Michael Branigan - A History of Chicagos OHare Airport

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2011 by Michael Branigan

All rights reserved

Front cover: Photo courtesy of Gabriel Widyna.

First published 2011

e-book edition 2012

ISBN 978.1.61423.400.5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Branigan, Michael.

A history of Chicagos OHare Airport / Michael Branigan.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

print edition ISBN 978-1-60949-434-6

1. Chicago OHare International Airport--History. 2. Aeronautics--Illinois--Chicago--History. I. Title.

TL726.4.C45B73 2011

387.7360977311--dc23

2011036374

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Foreword

Before reading Mike Branigans history on OHare airport, all I knew about the airport was only what I had experienced as a passenger traveling through it.

I was amazed to read that the land upon which the airport was built was the site of the Battle of the Black Hawk War of 1832a war that would have been all but forgotten today except for a young soldier named Abraham Lincoln, who volunteered for it, and an Indian chief named Black Hawk, a hero of Chicago hockey fans today. Over one hundred years later, the Douglas aircraft plant built bombers there for World War II. The location to the prairie of Illinois was an intelligent decision by the government since it was two thousand miles from any possible naval bombardment by Japanese ships.

Branigans narrative filled in the gaps for me about the airports history that I had only gleaned while interviewing pilots for my book on Chicagos Midway airport, the citys older airport. I was often told how confusing it was when the airlines began in the 1950s to move operations from Midway to OHare, when their bosses had told them to report to OHare for the following week. First of all, where was it? Pilots obviously knew how to fly there, but driving a car to OHare was a different matter. OHare was somewhere on the northwest side of Chicago, in an area where many South Siders never traveled north of Madison Street.

OHare is also interesting for the fact that an airport is a city, with its own laws and customs, and not just one folks go through after traveling abroad.

Everyone who passes through it is bound by its rules, no matter their station. There was a time, before the proliferation of private jets, where one could mingle at an airport with the rich and famous. Ronald Reagan carried his own luggage as he deplaned at OHare the year before he was elected president of the United States. An acute observer would have seen Marlene Dietrich carrying her luggage outside to a taxi, because she didnt want to hire a red cap to do it for her. Or Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, arriving from California, followed by reporters. Or Harry S. Truman, the former president, strolling the halls and passing the time before his connecting flight to Kansas City. Truman was often accompanied on these walks by Mike Rotunno, a photographer who made his living taking the photos of the famous who traveled through Chicagos airports.

Airports can be dramatic places: a place of tearful farewells and a place of joyous returns. A film like Casablanca captures this drama, particularly the scene where Humphrey Bogarts character, Rick, says to Ingrid Bergmans Ilsa, Well always have Parisa line delivered on the tarmac of an airport with a DC-3 in the background. That scene is being replicated countless times at OHare on any given day. One thousand novels could be written about the stories that passengers hold with them; a type of emotional carry-on luggage.

The story of OHare has its own unique narrative, involving gangsters and heroes, mayors, presidents and pilots. Mike, who was not formally trained as a historian, has credibility on this topic, because not only is he an A&P mechanic, but he also works at OHare. He knows that beyond the glass of the terminal, aviation is a loud and dirty business. There is nothing hotter in summer or colder in winter than working the ramp, fueling the planes or hauling the bags aboard. When you are a mechanic, tearing apart and building back engines, you get grease under your fingernails. Likewise, that has been the real story of aviation since the Wright brothers. Those two bicycle mechanics took to the skies more than a century ago. Mike has listened to and recorded the stories of pilots, mechanics, flight attendants and baggage handlers to give a history that is not imposed from above but from the ground up.

Acclaimed writer Tom Wolfe, author of The Right Stuff and other books, once called the airport Mother OHare, for writers. All the skyways to Lectureland lead through OHare Airport, he wrote. In short, up to one half of our intellectual establishment sits outside of Chicago between planes.

And since writers are often in residence at OHare, I think it is wholly appropriate that the airport would produce a writer like Michael Branigan to chronicle its story. So for aviation fans everywhere or anyone interested in a wonderful story, fasten your seatbelts, and with this book, enjoy your flight into history.

Christopher Lynch

Chicago, Illinois

July 2, 2011

Lynch is the author of Chicagos Midway Airport: The First Seventy-Five Years. Chicago, IL: Lake Claremont Press, 2002.

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to the many people who saw me through this bookto all those who provided support, granted interviews, read, wrote, offered comments, allowed me to quote their remarks and assisted in the editing, proofreading and design.

I would like to thank Ben Gibson, my commissioning editor, and The History Press, for enabling me to publish this book. Above all, I want to thank my girlfriend, Wendy; my mom and dad; my son, Mikey; my daughter, Brianna; and the rest of my family who supported and encouraged me in writing this book.

A very special thanks to the following folks for their help and support: in some way, most of these people have been directly associated with OHare. Many are retired with years of knowledge, while most all are aviation enthusiasts. Thank you to William Ritchie, for going out of his way many times to find me stories and photos; David Kent, for his encouragement and input; Christopher Lynch, for assisting and supporting my project; Jon Proctor, for the many photos shared; Robert Zilinsky, for his wisdom; William Mellberg, for some great stories and photos; Phil Brooks; Kim Kerbis, for helping me locate lost photos of the Seven Continents; Gertrude Lempp Kerbis, for sharing her story with me; Robert Soraparu, for photos and support; Clifford Wesa, for the Enola Gay photo; Ray Lundin, for his personal reflections while working at the Douglas plant; Phil Walpole, for inviting me to his airport to conduct interviews; Mike Grewe; Don Sesslar; Bruce Walters, for sharing his hijack story; Dan Hensley, for his reflections; Bill Aitken; John Wells, for the photo contributions; Lester Park of the Bensenville library, for letting me carouse through the endless OHare literature; Robert Jesko, for sharing many photos; Robert Russo, for sharing his Chicago Helicopter memorabilia; Nicholas Selig, for his support and contributions; Steve Mueller, for his personal reflections; Tony Fabiano, for sharing his stories and photos; and Fred Metzger, James Reynolds, Sarah M. Erekson and Rachel Hanks, who spent many hours editing and making the story flow. I especially want to thank Richard P. Doherty, for his outstanding thesis that made the foundation for my book possible, and all of those who have been with me over the course of the years whose names I may have failed to mention.