Front and center is an architectural rendering of Lorain's newest theater. As noted in the caption, "Design of the new $500,000 theater and business block for which excavation is now in process on the east side of Broadway at Sixth-st. The building, being built by the Midwest Properties company to be leased to the Varieties Amusement company, both of Cleveland, is expected to be ready for a January 1 opening.
"Most modern in construction and design, the main auditorium will hold 2500 persons. A lobby running back from the entrance on Broadway to a large foyer will necessitate an L-shaped plan of building."
Although the article doesn't mention the name, the new movie house was the Palace Theatre. Here's a recent Google Maps view for a comparison with the rendering.
(This blog post featured a souvenir program from the Grand Opening of the Palace on April 19, 1928.)
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| Judge Gary |
Two articles seem to indicate that Lorain was becoming a hotbed for crimes stretching beyond its city limits. In one, "nationwide operations of a blackmail gang with headquarters in Lorain" were uncovered and two suspects arrested accused of extorting money from the proprietor of the Thomas hotel. In the other article, it is noted that "Two gangs of gunmen and 'stick-up men' whom police say, "ate and slept" in Lorain and laid their plans here, had been captured by Cleveland police Monday after a series of holdups in that city."
On a happier note, two sisters that had been separated for decades were reunited. "Long years of almost hopeless search were rewarded at Kelly's Island Saturday when Mrs. John Schieferstein, 843 W. 11th-st, clasped in her arms her sister who was parted from her more than 30 years ago," said the article.
"Living only a few miles apart all these years little did Mrs. Schieferstein think that Mrs. George Kneaur of Kelly's Island was her sister."
How did they get separated? "The two sisters were brought to Ohio in 1898 from a New York orphanage for adoption," noted the article. One sister was adopted by a Lorain couple, and the other by a couple on Kelly's Island.
Father Reichlin, the priest from Mrs. Schieferstein's church in Lorain is the one who made it happen during a trip to Kelly's to see if he could find the sister. Strangely enough, George Kneaur had made his first communion with him in Kelly's Island years earlier, and the good Father managed to put it all together for a happy ending.
In other news: a jail break down in Circleville, Ohio (home of the popular annual Pumpkin Festival); the burning of a B & O boxcar in the railroad yards in Lorain, possibly as a protest committed by Sacco-Vanzetti sympathizers.
(Click here to read about the still-controversial case of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian-American immigrants/anarchists who were convicted of robbery and murder, and subsequently executed on August 23, 1927.)
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You might be wondering why I had this particular front page. I happened to find it while looking through old newspapers on microfilm dating from around the time of my late mother's birth back in early September 1927.
Interesting page.
ReplyDeletePapers were chock-full of all sorts of news back then.
The "Judge Thing."
Lots (most) folks hold on to that title for the rest of their lives - even if they served only a month. Must think it gives them a little extra oomph. It reminds me of people who use their military rank as a title long after they're out of the service.
Father Reichlin.
It was his sister who, in 1903, was murdered by an unknown assailant, in her and Father's home on Reid and 8th (old street numbers). The Father was away at a funeral on Kelly's Island at the time.
And Lorain got blamed for all sort of things, back then (as it does, now). I've seen old political cartoons portraying the city as a "safety valve" for the rest of the county. Want to blow off some steam? Do it in Lorain!
Those Sacco and Vanzetti sympathizers sure did get around. On the one hand they were burning a boxcar to no apparent purpose. On the other they were extorting money from a hotel proprietor to raise funds to hire Clarence Darrow to defend the anarchist pair.
ReplyDeleteAt least from the evidence presented in the Journal, that "nationwide ring" of extortionists did not extend beyond W. 117th Street in Cleveland.
"The Master".That name provokes aura and intrigue.But in reality I bet the leader of that gang probably looked as weird and ugly as Billy The Kid.
ReplyDeleteDAN!
ReplyDeleteA question...
Which library / branch would have Lorain papers from 1927?
Don
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ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Lorain having a reputation as a crime-ridden city, when I was a lad of tender years living a sheltered "Leave It To Beaver" life in 1950s Bucyrus, I would tell my grade school classmates that I was born in Lorain. Shocked, one of them exclaimed, "Lorain! That's where they all carry knives!"
ReplyDeleteI wonder how those sisters came to be orphans?
ReplyDelete-Theresa