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My mother is the one that introduced me to The Twirling Man. She told me he was the “twirling man from the news”. He would twirl on local news broadcasts and wear these bright zoot suits. My mom ventured and said “hello” to him. She told him that she loved his suits and his twirling. He replied, “Thank you, beautiful.” My mother grinned widely and gushed to us about how fun he is. In the spirit of “Mom’s Week” here on Octavarius, here is a post especially for my mom.
Many Chicagoans and suburbanites have seen this man dancing on the bridges and streets in Chicago and on local Chicago news broadcasts. There are many many rumors and stories about who he is and why he spends most of his days twirling and dancing in a bright zoot suit. Some say he was blind and had his sight returned and has danced for the rest of his life, some say he’s crazy and homeless, some say he’s a billionaire that retired and dances for fun. I found out who he is and much much more.
Vincent P. Falk
Thanks to a great story on Chicago Tribune.com I found out that his name is Vincent P. Falk and he is a retiree who was a computer programmer who also worked for Cook County for 20 years. He lives in the famous Marina City condos (shown behind him in the above photo). He was abandoned as an infant and born with glaucoma advanced enough that he was declared legally blind. He was eventually adopted from an orphanage in Chicago and went on to study at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Vincent also has a movie about him that is showing at film festivals this season! A young documentarian decided to make a film about him over one summer in Chicago. Here is the teaser trailer:
Octavarius does our best to find fun wherever we can. Vincent makes fun wherever he goes. Vincent, to me, is a breath of fresh nonsense in a world preoccupied with making sense. Whenever I see him, he makes my day better. That’s pretty neat. The following is a compilation of some of Vincent’s appearances on local news.
I know, those suits are pretty fun. Right?
