If you ever told someone to meet you "under the clock," then you are no doubt a long-time resident of Chicago. And if your friend was likewise, then you will have met under the old Marshall Field & Company clock at the corner of State and Randolph Streets. It has been a while since their name has been obliterated and their signature green bags gave way to Macy's red. In the interim ownership of the city's flagship store, its Michigan Avenue sisters, and several suburban siblings went from British owners, to Dayton-Hudson ( later Target ) , to the May stores, until acquired by Macy's parent company in 2005.
City and store: growing together
However, Gayle Soucek in her recent book, Marshall Field's: The Store That Helped Build Chicago ( The History Press, $19.95 ) , maintains that since its founding in the 1800s the civic identity of the store and the city were inseparable. The philanthropy of the family extended to the Field Museum of Natural History, the University of Chicago and beyond. Soucek traces the merchant family history back to the Civil War days and forward. The rumored scandals are also reported—young Marshall Field II's death of a gunshot from a denizen of the notorius Everleigh House brothel—and the poor business decisions that included taking a flyer on a wholesale house. That venture resulted in the Merchandise Mart, which wound up in the pockets of the Kennedy family.
The book is illustrated sans color with well-chosen photographs and graphics. It is a nostalgia trip for all who came downtown for the Christmas window displays, viewed the Trend House sample rooms, ate in the Walnut Room, or savored Frango mints. In an appendix Soucek even gives recipes for making imitation Frango mints and the signature chicken potpies. Another half dozen recipes are sprinkled among photos of old Field's menus and cookbooks.
Of course, hers is not the first book on the venerable store. On its 100th anniversary in 1952 Chicago historians Lloyd Wendt and Herman Kogan penned Give the Lady What She Wants: the Story of Marshall Field & Company. And one must note the delightful little book from the Chicago Architecture Foundation, which in addition to a 60-year construction history of the State Street store contains documentation of the architectural elements including color photographs of its Tiffany Dome. Soucek however, captures all the essentials, glitz and tradition, without getting bogged down by the personalities and architecture that are the strength of the other books.
The gay connection
Chicago glibetts are not mentioned in her book, but Field's was a touchstone in most of our lives. As a kid from Pilsen I remember we did most of our shopping at Goldblatt's on 26th Street. When I did go downtown in little hat and white gloves ( mandatory in the 1940s ) Field's was out of our range. Later, I would bask in the ambiance of Field's Men's Store ( shopping only on the 1st floor for good leather gloves, belts and handkerchiefs ) . But by the 1960s Field's had become part of my courtship ritual—surprise her with a peek at the Tiffany Dome, then tea in the Walnut Room, over to the Art Institute, followed by a walk down Michigan Avenue to the Tribune Tower to explore the stone inserts from around the world.
Pulp novelist Valerie Taylor used to meet her soul mate, civil rights attorney Pearl Hart, for an occasional lunch in one of the Field's restaurants. In a biographical sketch of Ms Hart published after Taylor's death she recalls Hart telling her that as a young attorney in the early years of the last century she went on a spending spree at Field's with her first real paycheck.
In 1934 Gertrude Stein visited Chicago to lecture at the University of Chicago and to catch her opera Four Saints in Three Acts at the Auditorium. In her autobiography Fanny Butcher, doyenne of Chicago book reviewers, reported that when Stein "autographed books at Marshall Field's the crowds were so great that the elevators couldn't stop at the book-department floor. She was literally the talk of the country."
Justin Spring in his book The Secret Historian ( 2010 ) notes that Sam Steward worked as holiday help in the book department in 1946 ". . . Field's had long been well known in Chicago as a homosexual cruising ground and many of its employees ( including Steward's boss ) were homosexual." Steward had a sexual encounter in a freight elevator stopped between floors with young Roy Fitzgerald who worked in the Gift Wrap department. Fitzgerald would, of course, attain stardom as Rock Hudson and later become linchpin of the public's awareness of AIDS.
End of an era
Gayle Soucek details the demise of the Field empire—including Oak Park, Oak Brook, Old Orchard, Water Tower and even the old Cloud Room and Blue & Gold Café at Midway Airport—and the futile fight Chicagoans put up to keep the Field's name on the flagship State Street store. The merchant family created a business that lasted three times as long as the combined terms of the Mayors Daley. Change is inevitable, but memories persist. Soucek's book is a history lesson and a module from which we can retrieve megabytes of the past.
Copyright 2011 by Marie J. Kuda
