The following article was taken from the WTTW website: www.networkchicago.com
Edgewater Beach Memories By Denise Kowalski
Many would agree that the Edgewater Beach Hotel was the place to be in the 1920s and '30s. Opened in 1916, the lavish resort stretched roughly 10 blocks along Sheridan Road from Foster Avenue to Bryn Mawr and had something for everyone: a nine-hole golf course, garden walk, tennis court, children's playground, skating rink, fine dining, elaborate floor shows and a 1,000-foot-long lakefront promenade known as the beach walk. Guests came from out of town and across the street to dance to the sounds of Tommy Dorsey, Xavier Cugat, Wayne King, Paul Whiteman and other top bands of the time. WTTW11 paid tribute to this Chicago landmark in a Chicago Stories presentation written and produced by Ginny Weissman. The Edgewater Beach Hotel: Magic by the Lake aired Monday, Dec. 3, 2001 at 7:30 p.m.
The Edgewater Beach Hotel was the idea of John T. Connery. Looking for an investment, Connery and his partner tried to buy the Chicago Cubs baseball team, but the deal hit a last-minute snag. Instead, Connery bought the vacant lakefront property across the street from his home and began plans to build a hotel.
Thomas Graham, a regular visitor to the Edgewater Beach Hotel and now (in 2001) a resident of the Edgewater Beach Apartments, recalls how his grandfather, Joseph J. Duffy, had the opportunity to become partners with his best friend on the deal. "When Connery got the idea for the hotel, he turned to my grandfather, who was a large Chicago contractor, and said, 'I would like you to build this hotel and be a 50/50 partner.' " Concerned about the planned location, Duffy declined the offer. "At that time there were nothing but wild animals there," Graham says.
Soon after the hotel was built, William Dewey was named general manager. "Mr. Dewey was an absolute tyrant," recalls Graham. "He had his hands on everything and did a magnificent job."
Sister Rosemary Dewey, R.S.C.J. agrees. "My father had a certain standard and very strict ideas and I don't think he would have agreed to be less." Dewey has many fond childhood memories of weekends spent with her father at the hotel. Among her favorites are the times he would take her out for a cruise on Lake Michigan aboard one of the wooden motorboats available to hotel guests. Christmastime was also high on her list, and she remembers one year in particular. "Santa Claus came down a chimney set up in the Marine Dining Room and all the children got a mesh stocking filled with little toys, candy and boxes of raisins or peanuts. To get my stocking, I had to go see Santa Claus, and that's when I recognized my father in the suit."
A popular spot for many hotel visitors was the Yacht Club Bar. Huge steamer trunks with labels from all over the world were piled high at its entrance, where guests had to cross a genuine wobbling gangplank. To add to the nautical atmosphere, big containers of dry beans were tipped from side to side to replicate the sound of the surf, while birds painted on moving walls "flew" by. In addition to the boutiques, print shop and chocolate factory, the Edgewater Beach was home to two radio stations. In the 1920s WEBH-AM broadcast the melodious sounds of Orrin Tucker and his orchestra as well as the banter of the popular comedy duo Amos 'n' Andy. In the 1950s Buddy Black founded WEBH-FM and helped launch the career of Chicago radio veteran Ken Alexander. "I was working for nothing on Sundays but didn't mind because the experience was invaluable," Alexander says.