I have done this on several occasions with bags, although not at ORD. I have even done it with separate PNRs on 2 different carriers. If they have a baggage agreement and you have checked all the way to final destination, you go to the transit desk before you do your bag re-drop and say you want to stand-by. They can retag bag as a stand-by and if they see you will clear standby even give you a boarding card. On one occasion I was told to take the bag with me for gate c/i.

If they say no at that point. I drop off my bag and proceed to the gate and say that I want to list to stand-by. This I guess somehow places your bag in a stand-by location for that flight. If you dont make it the bag is moved to your origional routing. One hour seems pretty impossible but with a delay you could be in luck.

In December I was concerned with my 6 hour wait at IAD but after a very stressful 1 hour got on a flight that was 3 hours delayed but a perfect connection for me. Unfortunatly I had 2 bags and the TSA had broken the lock on one and it came on the origional flight anyway.