DIY Trunk Show on Saturday
I couldn’t think of a title, so I’ll plug the DIY Trunk Show, which I’m honored to be at again this year. It’s on Saturday at the beautiful Pulaski Park Fieldhouse from 10am to 5pm. It has been a challenge to get ready this year, but thanks to a supportive husband, I have managed to pull it off.
Yesterday Victor and I went hunting for historical figures. I just finished reading Sin in the Second City, and recently remembered that Big Jim Colosimo, a Chicago gangster who was a major player in the Levee, the Red Light district in Chicago at the turn of the last century, is buried at Oak Woods Cemetery. So, off we went to find him. I had seen the grave before, but didn’t know anything about him, so I didn’t think much of it at the time.
We also found someone along the way I hadn’t expected to see, James R. Mann, the author of the Mann Act, or the White Slave Traffic Act. It was “drafted to prevent interstate commerce to facilitate prostitution or concubinage, or other forms of immorality.”*
When I saw it, I thought it would be funny if Colosimo were nearby. See the dark gray mausoleum in the background, to the right? Yup, that’s Colosimo.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Act#History,
More about the Mann Act: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88104308
More interesting people at Oak Woods Cemetery: http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FScemeteryid=173554