I usually don’t write about the arts. Politics is my passion. But when the arts cross into politics, especially Chicago politics, an interest of mine both by profession and birth, well, it’s something I just can’t ignore.
Boss is a new TV series on Starz. It is about a political boss in Chicago. It has gotten a lot of good publicity, especially about Kelsey Grammer’s thespian skill in his portrayal of a tough Chicago mayor, loosely modeled, some say, after the inimitable Richard J. Daley, not to be confused with his son, Richard M. Daley.
Grammer’s Tom Kane character is tough and violent, caught between the pragmatic desire to get things done for the city he loves and the numerous obstacles presented by a multiplicity of parasitic, selfish interests wanting to forever feed on the body politic. Kane accomplishes this by being ruthless, violent, and demanding a type of loyalty and obedience last seen when Saddam Hussein had members of the Ba’ath Party hauled out as traitors, one by one, from a large meeting in July 22, 1979, when those yet to be manhandled started singing Saddam’s praises hoping if they sang loud enough they wouldn’t face the executioner.
But this is not Chicago. This is some Hollywood writer’s myopic, stereotypic view of Chicago as probably seen from the top floor of the “W” on a foggy night. Chicago politics is not about the mayor grabbing a henchman’s ear and squeezing it until the pain is so excruciating he is about to faint. This scene occurs because one of his underlings violated the chain of command and in so doing, stupidly threatened a major construction project that required years of negotiations and ugly payoffs to get built. It is a project that Kane desperately wants and the city desperately needs — the expansion of O’Hare Airport.
Chicago politics is about power, ambition, greed, and functional corruption, at least it was under Richard J. Daley. Chicago politics is not about a ruthless and violent mayor torturing his henchman or his henchman demanding medieval-style tribute by taking the ears off the lackey who forgot what the chain of command looked like. The lackey, at a very upscale festive occasion, his ears bandaged, hands over a tastefully wrapped gift box to Kane. At home, Kane opens the box to find the man’s ears. Without emotion, Kane simply puts the ears in the garbage disposal and grinds away. I got the immediate impression the shows producers thought they were competing with AMC’s The Walking Dead for an audience.
Two major factors are greatly responsible for the sharp decline of Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, Washington, and a number of other major American cities in the last five decades. One would have been laughed at, for instance, had they dared claim: “You are arresting me for bribery only because I am of Irish decent.” The charge of racism was freely employed whenever there were serious attempts to stop the corruption of black power brokers. In 1958 New York Mayor Robert Wagner, Jr. signed an executive order allowing many government employees the right of collective bargaining. This madness quickly spread across the nation. It greatly empowered the public unions—and helped Democrats strengthen their grip on power.
NO recovery from the housing bubble until ALL public sector unions are GONE
In away politicians — that is to say Democrats — in Chicago do cut off hears. If you can’t hear the message they want you to hear, you won’t hear anything at all.
I too am a native of Chicago and agree that Mayor Tom Kane is played more like Al Capone then anyone else but your affection for Richard J Daley is somewhat misplace. Just because Daley didn’t enrich himself doesn’t mean he wasn’t corrupt. He let crooks and gangsters enrich themselves at the public’s expense. That is fundamentally more corrupt than taking a bribe.
I grew up with the myth that Mayor Daley made the city great. What made Chicago great was location, location, location. The only difference between Chicago and say Detroit is that Chicago is in an indispensable location. It’s the hub for rail, road, air and maritime trade and that attracted the wealth not the “well run city mythology.”
The first half of Richard M’s tenure were good for the city but he ran the city into the ground in the next 10. When I was high school the Chicago had 3.5 million people. 40 years later Chicago has lost more people than the total population of Detroit in 1970. That doesn’t happen to a well run city.
I don’t see Richard J physically bullying his underlings. I could see a later day Richard M doing it and I most certainly see Rahm Emanuel physically abusing the people around him. I will tell you something that doesn’t ring true. The Mayor barely winning a City Council vote 26-24.
I take Mayor Kane’s brutality as a metaphor for the tough world of Chicago and Illinois politics. I don’t think his character represents any particular Mayor. It’s a great show that allows a great actor to strut his stuff.
I hope that the Boss writers take some inspiration from this column and get back to the drawing board before it’s too late.
I enjoyed the article. Your perspective of the nuance of the Daley’s Chicago politics, beliefs, and thought process are things I enjoyed learing about. Having enjoyed Grammer’s work at times, I hope he gets the chance to play the role more true to life.
I think that the shock/gore genre focus in general have become way too much overused. When the forensic shows came about I was fascinated by the look at how that profession works, but have become totally disinterested in the gore one-up shock show and really don’t care to watch at all.
“His son, Richard M. Daley, transformed the neighborhoods, bringing the middle class and the ex-patriot whites back into the “Fatherland,” as we affectionately call the city.”
I think the author’s grammar checker made a fairly significant error here. The “ex-patriot” in this sentence should actually be “expatriate”.
“suite”
Shouldn’t it be:
suit
as in
A quality, activity, or skill in which a person excels: Foreign policy was the President’s strong suit.
While the author makes many valid points please realize this is a Friday night show on STARZ, not Sunday afternoon on PBS. We entertainment seeking plebes don’t see this as a history lesson. We like that Grammer does such a nice job of depicting what Blago and Obama and the rest of the Chicago machine WOULD do if they had the nads. BTW, the show is set in present day and no allusion is made to the elder Daly. Chicago has broad shoulders anyway and I’m sure it can bear this depiction.
Exactly.
My mom was a Chicago pol during the Daddy Daley years, and it’s true that Daley allowed the mob to pretty much run freely. So he didn’t have to get his own hands dirty, actually.
But doesn’t Hollywood live in a fantasy world anyway? Their politics is proof of that as well as some of the propaganda they infiltrate in their pictures and television shows.
I went to school in Hyde park while the first Daley was mayor. Hyde Park always voted the “independent” ticket and was definitely not part of the Chicago machine. The streets were at best average in quality (in terms of potholes, etc.) and were so badly plowed in winter that ice built up in big black and grey bergs glued to the asphalt at every intersection. If, during this era, you traveled down to the lower middle class district where the Daley family lived, you would always see streets freshly paved with black asphalt, new and gleaming white sidewalks, and in winter it was as if all the snowstorms had gotten special orders to skip that part of town. You can say that Daley wasn’t personally corrupt if you like, but it sure looked to me like they got more for their city tax dollar than the rest of us. Corruption does not have to take the form of cash filled envelopes deposited in Swiss bank accounts.
“You can say that Daley wasn’t personally corrupt if you like, but it sure looked to me like they got more for their city tax dollar than the rest of us. Corruption does not have to take the form of cash filled envelopes deposited in Swiss bank accounts.”
Agreed! I grew up in a much smaller city but we noticed that the minor side street a few blocks away from us was ALWAYS the first plowed when the mayor happened to live there….
No, I think it’s probably fair to observe that Chicago in the 60s was run by a duumvirate: the elder Daley and Sam Giancana. Grammer is playing a hybrid of the two.
Exactly. Well said!
A cross between a Chicago political machine boss and a Mafia boss is a perfect description of the Grammar character. And thanks for the new word!
I’ve only seen the first episode available at the Starz website, but I thought it was hilariously over the top, especially the business with the ears and the doctor. But, if I were a subscriber, I’d definitely continue watching it. Grammar is great!
To this writers sensitive south side – get over yourself – or rather get over your nostalgic sense of carping sentimentalism.
It’s a show. And Grammer, who is a conservative hero for those of us who have lived or live in flyover country. BOSS is indisputably his best work – I absolutely adore this series and find it amazing that it’s come out of STARZ – this show is a winner – Gus Van Zant?
I don’t care much for Van Zant’s politics – but he’s put out great material for ever. BOSS is the real deal. His best in twenty years.
You ‘don’t normally comment…’? Well for good reason. You obviously wouldn’t know quality TV if it climbed out and bit you in the arse.
Secondly, having grown up in Cleveland in the 60′s and 70′s – and survived a democrat party dominated politics that lived in the shadow of Daley’s Chicago – I’m not buying your fluffy hindsight.
Big city machine politics is incompatable with modern representive democracy. Period. In the age of Obamanation one hardly needs to present the case here at PJ Media.
Yet, you try and conflate one (dissapointing I might add) sensational aspect of an otherwise outstanding list of storylines and throw this shows writers and actors under the preverbial bus – comparing ears in a box with 20 plus years of torture in the middle east?
Are you serious?
The next time you get the impluse to do something you normally refrain from, like post, do us all a favor and skip the performance.
Meee-YOW.
I agree wholeheartedly. Nice response.
Large-scale architecture is just that – architecture. Its presence does not tell us whether or not there are opportunities in the city for those not politically connected.
I put Chicago in the rear view mirror because it is a thugocracy. And it isn’t getting any better. It was never easy for an honest, law-abiding person to make a living in Chicago, and by now it’s next to impossible.
I live in Chicago but I’m not a native. I visited the first time in May of 1964 when I was barely four years old. I’ve always loved this city because of it’s people and what I once heard described as it’s ‘high-stepping attitude.’ What’s missing from BOSS is any joie de vivre or any reflection of the city’s daily tempo. People come to Chicago from all over the world to make a go of it. My grandparents immigrated separately from opposite ends of Finland and met here in Chicago. Because of this city, I exist. BOSS is just a bummer.
Been to Chicago myself many times. Spent an extended time in North Chicago while in the Navy. The political aspects of Grammar’s show is a depiction of corrupt politics in the country, not just Chicago which is BTW. Grammar is an excellent actor doing his usual great work in a show that sucks.
P.S. Taking lawyers out of politics should be a first step. I don’t know of a more corrupt profession and it inflicts damage in every phase of our lives.
I totally disagree–it is so much the point that it takes place in Chicago. Without that, the show is dribble.
Yes, Grammer’s acting is phenomenal, and in the first episode the story line was no match the reality of Chicago politics. I suspect Phoenix48 has been bitten on the ass so many times he has become comfortable with Hollywood cliches and probably doesn’t know that BBC America exists. Sam Giancana never ran Chicago, but bringing up his name shows how difficult it was to reform Chicago. The Mafia had Chicago chiefs of police on their payroll, were subcontracting for the CIA, and Sam was sharing a mistress with JFK. That kind of influence is difficult to clean up from any city hall. Even in challenging times, Chicago thrives relative to other cities. I write this from the bar at the Palmer House. The streets in the Loop are crowded with shoppers. The hotel is nearly full. There is still major construction underway in the Loop. Why? Because Richard M Daley completed the transformation of Chicago into a showcase city. Millennium Park is flush with tourists, and there are long lines for the architectural boat tour of the city. Chicago is not flawless. The Daleys were not beyond abusing power. But Chicago, even with its budgetary difficulties and the collapse of some major building projects,is a great city, one whose best years are yet to come. And the dreadful Boss episode focusing on violence suggests not one or two incidents but a pattern and ethos of violence. This is a mediocre story line that can’t compete with the city’s reality.
Oscar Hernandez, former Mayor of Bell, California would have eaten the ear.
– Royko’s book, but as usual, the STARZ women are lovelier than Botticelli’s Venus.
Brilliant. It was Saddam’s ‘penultimate moment’ and it was taped, I’m told. The one’s he spared were infused permanently in the plot, in that, they were made to execute the named members. Does anyone have a link to the tape?
Oh come on. Creators of television drama can do better can’t they for their launching pad than dig up hoary old myths, some even from white western males, about the evil of power/politics as sibling rivalry.
Tom Kane as in Citizen and Cain(Kane)and Abel? Been there done that. But then there are only seven (7) basic plots for story telling. So why not. But …
I know it’s not the real Chicago but I’m really enjoying the show. [SPOILER AHEAD FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T BEEN WATCHING] Kane is terminally ill with a neurodegenerative disease and he has maybe 3 or 4 years left. He doesn’t want anyone to know and is going to desperate lengths to hide his condition. (The way his henchmen are abusing Kane’s poor neurologist is really disturbing). At the same time, I like how he is slowly realizing he has nothing to lose, but it doesn’t mean he’s becoming a kinder, gentler person – just the opposite – or maybe he’s just going mad.
Geez, what a case of Stockholm Syndrome. Mr Miller has it about as badly for Daley père et fils as the average octogenarian Russian who still worships Stalin. Hey, he made the trains to the Gulag run on time!
The Daleys were and are evil, corrupt, vile and worthless human beings — them and their whole extended family. But hey, Pop went to church on Sundays. That makes it all good, right? Maybe some priest sold him Indulgences. All better!
If you see the world through some politician’s eyes, stop to consider the possibility that you’ve crawled too far up his fundamental orifice.
The author’s affection for Mayor Daley makes me wonder if he too got an envelope of money in his pocket?
The cost of the Daley regime was massive. He didn’t hurt anyone directly as in rip ears off or even have people picked up and whacked. But the corruption he tolerated, condoned and facilitated ruined many lives and killed a fair few as well. The corruption of the police force which made it one of the least effective in the country likely cost quite a few lives on its own.
The machine also played its part in the creation of Chicago’s welfare ghetto, first condoning Chicago’s extremely racist climate and perpuating, then including corrupt black politicians who promised everything to their black voters but really just lined their own pockets in the machine. Chicago managed to have corrupt black urban politics with a white, rather racist mayor at the top. How many young blacks died because of the Third World style politics in their city?
Daley and his ilk had a lot to answer for and a few massive public works projects (in which Daley’s cronies got to make bank) don’t make up for it.
What about Mayor Washington, who wasn’t poisoned? I’m not from Chicago but I seem to recall some conflict between him and the Daley Machine. They saved Chicago from him, if they don’t say so themselves.
So there is nothing to that story about Daley stuffing the ballot box for JFK? Or is it OK to steal a Presidential election if you are not cutting off ears? And, say, ain’t having the dead vote kind of cute? And don’t you just love how they vetted President Obama for the rest of the nation?
Yeah, they do a lot of harm while they are being harmless.
Kelsey Grammer is a great actor to portray Daily. I doubt there will be anybody interested in Rahm Emmanuel’s attempt to emulate.
This piece falls in lne with many complaints about the inaccuracy of character depictions I’ve read in the past.
These inaccuracies, while often annoying – a reason I won’t be watching Munich anytime soon, for example – might be easier to bear were the critics to remember that the circumstances of a drama like the Chicago machine and other times/places are often simply the setting for a bunch of storylines and characters the show’s writers wish to write and dramatise. Writers and actors LOVE playing:”what if?”
To the writer of this article, I am in no way criticising your piece.I have noticed though that the passion for real-life depictions gets in the way of enjoying a show for what is – a piece of fiction often inspired by real-life stories but hardly seeking to replicate them.
Ally McBeal, essentially a cartoon set in a law office, often used to attract this kind of criticism. So do police/medical dramas.
Forget history when you watch these shows. Just enjoy the story. If you want the reality, read a history book.