In Popular Culture
In 1906 Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, uncovering the horrid conditions in the stockyards around the start of the 20th century. The stockyards are referred to in Carl Sandburg's poem Chicago: "proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation." Frank Sinatra mentioned the yards in his 1964 song "My Kind of Town," and the stockyards receive a mention in the opening chapter of Thomas Pynchon's novel Against the Day. The Skip James song "Hard Times Killing floor blues" refers to the nickname of the slaughter part of the stockyards during the great depression in the 1930s. The Yards were a major tourist stop, with visitors such as Rudyard Kipling, Paul Bourget and Sarah Bernhardt. The play Saint Joan of the Stockyards, a version of the story of Joan of Arc by the German poet, playwright, and theatre director Bertolt Brecht takes place in the stockyards.
Read more about this topic: Union Stock Yards
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