upbeat music - I'm Geoffrey Baer.

Tonight, we find out what color turned to gold for a Chicago tycoon, we get a taste of victory, and we reveal the silver lining behind an experiment gone wrong.

All that and much more, but first a Pop Quiz just for you at home!

(bell rings) (suspenseful music) What is the longest street in Chicago?

Is it A, Garfield Boulevard, B, Halsted Street, C, Michigan Avenue, or D, Western Avenue?

The answer, that's coming up next on "The Great Chicago Quiz Show!"

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Hello and welcome to "The Great Chicago Quiz Show."

I'm Geoffrey Baer.

I've spent decades writing and hosting WTTW programs about Chicago's rich history, architecture, and culture.

Now it's time to see if you've been paying attention.

And Chicago Tik-Tok historian, Shermann Dilla Thomas is here.

Hey Dilla!

- Hey what's up Geoffrey.

Hey everybody.

- Okay, before we welcome our first contestants, the answer to tonight's pop quiz.

I asked, what is the longest street in Chicago?

Well, it's not Garfield Boulevard.

That's an east-west street, Chicago is taller than it is wide, and, yes, Michigan Avenue extends far south, but if it went any farther north you'd be In the lake.

So the answer is D, Western Avenue at 23 and a half miles.

And south of the city it continues for another 20 plus miles with a few gaps dead-ending, anticlimactically, in a farm field at the Will and Kankakee County line.

Alright, on with the show!

Let's meet tonight's first round of contestants!

He is an actor, a comedic improviser and has a self-described bad obsession with Disney.

And I think we can see that in the background there.

Terrance Lamonte Jr., hello!

- Hello, hello everybody!

- She is not a doctor, but she plays one on TV.

Actor, director, and dancer, Puja Mohindra.

Hi, Puja!

- Hello, hello.

- And a Chicago history nerd and tour guide who may or may not be related to Macbeth.

Yes, the real-life King of Scots, Alex Bean!

- Hello!

- First of all, Terrance, I wanna talk to you.

You're an actor, you're used to being on stage in front of people.

- Do you know what it's like to be an orange, man?

(crowd laughs) - I've seen a lot of "Veggie Tales" so I can only imagine that's it's a spiritual experience?

(crowd laughs) - I actually studied at Second City and taught improvisation for many years.

Do you know the game, One Word Story, where I say word, and then you say word, and then I say a word?

All right, we're gonna do that.

You start.

- Once.

- There.

- Was.

- A.

- Magical.

- Kingdom!

- Where.

- Nothing!

- Ever!

- Happened!

All right, and scene!

Okay, very, good.

(laughs) So you teach in Second City, right?

- I do, I do, and teach that very specific game.

My students will be very happy.

- Good, 'cause if we screwed up, that would've been really embarrassing.

Terrance, you get the first question.

And the categories are, Quick Fire, Born Identity, (bell dings) or Banks Shot - You know what?

Let's do Quick Fire.

- Here we go.

Which Chicago chef rose to foodie stardom after winning season four of Bravo's "Top Chef?"

Puja just wants to answer this question so badly.

Was it A, Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill, B, Eric Williams from Virtue, C, Stephanie Izard from Girl and the Goat, or D, Grant Achatz from Alinea?

- Geoffrey, can I just say that I am very excited that you blended two of my favorite things, Chicago and food, in a question.

- Awesome!

- So Geoffrey, my answer is C, Stephanie Izard.

- You are correct!

(bell dings) (Puja claps) - Stephanie, you are Top Chef!

- Really?

- Congratulations!

(upbeat music) - Stephanie Izard won season four, which was 2008.

It was mostly filmed in Chicago.

And in addition to Girl and the Goat, her restaurants include Little Goat, Duck Duck Goat, and Sugar Goat.

An Izard, in French would be Isard because I am a Francophone, (Alex laughs) is a goat antelope living in the Pyrenees Mountains.

I don't know why she didn't just name the restaurant Goatelope.

Maybe that didn't have the same magic to it.

Anyway, congratulations, Terrance!

Puja, you knew it, didn't you?

- I knew it, I'm afraid that's the only one I'm gonna know and it went to Terrance.

(Terrance laughs) - Puja, what doctor do you play on TV and on what show?

- I play Dr. Heather Singh on "Chicago Med."

- We'll start Astrid on a high dose bolus of interleukin-2.

See if she responds.

- If she doesn't, she may be a candidate for a phase three trial of Pazopanib for chemotherapy.

- You also wrote, directed, and star in your own web series.

- Mm-hmm, the show's called "Geeta's Guide to Moving On" and you can find it on OTV.

(upbeat music) We did it really guerilla style.

Like, we were on the L and stuff, no permits.

Don't tell anybody.

- Puja, I just have to tell you, you just did tell everybody.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(Alex laughs) We didn't get in trouble.

Like, this is the beauty of shooting in Chicago.

- I need you to move your stuff out of our apartment by Monday.

- It's about moving on from a relationship.

Is it autobiographical?

- Inspired by autobiography, but that's like a hot mess to a whole other level.

Fortunately, I would like to think I'm not as much of a hot mess as Geeta, but that is up to the audience to decide and the people who actually know me.

(upbeat music) - So you have two categories left to choose from.

Banks Shot and the other one is Born Identity.

(bell dings) I don't know what any of that means, but I will go with Born Identity and stay curious.

- And that is the lightning round!

(thunder rumbles) Don't touch anything metal, don't step in any water.

- So I'm just gonna give you names.

And for every name, you just say, yes, if they were born in the area or no, if they were not.

You have one minute.

The clock will start when I give you the first name.

You ready?

- Okay.

Let's go!

(bell dings) - Bernie Mac.

(suspenseful music) - Yes.

(bell dings) - True.

Absolutely.

Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.

- Yes.

- Yes, very good.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

- Yes!

(buzzer buzzes) - No, Massillon, Ohio, actually.

Studs Terkel.

- Yes!

(buzzer buzzes) - No, New York actually.

- What!

(Geoffrey laughs) I love Studs Terke!

- Walt Disney!

- No!

(buzzer buzzes) - Yes.

Actually.

Abraham Lincoln.

- Yes.

(buzzer buzzes) - No, Kentucky.

I'm sorry.

Bill Curtis.

(laughs) - Yes.

(buzzer buzzes) - No!

Pensacola, Florida.

(Puja laughs) You're getting like a perfect score here.

Gina, the wrong kind, Gina Rodriguez of "Jane the Virgin."

- Yes!

- Yes.

She was.

Oprah Winfrey.

- No.

- Right.

Mississippi.

Betty White.

- Yes?

- Yes.

That is true!

Very good!

- I love her!

- Puja, congratulations.

You did wonderfully.

- Thank you.

- Alex, welcome.

Hi, how you doing?

- Doing well, happy to be here with you.

- You're related to MacBeth?

- Supposedly.

My family's been around for a long time and my last name, Bean, originates in Scotland as something like MacBean, and we come from the same region of Scotland as the real King MacBeth.

That sort of become family lore that we were at some point in the distant past, our families were at least part of the same clan up around Inverness.

- Now, you have two actors next to you.

Terrance, what's the deal with saying MacBeth?

Are we all gonna be cursed here?

- So, I'm at home so I'm gonna say probably not, but Geoffrey, watch out.

- Because what?

Puja, do you know the myth?

- You cannot say that in the theater!

It's like- - You're cursed.

But I guess, well, I'm in a TV studio, so I hope a light doesn't fall in my head or something here.

- When I did theater in college, my friends would refer to it as Mackers.

- What do you do if you say MacBeth, excuse me, if you say the name of the Scottish play backstage?

- People had to run out the stage door.

I think run around in a circle for a while, before being allowed back into the building as a way of expelling the curse of the Scottish play.

- It's true, and you have to spit, I believe, and say a word we can't say on television.

- Yeah, that sounds right.

- All right, Banks Shot, here we go.

(bell dings) Before beginning his 20-year hall of fame baseball career, Mr. Cub Ernie Banks did what?

A, sang tenor with R&B legends, The Chi-Lites, B, played basketball for the Harlem Globetrotters, C, served briefly as alderman of Chicago's 51st ward, or D, ran covert ops for the CIA while serving in the Korean war?

- Well, I'm eliminating the 51st ward because I know that doesn't exist.

- There are only 50 wards in Chicago, not 51.

Very good.

- And moonlighting with the CIA, before you're a professional ball player seems a little bit too Hollywood.

I'm gonna say that he was a basketball player with the Globetrotters.

- And you would be correct!

(bell dings) Now, he actually did serve in the army during the Korean war.

He was stationed in Texas, and while there he played part-time for the Harlem Globetrotters.

And the other interesting thing about him is that he actually did run for alderman in 1963.

He lost by a landslide, which tells you something about the Chicago machine during that era.

So congratulations, Alex!

All three of you have done so well that we are now going to give you the team question.

Are you all three ready?

- Yep.

- Here we go.

(bells dings) Community activists, led mostly by mothers, fought the Chicago board of education for nearly a decade to get Benito Juarez Community Academy built in Pilsen.

But do you know who was Benito Juarez?

A, President of Mexico, B, the Chicago alderman who represented Pilsen at that time, C, a Mexican folkloric dancer, or D, the owner of a beloved neighborhood cafe?

Discuss amongst yourselves.

- I think A.

- I'm like 99% sure he was President of Mexico.

I think there's a statue of him next to the Wrigley building on Michigan Avenue.

Improv tells me the yes, and so I'm gonna say yes, A.

- The answer is A, President of Mexico!

- Yes, yes!

- Good job team, good job team.

(Alex laughs) (upbeat guitar music) - The life story of Benito Juarez has enough drama to fill a novel, but it's true.

Born to indigenous parents at the dawn of Mexico's revolutionary war.

Orphaned at age three.

Educated by Franciscans.

Elected governor, but forced into exile in New Orleans where he worked in a cigar factory until his party regained power.

Fast forward, Juarez was one of two rival presidents presiding over warring factions and exiled again when France invaded.

He eventually returned as president of a unified Mexico and served until his death in 1872.

An enduring hero of Mexican nationalism.

The struggle to build a Chicago high school named for Juarez is almost as dramatic.

In the 1960s, with no high school in Pilsen, Mexican American students had to cross gang territory to a school with no bilingual education.

Young mothers started a movement.

After 10 years of petitions, meetings, boycotts and marches, Benito Juarez Academy finally opened in Pilsen in 1977.

(upbeat guitar music) (upbeat music) **And we are back for more with the second round, featuring a dancer and choreographer who once slow danced with Keanu Reeves, Alberto Arias.

We have a social justice artist who folded a map of Chicago to open our eyes.

Hello Tonika Johnson!

- Hi.

(laughs) - And a Chicago comedian who has ditched us for LA.

I'm sure it's just for the sunshine.

Hello, Avery Lee!

- Hello.

How's it going?

- All right, so we're gonna start with you Alberto.

The thing that you've been doing during the pandemic is teaching virtually?

Is that right?

- I'm a choreographer, and obviously my students couldn't meet face-to-face.

So I went I live, like, every day.

- Can you teach me a few dance steps?

I should see what this is like.

- All right!

- Oh, here we go, all right.

- So basic salsa is a one-two-three rhythm.

One, two, three.

- Oh no, come on!

- A one, two, three.

A one, two, three.

A one, two, three.

- I am totally not getting this!

- You've gotta use those hips, Geoffrey!

You've got to use those hips!

- All right, here we go.

(upbeat music) - So that's a basic salsa dance.

- Oh my God!

- Now I can say that you and I salsa'd in my bedroom.

(Tonika laughs) Life is good.

- All right, let's move on to our quiz, for heaven sakes!

So the categories for round 2 are, The Chicago Sky, Color My World, and Un-fair.

One of those questions will be turned over to Dilla!

Alberto, since you made a fool out of me trying to dance salsa, you get to pick the first category.

- Okay, I keep for some reason, Chicago Sky.

Alberto, you have picked Chicago Sky.

(bell dings) Sky Landing is a permanent art installation in Jackson Park by which pop icon?

Is it by, A, David Bowie, B, Kanye West C, Yoko Ono, or D, Andy Warhol.

- I guess it looks too mild for a Kanye West kind of sculpture.

- If Kanye did it, we would've heard a lot about it.

- Exactly!

(laughs) - He would have told us about it.

(laughs) (Geoffrey laughs) (Tonika laughs) - For some reason, and I'm probably wrong, I'm gonna go with David Bowie.

- Alberto you are wrong!

(buzzer buzzes) (Geoffrey laughs) (Alberto laughs) - Of course I am!

- It is on the island in Jackson Park that was the home of the Japanese Pavilion during the World's Fair of 1893.

- Yoko?

- Yes!

Yoko Ono!

(bell dings) Alberto (laughs) So, it was installed in 2016 on the site of the Japanese Pavilion in the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893.

After World War II, the Pavilion actually burned down in an act of arson.

The grounds were restored as the Garden of the Phoenix, sort of rising from the ashes.

Yoko said that Sky Landing symbolizes the sky and the earth meeting, creating a future of peace and harmony.

- That's so touching!

- So Avery, you're originally from San Francisco as I understand, is that correct?

- Around there, yeah, yeah.

- But you came to Chicago because Chicago's kind of a comedy Mecca, right?

- Yeah, I moved to go to college.

I went to DePaul.

Johnny!

Check up on my wife, will ya?

Make sure she never has a job!

(crowd laughs) If you have Asian parents, you can't always just say, like, "Oh, I want to move to another city to learn an art from where you don't really make money."

So, you know, it's like, "Oh, no!

At the same time, I'm also getting an education," which is less frowned upon.

- How did that go over when you broke that news?

- I don't ever think I ever really directly told them, it just sort of happened and then they kind of accepted it.

(everyone laughs) - You have two categories left to choose from.

One is Color My World and the other is Un-fair.

(bell dings) - Color My World.

- All right, here we go!

Which colorful business started in Chicago?

Was it A, Kelley Blue Book, B, Orange Julius, C, Green Giant, or D, Yellow Cab?

(suspenseful music) One of those started in Chicago.

- What was the first one, again?

- Okay, I'll give you all of them again.

(everyone laughs) - I'm also gonna watch your reactions too to see if there's any clues as I say these things.

- You're an improviser, so I have to give you nothing!

(Alberto laughs) - Okay, I'm going Green Giant.

And you are wrong!

(buzzer buzzes) - Ah!

(everyone laughs) - Yellow Cab, with a Chicago accent.

(Alberto laughs) So, Yellow Cab was founded by John Hertz in 1907.

He reportedly got the idea for Yellow, because he found a study that said that this particular color of yellow with a little red mixed in was the most visible color from a long distance.

In 1929, Hertz sold his share of Yellow Cab so that he could focus on his other business, which eventually became Hertz Rent A Car.

- Pretty close though.

(Alberto laughs) - All right, Tonika Johnson.

- (laughs) Yes.

- You have created the Folded Map Project.

- Yes.

- What is the Folded Map Project?

- It is a project in which I visualize what Chicago's disparity and segregation looks like using our very unique grid map.

- It's like as if you folded a map and it has to do with our address numbers in Chicago, you can literally find your, you call it a map twin, right?

- Yes, I also bring residents together who live on the same street, but 15 miles apart in different neighborhoods that are racially and economically different.

Bring them together to have a conversation.

You know, our city is pretty cool, it's pretty dope.

We have all of this diversity, and we just need to bridge those divides so we can appreciate all of what each culture, each race has to offer.

So, I do believe that.

(upbeat music) - The only remaining question is called Un-fair.

- Leave that for the social justice artist!

(laughs) - Perfect!

(Alberto laughs) And that is the Dilla question!

So, Dilla, what is the question?

- Tonika, African Americans offended by stereotypical portrayals of Blacks at Chicago's 1933 World's Fair did what?

A, boycott the fair, forcing it into bankruptcy, B, Planned a Black World's Fair, which opened in Chicago in 1940, C, Secretly replaced signs at the Fair with ones that more correctly represented Black history, or D, Published harsh critiques of the Fair in the "Chicago Defender" every single day for the entire two-year run of the Fair?

- Huh.

This will be very embarrassing if I got this wrong.

(laughs) (Geoffrey laughs) I think I'm gonna go with the last one, because given that I went to Columbia College, and my major was journalism.

- Okay, and, if I gave you an opportunity to pick a different one.

(laughs) - Okay.

(Geoffrey laughs) - Since the last one clearly is not it and I like the strategies of all of them, actually.

(laughs) - They're all good, aren't they?

- I've never heard about this Black World Fair!

(Alberto laughs) But, I feel like that's the best one.

That you would- - Whoa, whoa, whoa!

Tonika, say no more!

You are correct!

(bell dings) (Tonika cheers) (Tonika claps) (Geoffrey laughs) - You cannot have the only Black person on here, answering that wrong!

(everyone laughs) (upbeat music) - The American Negro Exposition opened in Chicago in 1940 in response to discrimination against African Americans at the 1933 Century of Progress.

This was the second time a world's fair was held in Chicago and the second time African Americans were largely excluded.

The first, the 1893 World's Fair, prompted Ida B.

Wells to pen, "The Reason Why the Colored American is not in the World's Columbian Exposition."

The 1940 American Negro Exposition was huge success.

Over 250 thousand African Americans from across the country traveled to participate.

The U.S. Congress helped fund the event, and President Roosevelt participated in the opening ceremony from the White House.

Famous African Americans such as Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, and Arna Bontemps are just a few notable Blacks to participate.

- Dang!

(upbeat music) - All right!

We have one more question for you, and it is the team question.

- Come on, guys.

(bell dings) - Scientists at Riverbank Laboratories in Geneva, Illinois were hired to research some pretty far-fetched theories, but their work eventually led to what breakthrough?

A, The polio vaccine, B, Human cloning, C, They cracked the most important Japanese code in World War II, or D, ARPANET, the predecessor to the internet?

- I'm leaning towards polio vaccine, for some reason.

I do feel that way too.

- My initial thought was maybe the internet one.

- You said, Avery, you watch for codes in my body language.

- Oh, I feel like he's giving us a hint, you guys.

Is that a hint?

- That was actually the one I was gonna rule out, but I'm zeroing in!

(Alberto and Tonika laugh) - You're going for that one?

- I think- - What do you all say, team?

- Yes, okay.

It works.

Let's do it.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- You are correct!

(bell dings) - Yay!

(everyone cheers) (everyone laughs) (Alberto claps) (Tonika laughs) - Yes.

- I feel like I should've known that one as an Asian person.

(everyone laughs) (upbeat music) - **The story starts with an honorary colonel and heir to a textile fortune named George Fabyan.

One of his many interests was exploring the unknown, so he built a laboratory on his 325-acre estate and invited researchers and scientists to live and work there.

One of them, Elizebeth Smith, who hunted for secret codes in Shakespeare's writings, to prove they were actually written by Francis Bacon.

Elizabeth caught the eye of another researcher, geneticist William Friedman who was so smitten he switched to code-breaking and married her.

The Shakespeare-Bacon project fizzled, but Elizabeth and William became some of the world's first and best cryptanalysts and went to work for the U.S. government.

In World War II, Elizabeth foiled a Nazi spy ring while William's team broke Japan's most notorious secret code.

Today, Riverbank Labs is a leader in acoustical research and Fabyan's estate is a forest preserve featuring his prized Japanese garden and Dutch-style windmill.

(upbeat music) - **So every week we bring back one contestant for one more question, and that contestant is our Geek of the Week.

(whimsical music) And this week, Terrance Lamonte Jr. you are our Geek of the Week!

- (sighs) An honor, a title that I will hold for the rest of my life, or for the week.

- All right, here we go.

Chicago's largest park sprawling for more than 1,200 acres across the lakefront on the north side is Lincoln Park, and the second largest park is Burnham park, South of McCormick place, 598 acres.

Which Chicago park ranks third?

A, Jackson Park, B, Humboldt Park, C, Grant Park, or D, Millennium Park - Millennium Park, for as great as it is, it feels a little small.

So, I think I wanna eliminate Millennium.

- Excellent.

Right.

That's not even 25 acres.

- Now, both Grant Park and Jackson Park host, like, music festivals, right?

So if it's one of those two, then I want to say that Grant Park would be the third largest park.

- And you are not correct, I'm sorry.

(Terrance screams) Jackson Park was the home of the 1893 world's Columbian exposition, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, and it is 500 acres.

But don't worry, you did fantastically, and you can be proud of your status as Geek of the Week.

- Though I might not be right, I am still a geek!

So thank you, Geoffrey.

(Geoffrey laughs) - That's it for this week.

Thanks to all of our contestants, Alberto Arias, Tonika Johnson, Avery Lee, Terrance Lamonte Jr. Puja Mohindra, Alex Bean.

All of our contestants who joined us on the show get their own set of the Great Chicago Quiz cards, so you can keep the trivia game going at home.

I'm Geoffrey Baer.

Study up and we'll see you next time for The Great Chicago Quiz Show!

(upbeat music)