In the fall of 1889, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr opened Hull House on Chicago’s Near West Side, full of good intentions to help the poor people of the neighborhood. They were a force for good, providing education, cultural enrichment, and workforce development, while fighting for protections for women and children. But because of their backgrounds, they also missed important cultural dimensions of their immigrant neighbors and feuded with the ward’s Irish Catholic alderman. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Terrence J. McDonald, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Michigan and author of Nearly Neighbors: Jane Addams, Johnny Powers, and the Progressive Political Imagination.

Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Chicago (That toddling town),” composed by Fred Fisher and performed by the Georgians on November 29, 1922, in New York City; the audio is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is a photograph of Jane Addams from circa 1896; the image is in the public domain and is available via the Swarthmore College Jane Addams Collection.

Additional Sources:

• Jane Addams Papers Project, Ramapo College of New Jersey
• Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
• “Jane Addams,” The Nobel Prize
• “Jane Addams: Together We Rise [video],” Chicago Stories, WTTW, October 20, 2023.
• Ellen Gates Starr papers, Smith College
• The Life and Times of Florence Kelley, Northwestern University School of Law
• “JOHN POWERS DIES AT 78.; He Served 38 Years as an Alderman in Chicago,” The New York Times, May 20, 1930.
• “Government, City of Chicago,” by Loomis Mayfield, Encyclopedia of Chicago.

Buddy Bradley, born in the Jim Crow South in 1905, made his way to Harlem at age 16 where he learned to tap dance and became a chorus boy. He was sought out on Broadway as both teacher and choreographer, but never got the credit he deserved, and he moved to London in the 1930s where he had a hugely successful career as a dance director on stage and in film. Although his name isn’t well known today, his influence lives on in dance. Joining me in this episode is Maureen Footer, author of Feel the Floor: Restoring the Life and Legacy of Jazz Choreographer Buddy Bradley.

Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “That 'jazz' dance,” composed by W. Benton Overstreet and performed by Handy’s Orchestra on September 21, 1917, in New York City; the recording is in the public domain and is available through the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is Buddy Bradley teaching at the West End dance school; the image is used under a Creative Commons license and is held in the Mander & Mitchenson Collection of the University of Bristol Theatre Collection.

Additional Sources:

• “Buddy Bradley, Director And Choreographer, Dead,” The New York Times, July 25, 1972.
• “Harlem’s ‘Buddy’ Bradley, Tap Dancer And The First African-American To Run A British ‘White Company,” Harlem World Magazine, April 23, 2018.
• “Buddy Bradley: Unsung Hero of the British Musical Stage,” by Annette Walker, August 20, 2023;Published version available from Black Ink, Issue 4, 20 September 2023.
• “Buddy Bradley,” Tap Legacy.
• “‘Oh, You Black Bottom!’ Appropriation, Authenticity, and Opportunity in the Jazz Dance Teaching of 1920s,” by Danielle Robinson, Dance Research Journal. 2006;38(1-2):19-42.

During World War II, afraid that major league baseball would need to pause while men were overseas fighting, Philip K. Wrigley, chewing gum mogul and owner of the Chicago Cubs, spearheaded a new professional ball league, this one made up of women players. In the twelve years of All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League play, over 600 women had the chance to play professionally, earning substantial salaries and delighting fans across the Midwest. Joining me in this episode is baseball historian Dr. Leslie Heaphy, Associate Professor of History at Kent State University Stark Campus, chair of the The Women in Baseball Committee of the The Society for American Baseball Research, and editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Baseball.

Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “That Baseball Rag,” composed by Clarence Jones with lyrics by Dave Wolff; this recording by vocalist Arthur Collins, from June 12, 1913, is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is Dottie Schroeder, catcher, shouting play ball, on April 22, 1948; the image is in the public domain and is available via the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.

Discussed in this episode:

• Women’s Pro Baseball League
• Women’s Baseball World Cup
• Kelsie Whitmore
• Denae Benites
• Ashton Lansdell
• Mo'ne Davis

Additional Sources:

• All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association
• “Before A League of Their Own,” by Sam Carr, National Baseball Hall of Fame.
• The Incredible Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, by Anika Orrock, Chronicle Books, 2020.
• When Women Played Hardball, by Susan E. Johnson, Seal Press, 1994.
• “All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Interviews,” Grand Valley State University Libraries.