Irrepressible Johnny V

  “If we were out having dinner somewhere, we'd often hear someone yell out, 'Johnny V!' An hour later, we'd find dad still talking. He simply loved people.”  Congressman Pete Visclosky, speaking about his father

 John Visclosky, House Speaker Tom Foley, Helen Visclosky, Pete Visclosky, circa 1991

Former Gary mayor John Visclosky died at age 101.  I wrote an article about Johnny V for a book project about the parents of successful Gary natives.  Of Croatian-Slovak descent, Visclosky moved to Gary with his parents in 1917.  Twelve years later, his father died of a burst appendix, leaving behind a wife and five children, of which John was the middle child.  John’s mother found work as a custodian at Lew Wallace, scrubbing floors.  In 1933 Johnny dropped out of school and enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal relief agency designed to put young men to work and enable them to send money back to their families.  Eventually, John returned home and finished high school.  A gifted athlete, John pole vaulted for the Wallace track team and broke a leg playing football. He became a life guard and earned numerous Gold Glove medals boxing.  He learned the welding trade and got a job at U.S. Steel’s pickle mill.  For extra money, he tended bar.  During World War II he joined the navy and served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters.

After Visclosky’s political mentor Pete Mandich became mayor in 1952, Johnny was appointed deputy controller under Metro Holovachka and then George Chacharis.  When Mandich ran for Lake County sheriff, George Chacharis succeeded him and Visclosky became controller.  Son Pete, born in 1949, recalled: “Dad played a lot of politics – that’s how he described what he did – at Marco’s Tap on Ridge Road across from the Glen Theater.  As a kid, I’d sit on beer cases in the back having a Nehi orange pop while dad was politicking.  He loved outfoxing the other guy; that gave him delight.  People respected him; they knew when he gave his word, he’d honor it.”  In those days before campaign finance laws, fundraising was mainly cash and carry.  John kept records not in a ledger but on whatever paper was available – including cocktail napkins, match boxes, and the back of parking receipts.  He’d throw them into a locked filing cabinet.  Later, when federal prosecutors questioned him about campaign finances, he produced two full wooden bushel basket of those records.  In 1962, the federal government indicted Chacharis and several members of his administration but not Johnny V.  After Chacharis pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain, Visclosky became mayor. 

 Johnny V sworn in as mayor by Betty Malenka

Visclosky and Charcharis had been wary allies at best and never close.  In fact, Chacharis twice had tried to replace him as controller with one of his cronies only to be dissuaded by Mandich. Visclosky’s first act as mayor was to appoint reformer Glen Van Trease as city controller.  He intended to run for mayor in 1963, but former allies abandoned him for the more pliable A. Martin Katz. After a failed run for county assessor in 1966, Visclosky officially retired from politics but became a key adviser when son Peter ran for Congress in 1984 following the sudden death of Adam Benjamin, Jr., whom Pete had worked for. Pete upset incumbent Katie Hall and county prosecutor Jack Crawford and later said: “I would never have been elected without my dad.  He had the book on everybody.  I had some wasted efforts, but I never went down a blind alley.”

NWI Times columnist Rich James eulogized Johnny V as one who proudly called himself a politician and always had an engaging smile and a story to tell.  James wrote:

      Shortly after the 1984 election, I asked Johnny V. at what point he thought Pete was going to be a winner.  He didn’t even have to think about it. He said it was during a parade in Hammond a couple weeks before the primary. He said he knew his son was going to be a winner because of the way people were reaching out to touch him along the parade route.

      Johnny V. kept tabs on Pete in the many elections that followed.  When he had reached 90 or so, Pete was driving Johnny V. to a restaurant, and dad gave his son hell because scores of candidates had political signs up but not Pete. It didn’t matter, Johnny V. said, that Pete was unopposed in the primary.

      Johnny V. passed on to the great political heaven a week ago. I suspect he’s telling more stories and waging another campaign.

Post-Tribune reporter Jerry Davich wrote about Johnny V when he turned 100, calling him “the perfect illustration of the American Dream.” He quoted son Pete as saying: “His favorite thing to do was put people to work so they could then take care of themselves. He loved solving problems.” Former State Senator Earline Rogers recalled that he attended her high school open house and helped her husband land a job with the Gary Fire Department.  When Earline first ran for state representative in 1978, Johnny V stopped by her headquarters and made a campaign donation. She told Davich: “Johnny V was always kind, thoughtful and he really cared about the city of Gary and its future. He's really a very special person.”

Robert Ordway (above) wrote this comment about Jerry Davich’s “Crooked Politics in Northwest Indiana”: “A quick and enjoyable read, Davich details a narrative of political corruption in Northwest Indiana using stories from the media, academics and politicos, both past and present.  The book makes it self-evident that Iiving in the shadow of Chicago, Region politicians have been influenced for over a century on how to conduct business. We are reminded that while organized efforts to curb fraud and waste are ongoing, there are plenty of good public officials that serve as reasons to remain positive about Northwest Indiana's future.”  Johnny V was one of them.

 Coaches Lane and English with Bowling for Donuts team

Angie and Becca

Over the weekend, grandson James competed in a state bowling tournament in Lafayette, and Becca won a trophy for singing “Astonishing” (“I will blaze until I find my time and place, I will be fearless, surrendering modesty and grace, I will not disappear without a trace”) from “Little Woman” in a Chesterton H.S. talent show.  Miranda and Sean stopped in for lunch after a week in Cancun, Mexico, and I watched the dramatic Masters triumph of Sergio Garcia in a one-hole playoff against Justin Rose, the Spaniard’s first victory in a major in 74 tries. I used to root against Garcia, who once disparaged Tiger Wood, but now I tend to sympathize with aging veterans.

Sean and Miranda

Sergio Garcia

I’ve introduced Ron Cohen innumerable times, mentioning that we started at IUN on the same day in the Fall of 1970, co-founded the Calumet Regional Archives and Steel Shavings magazine, and co-edited “Gary: A Pictorial History” before my colleague turned his attention to the history of folk music. Prior to his talk on Woody Guthrie at Gino’s to my history book club group, I read this 2012 blurb from Country Joe MacDonald, most famous for singing “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” at Woodstock with his psychedelic jug band Country Joe and the Fish:

Upon the celebration of the centennial of Woody Guthrie’s birth there will be a new visitation to the bard’s life and works.  In spite of his global fame, little is actually known by the average person about the man and his career and life.  “Woody Guthrie: Writing America’s Songs” fills in the blanks. I suggest you put on some music and learn with Cohen’s new book while you have your own Woody Guthrie birthday party.

I added that Guthrie’s dad named him after Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate for President at the time Woody was born.

Beforehand, Ron wondered if anyone had read his book.  I replied, “Besides me, at least two people.”  I had loaned mine to Brian Barnes, and I knew from experience that Debra Dubovitz always came prepared.  Sure enough, when Ron couldn’t immediately come up the name of Woody’s third wife, she correctly said, “Anneke.”  After Ron stated that “This Land Is Your Land” first became well-known as a children’s song, former teacher Connie Barnes noted that her fourth graders learned it from an elementary school songbook.  George Van Til recalled that after Rennie Davis spoke at IUN against the war on Vietnam, those on stage, including Mayor Richard Hatcher, led the crowd in the singing of “This Land Is Your Land.” On January 18, 2009, at the “We Are One” Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, and others sang Woody’s classic anthem.

above, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger; below, Anthony Rizzo with trophy

Because of an 80-minute rain delay, I got home in time to watch the raising of the 2016 World Series banner before the Cubs home opener.  Even more impressive were Cubs players walking the length of the field with Anthony Rizzo holding the championship trophy.  Rizzo later had the game-winning hit against the Dodgers in the ninth.

Presidents Day

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”  George Washington

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”  Franklin D. Roosevelt

 above, Allison Schuette; below, Elizabeth Wuerffel

At the Calumet Regional Archives Valparaiso University stalwarts Allison Schuette and Liz Wuerffel scanned Gary yearbooks to illustrate their Flight Paths project tracing the movement of Gary residents to the suburbs.  While the Northside schools of Horace Mann and Emerson quickly went from nearly all-white to predominantly black and Latino, the transformation of Lew Wallace in Glen Park was more gradual.  I suggested that they pay special attention to Froebel, the one desegregated school during the 1930s and 1940s.  I told them about the unsuccessful 1945 school strike by white students, mentioned in the recent Times supplement on Indiana history.  The article claims that both Frank Sinatra and Joe Louis participated in a Tolerance program at Memorial Auditorium, but the heavyweight champ couldn’t come due to other commitments.

 Jackson 5 mural; Genesis Towers in background (formerly Hotel Gary)

Knights of Columbus Building

Al Latrice wrote about plans for upcoming summer walking tours in downtown Gary for the website Curbed Chicago:

  Several of the buildings featured on the tour are currently abandoned but have become popular sites for photographers, specifically the urban explorer segment who often break into abandoned sites. Alex Koerner and Sam Salvesen, two AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers helping to spearhead the effort, say that the walking tour series will not only be a safer and legal way of seeing these buildings, but they hope that the tours will help start a dialogue about historic preservation and renew interest in Gary.

“We’re entering an age where Gary is witnessing a renaissance period. If Gary does well then the region does well,” Sam Salvesen tells us. “It’s a town that’s reflective of American history—to understand Gary is to understand urban America.”

Dr. Charles L. Seeger

Ron Cohen no longer comes to the IUN History office, so I pick up his mail.  Author Charles A. Miller sent him an article about folksinger Pete Seeger’s father entitled “Charles Seeger: Ethnomusicologist for America.”  While a New School faculty member in the mid-1930s, Charles Seeger persuaded the Rockefeller Foundation to sponsor over 200 scholars from Italy and Germany to attend “The University in Exile.”  In 1939 Eleanor Roosevelt asked Seeger to arrange a White House concert for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the first English monarchs to visit America. In Ron Cohen’s “Alan Lomax: Selected Writings, 1934-1997” is an excerpt from a 1981 interview by Ralph Rinzler of folklorist Lomax:

       I heard about the concert when [artist] Adrian Dornbush and Charlie Seeger decided to have me because they couldn’t lay their hands on a cowboy singer. They knew I sang ballads that my father had collected, so they invited me to perform. Min the dressing room downstairs  I first met Lily Mae Ledford and her sister, who were among the Coon Creek Girls. I was anxiously trying to tune my guitar. I played my three chords, wondering where my voice was and sweating up a storm in my tuxedo. I was about 22 and felt about 15. Finally, we went on to perform. We were staggered on the stairs leading up to the East Ballroom so there would be no delay about getting us on and off the stage. I came on after Kate Smith, as I remember. She came on after the black spiritual group sang. You can imagine how terrified I was with my three chords. As I was singing, I looked at the King and Queen. They were so much better groomed and so much more perfectly turned out than all the Americans, so perfectly polished that you could really see an aura about them. Their toes were just barely touching the ground in the large American chairs. They were right up close to the edge of the stage. I don’t think I was ever more frightened in my whole life.

       Roosevelt was in the front row with his head cocked over, smiling and swinging in time to the music. Oh, yes, he loved that concert, he was having a ball. The Roosevelts towered over the King and Queen. They looked like little dolls compared to them. Even Roosevelt in his invalid’s chair was a huge man. This presence and the vitality that poured out of him made that concert, I think, one of his peak moments.

A contributor to funding a Horace Samuel Merrill seminar room and graduate student scholarship on behalf of my academic mentor, I received a letter from University of Maryland History Department chair Philip Soergel informing me that Lucien Holness is the most recent Merrill award recipient.  Soergel wrote:

  Lucien is examining debates among northern free blacks during the pre-war and war years concerning strategies for obtaining equal citizenship. Lucien is focusing in particular on the shifting place of military service in these debates; he is showing, for instance, how some free blacks enlisted in the hopes of obtaining full equality while others rejected service until they received treatment as equals. 

After Saturday bowling and chowing down at Round the Clock, Dave, James, and I learned a new dice rolling and card collecting board game, Maichi Koro.  One of its many virtues is its brevity: we finished three games in about an hour after Tom Wade explained the rules.  Here is a brief description from Pandasaurus Games:

  Welcome to the city of Machi Koro. You've just been elected Mayor. Congrats! Unfortunately, the citizens have some pretty big demands: jobs, a theme park, a couple of cheese factories and maybe even a radio tower. A tough proposition since the city currently consists of a wheat field, a bakery and a single die.  Armed only with your trusty die and a dream, you must grow Machi Koro into the largest city in the region. You will need to collect income from developments, build public works, and steal from your neighbors' coffers. Just make sure they aren't doing the same to you!

Prior to bridge at the condo, eight of us ate at Tau Chen in Chesterton.  I wisely went with one of the chef’s recommendations, Beef Satay Udon Noodle.  Also on the menu was Tsingtao beer, first time I’ve sampled the brew since my 1994 stay in Hong Kong and trip to China.  After losing a small slam when a finesse failed, I lucked out when Dick Hagelberg put us in six Spades.  We each had two losing Hearts, but thanks to a Club lead, I was able to rid my hand of the losers and took every trick.  Toni and I finished 1-2 after seven rounds of four hands, and, thanks to an early start, finished up with ice cream and chocolate cake by 9:15.

Post-Tribune columnist Jeff opened a splendid piece on my Tuesday Chesterton bridge director Alan Yngve with a quote by actor and bridge master Omar Sharif that could apply to Manes and Yngve alike: “I want to live every moment totally and intensely even when I’m giving an interview or talking to people, that’s all I’m thinking about.”  Yngve facilitates twice weekly duplicate bridge games at Calumet Township Multipurpose Center at Forty-First and Cleveland in Gary, where the interview took place.  Alan stated, “We have significant ethnic and economic diversity here.  Everybody’s welcome.  That’s my mantra.”  He stressed that bridge relies on communication.  Yngve lived in Tokyo, Japan, during his senior year at IU and Beirut, Lebanon, with wife Katherine, for four years.  He’s played bridge in many different situations, anecdotes Manes wished there’d been space to include.  As Jeff told me, the interview was a “doozy.”  Yngve was zeroed in.  Growing up in Chicago, he discussed how he ended up in Chesterton, where his mother still lives:

My parents built a house in Chesterton as a retirement house. I was there every summer and weekends. When I came back here to Northwest Indiana, it was extremely valuable to have lived here before because the people of Northwest Indiana have extremely high levels of hospitality. But there is a resistance to newcomers until they can connect somehow. The fact that I was familiar with the Dunes from childhood meant that I could fit in faster than if I was just some Joe Blow off the street.

Former Lake Central star Glenn Robinson III (above) won the NBA slam dunk contest.  According to the Associated Press, on his final attempt he jumped over the Pacers’ mascot, a cheerleader, and teammate Paul George before completing a reverse dunk for a perfect 50 points.

David Parnell, below

Historian David Parnell’s new book, “Justinian’s Men: Careers and Relationships of Byzantine Army Officers, 518-610,” contains this tribute to IU Northwest, which, in his words, “supported me with summer research funding several years in a row.  Without the dedication of the administrators and faculty to the teacher-scholar ideal, this book would have taken much longer to write.”  Well put. His IUN predecessors Rhiman Rotz and Jerry Pierce would be proud.  Both were teacher-scholars par excellence.

 above, Benjamin Harrison; below, Kennedys with Mayor Chacharis (from Calumet Regional Archives)

For Presidents Day, Post-Tribune reporter Nancy Coltun Webster wrote about Region visits by a dozen chief executives. During his presidency, Grover Cleveland hunted waterfowl in the Kankakee Marsh.  On a Kankakee River houseboat Hoosier Benjamin Harrison shot ducks. The article quoted me about both Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson campaigning in Gary in 1912, when the “Magic City” was barely six years old.  Museum curators Serena Sutliff and Meg Telligman told Webster that Wilson also made stops in Woodville Junction in Porter County and Pennsylvania Station in Valparaiso.  Candidates came most often during spring primaries, but two exceptions were Harry S. Truman in 1948 and Barack Obama in 2008.  When Jack Kennedy toured U.S. Steel in the spring of 1960, Gary mayor George Chacharis ordered that bottled water be served at a banquet in JFK’s honor because he was in the midst of a feud with Gary-Hobart Water Company. I witnessed was Jimmy Carter’s 1976 appearance at IU Northwest.  According to Roy Dominguez, who was a campus cop at the time, Carter came backstage after his speech so he could thank those who provided security and shake their hands.

 Barack Obama at Gary Roosevelt, April 2008

After elected Sheriff of Lake County, Roy Dominguez was one of 30,000 people at Wicker Park on Halloween, 2008, as his officers helped provide security for an appearance by Barack Obama. The Democratic Presidential candidate had visited the Region in April, speaking at Gary Roosevelt High School and stopping at Schoop’s in Portage. Dominguez and Senator Evan Bayh were in the Wicker Park clubhouse when Obama came in.  In his autobiography “Valor” Dominguez wrote:

    Obama was very genuine, engaging, and easygoing, as he thanked me for helping provide security.  After he posed for pictures with Senator Bayh and me, I asked him if he would autograph two rally tickets I had for the event.

    I said, “I have two of them because I have two daughters.”

    “Say no more,” he replied.  “I understand.  You can’t go home with just one.”

    As he started signing, he said, “What is your first daughter’s name?”

    “Veronica,” I told him.

    After he signed, “To Veronica. Best wishes, Barack Obama,” he repeated the process for Maria.