Second Annual Jackie Mayer Day at the Merry Go Round Museum – Saturday, August 8, 2026

Courtesy Sandusky Register

Meeting Jackie Mayer – Miss America 1963 – and interviewing her last year at her home for my article in Leisure Living magazine was one of the big thrills of my life. Although I was a bit nervous, Jackie quickly put me at ease. She was friendly, gracious, self-effacing and still beautiful. I got to see her again when she made a rare special appearance at the Downtown Sandusky Cedar Point Historical Museum in August 2025.

If you missed the chance to meet her last year, you have another chance this Saturday at the Second Annual Jackie Mayer Day. It's from noon to 3 p.m. at the Merry-Go-Round Museum, 301 Jackson St., in Sandusky. It’s sponsored by the Downtown Sandusky Cedar Point Historical Museum, housed within the same building as the Merry-Go-Round Museum. Jackie will make her presentation a little past noon. After that is the special meet-and-greet session with her. Visitors can pose with Jackie (even wear her Miss America crown) and get her autograph!

The cost to attend is $10 for adults and $7 for seniors. All proceeds benefit the Merry-Go-Round Museum.

1966 Ohio State Fair Ad

This weekend is the final weekend of the 2026 Ohio State Fair, so if you're pondering a visit, then this is your last chance. As you can see from the logo for the 1966 Ohio State Fair above, it used to run right into September.

Speaking of the 1966 edition of the Ohio State Fair, here are a few ads showing the entertainment headliners. Just like the 1976 Fair, it has an impressive lineup, including Bob Hope, Perry Como, Art Linkletter, the King Family, Jimmy Dean, Herman's Hermits, the Lovin' Spoonful, and Miss USA-World.

August 11, 1966

August 18, 1966

August 23, 1966

And here's the whole page showing the August 23rd ad. Hey, the big screen Batman movie was in local theaters at that time!

There's also an ad for Hanna House, subject of a few posts back here. (It was formerly known as Fior's Spaghetti House).

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So what was the Miss USA World pageant? It wasn't the same as Miss USA (written about extensively here through my posts about Jackie Mayer and Laurel Lea Schaefer). According to Grokipedia, " Miss USA World 1966 was a national beauty pageant organized in 1966 as part of a series of contests aimed at selecting an American representative for the international Miss World competition, amid ongoing legal disputes over similar naming conventions with established pageants like Miss USA. 

"The event, held at the Ohio State Fairgrounds in Columbus, Ohio, crowned 19-year-old Denice Estelle Blair of Layton, Utah, as the winner; she had previously held the title of Miss Utah and defeated entrants from 46 states.  

"The pageant, the fifth edition under the Miss USA World banner, was sponsored by figures including comedian Bob Hope and featured state preliminaries across the country, reflecting the era's growing popularity of televised beauty contests despite trademark conflicts. 

"The Miss USA World 1966 pageant took place on Saturday, August 27, 1966, at the Ohio State Fairgrounds in Columbus, Ohio. This venue, part of the ongoing 67th Ohio State Fair, drew an estimated audience of 32,000 spectators to the evening event, held in a spacious fairground arena suitable for large-scale presentations including swimsuit and evening gown segments."

So the appearance of Miss USA World at the 1966 Ohio State Fair made sense: the pageant actually took place at the Fair, and Old Ski Nose himself – Bob Hope, who was appearing at the Fair – was a sponsor of it.

Frostie Root Beer is her favorite?
She's my kind of gal!

Oberlin College's Historic Elm

The Historic Elm

I'll close out our stop at Oberlin College with a great little history of the institution from Looking Back on Lorain County by Ernie Henes. It includes the interesting story of the "Historic Elm" and includes the illustration above.

 
First Coed College in The U.S.

Volumes have been written about Oberlin College, known throughout the world as the first coeducational institution of learning in the United States; first to accept all students regardless of race, color or creed; first to award degrees to women (1841).

Its origin is due to the foresight of two men – the Rev. John Jay Shipherd and Philo Penfield Stewart, the inventor of the Stewart stove reviewed elsewhere in this book.

In 1830 Rev. Shipherd became pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Elyria. Mr. Stewart had been laboring as a missionary among the Cherokee Indians. He suffered a health breakdown and returned east.

Together they conceived the plan of organizing a community in the wilds of Lorain County, which would become the secluded home of a collegiate school. The purpose of the colony was set forth in the “Oberlin Covenant” as that of “glorifying God in doing good to men to the extent of their ability.”

Without land or funds, Rev. Shipherd prevailed upon eastern capitalists to make a pledge of 500 acres of forest in Russia Township to establish a foundation fund for the proposed college, and to set aside 5,000 acres which were to be sold at a profit of $1.50 an acre, thus providing the first funds for the foundation.

The two founders mounted horses in Elyria and picked their way westward through the forest.

Reaching a quiet spot they tied their horses to a beautiful Elm tree, fell upon their knees and prayed for guidance. Arising, they decided that this was a good a place as any to stake out their enterprise and they did so. The Elm tree under which they prayed stood for years on the southeast corner of the campus. It was carefully fenced and guarded as almost a sacred object and became known as “The Historic Elm.”

The school was opened on December 3, 1833 with 44 pupils – 29 young men and 15 young women, half of whom were from the east, the remainder from neighboring towns. In February 1834, it was chartered by the state legislature “The Oberlin Collegiate Institute.” The name was retained until 1850 when it was changed to Oberlin College.

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The "Architecture of Oberlin College" website includes a well-written history of the Historic Elm, as well as a great photo of it from July 1929.

It notes, "In 1833, the year that Oberlin's founders John J. Shipherd and Philo P. Stewart picked the site for Oberlin College, this American Elm tree was a five-inch sapling in a dense forest. The tree was located on what is now Tappan Square. 

"Legend has it that Shipherd and Stewart tied their horses to the tree, knelt beneath it to dedicate their enterprise, and saved it from the axe because if its beauty and symmetry. A short distance from the tree the first log cabin in the Oberlin Colony was built by Peter Pindar Pease. 

"In 1900 the College erected an iron fence around the tree and attached a tablet inscribed, 'Historic Elm. Near this tree the logs were laid for the first dwelling in Oberlin, April 16, 1833.' (That fence is now encircling a large tree behind Dascomb Hall.) 

"As is true for many college campuses, elms were vigorously planted at Oberlin early on and they were huge specimens when Dutch Elm Disease struck starting in 1950. The Historic Elm succumbed to this disease, spread by beetles that require a large population of elms to exist.

"It was taken down on April 13, 1965. In 1976, as a Bicentennial project, an aluminum memorial ring on the site of the Historic Elm was dedicated to the memory of Charles Martin Hall, whose bequest entailed the establishment of Tappan Square as a green space protected from the construction of buildings."

The same view as the 1929 photo as it looks today, showing the memorial ring

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The cutting down of the Historic Elm was big news and was covered by the Journal.

April 9, 1965

April 14, 1965

Oberlin College's Hall Auditorium in the News – August 8, 1956

The view on Monday night

Hall Auditorium is another Oberlin College landmarks that I never get tired of seeing. I like a lot of different styles of architecture, and to me, this building is perfection (at least from the outside). It looks as modern now as it did when it was built in 1953.

Here's its page on the Oberlin College website.

And it was already being touted as a tourist attraction (along with Allen Art Museum) in this article that ran in the Lorain Journal on August 8, 1956.

Like Wilder Hall (which the subject of yesterday's blog post), Hall Auditorium has been featured on many postcards over the years. Here's an ample sample, with approximate dates gleaned from eBay listings.

1955

1959

1960

This 1964 card featured Hall Auditorium on the bottom half of a "Greetings from..." design.

And they swapped places on this version.

By 1966, that tree/shrub just to the north of Hall Auditorium – so spindly in the earliest postcards – had reached enormous proportions.

It's interesting seeing the whole building in this aerial shot. That's the Oberlin Inn next door. Boy, has that area changed a lot in the intervening years.

But Hall Auditorium remains – just as modern and impressive as ever.

Oberlin College's Wilder Hall in the News – August 6, 1956

I've mentioned before how I enjoy working in Oberlin because I get to drive through the Oberlin College campus twice a day. It's quite beautiful and I never get tired of it. Sometimes I even stop after work and just walk around Tappan Square, just to enjoy the college environment.

I thought I was familiar with many of the campus buildings until I saw the article above from the Lorain Journal of August 6, 1956. It notes that the Oberlin College Student Union Committee had suggested housing the new student union in Wilder Hall. I understand that the building still has that function.

I thought for sure the building looked somewhat familiar, but I failed to identify it during a few commutes. It turned out that I was driving right by it twice a day – only I was seeing the back of it. Turns out that there is another nice grassy square surrounded by buildings that I wasn't even aware of – and Wilder Hall was one of them.

Wilder Hall (originally called the Men's Building and used as a dorm) was built in 1911. It has been the subject of postcards for more than a hundred years. Here's an ample sample (below); the dates are not confirmed, as they are gleaned from eBay listings and only a few postmarks.

1915

1920s

1944

1950s

1960s

And here's the 'now' view. Time to call in Paul Bunyan, I think. Why let trees hide a beautiful building?

Fortunately, there's a 1930 view that's a little bit easier to recreate.

The 'now' view doesn't quite match (I hadn't found the postcard yet) but at least you can see the beauty of the building.

1976 Ohio State Fair Program

My opportunity to be a member of the 1976 All Ohio State Fair Band remains one of the great, unforgettable experiences of my life. 

That's me, almost in the dead center of the band

Performing with such a large group of excellent high school musicians, and being able to be at the State Fair for several weeks was a big thrill. It's something I think about every year when the State Fair opens. I can hardly believe it was 50 years ago, during the nation's bicentennial year.

I did miss the summer band camp of the Admiral King Marching Band, and the photo taken for the football program. But it was worth it.

Anyway, a few years ago I picked up a copy of the 1976 Ohio State Fair program on eBay, and the memories came flooding back. It's interesting to flip through it and get a little taste of the Fair that year. Check out the incredible lineup of entertainers, including Johnny Cash, The Osmonds, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Tanya Tucker, Lynn Anderson, Neil Sedaka, John Davidson, Pat Boone, Mac Davis, The 5th Dimension, Telly Savalas, KC & The Sunshine Band, and Dan Fleenor's Hurricane Hell Drivers – wow!

Since Borden was a sponsor of the Ohio State Fair, and was headquartered in Columbus at that time, the program was full of company ads. Here's a great one with our favorite dairy cow Elsie, as well as her husband Elmer (of Elmer's Glue fame) and their calf, Beauregard.

Much of the program consisted of pages with the Fair schedule. Here are two of them. Band members used these to decide what to do with our free time (what little there was of it). It was fun going to the various pavilions where live TV shows were being broadcast from the Fair, including TV icons Flippo the Clown (from Columbus) and Bob Braun (from Cincinnati).

I've written before how sad all of the band members were during our last performance on the grounds of Rhodes Center, our home during the Fair. Kids were crying and choking back tears; we just didn't want it to end. (One reason I didn't want it to end was that I had a crush on the trombone player sitting next to me; I wonder where she is today?)

Anyway, while the rest of the band members were packing up to go home, those of us who were in the 1976 All Ohio State Fair Stage Band (including me) got to stay a little longer, pretty much until the end of the Fair. It was odd without all the other band members there, but it was still fun. 

Here's our group shot, which I haven't posted before. I still remember the names of the two of the other trombone players.

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Be sure to visit my original All Ohio State Fair Band post where I go into more detail about my experience as a band member. I also write about 'meeting' Colonel Sanders, and seeing Bob Hope and Red Skelton up close.