Rick Raw: Studs Terkel Passes at 96–The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

In my universe, Studs Terkel is the Father, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is the Son, and Bob Dylan is the Holy Ghost. This is the Holy Trinity of my influences. Although Bob Dylan is not a journalist, he is a wordsmith and the Poet-Laureate of my generation.
Now two of my idols are dead. Studs died last week at 96. Hunter blew his brains out with his .44 magnum for reasons no one can figure out. He was the first writer whose work jumped off the page and slapped me in the face with its satirical brilliance.

Hunter was one of a kind word-master and keen observer of the counterculture era. He invented Gonzo journalism which inserts the writer into the narrative. Like Dylan, he captured the collective consciousness of the tumultuous 60s through the 80s with high styled humor and his outrageous imagination. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was Hunter’s masterwork. I keep a tattered copy like the Bible. When I get blue, I read a passage to uplift my spirits.

Studs Terkel, whose real name was Louis Terkel, was the patron saint of street journalism chronicling the lives of ordinary people in Chicago. For 70 years he trudged the streets with his notebook and his loathsome tape recorder which half the time he forgot to turn on. In 2005, at age 93, Studs had open heart surgery so he could continue working.

After Studs graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, he failed the bar exam. He then went into acting and in the 1940s he got into radio and television. During that time, Louis changed his name to Studs, which was a tribute to the fictional Studs Lonigan, a tough fictional character created by novelist James T. Farrell. From 1949 to 1952, he hosted Stud’s Place, a local TV show that was canceled. Studs was convinced his show was canceled because he was blacklisted by Sen. Joseph McCarthy for his liberal politics.

Later, Studs joined local radio station WEMT which was his home for the next 45 years. He broadcast a daily mix of music, commentary, and interviews with an eclectic cross section of Chicago’s population. After hours, Studs hung out in Irish bars where he had long conversations with various working stiffs. He championed the underdog and was a staunch union supporter.

Studs interviewed 70 Chicago area citizens to write Division Street: America (1966). And he went on to write 17 other books . His book Hard Times (1970) chronicled the Great Depression. Working (1974) was based on interviews with 133 people who talked candidly about their mostly dead end jobs. Studs won the Pulitzer Prize for The Good War (1984) which exposed racism, "fragging"--slang for officers who were murdered by their own men for being incompetent during the Vietnam War, and atrocities committed by American troops during WWII.

Like me, Studs smoked cigars and was more comfortable commingling with working class folk. He wore clothes until they fell apart. He struck a rumpled presence which pegged him as unpretentious and easy to approach. His devoted wife of 60 years, who died in 1999, would take him to the store and insist that he buy new clothes otherwise he’d end up wearing rags.

My favorite Studs Terkel book is Working. He compiled 133 interviews about the problems of the working class. Interestingly, he used a narrative style to express his interviewee’s thoughts. In other words, instead of quoting his subjects verbatim from a tape recorder, he paraphrased their words into his own seminal style. Studs’ hated recording his interviews and he preferred using his hand written notes. His straight forward journalistic style told his subjects’ stories with heart and soul.

Studs was a my exalted idol–the Father of my Holy Trinity-- because he never stopped working at his craft as a journalist. His decision to have open heart surgery at 93 years old was so he could keep working a few more years. Studs proved that if one loves what one does, then one should keep doing it until the reaper shows up in one’s bedroom. Studs also proved that age is just a number. His soul is ageless.