Chicago Cots It On At Last

CHICAGO — The second largest city in Amerika has long had a reputation for being one of the most culturally boring; Not since the days of Mother Blues and Big John’s on Wells Street, when there wasn’t an inch of space between the/ prospering Mike Bloomfields and Paul Butterfields on the South Side streets, has there been any really young scene. But all that appears to be changing as the Windy City has come up with perhaps the most progressive rock ballroom in the country.

“We were beginning to feel a lot like Chet Helms,” explained Cy Fruchter, one of the Aragon Ballroom’s backers. They’d lost $17,000 in their first two weeks operation, first by being ripped off by kids breaking in and then by closing in honor of the students murdered at Kent State. Then, last Wednesday, another disaster struck.

Delaney and Bonnie decided to cancel; the call went out for another act but, since the rock palace already had Smith, the Burrito Brothers, Chicago’s own Jesse and a Milwaukee crew called White Lightning, things weren’t that awful. But they got worse when Smith cancelled the next morning. So they began calling again, this time in desperation.