Richard J. Daley--What's My Line

[DrakeGrad]

Da Mayor

[cathleen127]

Daley was one of a kind; you'll never see another like him. He devoted his life to Chicago for 21 years and did something for every class of citizen. As to the crook comment above, Mr. Daley lived in the same home and neighborhood for his entire reign as mayor and he definitely was not a pretentious man. Maybe some of those around him were crooked, but not him. He was also a very charitable person and true to what charities s/b, he did not toot his own horn.

[Shnufkin]

'i know of no city in the country that handles conventions as well as your town'

lol

[sixnightsaweek]

he made Nixon look like a saint

[JG40061]

Wow- only a week before the 68' Democratic Convention - if they only new

[David50s]

@JG40061 This clip of Mayor Daley was a week before the 1956 convention, not the 1968 convention. Both years, the Democratic convention was held in Chicago.

[mabroussardii]

@Mascro1977  Kennedy "illegally" elected?

I was born 1963 & from South Louisiana, we have too much corruption of our own to allow me to be aware of all else in the good ole USA

[cldwarkids]

does any body else ever notice a slight, slight accent that John has.

[xander7ful]

@cldwarkids Oh yes, he had an accent. He was born in South Africa.

[rucksplash08]

@xander7ful That's nothing like a South African accent, though...Daly was born to American parents in SA and returned at a young age. That's a Mid-Atlantic accent, more commonly known as a "boarding school" accent, the accent of the US upper class of the time, which was the standard in the theatre and therefore in the media in the US at least into the 1960s.

[xander7ful]

@rucksplash08 Yes, I know what a mid-Atlantic accent is. FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt had mid-Atlantic accents. And even stars at MGM were taught to speak that way. Thank you.

[pdalessa52]

Nixon...only "a COUPLE of bad choices"??????

[jerzy862]

Daley may have been corrupt, but he was damn effective and improved the city.

[Mascro1977]

Hail to the King

[n310ea]

I wonder if crook Daley had any ties to Al Capone.

[grecogrant]

Daley was great and made the city work the city is still growing from his hard work ...you all seem jaded..

[jimmysudar]

corrupt or no, when the dad was mayor you could walk the streets day or night and feel safe; these days, even the cops are gettin' picked off---three of them over this past summer alone.

[ciroalb3]

no, he wasn't a crook. He was honest. Others wanted money, he wanted power, and certainly had it.

[n310ea]

I wounder if Richard J. Daley was more crooked than his gun-control freak son, Richard M. Daley.

[Mascro1977]

@n310ea

they both are crooks but Sr. was WORSE!

Richard Sr. had a HUGE part in getting Kennedy illegally elected

[samayghee]

That's funny, I work in Chicago, and even though I wasn't born there, and am not involved in politics, I have a job, and nobody I work with has ever taken a bribe.

Maybe you're just bad at what you do.

[Bennie513]

Daley and his son are/were corrupt as it goes. I am from Chicago and I have seen 1st hand how you are not considered fora job unless you are in the party. You cannot get anything done unless you offer a bribe.

[jokerman326]

Daley's first office, State Rep, was as a Repub. His peers of both parties remembered him as never taken a nickle, never womanized. He was part of a Machine, a Machine that exists even today in both parties. He was *not* as personally corrupt as Nixon.

[duckman531]

I LIVE IN CHICAGO!!!! I grew up with TWO Daleys! They own everything that walks or talks or crawls in this city!!! Every day his children would be chauffeured to school in limousines! What drugs are you on, aptly named Jokerman???

[jokerman326]

Wow, a real life Chicagoan? No kidding??? Me too. Sorry, Charlie, when even your enemies from another party say you never took a nickel, that's something. Dick Daley.. best mayor the City ever had.

[duckman531]

Tommy Keene was his right hand man in the city counsel for years and he went to jail for corruption. Do you think Daley knew nothing about it? What enemies from another party? This is no other party in Chicago! His enemies were Bill Singer, Dick Simpson, or Dick Gregory, and they tell a different story. Yes, Daley built a great city, but at what cost?

[jokerman326]

Do I need to remind you that Daley's first election victory came as a Republican tot he State legislature in Springfield? You think he didn't have enemies amongst the Republicans? You think the Republican apparatus in Cook and the collars didn't want him and the Machine gone? Remember, the Machine slated candidates for the City (obviously), as well as county, state, and even federal office.

[FollowJesus01]

There's all the proof in the world that both DALEY'S SOLD their soul to SATAN!!

[jokerman326]

Finding corruption in Illinois politics (and probably elesewhere, too) is like finding a needle in a needle stack. At the local and state level in both parties. Did he know folks were corrupt? Sure, everyone does. Did he know the details? As has been reported by his very real political enemies of both parties: no. He didn't want to or really need to know. He knew what folks would do, but his attitude can best be summed up as: "I don't wanna hear about it, and don't get caught."

[jokerman326]

He was an accountant by trade, not a button man. Daley was power hungry far more than money hungry. He enjoyed calling Chicago *his* city. You really should re-read "Boss" by my local hero, Mike Royko.

Daley built the greatest city on the face of the Earth. At what cost? Very little, actually. We could be worse. We could be New York or LA.

[jimmysudar]

@duckman531 at what cost Rome? 

[duckman531]

@jimmysudar Good point!!!

[whoo689]

mayor for 22 years??? How the hell?

[calalilygirl]

My Goodness Dorothy looks beautiful here!

[DrMabuseDerSpieler]

It's Da Mayor!! Gotta love the Daley family, as Chicagoan as they come. God bless.

[bradnoga]

DA MARE!

[ciroalb3]

You couldn't miss his voice if they were Chicagoans, but then he was only elected the year before, April I guess.

[PatinPDX]

I had an aunt that wasn't exactly a font of double entendre humor, but she did have one joke that was pretty good for her. She used to ask "Why do the women of Chicago keep re-electing their mayor? Because they love their Dick Daley." I was born in Chicago during his first term, and while my mother thought he was wonderful (her politics were just to the right of the late Jesse Helms'), I thought he was an (pardon my language) asshole.

[rmm413c]

How ironic John talking about how well Chicago puts on political conventions (considering the carnage of '68 of course...)!

[SueBeaWho]

HAHA, I LOVE how Paul Winchell has Jerry Mahoney say good-bye to Daley too. That is so cute!!

[Muffy2314]

was this episode broadcast in Chicago?

[calalilygirl]

you likely commented before the end of clip

[iwanagaa1919]

For years after Daley died, whenever something went wrong in the city, many Chicagoans said, "It wouldn't have happened if Daley were here!"

[adeuts1]

hardly the biggest crook in political history HowrardOfOz...Nixon, and many others were worse, tis just your opinion

[torchkit]

No, Daley was much more crooked than Nixon. Nixon made a couple of bad choices, Daley was a crook for years and years.

[TheNilvarg]

Precisely.

[quelo007]

@torchkit Couple of bad choices? WTF? Crook is a Crook.

[HowardOfOz]

biggest crook in political history....

[ciroalb3]

No, he wasn't a crook, but a dedicated public servant who made Chicago a great city. However, he tolerated crooks in govt. within certain limits.

[perlster]

@HowardOfOz Don't worry - Barry will pass him ...

[bigred997]

Having grown up in Chicago in the 50's and 60's, all i can say- what a stinker he was

[torchkit]

Same here, and I agree completely.

[bitterchew]

If I lost my wallet I would sure hope it wasn't found by this guy. And at the end, why did he ignore the dummy?

[soulierinvestments]

This sequence comes the year after Chicago elected Daley mayor --- for what turned out to be for life. In those days, he actually was a reform candidate, at least reform by the definitions of reform in Chicago. Kilgallen was born in Chicago, so there is some irony in her identifying Daley here. 12 years later, Daley did not welcome reporters quite as warmly during the Humphrey-Muskie Democratic battle . . . uh -- convention.