[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 60 (Tuesday, May 4, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E738]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING MR. HOTS MICHELS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. HENRY J. HYDE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 4, 2004

  Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call your attention to Hots 
Michels, one of Chicago's best liked and most enduring entertainers. 
During his 50-year musical career, Hots has played for three different 
Presidents and many famous people Including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Abbott and 
Costello and Bob Hope.
  In case you didn't know it, the ``piano bar'' began in Chicago, where 
people would gather around a piano and sing away their troubles to a 
wonderful guy like Hots.
  Hots started in the old Sherman House Hotel at Clark and Randolph in 
Chicago. It was the original piano bar across the street from City Hall 
where politicians, union leaders and the media gathered. More recently 
he has been playing at the Chicago Chop House for the last 18 years, 
entertaining the throngs of individuals visiting the ``Windy City.''
  On May 2, the Chicago Sun-Times featured Hots Michels in an article 
entitled, `` `Piano Player to the Stars': Hots Michels.'' Today, I am 
pleased to share this article with my colleagues in recognition of 
Hots, a guy who still knows how to pack them in.

              ``Piano Player to the Stars'': Hots Michels

       Strangers in the night are the only people who tip piano 
     player Hots Michels. He's got too many pals.
       ``I was never a tip guy, mainly because people knew me too 
     well,'' Hots says. ``I'd be in business with them, how could 
     I take a tip? And I wouldn't want to; it would have to be 
     from a stranger.''
       Hots has a fishbowl on his piano in the Chop House, just in 
     case any strangers drop by.
       Hots Michels is the original Chicago piano bar guy. The 
     gang at the bar in the Chicago Chop House busts his chops and 
     calls him ``the pianist to the stars!'' He has tickled the 
     ivories for the likes of Zsa Zsa Gabor, Abbott and Costello, 
     Bob Hope, Don Rickles, Sidney Poitier, Nat King Cole and 
     Wayne Newton. One night while plunking the 88s at the 
     Sherman House, he saw a face peek through the curtains 
     from the dining room. The face belonged to another piano 
     player who had just retired and was on a book tour. Hots 
     says, ``The maitre d' came over to me and said, `President 
     Truman would like you to join him.' ''
       He's had pops with three different presidents (Truman, 
     Reagan, Bush I) and said prayers with the Pope. He's been 
     playing piano in saloons for more than 50 years. How old is 
     he? ``That's an unpublished number.''
       He's no teenager but he sure looks good for his age.
       Hots started out in Little Flower Parish near 79th and 
     Ashland. How did he get the name ``Hots''?
       ``I have no idea,'' he says, ``It has nothing to do with 
     music.''
       Did your parents name you Hots? ``Hots Michels, yeah.'' 
     Gotcha.
       His dad, Walt, was a musician and songwriter, and Hots must 
     have it in his genes. ``I play by ear, I can't read music. I 
     don't know what it was, but anything that had to do with a 
     formal education, I just went south. I have no idea how I 
     really got to play the piano, but hey, thank God.''
       Chicago Chop House owner John Pontarelli says, ``He can 
     probably play 2,000 songs.''
       The piano bar was born in the old Sherman House Hotel at 
     Clark and Randolph. Hots says, ``They had the College Inn, 
     the Porterhouse Room and the Well of the Sea. We had 
     strolling violins at the Porterhouse Room, and in between was 
     a little lounge where people would sit and wait to be called 
     to a table. Someone got the idea, just put a piano in there 
     and entertain `em while they're in there. Then someone said, 
     well let's build a bar around it. All by accident, it wasn't 
     planned. They did, and it's hard to believe but people would 
     wait in line to sit at the piano bar because it was so new.'' 
     It's karaoke with class.
       The Sherman House was across the street from City Hall. 
     Pols would wander over for a couple of carnables along with 
     union leaders and media folk, and most of them became friends 
     with Hots over the years. Along the way he was involved in a 
     multitude of schemes.
       ``Piano was never enough for me. I was involved in other 
     things all my life. I had a small loan business, used cars, 
     Christmas trees, launched a new lipstick, bubble bath, radio 
     stations in Alaska, Mill Run Playhouse, video games. I had a 
     detective agency. We were in the slot machine business, 
     drilled oil three times in my life, had a burial vault 
     company in Melrose Park, and on and on and on.''
       Hots and his friend Hal White raised championship hogs in 
     their backyard in Beverly and entered them in an 
     international livestock show. ``We took grand champion of the 
     show.''
       On the wall next to his piano is a picture of the two city 
     slickers crossing the Rock Island Line tracks with their two 
     prize pigs, Lightgreen and Coolbreeze.
       Hots used to wear a turban at the piano when he was doing 
     his act, ``The Musical Wizard of Mental Telepathy.'' Folks 
     would conceal the name of a song on a piece of paper and Hots 
     would tear it up and play it for them on the piano. The gang 
     at the Chop House says, ``Carnac stole his act!''
       He's been playing from 5 to 8 p.m. every weekday at the 
     Chop House for the last 18 years. The joint is drenched in 
     Chicago history with thousands of photos of the toddling 
     town's sinners and saints, including Sally Rand sitting nude 
     on a horse, a gallery of gangsters and every mayor in the 
     history of the city. Grab a stool at the piano bar and 
     request a tune from Hots. If you feel like singing, he'll be 
     your accompanist. I ask him what's the most requested song 
     and he says, ``'As Time Goes By,' requested by the young and 
     the old.'' It's still the same old story.
       If you're lucky, Joe Sullivan might stop by to do some 
     crooning at the bar. Hots says, ``He owns Clark & Barlow 
     Hardware, but Joe could have easily made it in show business. 
     He brings down the house.'' I've watched Pete Nolan warble 
     here with hand moves and phrasing that rival Sinatra's.
       It's not just the music that draws you to Hots' piano. 
     There's a camaraderie among those half-dozen stools as we 
     listen to him play his favorites. One night Charlie Carey and 
     I were chillin' with Hots, and Charlie mentioned that he was 
     on his way to Washington, D.C. Hots picked up the phone next 
     to his piano, called his best friend, U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, 
     and handed Charlie the phone. Lobbyists charge heavily for 
     that kind of clout, but Hots was just putting two pals 
     together.
       After a half century of playing piano in saloons and more 
     than a few cockeyed business schemes, Hots tells me, ``I have 
     no beefs.''
       He's been around long enough to know that only suckers 
     beef.

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