A month ago, the nation was transfixed on the historic presidential election about to take place. It dominated dinner table conversation, television news and newspaper and magazine headlines. No wonder then that the death of a 96-year-old author in the final days before the election was all but eclipsed by that heat and light.
Now that the dust has settled, it's time to talk a little about Studs Terkel, an adopted Chicagoan who probably would have found a smile or two in losing his moment in the spotlight to another adopted Chicagoan who will dominate the world stage for some time to come.
Given Terkel's longtime progressive politics, I imagine one smile would have been for Barack Obama's victory. Given Terkel's lifelong championship of the little guy, I imagine another smile would have been over joining the foot soldiers, if not the footnotes, as history marches on.
His death on Oct. 31 ended a wildly eclectic, "only-in-America" life and career.
Born in New York, he moved to Chicago as a child and worked in his family's rooming house during the Depression. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, but did his emoting outside the courtroom on radio soaps as an actor. (Trivia buffs will know that he shows up in a small role as a wizened journalist in John Sayles' great movie about the Chicago Black Sox scandal, "Eight Men Out.") He did other television and radio work as emcee and host (getting blacklisted along the way), which led to his real niche in our culture.
In our age of talking heads, it's kind of difficult to imagine that someone got famous for listening, but that's what Studs Terkel did.
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20081202/COLUMNISTS10/812020469/1054/OPINION
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