Capones Vault Prologue

It was cold for April. Even for Chicago. The temperature had plunged to the twenties. Michigan Avenue still had the feel of Christmas with the twinkling lights of horse-drawn carriages for tourists who wanted to tour the Magnificent Mile. Further down on the South Side, crane-high movie lights blazed on an old hotel at 2135 South Michigan Avenue. Men in yellow hardhats spoke outside with their breath illuminated in the light. Diesel-puffing satellite trucks parked up and down the street. The whop whop whop of a helicopter began to get louder. Michigan Avenue was blocked off with crowds of people behind barricades. Mr. T was in the front of the crowd in his trademark gold chains and mohawk. Vendors sold T-shirts that proclaimed i was there when capone’s vault opened. They sold out in minutes. Reporters from all over the world stood around as the helicopter became deafening and everyone looked up. The flashing strobes suddenly appeared in front of the hotel. Then the helicopter with the camera poking out landed on Michigan Avenue. Geraldo Rivera appeared in the front door of the Lexington Hotel as a crane camera moved in. It was Monday, 8 p.m. Eastern in New York and 7 Central in Chicago and people around the world were locked in place in front of their televisions. Geraldo looked like he was breathing smoke in a half-zipped blue coat with a white shirt and tie. He looked at the camera with his trademark Groucho mustache and pointed with his finger. “I’m Geraldo Rivera and you are about to witness a live television event, a massive concrete vault has been discovered, and some think it belongs to none other than the notorious Al Capone. Well, tonight for the first time that vault is going to be opened. . . . LIVE!”

Judy Garlands Strange Encounter with John Dillinger During the 1933 Worlds Fair

It was hot. Judy was with her mother and sisters. They had no money and were singing at the Chicago Worlds Fair of 1933. This is six years before The Wizard of Oz would bring her fame. Judy decides to duck out and catch a movie at the Biograph. It is air conditioned and she stays for five shows and finally leaves when Manhattan Melodrama ends a final time with Clark Gable getting the electric chair. She walks into the lobby and then out to the sidewalk and sees a man she recognizes.

Garland thinks he is a movie star because she recognizes his face from the papers. This is Chicago after all and famous people are out and about. Judy asks him for his autograph and he obliges, giving her a grin. Then the man goes into the theater leaving the young singer staring at his signature. John Dillinger. The famous bank robber was going in to catch a movie and probably get away from the heat as well. Judy cant believe it and goes back to the fairgrounds to tell her mother.

Three hours later John Dillinger is confronted by the police and shot dead in the alley outside the
Biograph. He is thirty one. Judy sings that night at the Worlds Fair but she is not famous yet. Thirty years later she will tell her story of running into Public Enemy #1 on a hot Chicago night when she took a break from the Chicago Worlds Fair of 1933.

Al Capone and the 1933 Worlds Fair