Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
I finally got a chance to check out the new location of the used bookstore Selected Works (big thumbs up; I love sweet-natured bookstore cats), and in their treasure trove of midcentury paperbacks I found the best guide to Chicago ever: Chicago Confidential (1950) by yellow-journalism geniuses Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer, two former Chicago newspapermen who moved on to become the editor and Broadway columnist, respectively, of the old New York Daily Mirror. It’s seamy, offensive, and well-written–a rich period piece. Journalists used to have such a fantastic vocabulary.
On flirting: “In many cities it is positively dangerous to flirt with strange women, especially in crowded business districts where you are in danger of being run in. In Chicago, however, the wenches seem flattered by these attentions, and will not resent them even though they may not necessarily take you up.”
