(cheerful pop music) - I'm Geoffrey Baer.

Tonight, a wild ride, a man with towering ambitions, and southwest by southeast in Chicago.

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

(school bell ringing) (soft ticking music) The Chicago Bears were founded in 1920, but they played their inaugural season under a different name.

What was it?

A, Chicago Cardinals B, Chicago Tigers C, Peoria Hens Or D, Decatur Staleys.

The answer is, (gong clashes) next, on "The Great Chicago Quiz Show!"

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

I'm Geoffrey Baer.

Lots of people grew up watching my shows about Chicago architecture and history on WTTW, which makes me feel great.

And old.

(upbeat hip-hop music) And, as always, Chicago's TikTok historian, Sherman "Dilla" Thomas is with us.

Hello, Dilla!

- Hey, the O.G.

Geoffrey Baer, how are you?

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

(bell clangs) (gentle ticking music) I asked what was the original name of the Chicago Bears when the team was founded in 1920?

Well, there's nothing new about naming rights.

They were called the Decatur Staleys (tone dings) after their owner, the A.E.

Staley Food Starch Company of Decatur, Illinois.

Staley hired George Halas to coach the team.

Now, a year later, (soft tapping music) the team moved to Chicago, and Halas bought the franchise for, are you ready for this?

$100.

He re-named them the Bears as a reference to those baby bears with whom they shared Wrigley Field.

(cheerful pop music) Alright, on with the show!

Let's meet our first round contestants.

For this "Chicago Tonight" reporter, covering nature in the city isn't just a job, it's her passion.

She has literally hundreds of plant pictures on her phone, so, yep, she's obsessed.

WTTW's own, Patty Wetli!

And a Michelangelo of manicures, visual designer Spifster Sutton!

But up first, he's anchored NPR's wildly popular "Weekend Edition Saturday" from Washington for decades, but he still bleeds Cubby-Blue.

Hello, Scott Simon.

- Hi there, Geoffrey.

Nice to be with you.

- Oh, (laughs) we gotta see your nails, too.

So, Scott, you have anchored, "Weekend Edition" for decades.

I'm a regular listener.

But is it not true, Scott, that you were once a Cub reporter right here at WTTW?

- Yes, absolutely.

At WTTW, there was a show called "The Public News Center," the late, great John Callaway (quiet jazzy music) began a news show, it was in the late '70s, As he used to joke, he set out to hire the four best and brightest young reporters he could, but they already had jobs.

(Geoffrey and Scott laughing) So instead, he hired me, and we had a wonderful time.

- You have never really left Chicago.

It's still in your heart, you bleed Cubby-Blue.

- You know, I grew up in a Cub family.

My godfather, (peppy organ music) who I called Uncle Jack, was Jack Brickhouse.

My Auntie Marion was married to Charlie Grimm, who was the Cub manager.

I was there when Auntie Marion got to scatter his ashes along the first baseline.

And to this day, if we're watching a baseball game, and there's a throw at first and a runner has to slide back and falls down, we like to say they get up with a pocket full of Uncle Charlie.

(Geoffrey laughing) (upbeat snappy music) - So the categories are Fun Fare, Lake Effect, and The Outer Limits.

- Might as well choose Fun Fare.

- Fun Fare!

(bell clangs) (gentle ticking music) CTA riders lucky enough to catch the one-of-a-kind "Happy Bus" between the 1950s and the 1980s would be treated to what?

A, a singing and preaching bus driver.

B, a bartender serving actual drinks.

C, a commuting standup comedian.

Or D, psychedelic murals with happy faces all over the bus.

- Well, I was on that bus many times.

A singing bus driver.

(Geoffrey laughs) I loved him!

People would get on, and he would say, "Oh, another beautiful person coming on board this bus."

And you would have this bus full of hard-bitten commuters who were just eager to get downtown who, nonetheless, were transported by this man's charm.

The Happy Bus.

- Scott, you are correct!

(tone dings) The driver's name was Cleven Wardlow Sr., and as you pointed out, he would greet passengers with all kinds of cheerful greetings like, "Be of good cheer, the happy bus is here."

During his time at the CTA, drove more than two million miles without an accident.

He even said one time a car swerved in front of him, and he believed that the Holy Spirit turned the wheel and saved the bus from an accident.

Scott, I am amazed!

- I do what I can, Geoffrey.

- All right, we are moving on now to Spifster Sutton.

What do you got going there with the nails today?

- Got a little razzle dazzle.

- How on earth do you do that?

Do you have a one-hair brush or something that you create that much detail with?

- It's a very tiny, (deep hip-hop music) very close to the nail brush that I can really get directly to the nail.

But it's comforting, almost.

It's like my own little world.

I'm an artist first, not a nail tech, so I came into the game and the industry telling my clients straight up, "You're gonna get what I wanna put on you."

- You can name drop.

Go ahead.

(Spifster laughs) - Well, Megan Thee Stallion, that's a big one.

Janelle Monae.

Jennifer Hudson, Chicago's own.

Taraji P. Henson, when she was here filming "Empire."

Yeah, you know.

Yeah, I've tallied up a few of them, here and there.

(laughs) - All right, Spif, you've got two categories left.

You get to pick one of them.

(upbeat snappy music) Do you want Lake Effect or The Outer Limits?

- I'm gonna go with Lake Effect.

I'm a Hyde Park girl, I grew up on the lake.

So come on, give it to me.

(bell clangs) In June of 1954, (gentle ticking music) a freak disaster killed eight people on the lakefront near Montrose Harbor.

What was it?

A, an earthquake that collapsed the sea wall.

B, a tidal wave.

C, a toxic algae bloom.

Or D, a giant cargo ship that ran aground.

- Huh.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say A, earthquake, as opposed to a tidal wave.

- Well, Scott, do you have any memory of ever hearing of this?

- No, I've never heard anyone talk about the great Montrose Avenue tidal wave.

- (laughs) All right.

Well, Spif, are you gonna stick with earthquake, or are you gonna go with tidal wave?

- I'm gonna stick with my answer.

- And you are wrong.

(signal buzzes) (Spifster laughs) (Geoffrey laughs) - I did my best!

(laughs) - Believe it or not, it was a tidal wave called a seiche.

(tone dings) A seiche forms when a storm pushes some water ahead of it.

(soft tapping music) But then, a lake is kinda like a big bathtub, right?

So when the water sloshes one way, then it has to slosh back the other way.

So here are all these people on the lakefront, and all of a sudden, this 10-foot wave comes crashing ashore and tragically, eight people perished in this seiche, or tidal wave.

- Wow.

- God bless.

- We're gonna move on to Patty Wetli.

Hello, Patty.

You are a familiar face - Hey.

- to everybody who watches "Chicago Tonight."

So, Patty, why are lawns bad?

- Lawns, actually, they don't have particularly deep roots.

They don't provide (lively pop music) really anything in terms of habitat or food for wildlife, so if we were to replace those green lawns with native plantings, you would get so much more storm water absorption.

They soak up carbon.

So yeah, native plants, go for it.

- It's not all about nature.

You collect pennies, too, right?

- I will actually go into the middle of the street if I see one, (laughs) and my husband is always afraid I'm gonna get hit by a bus.

- Well, I hope you don't get hit by the Happy Bus 'cause then it would be a sad bus, that's for sure.

(Patty chuckles) - Yes.

He's had no accidents, so I would be safe, I guess.

- Perfect.

All right, we gotta get to your category, The Outer Limits.

(upbeat snappy music) And it is the lightning round!

(lightning crashing) So I'm gonna give you a suburban landmark of some sort, and you tell me what suburb I'm talking about.

- (laughs) Oh god.

- [Geoffrey] You're not a suburbanite, I'm guessing?

- No, this is gonna be ugly.

- All right, here we go.

(bell clangs) Home of Woodfield Mall?

(gentle ticking music) - Woodfield.

- Schaumburg, sorry.

(signal buzzes) Home of Northwestern University.

- Evanston!

(tone dings) - Perfect!

True or false, Blue Island really was once an island.

- Yes!

(tone dings) - Yes!

That is true.

(Patty laughs) In prehistoric Lake Chicago, after the glaciers melted.

Home of the recently-shuttered racetrack owned by Churchill Downs.

- Arlington Heights!

(tone dings) - Arlington Heights, yes!

Southwest suburb named for a famous Shakespeare character, next to Joliet.

- Romeoville!

(tone dings) - Romeoville, absolutely.

What south suburb founded and run by African Americans is the birthplace of "Star Trek" actress Nichelle Nichols?

- Is it Robbins?

(tone dings) - Robbins!

Very good.

Home of Six Flags Great America!

- Oh, oh, oh, oh!

- Starts with a G. - I don't know!

Gurnee!

(tone dings) - You did great!

(Spifster clapping) You should move to the suburbs and plant a prairie.

- Yes!

I will not.

(chuckles) - You know, you have all done so well that we are going to give you the team question.

I want you to discuss it amongst yourselves and then give me one answer.

- Okay.

- Okay, guys.

(bell clangs) (gentle ticking music) "SpiderDan" Goodwin made international headlines in 1981 when he climbed up the outside of Sears Tower.

Why did he say he did it?

A, to propose to his girlfriend on national TV.

B, to inspire improvements in high-rise fire rescue operations.

C, to win a bet with another daredevil.

Or D, to get the attention of a circus that denied him an audition?

- I wanna lean toward the good of safety, but it also does seem like such a stunt.

- Yeah, if he'd fallen, it would've really eloquently proven his point, I suppose.

(Geoffrey laughs) - Maybe he was really trying to pitch for the circus, with a name like Spiderman Dan, you know?

- Okay.

So do we wanna go with audition?

- I'm gonna go for audition for the circus.

- For the circus, yeah.

I think so, yeah.

(signal buzzes) - I'm sorry, that's wrong.

It was actually to inspire improvements in fire-rescue operations.

(tone dings) - Oh, Dan, why would you go through that?

- Well, here's why.

(upbeat plinking music) It seemed like just a daredevil stunt, but Dan Goodwin climbed for a cause.

He had witnessed the MGM Grand Hotel fire in Las Vegas that killed 85 people in 1980.

He saw firefighters helpless to reach higher floors, so he dreamed up an idea to get the public thinking about better high rise safety.

On Memorial Day, 1981, he donned a Spider-Man costume equipped himself with suction cups and a homemade claw and started scaling what was then the world's tallest building as onlookers cheered him from below.

After seven hours, he reached the roof, was arrested, and received a legal slap on the wrist.

Authorities were not as tolerant six months later when SpiderDan climbed the Hancock Building.

The fire department doused him with water on the 20th floor before cooler heads prevailed.

Mayor Jane Byrne herself leaned out a window and convinced Goodwin to call for help if he needed it.

He didn't.

But, this time, he was sentenced to a year's probation and forbidden from doing any more public stunts.

(cheerful pop music) We are back for more with the second round.

He loves cheeseburgers, cheeseburgers, cheeseburgers!

But he's gonna need to broaden his culinary horizons if he's really gonna eat his way through all 77 Chicago community areas.

Dario Durham!

- How's it going?

- She's always waiting for something bad to happen, and thank goodness, because she's the CEO of the American Red Cross of Illinois, Celena Roldan!

- Thank you for having me!

- And he is the epitome, the embodiment of the TV anchorman, and he's also the scorekeeper on that other public media quiz show.

But let's see how he does when he's the one in the hot seat, Bill Kurtis!

Hi, Bill!

- (laughs) Hi there, Geoffrey.

- So, Bill, I wanna start with you.

You got your start as an anchorman by being kind of in the right place at the right time, is that right?

- It is.

I graduated from law school in Topeka, Kansas, and a fellow asked me to fill in for him on the 6:00 news.

And I was on the air when a tornado came through.

I gave the warning, "For God's sake, take cover."

For God's sake, take cover.

In three months, I was in Chicago, beginning a 30-year career with CBS.

Good evening.

Jane Byrne versus Harold Washington in an exclusive Channel 2 news poll.

- I've got to tell you, though, I'm a big fan of that other quiz show on NPR, "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me."

You are the scorekeeper.

What's it gonna cost, Bill, for us to get you over here on our side?

(Bill laughing) Name your price.

- Maybe a candy bar.

(laughs) I'm easy.

- I can supply the candy bar.

(Celena laughs) - There you go, we're gonna have Bill Kurtis from now on.

I'm stealing him away from Peter Sagal on NPR.

(Bill laughing) The categories are Thumbs Up, (upbeat snappy music) Flour Power, and Long Distance Relationship.

And also hidden in there somewhere is a question from Dilla.

All right, Bill, those are your categories.

Which one do you want?

- I think Flour Power.

(bell clangs) - Azteca Foods (gentle ticking music) of Chicago played such an important role in popularizing Mexican food across America that, A, one of their tortilla molds is in the Smithsonian Institution.

B, Blue Island Avenue in Pilsen was renamed for Azteca founder, Art Velasquez.

C, Art Velasquez's birthday is an official state holiday in his ancestral home of Jalisco, Mexico.

Or D, all other companies making flour tortillas must pay Azteca a royalty for every package of flour tortillas sold.

- Well, it might be the latter because it should be copyrighted, but I don't think it is.

But let's go back to the very first.

That will be my choice, which I forget what it is right now.

(Geoffrey laughing) - So you really think that one of their tortilla molds is in the Smithsonian Institution?

Dario and Celena, are you on board with that?

- I mean, I'm pretty much on board with anything Bill says because of his voice.

(Bill laughs) - Hope I don't lead you down the wrong path.

- Bill, you are correct!

(tone dings) - Yes!

- (laughing) I can't believe it.

- Art Velasquez founded Azteca Foods in 1969, and Azteca's real innovation was kind of twofold.

One was using food science and refrigeration so that their product would have this long shelf life.

But the other one was the flour tortilla.

And in the Smithsonian, it was featured in 2012 at an exhibition of American Latino foods.

- Wow.

Okay.

- Celena, my wife calls me Mr. Worst-Case Scenario Thinking.

Everything that could possibly go wrong, I'm always expecting to go wrong.

But that's kind of your job, isn't it?

- (laughs) Yes, it is strange to have a job where you're actually supposed to think about worst-case scenarios.

(tender electronic music) But the other side of that is when you get to see people help people in their worst moments, and it's the most inspiring thing ever.

- So, the fact that you have to sort of be on-call 24 hours a day, does that give you some difficulty with the work-life balance?

- Yes.

So, when you meet the right person, it's been five years, and it's hurricane season, you can get married in 17 days, with the help and love and support of our family and friends.

And, thankfully, it was not a disaster, it was a perfect day.

So, it can be done.

(upbeat snappy music) - There are two categories left.

Would you like Thumbs Up or Long Distance Relationship?

- Okay, let's do Long Distance Relationship.

- And that is the Dilla question!

(bell clangs) - Which Chicago street is named for two brothers from the East Coast who only visited Chicago once?

A, Kinzie Street.

B, Ogden Avenue.

C, Hubbard Street.

Or D, Halsted Street.

- You got a Chicago history guy there, Dario, who might have a little insight into this.

- I know it's not Ogden because he's named after the mayor.

- Ooh.

- Bill, do you want to eliminate one more for me?

- I would eliminate Kinzie because that was the very first little store that was on the banks of the Chicago River.

- I'm already seeing Dario's face, like he's trying to mentally send me the answer.

(Dario laughing) I'm gonna guess Hubbard?

- Oh!

Celena, so close.

But, sorry, it's wrong.

(signal buzzes) - Oh!

- The answer is D, (tone dings) Halsted Street.

- [Bill] Aw!

(peppy strumming music) - Sorry!

- We can thank our very well-connected first Mayor, William B. Ogden, for Halsted Street.

He believed in Chicago land speculation so much that he quit the New York Legislature to focus on Chicago's pending growth.

He convinced his friends from New York to invest with him, and as a result, one of Chicago's most historic streets is named for two brothers who only came to Chicago once.

Halsted Street has always meant a lot to Chicagoans.

Whether it's the very important Jane Addams Hull House, Maxwell Street District, Boystown, or the Stockyards, plenty of history can be found on Halsted.

- I owe you one, Celena.

(Celena laughing) - Dario, you are a podcaster, and I said that you were gonna eat your way through 77 neighborhoods of Chicago.

What is that all about?

- We go through the podcast, "77 Flavors of Chicago," where we travel all the community areas.

We talk about the food, (soft lighthearted music) and we try to change the narrative on Chicago and explain why it's the greatest city in the world.

- You just basically like cheeseburgers.

Do you order a cheeseburger everywhere you go?

- Sarah, my partner, she won't let me do it.

But yes, if I could.

In a utopian society, it would be cheeseburgers everywhere.

She didn't know - I didn't know.

- her boy had a burger fetish.

"What turn you on?"

- "Burgers."

- "Bacon cheeseburger."

(laughing) At the end of the day, the point of the podcast is to have a neighborhood friend that you can refer to and just hang out with.

I love Chicago through and through.

I have probably 10 of the Chicago Stars tattooed on me, and there's things I still learn.

- All right, there is one category left.

(upbeat snappy music) It is Thumbs Up.

- I'm ready.

(tone dings) - Renowned film critic (gentle ticking music) Roger Ebert called this film, set in Chicago, "a revealing and heartbreaking story about life in America.

It is one of the greatest moviegoing experiences of my lifetime."

What film was it?

A, "Ordinary People."

B, "The Road to Perdition."

C, "Hoop Dreams."

Or D, "The Dark Knight?"

- I'm gonna help everybody understand my process.

I don't have one, necessarily.

(everyone laughing) - That's a good process.

- I'm gonna say, "The Road to Perdition."

For one reason and one reason only, it has a very big word I've never heard of.

(Geoffrey laughing) Yeah.

Final answer.

- Wrong!

I'm sorry!

(signal buzzes) - Oh!

(Bill laughing) - It was actually "Hoop Dreams."

- I'm so sorry.

(tone dings) - It was directed by Steve James of Kartemquin.

It follows two 14-year-old high school basketball players, William Gates and Arthur Agee, and it looks at issues of race and social class and poverty and education.

Ebert later called "Hoop Dreams" the film of the decade.

- Wow.

I'm never living this down.

- Well, you know what?

(Celena laughs) You all get another chance!

Because now, - Yes.

- we are going to give you the team question.

- Ready.

- Ready.

(tone dings) - There was once an area of Chicago called Towertown, a Bohemian enclave that attracted artists, radicals, gays and lesbians.

Where was Towertown located?

A, South Dearborn Street, home to some of the world's first skyscrapers.

B, near the Water Tower on North Michigan Avenue.

C, North Lawndale, surrounding the tower of the massive Sears warehouse.

Or D, an area of frontier Chicago protected by Ft. Dearborn's guard tower.

- Oh my goodness.

- I have never heard of Towertown.

- [Geoffrey] Isn't that amazing?

(Celena laughing) - The Bohemians, where did they live?

Kind of an art community, I would think.

- South Dearborn area, right?

- I like where your head is at, Celena.

- Yeah, I do, too.

- South Dearborn.

- South Dearborn, I think I would go with that.

- We'll go with that.

(signal buzzes) - It's the water tower!

(tone dings) (Dario scoffs) - (laughs) Wow.

That's amazing.

- Can we change our answers?

(laughs) (Celena laughing) - Redo!

In New York, (lively piano rag music) Greenwich Village was the epicenter of counterculture.

In Paris, it was the Left Bank.

And in Chicago, it was the Water Tower?

Today, it's the heart of the touristy Magnificent Mile, but a century ago, it was, well, kinda seedy, and, therefore, affordable for starving artists and free thinkers who in turn created a welcoming atmosphere for LGBTQ individuals and a wide array of races and ethnicities.

There were coffee houses, book stores, and art studios.

The Dill Pickle Club was a hub for poetry readings and lectures.

And Bughouse Square outside Newberry Library was filled with soapbox orators at all hours.

But, when Michigan Avenue Bridge, now called DuSable Bridge, opened in 1920, it was the beginning of the end.

Commercialism crept northward, rents started rising, and the artist colony dispersed in search of the next affordable area.

All right.

Every week, we bring back one contestant for a final question as our Geek of the Week.

(electronic tones plinking) And this week, Spifster Sutton, because you have brought so much style to our show, you are our Geek of the Week!

- Hey, hey!

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!

Nice!

- Are you ready for this?

- Give it to me.

(bell clangs) - A part (gentle ticking music) of the Hegewisch neighborhood on Chicago's Far South Side is called Arizona.

Why?

A, a developer recycled home designs there that he had already used in the Southwestern United States.

B, the neighborhood has sandy soil and native cacti.

C, several families settled there from Arizona because they preferred snow and ice to desert heat.

Or D, parts of the Coen brothers movie, "Raising Arizona," were actually filmed there.

- They all sound like they could have a truth to them.

Oh boy.

- Yeah, that's the point.

- Okay.

I'm gonna to go with the development being based off of development in Arizona.

Yes.

- Okay, so even though a house in Arizona could have a lot of glass, wouldn't have to be insulated or anything, you think those designs would do just fine here in Chicago?

- See, but now you got me second-guessing, too.

(Geoffrey laughs) Ah, okay.

I'm gonna stick with it.

- I like that sense of commitment even though it's wrong!

(signal buzzes) - I was about to say I don't know if I was that committed!

(both laughing) - The correct answer is the neighborhood has sandy soil and native cacti.

(tone dings) - Ah, the nerve.

- Yeah, (laughs) the nerve.

I mean, if you think about being near the sandy shore of Lake Michigan, in this ecosystem, we do have these prickly pear cactus that are actually native to our area.

- All right.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

(laughs) - Well, don't worry about it 'cause you were a delightful, wonderful contestant and a great Geek of the Week.

- Thank you so very much.

I appreciate being nominated as the Geek of the Week for today's show.

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

(cheerful pop music) Thanks to Patty Wetli, Spifster Sutton, Scott Simon, Dario Durham, Celena Roldan, Bill Kurtis.

You will each receive a set of 100 Great Chicago Quiz cards so you can host your own trivia night.

Take that, Peter Sagal!

And thank you for playing along at home.

I'm Geoffrey Baer.

Study up, and we'll see you next time on "The Great Chicago Quiz Show."

(cheerful pop music)