Ron Grossman

2 months ago | chicagotribune.com | Ron Grossman

In 1964, the Rolling Stones took a break from their first American tour to record several songs at Chess Records at 2120 S. Michigan Ave. It was where Chicago’s Black blues performers made the records that were revered by the British group, which took its name from a Muddy Waters song, “Rollin’ Stone.”“We walked into Chess studios and there’s this guy in black overalls painting the ceiling,” Keith Richards, co-founder of the Rolling Stones, recalled in his memoir.

2 months ago | chicagotribune.com | Ron Grossman

The Willowbrook Ballroom had the girth of an airport hangar, but its reason for being was inspired by Valentine’s Day’s three little words: “I love you.”In 1985, a Tribune editor sent me to check out a publicist’s release about a Sunday-afternoon gathering at the longtime landmark in southwest suburban Willow Springs. “It is billed as an over-40 dance,” said a fox-trotting patron I talked to.

2 months ago | chicagotribune.com | Ron Grossman

The seeds of Black History Month were sown more than 100 years ago in the South Side YMCA at 3763 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago. Carter G. Woodson, a University of Chicago alum, was staying in a room at the Colored YMCA, as it was designated, while manning a booth at the Exposition of Fifty Years of Negro Progress in the nearby Chicago Coliseum. It marked the 50th anniversary of the 13th Amendment ending slavery, and Woodson was selling posters celebrating Black heroes and books about Black history.

Jan 19, 2025 | chicagotribune.com | Ron Grossman

As historic events slip over the horizon, household names fade into a query: “Wasn’t he the guy who, uh, did … What was it again?”Al Raby was the guy who brought the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Chicago. Sixty-five years ago, he went to the Atlanta headquarters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Jesse Jackson later recalled that several cities were then asking for King’s help. But Raby got it by telling King the Chicago activists’ predicament, just like it was.

Jan 12, 2025 | chicagotribune.com | Ron Grossman

Charles Dawes is the only vice president of the United States who wrote a pop music hit. The tune came to him one day in 1911 as he sat down at the piano in his baronial mansion in Evanston, he later recalled. He thought little of it, passing it off to a friend and fellow musician and saying “it has served its purpose as a diversion.”The friend titled it “Melody in A Major” and brought it to a music publisher.