Meet the neighbors

In 1968, with £70 in hand, Tony Elliott produced the first issue of Time Out London, dated August 12–September 2. From such humble beginnings—including listings for a concert of “music composed with and played by computer,” a museum exhibition titled “200 Years of Jigsaw Puzzles” and a “Meet the fuzz” section admitting there was “nothing much on” at that time in terms of protest marches (decidedly not the case in Chicago)—a global brand emerged. Forty years later, 26 Time Out editions are published worldwide. We’re pleased to present, here and on the following two pages, some of the fruits of our global 40th anniversary celebration: a selection of this week’s covers and a compilation of 40 Time Out cultural heroes from around the world. We’ll help you join in on more of the global fun at timeoutchicago.com/heroes. Visit the site to immerse yourself in our hometown honorees.

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Time Outs worldwide picked their own cultural heroes—here’s a look.

1 Michael Bloomberg
(Mayor), New York

2 Sir David Tang
(entrepreneur), Hong Kong

3 Wladimir Klitschko
(boxer), Kiev

4 Tony Kushner
(playwright), New York

5 Salman Rushdie
(writer), Mumbai

6 M.F. Husain
(artist), Mumbai

7 Jaume Plensa
(sculptor), Barcelona

8 Calixto Bieito
(theater director), Barcelona

9 Elie Saab
(fashion designer), Beirut

10 Amitabh Bachchan
(actor), Mumbai

11 Jamie Oliver
(chef), London

12 Anjali Gopalan
(gay-rights activist), Mumbai

13 Ion Caramitru
(director), Bucharest

14 Gia
(musician), Beijing

15 Michalis Hatzigiannis
(musician), Cyprus

16 Ivan Marchuk
(artist), Kiev

17 Mariska Majoor
(prostitute-rights activist), Amsterdam

18 Noor Adlan Bin Zulkifli
(Paralympian-coach), Kuala Lumpur

19 Rineke Dijkstra
(photographer), Amsterdam

20 Dana International
(musician), Tel Aviv

21 Vyacheslav Polunin
(clown), Moscow

22 Nuri Bilge Ceylan
(film director), Istanbul

23 Elif Safak
(writer), Istanbul

24 Andrei Arshavin
(footballer), St. Petersburg

25 Vivienne Tam
(designer), Hong Kong

26 Clive James
(writer, TV personality, raconteur), Sydney

27 Helen Mirren
(actress), London

28 Jay-Z
(musician), New York

29 Mohammed Saeed Harib
(animator), Dubai

30 Dan Perjovschi
(artist), Bucharest

31 Donna Ong
(artist), Singapore

32 Ai Weiwei
(artist), Beijing

33 Tina Fey
(writer, actress), New York

34 Jorge Silva Melo
(director), Lisbon

35 Jing Quek
(photographer), Singapore

36 Sezen Aksu
(musician), Istanbul

37 Sergey “Shnur” Shnurov
(musician), St. Petersburg

38 Ohad Naharin
(choreographer), Tel Aviv

39 Jorge Palma
(musician), Lisbon

40 Xander Zhou
(fashion designer), Beijing