September 8th, 2006
Chicago’s Lil’ Wally the Polka King has died.
During the 1940s and ’50s, the neon strip of West Division Street between Ashland and Western was known as “Polish Broadway.” The street consisted of 50 polka clubs filled with people dancing until dawn. Hardscrabble writer Nelson Algren took it in from his tiny apartment above a Division Street hardware store. And the night beat was set by Walter E. Jagiello, a k a “Lil’ Wally the Polka King.”
Mr. Jagiello died Thursday of heart failure at a Miami Beach, Fla., hospice. He was 76.
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