Goin' Down the (Yellow Brick) Road Again – Part 1

For many of us, especially the Baby Boomers, watching the venerable classic movie The Wizard of Oz on TV was an annual tradition. Who doesn't remember gathering around the TV set once a year to watch Dorothy (Judy Garland), and cringing at everything she had to confront – including a particularly nasty witch, creepy talking trees, scary flying monkeys, etc. – just so she could get back home to Kansas? 

Fortunately, there was comedy relief in the form of her trio of friends: the Scarecrow (who was probably the smartest of them all), the Tin Man, and the hilarious Cowardly Lion (played by Bert Lahr).

But this pleasant annual visit with the Oz gang came to an end back in 1998, which was the last time the movie was shown on CBS. Since then, the movie has popped up here and there on cable, but with no real fanfare or regularity.

After a quarter century, however, The Wizard of Oz returned to broadcast television recently with several airings on MeTV – even on Svengoolie. So it's a good time to celebrate the movie on this blog with a look back at when it first hit Lorain theaters (in Part 1), as well as when it first showed up on TV (in Part 2).

****

If anyone thought that promoting and marketing a movie aggressively was something that only originated in the era of Star Wars, they would be surprised at the publicity for The Wizard of Oz. Perhaps it was because the book was so well-known and popular.

But right before the movie's opening in Lorain, a full spread in the Lorain Journal for local stores featured a Wizard of Oz theme.

Aug. 30, 1939

Most of the ads have rather lame ad copy about 'wishing,' in an attempt to tie in with the movie, but a few feature photos or images from the production.

Part of the marketing seemed to play on the public's fascination with 'little people.' This publicity photo played up the large number of them (the term 'midgets' is now frowned upon) hired to be Munchkins for the movie.

Aug. 31, 1939

And finally on September 2, 1939, The Wizard of Oz opened at Ohio Theater in Downtown Lorain.

Sept. 2, 1939

Sept. 2, 1939

Sept. 5, 1939

The following month, The Wizard of Oz made it to the Dreamland.

Oct. 26, 1939

Extremely popular movies were often re-released back then. Thus The Wizard of Oz had a repeat engagement at Avon Lake Theater in August 1949 – ten years after the original release.

Aug. 19, 1949

Hey, there was even a Terry Toon on the bill. I hope it was a Heckle and Jeckle!

Next: The Wizard of Oz makes it to TV.

Start Your Day With the Sunny Morning Flavor of Schenley Whiskey – Nov. 1946

Well, the weekend is finally here. Time to relax and perhaps enjoy an adult beverage to reward yourself for surviving the week.

Since I haven't featured any booze ads here on the blog for a while, here's a few ads for Schenley Whiskey that ran in the Lorain Journal during the month of November 1946. 

Nov. 6, 1946

Nov. 11, 19

It's an offbeat campaign, stressing the concept of 'sunny morning flavor.' But I like the cartoon rooster, whose name is – what else?– Sunny.

The campaign with Sunny went right into 1947. Here's an ad with a winter theme that ran in January and February 1947.

What's interesting is that the campaign dates back to the early 1940s, when the ads featured a realistic rooster. Here's a sample of a magazine ad.

But someone must have realized that there wasn't much you could do with a rooster, creative-wise, except showing them crowing at dawn. Plus, if you've ever spent any time around a rooster (like at the Lorain County Fair), they're kind of creepy with their blank, soulless stare and jerky movements. So the decision was made to give the rooster a name and personality, and put him to work as a salesman.

The ads are quite attractive and attention-getting.

I've seen color ads with Sunny dated from the early 1960s, so the campaign must have been successful. But about that time, fast food chicken was beginning to take off, so perhaps Sunny flew the coop, or took a less visible job in Schenley corporate headquarters.

Seven-Digit Dialing Starts – Nov. 6, 1966

Remember these? I kinda miss them.

Sixty years ago tomorrow, Lorain Telephone Company transitioned from five digit phone numbers with a two letters exchange prefix to a seven -digit dialing system.

It was the end of the old two letter five-figure numbers that had been around since the mid-1950s. Here's an ad from November 1956 explaining that system when it was new.

But why the change in November 1966? The main reason was that since the first and last holes of the dial on the telephone phone have no letters, there simply wouldn't be enough combinations of two letters and five numbers to meet the demand in the ensuing decades. A series of ads in the preceding months made the case and got the dialing public ready for the change. 

July 30, 1966

Aug. 23, 1966

Oct. 15, 1966

Nov. 5, 1966

Nov. 5, 1966

Nov. 8, 1966

Fall Cavalcade of Color - 2026 Part 2

Vermilion Road

Although the fall foliage may have peaked in color in Lorain County, it's been a glorious autumn to remember.

Last week, I hit the road to check out the color around my area. Brownhelm Township, as usual, was gorgeous.

And since I hadn't been out to French Creek Reservation in years, I decided it was time. It was beautiful, but some of those trails running along the edge of the cliff overlooking French Creek were not designed for less-than-nimble aging bloggers.

And closer to home, I ended the day down in Bacon Woods on the Bluebird Trail Loop for my evening constitutional.

New Lorain County Freeway Dedicated – Nov. 3, 1966

Old highways and roads used to be my primary area of interest. I used to drive all over Ohio (and other states) just for the experience of driving certain old roads and trying to follow old alignments and bypassed segments using vintage maps. U.S. Route 66, the Lincoln Highway, the National Road... they all stirred my interest. And I've got the collection of old maps and photos I took to prove it.

Closer to home, my family spent a lot of time on the old 6 & 2 (U. S. Highway 6 and State Route 2) going to Vermilion, Huron and Sandusky. And in the mid-60s when Route 2 was in the process of being moved out to a limited access highway, I had a ringside seat. That goes the same for watching I-90 slowly march towards Cleveland. Both highways were built in chunks... one here, one there. And it took years to get them done – much longer than expected.

The news articles covering their construction have been the subject of many posts on this blog.

And here's another one. Sixty years ago today, a segment of State Route 2 from Baumhart Road east to State Route 58 (Leavitt Road) opened.

Here's the story that ran in the Journal on November 3, 1966.

It's interesting that the article notes, "Presently designated SR 2, the route will become IR 90 after 1972, according to Donald H. Timmer, deputy director for Division Three of the Ohio State Highway Department."

I remember shortly after the segment in the article opened, my parents pointed out to us that we would be able to get on that highway at Leavitt Road and take it all the way to Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota (which we had seen on a 1965 camping trip out west). As it turned out, the highway ended up remaining SR 2. But I-90 does indeed go to Rapid City, South Dakota, a little more than a 1/2 hour drive from Mt. Rushmore.

Lorain Journal Front Page – Nov. 1, 1926

Houdini

Well, it's the month of November already. When they said that time really flies when you get older, they weren't kidding. And we even had an extra hour today – go figure.

One hundred years ago, the nation was still talking about master illusionist, magician and performer Harry Houdini, who passed away in Detroit on October 31, 1926. The article about his passing on the front page of the Lorain Journal of Nov. 1, 1926 (below) isn't particularly big, being overshadowed by extensive local election coverage and some truly disturbing stories.

As the article notes, "In a bronze airtight coffin recently constructed for one of his myriad tricks, the body of Harry Houdini, America's greatest magician, will leave here tonight for New York.

"The "handcuff king," whose feats of legerdemain were known on both sides of the Atlantic, died here Sunday afternoon, a little more than a week after he became ill with appendicitis from which developed peritonitis.

"Until the end, Houdini confidently believed he would "get out of this the way I get out of everything else." It was that confidence which led him to go thru two stage performances after his illness took the turn which later proved fatal."

I remember my mother telling my siblings and me that for decades after Houdini's death on Halloween, there was an annual seance held on the anniversary of his passing to try and contact him from the Great Beyond. It was another creepy aspect of Halloween along with The War of the Worlds radio broadcast.

Here are a few clippings about the various attempts over the years by Houdini's wife and others to contact him. The date of the seances were apparently not confined to Halloween.

July 25, 1935

Nov. 2, 1936

Feb. 5, 1943

Oct. 16, 1948