This is another shot of an Uptown newspaper vendor. It harkens up images of Citizen Kane and black-and-white movies with vendors waving newspapers like flags as they shout “Extra. Extra. Read all about it.” Unfortunately, the date isn’t marked on my contact sheet, but I believe this shot was taken in late 1973. The man is selling Chicago Tribunes with the headline “Gas Gougers.” This was shortly after the OPEC oil embargo in October that year doubled gasoline prices almost overnight. Within a year, they would double again.
Selling newspapers in the cold like this was a hard way to make a living. The vendor usually got to keep a few cents on each paper he sold. And you could stand long hours in the cold without selling any! But it was honest work at a time when many people had a hard time finding jobs. The embargo threw the nation into a recession that would last a decade.
