Categories: OLD Media Moves

The real estate reporter who moonlights as a sexual history tour guide

Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune writes about Crain’s Chicago real estate reporter Dennis Rodkin, whose side job is leading a sexual history of Chicago walking tour.

Schmich writes, “Rodkin is a journalist who writes about residential real estate for Crain’s Chicago Business. Many of the tales he tells on his tour — with a circus master’s zest — were inspired by what he learned in years of reporting.

“One thing he has learned is that buildings are more than real estate. They contain hidden stories, vanished lives.

“Look at the Travelodge on East Harrison Street.

“Even if you’ve looked up and seen the bare-breasted terra cotta women on its facade, you probably didn’t know that Alfred Kinsey, the famous sexologist, stayed there during research trips that involved hanging out in gay bars on Rush Street.

“Look at the lot across from the Travelodge.

“It holds no hint of its former resident, a porn shop called Weird Harold’s.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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