Backstory with Larry Potash

Catchy jingles. Pithy slogans. They help tell stories and sell products. But advertising wasn’t always colorful or memorable. The modern form of advertising came into existence in large part ...

During World War II, the U.S. captured hundreds of thousands of German Soldiers. What to do with them all? House them in the United States, of course. In this piece for Backstory, Larry Potas...

One of the most famous and beloved films in history was never made. We’re talking about Walt Disney’s Bambi. During pre-production, there was a particular challenge that Disney and his team c...

Toys are designed to be fun, but are rooted in reality. They mirror what is going on around us in the grown-up world. In this piece for Backstory, Larry Potash goes deep on some of the most p...

There are currently at least 10,000 cults in the United States. Cults have been part of life here going back four centuries. Why is America such a breeding ground for these groups? Larry Pota...

Even intelligent people fall victim to faulty thinking, especially when it comes to science. Some try to use it to validate their spiritual beliefs. In this piece for Backstory, Larry Po...

 It’s a question that anyone who loves movies wants to know. Who was the inspiration for James Bond? In this episode of Backstory, Larry Potash looks at one possibility from Ian Fleming’...

Larry Potash looks at the backstory of what is for some, more than just a board game, but a way of life. See how the 1980s pop culture phenomenon Dungeons and Dragons is thriving a quarter of...

 In a world where everything is explained, magic still offers two increasingly rare commodities--wonder and mystery. Larry Potash does a deep dive on the history of magic in this piece f...

Ray Bradbury is perhaps the bridge between the early visionaries of science fiction and our currently catalogue of Marvel and Star Wars. And it all started just north of Chicago, in Waukegan,...

Science fiction is everywhere in our 21st century culture, from superheroes to spaceships. But there was a time it was an odd subculture. But those in what was an eccentric cir...

He’s been called the “Mexican Lindbergh.” In this piece for Backstory, Larry Potash profiles Emilio Carranza, the famous Mexican aviator who was renowned for his long-distance flights and 192...

In 1974, Dan Walker is shot and killed on a desert highway in the Mojave Desert. After nearly four decades, a break in the case leads Dan’s brother Doug to meet a key witness. Has he solved t...

Crossing the Atlantic in the 15th century was no easy feat. But the Vikings did it 500 years earlier. Larry Potash unearths this story about a replica ship that took the world by storm a...

In this piece for Backstory, Larry Potash asks the question, how does journalism survive? Backstory with Larry Potash airs Sunday nights at 11 on WGN-TV and on smart TVs on the free WGN+...

The Chicago Film Archive is on a mission to preserve. Archiving film footage shot in Chicago and all over the Midwest, preserving not just celluloid memories, but saving history. From protest...

Once upon a time in suburban Chicago, there was a fairly ordinary suburb, with an ordinary high school, with an ordinary janitor. But it turns out the janitor’s backstory was quite extraordin...

Few Americans have captured our attention as much as Abraham Lincoln. More books have been written about him than any other American, and many of them are at a small bookshop in the River Nor...

Most everyone collects something. Coins. Baseball cards. Stamps. For some people, it’s not just a hobby, it’s a passion. But why? In this segment for Backstory, Larry Potash talked to a colle...

 Where and how did the game of golf get its start? And how pivotal was Chicago in the game’s rise in popularity? Larry Potash has the Backstory.Backstory with Larry Potash airs Sunday ni...

So often history class is a bunch of names and dates we’re perhaps remember long enough for test day and then forgotten. But history is rich with stories and too often we get those stori...

Secrets and wartime are common pairings. But what happens when the secret could end a career and alter lives? In this segment for Backstory, Larry Potash profiles a U.S. Army psychologis...

In this segment for Backstory, Larry Potash digs into his own family tree and ancestral DNA. What did he learn?Backstory with Larry Potash airs Sunday nights at 11 on WGN-TV and on smart TVs ...

5,000 children wrongfully removed from their homes, sent to live with total strangers. And the worst part? It was all completely legal. In this Backstory piece, Larry Potash looks at the life...

Before Bond. Before Bourne. There was a real-life man named Thomas Miller Beach, AKA Major Henri Le Caron. His claim to fame? Arguably, he was the world’s first super spy, caught in a four-na...

The Michael Jordan Statue. Some argue this sculpture of the G.O.A.T., unveiled in 1994, ushered in a golden era of monuments to our heroes on the field. Larry Potash has the backstory on it, ...

The guitar has always seemed like the “lead instrument” on stage. Its power chords pushed it to the front and center of radio airwaves. And yet, it seems to come and go from popular music. Th...

A stroll through a neighborhood on the northwest side of Chicago leads a local woman to come across a stone that’s a part of history. Behind the stone? A story of one man caught in two worlds...

Sherlock Holmes started out as a character in a British magazine in the late 19th century. Thus began over a century of pop culture fame, but, more importantly, it began a new way o...

About one in three Americans now has a tattoo somewhere on their body. In this piece for Backstory, Larry Potash looks at the psychology at play inside of those who get tattooed. And ask...

Malls started out as a sort of town center 2.0, eventually becoming staples of suburban life. But with the rise of online shopping, what does the future hold for these icons of American consu...

Nostalgia is a powerful force that permeates every class and demographic. What exactly is its allure? And what is its danger? In this Backstory piece, Larry Potash delves into how nostal...

America's founding fathers go beyond the English. About half of the signers of the Declaration of Independence have Scottish roots. And they remained an influence on America from that momen...

There are more than 750 whiskey and bourbon distillery businesses in the United States. They are growing at a pace of about 15% every year. Dark spirits have made a comeback, in no small pa...

 For centuries, maps have shown us how to get from point A to point B. But they’re much more than that. They’re a record of what people care about. How do you preserve these stories when...

Baseball pre-dates the other main sports in America. And while it’s often referred to as the American Pastime, its origins are steeped in myth. In this Backstory piece, Larry Potash intr...

For thousands of years, the cannabis plant was a crucial crop in helping civilizations evolve, used for products from clothing to medicine. But then in the early 20th century, the Americ...

Martin Scorsese. Leonardo DiCaprio. Nick White. You have probably heard of the first two, but the third has a fascinating story to tell. In this Backstory piece, Larry Potash introduces us to...

It's a Wonderful Life isn't a hit at the box office in 1946. But decades later it becomes a Christmas classic. In this segment for Backstory, Larry Potash unearths the hidden meanings contain...

It was the deadliest maritime disaster in the history of the United States, the sinking of the S.S. Sultana right after the end of the Civil War. And yet, no one was ever convicted of a crime...

Hollywood is the global capital of making movies, but it might not have been if it wasn’t for a man in Chicago. Larry Potash gives us the backstory on one William Selig, a visionary who took ...

 In 1961 Chicagoan Ted Erikson is a 33 year-old chemist who swims as a hobby. What possessed him to attempt to become one of the first to swim across Lake Michigan?  ...

Eight seasons, four pennants, two World Series titles. Not bad for a Cubs owner. Charlies Murphy has been called “the George Steinbrenner” of the early 20th century. In this piece for Ba...

 Elliott Ness and the Untouchables, along with Treasury agent Frank Wilson, were instrumental in taking down Al Capone.However, there was another force working behind the scenes, a group...

How would World War II have turned out if the Nazis had successfully developed Nuclear weapons? And what does a small town in downstate Illinois have to do with preventing that from happening...

From their humble beginnings as simple newspaper strips, to their heyday in mid-20th century America, to their current status as movie franchise generator, the history of comic books is ...

In this piece from Backstory, Larry Potash gives us an ode to that sport of backyards and schoolyards, wiffle ball, seen through the eyes of a Chicago family that’s been playing each other fo...

The Mormon religion was a movement that took its followers from east to west in the middle of the 19th century, including a strong presence in Illinois before ending up in the Utah terri...

People come from all over to the historic Crescent Hotel in Arkansas for its ghost tours, but the backstory of this national landmark is much scarier. Larry Potash traveled to the Ozarks to b...

When it comes to technology, usually people want the latest and greatest. So why are vinyl records making a comeback? For some people, it never went away. Larry Potash goes deep into the...