SWEET HOME ALABAMA 2.0--YOU'RE NOT A REAL BEARS FAN UNLESS YOU KNOW ABOUT HARLON HILL

Driving past cotton fields in the Northwest corner of Alabama you come to the bend of the Tennessee River is an area called The Shoals.  It includes the cities of Florence, Muscle Shoals and Tuscumbia as well as several smaller towns.  Today the area is best known as the home of the Blues, as in music.  In Florence you can visit the birthplace of W.C. Handy, the Father of the Blues.  Don't confuse him with W.C. Fields although many people do.  Also synonymous with the area as well as the whole state is Football.  The most popular sport in Alabama is football and the second most popular is Spring football. 

Back in the 1940's and early 1950's, a young man named Harlon Hill grew up in nearby Killen, Alabama, a town of about 1000.  If you are younger than about 70, you probably don't know who he was.   But, for about three glorious years, playing for the Chicago Bears, he was the best receiver in the National Football League.  He was so good that they named a trophy after him.

The Harlon Hill Award is given to the best football player in NCAA Division II (small college).  It is the small college equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.   Several recipients of the trophy have gone on to productive careers in pro football although none were big stars.  Some of the recent winners played for schools like Slippery Rock, Ferris State, Bloomsburg State, and Colorado Mines.  The best known was three time winner Johnny Bailey, a running back from Texas A&M Kingsville, who played 6 seasons with the Bears in the 1990's. 

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Young Harlon Hill was an unheralded prospect from an obscure small college, Florence State Teachers College (now called University of North Alabama), where he played 4 seasons.  The team's offense was oriented toward the run, as many teams were at that time, and Hill did a lot of blocking.  As famed Ohio State Coach Woody Hayes once said, "When you pass the ball, three things can happen and two of them are bad."  In his four years there, Hill caught a total of 54 passes, but 19 of them went for touchdowns. 

After his senior year, Hill played in the annual Blue-Gray Game in Montgomery where a coach from Jacksonville State, whose team had played against Hill to their detriment, mentioned Hill's name to his friend, Bears coach George Halas.  Halas requested some game films and was impressed enough that the Bears drafted him in the 15th round.   If Hill felt slighted he could keep in mind that a couple years later another Alabama boy, Bart Starr, a reserve quarterback on a winless Crimson Tide team wasn't drafted until the 17th round by the Green Bay Packers where he launched a legendary Hall of Fame career.

Hill was the NFL Rookie of the Year in 1954, and he won the Most Valuable Player Award the following year.  His specialty was the long "bomb", and he averaged around 25 yards per catch.   He made the All Pro team in 1954-56, but got hurt in the 1956 championship game against the New York Giants,, and his career was never the same.  He played 6 more years in the NFL, but a series of injuries slowed him down.  He wasn't bad, averaging about 17 yards per catch, but he was no longer dazzling. 

He played in an era when running the ball was more important than passing.  The best quarterbacks of the day completed only about 50% of their passes.  Nevertheless,  Hill still holds the Bears record for career 100 yard games receiving, and held the single game record with 214 receiving yards until it was eclipsed by Alshon Jeffrey 60 years later.  He also held the Bears record of 4 receiving touchdowns in a game which was later tied by Mike Ditka.   In all time Bears history he is second only to Johnny Morris in receiving yards.  He still holds the Bears rookie record for receiving yards and touchdowns.   He led the NFL in touchdowns his rookie year.

Hill's career average of over 20 yards per catch ranks third in NFL history.   He could get down the field quicker than anyone--he had 4 touchdown grabs of more than 75 yards.   He gained over 1100 yards twice, at a time when they played only 12 games per season--now they play 16, and a lot of guys gain over 1100 yards.  Even more remarkable was that he fumbled only twice in his career. 

You would expect that Hill's gridiron exploits would have earned hun a spot in the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio but no-o-o.   The probable reason is that his productive career was too brief.

After his retirement from football, Hill was a success in real life.  He went back to school and earned his master's degree in education.  He returned to his hometown to become an assistant coach and teacher, and ultimately the principal of his old high school in Killen.  He died in 2013 at age 80, leaving 4 daughters and a son.   His wife Virginia predeceased him. 

SWEET HOME ALABAMA--ALABAMA MUSIC HALL OF FAME

This year, on our annual winter trip through the South, we took a 2 hour detour off the Interstate to the tri-city area of Tuscumbia, Muscle Shoals and Florence in Northern Alabama.  My wife, Dianne, is from Georgia, so we speak Southern  When you enter the state, the road signs read "Sweet Home Alabama", as in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song.  That is the state motto as designated by the legislature.

Our destination was the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.  We wandered around the building, touring the museum and learned about many famous musicians that I never knew were from Alabama.   The location was chosen because Muscle Shoals, Alabama was a recording mecca for many rhythm and blues musicians.  The founders of the city were spelling challenged--the city was named for the tasty mussels caught in the shallow water at the bend of the Tennessee River.

The Music Hall of Fame is a modern 12,000 square foot building with a walk of fame with stars for each of the inductees.  The Hall boasts 82 inductees who are required to be natives of Alabama although many of them achieved success elsewhere.   In 1985, they introduced the first inductees to the Hall of Fame, and they honor up to 6 musicians every other year. 

Prominently displayed is a colorful 1950's style jukebox that plays popular music by Alabama artists.
On the walls and pillars are amazing and informative lists of musicians, and recordings, and even backup musicians, all with Alabama ties.   You can hear several songs by Lionel Richie and Bobby Goldsboro and even some I didn't expect, like a Grateful Dead song Truckin'.   The Dead were from Palo Alto, Caliornia, so I'm not sure of the Alabama connection other than they played concerts in the state.  Jimmy Buffett (no relation to Warren but they are friends) is from Alabama although he was born in Mississippi--the jukebox plays Margaritaville.   Captain and Tennille are from Alabama, or at least Tennille is.  You can also hear songs by groups like Spiral Staircase, Dr. Hook, Styx and Mr. Mister. 

The Hall honors other artists who recorded at the studio in Muscle Shoals but are not members of the Hall of Fame because they are not from Alabama and have no other ties there.  They brought the whole studio to the museum, or at least a replica!    The list is a Who's Who of popular music along with the songs recorded there.  The list includes Leon Russell,  Paul Simon (Kodachrome), Bob Seger (Fire Lake), The Osmonds, Paul Anka (Havin' My Baby), The Gatlin Bros., Julian Lennon, Mac Davis, Glenn Frye, Rolling Stones (Brown Sugar), Willie Nelson (but not Ricky Nelson), Rod Stewart, Mary MacGregor (Torn Between Two Lovers) , Oak Ridge Boys and R.B. Greaves (Take a Letter Maria). 

A list of songwriters (with their hometowns) with hits in the Top 40 includes Toni Tennille (Montgomery), Hank Williams, Junior (Cullman) and Senior (Mt. Olive), Tammy Wynette (Red Bay), Sandy Posey (Jasper) and Wilson Pickett (Pratteville), not to mention many others I wasn't familiar with.   On another list are Number One songs by Alabama artists.

Incidentally, the Lynyrd Skynyrd band is not in the Alabama Hall of Fame,, although the band is a member of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.  The band members are not from Alabama.  They pioneered the Southern rock genre but the group originated in Jacksonville, Florida.  Tragically, the band was decimated in a 1977 plane crash in Mississippi when the plane ran out of gas.  Those killed included lead singer and founder Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist and vocalist Steve Gaines and vocalist Cassie Gaines (Steve's sister), as well as their road manager and pilot.  Twenty passengers, including some band members, were seriously injured but survived.   The surviving members made an oath never to use the name Lynyrd Skynyrd again--they didn't want to capitalize on the tragedy.

A large room in the Hall holds the framed portraits of the inductees.  I'm not familiar with some, but here are the better known names with the year of induction:

1985 Nat King Cole (needs no introduction)
1987 Sonny James (Young Love), Sam Phillips (more on him later), Blues legend W.C. Handy (St. Louis Blues among others).
1989 Jazz great Erskine Hawkins
1991 Dinah Washington (What a Difference a Day Makes), who was married to football great Dick "Night Train: Lane, (see KENSUSKINREPORT, Sept. 24, 2007)
1993 Tammy Wynette (Stand by Your Man), Percy Sledge (When a Man Loves a Woman), R & B band Alabama, and the yodeler and father of country music Jimmie Rodgers (not the rock 'n' roll Jimmie Rodgers who was born the same year the first Jimmie Rodgers died)
1995 Martha Reeves, but not the Vandellas (Dancin' in the Streets), Commodores (Lionel Richie's band)
1997 Lionel Richie who needs no introduction
1999Temptations (My Girl), Wilson Pickett (Midnight Hour), Bobby Goldsboro (Honey). 
2001 Legendary baritone Jim Nabors
2003 Country star Emmylou Harris
2020 Big Mama Thornton who recorded Hound Dog in 1953 and held down Number 1 on the Billboard R & B charts for several weeks.  A couple years later, the song was covered by a guy named Elvis Presley who also made it a Number 1 hit.   Elvis' version annoyed the songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.  Leiber said "I have no idea what that rabbit business is all about.  The song is not about a dog it's about a man, a freeloading gigolo."   The song was supposed to be an anthem of Black female power.

Back to Sweet Home Alabama, the lyrics are controversial harking back to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's.  From interviews with the band members, it was not clear which side they were on. 

Big wheels keep on turning
Carry me home to see my kin
Singing songs about the southland
I miss Alabamy once again
And I think it's a sin, yes

Well I heard Mister Young sing about her
Well I heard ole Neil put her down
Well I hope Neil Young will remember
A southern man don't need him around anymore

Sweet home Alabama
Where the skies are so blue
Sweet home Alabama
Lord I'm coming home to you

In Birmingham they love the governor
Now we all did what we could do
Now Watergate does not bother me
Does your conscience bother you
Tell the truth

Now Muscle Shoals has got the Swampers
And they've been known to pick a song or two
Lord they get me off so much
They pick me up when I'm feeling blue
Now how about you?

According to Ronnie Van Zant, the group didn't appreciate Neil Young's disparaging the state in his song Southern Man so they wrote a rebuttal.  The "Swampers" refers to the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section that backed up many artists that have recorded in Alabama.   Several have been inducted into the Hall of Fame but they are not household names. 

Finally a large exhibit in the museum is devoted to Sun Records, once owned by Sam Phillips who discovered Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins, the Million Dollar Quartet.  Although Sun Records was based in Memphis Tennessee (and is now a museum), Phillips came from Florence, Alabama. 

Phillips formed the record label in 1952 but he had to win a legal battle to use the name Sun Records because the name was already in use.   Sun Records of New York had a big hit in 1950, Papirossen (cigarettes), a very sad song, written and sung by the great Herman Yablokoff--in Yiddish.   I'm not making this up--his biography is in Wikipedia.  He was a big star in Yiddish theater.   My folks had a collection of 78rpm's which included that record.    

In any event, when the New York company went defunct,  Phillips' company copied the design of the record label but made the decision to record songs in English. 

NEXT:  Sweet Home Alabama 2.0:  You're not a Real Bears Fan Unless You Know About Harlon Hill.

MORE QUARANTINE STORIES--MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT SPHINX

Several years ago, Dianne and I took a trip to Egypt, and I wrote several articles about our experiences there.  We stayed at the Oberoi Mena Hotel, a historic hotel just down the street from the Great Pyramid.  The Sphinx is a mile or so farther down the road.

The Great Pyramid was the tallest building in the world until the Eiffel Tower in Paris was built in the late 1800's.  We stood on the first tee at the hotel golf course, with the Great Pyramid looming over the trees and the Sphinx nearby.  Its a strange feeling to tee off knowing that the Sphinx may be watching.

Visiting the Sphinx is somewhat underwhelming;  compared to the pyramids behind it, it looks miniscule.  But it is one of the largest statues in the world.   It is 240 feet long and 66 feet high from the base to the top of the head.  It is 62 feet wide at the rear.   It faces due East toward the sunrise.

It is carved into the bedrock, a single piece of limestone, but different layers of rock have resulted in uneven erosion.  The head was carved from a much harder rock layer. 

Over a period of several thousand years, the Sphinx gradually came to be buried in sand from the Sahara.  The only part showing was the mysterious face.   There is only one Great Sphinx, but one can find numerous depictions usually guarding royal tombs and temples.  In every case, it is the body of a lion and the head of a human.  The word sphinx comes from Greek antiquity where it refers to a mythological beast with the body of a lion, wings and a woman's head.   We don't know what the Egyptians called it. 

Until Napoleon came to Egypt around 1800 there was no such thing as archaeology.  Up to that time, people showed no respect for relics of ancient history.  The Mamelukes used the Sphinx for target practice.  Religious fanatics chopped away at the face in an attempt to destroy it.  It used to have a beard. 

Today they show a little more respect, but not much.  For example, you never see a photo of the Sphinx from the rear.  (Until now--see photo below).  If you did, you would see, literally across the street, a few hundred feet away, a KFC restaurant, a Pizza Hut, a cheap hotel called the Sphinx House and a Hard Rock Café.  The street is essentially the city limits between the City of Giza and the desert.   Zoning laws are non-existent in Egypt, but the government relies heavily on the tourist industry and prohibited development next to the Sphinx.   Unlike the Alamo, for example, in Texas, or the Old North Church in Boston.   Street vendors, including little kids, sell trinkets at the statue, and they confront you at every turn. 

In the evenings, they bring in folding chairs and hold concerts and a light show at the Sphinx.  We enjoyed that very much.

Like its inscrutable face, the Sphinx holds many mysteries, and Egyptologists/archaeologists have been arguing the significance of it for centuries.  Nobody is certain how old it is, who built it, or even what it is, and those ongoing debates may never be resolved.  The same issues are debated with regard to the Great Pyramid.  Most of the pyramids were built as tombs or to honor kings, but strangely nobody is buried in the Great Pyramid and no hieroglyphics are present to indicate its purpose.  The same for the Sphinx.

The Sphinx as any casual observer would recognize, appears to have the body of a lion and the head of a man.  From the 1500's to the middle of the 19th Century, several observers even described the Sphinx as a woman, noting that it has the face, neck and breast of a woman.  Many experts assert that the head had been that of a lion or perhaps the jackal god Anubis who appears on many Egyptian monuments.  They believe the face of a man (or woman), the Pharaoh, was carved much later.

There are a number of so-called "fringe" theories and many books written attempting to decipher the mystery of the Sphinx.  For example, popular authors Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval theorize that the relative positions of the three Giza pyramids correspond to the three stars forming Orion's belt--they are not in a straight line.

Their theory asserts that the geographic relationship of the Sphinx, the three pyramids and the Nile corresponds with Leo, Orion and the Milky Way--as they were positioned 10,500 years ago during the Age of Leo the Lion (10,970-8,810 B.C.E.).  At that time, the sun rose in the constellation Leo on the vernal equinox.  Mainstream Egyptologists dismiss that as a crackpot theory, pseudo-archaeology (fake news, as you will), but nobody really knows the answers to the basics--who, when and why regarding the statue. 

Excavations have shown water damage at the underground base of the statue which may indicate that it was built at a time when the climate was significantly wetter than it is today.  It wasn't exactly the Sahara Forest at that time, but it has been a desert for at least 10,000 years.   According to geologists, the erosion on the statue could not have been caused by wind and sand because it was buried in sand for thousands of years. 

Carbon dating does not work for stone objects.  Unlike all other Egyptian monuments we visited, the Sphinx has no hieroglyphic inscriptions on it.  The Sphinx may be inscrutable, but the Egyptians generally are very scrutable.  A tour down the Nile will show that the ancient Egyptians were prolific writers completely covering monuments, top to bottom.   But the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid have no writing at all on them.  Archaeologists cannot explain that.

The mainstream experts today believe that the Pharaoh Khafre had it constructed in the 25th Century B.C.E., making it the oldest sculptured monument in Egypt.   The problem is that there are no contemporary inscriptions connecting it with Khafre.  All the circumstantial evidence was written over 1000 years later.  The evidence cited has to do with the Second Pyramid (next door to the Great Pyramid) which was said to be constructed by and is associated with Khafre.  His connection with the Sphinx is all speculation because, as we've noted, there are no inscriptions.

Other experts believe the Sphinx was built to honor Khufu (Cheops) who was Khafre's father,  The carved face does not resemble that on a statue of Khafre but they believe it looks like Khufu.  But then it is missing the nose which was pried off by the Sufi Muslims in the 1300's according to Arab historians.  The reason:  to protest idol worship by the peasants who were delivering offerings to the Sphinx, hoping to increase their harvest.

The questions about the Sphinx probably will never be answered definitively without totally excavating it, which is not likely to happen.   Keep in mind that only a fraction of historic Egyptian ruins have been uncovered, so Egyptologists will have job security for centuries to come.

THE STRANGE STORY OF MOE BERG, BALLPLAYER AND SPY

Morris "Moe" Berg (1902-1972) was a Major League ballplayer who had probably the most interesting backstory of any professional athlete.  He was a fine defensive catcher who spent 15 years in the bigs with Brooklyn, Washington, Cleveland, the Chicago White Sox and the Boston Red Sox.  For quite a few years, he even held the record for catchers for most consecutive games without making an error.

Berg earned a B.A. degree, cum laude, in modern languages from Princeton, and a law degree from Columbia.  He even studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.  He spoke at least 12 languages, and as his teammate, pitcher Ted Lyons once said, "He couldn't hit in any of them!"  His lifetime batting average was only .243 with 6 home runs.  His language repertoire included English, Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Yiddish, and even Ancient Sanskrit.

Each day, he read 10 newspapers from cover to cover.  In those days most ballplayers, if they read anything at all, read comic books.  Berg was in a league by himself.  Other than baseball, he had little in common with his teammates.  He was a lifelong bachelor and an introvert.  None of his teammates knew him well.  Recent biographers suggest that he may have been gay, but his teammates dispute that.  He was often seen in the company of attractive women.

In college, Berg starred in baseball, playing shortstop and third base.   He was scouted by the New York teams because in their markets, they could sell more tickets with a Jewish ballplayer.  He signed his first contract with the Brooklyn Robins (later the Dodgers). 

At that time, it was common for players in the off season to travel the world, barnstorming and teaching baseball to the locals in foreign countries.  Before the 1970's ballplayers didn't make that much money so they held regular jobs in the winter to make ends meet.  After the 1934 season, Berg traveled to Japan with an all-star team which included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and a few other Hall of Famers to conduct baseball clinics and show off their skills.  Although significantly less talented than the other players, Berg was chosen to fill out the team because he could speak Japanese.   Upon arrival, he gave a speech in Japanese and was invited to address the Legislature. 

At that time, Japan was a rising power in the world, potentially hostile to the U.S., and we didn't know much about that country.  Berg had contracted with a newsreel company to look around and take a lot of pictures.  In Tokyo, he visited St. Luke's International Hospital which was the tallest building in the city, ostensibly to visit the daughter of the American ambassador who had just given birth.

Berg entered the building wearing a men's kimono, carrying a bouquet of flowers.  He went up to the roof of the building, dumped the flowers, pulled a 16mm Bell & Howell movie camera out of his kimono and filmed panoramic pictures of the city.  The Japanese government had expressly forbidden the Americans from taking photographs.   He never did see the ambassador's daughter.

The pictures made their way to Washington where they were helpful several years later in identifying targets for bombing raids during World War II.  Google Maps were still a long time in the future. 

During World War II, after Berg's baseball career was over, he was recruited into the Office of Strategic Services (forerunner of the CIA) to do intelligence work.  He never talked about his spying with anyone, even years later.  In fact, he never talked much about anything.

Historians have been able to glean, from other sources, several of his wartime exploits. For example, in 1944 he traveled to Zurich, Switzerland, posing as a student, for a conference at which the Head of the German nuclear program, the brilliant Werner Heisenberg, would be lecturing.   Berg's orders were to talk to Heisenberg, and try to determine Germany's progress in building an atomic bomb.  If he deemed Germany was close, he was ordered to assassinate Heisenberg.   After a dinner party, Berg took a stroll with Heisenberg and discerned that the Germans were not close to producing the bomb.  The Nazi scientist was despondent that Germany was going to lose the war.   Berg left him alone and delivered critical information to the Allied intelligence community. 

On another occasion, Berg was dropped into German occupied Italy to locate Antonio Ferri, a prominent aerodynamics engineer who was privy to German nuclear secrets.  Ferri had gone into hiding, but Berg was able to find him and ferry him out of Italy to the Allied side.  Berg of course spoke Italian, and was able to translate critical documents for our side.

He parachuted into occupied Yugoslavia to evaluate the various resistance groups battling the Nazis to determine which ones should receive aid.  He determined the strongest group was the one led by Josef Broz (Tito) who ultimately ruled the country for many years.

In later years Berg was badgered by publishers to write his memoirs.  They sent over a co-writer to interview him.  Berg quit the project,  and the writer left disappointed.  Berg didn't take it well when he figured out the man thought he was interviewing Moe (Howard) of the Three Stooges.

During his baseball career an interviewer questioned whether he was wasting his talents on baseball.  Berg's reply was that he'd rather be a ballplayer than a Supreme Court justice. 

President Truman invited Berg to the White House to present him the Medal of Freedom.  He turned it down.  After Berg's death, his sister Ethel requested and accepted the award.  She donated it to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

After he retired from government service, Berg lived the last 20 years of his life, unemployed, with his family.  First he lived for many years with his brother, Samuel, a physician, until his brother evicted him.  He then lived with his sister until his death.  He died in 1972 after a fall in the home.  At the hospital, his last words were "How'd the Mets do today?" (They won.)     The never-told story of his secret life in government service died with him.

MORE QUARANTINE STORIES--CHICAGO PIZZA AND HOT DOGS

A year or two ago, I wrote an article about my quest for the best fried chicken in the country.  We had, of course paid a visit to the original Col. Sanders restaurant in Corbin, KY, which is mostly a museum but does sell chicken.  We've had wonderful fried chicken in Forrest City, Arkansas and Paducah, Kentucky, as well as the Dixie Trucker's Home in McLean, Illinois.

As a native of the South Side of Chicago, I've come to realize that gastronomically speaking, Chicago is right up there with anywhere in the world, especially for comfort food.  Certainly other cities are proud of their iconic dishes.  For example, Philly has cheese steaks, New Orleans has po'boys and other Cajun specialties, Boston has lobster, the Outer Banks of North Carolina has buckets of shrimp, and my favorite, Connecticut serves grinder sandwiches.   

But Chicago was the pioneer city for so many delicious dishes--deep dish pizza, Vienna hot dogs, Italian beef and gyro sandwiches on pita bread.  Twinkies, Cracker Jacks, Wrigley's gum and, believe it or not, fudge brownies were also invented in Chicago. 

CHICAGO DEEP DISH PIZZA

Pizza has been around in one form or another for centuries and introduced into the U.S. by Italian immigrants in the early 20th Century.  The Food Channel had a show recently where they surveyed firefighters in New York and Chicago to vote on the " best" pizza.  New York won maybe  because they have more people than Chicago, and Chicagoans never got an opportunity to stuff the ballot box.  I wouldn't put much credence in that survey--New Yorkers put ketchup on their hot dogs.  No self-respecting Chicagoan would do that.

New York pizza has a thin flatbread crust, and it's not in the same league as Chicago pizza.   The Chicago deep dish pizza was developed in 1943 when Ike Sewell and his partner Ric Riccardo opened a restaurant called The Pizzeria on the Near North Side.  Riccardo an Italian immigrant owned a nearby restaurant while Sewell worked for Fleischmann's Distillery Co.  They originally planned to open a Mexican restaurant.  When they opened Due's Pizzeria in 1955, a block away, they changed the name of the original restaurant to Uno's.   The two restaurants are still there and are still successful.  Sewell eventually did open a Mexican restaurant Su Casa, next door to Due's.   My first credit card was from Su Casa when I was in college. 

Pizza historians point out that neither Sewell nor Riccardo knew anything about making pizza, and that the pizza was actually invented by Sewell's pizza chef Rudy Malnati and/or his cook Alice May Redmond. 

The restaurants were so successful that they ultimately franchised the Uno's Pizzeria to a Boston company with plans to bring Chicago pizza across the country.  They did so, and today Uno's Restaurants is a publicly held company operating about 150 locations.  They even have locations in Saudi Arabia, South Korea and India.  The only problem with the franchise pizza is that the recipe, although deep dish, is not the same as the original.  If you're from Chicago, you'll know the difference.  The Uno's near our house closed last year.

Rudy's son Lou Malnati went off on his own in 1971, serving similar deep dish pizza,  Lou died in 1978, but his 2 sons run the company.  They now have over 50 restaurants mostly in the Chicago area as well as a few in Phoenix, Arizona, a city with many former Chicagoans.  The cook Alice May Redmond went with her sister to Gino's East which has similar pizza and multiple locations.

The big difference between Chicago pizza and New York pizza is the thick crust which can be 2 inches thick  It is cooked in a round pan  The flaky crust is made from unbleached wheat flour with lots of butter, giving it a flaky biscuit like taste.   If you're on a diet you probably don't want to read this.  The unique taste comes from 3 types of fat--vegetable oil, olive oil and butter.  They build the pizza in layers.  First they spread the mozzarella cheese, add the Italian sweet or hot sausage patties or vegetables and then the crushed plum tomatoes.  The cheese must be on the bottom; otherwise it would burn in the hot oven.

Even during a pandemic, they will get that pizza to you.  All I had to do was call ahead give a credit card number and they meet you at the curb.

VIENNA HOT DOGS

Two Austrian immigrants, Emil Reichel and Samuel Ladany created their all beef sausage recipe for the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.  They served it from a horse drawn wagon.  It was a big hit and the Vienna Sausage Manufacturing Co. was born. 

If you go to Vienna, Austria and ask for a hot dog, (or a frankfurter or wiener), they won't know what you're talking about.  The sausages, or wieners,  in Austria are more like knockwurst and nothing like the ones here.  They don't come on a bun.  In the real Vienna, the sausages are made with pork, not beef.  Incidentally, in Berlin Germany, the big thing is currywurst, and to American taste buds it really is the wurst. But it's popular in Germany; they sell it everywhere.     As Otto von Bismarck once said, "Laws are like sausages it is better not to see them being made!"

If you order a hot dog in Chicago they give it to you with everything on it--mustard, chopped onions, neon green relish, celery salt, dill pickle, sport peppers and maybe sauerkraut--all on a poppy seed bun.  Personally, I always skip the relish.  No ketchup however.  If someone sees you putting ketchup on a hot dog you may get a cold, threatening glare from bystanders.   Maybe not as bad as my wife smearing mayonnaise on a corned beef sandwich (on white bread) in a Kosher deli but bad nevertheless,

The 1893 World's Fair, the Columbian Exposition, as it was called was the celebration of the 401st anniversary of Columbus "discovering" America.  The fair was best known for introducing the Ferris Wheel and the zipper but the most enduring legacy were the foods introduced to the world for the first time.  For breakfast the fair introduced Cream of Wheat and Shredded Wheat to the world, courtesy of flour millers from Minnesota and Denver.   For lunch and snacks, in addition to all-beef hot dogs, we're talking brownies, which weren't called that until years later,  and Cracker Jacks.  Brownies were small cakes baked by socialite Bertha Palmer (see:  Palmer House Hotel) which were intended to fit inside a box lunch.  They were chocolate but didn't originally have fudge.

I could go on about Italian beef and gyros and maybe I will in a later installment.  Other surprising Chicago inventions are Shrimp de Jonghe and Chicken Vesuvio, both named after now defunct restaurants.