"Big Bill" Thompson campaigning for mayor, 1915
Today, Rahm
Emanuel will be sworn in for his second term as Mayor of the City of
Chicago. Exactly 100 years ago, the city
was celebrating the inauguration of another mayor – William Hale Thompson,
known as “Big Bill” Thompson. On April
26, 1915, John Glessner made the following notation in his wife’s journal:
“Monday, April 26 in Chicago was a great
parade to mark the inauguration of Mayor William Hale Thompson.”
Thompson served
three terms as the city’s mayor, from 1915 to 1923 and again from 1927 to
1931. He was the last Republican to hold
the office and, according to Mark Grossman in his 2008 book, Political Corruption in America: An
Encyclopedia of Scandals, Power, and Greed, was one of the most corrupt and
unethical mayors in American history.
William Hale
Thompson was born in Boston in May 1869 but arrived in Chicago with his parents
less than two weeks later, and it was here that he grew to adulthood. His political career began in 1900 when he
was elected alderman of the 2nd Ward. He steadily rose up through the ranks, and
considered his election as mayor merely a stepping stone to the White
House. That dream ended when he did not
receive the nomination at the 1928 Republican National Convention.
After serving
eight years as mayor, he declined to run for a third term, but reentered the
race four years later, staging a now famous debate between himself and two rats
representing his opponents. He pledged
to clean up corruption, but in reality worked hard to undermine the reformers,
and relied on Al Capone’s support for his successful reelection to a third term
in 1927. By 1931, dissatisfaction with
his leadership and his ties to organized crime led to his defeat by Democrat
Anton Cermak.
In spite of this
less than exemplary record, at the time of his inauguration in 1915, the city
was hopeful that Thompson would usher in an era of prosperity. A grand parade, known as the Prosperity
Parade, was planned for April 26, 1915 as one of numerous activities to mark the occasion. Parade participants began gathering in Grant
Park at 11:00am that morning and were all in place by the time the Mayor-Elect
and his party made the rounds through the park at 1:30pm. Then followed a “municipal salute of aerial
bombs and daylight fireworks” in the park with 35 bombs symbolizing the 35
wards in the city. The parade began at
2:00pm and proceeded west on Monroe, north on State, west on Randolph, south on
LaSalle, east on Jackson and then south on Michigan.
Mounted police at head of parade
Nearly 16,000
persons participated in the parade, heralded as the largest parade ever to take
place in Chicago. The parade stretched
for 11 miles, took three hours to pass the reviewing stand in front of the
LaSalle street entrance to City Hall, and was viewed by nearly 250,000 people
along the parade route. It included
1,711 automobiles, 662 automobile floats, and 323 horse and wagon floats. The cost, estimated at $46,785, was offset by
the projected $250,000 of revenue spent by the 50,000 out-of-town visitors who
came to witness the spectacle.
Hundreds of
businesses and organizations participated in the parade with floats, decorated
automobiles, and other assemblages. The
Tribune noted a few of the more interesting displays:
“One unique group of floats has been
provided by the Chinese merchants of the city.
The men and women on these will be clad in the richest oriental costumes
to be found in America – costumes so valuable that a special guard of six
policemen has been detailed to guard the floats.”
Chicago Public School "sewing float"
being readied for the parade
“The public school system was represented
in a series of elaborate floats. One carried
girls dressed in white, working at sewing machines, and conveyed the
information that Chicago schools teach sewing to 42,407 girls. Another float bore young men and women
working at typewriters and keeping books.
It represented the commercial courses of the schools. Another carried a complete printing
establishment with printers at work, and two others represented manual training
and iron working in the schools. Pupils
of the Mozart school were uniformed and performed Red Cross evolutions in front
of the mayor’s stand.”
The Electric
Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association placed an advertisement in the Chicago papers encouraging owners of electric passenger vehicles to participate in their
section. The advertisement noted that:
“It is especially desired that there be a
great showing of electrics, particularly those driven by women. Therefore, to induce as many owners as
possible to come into the parade, the undersigned will give to the Infant Welfare
Society, one of Chicago’s most worthy charities, 50 cents for each electric
passenger vehicle in the parade. . . It is hoped to raise at least $1,000.00 in
this way.”
Following the
parade, Thompson was sworn in at ceremonies held in the Council Chamber at City
Hall. At 7:00pm, motion pictures of the
parade were shown at nine theaters operated by Alfred Hamburger around the city,
including the Ziegfeld and Fine Arts Theaters in downtown. A 30-minute display of fireworks took place
in Grant Park at 8:30pm after which a series of inaugural and “prosperity”
balls were held at various downtown hotels.
At 12:01am, the Mayor and his aldermanic party left for Springfield,
bringing the long and memorable day of festivities to a close.
