A Chicago Tavern: A Goat, a Curse, and the American Dream

by Rick Kogan

Book Overview

Chicago Tribune newspaperman Kogan celebrates the colorful history and endearing characters of the Windy City's famous Billy Goat Tavern. It's the story of how hard work, antics, good fortune, and a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1893121496
• ISBN13: 9781893121492
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Lake Claremont Press
• Length: 115 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A great piece of history explained

I read this book on the way to Chicago and by the time I got there I was ready to go check out the piece of history that is the Billy Goat Tavern(THE ORIGINAL). Obviously a quick read with lots of fun information.

Typical Chicago history and typically great reading

Kogan nailed it all: a history lesson about somebody else's family turns into a cultural escapade in and around a neighborhood joint. God bless Lake Claremont Press for covering Chicago stuff like this and typical of their line of Chicago-themed titles, it works really, really well. The real stories behind the legendary dive, er, tavern that is now a world-wide recognized icon. Like all true stories, real life is better than fiction and especially when in the hands of a top-shelf teller of tales like Kogan, whose ability to paint vivid images is what local readers (and listeners) know and love. If there's a torch being passed by Studs Terkel, Kogan is the guy who inherits it and TAVERN proves it nicely. A small piece of Chicago history, brilliantly preserved. I really enjoyed it. Mark Braun Old Timers' Baseball Association of Chicago

A Chicago Tavern

This is an excellent book, easy to read, especially interesting to a native Chicagoian. Very nice photos. Extremely informative.

Numerous vintage black-and-white photographs add a you-are-there touch to this history of a beloved

WGN radio personality and Chicago Tribune columnist Rick Kogan presents A Chicago Tavern: A Goat, A Curse, and the American Dream, the true story of a baby goat who fell off a truck in 1934, hobbled into a tavern owned by Greek immigrant William Sianis, and became a Chicago icon. Known as The Billy Goat Inn, Sianis' tavern gained a lasting reputation as the leisure pub of choice for newspaper reporters, policemen, politicians, and more. But did Billy put a jinx on the Cubs? After Billy and one of his goats were prohibited from entering Wrigley Field during the 1945 World Series, the Cubs eventually lost to Detroit - and kept on losing. Today the single tavern has become a prosperous chain of seven, including one in Washington, D.C.; A Chicago Tavern acutely on the folklore, daily life, humorous anecdotes, and more revolving around the classy establishment that started the legend. Numerous vintage black-and-white photographs add a you-are-there touch to this history of a beloved Chicago hangout.