These Black-owned companies with Chicago ties are forging a path in the industry.Read More

When the 1-0 Chicago Bulls take on the 0-1 New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night, it will be a meaningful game for a couple of reasons. First, it’s the Bulls’ home opener for the 2021-2022 season. This is the first time Bulls fans in Chicago will get to see the new-look roster in action — […] Chicago Bulls: Lonzo Ball revenge game, but no 300-pound Zion – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

Read More

The Chicago Blackhawks are in a terrible position right now. After another dud performance at home against the Vancouver Canucks, the Hawks are now 0-4-1. Not having a win in their first five games is an absolute disgrace. On a night where they honored Patrick Kane for reaching 1000 games last season, you’d like to […] Chicago Blackhawks: This horrible mistake is only getting worse – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

This image released by National Geographic shows Jacques Cousteau aboard his ship “Calypso” in the 1970s, from the documentary “Becoming Cousteau,” opening in theaters Friday. | AP

Perhaps more than anything else, Jacques Cousteau symbolized a boundless spirit of adventure, leading a landlubbing public into enchanted underwater worlds.

NEW YORK — Who was Jacques-Yves Cousteau, exactly?

He was an oceanographer and explorer but held no scientific degree. He was an environmentalist whose voyages were nevertheless sometimes funded by oil companies seeking drilling sites. He was a filmmaker who made otherworldly undersea documentaries — three won best documentary Oscars — but he disliked the term. He preferred “adventure films.”

Maybe Cousteau’s legacy is, appropriately, more fluid. Perhaps more than anything else, Cousteau symbolized a boundless spirit of adventure, leading a landlubbing public into enchanted underwater worlds. A siren of the seas.

In Liz Garbus’ “Becoming Cousteau,” an editor named John Soh from ABC’s “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” wrestles with the difficulty of labeling Cousteau only to conclude: “He was a man looking at the future.”

“Becoming Cousteau,” which National Geographic opens in theaters Friday, attempts to frame the singular Cousteau and his legacy as an early environmental defender of increasingly imperiled waters. It’s a defining documentary portrait of the French oceanographer — the real-life Steve Zissou — as a fish only truly content below the surface.

“I am miserable out of the water,” Cousteau, who died in 1993, says in a recording in the film. “It is as though you’ve been introduced to heaven and then forced back to Earth.”

The film, which will debut Nov. 24 on Disney+, has one toe in the dreamy mystical realm of Cousteau’s own making — the otherworldly underwater photography he shot with Louis Malle; the stylish, high-seas adventures aboard the Calypso — and another in a more sober reality of ocean pollution that Cousteau watched with growing concern. In later years, his popular, Emmy-winning nature series turned increasingly grim and ominous.

“By the end of his life, I think he felt like Cassandra screaming to everyone about this impending doom,” says Garbus. “Certainly he suffered commercially for that, as well. They were like: These shows are a downer.'”

Garbus, the prolific documentarian of two Oscar-nominated docs (“What Happened Miss Simone?” “The Farm: Angola, USA”) and a host of others ( “The Fourth Estate,” “All In: The Fight for Democracy”), first started developing the film in 2015. But it took years to get access approved by the Cousteau Society and his estate.

Cousteau’s second wife, Francine Cousteau, and their two children, Pierre Yves and Dianne, are executive producers on the film. (Cousteau also had two other sons: Jean-Michel and Philippe, who died in a plane crash in 1979.) Working with the family, Garbus says, was “very complicated.”

“Becoming Cousteau” may be light on some of the late-years squabbling over his sizable empire, including the bankrupted theme park Cousteau Oceanic Park near Paris. But it doesn’t shy away from the complexities of Cousteau’s evolution from a former naval officer diving off the French Riviera in the Mediterranean to a world-famous explorer and entertainer synonymous with the sea who netted the public’s imagination.

“I didn’t reread ‘The Iliad’ but I looked back on some stuff about Odysseus’ journey,” says Garbus. “In the final moment, he’s on land and he’s told to keep walking and bring the oar to find people who have never seen the sea and tell them about it. And that’s what he did.”

Cousteau’s legacy also includes co-creating the Aqua-lung, freeing underwater diving of clunky apparatus and birthing the use of scuba. For Garbus, he also led the way for generations of filmmakers, from last year’s Oscar-winning “My Octopus Teacher” to James Cameron. It makes Garbus wonder what Cousteau would make of today’s non-fiction ecosystem.

“What would he think if he was alive today with the streamers and all the competition for documentary content? I wonder if he would revise that statement or be prouder of it,” says Garbus.

“He probably would not have enjoyed sitting for a lengthy interview with the likes of me,” she adds. “But I hope that he would have felt that his life works — this message of conservation — is honored in the film and coming at a moment when we need it desperately.”

Read More

When the Chicago White Sox lost to the Houston Astros in the American League Division Series earlier this month, the reaction from fans was swift and fierce. There were calls to fire Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa. There were more calls to send reliever Craig Kimbrel to literally anywhere else. And calls for […] Chicago White Sox: Fixes for 2022 may come from within – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

Three people were killed and five others, including a 17-year-old boy, wounded in citywide shootings Thursday. | Sun-Times file

A gunman killed a man early Thursday during an argument at a Logan Square bus stop, then fatally shot another man and stole his car.

Eight people were shot, three fatally in citywide shootings in Chicago Thursday.

A gunman killed a man early Thursday during an argument at a Logan Square bus stop, then fatally shot another man and stole his car. The first attack occurred about 1 a.m. when a 25-year-old man sitting at a bus stop in the 3900 block of West Fullerton Avenue got into an argument with the gunman, Chicago police said. The man was shot in the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. His name hasn’t been released. The gunman fled to the 2300 block of North Keystone Avenue, where he attempted to take a 41-year-old man’s car, police said. During a struggle, the gunman shot the man in the chest and took off in the car.
About 12 hours later, a man was fatally shot in Humboldt Park. The male victim was near the sidewalk about 2 p.m. in the 700 block of North Harding Avenue when someone opened fire, striking him in the abdomen and leg, Chicago police said. The man was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
About half-an-hour later, a 17-year-old boy was shot and seriously wounded in Rogers Park on the North Side. He was on the sidewalk in the 1700 block of West Morse Avenue, when a light-colored vehicle pulled up to him and someone inside fired shots, police said. The boy was struck in the buttocks and taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where his condition was stabilized, police said.

Four others were wounded in citywide gun violence Thursday.

Two people were killed and at least eight others were wounded Wednesday in shootings across Chicago.

Read More

The Chicago Bears are in a tough spot right now. They are 3-3 and look very bad on offense in just about every game. Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace have done a terrible job of running the organization over their time there and it is finally enough. Drafting Justin Fields is a step in the […] Chicago Bears: 3 fair trade packages for Andy Dalton – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

Read More

Millie Cruzat in 2017. | Fred Brown / FBP Studio

‘I’m not just about dancing,’ she once sid. ‘I’m about [students’] character, their attitude, them being special . . . I find something in every child I have.’

Mildred “Millie” Cruzat was nearly 50 when she got an invitation to join Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre. She said yes and started touring with performers less than half her age.

In her 70s, she signed a modeling contract.

At 91, she could still do the splits.

Ms. Cruzat believed in looking your best, trying your hardest and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g.

To the end of her life, she would dance into rooms and occasionally greet people at the door with one leg extended over her head.

Her family and friends came together earlier this month for her funeral following Ms. Cruzat’s death from heart failure in July at her Lake Meadows condo. She was 94.

They recalled a woman who was chic, vivacious, age-defying, regal and charming.

Her friend Beatrice Wilkinson Welters, a former U.S. ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, remembers a trip to Jamaica, where they had a private audience with Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla Parker-Bowles.

“Millie stole the show,” Welters said. “She seemed to captivate the prince. They were laughing and joking and having the time of their lives.”

Provided
Millie Cruzat charmed Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla when she met them in Jamaica.

Her granddaughter Shanna Cruzat remembered a birthday dinner in her later years: “She is in the restaurant, and she has all the men on the floor — telling them they need to stretch.”

Art Norman, a friend and former WMAQ-TV news anchor and reporter, described lessons Ms. Cruzat instilled at the dance classes she taught. Norman said that, when a student walked in, “Millie said, ‘Young lady, come this way. You don’t walk like that. You observe your posture. Hold your head up because you’re a proud Black woman. And speak with authority. If you’re talking to somebody, look them in the eye.’ ”

Norman said: “She taught more than dance.”

She grew up in Detroit, a daughter of Florence and Sevar Clemon. Her mother was a health buff who exercised “and was drinking carrot juice very early on,” said Ms. Cruzat’s daughter Liza Cruzat Brooks. Her father operated a cleaners and haberdashery.

During the Great Depression, she lived for a year with an aunt in Montgomery, Alabama. They resided on Cleveland Avenue, which had a bus line that became famous when civil rights icon Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white man, Ms. Cruzat said in an interview with the The HistoryMakers, “the nation’s largest African American video oral history collection.”

She graduated from Detroit’s Northeastern High School and attended Highland Park Junior College in Michigan.

Provided
Millie Cruzat (right) striking a pose with her sister Sevara.

Young Millie took ballet lessons and found inspiration in dancers Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Katherine Dunham, Martha Graham and Gene Kelly. She got a job at the post office, saved her money and headed to New York City in her 20s to study dance.

She was one of the first Black women hired at Bloomingdale’s, according to her daughter Sevara Cruzat. Because she was light-skinned, her daughters said, people sometimes asked Ms. Cruzat if she was “European” and occasionally mistook her for prima ballerina Maria Tallchief, a member of the Osage Nation.

She took dance lessons at Carnegie Hall. Photographer Gordon Parks lived around the corner, and she watched tennis legend Althea Gibson play on a neighborhood court, she told The HistoryMakers.

Ms. Cruzat danced in 1940s revues and met then-rising actors like Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier.

In the oral history, she said she saw shows by Count Basie, Sammy Davis Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald at a time when Black artists often couldn’t enter the front door of the clubs where they performed.

After returning to the Midwest, she performed on a TV show in St. Louis hosted by deejay Spider Burks.

Provided
Millie and Dr. Edward “Teddy” Cruzat on their wedding day in 1954.

In 1954, she and Dr. Edward “Teddy” Cruzat got married. They settled in Chicago, where they raised their daughters and a son, Edward. Cruzat, who died in 2000, admired his wife’s beautiful posture and would tell the kids, “Sit up straight like your mother.”

During the 1970s, when she was in her late 40s, she joined the Joseph Holmes troupe.

Provided
Millie Cruzat often danced alongside performers half her age when she danced, while in her 40s, with the Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre.

“She was touring heavily, at 45, with 20-year-olds,” said Lynna Hollis, artistic director for Chicago Contemporary Dance Theatre, a dance studio in Bridgeport where Ms. Cruzat taught from 2013 until her final days.

Ms. Cruzat once told the Chicago Tribune that, after performing, “I went home and sat in the tub every night.”

Chicago Contemporary Dance Theatre
Millie Cruzat teaching students at Chicago Contemporary Dance Theatre.

In the 1980s, she operated her own fitness center.

She also began teaching at Beethoven grade school, where Catrina Singletary, now 42, was one of her “Beethoven Ballerinas.”

“We lived in the Robert Taylor Homes,” Singletary said. “We lived in the projects. Her presence just demanded respect. She gave us these pep talks — what we can do, who we could be.”

Ms. Cruzat worked to get scholarships for her ballerinas. Made sure they had toe shoes. Introduced them to tennis and gymnastics. Fed them her famous gingersnap cookies.

On weekends, the girls would ask if they could come over to her house.

“We were playing with her clothes, her makeup,” Singletary said. “She just made us feel so wanted.”

Ms. Cruzat’s husband “just sat there and smiled,” Singletary said. “When I told him I wanted to be a nurse, he took me to the hospital” to be introduced to nurses working there. “They told us we could be great.”

Singletary now works at Stroger Hospital and is in school to complete her nursing degree.

In the 1990s, Ms. Cruzat taught exercise classes at Lake Meadows.

She loved frosted lipstick, Royal Secret perfume and unfussy ensembles like jeans with sky-high heels and an arresting piece of jewelry.

She enjoyed jogging and yoga.

She admired ballet stars Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev. Nureyev signed a program for her after a performance, and she always kept it.

In addition to her three children and granddaughter Shanna, Ms. Cruzat is survived by her granddaughters Aliya and Carley.

“I’m not just about dancing,” she once told WLS-TV’s “Windy City Live”. “I’m about [students’] character, their attitude, them being special. You don’t have to be the brightest, and you don’t have to be what they call the prettiest. You find something. I find something in every child I have. And then I make them even more special.”

After all of the classes she taught, she said, “I have a lot of children now.”

Chicago Contemporary Dance Theatre
Millie Cruzat and her students at Chicago Contemporary Dance Theatre.

Read More