By Bill Cameron, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) Today’s a red-letter day in the history of Chicago. The first Mayor Daley – Richard J. Daley – collapsed and died in his doctor’s office 41 years ago today in 1976. Bill Cameron covered Daley the first and saved the tape.
Daley was the boss when patronage made the machine. Here’s rare audio of hizzoner playing the patronage game on the phone with then-President Lyndon Johnson back in the mid 1960s getting the his man appointed U.S. Attorney.
Here’s a transcipt of the conversation:
Daley: “We’re all very much interested in getting the appointment of Ed Hanrahan as district attorney.
Johnson: Is that what you want?
Daley: He’s a great Democrat. He ran for Congress and was defeated. He’s a graduate of Notre Dame, even of Harvard. But more than that, Mr. President, let me say with great honor and pride, he’s a precinct captain!
Johnson: Is he your man?
Daley: Yes sir.
Johnson: You want him?
Daley: I surely do.
Johnson: You got him!
Daley: (chortles).”
As WLS-AM Polical Reporter Bill Cameron says, “And there you have the rare case of government getting the job done quickly.”
@ 2017 WLS-AM News
