Journal Front Page – November 17, 1965

To close out this week, let's take a leisurely gander at the front page of the Journal. Not today's Morning Journal, but the Journal from back on November 17, 1965 – 54 years ago this Sunday.

I originally retrieved this edition from microfilm because it contains a photo of the groundbreaking of Lorain's Kmart store at Grove Avenue and Fairless Drive in South Lorain. Who would have guessed that decades later Kmart would completely abandon Lorain County – as well as the entire Ohio market?

But the more interesting story on the page is about Raymond Schindler of Avon Lake. Mr. Schindler was retiring after 48 years of service with Ford Motor Company. He started with the company way back in 1917!

Elsewhere on the page, we see the passing of Harry Blackstone, the famous magician, as well as the sad news of 86 American soldiers killed and 230 wounded during the previous week's fighting in Viet Nam.

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Reading about Blackstone the Magician’s passing reminded me of a story that my mother told me recently.

Mom remembers as a little girl in the 1930s seeing Blackstone perform his act in between showings of a movie at the Palace Theater in Lorain. Back then, you could stay at the theater all day, and watch the movie (and the stage shows) over and over again. The theater management didn’t kick you out.

Well, Mom and her sister saw Blackstone’s act several times that day. They noticed that he always picked a young boy from the audience to assist him with part of his act, and that he usually made his selection each time from the kids sitting in a certain area.

So as the day went on, Mom and her sister slowly worked their way down the rows so that they were sitting right where Blackstone had made his selections.

And he picked Mom!

The funny thing was, he thought she was a boy! She was wearing a cap that Grandma had knitted for her (it was winter) that covered up her hair and buttoned under her chin, so only her face was exposed. But Blackstone kept her up on the stage anyway, and she was his assistant for part of the act. He even let her keep the white rabbit, which she took home that day much to her parents’ dismay.