‘Chicago Stories’ review: Fascinating docs spotlight Sears and other parts of city’s past

Sears Roebuck and Co.

It’s an incredible thing when you pause to consider it. From the comfort of your home, you can browse through hundreds upon hundreds of items, make your selections — and presto, those items would be delivered to your door in rapid fashion.

We’re not talking about Amazon in 2023; we’re talking about the Sears catalog of a century ago, aka “The Cheapest Supply House on Earth,” aka “The Book of Bargains,” offering everything from watches to toys to wedding rings to appliances to clothes to cars to ready-to-build house kits, which would arrive in literally thousands of pre-cut and numbered parts, ready for assembly.

In the late 19th century and through much of the 20th century, Sears and Montgomery Ward were absolutely dominant players before it all came tumbling down, and we see it all chronicled in “The Rise and Fall of the Mail Order Giants,” one of the four new “Chicago Stories” episodes coming our way.

Once again, WTTW-Channel 11 has delivered a comprehensive, informative, entertaining, illuminating and fascinating series of documentaries shining a spotlight on some of the people and institutions who have contributed memorable chapters in the great book of Chicago history.

‘Jane Addams: Together We Rise’ (Friday)

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

We all know the name Jane Addams and many of us have a passing familiarity with the history of Hull House, but “Together We Rise” had me wondering: Why don’t we have a major theatrical release, or a limited dramatic series, about this badass woman who was a pioneer on so many levels?

Employing the time-honored formula of simple but effective graphics, interviews with scholars and historians and journalists, subtle re-creations and archival photos and eventually film clips, this episode tells the incredible story of the young woman who was given an affluent lifestyle and could have lived out her days in blissful comfort, away from the troubles of the world, but instead chose to dedicate her life to helping others and fighting injustice.

In 1889, the 29-year-old Addams left Cedarville, Illinois, and took over a mansion at 800 S. Halsted St. in Chicago, creating the first “settlement house” of its kind in America. It was a time when many young children of working-class parents were left alone every day, as both mother and father (not to mention older siblings) were working full-time. Along with co-founder Ellen Gates Starr and other like-minded, strong-willed and brilliant women such as Florence Kelley, Julia Lathrop and Alice Hamilton, the irrepressible Addams created and fostered an environment of learning and culture that by 1895 had expanded to more than a dozen buildings and included everything from a nursery to the city’s first playground.

“Together We Rise” also takes us through Addams’ rise to national and international fame and her political and social activism, as she pushed to reform child employment laws, worked to establish the first juvenile court in the nation, fought for workers’ compensation legislation and engaged in anti-war activism that resulted in her being labeled a radical and caused damage to her reputation in many circles. The episode even briefly touches on Addams’ personal life, and the two romantic partners who meant the most of her. Whether you consider yourself well-versed in the story of Jane Addams or you just know the name, this is an invaluable piece of filmmaking.

‘Candy Capital’ (Oct. 27)

Sun-Times file

In “Candy Capital,” we’re reminded of Chicago’s rich and sweet (sorry!) history as the world center for confectioners for many a decade. After an opening scene-setter at Margie’s Candies, which was founded in 1921 by Greek immigrant Peter Poulos, we learn that the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago had a major impact on the candy industry, as it featured a display of a machine that could mix chocolate with milk, producing an aroma people had never inhaled before. (Milton Hershey was so impressed, he bought the equipment.)

A number of immigrants, including Salvatore Ferrara and Emile J. Brach, made fortunes with their pioneering candy manufacturing endeavors, with Brach developing a wrapper for candy and making 250 different candies in a factory on the West Side, while Ferrara was instrumental in popularizing “confetti,” aka candy-coated almonds, a popular treat at Italian weddings.

And of course no story about candy in Chicago would be complete without a segment about William Wrigley Jr., who started out selling soap and baking powder, offering a stick of gum with every order — until he realized the gum was more popular with customers than the primary products he was peddling.

‘The Outrage of Danny Sotomayor’ (Nov. 3)

Lisa Howe-Ebright Photography

Danny Sotomayor was born of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent, grew up in Humboldt Park and was pursuing a career as a graphic designer and cartoonist when he was diagnosed with AIDS at the age of 29 in 1988. Sotomayor quickly became one of the most visible, effective and controversial AIDS activists of his time, as chronicled in this episode.

By the late 1980s, more than 50,000 Americans had died of AIDS, but as Tim Miller of ACT UP Chicago puts it, “We were disposable to the vast majority of the population.” Sotomayor refused to accept that, leading high-profile protests in the city, traveling to Washington, D.C., and becoming a major thorn in the side of Mayor Richard M. Daley as he campaigned tirelessly for increased AIDS-related funding and crucial care-giving changes at Cook County Hospital. Even though Sotomayor was a sometimes polarizing figure within his own community due to his penchant for confrontation and theatrical protests, there was no denying his effectiveness and his impact.

“The movement needs me, and I need the movement,” says Danny in one interview clip. Sotomayor died on Feb. 5, 1992. The movement, Chicago and the world were lucky to have him.

‘The Rise and Fall of the Mail Order Giants’ (Nov. 10)

In the aforementioned episode, we once again return to the Chicago of the late 19th century and the early 20th century, as Richard Sears and Montgomery Ward competed to become the leading retailers of their time, via mail order catalogs and brick-and-mortar locations. While Montgomery Ward was a traditional fellow who believed in straightforward business practices and also a civic leader who fought for universal access to the lakefront and campaigned to keep Grant Park public, Sears was a bit more of a hustler — offering a “sewing machine” for a dollar that was in reality a needle and thread and selling $10 suits he didn’t necessarily have on hand at the moment.

“The Rise and Fall of the Mail Order Giants” is filled with fascinating tidbits, e.g., the fact that one Robert L. May was working as an in-house advertising copywriter at Montgomery Ward when the bosses asked him to write some kind of children’s booklet for the Christmas season. May created a little story called “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

Sears eventually became the dominant No. 1 in the retail game, with generations of families turning to the Wish Book every holiday season. The First Wish Book in 1933 was 87 pages; by 1968, the Wish Book totaled some 605 pages, with more than 200 pages for toys, nearly 400 pages of gifts for adults.

Sears had hundreds of stores across North America, and in 1973, construction was completed on the Sears Tower in Chicago, which most Chicagoans still call the Sears Tower even though it’s actually the Willis Tower, named after … a London insurance broker or something like that. The advent of stores such as Walmart, Kmart and Target, and the onset of online retailing in the late 1990s, spelled the beginning of the end for the mail-order giants.