McCormick in Chicago was the WORST! The National Hardware show was held there for years.

To get things set up, I carried $1,000.00 in $50.00 dollar bills to pay "Tips"-bribes to get things off dead center. If you had a box of slides, for instance, a carpenter could put the carousel on the machine (you couldn't), but you had to wait for an electrician (read that-break out another fifty) to plug it in.

The first year Square D Company had me booked to play the piano at the Lakeshore suite (top floor), I wasn't through the first tune before the union showed up. I had a card and was booked by a private company, but at McCormick, you had to have a pre-arranged visiting artist's badge from the local.

The Union bartender, whom I had requested the previous three years turned me in.

He never worked our suite again.


Russ Lay