Americana: What Makes Jane Burn?

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For Chicago, 1980 has been just one calamity after another. First, the city's bond rating was lowered, raising Chicago's interest rates. Next, Mayor Jane Byrne had to lock labor negotiators behind closed doors until they agreed on a contract to end a two-week teachers' strike. Then, on Valentine's Day, almost all the city's 4,300 fire fighters struck.

But what really burned Her Honor was a picture taken last summer by her official photographer, Martha Leonard. It shows the mayor and her daughter Kathy, 22, mugging as gangsters' molls with Comedians John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd, who were in Chicago to film the movie The Blues Brothers. Kathy thought the photo was "cute" and permitted Leonard to give a print to Us magazine. Byrne reacted like a gangbuster, demoting Leonard to the photo pool, with a pay reduction from $21,000 to $15,000. Leonard quit. Said she: "The photo was shot when the city had fewer problems and there was time to play." At week's end a blizzard was heading toward Chicago.