Failed romance relic featured in Chicago History Museum exhibit, “I Do! Chicago Ties the Knot”

THE OBJECT: A House of Worth wedding gown  FIRST WORN: January 2, 1922, at Fourth Presbyterian Church CURRENT LOCATION: Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark St.; 312-642-4600, chicagohistory.org They were the Jen and Brad of their day. Scions of two storied Chicago families, Mary Landon Baker and Allister McCormick were attractive, wealthy, gregarious, destined to … Read more

Think You Know Al Capone? Not So Fast, Says Jonathan Eig

The May issue of Chicago magazine features a long excerpt about the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the gruesome 1929 murders of seven gangsters in a Chicago garage, from a new book about Al Capone. That book, Get Capone: The Secret Plot That Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster ($28; Simon & Schuster) by the journalist and best-selling author Jonathan Eig, went on sale this past Tuesday…

Movies We Like: 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' Starring Banksy

Last Wednesday, I attended a screening of a documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, which opens in Chicago tomorrow, April 30th, at the Landmark Century Cinema. The film chronicles the unlikely friendships forged between a kooky amateur filmmaker named Thierry Guetta and certain high-profile members of the graffiti underground—most notably Banksy, a notoriously elusive British graffiti artist…

Sunday Night Out: Wine and Art at Bluebird's Salon Series

Conceived by J. C. Steinbrunner, an artist, and Tom MacDonald, the owner of The Bluebird, The Salon Series is in part a response to the weak economy. But it’s also a reaction against typical gallery culture: How can artists show their work outside of the gallery system? How to you get people to talk about art in a different way?…