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MAX HEADROOM MASK FULL
For almost two full minutes, this entity controlled the WTTW airwaves. Suddenly, the picture cut out and a man in a Max Headroom rubber mask appeared on screen. It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving in 1987, just past 11 o’clock at night, and Doctor Who was on WTTW. Image courtesy FuzzyMemoriesTV - The Museum of Classic Chicago Television The Max Headroom Signal Hijacking So, was there one killer hawk, multiple hawks, or none at all? We still don’t know,” Durica said. All we have is the sensational reporting at the time. “Whether the newspapers had hoaxed one another or the public remains an open question. Then, in April of that year, the Tribune reported that Captain Kidd had finally been captured by Larry McGil, who had used his umbrella to render the bird unconscious on an El platform. The Chicago Journal announced it would be publishing a serialized fiction column, “The Hawk and the Pigeon,” and the sightings and subsequent hysteria were dismissed as a sort of 1920s viral campaign, all engineered by the Journal - which the Journal of course denied. Even the Board of Trade had an opinion (they were pro-hawk, anti-pigeon).īut then, just as swiftly as Captain Kidd had swooped in, the bird disappeared from the news coverage, Durica said. Two aldermen actually proposed hawk-related resolutions to the City Council. The court of public opinion was divided about Captain Kidd: Some despised the hawk for killing harmless pigeons, while others thought it was doing a public service. And it still looks as if Captain Kidd, happy in his reflection that there’s safety in numbers, will make his way over the loop today and tomorrow and for the days thereafter in peace and plenty.” Then there was an owl, at first mistaken for a hawk, which killed itself by flying against the walls of the County building. “To date the record reads: one peaceful hawk shot and killed in a tree in Garfield Park one half frozen hawk rescued, rather than captured, at the Chicago Beach hotel, and one hawk said to have been lured into a mesh spread on the roof of the Transportation Building. The Tribune set the highest bounty: $50 dead, $100 alive. Hawk hysteria had reached such a fever pitch by mid-January that the Journal and the Chicago Tribune offered a reward for the kill or capture of Captain Kidd. “For some reason, this story completely captured the attention of Chicago, and made headlines day after day,” Durica said. Along with the usual threats of cold temperatures and a scarcity of food came the possibility of a sudden death from above in the form of a hawk known as “Captain Kidd.” The winter of 1927 was a bad time to be a pigeon in the Chicago Loop. And the third is about a phony bar started for the sole purpose of entrapping corrupt officials. The second includes a man who hijacked television airwaves - but didn’t have a plan regarding what to do next. To help with the backstory, we turned to historian Paul Durica, who’s the director of exhibitions at the Newberry Library and someone with a long-standing interest in the weird backwaters of Chicago history.ĭurica told us three tales of Chicago media hijinks: The first involves a killer hawk allegedly terrorizing local pigeons. To stay up to date on the stories that matter.Ĭurious City has gotten a lot of questions about famous pranks, so in celebration of April Fools’ Day we investigated three historical stunts pulled by (or on) local media. WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information.