The article that helped implement my long-standing desire to deconstruct the movie industry’s received wisdom
Tag: Chicago Reader at 40
Posted inNews & Politics
Mary Jo Madden, general manager, 1977-now, on the Reader’s early days
‘If it sounds like I had the worst job one could get at the Reader, you weren’t around in 1977’
Posted inColumns & Opinion
You can revisit the past, but you can’t go home again
Reflecting on the Reader‘s 40-year history . . . and my own
Posted inNews & Politics
Tom Rehwaldt, co-owner, 1971-2007, on the Reader’s early days
‘He scoffed and assured me that my paper was nothing like the Village Voice. He was right.’
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope examines the Reader’s 40 years
In the age of the Internet this surprises no one, but the genius of the Reader was to show that you could publish a quality newspaper that you gave away
Posted inMusic
What’s the newspaper equivalent of crate digging?
Rummaging the archive of Reader music criticism
Posted inNews & Politics
‘The conscience of Chicago journalism’
Michael Miner, the Reader‘s rock, has been in these pages since day one
Posted inNews & Politics
Revisiting John Conroy’s journalistic odyssey into police torture
Twenty-one years ago, ‘House of Screams’ launched a decade of stories that ended with the imprisonment of police lieutenant Jon Burge
Posted inArts & Culture
Reminiscence from a reviled theater critic
‘If there are still some bad feelings out there after all these years then, damn, you’ve got to learn to let go’
Posted inNews & Politics
Nancy Banks, managing editor and writer, 1971-1977, on the Reader’s early days
‘Rodney Wanker didn’t exist. I’d been replaced by a rude-sounding pseudonym.’
Posted inNews & Politics
Mark Homstad, theater critic in the 70s, on the Reader’s early days
‘I didn’t intend to create a publicity-seeking controversy, though it may have helped provide an initial marker of the paper’s critical independence’
Posted inNews & Politics
Dave Jones, ‘production czar,’ 1976-2006, on the Reader’s early days
‘It was easy to feel at home. So I stayed for 30 years.’
Posted inArts & Culture
Chris Ware reflects on his most nerve-racking Reader cartoon
‘I’d assumed by its pretension and ridiculous complexity that it would be rejected’
Posted inMusic
America’s real artists are hiding out at Betty Lou’s
The 1973 article that ‘discovered’ jazz master Von Freeman