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Born in the "Smoky
Hollow" neighborhood on Chicago's near north side, Smiley William J. Corbett
(1867–1920),▼1 was one of seven children born to Irish immigrants Michael and Mary
Corbett. John and Mary had married in Ireland the same day they sailed for America.
They first settled in Buffalo, NY and relocated to Chicago in 1880. In between, John
fought with the Union Army and Mary went along to serve as a field nurse. (They
had three children then but nothing was reported to indicate if they traveled along with
their parents to war.)
Smiley spent a few years in the Chicago coroners office before turning to booze, first earning his
living selling Lemp beer (that
eventually became Falstaff), then beer and wine, then operating the Lamb Cafe on
Randolph St. at the corner of Clark St. His reputation was that of a hearty drinker and life of the party.
His death at age fifty-two of cirrhosis of the liver might have been predicted. His
happy charm served him well, however, and by 1900 he and his wife, Mae,▼2 gave home to his
mother and two of his siblings,▼3 and could afford a domestic servant.
Smiley Corbett was a member of Chicago's fan club for boxing legend Jim
Corbett
Boxing history fans might enjoy the story of an afternoon in 1898 in which boxer
Gentleman Jim Corbett
played sandlot football with Smiley Corbett. In August 1903, four months before the
fire, Smiley and Tom Hanton had both lost their bets on Corbett when he lost a fight to
Boilermaker James Jackson Jefferies. Coincidentally, manager of the Iroquois Theater
Will J. Davis was a boxing fan and in 1893 had invited Corbett to train at his Indiana
farm for Corbett's January, 1894 fight in Jacksonville, FL with
Charlie Mitchell. Corbett agreed but ultimately trained at Mayport. A contributing
factor to the cancellation may have been that Davis closed the Haymarket Theater rather
than playing Corbett during the summer. Early sales were too poor to justify a summer
run. Davis nonetheless bet $2,000 on the Corbett-Mitchell fight. (Inflation adj.:
$75k)
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In the years after the fire
In 1912 Corbett and his business partner John Wilmer signed a fifteen-year lease on the
Kedzie building for $15k annually, planning to spend $100k on remodeling to convert the
top eight floors to one hundred hotel rooms. The new City Hall Square Hotel was expected
to be ready for occupancy by September 1, 1912. The front would feature white tile and
French plate glass windows and inside there would be a center court. The hotel was
sold soon after Corbett's death.
In 1913
Smiley participated in a committee to organize a banquet at the
Hotel Sherman for
George M. Cohan (who
then owned Chicago's
Grand Opera House). The group of characters on the committee included newspaperman and
playwright George Ade, boxing manager Lou Houseman, former Iroquois theater manager Will
J. Davis, Pinkerton Detectives head, William Pinkerton, and animal collector Frank H.
Buck.
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Discrepancies and addendum
1. 1867 birth year based on his passport, death certificate and 1900 U.S. Census.
The 1870 and 1880 Census report birth year as 1868.
2. Mae Doran and
Corbett married in 1898. That's all I've learned about her. I suspect she
sold the City Hall Hotel after Smiley's death and used the proceeds to purchase a pricey
apartment house.
3. Including his brother John J. Cobett (1863–1919) who
became a very wealthy contractor, realtor, coal operator and owner of the Edgewater
Beach Hotel. Curiously, John did not marry and William did not have children, so
Michael Corbett's bloodline ended in 1920.
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