Al Booth is desperately seeking a white knight for a damsel in distress–or at least that’s the impression he’s trying hard to convey. The damsel, in this case, is the Talman Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert, a weekly event at the Public Library Cultural Center that regularly draws a standing-room-only crowd of more than 400 and is broadcast live on WFMT to an even wider audience; Booth is its creator and guiding spirit.
“Al is trying to portray us as the heavy in this whole thing,” counters Jim Sherman, Talman’s director of corporate communications and one of the honchos who broke the bad news to Booth. “He knew this was coming.” From his company’s point of view, the cutback is an unfortunate consequence of the federal regulators’ demand that savings and loan associations increase their capital requirements. Talman is financially sound, Sherman says, but it’s paying for the sins of its less cautious brethren.
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In 1975, back in town, Booth approached Margaret Hillis, conductor of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, about a sing-along Messiah in Orchestra Hall. “She was all for it. And with her on board, we got backers.” Their collaboration started a trend, widely chronicled and enthusiastically embraced by cities across the country. Its success convinced Booth to pursue his other idea.
