[Nelson Algren Fountain Dedication]

Dedication of the Nelson Algren Fountain in Wicker Park.

00:00Copy video clip URL The camera opens on people standing and talking at the Nelson Algren fountain dedication. There are shots of the fountain and the crowd from various perspectives.

7:48Copy video clip URL Several officials take a group photo together.

10:20Copy video clip URL Several people move towards the podium, and Alderman Jesse Grenato introduces the ceremony and the attending representatives that were involved in the project.

13:07Copy video clip URL Studs Terkel talks about Algren. “Nelson was married to Chicago, a real honest-to-God marriage. Sometimes they fought, husband and wife, sometimes they loved each other very much, but always they knew they were together. When someone says ‘My wife is the most beautiful woman in the world, no one ever like her, she is a saint,’ he’s a liar!” “He said, ‘Living in Chicago is like being married to a woman with a broken nose: there may be lovelier lovelies, but never a lovely so real.'” Terkel then goes on to say that the crowd before him has “Chicago faces, wrinkles, and lived in faces, not like the beautiful people in society.” Terkel then reads a selection from one of Algren’s books and steps down. 

15:43Copy video clip URL The director of the Polish Museum of America talks about Algren.

19:32Copy video clip URL Mayor Richard M. Daley talks about Chicago, how diverse the city is, and how important Algren’s work was to the city.

23:03Copy video clip URL Grenato comes back to the podium and closes the ceremony. Shots of the crowd, people talking to Daley.

25:43Copy video clip URL Video ends.