Welcome to the inside story of
"The Pied Piper of South Shore, Toys and Tragedy in Chicago"
CHICAGO
AUTHOR WINS INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD
Caryn Lazar Amster, (
Elk Grove
,
Illinois
) author of The Pied Piper of
South
Shore
, Toys and Tragedy in
Chicago
recently won Honorable Mention in the 13th Annual Writer’s Digest Magazine’s International Self-Published Book Awards in the Family Stories category for her true
Chicago
story. The book will be featured in the Magazine’s March issue.
The judge’s review praised the book and the writing. “The author is a very good writer. She knows how to ‘show’ (not tell). Though this book is the personal account of her father’s life, death and impact on a
Chicago
neighborhood, the author keeps the reader engaged with vivid story-telling. The Pied Piper of South Shore contained the best writing (in terms of craft) of the entries this judge received. It’s a moving, vivid story of a terrible crime, its causes and aftermath, and of one family’s ability to preserve a decent hard-working, life-impacting man’s legacy.”
Amster's book is her own family story, a true crime story of her father, innovative
Chicago
toy store owner Manny Lazar, known as the Pied Piper of South Shore. It is set primarily in
Chicago
's
South
Shore
neighborhood in the 1950s and 60s. It takes readers from Russian persecution to American freedom, from Hula Hoops to hit men, It is the story of two children of immigrants, how they built both their American dream and their richly diverse neighborhood in which each fell prey to the brutality of gangs. The foreword to the book is by Emmy and Tony award-winning singer and actor Mandy Patinkin.
The Pied Piper of South Shore also won the USA Book News "Best of 2004" award in the True Crime category and received an all "5" top rating from the 12th Annual award from the same magazine in the Non-Fiction category. It has received rave reviews from local and national newspapers, websites, publications, book groups and audiences.
Interviews
Listen in on a recent nostalgic Chicago South Shore interview. Chicago radio and television personality Dean Richards (former South Shore resident), recently interviewed Mitch Markovitz (South Shoreite and book cover artist) and me about South Shore in the .50s and .60s and my new award winning true South Shore story, The Pied Piper of South Shore, Toys and Tragedy in Chicago.
Click Here to listen
###
Chicago Jewish News - Jewish Chicago's Hometown Newspaper
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After reading the chapter description, if you would
still like a full galley of the book please click here - limited
copies are still available
Chapter Description
A foreword by Mandy Patinkin, a long time Wee Folks customer,
thanks Mr. and Mrs. Lazar for providing an oasis, a place to dream
and feel safe.
1. The Day the Laughter Died - Chicago Toy store owner Manny
Lazar, "The Pied Piper of South Shore," is shot and killed
in front of his wife, Belle, by a gang hit man during an armed robbery
gone wrong. It's the end of a legendary business and the couple
who run it, but also marks the end of the neighborhood that once
prospered.
2. The Folks Behind Wee Folks - Manny and Belle Lazar's
story unfolds with their families' flight from Jewish persecution
in czarist Russia to the promise of America. Burly Manny, an uneducated
English immigrant in Chicago, meets petite Belle, a first-generation
Russian-American college graduate who teaches school in Joliet,
Illinois. The culturally mismatched couple fall in love and marry
at the end of WWII.
3. Baby Steps - The First Store - Wee Folks is born over breakfast at the
Lazars' kitchen table in 1945. When Manny and Belle open the toy
store on Chicago's 79th Street, the neighborhood is a melting pot
of merchants and Irish Catholic and Jewish residents. In debt, with
nothing more than $20 in the till on opening day, these two pivotal
newcomers to Chicago and South Shore build their fledgling business
into a retailing archetype. Within two years, the store's success
allows Manny to quit his day job and devote himself full-time to
his dream.
4. The Fabulous Fifties - Manny and Belle's personalized
retailing style, draws Chicago customers by the hundreds, including
now world famous personalities like Mandy Patinkin, Muhammad Ali
and Corky Siegal. A bustling birthday club, innovative promotions,
and attentive customer service turn the store into a legend among
retailers and clients alike. "Mr. and Mrs. Wee Folks"
make children's dreams come true. In return, customers help Manny
and Belle survive fire and flood during two Christmastime disasters.
5. Grand Opening - The Second Store - A new and larger Wee Folks opens
on 79th Street in 1957 to the excitement and anticipation of hundreds
of children and their parents. The business becomes a retailing
phenomenon as Chicago's first self-service toy store. The 1959 debut
of Barbie, catapults the new location's success, as Wee Folks becomes
Chicago's Official Barbie Headquarters. The American dream continues
as Manny and Belle at last move into their own South Shore home.
6. The Scary '60s - When the first black families move into
South Shore, greedy realtors drum up business by promoting prejudice,
intentionally scaring white residents into selling their homes at
tremendous losses. Culturally, racially, and financially, the once
vibrant neighborhood slowly dies. But Wee Folks thrives right up
to the end, despite a daring dynamite experiment that lands Manny
in the hospital. By the end of the decade, however, Manny and Belle
know that their survival depends on moving their store and their
home away from the black gangs that are terrorizing South Shore.
7. The Birth of Two Nations - The growth of a gang begins
in South Shore with a handful of young boys hanging around a street
corner in 1960. By the end of the decade, the group evolves into
the Blackstone Rangers, America's largest street gang with roots
in the Nation of Islam, a movement that began in the heart of South
Shore. The death knoll for the neighborhood begins to sound as the
Rangers shake down businesses and cheat the federal government and
white philanthropists out of money intended for neighborhood improvement.
With the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., fear escalates
and blood is shed on the streets of the neighborhood.
8. Trials - After Manny's murder, Wee Folks is auctioned
off, down to the bare walls. The gang member gunman is apprehended
and put on trial. The author takes the stand as a material witness;
her mother, Belle, gives an eyewitness account, forcing her to relive
the shooting. Witnesses who refuse to succumb to gang pressure bravely
testify. The murderer is convicted and sentenced to life. But justice
is not fully served.
Epilogue - Readers are updated on several characters, including
the killer, who served only part of his sentence; Belle, who moves
from Chicago, continues her education, becomes president of an international
Jewish women's organization, and, remarkably, forgives the murderer;
and the author's amazing quest while researching and writing this
book.
Two appendixes end the book: One recalls the stores of 79th
Street, from Stony Island to Jeffrey Avenue, and the other tells
the stories about how some of the most popular toys and games in
the 1950s and 1960s got their start.
If you have any questions please call me at 847-895-6449
I would love to know when this appears in your publication. Need a high resolution picture of Caryn? Download here.
Please
email me and let me know. Thank you.
Caryn Lazar Amster
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