I found myself among the reporters on the red carpet at Macy’s Glamorama party this fall, watching as a march of B- and C-listers chatted up the fashion and lifestyle press who’d lined up to collect quippage for transmission to their audiences, while waiting for the night’s sole A-lister, the mega-wattage Beyonce Knowles, to make her last-minute arrival. At some point, I overheard someone exclaim in surprise, “Billy Dec is on the red carpet.”
By crossing the ropes to the other side of the red carpet, the nightclub impresario, “Bachelorette” employer and frequently photographed pal of David Schwimmer crossed the line, so to speak. I had the same reaction until I realized that, unlike many of those being paraded before us, I’d actually heard of him. The problem with Dec, it seems, is that he is one of ours—a Chicago celebrity.
We’re living in a paradoxical time. Thanks to the advent of digital technology, the hegemony of mass media is weaker than it’s been in generations. The headlines in the daily newspaper often report on its very own impending doom. So go the broadcast networks. Yet, at the same time, the culture of celebrity has never been more pervasive. We watch celebrity news, we’re transfixed more by the red-carpet arrivals and the “fashion police” analysis than the awards shows themselves, we all know who Paris Hilton is, she the very creation of celebrity culture, the manifestation of “famous for being famous.” Celebrity is a creation of the press, which manufactures fame as part of its efforts to sell papers or boost ratings, while simultaneously decrying the culture of celebrity. But the press as we know it seems to be dying—just as its creations become bigger than ever.
Chicago is more consumer of celebrity culture than its creator. But we’ve always had our share of both local celebrities and global phenoms. We even have a few movie stars among us, though those who stay here usually do so specifically to stay out of the spotlight at home. (Vince Vaughn, anyone?) Wasn’t long ago that, save for a sports hero or talk-show host, TV newscasters were the closest we got to local celebrities. Nowadays, the TV networks are hard-pressed to find viewers who don’t live in a nursing home, and their newsreaders seem so—what, unimportant? Which led us to wonder, who are the most famous Chicagoans? The rise of Google, and the related practice of “googling” people, offered a way to measure fame on a relative basis, at least as reflected on the web. Our “Chicago Fame 100” resides below, where you’ll likely note a few “of courses” as well as plenty of “who?” like we did. And maybe a few “how did they forgets,” which I’m sure you’ll tell us about. Fame is relative, more so now than ever. Every special interest, every industry, has its own list of “players.” If you’re part of the group, you know them all. If you’re not, it’s a list of foreign names. As the media loses mass but subcultures gain traction through digital communities, your American idol is likely to be my American who? Once you get past the top 25, the Chicago Fame 100 gets fairly interesting. I especially enjoy some of the juxtapositions and wonder if they know each other. For example, Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher resides at #43, just ahead of Studs Terkel and Steve Albini. Somehow, I don’t see the three of them going fishing together. Another pleasant surprise is the presence of poets and Nobel Prize winners on the list. The mainstream media may ignore the intelligentsia, but clearly the public does not. Equally surprising is the poor showing of local newscasters who used to seem like our biggest celebrities. Most of those we checked did not even make the cut. Nor, for that matter, did Billy Dec. But Oprah sure did. As far as we can tell, Oprah Winfrey has become one of the world’s most famous people—bigger than Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt or Madonna. Only George W. Bush, with 88.9 million results, is better known among the names we searched. We even checked out dead Chicagoans: Al Capone (2.4 million), Gene Siskel (815,000), Walter Payton (589,000), John Wayne Gacy (361,000) and Richard J. Daley (197,000).
In 1966, John Lennon quipped to a London newspaper that his Beatles were “more popular than Jesus now” and all hell broke loose. Nowadays, it doesn’t seem that surprising that Oprah is nearly twice as popular as Jesus Christ, at least that’s the result if you use our method of weighing celebrity. Given her charitable nature and self-effacing persona, we can live with that. But the fact that Paris Hilton is also bigger than Jesus? You decide that one.
Notes on methodology: The definition of “Chicagoan” is quite fluid and, in the end, we were subjective in our decisions. This is especially challenging for music and movie artists, who often live in New York or LA for work reasons. Ultimately, we evaluated them based on how much they continue to be associated with Chicago, or whether the core of their career was spent here. Just being from here was not enough. We googled every name as spelled on the chart, in quotes, and did so in the seven days between November 1 and November 8. In some cases where names are “common” and indistinguishable from others who share the name, we added a second search criteria (e.g. “+ Chicago”). Not a perfect science for sure, but better than any other we can imagine. Clearly the web favors text, especially in searches. This means broadcast fame is underrepresented, unless there is related “chatter” on the web. It also undercounts “society” photos, since those are often not uploaded online. In fact, writers are especially at an advantage, since they also benefit from links to stories they’ve written. Score one for the good guys!
Rank Name Results Claim to Fame 1 Oprah 34,400,000 Talk show host 2 Kanye West 5,300,000 Hip-Hop artist 3 R. Kelly 4,390,000 R&B artist 4 Michael Jordan 4,370,000 Retired Bulls player 5 Dennis Hastert 4,070,000 Speaker of the House 6 Common 3,200,000 Hip-Hop artist 7 Roger Ebert 3,180,000 Movie Critic 8 Barack Obama 3,110,000 Senator 9 Bill Murray 3,090,000 Actor 10 Vince Vaughn 2,570,000 Actor 11 John Cusack 2,190,000 Actor 12 Jerry Springer 2,180,000 Talk show host 13 Lupe Fiasco 2,170,000 Hip-Hop artist 14 Buddy Guy 2,160,000 Blues artist 15 Steven Levitt 2,080,000 Author 16 Jesse Jackson 1,850,000 Political activist 17 Rod Blagojevich 1,590,000 Governor 18 David Schwimmer 1,550,000 Actor 19 Hugh Hefner 1,510,000 Playboy founder 20 Billy Corgan 1,460,000 Smashing Pumpkins front man 21 Felix Da Housecat 1,340,000 House music artist 22 Liz Phair 1,280,000 Pop music artist 23 Gary Sinise 1,250,000 Actor 24 Joan Cusack 1,160,000 Actor 25 Bernie Mac 1,160,000 Comedian 26 Richard Marx 1,060,000 Pop music artist 27 Jeremy Piven 1,020,000 Actor 28 Jeff Tweedy 997,000 Wilco front man 29 Rhymefest 877,000 Hip-Hop artist 30 John Hughes 813,000 31 Harold Ramis 807,000 Filmmaker 32 Audrey Niffenegger 611,000 Author 33 Rex Grossman 603,000 Bears player 34 Ramsey Lewis 589,000 Jazz artist 35 Pete Wentz 581,000 Fall Out Boy front man 36 Lauren Holly 570,000 Actor 37 Brian Urlacher 535,000 Bears player 38 Studs Terkel 526,000 Author 39 Steve Albini 526,000 Music recording engineer 40 Scott Turow 500,000 Author 41 Frankie Knuckles 492,000 House music artist 42 Koko Taylor 466,000 Blues artist 43 Chris Ware 458,000 Comics artist 44 Ozzie Guillen 451,000 White Sox manager 45 Mike Ditka 435,000 Retired Bears coach and player 46 Kirk Hinrich 431,000 Bulls player 47 Kurt Elling 413,000 Jazz artist 48 Eric Zorn 401,000 Tribune columnist 49 Scottie Pippen 390,000 Retired Bulls player 50 Ernie Banks 352,000 Retired Cubs player 51 Garry Wills 346,000 Author 52 Tom Joyner 343,000 Radio DJ 53 Derrick Carter 341,000 House music artist 54 Alex Brown 325,000 Bears player 55 Richard Roeper 319,000 Sun-Times columnist 56 Richard M. Daley 279,000 Mayor 57 Charlie Trotter 275,000 Chef 58 Elizabeth Berg 269,000 Author 59 Ken Vandermark 267,000 Jazz artist 60 Dick Butkus 266,000 Retired Bears player 61 Ira Glass 246,000 Radio host 62 Judy Baar Topinka 241,000 Republican candidate for governor 63 Lovie Smith 238,000 Bears coach 64 Andrew Greeley 235,000 Author 65 Grant Achatz 222,000 Chef 66 Ryne Sandberg 220,000 Retired Cubs player 67 Gale Sayers 214,000 Retired Bears player 68 Ronald Coase 211,000 Nobel Prize winning economist 69 Mark Strand 209,000 Poet 70 Jesse Jackson, Jr. 204,000 Congressman 71 Rick Bayless 199,000 Chef 72 Bobby Hull 191,000 Retired Blackhawks player 73 Martin Marty 184,000 Religious scholar 74 Jim DeRogatis 179,000 Music critic 75 Ron Santo 168,000 Retired Cubs player 76 Gary S. Becker 160,000 Nobel Prize winning economist 77 John Mahoney 155,000 Actor 78 Terry Savage 149,000 Personal finance expert 79 Scott Skiles 148,000 Bulls coach 80 Archer Prewitt 141,000 Comics artist/musician 81 James McManus 133,000 Author 82 Michael Sneed 129,000 Sun-Times columnist 83 Nate Berkus 127,000 Interior designer 84 Bill Zwecker 121,000 Sun-Times columnist 85 Bill Kurtis 116,000 Newscaster 86 Mike Singletary 111,000 Retired Bears player 87 James Heckman 108,000 Nobel Prize winning economist 88 Bill Rancic 104,000 Reality television personality 89 Christie Hefner 103,000 Playboy CEO 90 Al Jourgensen 101,000 Ministry front man 91 Fred Eychaner 95,500 Media investor 92 Tom Rosenberg 94,500 Film producer 93 Jerry Reinsdorf 91,700 Bulls and White Sox principal owner 94 Rich Whitney 91,500 Green Party candidate for governor 95 James Cronin 90,000 Nobel Prize winning physicist 96 Robert Lucas 86,900 Nobel Prize winning economist 97 Li-Young Lee 84,900 Poet 98 Joe Meno 81,500 Author 99 Rick Tramonto 80,900 Chef 100 Robert Fogel 77,700 Nobel Prize winning economist
