On this date one hundred years ago the Pantagraph announced a new innovation with the local taxi cab company. Linosuine service! Not only were the taxis going to be six cylinder Buicks and Packards, but a new innovation in service was being introduced. Telephones were being installed throughout the city in public spaces that were dedicated lines to the taxi dispatch office. After taxi drivers left their fares in one location they would not return to the taxi garage -- they would drive to the nearest phone and be given a new destination over the phone.
These phones would also be used by the police for enhanced police services in the city. Previously, the police would have relied on private phones in homes or businesses.
Harry D. Saddler was the owner of this new business and AJ Hendryx was the local manager. Later in life, Harry D. Saddler would make a success of writing radio plays, directing them and producing them. He was the head of WLS Radio in 1924, a Chicago station started by Sears. A popular features of WLS was "National Barn Dance." Programming was directed toward farm families and was meant to encourage the purchase of radios -- from Sears of course.