Earl of Old Town Estate Sale
Steve Goodman’s Chicago apartment 1972, L to R: Earl Pionke, Goodman, John Prine, Jimmy Buffett, Ed Holstein and Fred Holstein
In 1974 Chicago club owner Earl Pionke partnered up with the late singer songwriters Steve Goodman and Fred Holstein (along with Bill Redhead and Duke Nathaus) to open the North Lincoln Avenue music room “Somebody Else’s Troubles.”
The club was named after Goodman’s second album.
Although Earl died in April, 2013 at the age of 80, he is still playing that song.
Earl was a Type A pack rat. In 1993 Earl and his girl friend Sharon Biggerstaff moved into the former Landmark Inn, 111th and Langley in Pullman. Earl’s dream was to open an Earl of Pullman nightclub in the space, which dates back to 1880.
The three-story building has 13 individual bedrooms on the top floor, a two-bedroom apartment and one bedroom apartment on the second floor and a kitchen adjacent to the main floor restaurant.
“It was the second hotel (to the Florence) in Pullman,” said Mike Shymanski, President of the Historic Pullman Foundation in an interview earlier this year.
Sharon Biggerstaff at the Earl of Pullman, March 2014 (D. Hoekstra photo)
The building was recently sold and Sharon is holding an estate sale from 11 a.m to 5 p.m. this Saturday, June 7 at the house.
Please help her out!
Items include several juke boxes, including one from Somebody Else’s Troubles, a cigarette machine, a Victrola from the 1920′s, vintage sewing machines, furniture, many lamps, a Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder with turntable, a short wave radio console and dressers.
Somebody else’s troubles, for sure.
Looking for a King Size bed from an Earl.
This is your place.
There’s also candleholders, a couple hundred ’78s, and a vintage piano from the Sieben’s Brewery in Chicago. Sharon has the original Earl of Old Town sign (not for sale, paging the Chicago History Museum), and signage from Somebody Else’s Troubles. “Earl didn’t throw anything away,” Sharon sighed with a laugh.
Sharon even inherited the signs from The Sneak Joynt, (NFS) the private after hours club that Earl’s nephew and the late Steve Beshekas ran behind the Earl of Old Town, 1615 N. Wells, across the street from The Second City and That Steak Joynt. The Sneak Joynt morphed into the private after-hour swinging “Blues Brothers” bar operated by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. This was before Chicago became known for Divvy bikes.
June 16 is the closing date for the sale. Sharon is unsure who exactly purchased the building, only knowing it is a LLC partnership from California with Pullman ties.
“There was talk of a bed and breakfast,” she told me Wednesday afternoon. “There was talk of splitting it into four suites. They want to keep the bar but gut the rest of it.”
The main floor is anchored by a mahogany and oak Brunswick bar that can serve up to 25 people.
Before becoming the Landmark Inn, in the early 1960s the bar and restaurant was the site of Stanley Jay’s, a live polka club that served the Eastern European population of the far south side.
“The new owners have a lot of work to do, I’ll tell you that much,” Sharon said.
“The Sneak Joynt morphed into the private after-hour swinging “Blues Brothers” bar operated by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. This was before Chicago became known for Divvy bikes.”… Comedy GOLD! Nice piece my friend!
Hi Majorie,
It is in there, 111th and Langley,
From downtown, take I-94 East (south).
After 95th street, the expressway will split to the Bishop Ford (the signs will read “To Indiana” and I-57 (“To Memphis”).
Take the Bishop Ford towards Indiana, on the left side of the expressway. Continue along the Bishop Ford to the 111th Street exit (#66A).
Thanks for reading