Influences On and From the City (Ch 12)

A city that is a forerunner in the nation in many aspects influence Chicago, on the other hand, Chicago has influenced other places, people, and media.

Chicago has shown it's face in many aspects of media. Chicago, the movie,is set in Chicago during the 1920s has become a musical reflective of the time in which it was set and the atmosphere of the city. It became a reference point that one can turn to in order to discover what the desperation may have felt like amidst crime and depression. For purpose only known really to the writer of the original piece, Chicago can be seen as a representation of a culture, a time, and a nation.


There are many works of art set in Chicago. Sandra Cisneros' House on Mango Street is set in Chicago's Chicano ghetto. This short story identifies with many people of many different backgrounds. Another is Upton Sinclair's criticism of the meet packing industry in the Jungle. Labeled on of the "best American plays", David Mamet's American Buffalo is set in Chicago in a series of twist and turns of crime that won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play and been nominated for several Tony Awards. The Blues Brothers, Backdraft, Barbershop, Wayne's World, Hardball, and Home Alone are just a few films that claim Chicago as he backdrop. The long running show ER that just aired its final episode days ago is set in the County General Hospital of Chicago. There is a seemingly endless list of songs, television, fiction, and other media that claim an influence from the city or even reference it.

With a city such as Chicago that is so eclectic, there are numerous people of influence that have called Chicago home. One of the groundbreaking, modern historical figures that have called it home is a little known junior senator. His name is Barack Obama. He is currently the 44th President of the United States who served from 1997 to 2004 in the Illinois Senate. Ironically, his campaign rival for the Democratic nomination for Presidency was Hillary Rodham Clinton who was born in Chicago, Illinois. The former first lady, former United States New York Senator, and current U.S. Secretary of State. These two groundbreaking politicians are just a minuscule fraction of the long list.

Other historical figures come from a variety of different fields. One man that changed travel in his own way is George Pullman, whom invented the Pullman sleeping train car. Another man that assisted in the evolution of transportation is Charles Yerkes. In a city that is very dependent on efficient transportation in, around, and leaving the city, Yerkes part in developing a mass-transit system has aided the development of the city. One of his last influences was the development of the ever popular Loop.