The Shocking True Story Behind Chicago 2002
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VOICE OVER: Emily - WatchMojo
WRITTEN BY: Nick Spake
Is the shocking ture story behind "Chicago" (2002) full of razzle-dazzle? For this video, we're looking at the real-life inspiration behind the movie musical "Chicago." Our countdown includes the inspirations for Roxie Hart, Velma Kelly, Billy Flynn, and more!
Script written by Nick Spake
What’s the reality behind all the razzle-dazzle? Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’ll be unraveling the shocking true story behind “Chicago.”
We’re all familiar with the 2002 motion picture “Chicago,” a satirical crime story that became the first musical in almost 34 years to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It’s also common knowledge that this film was based on a 1975 Broadway musical. While a solid success upon release, the Broadway show saw a resurgence of popularity in 1996 following the O.J. Simpson trial, winning the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. What you might not know is that this highly successful film and stage musical derived from a 1926 play by Maurine Dallas Watkins. This non-musical play inspired two lesser-known film adaptations, a 1927 silent picture produced by Cecil B. DeMille and a 1942 comedy entitled “Roxie Hart.” Before the Oscar-winning film, the Tony-winning musical, or even the original play, though, there were two very real court cases that started it all.
Prior to writing “Chicago,” Watkins spent eight months as a Chicago Tribune reporter, her specialty being courthouse stories. Watkins most notably covered the trials of Beulah May Annan and Belva Gaertner. While their cases were unrelated, Watkins noticed several parallels between these two Chicago residents. Both had rocky histories with the men in their lives, both were suspected of murder, and both had considerable evidence working against them. Watkins would become the greatest link behind Annan and Gaertner, however, portraying them both as “jazz babies” who had been victimized by guys and booze. The two main ladies in “Chicago” were ultimately modeled after Annan and Gaertner.
Beulah Annan was the basis for Roxie Hart, an aspiring actress who achieves her dreams of stardom after shooting her lover, Fred Casely, in a fit of passion. Likewise, Annan had an affair with a man named Harry Kalstedt, who she met while working as a bookkeeper at Tennant’s Model Laundry. At the time, Annan was also married to a mechanic named Albert Annan, who served as the inspiration for Roxie’s hopelessly devoted husband, Amos Hart. In “Chicago,” Roxie murders Fred after he lies to her about having connections to the entertainment industry. This differs from reality, as Annan wasn’t seeking fame, although she possibly wanted more out of her humdrum life.
While the motives may’ve been slightly different, Annan did shoot Kalstedt on April 3, 1924. The lovers were in the bedroom that Annan shared with her husband when a heated argument supposedly broke out. According to Annan’s original account of what happened, both her and Kalstedt reached for a gun after drinking wine. Annan got to the weapon first and fired as Kalstedt started getting dressed. Listening to “Hula Lou'' repeatedly, Annan waited for her lover to die before finally calling her husband, claiming that Kalstedt “tried to make love” to her. Annan would alter her story multiple times, at one point confessing and later asserting that it was self-defense. The prosecution, meanwhile, attempted to depict Annan as a woman scorned who turned on Kalstedt when he threatened to leave her.
In the end, Annan claimed that she was pregnant and got into a scuffle with Kalstedt when he found out. Like Roxie, Annan’s pregnancy was fabricated, but it earned her plenty of sympathy points among the all-male jurors and she was acquitted on May 25, 1924. Keeping in character with Amos, Annan’s husband had assembled the best legal defense possible and he remained loyal to his wife until the trial ended. The day after she was freed, however, Annan broke the news that she had left her husband, saying that he was “too slow.”
Where Watkins nicknamed Annan the “beauty of the cell block,” she described Belva Gaertner as the “most stylish of Murderess Row.” Gaertner provided the inspiration for Velma Kelly, a nightclub performer who murders her husband and sister after catching them together. In real life, Gaertner was indeed a cabaret singer, but she allegedly murdered her lover Walter Law, a married father of one. In the “Cell Block Tango” number, Velma claims that she had been drinking and blacked out, finding blood on her hands when she came to. This is similar to the account that Gaertner gave the authorities.
On March 11, 1924, Law was spotted in the driver’s seat of Gaertner’s car with a discharged gun and gin bottle by his side. The following morning, Gaertner was discovered in her apartment, bloody clothing lining the floor. Gaertner confessed that she had been driving Law under the influence of alcohol, but claimed to have no recollection of what happened after. She was subsequently arrested for Law’s murder. At the trial, Law’s friend and co-worker, Pail E. Goodwin, testified against Gaertner. “Walter told me Monday that he planned to take out more life insurance because Mrs. Gaertner threatened to kill him,” Goodwin recounted. “Three weeks before he told me she locked him in her flat with her and threatened to stab him with a knife unless he stayed there.”
Nevertheless, Gaertner stood by her innocence, telling Watkins, “No woman can love a man enough to kill him.” The jury apparently saw eye to eye with Gaertner, as a not guilty verdict was reached in June 1924. It didn’t hurt that Gaertner had a slick lawyer, who painted a narrative where Law took his own life. In “Chicago,” Roxie and Velma both seek legal aid from Billy Flynn, who wins over juries by turning his clients into celebrities. Flynn was a composite character of W. W. O’Brien, who defended Annan, and William Scott Stewart, who defended Gaertner.
Outside of their strong legal defense, Annan and Gaertner did plenty to secure their own freedom. The two even started a fashion school of sorts at the Cook County Jail to make themselves more presentable to the all-male jurors. You’d be naive to think that looks have never factored into a jury’s opinion of the accused. Consider Sabella Nitti, an Italian immigrant who was accused of murdering her missing husband. Where Annan and Gaertner were both glamorized in the press, Nitti was described in the Chicago Daily Tribune as a “dumb, crouching, animal-like Italian peasant.” Although she was innocent, Nitti became Cook Country’s first woman to be sentenced to death. In “Chicago,” Nitti somewhat parallels Katalin Helinszki, a Hungarian inmate who pleads innocence, but is hanged regardless. Nitti nearly met the same fate, but the public’s opinion changed after she received a retrial and a makeover. While the evidence hadn’t changed, Nitti was found innocent this time and many attributed this to her new look.
Although Roxie Hart gets a fairytale ending in “Chicago,” Annan’s life after her trial wasn’t so great, grand, swell, or fun. In 1927, she was briefly married to a boxer named Edward Harlib. Their short-lived marriage ended in a divorce settlement of $5,000, which would be roughly $74,000 by today’s standards. In 1928, Annan died of tuberculosis at age 32. As for Gaertner, she remarried her ex-husband William again in 1925. The couple didn’t stay together long, as yet another divorce was filed the following year. William Gaertner claimed that his wife threatened to kill him and accused her of being an alcoholic. On that note, Mrs. Gaertner was arrested for a DUI that November. Eventually moving in with her sister Ethel Kraushaar, Belva Gaertner died at the age of 80 on May 14, 1965, due to natural causes.
It’s debatable if Watkins’ articles were the main reason why Annan and Gaertner got off. Any way you look at it, though, Watkins’ stories only helped their innocent verdicts. The irony is that Watkins thought both women were guilty and she wasn’t happy about the outcome of either trial. While Watkins wrote nearly 20 other plays, as well as a few screenplays, “Chicago” left the greatest impact. Director Bob Fosse first expressed interest in turning “Chicago” into a stage musical in the 1960s. Watkins turned down his offer, supposedly not wanting to further romanticize Annan or Gaertner. Fosse and Gwen Verdon remained interested in the project, however, reaching out to Watkins numerous times to no chagrin. It wasn’t until Watkins’ death on August 10, 1969, that Fosse, Verdon, and producer Richard Fryer were able to secure the rights from her estate. The franchise that stemmed from Watkins’ stories went on to make hundreds of millions in revenue, win various awards, and all that jazz.
The Shocking True Story Behind Chicago 2002
What’s the reality behind all the razzle-dazzle? Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’ll be unraveling the shocking true story behind “Chicago.”
We’re all familiar with the 2002 motion picture “Chicago,” a satirical crime story that became the first musical in almost 34 years to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It’s also common knowledge that this film was based on a 1975 Broadway musical. While a solid success upon release, the Broadway show saw a resurgence of popularity in 1996 following the O.J. Simpson trial, winning the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. What you might not know is that this highly successful film and stage musical derived from a 1926 play by Maurine Dallas Watkins. This non-musical play inspired two lesser-known film adaptations, a 1927 silent picture produced by Cecil B. DeMille and a 1942 comedy entitled “Roxie Hart.” Before the Oscar-winning film, the Tony-winning musical, or even the original play, though, there were two very real court cases that started it all.
Prior to writing “Chicago,” Watkins spent eight months as a Chicago Tribune reporter, her specialty being courthouse stories. Watkins most notably covered the trials of Beulah May Annan and Belva Gaertner. While their cases were unrelated, Watkins noticed several parallels between these two Chicago residents. Both had rocky histories with the men in their lives, both were suspected of murder, and both had considerable evidence working against them. Watkins would become the greatest link behind Annan and Gaertner, however, portraying them both as “jazz babies” who had been victimized by guys and booze. The two main ladies in “Chicago” were ultimately modeled after Annan and Gaertner.
Beulah Annan was the basis for Roxie Hart, an aspiring actress who achieves her dreams of stardom after shooting her lover, Fred Casely, in a fit of passion. Likewise, Annan had an affair with a man named Harry Kalstedt, who she met while working as a bookkeeper at Tennant’s Model Laundry. At the time, Annan was also married to a mechanic named Albert Annan, who served as the inspiration for Roxie’s hopelessly devoted husband, Amos Hart. In “Chicago,” Roxie murders Fred after he lies to her about having connections to the entertainment industry. This differs from reality, as Annan wasn’t seeking fame, although she possibly wanted more out of her humdrum life.
While the motives may’ve been slightly different, Annan did shoot Kalstedt on April 3, 1924. The lovers were in the bedroom that Annan shared with her husband when a heated argument supposedly broke out. According to Annan’s original account of what happened, both her and Kalstedt reached for a gun after drinking wine. Annan got to the weapon first and fired as Kalstedt started getting dressed. Listening to “Hula Lou'' repeatedly, Annan waited for her lover to die before finally calling her husband, claiming that Kalstedt “tried to make love” to her. Annan would alter her story multiple times, at one point confessing and later asserting that it was self-defense. The prosecution, meanwhile, attempted to depict Annan as a woman scorned who turned on Kalstedt when he threatened to leave her.
In the end, Annan claimed that she was pregnant and got into a scuffle with Kalstedt when he found out. Like Roxie, Annan’s pregnancy was fabricated, but it earned her plenty of sympathy points among the all-male jurors and she was acquitted on May 25, 1924. Keeping in character with Amos, Annan’s husband had assembled the best legal defense possible and he remained loyal to his wife until the trial ended. The day after she was freed, however, Annan broke the news that she had left her husband, saying that he was “too slow.”
Where Watkins nicknamed Annan the “beauty of the cell block,” she described Belva Gaertner as the “most stylish of Murderess Row.” Gaertner provided the inspiration for Velma Kelly, a nightclub performer who murders her husband and sister after catching them together. In real life, Gaertner was indeed a cabaret singer, but she allegedly murdered her lover Walter Law, a married father of one. In the “Cell Block Tango” number, Velma claims that she had been drinking and blacked out, finding blood on her hands when she came to. This is similar to the account that Gaertner gave the authorities.
On March 11, 1924, Law was spotted in the driver’s seat of Gaertner’s car with a discharged gun and gin bottle by his side. The following morning, Gaertner was discovered in her apartment, bloody clothing lining the floor. Gaertner confessed that she had been driving Law under the influence of alcohol, but claimed to have no recollection of what happened after. She was subsequently arrested for Law’s murder. At the trial, Law’s friend and co-worker, Pail E. Goodwin, testified against Gaertner. “Walter told me Monday that he planned to take out more life insurance because Mrs. Gaertner threatened to kill him,” Goodwin recounted. “Three weeks before he told me she locked him in her flat with her and threatened to stab him with a knife unless he stayed there.”
Nevertheless, Gaertner stood by her innocence, telling Watkins, “No woman can love a man enough to kill him.” The jury apparently saw eye to eye with Gaertner, as a not guilty verdict was reached in June 1924. It didn’t hurt that Gaertner had a slick lawyer, who painted a narrative where Law took his own life. In “Chicago,” Roxie and Velma both seek legal aid from Billy Flynn, who wins over juries by turning his clients into celebrities. Flynn was a composite character of W. W. O’Brien, who defended Annan, and William Scott Stewart, who defended Gaertner.
Outside of their strong legal defense, Annan and Gaertner did plenty to secure their own freedom. The two even started a fashion school of sorts at the Cook County Jail to make themselves more presentable to the all-male jurors. You’d be naive to think that looks have never factored into a jury’s opinion of the accused. Consider Sabella Nitti, an Italian immigrant who was accused of murdering her missing husband. Where Annan and Gaertner were both glamorized in the press, Nitti was described in the Chicago Daily Tribune as a “dumb, crouching, animal-like Italian peasant.” Although she was innocent, Nitti became Cook Country’s first woman to be sentenced to death. In “Chicago,” Nitti somewhat parallels Katalin Helinszki, a Hungarian inmate who pleads innocence, but is hanged regardless. Nitti nearly met the same fate, but the public’s opinion changed after she received a retrial and a makeover. While the evidence hadn’t changed, Nitti was found innocent this time and many attributed this to her new look.
Although Roxie Hart gets a fairytale ending in “Chicago,” Annan’s life after her trial wasn’t so great, grand, swell, or fun. In 1927, she was briefly married to a boxer named Edward Harlib. Their short-lived marriage ended in a divorce settlement of $5,000, which would be roughly $74,000 by today’s standards. In 1928, Annan died of tuberculosis at age 32. As for Gaertner, she remarried her ex-husband William again in 1925. The couple didn’t stay together long, as yet another divorce was filed the following year. William Gaertner claimed that his wife threatened to kill him and accused her of being an alcoholic. On that note, Mrs. Gaertner was arrested for a DUI that November. Eventually moving in with her sister Ethel Kraushaar, Belva Gaertner died at the age of 80 on May 14, 1965, due to natural causes.
It’s debatable if Watkins’ articles were the main reason why Annan and Gaertner got off. Any way you look at it, though, Watkins’ stories only helped their innocent verdicts. The irony is that Watkins thought both women were guilty and she wasn’t happy about the outcome of either trial. While Watkins wrote nearly 20 other plays, as well as a few screenplays, “Chicago” left the greatest impact. Director Bob Fosse first expressed interest in turning “Chicago” into a stage musical in the 1960s. Watkins turned down his offer, supposedly not wanting to further romanticize Annan or Gaertner. Fosse and Gwen Verdon remained interested in the project, however, reaching out to Watkins numerous times to no chagrin. It wasn’t until Watkins’ death on August 10, 1969, that Fosse, Verdon, and producer Richard Fryer were able to secure the rights from her estate. The franchise that stemmed from Watkins’ stories went on to make hundreds of millions in revenue, win various awards, and all that jazz.
