Brother Neil's Play a Success..!

Way to go Neil! I bet the behind the scenes are just as interesting as the stage. You do Chicago proud!

MC

I havent seen him online in ages

Edit: Content removed. All but a crass attemp at humor that was overshadowed by [url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&order=0&topic_id=21985&forum=40&post_id=&refresh=Go]No Compromise - Tharacus, Probus, and Andronicus[/url] in strange timing and comparitive ... characters. I regret it, repent of it and could do no other than to remove it.

I thought there was a neat photo on the next to last page on this PDF. It shows him praying before the play. Others are just acting as if nothing is happening.

http://hizzonertheplay.com/HIZZONER_ChiTribMag_12172006.pdf

I loved the end of the interview. Mayor Daley was asked if he had any interest in seeing Neil's play about his him...he almost scoffed.

"No."

Brilliant.

MC

Congratulations Neil! I had the pleasure of seeing Neil's play last March and having a late night meal after the show with he and Linn (Dorcas). Neil takes his work very serious and, I believe, does it all for the glory of God. His play will soon be made into a Hollywood movie and we will have the pleasure of saying, "I knew that guy when he was a bratty member of Sermonindex and got kicked off the site." ;-) Love you, Neil. Dian.

Hello Little Gift,

he must be some historical figure... but it seems he's still around!

The current mayor of Chicago (Richard M. Daley) is the son of the man Neil portrays.

[url=http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/mayors/daley1.html]Richard J. Daley[/url]

MC

Hi Littlegift…

Could someone enlighten me about Mayor Dailey? Who is he, and why a play about him? I originally thought he must be some historical figure, like George Washington, but it seems he's still around!

During Mayor Daley’s tenure, there were many other allegations of corruption – including the neighborhood by neighborhood efforts for garnering votes for John F. Kennedy in the very close 1960 Presidential election. Kennedy won the state by a mere 8000 votes which effectively secured him the state. Following the election, accusations of voter fraud were raised by several investigators (such as Earl Mazo of the New York Herald Tribune). The states in question were Illinois and Texas. The accusations of voter fraud (involving George Parr, the “Duke of Duval”) were successfully proven (where many dead citizens and even animals registered in Duval County and successfully voted for Kennedy). However, the accusations of voter fraud in Chicago were never seriously analyzed. They point to the fact that Nixon won at least 92 of Illinois’ 101 counties; but more importantly, Mayor Daley successfully held open the polls into the wee hours of the next morning, securing Kennedy the votes that he needed.

Mayor Daley’s political machine was accused of resisting Martin Luther King, Jr.’s attempt to bring the Civil Rights Movement into Chicago during the mid 1960s. King attempted to force integration of many racial segregated neighborhoods through local political methods, but was unsuccessful. During the race riots that followed King’s assassination in 1968, Mayor Daley boldly ordered the police to “shoot to kill” any arsonists, and to “shoot to maim or cripple” any looters. This prompted Jesse Jackson to call his remarks a “fascist response.”

During the 1968 Democratic National Convention (held in Chicago), many radical anti-war and liberal activists rallied in Chicago in an attempt to force the Democratic Party to move further toward the left. When the rallies turned violent, Daley forced the police to respond likewise. During a speech that nominated George McGovern as the Democratic nominee, Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut called the police actions “Gestapo tactics” (to which Daley responded by attempting to shout him down and drown out his speech). This resulted in 1972 Democratic nominee George McGovern actually throwing Richard Daley out of the 1972 Democratic National Convention.

For all of the accusations of corruption in his 22 years of power in Chicago, Mayor Daley was very successful in protecting Chicago from following the decline of many “rust belt” cities. These cities, like Cleveland, Pittsburg and Detroit, fell apart economically following the transition of major cities from old, steel and coal manufacturing towns into vibrant business centers. Mayor Daley was successful in keeping businesses in the city (preventing an exodus to the suburbs) and in attracting new businesses to the area (often through tax and property incentives). This effort became the model for attracting high-paying technology and industry jobs to states like Virginia, Texas and North Carolina.

Mayor Daley was quite a colorful character in American history. As an undergraduate student, my Modern History class was taught by a serious student of Richard Daley. We spent much of the semester studying the impact that Richard Daley had on the rest of the country. His legacy, according to this professor, was that “a man of questionable character“ could set an example of how a major metropolitan area could actually grow through revitalization during difficult economic times.

I would be interested in seeing this dramatization of Mayor Daley’s life. From his son’s (the current mayor) smirked response about the play, I imagine that it might portray the mayor’s tenure through a light of candid scrutiny. Congratulations, Neil, on the success of your play. While we have “bumped heads” in the past in regard to certain things (I still cannot support Barack Hussein Obama for President), I’m glad that this has gone so well for you!

:-)

The [url=http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780875801995&itm=2]book that we studied[/url] during that Modern History class (and from where most of this info was gathered) was entitled “Richard J. Daley: The Politics, Race, and the Government of Chicago” by R. Biles of the Northern Illinois University Press.