End of the Road
Roman and McKay were members of Victim’s Family, the house team of Del Close and Charna Halpern’s ImprovOlympia. “He was the best one on my team,” says Halpern. Four years ago they’d been students in Philadelphia. “I was going to Temple and doing stand-up at open mikes,” McKay told us. “He was going to Temple part-time and mainly driving horse carriages and doing stand-up in this two-man routine he was in called Gus. One day he said, “I’m going to Chicago,’ and he left.”
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McKay remembered a phrase from Thomas Wolfe that Roman valued: “Catharsis through the threat of chaos.” We asked McKay if it was any consolation that Roman had died in a manner consistent with his understanding of how the world actually operates.
But according to the Tribune, the city bureaucrat the firm was used to dealing with had been shifted in a reorganization plan, and by the time company officials caught up with him a month and a half had gone by. The city did nothing about the crumbling tunnel for another month and a half, and then the wall collapsed.
Even a huge public monopoly can fall on hard times. And this, says Edward Peterson, “corporate responsibility director” of Commonwealth Edison, is absolutely the only reason Edison isn’t funding the Chicago Reporter in 1992.
“Edison’s financial condition is under extreme pressure. As a consequence, it is necessary to hold the line on and even reduce traditional philanthropic giving. This means that it is virtually impossible for us to take on new commitments.
