Chicago's nationally known Blackhawk Restaurant, mecca of name bands and a generation of college boys, was closed down for two days last week by a city Board of Health order. Reason: the Blackhawk was selling horse meat camouflaged as hamburger.
The action capped a series of disturbing events touched off a month ago, when OPS discovered that Illinois racketeers were making fat profits by selling horse meat (ceiling price 14¢) at the 59¢ ceiling for ground beef. Charles W. Wray was fired as boss of the state's Division of Food and Dairies after confessing that he had accepted some $3,500 in bribes from the racketeers. Since then, nine of Wray's inspectors have been fired and four restaurants closed down. Five separate investigations are under way, and two grand juries will soon get into the act. This week Chicago's Chief Food Inspector Gustav O. Hermann, under fire from the municipal Board of Health, handed in hia resignation.
His opponents hope that Democratic Governor Adlai Stevenson has been hurt politically by the disclosure of corruption in his administration; the Chicago Tribune promptly coined a new word, "Adlai-burger." And the sizzling scandal inevitably has produced almost as much corn as horse meat. Sample: the story about the counterman who asked a hamburger customer: "How will you have it—to win, place or show?"