Dill Pickle Club

In 1914, John "Jack" Jones, a former organizer for the Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) had started several weekly forums at the Radical Book Shop on North Clark Street in Chicago. The forums discussed labor issues along with social concerns of the day. Soon, in early 1915, Jones needed a new venue as the capacity was exceeded at the forum. To accommodate increased participants, Jones found a decrepit barn on Tooker Alley, off of Dearborn Street in downtown Chicago that he named the Dil Pickle Club. Soon after, fellow labor organizer from Ireland, Jim Larkin joined Jones, along with the "hobo doctor" and anarchist Ben Reitman. Reitman became instrumental in getting regular news coverage of the Pickle in the Chicago Daily News and Chicago Tribune. The news coverage helped increase the club's following and, by 1917, Jones created the Dil Pickle Artisans by officially incorporating it as a non-profit in Illinois to promote arts, crafts, science, and literature.[1]

Jones said of his new club:

The Dil Pickles was founded by several groups of people who were convinced that they, nor for that matter no other person or group knew all there was to be known about art, literature, drama, music, science, social or political economy or any other problems confronting or bothering the human race. The various groups responsible for the formation had one idea in mind: the thought that there should be some center where any idea or work would be given a respectful hearing and brought before the public, which in the last analysis are the best judges of what they want.[1]

Map dated March 2, 1921 where the "Dill Pickle Club House and Chapel" located at "18 Tooker Alley" and across the alley was the studio of artist Stanislav Szukalski

During the early years of the Dil Pickle Club, Jones began the Dil Pickle Press which produced material to promote the club. The press printed the Dil Pickler newsletter and The Creative World bulletin, along with Jones' book, Tech-Up. It also printed Arthur Desmond's Lion's Paw, Ragnar Redbeard's Might Is Right and works by Sol Omar and J. Edgar Miller. Much of the literature was crudely designed but easily reproduced. It contained humor and often typos. Admission to the club and refreshment sales helped it survive financially. Jones may have also printed counterfeit out-of-print books in order to make additional money.[1]

The club reached its pinnacle by serving not only as a place for debate and idea-sharing, but also as a host for one-act plays, poetry readings, jazz dances, and opera, along with other acts. The Dil Pickle Players was formed to perform original works by local authors, as well as contemporary playwrights. Jones remained active in the club, building the stage and wiring the lighting, as well as writing, directing, and acting in many productions.[1]

During the Great Depression, the Dil Pickle Club began to decline. By the early 1930s, the club was frequented more by Chicago mobsters than the usual free-minded Bohemian attendees. Soon the club lost its unique taste and personality, as rent rates in Chicago rose. Tax difficulties in 1933 proved the end of the Dil Pickle Club. Despite Jones' efforts to save the club, which included the sale of the wooden Du Dil Duck toy, the Dil Pickle Club closed in 1934. Jones struggled financially thereafter until his death in 1940.[1]

Jack Sheridan, who had been attending the Dil Pickle Club since boyhood, tried to revive the club in 1944 in the Tooker Alley premises, but the building was condemned as unsafe.[7]

The Dill Pickle Club and Lending Library art (date unknown).

The Dil Pickle Club was almost hidden from the outside and was considered a "hole in the wall" in Tooker Alley. The entrance was marked by a "DANGER" sign that which pointed to the orange main door which was lit by a green light. On the door, it read: "Step High, Stoop Low and Leave Your Dignity Outside." Once inside, another sign read "Elevate Your Mind to a Lower Level of Thinking" before you entered the main part of the club. Immediately inside was a large main room with a stage. The room was decorated with brightly painted chairs and partially surrounded by counters where drinks and sandwiches were sold. The rest of the club was also decorated by its attendees and contained a tearoom and art exhibitions. Altogether, the club had reported standing capacity for 700 people.[1][8]

The club was frequented by many radical American activists, political speakers and authors. It was accepting of homosexuals. Among the American activists and speakers was Clarence Darrow, Emma Goldman, Big Bill Haywood, Hippolyte Havel, Lucy Parsons, Ben Reitman and Nina Spies. American authors included Pulitzer Prize winner Upton Sinclair along with Sherwood Anderson, Carl Sandburg, Ben Hecht, Vachel Lindsay, Djuna Barnes, William Carlos Williams, Kenneth Rexroth and Vincent Starrett. Other common attendees were poet, writer and Wobbly, Slim Brundage, speaker Martha Biegler, speaker Elizabeth Davis, artist Stanislav Szukalski, Harry Wilson and egoist F. M. Wilkesbarr (aka Malfew Seklew).[1][2][8][9]

A club for people with ideas and questions, it often attracted a mixed crowd. Scientists, panhandlers, prostitutes, socialists, anarchists, con men, tax advocates, religious zealots, social workers and hoboes were commonly at the club.[1][2] Chicagoan George Wellington "Cap" Streeter was also said to have visited and spoken at the Dil Pickle Club.[10]

• Original Dill Pickle Club address: 10 Tooker Place, Chicago, Illinois[2]

• Picture of Dil Pickle Club - Chicago Public Radio
• Dill Pickle Club Records at the Newberry Library
• Images from the Dill Pickle Club from the exhibition Outspoken: Chicago's Free Speech Tradition
• Chicago’s Dill Pickle Club: Where Anarchists Mixed With Doctors And Poets - Curious City