History, Jazz, and Getting Away with Murder in Chicago

Chicago is set in Cook County Jail for female inmates in 1924, just four short years after the ratification of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote (Smentkowski, Levy, 2024). — Well, some women, anyway . . . Bob Fosse and John Kander created Chicago based on Maureen Dallas Watkins’ original play depicting the true stories of accused Chicago murderers Beulah Annan, Belva Gaertner, Sabella Nitti, and Katherine “Kitty Malm” Baluk (Perry, 2010). The slick lawyer Billy Flynn was based on a combination of real-life attorneys, William Scott Stewart and W.W. O’Brien (Berg, 2022). In the early 1920s, the city of Chicago developed a pop culture fascination with high-profile cases involving women killing their husbands and lovers (especially if the women were attractive). Bob Fosse’s Chicago hit the stage exactly one year after the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was passed, allowing women the independence of obtaining credit without a man’s signature (Perry, 2010). Amid the jazz, dance, and laughs, it’s hard to miss the social commentary on the importance placed on beauty and the position of women in the 1920s, 1970s, and today — if you know the real-life backstory of the Merry Murderesses of Cook County Jail. <a href="https://medium.com/@redpencreations/history-jazz-and-getting-away-with-murder-in-chicago-abdff9b2789f">Visit Now</a>