CBS 2 Vault: Bob Wallace visits Chicago Halloween costume parties in the early 80s
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Back in the day, nobody had more fun on Halloween in Chicago than CBS 2's Bob Wallace.
From the CBS 2 Vault, here are a couple of Bob's reports. First, he takes us to a costume party at the Aragon Ballroom in Uptown in 1982. There were vampires and comic characters, but there were also fire-eaters – at least two of them – and people in fetish gear, or as Bob put it, "enough chain to anchor the Queen Mary." And we hear the Wurlitzer theatre organ playing in the background too.
Artist and organizer Bob Fischer, a man known as the "Windy City Warhol," said that Aragon event was all meant to be one big work of art, or "Bizzarte."
Then, in a report from the following year, Bob stops at the old Lawry's the Prime Rib steakhouse on Ontario Street – where they used to have a staff costume party with prizes. One staffer went as silent film actress Theda Bara, and Bob got a martini at the bar from a woman dressed as… a martini. Extra dry.
And when he met some kids out trick-or-treating in that same report in 1983, how did Bob Wallace end up enjoying Halloween, for Channel 2 News? Watch the video and find out.