When you think of important people who’ve shaped Wisconsin, who comes to mind? Madison author Dean Robbins came up with 100 different answers, and he wrote about them in his new essay collection, Wisconsin Idols: 100 Heroes Who Changed the State, the World, and Me. The book, which comes out April 1, offers a unique perspective on legendary figures with often surprising connections to the Badger State.
The subjects range from certified state icons, such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Georgia O’Keeffe and Chris Farley, to unexpected choices such as the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Harrison Ford and Joni Mitchell. Each short essay tells the story of these figures’ significance and connection to Wisconsin with humor, wit and reverence. Robbins puts on personal spin on these stories, written based on interviews, intensive research and what he describes as lifelong obsessions.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
“I’ve always been fascinated by certain heroic figures, ever since I was a kid,” Robbins says. “It started off with Superman, then I moved on to real-life people like Harry Houdini. The pantheon then expanded to great artists, activists and athletes. I’ve always been fascinated by people who have shown exceptional courage, integrity and vision.”
Robbins said the foundation for Wisconsin Idols is to get readers emotionally invested in these figures, too. An ailing Elvis Presley stops a late-night fight on the streets of Madison; Oprah Winfrey learns a life-changing lesson about empathy during her impoverished Milwaukee childhood; Jackie Robinson defies racial barriers to form a friendship with a young white fan from Sheboygan; and twin-sister advice columnists Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren sharpen their listening skills during a momentous decade in Eau Claire.
The book also features Willem Dafoe, Spencer Tracy, Jim Lovell, Hattie McDaniel and a host of other well-known figures. Robbins spoke of his especially deep affinity for Houdini, who spent part of his childhood in Appleton.
“Houdini was someone who inspired me as a kid, and I have to admit that it was in the back of my mind when I moved to Wisconsin from St. Louis,” he says. “I had spent my childhood imitating him, not just as someone who could escaped from handcuffs and straightjackets, but he was an immigrant from Hungary, and he inspired other immigrants with the idea of just being able to break free from any restraint that life throws at you. That was always such a thrilling idea to me.”
Wisconsin Idols also introduces lesser-known heroes such as Viola Smith, renowned as “the fastest girl drummer in the world;” Jeffrey Erlanger, the boy in the electric wheelchair who touched millions of people in a famous episode of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood;” Caroline Quarlls and Joshua Glover, enslaved people who escaped to freedom on a harrowing journey through the state’s Underground Railroad; and Meinhardt Raabe, who achieved lasting fame as the Munchkin coroner in The Wizard of Oz.
“The book is full of people who have either lived in Wisconsin or had a significant experience while passing through. That was the first criterion,” Robbins says. “The second was that they had to have a transformative effective on the wider world. They also had to be meaningful to me personally, since it’s a book of personal essays. Everybody here is someone who I have been researching or revering my whole life, or who has inspired me, or whose poster I had up on my wall, or who I’ve tried to model myself after.”
Among the lesser-known figures featured in the book is Frank Morgan, a jazz saxophonist who was mentored by the legendary Charlie Parker.
“But, like Parker, he descended into drug addiction and he became a criminal to support his habit,” Robbins says of Morgan. “He spent basically the next 30 years in jail and everyone forgot about him. He was able to play in the prison band, but his development was kind of frozen in time. He played that bebop style from the 1950s for 30 years in the prison band. It kept him sane and alive, basically. When he was released, he recorded another album. He wanted to stay clean and he didn’t want to let people down, so he moved to Milwaukee where he had grown up to be around family members.”
The last requirement Robbins had? “They all had to have a dramatic story that was fun to tell,” he says. “Something where I could surprise readers with little-known details or a new angle on a person they already know, or introduce them to somebody they might not know at all.”
Wisconsin Idols is Robbins’ first book for adults. He’s also an acclaimed author of nonfiction children’s books – including The Shape of Things, You are a Star Jane Goodall, and Margaret and the Moon – as well as a journalist and arts critic.
Robbins will appear at Boswell Books (2559 N. Downer Ave.) on April 23 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the book.
