December 8, 1955 in Lorain

There's plenty of things of interest on this 'Society' page from the December 8, 1955 Lorain Journal – 70 years ago today.

For starters, there's an article about the Mary Lee Tucker Christmas benefit show, which had taken place the night before. As usual, there was a celebrity emcee. "Bob McFadden, a new star in the entertainment profession, virtually wowed the audience with his impressions of Arthur Godfrey and his Talent Scouts program and other well known personalities," the article noted.

Bob McFadden

"Among the "scouts" was Winston Churchill. Other impressions were of Tony Bennett, Vaughn Monroe, Boris Karloff, Walter Brennan, "Lovable" Liberace, and others."

Bob McFadden would go on to have a long career in Hollywood. His specialty was providing voices for animated cartoons and commercials, including an impression of Boris Karloff for the voice of Franken Berry, the mascot of the same-named General Mills cereal; Milton the Monster; and Rory Raccoon and Lovable Truly the postman for Post Cereals.

(I wrote about Bob McFadden when he announced in November 1955 as the emcee for the upcoming MLT show here.)

Other entertainers at the show included young Ricky Zahnd, who performed his singing hit, "I'm Gettin' Nuttin' for Christmas."

Of interest to me is that Jimmy Dulio and his 12-piece big band performed, as well as providing musical accompaniment as needed to back up vocalists. The Jimmy Dulio band later became the Biz Grove Orchestra (of which my brother Ken and I were members).

Also of interest on the page is the story of the retirement of Captain William M. Ward of Lorain after 41 years of service with the Pittsburgh Steamship Division of U. S. Steel. As the article notes, "He also ended a 46-year career on the lakes, by laying up the freighter Enders M. Voorhees for the winter at Monroe, Mich. The Voorhees was the last ship of many in the Pittsburgh Steamship fleet he had commanded over the years."

Photo by Roger LeLievre and courtesy of
greatlakesships.wordpress.com 

In the article, Ward observed, "I'm sure going to miss being out on the lakes after all these years, but there are many things I would like to do as an ordinary land lubber. Mainly, I am thinking of doing a lot of traveling with my family."

Captain William Ward passed away on Sept. 21, 1972.