Mark Caro

Mark Caro is a freelance writer for the Chicago Tribune.

Rudolph Valentino in Chicago, circa 1926. (Chicago American)

Vintage Tribune: Silent film star Rudolph Valentino died holding a grudge against a Chicago editorial writer

August 23, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Some consider Valentino to be the world’s first international sex symbol. Those four syllables, Va-len-ti-no, were enough to set hearts aflutter.

Miles Davis with his trumpet during a studio recording session in October 1959. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

To celebrate Miles Davis at 100, Columbia rereleases Chicago ‘Plugged Nickel’ recordings

March 23, 2026 at 5:30 a.m.

This new release ties into the larger Miles Davis 100 campaign marking the centennial of the trumpeter’s birth on May 26.

The cast of “The Man Trail,” produced by Chicago's Essanay Studios in 1915, gathers for a photo at what is now Illinois Beach State Park in Zion. The buildings in the background were blown up and burned for the film, injuring several people. (Chicago Herald and Examiner)

Vintage Tribune: Chicago movie company Essanay was the Disney of its day

March 15, 2026 at 1:12 p.m.

Chicago-based Essanay Studios made about 2,000 films during its 10-year run, with about 215 thought to have survived.

Robert Downey Jr. in a scene from "Oppenheimer." (Universal Pictures)

Mark Caro: Try our 2024 ‘Os-Caro’ quiz in honor of Sunday’s Academy Awards show

March 8, 2024 at 9:24 a.m.

Test your Academy Awards savvy and torment your cinematic soul with this Oscars quiz.

House Divided

July 31, 2026 at 10:30 a.m.

Trax Records helped launch Chicago’s own music genre, but the artists behind the influential label say they weren’t fairly compensated. Now they’re fighting for what’s theirs.

The Long Haul

July 2, 2026 at 12:48 p.m.

Inside one neurologist’s quest to solve the mystery of COVID’s most puzzling complication.

The Big Truth

July 2, 2026 at 12:52 p.m.

University of Chicago professor Robert Pape has spent the past year and a half examining the January 6 insurrectionists — and sounding the alarm about the future of democracy. Is...

C202201-Reasons-We-Still-Love-Chicago-Live-Music-Cannon-Langford.jpg

Live Music, of All Kinds, Any Day of the Week

July 2, 2026 at 1:10 p.m.

We Chicagoans don’t just love our music clubs; we feel ownership of them. Mere venues of entertainment? No, these are secondary homes where we create cherished, indelible memories. We know...

The Most American Startup Ever

July 2, 2026 at 1:58 p.m.

How Cameo reinvented the monetization of fame for the social-media era.

It’s Liz Phair. What did you expect? ‘Horror Stories’ is her own journey.

October 8, 2019 at 6:37 p.m.

Pity to those who approach a Liz Phair project with their own expectations. Ever since her stunning, out-of-nowhere 1993 debut album, "Exile in Guyville," fans have been clamoring for her...

All Stories