Swing (Jan-Dec 1945)

CHICAGO LETTER three will ever leave the Great Lakes, but thousands of Navy trainees gained practical experience on their decks. The Wolverine and Sable qualified thousands of naval aviators for combat duty \with the fleet carriers. The Wilmette trained gun crews and deck officers in the hard days when Nazi and Jap subs and planes were roaming the seas. The twin practice carriers are the only side-wheel, coal burning ships in the Navy. They were converted from Great Lakes excursion steamers early in 1942. Upper decks were cut away and a flight deck welded on top of the main deck. Out,wardly both ships resemble real carriers, although they lack armor plate, elevators, and storage place for planes. Each day of flying weather during the war, one or both of these venerable old ladies of the lake waddled miles off shore to take on training planes from the Grandview Naval Air Station for practice landings and takeoffs. The USS Wilmette was rebuilt from the ill-fated excursion steamer Eastland. The Eastland turned over on its side in the Chicago River in 1915, drowning eight hundred and thirty-five passengers. As a wreck she was purchased by the Naval Reserve and completely rebuilt to confirm to rigid safety standards. Through three decades she has successfully lived down her past by training scores of reserve officers and enlisted men, some of them among the first to be called to active duty in 1942. Their jobs finished, all three old ladies of the lake arc now awaiting final disposition by the Navy. After a temporary new lease on life and three hectic wartime years of service, the "Lake Michigan fleet" will be among the first of hundreds of ships to fall victim to either the junk dealer or rust and decay. Reconversion to peacetime ways has brought back the Chicago Opera with a boom. People who can't enjoy music without the boiled shirt and mink trimmings are now happily back GOOD in their boxes, and the music SHOW lovers are back in the galANDFREE leries. By the time this com munique reaches print, the baritones will probably be singing their last arias, but anyway it's going to be a good musical winter. The critics are booked up weeks ahead, with concerts, musical shows, and operettas crowding into town for November and December dates. For instance, "The Student Prince" is headed this way for the twentieth or thirtieth time, and you can always hear a good musical show, operetta or opera, sung on Saturday night over at the Medinah Temple. That's the night of the week on which WGN'Mutual send "The Chicago Theater of the Air" out over the network. Tickets are free. Speaking of free entertainment, the giant Chicago Servicemen's Centers are still going strong, enjoying a new popularity now that thousands of men stop over in town on their way to redistribution and separation centers. There a G.L can eat, sleep, be entertained, and meet the mayor's wife, Mrs. Edward J. Kelly, for a total cost of nothing at all. On the more expensive side, there are a lot of new attractions to lure dollars. After mildly praising several shows, the critics at last found a worthy successor to "The Glass Menagerie" in Philip Yordan's "Anna Lucasta" — now at the Civic Theater for a long, long run. Olsen and Johnson are tearing apart the recently rebuilt Shubert Theater, and "Carmen Jones" and "Dear Ruth" are settling down for long runs, thus joining "Voice of the Turtle" in the exalted circle of Chicago hits. And the Theater Guild will send "The Winter's Tale" our way early in November for a limited engagement. It doesn't look as though anyone will have to stay home and play checkers for lack of outside entertainment this winter. "Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a school-house in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to the gospel of peace." — Charles Sumner.