MWSA Review
Sirens in the Loop is a narrative history of the legendary Chicago City News Bureau framed as a collective memoir from the perspectives of many of the news service’s alumni. The title is taken from the traditional alert that went out when squad cars, ambulances, or fire engines took to the streets of the inner city, sending Bureau reporters out in pursuit of the all-important “scoop.”
Founded in the late 19th Century, the CNB was the central hub for local “hard” news coverage in the rapidly growing “City of the Big Shoulders”—an era of sensational scandals, tragedies, and disasters. The bureau was set up by a consortium of the city’s major newspapers as an independent joint enterprise that focused on local “hard” news, allowing its shareholders to concentrate on national and international events. Chicago in the early decades of the 20th century was served by as many as ten daily English-language newspapers, some issuing multiple editions each day.
In its 115-year history, the CNB earned a reputation as the city’s training ground for budding reporters, many of whom moved on to senior positions in print journalism, radio, and television.
Newly hired news writers were quickly thrown into a demanding 24/7 hard-news environment covering police beats, city hall, the Cook county offices, criminal courts, and the coroner’s office. Their work was characterized by long hours, low pay, and relentless pursuit of “the facts”—Who? What? Where? When? How? Why? Hard-nosed Bureau editors were known for sending cub reporters back to a crime scene or a grieving family to confirm the smallest missing detail. The CNB mantra was: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”
The details of the City News legacy in this account are primarily the product of decades of research and archiving by long-term Bureau chief Paul Zimbrakos, who led the organization for more than forty years from 1958 until its closing in 2005. Zimbrakos started his journalism career as a copy boy at the Chicago Daily News before joining City News Bureau as a cub reporter. After a tour in the US Army, he returned to the Bureau and worked his way up the newsroom hierarchy from morgue reporter to the police beat and ultimately long service as its Managing Editor. In the course of his career, Zimbrakos mentored generations of journalists, including Kurt Vonnegut and Mike Royko. His is leadership style was characterized by tough love and an unrelenting demand for accuracy. He was renowned for riding his street reporters on the phone to “get it right, get it fast.”
Zimbrakos augmented his personal recollections with dozens of first-person anecdotes from Bureau veterans who covered some of the major stories of their eras. Unfortunately, he passed away before he could compile and organize his work for publication. That task fell to his long-time friend (and CNB alumnus) James Elsener.
Following his service as a US Marine in Vietnam, co-author James Elsener was hired as a green reporter by Bureau Chief Paul Zimbrakos in 1970. Elsener was immediately thrown into the CNB crucible. In his two-year stint at the Bureau, under Zimbrakos’s tough encouragement, he honed his skills as a news correspondent. As with many CNB veterans, Elsener went on to work with prominent area newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, The Business Ledger, and the Daily Herald before retiring in 2017. He is the author of two novels, The Last Road Trip and Reflections of Valour.
Sirens in the Loop records a unique chapter in American journalism history—and thereby the history of one of our country’s most dynamic and noteworthy cities. Readers with an interest in the roots of modern-day news coverage and the standards of professional journalism will be rewarded by the first-hand accounts of the many men and women who earned their spurs in the demanding environment of the Chicago City News Bureau. Others with a more general interest in the newsworthy events and milestones of 20th-Century Chicago—ranging from the gangland St. Valentine’s Day Massacre to the horrors of serial killer John Wayne Gacy--will be treated to new perspectives into how they were reported to the public.
Review by Peter Adams Young
Author's Synopsis
“Sirens in the Loop” traces the rise and legacy of the City News Bureau of Chicago, the legendary news wire service that shaped generations of reporters and defined the city’s gritty journalistic identity.
Through vivid storytelling, the book explores its founding, its relentless “If your mother says she loves you, check it out” ethos, and the countless scoops, scandals, and characters forged in its chaotic newsroom. From crime scenes to city hall, it chronicles how the bureau’s demanding culture sharpened young reporters’ instincts and left an enduring imprint on American journalism.
“Co-authored by veteran editors Paul Zimbrakos and James Elsener, the narrative traces the agency’s evolution from its founding in 1890 to its “final” closure 115 years later. It offers a front-row seat to Chicago’s most harrowing headlines, including the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the Our Lady of the Angels fire, and the Tylenol murders. Beyond the hard news, the book captures the "Chicago style" of reporting through hundreds of anecdotes from alumni luminaries like Mike Royko, Kurt Vonnegut, and Seymour Hersh.
The title refers to the "Sirens in the Loop" BULLETINS that signaled immediate breaking news to the city’s media outlets. From the clatter of manual typewriters and pneumatic delivery tubes to the digital age, this book stands as a testament to a bygone era of street-smart, high-stakes reporting that shaped the landscape of American journalism.
Format(s) for review: Paper Only
Review genre: Nonfiction—History
Pages/Word count: 272 / 75,000
