Meet Burton Frye – Poet and Steelworker

I admire people who march to the beat of their own drum. These nonconformists live their life the way they want, without worrying about what other people think – and are probably happier for it.

It sounds like Burton Frye was that kind of person. How else would you describe someone who was a published poet that lived in Lorain, worked at the steel mill, and embarked on a 500-mile bike trek to draw attention to the preservation of the historic home of his idol, American poet Vachel Lindsay?

Above is the story about Frye that appeared in the Lorain Journal on April 13, 1954.

The article notes, "A Phi Beta Kappa steelworker turned part-time poet and ballad singer today launched a 500-mile bicycle trip to help save the historic home of America's "vagabond poet," Vachel Lindsay.

"Using the example of the roving poet who traveled across America on foot and read his verses for his board and lodging, Burton James Frye, 30, 610 Lakeside Avenue, plans to "read my way" to Springfield, Ill.

"There, in the home now occupied by Lindsay's sister, Mrs. Olive Lindsay Wakefield, Frye will end his journey. The house, more than 100 years old, is next door to the Illinois Governor's mansion. It will eventually be destroyed, Frye said, unless enough money is raised to preserve and repair it.

"The Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Miami University is a clerk at National Tube Company's Lorain plant.

"Frye, known locally as "The Moonsinger," has scheduled stops at the Cleveland Public Library, Western Reserve Campus, Oberlin College and Carl Miller's bookshop, Sandusky.

"At each stop he will read selection of Lindsay's poetry.

"He said he would refuse all offers of cash on this trip, but would accept food and lodging.

"Two years ago, Frye, author of three books of poetry, raised $1,200 to paint the Lindsay home.

"A native of Huron, Ohio, Frye will have his fourth book published in September by the American Weave Press. It is called "Moonsinger."

It sounds like Frye completed his bike journey – and promptly set even more goals in his quest to save the Lindsay home, according to this article from the Sandusky Register of July 28, 1954. 

It notes, "Burton Frye, a native of Huron and graduate of Margaretta High school, has a long and winding road ahead of him before he reaches his goal but he has two victories in sight, he told friends and relatives here during a brief visit to the city.

"Frye, a poet, ballad singer and Lorain steel worker, has two immediate goals. One, to hike from Boston to San Francisco. Two, save the birthplace of Vachel Lindsay in Springfield, Ill., as a national shrine to the late troubadour-poet.

"For many years, Frye stated, Mrs. Olive Lindsay Wakefield, sister of the late poet, attempted to preserve the home but is now 77 years old and almost penniless after a period in a hospital. She told the former Erie-co resident this spring when he rode to Springfield on a bicycle that she may be forced to sell the home in order to raise funds on which to live.

"Harry Albacker [featured on this blog many times], nationally known magician and medium, has joined Frye in the campaign. On Dec. 5, the birthday of the poet, Albacker and 75 members of the Brotherhood of American Mediums will travel to Springfield and attempt to contact the spirit of Lindsay, who formerly toured the nation reciting his poems and singing ballads.

Finally, this article from the Edinburg Courier of September 28, 1954, describes how Frye spent the summer. 

It notes, "A Lorain, O., steelworker turned troubadour tramped around the nation during the summer to interest Americans in the restoration of the home of the poet, Vachel Lindsay, in Springfield, Ill.

"Every summer, Burton leaves his work at the steel mills and follows the open road with a guitar and a knapsack over his shoulder, singing the ballads of the country and its folk wherever he stops.

"Burton sleeps beneath the sky, in parks, and sometimes in barns on his jaunts. His food is milk and bread; his clothing a corduroy shirt and rumpled grey trousers and he hasn't a care in the world.

"His fiancee in Lorain, O., wants him to quit troubadouring and enter the real estate business but Burton said: "I want all the real estate, the whole country, the sky."

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Frye later married Virginia Chapin, who was a poet herself. Between the two of them, they published an impressive number of books of poetry. 

Image courtesy SanduskyHistory.blogspot.com

And what of Vachel Lindsay's historic home? 

Frye was undoubtedly happy that the house was sold to a non-profit foundation by Lindsay's heirs, and opened as a museum in 1960. Click here to visit the Vachel Lindsay Home page on the HistoricIllinois.gov website.

Lorain Drive-in's New Concession Stand Opens – April 1958

A lot of the fun of going to a drive-in movie is hitting the concession stand to get some goodies. I'm partial to Sno-Caps, in addition to a glutton-size tub of buttered popcorn (hopefully with free refills).

Sixty-five years ago, the Lorain Drive-in was announcing the Grand Opening of its brand new cafeteria-style concession stand. Above is the full-page ad which ran in the Journal back on April 11, 1958.

According to the article below, which ran in the paper on April 10, 1958, the old concession stand had been destroyed in a fire on November 26, 1957. The new one was capable of handling 1,000 people in 20 minutes – which is pretty good, if you've ever been in a line during intermission.

The ad and the article reveal the names of the key people behind the theater operation: theater manager Richard Kline; concession manager Mary "Dolly" Henry; cashier Jesse Jeffrey; chief projectionist Henry Hoffner; Fieldman Jim Jeffrey; and field manager "AP" Williams.

Besides the movies (Island in the Sun, and The Lonely Man), there were some special incentives to attend the drive-in that night: 100 free pizzas; free flowers for the first 200 ladies; free popcorn and a free gift "for the kiddies"; a $10 cash prize "for the car with the most occupants"; a free treat "for doggie"; and Tricky Harry from WEWS TV "in person for the kids."

Tricky Harry?

Regular readers of this blog know that they're talking about Harry Albacker, who enjoyed a fine career as a professional magician and called Lorain home for a time. (Harry's been featured on this blog a few times.

Anyway, the concession building that was new in 1958 is still out there on the former Lorain Drive-in property. Today, it is the office for Hold-it Self Storage. Click here to visit its website, which has a special 'Drive In Nostalgia' page. (I have a storage unit there; the staff is terrific and the price is more than reasonable.)

Finally, here's a pair of aerial views where you can see the building. The vintage view is courtesy of the Lorain Historical Society; the lower one is from Google Maps.

Harry Albacker’s Magic Touch – Part 3

Readers of this blog with a good memory might remember I did a two-part series on Lorain magician Harry Albacker (beginning back here). The initial focus of the posts was the fact that Harry had contributed a gag to the well-known newspaper comic panel entitled  There Oughta Be a Law! It ran on February 9, 1952.

On my post, I observed that I had been unable to determine if the comic even ran in the Journal. I also was unable to find any sort of article mentioning Harry’s achievement in the time frame before and after the panel ran nationally.

Well, it took a while but I finally did. On February 25, 1952 the photo and short article below ran in the Journal. 

It noted, “Harry Albacker, 1728 E. 32nd Street, Lorain magician, is shown with an original cartoon, one of the series regularly carried by The Journal.

“The cartoon is one of the “There Oughta Be a Law” features. Albacker, who noticed that persons at a party always urge a magician to perform then find they can’t stop him, sent the idea to the cartoon originators. Al Fagaly and Harry Shorten twisted the idea slightly but gave the credit to Albacker in the cartoon which went all over the country.

“Fagaly autographed the original for Albacker. The latter had been reading the feature in The Journal and  decided to try his luck with the idea – which paid off with the black and white cartoon.”

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There’s some Harry Albacker promotional material on eBay right now.

Harry Albacker’s Magic Touch – Part 2

Harry Albacker posing with some of his assistants in his magic act

Although Harry Albacker of Lorain didn’t get his fifteen minutes of fame locally when his idea was used in the There Oughta Be a Law! comic strip in February 1952, he really didn’t need it.

When it came to fame, he did more than fine on his own.

You see, Harry Albacker enjoyed a long career as a popular professional magician, traveling around the country and the world. He only lived in Lorain, Ohio during the 1950s, but during that time he made sure that it was identified as his home in any newspaper publicity.

At the time of his passing in March 1994, his obituary in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette provided a nice summary of his career.

His obituary noted, "Harry Albacker, a popular magician who performed around the world, including numerous appearances at the White House, died yesterday in Jefferson Center of South Hills Health System. He had suffered a heart attack the previous day while performing at Southwestern Health Center in Pleasant Hills.”

"Information compiled by Paul Ajak, a mortician handling his funeral arrangements, list Mr. Albacker's date of birth as April 20, 1925. Over the years, however, he always told reporters that he was born on Halloween in 1926, three minutes, he claimed, after the celebrated magician Harry Houdini died in a Detroit hospital. 

"He lived most of his life in Aspinwall except during a brief period when he was headquartered in Lorain, Ohio. 

Promotional flyer coutesy of Heinz History Center

“He once told an interviewer that the "whole world is my address," and, to an extent, that was true. For years, he traveled more than 40,000 miles in a van to entertain in nightclubs and theaters across the country, including the Hanna Theater in Cleveland, the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco, Nellie Bly Amusement Park in Brooklyn, N.Y., and the American Theater in St. Louis. 

"Over the years, he made 42 appearances at the White House for teas and birthday parties during the Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon and Carter administrations. Mr. Albacker used to give away as souvenirs rabbits he would pull of a hat. Recipients included - Eleanor Roosevelt, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Caroline Kennedy, who received one of his favorite rabbits, Zsa Zsa. 

"He was inducted into the military in 1942 and attached to Army Special Services, entertaining stateside and in the Phiippines, Germany and England, sharing the stage with such headliners as the Andrews Sisters, Horace Heidt and the Musical Knights and the Three Stooges.”

I guess you could say Harry had the magic touch for a rich, full life. He had fun working, and did what he loved right up until the end. And he served his country too.

To learn more about the life of Harry Albacker, as well as his act, visit this link on the Heinz History Center Library website. The article notes that Gertrude wasn’t his only animal that “pulled a disappearance act” but that all of them eventually reappeared.

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I found a few clippings and mentions of Harry online.

One story that hit the wire services involved Harry and his missing python, Gertrude, who was part of his act at the time. Someone stole the suitcase in which Gertrude was traveling! He’s the story, from the Key West Citizen of July 9, 1954 (below). Note Harry was based in Lorain at the time.

Here’s a mention of Harry in the October 30, 1954 issue of Billboard, in which he chides the publication for not helping him promote National Magic Month.

Here’s a wacky item about Harry from the May 12, 1956 Billboard. He had a flair for promotion!

Here’s Harry’s classified ad (the second listing from the top) in the April 13, 1957 Billboard. Note he was still in Lorain at the time.

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Click here to visit Part 3 of this series.

Harry Albacker’s Magic Touch – Part 1

Last week (here), I wrote about a Sheffield Lake girl whose contribution to the Journal feature “Tell Me Why” provided her fifteen minutes of fame back in Feb. 1960.

Today’s post deals with another successful local submission – this time, to a comic strip called There Oughta Be a Law!

I’m sure you remember it. But those who do not, There Oughta Be a Law was a very popular, long-running strip that depicted many of the frustrations and comic situations that people encounter in their everyday lives, all told in a humorous fashion.

The strip was usually presented in two large panels, with the first one establishing the setting or mood, and the second one delivering the joke, often with a twist. The writer of the strip eventually solicited ideas from readers – and credited them if the suggestion was used.

Anyway, while doing some research recently on one of those online newspaper websites, I stumbled upon an edition of There Oughta Be a Law! from February 9, 1952. Lo and behold, the contributor was from Lorain, Ohio!

Harry Albacker of 2015 E. 31st Street in Lorain, Ohio made the humorous suggestion that was chosen that day.

Since the comic strip was distributed nationally, I was sure that the Lorain Journal would make note of Albacker’s winning entry that day. So I headed to the library to see if there was a special article on the front page, or perhaps a mention in the “Log of Lorain” gossip column.

Imagine my surprise to discover that although the strip had appeared in the Journal in January 1952, it apparently had been dropped by February. The ‘winning’ comic strip didn’t even appear in the hometown paper!

It was an situation worthy of There Oughta Be a Law! itself.

But don’t feel too bad for Harry Albacker being robbed of his fifteen minutes of fame. He enjoyed decades of fame – as we’ll see in tomorrow’s post.