He looks oddly familiar.
July 8, 2010 12:55 PM Subscribe
Who is this?
This portrait hangs on the Wall of Fame in Chicago's Billy Goat Tavern under Michigan Ave, toward the end on the right. I assume it's some former Chicago newsman, but no one who works there has any idea who it is. Thanks in advance.
This portrait hangs on the Wall of Fame in Chicago's Billy Goat Tavern under Michigan Ave, toward the end on the right. I assume it's some former Chicago newsman, but no one who works there has any idea who it is. Thanks in advance.
Bet it's Ernest Hemingway.
posted by cog_nate at 1:16 PM on July 8, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by cog_nate at 1:16 PM on July 8, 2010 [1 favorite]
Alexander Solzhenitsyn?
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 1:22 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 1:22 PM on July 8, 2010
Response by poster: Just to clarify, the Billy Goat Wall of Fame seems limited pretty much to Chicago reporters from days of yore.
posted by adamdschneider at 1:25 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by adamdschneider at 1:25 PM on July 8, 2010
Hemingway. Look at the scar above his right eye. First photo on Wikipedia, you can see the same scar.
posted by notsnot at 1:28 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by notsnot at 1:28 PM on July 8, 2010
Well, Hemingway did work as an editor or something in Chicago for a periodical. So I'm probably wrong.
posted by amro at 1:31 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by amro at 1:31 PM on July 8, 2010
Initial gut reaction, Hemingway. Looking him up, "In Chicago he worked as an associate editor of the monthly journal Cooperative Commonwealth."
posted by BeerFilter at 1:36 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by BeerFilter at 1:36 PM on July 8, 2010
I was guessing Hemingway, too, without even reading the description.
posted by carlh at 1:45 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by carlh at 1:45 PM on July 8, 2010
No data to back it up, but my immediate reaction was also Hemingway.
posted by citywolf at 2:18 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by citywolf at 2:18 PM on July 8, 2010
I also thought Hemingway without the description.
posted by synecdoche at 2:51 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by synecdoche at 2:51 PM on July 8, 2010
Response by poster: My initial reaction was also Hemingway, but I don't believe it's him. The nose looks wrong to me. I'm not seeing the scar thing.
posted by adamdschneider at 2:51 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by adamdschneider at 2:51 PM on July 8, 2010
I don't think it's Hemingway either, but other than that, it's a bunch of long shots.
Could be some rare photo of Mircea Eliade. I can't seem to find an age appropriate one to match the one you've got there.
posted by two lights above the sea at 3:15 PM on July 8, 2010
Could be some rare photo of Mircea Eliade. I can't seem to find an age appropriate one to match the one you've got there.
posted by two lights above the sea at 3:15 PM on July 8, 2010
Oh, and here's the wiki on Mircea Eliade.
posted by two lights above the sea at 3:16 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by two lights above the sea at 3:16 PM on July 8, 2010
I am not in the Hemingway camp either. I think it is an old Chicago American reporter.
I know I've seen this mug (besides at the Goat) and it is itching at the edge of my consciousness.
posted by readery at 3:20 PM on July 8, 2010
I know I've seen this mug (besides at the Goat) and it is itching at the edge of my consciousness.
posted by readery at 3:20 PM on July 8, 2010
He sort of looks like Charleston Heston, but I'm pretty sure it's Hemingway, especially if it's a journalist bar.
posted by fiercekitten at 6:57 PM on July 8, 2010
posted by fiercekitten at 6:57 PM on July 8, 2010
It's close, but I don't think it's Ernest Hemingway. For one thing, I can't find any other photos of him that age wearing a beard. For most of his adult life he was mustache and clean chin. (A chin in this photo would definitely have helped matching!) Hemingway had a slightly sunken forehead with a distinctive "seagull" shape to the wrinkles, and I don't see that on this guy. I also can't match what appears to be a scar above his right eye with any later shots of Hemingway (sorry, notsnot).
Super-large shots of EH I used: 1, 2; others, 3, 4, 5, 6. All in the first couple GIS results if you can't pull them directly.
Also corroborating my anti-hunch are that beards simply were not in style in the 1919-21 period. [sample] And the guy in the photo looks closer to 30 than 20. And, of course, the fact that the Billy Goat wasn't around in 1919-21 -- it wasn't founded until the late 30s. Finally, the turtleneck -- while a form of dress favored by Hemingway -- was a 1950s fashion and this photo has a 1950s look to me, partly the pose and the casualness of the shot, although it could easily even be later.
So I feel it's a Chicago figure, but not Hemingway, although it is interesting how many people are quite sure. I would say it's 1950s or 1960s. Other than that I'm out of ideas.
posted by dhartung at 7:38 PM on July 8, 2010
Super-large shots of EH I used: 1, 2; others, 3, 4, 5, 6. All in the first couple GIS results if you can't pull them directly.
Also corroborating my anti-hunch are that beards simply were not in style in the 1919-21 period. [sample] And the guy in the photo looks closer to 30 than 20. And, of course, the fact that the Billy Goat wasn't around in 1919-21 -- it wasn't founded until the late 30s. Finally, the turtleneck -- while a form of dress favored by Hemingway -- was a 1950s fashion and this photo has a 1950s look to me, partly the pose and the casualness of the shot, although it could easily even be later.
So I feel it's a Chicago figure, but not Hemingway, although it is interesting how many people are quite sure. I would say it's 1950s or 1960s. Other than that I'm out of ideas.
posted by dhartung at 7:38 PM on July 8, 2010
I found these two (ca 1935) pictures of Hemingway with a beard: 1, 2. ('Fraid that mostly muddles the water -- it really only establishes that he had a beard before he had gray hair; moreover, these photos were taken while he was out in the field.)
dhartung's point about the photo looking 1950s (beatnik-ish?) is really good -- any chance of being able to estimate when the photo was made?
posted by Tuesday After Lunch at 8:40 PM on July 8, 2010
dhartung's point about the photo looking 1950s (beatnik-ish?) is really good -- any chance of being able to estimate when the photo was made?
posted by Tuesday After Lunch at 8:40 PM on July 8, 2010
Best answer: Just a guess, but he looks like Van Gordon Sauter.
In the mid-sixties he wrote for the Chicago Daily News before joining CBS Chicago in 1968. He was head of CBS News until 1986.
I can't find a recent photo, but as an older man he still has the full beard (the beard is what made me look him up). He looks like this.
posted by aninom at 1:31 AM on July 9, 2010
In the mid-sixties he wrote for the Chicago Daily News before joining CBS Chicago in 1968. He was head of CBS News until 1986.
I can't find a recent photo, but as an older man he still has the full beard (the beard is what made me look him up). He looks like this.
posted by aninom at 1:31 AM on July 9, 2010
Here is Van Gordon Sauter in 1982. I think it's him. Same brooding pensive look, but he's moved on to cigars as a prop.
posted by readery at 4:53 AM on July 9, 2010
posted by readery at 4:53 AM on July 9, 2010
Here's a bio blurb about VGS from Sun Valley Magazine:
Van Gordon Sauter
For better or worse, critical decisions of the heart and career get made in bars. At least in Van Gordon Sauter’s lifetime. Whether the bar was 21 in Manhattan (executive vice president, CBS); Billy Goat’s Tavern in Chicago (reporter, Chicago Daily News); Weber’s Saloon in Middletown, Ohio (hod carrier and laborer); a nameless café on the rue Marbeuf (Paris bureau chief, CBS News); or the Danang Vietnam Press Center (correspondent, Detroit Free Press), Sauter knows that barroom decisions tilt to the ill advised, if not the catastrophic. But to men, bars are associated with freedom, camaraderie and a delusion that bad decisions can easily be corrected. Bux’s Place in Challis, Idaho, is a splendid setting for when those issues are settled. Simple rules of conduct are followed. Respect history. Buy a round for the house. Tip the bartender. And toddle with cheer into the bracing mountain night.
Brilliant, aninom!
posted by readery at 5:00 AM on July 9, 2010
Van Gordon Sauter
For better or worse, critical decisions of the heart and career get made in bars. At least in Van Gordon Sauter’s lifetime. Whether the bar was 21 in Manhattan (executive vice president, CBS); Billy Goat’s Tavern in Chicago (reporter, Chicago Daily News); Weber’s Saloon in Middletown, Ohio (hod carrier and laborer); a nameless café on the rue Marbeuf (Paris bureau chief, CBS News); or the Danang Vietnam Press Center (correspondent, Detroit Free Press), Sauter knows that barroom decisions tilt to the ill advised, if not the catastrophic. But to men, bars are associated with freedom, camaraderie and a delusion that bad decisions can easily be corrected. Bux’s Place in Challis, Idaho, is a splendid setting for when those issues are settled. Simple rules of conduct are followed. Respect history. Buy a round for the house. Tip the bartender. And toddle with cheer into the bracing mountain night.
Brilliant, aninom!
posted by readery at 5:00 AM on July 9, 2010
Until I got to the Van Gordon Sauter comment, I was going to say that next time we're there we should pull the picture down and see if it says anything on the back. But now I think it's probably Van Gordon Sauter. (Someone should peek anyway, though!)
posted by phunniemee at 6:32 AM on July 9, 2010
posted by phunniemee at 6:32 AM on July 9, 2010
Response by poster: I went looking and found this picture. He basically has the exact same expression on his face. Bravo, aninom! Unless someone produces startling evidence to the contrary, I'm going to assume it's Sauter and award you best answer.
posted by adamdschneider at 7:25 AM on July 9, 2010
posted by adamdschneider at 7:25 AM on July 9, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by amro at 1:03 PM on July 8, 2010