By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
January 29, 2004
Oprah Winfrey’s impact extends to the nation and the world, but here at home, we claim her as a Chicagoan — a Garrett-popcorn-eating, lakefront-jogging, North Michigan-Avenue-shopping one.
She occupies a unique place in the cityscape: She’s our most famous face, but she’s definitely operating in a larger realm. She might not be available for every last charity function, but hey — she just might show up with a $1 million check. She might live at a tony address, but she brought her studio, Harpo, into the West Loop before it was trendy. And while just about any expert would be at her beck and call, she’ll also promote homegrown talent.
The foundation of her empire, Harpo, where “The Oprah Winfrey Show” is filmed, employs 207 people, and her guests pump money into local hotels and restaurants. According to Crain’s Chicago Business, revenue from the talk show topped $240 million in 2002, a 20 percent increase from the previous year. The show is syndicated to 214 domestic markets and 107 countries.
“Oprah is a positive role model for all entrepreneurs,” says the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce’s Joe Balasa. “She and her organization are interwoven into the business community of our city. When the world’s most powerful female entrepreneur happens to reside and operate out of Chicago, it says something good about our city.”
And even Mayor Daley has something good to say about her. “Oprah Winfrey is quite possibly the most successful woman we’ve seen in the last century,” he said. “She is extremely disciplined and hard-working and has a natural ability to draw people to her.”
Her philanthropy has been well documented. Winfrey has donated more than $50 million to charity, including 50 local organizations. Among them: the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Children’s Memorial Hospital and the Chicago Academy of the Arts.
At a dinner that benefited Chicago’s Providence St. Mel School, Winfrey handed the institution a shoebox full of money she had raised selling some of her old clothes. To it, she added her own donation: a check for $1 million. She also gave a cool $1 million to Millennium Park, where her name appears on a donor tribute.
Winfrey’s kindness extends to everyday folk as well. When one Chicago woman found herself doing a cardio workout next to Winfrey at the East Bank Club, she told Winfrey that her father-in-law, who had just been released from a Florida hospital, had been unsuccessful in procuring tickets to a taping of her show during his Thanksgiving visit. Winfrey made sure the woman’s parents were on the guest list.
Her other local causes include Civitas, a local non-profit organization designed to educate parents on the skills of parenting, where she holds a place on the board. She and longtime boyfriend Stedman Graham sponsored “COLOR: The Chicago Black Fine Art Exposition” at Navy Pier in 2000, featuring works from 44 galleries that represent notable artists of African descent, including Jacob Lawrence, Horace Pippin, Elizabeth Catlett and W.H. Johnson. And she and Graham taught a graduate-level class, “Dynamics of Leadership,” at Northwestern University.
Her show made a star out of local interior designer Nate Berkus when she selected him to make over viewers’ homes. When she hired him to design her fabulous walk-in closet at Harpo, she was telling the world, “Hey, if he’s good enough for you all, he’s good enough for me.”
And as for her famous 50th? She’ll celebrate her big day with a special show at 9 a.m. on WLS-Channel 7 that promises to feature a star-studded lineup, a 400-pound cake, and more than 10,000 flowers — live from Chicago.
