domain.
The surgery, however, was more cosmetic than plastic so that Dillinger was still completely recognizable and his fingerprints remained after he recovered. James Probasco, four days after Dillinger’s death, on July 26, 1934, was brought under questioning for this episode by the FBI at the Bankers’ Building in downtown Chicago. Mysteriously, a window was open and Probasco leapt to his death falling onto the pavement. Attorney Louis Piquett went on trial for harboring a fugitive (Dillinger) but was found not guilty. In 1936, Piquett was retried for the same charge regarding Homer van Meter. Found guilty he served two years in prison, was fined $10,000, and disbarred in Illinois. In 1950, Piquett was pardoned by President Truman. Dr. Loeser was sentenced to one day in prison but had to serve 18 months for the Harrison narcotics case from which he fled. Dr. Cassidy received probation, served honorably in the army medical corps in World War II, but in 1946 had a breakdown and committed suicide.
“All My Life I wanted to be a bank robber. Carry a gun and wear a mask. Now that it’s happened, I guess I’m just the best bank robber they ever had. And I am sure happy.” – John Dillinger. On the alley wall in Chicago near the Biograph Theater where the bank robber was captured, dead, by law enforcement.
On June 22, 1934, the same day Dillinger was officially named Public Enemy No. 1, the high-profile criminal celebrated his 31st birthday with his new girlfriend, 26-year-old Polly Hamilton (1908-1969) at the French Casino nightclub in The Rainbo [sic] Building, 4812-4836 North Clark Street, in Chicago’s Uptown. A former employee and friend of brothel madam Anna Sage (1889-1947), Polly Hamilton met Dillinger at a Chicago nightclub in early June 1934 when she was working as a waitress and prostitute.
Polly Hamilton. Fair use.
The Rainbo, like many entertainment venues, struggled during the Great Depression. For a few months in 1934, the second year of the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago, the Rainbo Casino reopened as the “French Casino” (the building was demolished in 2003). A few days later (June 26, 1934), as Dillinger was watching the Chicago Cubs beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in Wrigley Field, his gang members, as informants increasingly came forward, were being squeezed around the city and in the Midwest by law enforcement, whether by being killed, or captured and tried. On June 30, 1934, Dillinger, driving a Hudson, with Van Meter, Baby Face Nelson and John Paul Chase pulled off their last bank heist in South Bend, Indiana, stealing $30,000 (over $700,000 today). One police officer was killed in the melée as a bank cashier, vice president, a bystander and a motorist, as well as Van Meter, were wounded.
In July Dillinger began the month discussing Billie’s appeal, going to the movies, and attending the Chicago Century of Progress. On July 22, 1934, Anna Sage (the “Woman in Red”) contacted FBI head Melvin Purvis at 5:30 p.m. to inform him that Dillinger and their mutual friend, Polly Hamilton would be going to the movies that evening either at the Biograph Theater at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park or at the palatial Marbro Theatre at 4110 W. Madison Street in West Garfield Park (the theater was demolished in 1964 and in 2026 its site remains an empty parking lot).
Anna Sage, “the woman in red” who set up John Dillinger to be shot outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago on July 22, 1934. Public domain.
At 8.15 p.m. Dillinger arrived at the Biograph Theater wearing a straw hat, white shirt, gray tie, white canvas shoes and gray trousers with Sage and Polly. When they entered the Biograph Theater to see “Manhattan Melodrama” with Clark Gable, 15 federal agents (according to the next day’s headline in the Altoona Tribune), including five East Chicago officers, descended on the area and staked it out. A little after 10:30 p.m. when the show emptied out, Sage, who was dressed in a bright orange-red dress, alerted officers to Dillinger’s identity in the crowd. Ambushed and shot without warning, Dillinger was killed instantly when two shots hit the face, one bullet exiting beneath the right eye. Witnesses described Dillinger being shot at very close range. The event caused a spectacle, with many onlookers dipping handkerchiefs and scraps of newspaper in his blood.
Dillinger’s body after the shooting was transported to Alexian Brothers Hospital at West Belden and North Racine Avenues (above). It then went to the Cook County morgue at West Polk and South Wood streets where large crowds gathered. There, an impromptupublic display of the body took place, where thousands of the general public shambled by. A plaster death mask was made of the dead criminal at the morgue. See – Medical – Hospitals – Chicago History In Postcards – retrieved Jan. 24, 2026. Fair Use.
Dillinger’s remains were taken back to Mooresville, Indiana by Dillinger’s father, half-brother, and their undertaker who came to fetch it out from the crowds. In Indiana, Dillinger was identified by his sister and then buried on July 25, 1934, in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis. Anna and Polly had escaped Dillinger’s capture unharmed and relocated temporarily to Detroit. Sage collected the $5,000 reward (about $120,000 today) from the FBI but, two years later, was deported to Romania due to her conviction for operating a brothel where she died on April 25, 1947. Polly Hamilton moved back to Chicago under an assumed name, married, and died in 1969.
Feature Image: Two apostles, detail, Institution of the Eucharist window, F.X. Zettler, 1907-1910, St. Edmund Church. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
By 1910 F.X. Zettler’s mastery of the “Munich Style” – characterized by detailed scenes and vibrant colors on glass – made his German company one of the most popular designers in late 19th century and early 20th century American churches. These windows are religious paintings that are pedagogical as well as sacred images. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Christ is “really present” in the Eucharist (a Greek word, eucharistia,that means “Thanksgiving”) and that his sacrifice on the cross on Calvary is repeated at every Mass as Christ gives His Body and Blood under the appearance or species of bread and wine in Holy Communion as food for eternal life. As parishes offer school children their first holy communion, Christ’s pose evokes that same event for the apostles. Accounts of the Institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper are in Luke 22, Mark 14, Matthew 26, and its significance explicated in John 6. It is recounted in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 11. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
Four apostles, detail, Institution of the Eucharist window, F.X. Zettler, 1907-1910, St. Edmund Church. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
In 2022, owing to continuously declining numbers in the church, St. Edmund Church at 188 S. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL, located close to the heart of its suburban downtown, was combined with another historic Oak Park parish, Ascension Church, at 808 S. East Avenue, about one mile to the south. Founded by Archbishop James Quigley (1854-1915) in June 1907, St. Edmund was the first Catholic parish in the village and one of the 75 new parishes founded by Quigley during his tenure between 1903 and 1915. James Quigley’s successor was Cardinal George Mundelein (1872-1939) who founded 80 more new parishes during his administration. Trying to fit into the longstanding predominantly Protestant community, St. Edmund was built in generous cooperation with its leading citizens and designed in a refined English neo-Gothic style. Evoking a low-profile parish country church, this kind of Catholic footprint would be imitated in other prosperous Chicago suburbs with strong Protestant roots well into the 20th century so to discreetly integrate into the community.
Most Rev. James Quigley, Archbishop of Chicago (1903-1915). In 1907 Archbishop Quigley traveled by car to Oak Park to attend the opening. Public domain.
Since the mid-1980s reports from 2022 indicate a reduction by the Archdiocese of Chicago of more than 100 parishes from its nearly 450 parishes due to declining attendance and financial problems, of which St. Edmund is another example. It remains fortunate that this beautiful church building continues to exist and be used for worship. The English neo-Gothic style church was designed by prolific Chicago church architect Henry Schlacks (1867-1938) and dedicated in May 1910. The art glass windows were executed by the F.X. Zettler Studios of the Royal Bavarian Art Institute in Munich. Zettler also made mosaics such as at St. Anthony Church in Bridgeport also designed by Schlacks and consolidated first with All Saints parish and then both closed and combined with St. Mary of Perpetual Help. St. Edmund Church has undergone various mid-20th century redecorations that included the addition of paintings and marble upgrades for its altar, pulpit, and baptismal font designed by Chicago-based DaPrato Rigali founded in 1860. Exterior changes to the building were also made in the 1950’s replacing the church’s original red tiles for the roof and steeple to, respectively, slate and steel coverings.
St. Edmund Church, Oak Park, Illinois, dedicated in 1910, was designed in the late 19th century English neo-Gothic style. The later school (right), opened in 1917, was designed in the French neo-Gothic style. Both are the work of architect Henry Schlacks (1867-1938). Author’s photograph. September 2015.
St. Edmund Church, Oak Park, Illinois, part of the nave, transept and apse, south view. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
St. Edmund Church and school have been a work in progress. The school, a flamboyant neo-Gothic structure designed by Henry Schlacks, opened in 1917. During the post-war baby boom, additions to it were built in 1948 and 1959. In June 2016 the school closed. When the parish was young and growing with Catholic families, it purchased an architecturally significant private home in 1929 for the nuns who staffed the school. With post-Vatican II declining vocations of nuns and school enrollment, the convent was sold in the 1980’s. A 2000 renovation of the church included cleaning and restoring the stained-glass windows that portray scenes from the New Testament. In other Chicago churches with Zettler windows, such as, in St. Stanislaus Kosta Church in West Town, there are themes of the Rosary, while St. Adalbert, a Polish parish in Pilsen since closed by the archdiocese and sold for condo development, it was historic saints of Poland. Henry Zimach of HPZA was the architect of the St. Edmund renovation. In its first 49 years the church was led by one pastor: successful fundraiser Msgr. John H. Code. The next 49 years saw 6 pastors until the church had to combine with a nearby parish. Of the $100,000 construction cost for the church, one donor (Mrs. Mary Mulveil) donated half of it. From an operating expenses viewpoint this elite donor model is how even today some Catholic parishes across the Chicago region stay open. In 2026 one leading Catholic parish published tithing information that showed 95% of registered families do not tithe one dime and about a dozen families donate annually between $15,000 and $25,000 each. With pews half full, one can conclude that non-tithing families might not be at Sunday Mass either. With the Vatican discouraging any “pressure” on anyone, there’s little to no outreach by the parish to the vast majority of its wayward flock as long as apparently the affluent pay their church bills. Of course, if things really get untenable, the bishop then can simply decide to close one more parish.
Mid-20th century redecorations at St. Edmund Church included the addition of paintings and marble upgrades for its altar, pulpit, and baptismal font. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
These are religious paintings as they serve to teach the viewer by depicting scenes from the earthly episodes of Christ. But they are also sacred images, pure iconography, as they invite the viewer to contemplate and pray to those persons existing in the spiritual and heavenly domain with whom they are surrounded. Further, as Zettler’s stained glass are some of this church setting’s most spectacular art, they play a key role in aiding in worship. Individually and taken together, the gloriously colorful and drawn illuminating images accompany worshipers as they place them in the visual presence of the Trinity, the Blessed Mother, and the angels and saints and carry them upwards into their presence as they participate in the sacraments.
The Zettler windows in St. Edmund in Oak Park fill the church interior with the colorful light of glorious art that is both pedagogical and iconographical of the Biblical Catholic faith. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
German Art Glass.
Jesus healing the blind man (above, detail). This window presents healing stories such as found in John 9 (healing the blind man from birth), Mark 8 (healing a blind man at Bethsaida) and healings of two blind men in Matthew 9. The figure of a woman bending down to have her hair touching Jesus’ feet evokes Luke’s gospel (chapter 7) of the sinful woman who washes Jesus’ feet with her hair. The man at right carried by two others alludes to Jesus’s healing miracle of a man who could not walk found in Mark 2 and Luke 5. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
Zettler window of Jesus’s ministry of healing miracles. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
Zettler Window of Jesus calming the storm found in Luke 8, Matthew 8, Mark 4, and John 6. The event demonstrates the God-Man’s authority over nature. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
Nativity window found in Matthew and Luke. A dog in the lower left corner is one of many such animals scattered throughout Zettler’s windows in St. Edmund Church. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
The flight into Egypt window. Recounted in Matthew 2, the story relates how the Holy Family—Mary, Joseph, and infant Jesus—flee to Egypt to escape King Herod, who ordered the killing of young children to eliminate the prophesied King of the Jews. Joseph, warned by an angel in a dream, swiftly carried his family to Egypt, where they stayed until Herod’s death, fulfilling prophecy and symbolizing Christ’s presence in a world of darkness. The episode has long been a popular subject in Christian art, and Zettler depicts the episode focusing on the Holy Family’s determination under angelic protection. In popular piety, the event is one of the “seven sorrows” of Mary which she pondered in her heart. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd in John 10. A half-circle stained- glass window depicting Jesus as The Good Shepherd greets visitors above a street entrance door into St. Edmund Church. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
WHO IS ST. EDMUND OF CANTERBURY?
Nuremberg chronicles, Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury (1493). Public Domain.
St. Edmund church in Oak Park, Illinois, is named for English saint Edmund of Canterbury (c. 1174–1240). Son of Edmund Rich, Edmund is also known as Edmund of Abingdon where he was born and who was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1233 by Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241). History speaks of his parents as being practicing Catholics with his mother more fastidious and his father more laconic. Edmund, taking after his mother growing up, was considered a bit of a sanctimonious prig. Around the age of puberty, Edmund dedicated himself to the Blessed Mother and took a vow of perpetual chastity. When this vow of purity was later challenged by a young woman Edmund vigorously fought her back sufficiently that, as the young woman recalled, he called her “an offending Eve.” Edmund was educated in Paris but, starting around 1200, returned to Oxford to teach mathematics and philosophy in the circle of Stephen Langton (c. 1150–1228). In Edmund’s time, Langton was an influential English cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury who participated in the political issues of his day including the Magna Carta crisis in 1215. Edmund is remembered at Oxford for building a Lady’s chapel with funds from his teaching stipend and passing much of his free time in prayer. The site where Edmund lived and taught became an academic hall at Oxford in his lifetime (1236) and remains today part of the college of St Edmund Hall (aka Teddy Hall), claimed to be the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any university in the world. Notable alumni of St Edmund Hall include, at the time of posting, current British prime minister Keir Starmer.
Author’s photograph. September 2015.
Edmund studied theology between 1205 and 1210 and spent a year with the Augustinian canons of Merton Priory. Afterwards he became a priest and doctor of theology and would take frequent retreats at Reading Abbey in this period. Around 1219 and for the next 12 years the eloquent, learned and virtuous Edmund financed his education by serving as treasurer for Salisbury Cathedral, preached the Sixth Crusade in 1227 (a crusade which led to a shared Christian-Muslim governance situation in Jerusalem) and garnered several influential English friends.
In a mid-14th century manuscript, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (left) meets al-Kamil Muhammad al-Malik (right), whose negotiations led to shared Christian-Muslim governance in Jerusalem during the Sixth Crusade. Vatican Library. Public Domain.
In 1233, the 59-year-old was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Gregory IX though the Canterbury chapter recommended several other candidates first. Accepting the position reluctantly, Edmund, consecrated on April 2, 1234, fought for independence of the English church from any foreign influence and this led to an episcopal tenure characterized by incessant and unseemly brawls with King Henry III and the papal delegation as the archbishop admonished the king for a government of baronial favoritism. Threatening the king with excommunication, the crown backed down temporarily but harbored enduring antipathy towards Edmund and looked for relief in Rome. In favor of strict discipline and truthful justice in civil and ecclesial government and life, coupled to a strong stance against any encroachment on the English church, including jealousy for his authorial rights to be enforced by litigation when necessary, the possibly soft spoken but clearly combative Edmund made for a very unpopular figure among the powerful and eventually led to his forced resignation in 1240. In 1236, with the object of freeing himself from Edmund’s control, the king requested a sympathetic legate from the pope who arrived to insult and contradict everything of importance Edmund chose to do and say in relation to current issues – from the marriage of Simon de Montfort and Henry’s sister Eleanor that Edmund found invalid, to Edmund’s own cathedral priests and monks who were opposed to Edmund’s rule. Edmund reacted to the opposition erratically, excommunicating at will, all of which was ignored by the pope who let his legate’s, and not Edmund’s, decisions stand which favored the king. Edmund was left to complain that the discipline of his national church was being undermined by the flaccid standards of world politics. Before thinking to resign, Edmund went to Rome in December 1237 to plead his cause in person before the pope. But already Henry III’s exactions and usurpations were backed up by the papal legate and Edmund’s mission was futile. Edmund returned to England in August 1238 where he was made to heel. Edmund resigned in 1240.
Abbey of Pontigny, France, view from south.The Cistercian abbey of Pontigny was a refuge for England’s persecuted archbishops, including Stephen Langton (c. 1150–1228), and Saints Thomas Becket (1120-1170) and Edmund of Canterbury (c. 1174–1240). Author’s photograph, September 1993.
At that juncture, Edmund set out for the Cistercian Abbey at Pontigny southeast of Paris in France, which had been a refuge for Edmund’s predecessors, Stephen Langton and Thomas Becket (1120-1170). The archbishop’s health soon gave way and, though Edmund decided to return to England, he died en route at Soisy-Buoy in the house of the Augustinian Canons on November 16, 1240.
Abbey church of Pontigny, north aisle, 12th century. Here, at Pontigny, St. Edmund of Canterbury led the life of a simple monk. Author’s photograph. September 1993.
Edmund’s remains were returned to the Abbey of Pontigny where he was buried and lies in state today in a reliquary above the high altar. Miracles were soon reported at Edmund’s tomb leading to his canonization by Pope Innocent IV in December 1246, making Edmund one of the fastest English saints to be canonized. When Blanche of Castile (1188 –1252) and King Louis of France (1214-1270) visited Pontigny, Edmund’s body was exhumed and shown to be incorrupt. His relics survived the French Revolution and when his tomb was opened again in 1849 his body, still incorrupt, had one arm found detached. This major relic was sent to the United States, where it is enshrined today on Enders Island off the coast of Mystic, Connecticut, inside the chapel of Our Lady of the Assumption at St. Edmund’s Retreat, run by the Society of Saint Edmund founded at Pontigny in 1843. Edmund’s life was one of self-sacrifice and devotion to others. From boyhood he practiced austerity and asceticism, fasting, and spending his nights in prayer and meditation. St. Edmund of Canterbury’s feast day is November 16.
St. Edmund of Canterbury, detail from the Westminster Psalter, mid-13th century, British Library. Public domain.
The Story of F.X. Zettler’s Royal Bavarian Art Institute.
About 100 miles south of Munich, Germany, was the home base of popular and well-regarded stained-glass studios such as Franz Mayer & Company and Zettler of which St. Edmund has a full coterie presented in this post. These photographs were shot by me in September 2015.
Franz Xavier Zettler was born in Munich, Germany in 1841 and worked as an ecclesial artist, founding his stained-glass design company after 1870, until his death in 1916. When he married Anna Mayer, Zettler married into another family of artisans, following a long tradition of artisans doing so. In 1848 Joseph Gabriel Mayer (1808-83) founded the Establishment for Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting (“Institute of Christian Art”) under the patronage of King Ludwig I of Bavaria (1786-1868). With royal commissions in Germany for the massive Cologne and Regensburg Gothic cathedrals as well as the Mariahilfkirche in Munich (Vorstadt Au) – the first German neo-Gothic church whose foundation was laid in 1831 – Mayer directed his son Franz Borgias Mayer, and son-in-law F. X. Zettler, to expand the establishment by including a division for stained glass in 1870.
King Ludwig I of Bavaria in Coronation Regalia (König Ludwig I. von Bayern im Krönungsornat) by Joseph Karl Stieler (1781-1858), 1826, oil on canvas, 96 x 67.3 in., Neue Pinakothek, Munich. see – Sammlung | König Ludwig I. von Bayern im Krönungsornat – retrieved January 14, 2026. Public domain.
Zettler’s company, the Bayerische Hofglasmalerei, enjoyed quick success with his award-winning windows displayed at the 1873 International Exhibition in Vienna. By 1882 Zettler’s firm was decreed as the “Royal Bavarian Art Establishment” by King Ludwig II (1845-1886). Almost immediately, these Munich and Austrian stained-glass companies had a profound relationship with immigrant Catholic churches in the United States as Zettler and the others, provided high quality glasswork that was familiar with Catholic piety and themes.
König Ludwig II. von Bayern als Hubertusritter (King Ludwig II of Bavaria as a Knight of Hubertus), Ferdinand Piloty d. J. (1828-1895), 1879, oil on canvas, 217,5 x 132,5 cm, Neue Pinakothek, Munich. See – Sammlung | König Ludwig II. von Bayern als Hubertusritter – retrieved January 14, 2026. Public domain.
After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, these stained-glass companies sent representatives to Chicago to sell them on various stained-glass patterns from which to choose in a rebuild or renovation. Before the turn of the 2oth century, these large studios had set up branch offices in America, including Zettler’s, that catered to a booming church-building industry hungry for traditional pious art that had been the Catholic tradition since Ravenna and only slowed in the life of the church following Vatican II’s radical turn. Chicago and its environs particularly became a great center for this traditional German and Austrian made stained glass until just before the Great Depression. From the 1870s to the 1920s, Chicago became the most influential center of Catholic culture in the United States with German and Austrian stained glass, such as the Zettler windows in Saint Edmund Church in Oak Park, having the strongest reach. After 20 years, the predominance of these European glass companies was finally challenged in the last decade of the 19th century by an American company. Though Zettler won a top prize at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) gained notoriety with a display of his designed comprehensive collection in Art Nouveau style of jewelry, pottery, paintings, art glass, leaded-glass windows, lamps, and other decorative interiors that continued to gain in popularity, including in houses of worship, right up to World War II. A steep tariff imposed on imported stained glass in the United States after 1894 impacted some international art purchases though Catholic churches in particular continued to turn to German and Austrian glass for their workmanship and pious imagery taken from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. At some financial cost pastors believed that such traditional art aided their mostly immigrant congregation of professional and industrial factory-workers and their families in worship.
Zettler Studios was innovative in the perfection of the “Munich style” of windows, in which religious scenes were created in a process of painting and melting large sheets of glass in kiln heat. Zettler was also inspired by the German Romantic Nazarene art movement of the early 19th century whose artists rejected Neoclassicism to revive spiritual and religious-focused art of the Italian Renaissance. In Zettler’s array of religious figures depicted in stained glass windows his team used Italian Renaissance art principles of three-point perspective and line drawing that evoked realism in gestures, expressions and various garb.
Jesus gives the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Simon Peter. Author’s photograph. September 2015. Jesus asks, “Who do the people say I am?” leads to Peter’s confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ. it took place at Caesarea Philippi, a new city established by Philip the Tetrarch and was a Gentile community. The gospel writers usually show a lack of understanding of geography, but Matthew was better than Mark and in this incident the location is explicit and about a day’s journey on foot from Capernaum on the Galilee Sea where the disciples were first called. At this juncture in his mission Jesus lays down a challenge to his disciples and asks: Who am I? The story also appears in Mark and Luke and, again, there are differences with Matthew’s account. in Matthew Jesus calls himself by the title “son of man” (Mark and Luke have no title at that point) and Matthew adds Jeremiah to their common list of figures like John the Baptist and Elijah (Zeffirelli adds Ezekiel) that the people think Jesus is. it is “Simon Peter” that answers for the group: “You are the messiah.” Once again Matthew reflects a higher Christology, adding: “The son of the living God,” though the simpler statement is likely the original. These next verses are not in Mark or Luke. Jesus attributes Simon Peter’s confession to divine revelation (“for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my heavenly father”). Jesus Christ then elects Simon Peter to a new commission of authority with a new name. There is no other verse in the New Testament that explains Peter’s name change. It is clear Peter is the rock upon which the church is built as his commission from Christ. What is its precise or working sense as that foundation is mysterious. Peter is the rock because as representative and mouthpiece of the disciples he has gathered up and articulated their faith as a group. Jesus makes a bold claim that the group he has formed, the church, will endure as long as there is faith among them that he is the Messiah and that by that enduring faith “the gates of Sheol (the biblical abode of death) shall not prevail against it.” Giving Peter the keys at the establishment of the church following his confession of faith as representative of the disciples echoes Isaiah 22 and is a sure sign of royal power and authority that Jesus confers on Peter. This, as Jesus himself journeys to Jerusalem to his condemnation and crucifixion. Peter evokes the master of the palace, the highest officer in the Israelite royal court. The office of Peter is not as a caretaker or underling but master of the church (ecclesia) and the kingdom of heaven that scholars say here carries a similar meaning. Jesus bestows broad authority to Peter to “bind and loose” which is an obscure phrase with no biblical background but found in the role of rabbis who could impose and remove. Peter’s special position in the church is also made clear from other passages in the gospels as well as Acts of the Apostles. This confession of faith and charge of authority is followed by an instruction on the suffering of the Messiah, making this a crisis moment in the gospel narrative. Following miracles and wonders, the Suffering Messiah was entirely foreign to the Judaism of New Testament times and Matthew, Luke and Mark (the Synoptics) here briefly relate some of the early great disillusionment in the minds of the disciples at this point about the teacher which was never fully remedied until after the resurrection.
Keys of the Kingdom window, detail. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
Jesus at the wedding feast of Cana (John 2). On the prompting of his mother, Jesus performed his first miracle of changing water into wine. The Blessed Mother was the primary catalyst in starting her son Jesus, living a hidden life for 30 years, to begin his public ministry. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
The Prodigal Son window. One of Jesus’ greatest parables, Luke 15 tells the story about a rebellious younger brother and son who demands from his father his share of the inheritance and proceeds to squander it on “riotous living” (Luke 15:13). He returns home destitute, asking only to be a servant in his father’s house, and finds instead that he is awaited, joyfully welcomed, and forgiven by his father, symbolizing God’s boundless love and restoration for repentant sinners. This is contrasted by the antagonist in the story – the self-righteous older brother who resents the celebration. He deems his repentant younger brother as an unredeemable trespasser and whose condemnation extends to this older brother’s envy of the prodigal’s special reception. The father reminds the older brother that “‘You are here with me always. Everything I have is yours” (Luke 15:31) and that it is right to especially celebrate the prodigal son’s return. For the father explains: “Your brother was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found” (Luke 15: 32). Jesus’s parable teaches about sin, grace, and redemption, and the importance of unconditionally celebrating the return of the lost. Author’s photograph. September 2015.
The Jerome Biblical Commentary, edited by Raymond E. Brown, S.S., Joseph A Fitzmeyer, S.J., and Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968.
Feature Image: The 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 features a distinctive full-width grille with vertically stacked dual headlights. Available in various body styles, including hardtops and convertibles, the model was part of an all-new design for full-size Fords, highlighting crisp lines and engines that included V8 options such as the 352 cubic inch “Thunderbird Special.” Author’s photograph. April 2016. 3.34mb DSC_0471 (1).
In 1960, 44-year-old Robert McNamara was the new president of Ford Motor Company. In his career at Ford, McNamara was an executive who thought like and fought for the ordinary consumer. Unlike other car industry execs, McNamara was passionate about providing a highly affordable and great car for the ordinary American man and woman. McNamara was ahead of his time and actually might have been more useful or successful in the 1970’s when the introduction of emissions standards and fuel economy made weight and design more significant to meet government mandates. The Falcon was McNamara’s brainchild. Its average price point of $2,100 (about $23,000 today) fulfilled McNamara’s vision for a great American utilitarian car for the masses and it became a bestseller. The middling Ford Fairlane had an average base MSRP of less than $2,300. Next up the lower priced chain of Ford car models was Ford Galaxie. At a little over $2,700 MSRP ($29,500 today) Galaxie was a full-size Ford sedan throughout its production run.
“Meet the aristocrats of the low-priced field“—ad tag line in 1960 for Ford Galaxie.
1965 Ford Galaxie (above). With a classic full-size body, the Ford Galaxie 500 was available with various engines, including a high-performance 427 cubic inch V8. Options included a 3-speed automatic or 4-speed manual transmission. The spacious interior was known for its large bench seats. Author’s photograph. April 2016. 4.32 mb DSC_0468 (1).
1964 Ford Galaxie 500XL (above). This full-size American car was a top choice in its era combining luxury features and power. The 2-door hardtop coupe could be equipped with a V8 engine, known for robust performance. Between the Custom and the LTD (the XL was discontinued after 1970), the Galaxie remained slotted as the mid-range full-size Ford into the 1970s.“FORD GALAXIE HDR” by abux_77 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
On November 9, 1960, Robert McNamara (1916-2009) became the youngest president in Ford Motor Company history and the first from outside the Ford family since 1906. One month on the job, McNamara was contacted on December 8, 1960, by president-elect John F. Kennedy’s transition team and offered the job of US Secretary of Defense. Though McNamara’s first reaction was that he wasn’t qualified for the defense job, he finally accepted and became the youngest defense secretary in US history up to that time. McNamara’s compensation at Ford was $3 million a year. At the Defense Department he made $25,000 a year. See – Our Vietnam The War 1954–1975, A.J. Langguth, 2000, Simon & Schuster, pp. 42-43 and McNamara At War: A New History, P. Taubman and W. Taubman, 2025, W.W. Norton, p. 120. PHOTO: “Robert McNamara” by DoDEA Communications is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
In addition to a shiny nameplate, Galaxie included cloth/vinyl bench seating, chrome exterior trim on all windows and body sides and an aluminum rear quarter covering with upgrades available. Under McNamara, Ford took a heavy risk in 1960 when it introduced a totally revamped design on its bestseller compact Falcon as well as its line of full-sized cars. Fords were lighter and sleeker, with a body no longer sculpted but molded from fender to bumper trimmed in chrome. And for the first time in Ford history the full width grill had its headlights inset at each end instead of above. This design choice continued throughout Galaxie’s second generation into 1964.
By 1974, things were very much changed. The Mustang II was that year’s Motor Trend Car of the Year – and it was Galaxie’s last model year. The Galaxie had essentially been co-opted by what started in 1965 as its highest trim level: namely Ford LTD. Strictly Galaxie production had, in fact, fallen from its peak in 1963 of nearly 650,000 vehicles to under 120,000 in 1974.
Mayberry tribute: 1962 Ford Galaxie. May 2017. Author’s photograph. 6.44mb DSC_0170 (1)
The Andy Griffith Show, which aired from 1960 to 1968, remains one of the era’s most-watched series, spanning 249 episodes across eight seasons. Andy Griffith stars as Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry, North Carolina. For Ford enthusiasts, the show is notable for its recurring lineup of Fairlanes, Galaxies, and Custom sedans. Over the years, fans have built numerous tributes — including this 1962 Ford Galaxie.
The Andy Griffith Show offered a portrait of small‑town life that millions of viewers embraced. Sheriff Andy Taylor’s Ford patrol cars — mostly Fairlanes and Galaxies — became part of the show’s visual identity. Because Ford supplied vehicles to the production, Mayberry’s streets were lined with the latest models, giving the series a consistent look and a subtle sense of realism. Today, that new line of Ford cars in the 1960’s are fan favorites, inspiring countless replicas and restorations.
SOURCES: J. “Kelly” Flory, Jr., American Cars, 1960 to 1965, McFarland & Company, Inc., pp. 41-45; J. “Kelly” Flory, Jr., American Cars, 1973 to1980, McFarland & Company, Inc., pp. 178-179.
This explanatory article may be periodically updated.
