Dave Hoekstra

MILWAUKEE—When you’ve been in lockdown for nearly a year, the only way to go is up.

Last summer I found socially distant minor league baseball in Franklin, Wis., southwest of Milwaukee. I drove along South Howell Avenue near Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. I noticed a few airport-themed restaurants and bars along the gritty ribbon of highway. It reminded me of the 1980s and going to the Baby Doll Polka Club, across the street from Midway Airport in Chicago. I recalled a simpler time when people might stop to watch airplanes take off into places more exotic than the South Side of Chicago or the South Side of Milwaukee.

So, last Friday I drove back to [...]

Dizzy Gillespie with his arm around Gerri. Dizzy Called Gerri just before his death in 1993. (Courtesy of Mike Medina) Gerri Oliver was more than a trailblazing owner of the Palm Tavern in Chicago. She was a passionate keeper of history. The Palm Tavern was at 446 E. 47th St. in the Bronzeville neighborhood. It opened in 1933 and became the meeting place for the acts that performed at the historic Regal Theater across the street. James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Duke Ellington, and the Temptations were among the many luminaries who frequented the Palm Tavern. Mrs. Oliver owned the Palm from 1956 until the City of Chicago evicted her on July 3, [...]

Wyonella Smith, 1921-2020 (Courtesy of Marie Ellis.)

Wyonella Smith had a love affair with Chicago. With a forward nature in her eyes, she saw the hopeful texture of its baseball seasons and she navigated local media in its black and white years. Mrs. Smith was the wife of trailblazing newspaper columnist and mid-1960s WGN-Channel 9 sports anchor Wendell Smith. Mrs. Smith died on Thanksgiving Day at the Montgomery Place Retirement Community in Hyde Park.

She was 99 years old.

Mrs. Smith lived in the same retirement center as Mary Frances Veeck, the wife of Baseball Hall of Famer Bill Veeck. Wendell Smith [...]

Phyllis Jaskot at her bar, early 1960s (Courtesy of the Jaskot family.)

 

In a city known for unique taverns, Phyllis’ Musical Inn, 1800 W. Division, is the full dance card.

Phyllis and Clem Jaskot Sr. opened their Chicago bar in 1954. The club has since taken on at least three historic personalities: the cornerstone of a 1950s polka music strip known as “Polish Broadway,” a minimalist country-rock club that in the 1980s featured live sets from Souled American, Green and many others, and now, the last interesting drinking establishment on gentrified Division Street.

Beloved matriarch Phyllis [...]