(upbeat music) - I'm Geoffrey Baer.

Tonight, a scoop too big for an ice cream cone, a Marvel on Chicago's West Side and a deep dive into a Chicago original.

All that and much more, but first a pop quiz just for you at home.

(bell rings) Lincoln Park Zoo was born in 1868 when New York's Central Park sent Chicago a pair of animals as a gift.

Which animals were they?

A, swans; B, bear cubs; C, rattlesnakes; or D, penguins.

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

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

I'm Geoffrey Baer.

To create tonight's quiz, we've dug deeply into our files of Chicago history, architecture, and culture that we've used over many years to make my programs on WTTW.

After all, we don't wanna make this too easy for you.

And as always Chicago's TikTok historian, Sherman "Dilla" Thomas is here.

Hello, Dilla.

- Hey, the great Geoffrey Baer, hey everyone.

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

(bell rings) I asked what animals did New York give to Chicago to start Lincoln Park Zoo?

Well, the zoo did get a bear cub, but they purchased that from the Philadelphia Zoo for 10 bucks and that was six years after the zoo was founded.

(buzzer) The first animals were a pair of swans (correct bell dings) from Central Park.

Zoo commissioners in Chicago decreed that admission should always remain free and it still is today.

All right on with the show.

Our first round contestants tonight are all hardworking Chicago journalists.

We have an "Axios" reporter who in a former life as a "Chicago Tribune" food writer once ate every single dish at the Taste of Chicago in one sitting.

Hello, Monica Eng.

- Hey Geoffrey.

- And we have a journalist who learned about observation from a bartender who also happened to be her mother, "Block Club's" Bronzeville reporter Jamie Nesbitt Golden.

Hello, Jamie!

- Hi, thanks for having me.

- And we have a reporter who lives and breathes Illinois politics.

It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.

WTTW's very own Amanda Vinicky.

Hi, Amanda.

- Hi, thanks so much.

I cleaned up just for the show.

(laughs) - So Amanda, I want you to complete this sentence.

Covering Illinois politics is like blank.

- Is like a soap opera.

- Very good.

- A soap opera with consequence.

There we go.

I'm Amanda Vinicky, I'll be live from Blue Island.

If you are aware at all of what you're being investigated for.

In recent years, it's become something of a political sport.

- [Geoffrey] And you've always been kind of like a government and policy nerd, right?

- Yeah, my very first foray into politics actually, I think was running for office myself back in seventh grade, Amanda, the write choice for student council secretary, W-R-I-T-E of course.

- What's why, write, W-R-I-T-E, oh, the right, like you were a write-in candidate.

I get it.

- No, no, cause it was secretary.

So, you know, we had pen, yeah, the write choice for secretary.

- See that's why you lost because most of the people didn't get it.

- I didn't lose.

I did not lose.

- Oh you won!

And you even won.

- Was the election stolen?

- I hope it wasn't stolen.

I think I ran fair and square.

- It is Illinois.

- I don't think the graft and corruption reaches that level, (laughs) or at least it didn't in Highland's Middle School.

- I love it.

- All right, Amanda, you get to pick the first question and you can choose from three categories: ownership, Greek Town, and sweet home Chicago.

- Ooh, okay, I wanna do a sweet home Chicago.

- And Amanda, you picked the lightning round.

(lightening strikes) - Yikes.

- So I'm gonna give you a name and for each person I name you just say yes or no if that person was born in Chicago or Chicago land, as it were.

- Okay.

- All right, here we go.

(correct bell dings) Jennifer Hudson.

- Yes.

- Very good, yes.

(correct bell dings) Bull's star Derek Rose.

- Yes.

- Yes, he was a high school standout.

Governor JB Pritzker.

You better know this one.

- Yes.

- No!

(buzzer) He was born in Atherton, California.

- I did not know, oh, I guess I did know that.

- Okay, only 60 seconds.

Let's keep going, Harry Caray.

- No.

(correct bell dings) - No, of course, St. Louis.

Novelist Sandra Cisneros.

- Yes.

(correct bell dings) - Yes, absolutely.

Harrison Ford.

- Yes.

- Yes, Park Ridge, Illinois.

Movie critic Roger Ebert.

- Yes.

- No Urbana, Illinois.

(buzzer) Poet, Gwendolyn Brooks.

- Yes.

- No, Topeka, Kansas.

(buzzer) - Oh, okay.

The JB one's really embarrassing.

That's gonna haunt me for all time.

- I wouldn't have known most of those.

- (laughs) Thank you.

- All right, well, Monica, I gotta hear more about eating every single thing at Taste of Chicago.

You didn't really do that, did you?

- I did.

(upbeat music) 253 dishes later, I had evaluated all of them and was really, really happy to be done, (Geoffrey laughs) but I did it, I survived.

- Well, we know you as a food journalist.

Food is really like in your family DNA.

Is that right?

- Absolutely.

My great-grandfather Joe Eng came here in 1911 and then he started opening and owning his own restaurants.

He had an enormous restaurant called The Golden Pumpkin in West Garfield Park.

The last restaurant was the House of Eng Sao in the Del Prado Hotel.

So there was a lot of eating in my family and a lot of restaurants.

I'm the only one in my family who's never worked at a restaurant.

I just review them.

- You can either choose from ownership or Greek Town.

- Let's try Greek Town.

- Greek Town, okay, here we go.

(bell chimes) The Billy Goat is the most famous watering hole for Chicago journalists, but do you know how it got its name?

- Cheeseburger.

- A, owner William Sianis's name is Greek for mountain goat: B, a goat fell off a passing truck and wandered into the Tavern; C, Billy the bartender had a goatee that patrons used to pull for good luck; or D, the Tavern served only goat derived foods, including goat cheese and goat burgers?

- Well, I don't speak Greek, but I don't know if Sianis means goat, but I think I'll go with C. - I see the other two looking a little doubtful.

Jamie, are you doubting this?

- Hey, I change it to A, I take it all back.

- A, that his name is Greek for mountain goat.

Well, neither one of those is right.

(buzzer) - Oh dang.

- Actually, the story is that a goat fell off a passing truck.

(correct bell dings) Jamie, you knew this.

- That's, I was going go with B, because that sounded like, that's the, that sounds like such a Chicago story, like it had to be true.

(laughs) - It was originally called the Lincoln Tavern.

I guess some farmer was driving by and a goat fell off the truck and wandered into the Tavern and Sianis adopted it.

And he renamed the Tavern in his pet's honor.

And in 1945, Sianis brought his good luck charm the goat to Wrigley Field.

They wouldn't let him in and Sianna's got so mad that he said the Cubs will never win another World Series until you let my goat into Wrigley Field.

- Curse of the goat.

- So Jamie, you've learned some journalism really by observing your mother.

Tell me about that.

- My mother managed and tended bars across like the south side of numerous places.

Like there's like the Old Checkerboard Lounge.

After school, I, you know, sometimes I come see her.

And so you got to see like a really cool cross section of people come through the doors.

It's like, oh, this is how you get to learn about people by asking them a bunch of questions and then writing about them.

- So she had good interviewing skills.

- She'd also tell my business.

So like, I could never get away with anything, every bad grade, every bad boyfriend, the entire neighborhood knew.

- And now you work for "Block Club."

- Yes, it's just hyperlocal reporting.

No op-ed columns, no commentary, just straight news.

And we've been really fortunate to, you know, build a really great readership.

- Very good.

We have one question left.

(click ticking) Ownership is the category.

Are you ready for this?

- Okay.

(bell chimes) - When Oprah Winfrey's daytime show debuted in Chicago on WLS TV in 1984, the future megastar was such an unknown that the show wasn't even named for her.

What was it called?

A, Good morning, Chicago; B, Rise & Shine, Chicago; C, "AM Chicago"; or D, 190 North.

- Ha ha, so I know this.

- Oh, you know it.

- My mother was a faithful Oprah fan from the beginning.

Like she was on the ground floor of the Oprah fandom.

So it's "AM Chicago".

- You are correct.

(correct bell dings) - "AM Chicago".

(Jamie laughs) - Yeah, I'm old enough to have watched "AM Chicago".

- I would've picked Rise and Shine.

Well, in fact, I still think rise and shine Chicago sounds like a really fun name for our show.

- And at, with a host wearing sequin.

- Yeah, only red sequins.

- Absolutely.

All right, you have done so brilliantly.

All three of you that we are now going to give you a team question.

- Journalists unite.

We can do this.

(bell chimes) - "The Chicago Tribune" scored one of the greatest scoops in newspaper history by being the first to print or report what?

A, the end of World War I; B, the start of the Korean War; C, the transcripts of the Watergate tapes; or D, the New Testament.

- I do remember that war's over headline in the lobby a lot.

- I'm trying to think of famous war correspondents.

- Yeah, it's either, it's A or B.

- Who thinks it's A?

- I would go with A.

- Who thinks it's the start of the Korean War?

- B, it's B!

(laughs) - Amanda, what if I said that you are right.

(correct bell dings) And Jamie you're also right.

(correct bell dings) - Both of 'em.

- Or more.

- "The Chicago Tribune" did all of these things because it's the world's greatest newspaper.

(all laugh) - It's true.

(correct bell dings) All four of them are true.

- All of the above.

- Wow.

- That's impressive.

- [Announcer] The self-styled world's greatest newspaper has a history of tooting its own horn.

So let's fact check.

First to publish the complete transcripts of the Watergate Tapes?

Check.

In a 44-page special section, a mere 24 hours after Nixon released them.

The treaty of Versailles?

Oui Oui.

President Wilson wanted to keep it a secret, but two Tribune correspondents got their hands on a copy and smuggled it out of France.

The start of the Korean War?

Well, sort of.

The Tribune's first front page article was picked up from a wire service, but the paper bragged that their correspondent was the only American journalist to report from the front lines.

But the New Testament?

Well, the Tribune wasn't around the time of Christ, but when a new translation was released in 1881, the Tribune published it word for word two days later.

The rival "Chicago Times" printed the Bible the same day.

But the Tribune said, "we are accustomed to having our ideas plagiarized by journalistic sharks," but then added, "we are not inclined to boast."

(upbeat music) - And we are back for more with the second round, featuring a graphic designer whose illustrations for an upcoming children's book will help us reimagine the origins of Kwanzaa.

Hello, Bryant Smith.

- Hello, how are you doing today, Geoffrey?

- And we have a multiple Grammy award winning Chicago, jazz legend, who bought a condo from Barack and Michelle Obama.

Hello, Kurt Elling.

- Hello, Geoffrey.

I'm happy to see you again, brother.

- And a super high energy actor, rock drummer, and producer who teaches people how to relax, Mia Park, how are you?

- I'm awesome.

It's so nice to be here.

- First, Kurt Elling, I was thinking maybe you bought, you know, Barack and Michelle's condo because of some kind of, you know, admiration or respect for them or something.

But it was really just as you wanted an in-unit laundry.

- The initial impetus was in-unit laundry.

Then Senator Obama on the day of possession, he brought us the keys to the house and he brought us a nice house plant.

It was just like a regular thing.

Like, hey, by the way, the stove often you have to juggle this handle on this stove.

(Geoffrey laughing) (live jazz scatting) - [Geoffrey] Can you define scat singing?

- Sure.

Your goal is to invent new melodies that you and perhaps no one has ever played before.

If I'm thinking of a trumpet, I might go with more of a (scats) as opposed to saxophone, which has a lot more potential swooping stuff in there.

So you might say (scats) and get some of more of that stuff.

- That was, I can't get started without you, if I'm not mistaken.

- There, you see it's recognizable straight away.

- The categories for round two are fifth avenue styling, a piece of the pie and s, and also from our friend, Dilla.

All right, Kurt, which one do you want?

- I'm gonna go with stocking stuffers.

- Kurt, you have picked the Dilla question.

Dilla, what is the question for Kurt Elling?

(bell chimes) - In stocking stuffers, the 1914 Chicago White Sox, A, became the first major league team to display their names on their jerseys; B, played a series in Cairo, Egypt; C, fixed the World Series and became known as the Black Sox; or D, played the entire season without committing an error, a record that's never been repeated.

- I know that there was that legendary fixing of the World Series.

That was a drag.

Let's see an error free season?

- [Geoffrey] Yes, I don't think that's possible in baseball.

1914, I'm gonna go with Cairo, Egypt, I think.

- Mr. Kurt Elling, you are correct.

(correct bell dings) They played a series in Cairo, Egypt.

(others cheer and applauding) The White Sox and Giants actually played two games in Cairo, Egypt.

White Sox owner Charles Comiskey and Giants manager John McGraw cooked up an idea to have an international baseball tour.

The tour took five months and it spanned the globe with other stops in Asia, Europe, Australia, and Africa.

World War I will soon start after the conclusion of the tour and the memory of this awesome event, somewhat faded as a result.

- There you go.

Right on, Dilla.

- Hello, Mia, you look ready.

- I'm so ready.

- All right, so Mia, if one Googles you and gets your website, the first thing you see on your website, (laughs) is you playing air guitar in a insurance commercial.

But then you find out that you teach people how to like do yoga in their sleep and relax.

How do we put these two things together?

- What it's all about is connection.

So acting for me is a way to to whatever storyline there is, even if it's playing air guitar on my back for an insurance company.

And in another way, the yoga that's all about connecting to myself first.

- I gotta ask you about your very first sort of doorway into being a performer was this cult classic Chic-a-Go-Go.

♪ Chic-A-Go-Go ♪ - We've had hundreds upon hundreds of musicians come into our cable access studio.

And I interviewed them and kids from all ages, from all over Chicago, 20 years have come to dance on our show.

- Man, I have watched Chic-a-Go-Go several times, man.

And I know all about it.

So I know right where you're coming from.

- All right, Mia, (clock ticking) 5th avenue styling, or a piece of the pie.

- You know, I'm gonna go with a piece of the pie.

- Here's your question?

(bell chimes) What Chicago restaurant is the birthplace of deep dish pizza?

Is it A, Lou Malnati's; B, Giodano's; C, Gino's East; or D, Pizzeria Uno?

- By the way, I love how you said Giordano's.

You kind of put a little flare on it.

- I did.

And I was gonna say Pizzeria Uno, but I backed off, I chickened out.

(Bryant laughing) - Even though Lou Malnati's has my favorite deep dish, I don't think it's Lou Malnati's.

I don't think it's Giordano's.

So I'm kind of between Gino's East and Pizzeria Uno.

- One of them has the name uno in it.

(Mia laughs) Just saying.

Are you giving me a gift?

I'm gonna go with Pizzeria Uno.

- And you are correct.

(correct bell dings) - Hey!

- Ding, ding, ding.

- The pizza emerged from this restaurant, which was open in the early 1940s.

And what isn't entirely clear is who invented it.

It was Rick Ricardo.

It was Ike Sewell and Rudy Malnati.

And there's a debate about who exactly cooked up this concoction.

And I will say it right here.

I love deep dish pizza too.

So I don't care what anybody says.

- Yay.

- Hello, Bryant.

- Hello there.

- So tell me about this children's book that you're illustrating.

- It is called "Moyenda and the Golden Heart."

It's illustrated by me and it is written by Nora Brooks Blakely, the daughter of Gwendolyn Brooks.

So it's not necessarily a origin story of Kwanzaa, but perhaps how those seven principles became part of the Kwanza tradition.

- So you're working with the daughter of Gwendolyn Brooks, Nora Brooks Blakely, but you actually knew Gwendolyn Brooks, is that right?

- Yes, I had the privilege of being one of her students in the last class that she taught at Chicago State University.

- When Gwendolyn Brooks writes something in red pen on your poem, you gotta pay attention, right?

- Absolutely, even if it is filling up the margins of your paper, because it was such a bad first try or tell you that your metaphor is very cliche, which was something she absolutely despised, but it was a very enjoyable, very wonderful class.

- We only have one question left, fifth avenue styling.

(clock ticking) - All righty.

(bell chimes) - The West Side community of Fifth City has this prominent public sculpture symbolizing the neighborhood's history of community activism.

It shares its name with what superhero?

A, the Iron man; B, Black Panther; C, Wonder Woman; or D, Skeletor.

It does kinda look like a skeleton, doesn't it.

- I'm going to guess that it's gonna predate Black Panther.

And unfortunately, I think that perhaps the time that this sculpture was created, the powers that be were not advanced enough to warrant calling it Wonder Woman.

So I'm gonna go with Iron Man.

- That is some brilliant deduction and it is absolutely 100% correct.

(correct bell dings) Very, very good.

Yes, it stands at the intersection of Jackson and Homan.

The right panel represents the past.

The figure forming a kind of a X shape represents the present moment.

And that's for self-reliance and the left panel is a sun symbol representing the future is full of possibility and it's open.

Very good.

Every single one of you got your question correct.

So we're gonna move on right now to the team question.

- All right.

- Let's do it.

(bell chimes) - When Congress was considering Illinois's bid for statehood in 1818, the territory's congressional delegate made an 11th hour change to the application.

What was it?

A, they changed the state's name from West Indiana to Illinois; B, they established the Husky as the state dog; C, guaranteed five acres to every farmer who moved here from Iowa; or D, stole Chicago from Wisconsin.

- West Indiana.

- That's kind of an insult, isn't it?

- Nothing against you, but aren't you guys more like East Illinois?

(all laughing) - Oh, Kurt.

- Apologies to our Indiana viewers.

- If it were me, I would say, let, I would say, go with the, try to steal farmers from Iowa.

- I'm going between what you just said, Kurt and the whole Wisconsin thing.

Bryant, you might be a tiebreaker and or come in with a third.

- I would like to think that Chicago is probably valuable enough that maybe there is a fight between Wisconsin and Illinois over Chicago.

- All right, well, you're much smarter than I am.

So I'm gonna go with you on this.

- You exude wisdom, Bryant and you are correct (correct bell chimes) with stole Chicago from Wisconsin.

How did we do it?

This is how.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Chicago was just a muddy frontier trading post when Illinois made its bid for statehood in 1818, but as small as it was, we couldn't just pick it up and move it outta Wisconsin.

So how did we steal it?

Simple.

We moved the border.

The Illinois Wisconsin state line was planned to be even with the Southern tip of Lake Michigan, but that would've left the new state without a port city.

So at the last minute, Illinois's territorial delegate, persuaded Congress to shift the border about 60 miles north and Chicago made the most of it.

Although our neighbor to the north has more than 1600 miles of shoreline to exploit, Metro Chicago's population outnumbers the entire state of Wisconsin by almost 3 million people.

- All right, every week we bring back one contestant for a final question as our Geek of the Week.

(techno chord) And this week it is Jamie Nesbitt Golden.

Welcome back.

- Thank you, yay.

I'm excited to be back.

- Oh good.

So you understand it's an honor and not a punishment that we're bringing you back?

- (laughs) Of course, of course.

(bell chimes) - Chicago is known for having some quirky museums, which one of these is not an actual museum in Chicago, the 16 inch softball hall of fame, the money museum, the Illinois governor's hall of shame or the button museum.

- I don't think A is a thing.

- 16 Inch softball.

- Again, theater kid, not a sports kid.

And I was actually thinking just a collection of softballs and not say softball stars.

So let me take that back.

- Okay, we're taking it back.

- I would love for C to be a thing, but I don't think it's a thing.

I think there is no Illinois hall of shame museum.

- Although we are ashamed of many of our governors.

You are correct.

(correct bell chimes) - That is true.

- There is no Illinois governor's hall of shame.

(Jamie laughs) Maybe someday.

- Fingers crossed.

- And that's it for this week.

Thanks to our fantastic contestants, Bryant Smith, Kurt Elling, Mia Park, Monica Eng, Jamie Nesbitt Golden, Amanda Vinicky, you will receive a set of 100 great Chicago quiz cards so that you can host your own trivia night.

Thanks to you for playing along at home.

I'm Geoffrey Baer, study hard, and we'll see you next time on The Great Chicago Quiz Show.

(upbeat music)