My dad's cousin Peter Nolan just sent me this superb memoir. I read it in two sittings.
If you are interested in the history of broadcast journalism, or want to know what Chicago was like in the 1970s and '80s, this is the book for you. Peter writes like he is sitting next to you, telling you a story. And they are always good stories. What it was like to watch the teletype when JFK was assassinated. How he found JFK's sister Rosemary when she became lost in Chicago. A Jimmy Hoffa press conference after he was let out of jail. Nixon visiting Chicago not long before he resigned. And a panoply of Chicago characters he knew: Msgr. Ignatius McDermott a.k.a. "the Angel of West Madison Street," Corneal Davis, Paul Adams, Fred Hubbard, Donald Stephens, Tom Keane, Bobby Rush "the Black Panther who went to Congress," Jimmy Taylor, Bernie Epton, Michelle Clark, Otto Kerner, Sid Luckman, Charles "Chick" McCuen, Charles A. "Pat" Boyle, Jimmy Nolan and Roland Burris. All are recalled with insight and Peter's wry, understated humor. I can't imagine someone from Chicago not eating this up. And if anyone else wants to know what it was really like to be a broadcast journalist in its infancy, you will discover it here.
Peter was born in Buffalo, and started his career in Niagara Falls as news director at WHLD Radio. His brother Michael Nolan was a sports anchor in Buffalo in 1969 at WGR-TV. Both Peter and Michael went to Canisius High School. Their father, Ralph, was the brother of my dad's father Paul and my dad's aunt Mamie. (There were two other brothers as well, George and Edmund.) Peter's mom, Doanie, was very funny and my parents remember her with great fondness.