Almanac of Story Tellers: Studs Terkel

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of May 16th

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    It is the 136th day of the year, leaving 229 days remaining in 2022.

    On this date in 1912, the author, historian, and Chicago radio announcer Studs Terkel was born In New York.

    With his insightful, recorded interviews,  Terkel let other people tell their stories. He helped define the concept of an oral history, allowing the famous, the infamous, and the ordinary to talk about their lives, their memories, and their drudgery.

    In addition to his many books of oral history and interviews, Terkel hosted a daily radio show in Chicago for several decades. Between the late 1940s and early 1950s, he starred in the television show, Studs' Place, in which real-life Chicagoans told their stories from the set of a greasy-spoon diner.

    His radio program lasted longer, running on WFMT under various names, from 1952 to 1998. 

    It was during the radio program that Terkel gathered material for his first book, Division Street: America, when he walked around Chicago with his ever-present tape recorder and  interviewed random people that he stopped on the street. He said the tape recorder was an equalizer, which could be used to capture the thoughts of the average person

. . . on the steps of a public housing project, in a frame bungalow, in a furnished apartment, in a parked car. And those . . . become persons, each one unique. I am constantly astonished.

     Terkel used the same technique for several more books, including Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, and Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. What he found was that many people hate their jobs and find their lives lost and demoralizing.

     He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for his oral history of World War II, The Good War.

    He had a long relationship with the Chicago History Museum, where he served as a distinguished scholar in residence. He later donated many of his recordings and papers to the museum.

    Because of his close connection to Chicago, Terkel was cast in the movie Eight Men Out about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. He played the role of the reporter, Hugh Fullerton, who first tried to pin down the story. (He also lived long enough to congratulate the 2005 White Sox, who won their first World Series that year since the scandal.) 

    And despite being neither Black nor gay, at the insistence of their members, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Black Writers, and the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.

    Terkel died in 2008 in Chicago.