The Lorain Lighthouse is the very symbol of Lorain – a beloved icon that neatly encapsulates the city's maritime history. And it's one of the city's biggest tourist attractions.
That's why it's so hard to believe that at one point in the 1960s, it was scheduled to be torn down. A new fully-automatic red light was to be installed on the tip of a detached outer breakwall.
From the July 12, 1965 Journal
And sixty years ago this month, some of the first steps were taken to 'save' it by a civic group. Here's the front page of the January 5, 1966 Journal with the story.
Later that year a follow-up story appeared with the good news that the Coast Guard agreed to 'continue to operate and maintain the lighthouse.'
May 10, 1966
And a Journal editorial celebrated the decision and gave credit to several citizens who played a major role in the effort to save the structure.
May 11, 1966
Of course, Gene Patrick had a special cartoon in honor of the occasion in his weekly The Passing Scene strip.
May 14, 1966
The story didn't end there, however.
The Lighthouse would need to be 'saved' again in the 1970s when the Coast Guard put it up for sale. You can read all about it in Valerie Smith's well-researched history found on the Lorain Lighthouse website.
Lorainites ate a lot of meat back in the 1960s. In addition to the supermarkets with their weekly meaty specials, the city supported at least a half-dozen retail butcher shops.
Several of them incorporated a beef cow into their store's logo, including MikePolansky's, Lorain County Meats and Tony's Meats. Here's a sample of each that ran in the Journal from early January 1966.
Jan. 5, 1966
Jan. 5, 1966
Jan. 3, 1966
As you can see, the Tony's Meats ad tried something different than the other ads. It gave up some of the retail space in its ad in order to feature a little cartoon. This continued for several months.
Each cartoon depicted some interesting fact. A week later, an "answer" revealed an explanation. It was loosely referred to as a quiz although there wasn't really a question.
Here's the rest of the January 1966 ads. (Be forewarned, the one from Jan. 31st is needlessly racist.)
I couldn't find anything online about Toby Eaton Associates. Its weekly quiz feature didn't seem to be widely used across the country, since I could only find one other meat market (in Lompoc, California) using it.
Tony's Meats used the quiz in its ads until the end of March 1966, when it was apparently dropped to make room for cartoon Easter rabbits.
Holy Diamond Jubilee, Batman – your TV show on ABC debuted sixty years ago tonight!
Below is the TV page of the January 12, 1966 Journal making the announcement of the debut, with a photo of Batman (Adam West) in the Batmobile.
The caption reads, "Batman, the legendary nemesis of evil, the Caped Crusader whose very name strikes fear into the hearts of villainous villains everywhere, sets out with Boy Wonder Robin on another crime-thwarting adventure in his super vehicle, the atom-powered, parachute-breaked [sic], multi-weaponed four-wheel arsenal, the Batmobile, as ABC-TV's "Batman," a new series of twice-weekly, live-action color adventures, premiere tonight at 7:30. The program will also be seen Thursdays in the 7:30-8 p.m. time period.
It was pretty much a stroke of genius to program the show two nights in a row, as my brothers and I loved the show and were suckered into watching it both nights. (We pretty much commandeered the TV in the early evening; I don't remember my parents ever watching it until we went to bed.)
As I wrote back here, my parents bought us the paperback reprints that were rushed into print to capitalize on the popularity of the TV show. Just as we each had a favorite Beatle, we each had a Batman villain that was 'assigned' to us depending on which paperback we had. Mine was the Penguin. At least he didn't seem as evil as some of the other bad guys to me.
Watching the occasional late-night Batman reruns on MeTV the last few years have really surprised me. I had forgotten the big-name celebrities that appeared on the show as the villains, or in cameo appearances in which they stuck their head out the window of the building that Batman and Robin were scaling. The villains always seemed to have some good-looking henchwomen too (such as Edy Williams). And what boy watching the show in the 1960s didn't have a crush on Catwoman (Julie Newmar)? I remember feeling bad when she fell in that bottomless pit.
During my recent viewings, the celebrity that I was most surprised to see was none other than Jack Kelly – Bart Maverick! He was playing some kind of fedora-wearing guy that was in cahoots with the baddies. In one scene he was comically straddling some kind of 'getaway rocket' (shown below) and I felt bad for him – except that he was probably having a blast working on a wildly popular TV show, not to mention sharing some scenes with Catwoman!
For all you Civil War buffs, here's an interesting 'Stranger Than Science' column by Frank Edwards that ran in the Journal on Jan. 2, 1965. It's an assortment of odd tidbits about the Civil War, including the story of Wilmer McLean and how his house and farms – one at the Battle of Bull Run, and his second home at Appomattox, Virginia – were involved in the first and last land battles of the Civil War. Unbelievable!
McLean and his family on the porch of his house at Appomattox
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Frank Edwards' weekly 'Stranger Than Science' column ran in the Journal from 1963 to 1966. It looks like it was always interesting and a lot of fun, especially if you were into flying saucers and stuff like that. I wonder where he dug up all of his material?
Here's an ample sample of random columns.
Nov. 23, 1963
Nov. 23, 1963
Dec. 28, 1963
June 6, 1964
Aug. 15, 1964
Nov. 21, 1964
Sept. 18, 1965
Dec. 4, 1965
Dec. 11, 1965
Dec. 18, 1965
April 23, 1966
June 11, 1966
Dec. 10, 1966
The Dec. 10, 1966 column was the last I could find in the Journal. Frank Edwards passed away in June 1967.
Here's a nice musical interlude for a Thursday. Seventy years ago this week, the famed recording group Sons of the Purple Sage were about to open a two-week run at the Showboat Lounge in Downtown Lorain.
Below is the movie and entertainment page of the Lorain Journal on Jan. 7, 1956 making the announcement.
The article notes, "The Sons of the Purple Sage, nationally known Western and Hillbilly novelty and comedy musical group, will start a two-week run beginning Monday, at the Showboat Lounge, 766 Broadway.
"The group formerly appeared with Roy Rogers in Republic Pictures and has performed on numerous television shows, including the Milton Berle Show, Ford Festival, Garry Moore Show, Langford - Ameche Show, Steve Allen Show and Songs for Sale.
"Among the top acts are unusual instrumentation by the entire troupe and singing in four languages by Lina Shane, who also plays drums and maracas.
"Bob Wheeler, one of the stars, plays guitar, a toy harmonica, smokes a cigarette, twirls a lasso with his mouth and keeps twisting and turning around at the same time at fast pace."
The history of the group is a little confusing, since there were two bands with just about the same name performing out on the West Coast in the early 1950s.
Nevertheless, it sounds like it was a great show. I'm always amazed at the incredible variety of national musical groups that performed in my hometown during the 1950s. Lorain's nightclub scene was amazing back then.
What was it like to hear Sons of the Purple Sage at the Showboat? Here's one of their albums so you can get a taste of their music. It's got all the classic tunes: Tumbling Tumbleweeds, Red River Valley, even Wabash Cannonball.
I think they're great!
Meanwhile over at Ben Hart's Show Bar, the Snap-shots were performing. Click here to read a great, detailed history of this band that got its big break on the Gene Carroll TV show.
Back in October, a blog post featured articles about Raymond C. Vietzen's unearthing of Indian skeletons on the Louis Frank farm near Vermilion in 1940, and his role directing excavation of the site.
Col. Matt Nahorn, local historian (and Amherst Council Member at Large) noted in a comment, "The Franks Site was one of the largest Erie Indian village sites in the area, which encompassed some 80 acres of land. Much of the land now is owned by the MetroParks. Col. Vietzen worked as site supervisor for Oberlin College students and also worked there for some time, in the early 1940s.
"He subsequently authored 17 books on archaeology, many of which documented local sites and local work. He operated the Indian Ridge Museum in Elyria from 1930-1995, and was the last living individual associated with the founding of the Archaeological Society of Ohio. His wife, Ruth was the first female officer and worked right alongside him at the archaeological sites."
The Colonel kindly sent me an article about Raymond C. Vietzen and the Indian Ridge Museum that ran in the Journal back in September 1967. You'll find it below, along with several other article about him that I found online in the newspaper's archives. The Indian Ridge Museum was a favorite subject of Journal articles.
The earliest mention of Vietzen that I could find was this article from March 24, 1944.
At the time of this October 16, 1951 article, the museum apparently had not yet acquired its name, and was only referred to in the article as being part of the Vietzen estate, known as "The Wigwam."
In this Feb. 28, 1959 article, we learn that Mr. Vietzen had received his Kentucky Colonel commission "from the governors of Kentucky and Tennessee for archaeological work done in those states."
This Sept. 15, 1967 article (courtesy of Matt Nahorn) features some nice photographs of Vietzen and his museum.
This July 22, 1970 includes some great, frank quotes by Mr. Vietzen about the American Indian's high morals, and his own strict standards about displaying Indian bones.
In this November 10, 1972 article (below), Vietzen talks about some of the incredible items found in his museum, including "a trundle bed, a rifle from the Daniel Boone period, hunting bags and powder horns, hearth brooms, a Buffalo robe from the Gold Rush, a plantation office desk from a slave family in Oberlin, an Apache Indian drum made from a hollow sycamore tree with two deer hides stretched over it, a covered wagon, a left hand plow, water power mill, a sleigh from a Sheffield family, dower chests and a cannon from the War of 1812." The article notes, "He also has the Jacob Shupe cabin which was the first one built in Lorain County, a cabin built by an ancestor of Jesse James, and a tymochtee cabin built in 1795 in the Sandusky River Valley."
The Indian Ridge Museum was featured again in this August 20, 1976 article.
Col. Vietzen weighs in with his thoughts about the contention that the Black River was called the "Canesadooharie" in this article from October 23, 1988.
This heartbreaking story from October 12, 1994 tells of some mindless vandalism and theft at the Indian Ridge Museum.
Col. Raymond C. Vietzen passed away in October 1995, followed by his wife Ruth in Sept. 1999. Below are their obituaries and the Public Auction listing for the dispersal of the contents of the Indian Ridge Museum.
