Stevan Dohanos to be Commencement Speaker – May 1955

Stevan Dohanos, the nationally known artist famous for his great Saturday Evening Post illustrations, is often overlooked or even forgotten when Lorain is remembering its sons and daughters who went on to greatness.

That's why I try to always post any mention of him in his hometown newspaper. Above is the announcement that he was to be the featured speaker at the Lorain High School commencement exercises on June 8, 1955. It appeared in the Lorain Journal on May 5, 1955.

Elsewhere on the page are plenty of items of interest. 

The Ohio Turnpike wasn't entirely finished at that point. Like 'new' Ohio State Route 2 and I-90 in the 1960s and 70s, the Turnpike was apparently completed and opened in chunks. The map on the page showed that for a short time, it was necessary for Lorain motorists to pick it up in Akron if they wanted to use it to connect up with the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Other items of interest: a story about a stage play featuring a girl with blue hair – back when blue hair was unusual; an article about a trailer camp in Lorain located at 36th and Dayton Avenue; some hilarious remarks by Senator Richard L. Neuberger about toupees, teleprompters and makeup; and a photo of Mr. and Mrs. Emory Harrison and their 13 sons.

Love the coonskin caps on the nine sons on the left!

Stevan Dohanos TB Poster – Sept. 1951

So many famous people have called Lorain, Ohio their hometown that it might be easy to overlook Stevan Dohanos. And that’s a shame, because the nationally known artist and illustrator was successful in his field in a way that most people can only dream about.

Dohanos' many artistic accomplishments include creating more than 125 covers for The Saturday Evening Post and designing forty U. S. postage stamps. He also served his country as the chairman of the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee, selecting the art for more than 300 postage stamps and designing some as well.

Seventy years ago this month, Mr. Dohanos was the subject of the article below, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on Sept. 6, 1951. It’s about his latest artistic endeavor, a poster for the Tuberculosis Association advocating getting a chest x-ray. The article relates how TB struck the Dohanos family, claiming several children – and almost the artist himself.

As the article notes, “Lorain’s most noted contribution to the art world has once again drawn on his hometown experiences to inspire a new art work.

“This time Stevan Dohanos remembered his poverty stricken childhood and a family ravaged by a disease when he created a poster which will be used in the fight against tuberculosis.

“This week a quarter of a million copies of the new poster will go to Tuberculosis Associations all over the nation. “Protect the Family Circle, Get a Chest X-Ray” pleads the poster, which carries Dohanos’ impression of a typical American family.

In years past the noted illustrator has delved into his Lorain background in creating other works. The poster used in the 1948 Red Cross campaign was his work entitled “Main Street America,” it was a direct result of his impressions growing up in Lorain.

This latest work is perhaps most directly linked with Lorain and its tragic impact on the Dohanos family. For the family, and the artist himself, know all too well what the dread TB germ can do.

“The artist was one of nine children growing up in South Lorain during the early part of the century. His parents, Elizabeth and Andrew Dohanos, were Hungarian immigrants who met and married in Lorain.

“His father struggled to bring up his large family on the meagre pay of a steelworker. As Dohanos recalls it now, “We lived in a small crowded house and had a bad diet.”

“In this house, as well as scores of similar Lorain homes of the period, disease found easy pickings. TB is the disease that hit the Dohanos family.

“Several of the undernourished children unknowingly picked up the germs. First to die was a daughter, Irene, who succumbed at 21.

“Then another child, Bert, showed evidence of the disease. After a 20-year battle he, too, died last spring.

“The artist himself almost had his career cut short by TB. In 1933, when he was 26, the disease sent him to bed for several months. He recovered and continued his rise in the art world until 1942 when it put him in a sanatorium for 11 months.

Dohanos beat the disease again, but for months after the last battle he had to take it easy, working only three or four hours a day.

“With this background the artist was readily responsive when the National Tuberculosis Association asked him to do a poster which would aid in the fight against the disease.

“Copies of the new poster are currently being distributed on a nationwide basis. They are expected to arrive in Lorain next week."

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I’ve written about Stevan Dohanos before, including this two-part series about his 1948 “Main Street America” Red Cross poster; a post about a 1952 Christmas-themed cover of the Saturday Evening Post; this multi-part series about my quest to figure out which Lorain house was featured on a 1946 Saturday Evening Post cover; and a post about a new 1968 stamp that Mr. Dohanos had designed.

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I couldn’t help but wonder whether the house in South Lorain that the Dohanos family lived in was still standing. The 1912 Lorain City Directory listings had Andrew and Elizabeth Dohanos living at 1557 E. 30th Street. (Stevan would have been about five years old then.)

The home is no longer there, replaced by modern, attractive housing owned by the Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority. But appropriately, it is just a short distance from Stevan Dohanos Elementary School at 1625 E. 32nd Street.

May 1969 – International Community Center for Lorain?

Here’s another one of those “What Might Have Been” scenarios for the City of Lorain: a proposed International Community Center at Lakeview Park.

The front page of the Journal from May 18, 1969 (above) tells the story.

At that time, the International Festival was only two years old, having been launched in the summer of 1967 (which I wrote about here).

The two-story building was to be the headquarters of the Lorain International Association. It was to include a small convention hall that could serve as the setting for the Festival and bazaar; a museum honoring Lorain’s ‘famous sons’ such as Admiral Ernest J. King; and an art gallery featuring works by Lorain native Stevan Dohanos. The Community Center would also provide a forum for Lorain citizens and the various civic, business and fraternal organizations to which they belonged.

The International Community Center was going to be located in the southern portion of Lakeview Park (on the south side of West Erie Avenue) next to the tennis courts.

Tax money would not be used to build the Center. Financing was to come from a major fund drive, getting Lorain citizens to pledge so much over a three year period.

Anyway, the Center was an intriguing idea at at time when the city was still fairly prosperous. Perhaps the idea may yet be revived someday, using an existing Downtown building rather than new construction.

Run on the Lorain Post Office – January 1968

Former Lorain artist Stevan Dohanos designed this classic stamp,
released in January 1968

Back on January 7, 1968, the price of a stamp had finally gone up to six cents. This created a problem for many Lorainites who had a lot of old five-cent stamps.

This resulted in a run on the Post Office in Lorain for one-cent stamps, and a lot of postage-due letters. Read all about it in the article below, which ran on the front page of the Journal on January 9, 1968.

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As the article notes in a sidebar, Lorain’s own Stevan Dohanos designed the new 6-cent stamp (shown at the top of this post) featuring the White House, with the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial in the background.

After his long and successful career as a cover artist for the Saturday Evening Post, Dohanos served as chairman of the National Stamp Advisory Committee. There he was involved in the design and selection of art for postage stamps. He himself designed more than 40 United States postage stamps (some online sources list the total as 46), and oversaw the design and art production of more than 300 other stamps.

The Postal Service’s Hall of Stamps in Washington was dedicated in his honor in 1984.

Saturday Evening Post Cover by Stevan Dohanos – December 27, 1952

The "Log of Lorain" column in the Lorain Journal of January 13, 1953 included a mention of Lorain artist and illustrator Stevan Dohanos' latest Saturday Evening Post cover.

It noted, "Lorainites were well represented on the cover of the Dec. 27 issue of Saturday Evening Post. Steve Dohanos, a Lorain native, painted the cover. The man carrying pine boughs into the church is also a Lorain native. He is Loyal Theron Lucas.

"Lucas was working summer stock in Connecticut last summer and apparently posed for the picture at Dohanos' studio at Stamford, Conn."

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Loyal T. Lucas was born in Lorain on December 4, 1904. Although his name doesn't seem to be included in the list of successful Lorain-born entertainers, Mr. Lucas enjoyed a fine career in Hollywood, judging by his page on imdb.com. Here is the link.

It looks like he specialized in playing miners and old coots on TV Westerns. These appearances included Have Gun – Will Travel (1961), Tales of Wells Fargo (1962), Death Valley Days (1964), Branded (1965), Wagon Train (1964 & 1965), Gunsmoke (1961 & 1965), and The Virginian (1965).

He also had roles on Bachelor Father (1962), The Addams Family (1965 & 1966) and Quincy M.E. (1980).

Stevan Dohanos 1948 Red Cross Poster – Part 2

Here’s the rest of the article that appeared in the February 6, 1948 Lorain Journal about Lorain artist Stevan Dohanos and his painting that was used for a Red Cross poster (shown above). In this part of the article we learn about the background of Dohanos and how he became an artist.

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Lorain Rooftops Part Of Red Cross Poster (Part 2)
By JEAN WEAVER

Dohanos, who has gained widespread fame with his Saturday Evening Post covers, was born in Lorain, the son of a steelworker and one of nine children.

He had always liked to draw but his first real glimpse of the artistic world came when he was asked to play the lead in a play for the Hungarian folk theater.

Soon he was “messing around” with paints and allowed to work on the backdrops and scenery. After two years of high school he entered the steel mills here but continued his homework for the International Correspondence school courses in art in which he had enrolled.

These courses led to his only formal study at a Cleveland art school where he spent three terms of evening classes. When 20 years old, he became an apprentice in an advertising studio in Cleveland where he spent six years, learning the business of commercial art in all its phases, lettering, design and layout.

His first recognition as an artist came after he had won first place twice for drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art and in 1933 he moved to New York to work for the Fawn studios.

His fame as an artist has grown rapidly since that time and he was one of six artists assigned by the government as members of the treasury art project to spend six months in the Virgin Islands, painting what they saw.

On his return to the states, Dohanos’ tropical-style paintings were a great success and it was in 1938 that he began to work for the Saturday Evening Post, illustrating a serial story.

This led to many more story illustrations in other magazines and then he began to narrow his work down to the Saturday Evening Post alone.

Dohanos’ work is done in a rambling home and studio in Westport, Conn., where he lives with his wife, Margit, and two sons, Peter and Paul.

***

You might remember my 2011 post (which began here) in which I tried to locate the mysterious house in Lorain that Dohanos featured in a painting that ran on the cover of the July 20, 1946 issue of the Saturday Evening Post.

The mystery was later solved in a three-part blog series (which ran here, here and here) in which it was revealed that the house on that cover was the house on First Street in which Dohanos was born. Unfortunately it had been torn down.

Anyway, a close look at the 1948 Red Cross poster – in which Dohanos is said to have included some Lorain rooftops – makes me think he snuck his old homestead into a painting once again.

Take a look at this detail from the Red Cross painting (below).

What do you think?

Stevan Dohanos 1948 Red Cross Poster – Part 1

Sixty-eight years ago this month, well-known Lorain artist Stevan Dohanos was featured on the front page of the Friday, Feb. 6, 1948 Lorain Journal shown above. He had just completed a painting to be used as a Red Cross campaign poster.

He even included a bit of Lorain in his poster artwork. You can read all about it in the article by Jean Weaver, which I have transcribed below for easier reading. (I’ve had to bust it into two parts; today’s part is the story behind the poster, and in tomorrow’s portion, the focus is on Dohanos himself.

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Lorain Rooftops Part Of Red Cross Poster
By JEAN WEAVER

The remembered rooftops of his hometown, Lorain, the spire of a little church in Connecticut and the strong green shaft of a lamp post in Conshohocken, Pa.

All these contributed to the intensely American theme of the 1948 Red Cross fund campaign poster, designed by Steven [sic] Dohanos, son of Andrew Dohanos, 5070 Elyria-av.

The story of how he came to paint the poster was told by Dohanos himself, in a recent interview at his Connecticut home.

Dohanos began working on sketches for the poster early last fall in his studio in Westport, Conn. The suggestion had been to show a Red Cross worker extending help in time of disaster.

Turns to Notebook
He had chosen a young woman worker from a neighboring Red Cross chapter, had photographs made of her against a background of destruction, sheltering a child in her arms and it was from these photographs that he was working.

But his artist’s mind kept searching for a simpler theme which would better represent the Red Cross as a basic part of American life.

In an old notebook filled with impressions of a sketching tour thru Pennsylvania several years before, he found one particular sketch which stood out in his memory.

On a street corner in the industrial town of Conshohocken near Philadelphia he had been struck by the symbolism of two flags, American and Red Cross, unfurled from the height of a lamp post.

This sketch was the starting point for a strong and simple poster chosen almost instantaneously from those submitted to the Red Cross.

At first Dohanos thought the lamp post and flags should stand alone against a plain background. But then he realized that “America” should be sketched in to give the touch of Main Street detail.

Thus the resulting poster gives a sum total of American, the gingerbread eaves and the quaint but homely cupola, the circling pigeons, the spire of the church and the squat water tower of a small industrial plant.

The hands of the clock on the church tower which point to seven after 11 suggest a mood and time of day and the flags suggest the whole way of life.

Tomorrow: The rest of the story

Stevan Dohanos House Mystery – Solved! Part 3

So where was the Dohanos house on First Street? Was the house number (above) on the painting accurate? After some research, I can say that it doesn't look like it.

I did a little digging at the library in the few available Lorain City Directories from the early 1900's. The Dohanos family – listed in the 1905 directory as 'Andy and Lizzie Dohanas' – lived at 111 Lake.

Lake was later renamed 'First  Street' and appeared that way in the 1912 directory. But by then, the Dohanos family had moved – and the house was being rented.

But there was one family that lived on First Street that appeared in both the 1905 and 1912 directories: Joseph Majesie Sr. So, his 117 Lake address = 501 First Street.

In 1912, there were only 4 houses with addresses on First Street between Broadway and Washington Avenue: 211, 501, 701 and 803. So it makes sense that the Dohanos family probably lived at 211 First Street, next door to the Majesie family. In the 1924 directory, John Doehonos – a relative? –  lived at 211 First Street – so it's a good chance indeed that it's the right address.

And now – courtesy of Dennis Lamont – here's a 1936 aerial view of First Street and North Broadway showing what I believe is the Dohanos house. (Click on it for a larger view.)

Here's a final look at the house as painted by Stevan Dohanos for comparison. It looks like all the elements are there in the photo, including the trees, and even a little shed in the back.

Those first four houses on First Street between Broadway and Washington continued to be listed that way for decades, until the 1947 directory, when 211, 501 and 701 disappeared, torn down by the B&O railroad.

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A Final Thought

Hey, remember the little voice in my head that I mentioned in Part 1, telling me where the house was? It had said, "It's on 11th Street."

Maybe the voice wasn't that far off. After all, the house was at 111 Lake – also known later as 211 First (1st) Street. With all those 1's, it was bound to be confused!

Maybe I'll start buying lottery tickets.

Stevan Dohanos House Mystery – Solved! Part 2

Very early in this mystery, I couldn't believe that there wasn't any mention in the July 20, 1946 Lorain Journal that a Lorain house was on the cover of the latest Saturday Evening Post. It just doesn't happen every day – so why wasn't it in the paper? Why was there no photo of the house with its current owners grinning and clutching a copy of the Post?

So I went back to the microfilm a few days ago and read from that date forward almost two weeks.

What did I find? Nothing.

So with the Lorain Public Library closing in 15 minutes, I decided to backtrack from the July 20th date and see what I could find. I had already done a few weeks earlier, but I figured I had nothing to lose by retracing my steps.

Here's what I (groan) found in the Thursday, July 18, 1946 Lorain Journal.

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How to Waste 3 Hours, or Life of a Reporter
Newsman Puts in Hectic Day Trying to Track Down House That Wasn't There

By WILLIAM ASHBOLT

Ah, for the life of a mayor or a reporter!

Shortly before noon yesterday a publicity man from a national magazine strode into offices of The Journal telling us that Stevan Dohanos, artist son of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Dohanos, 1690 E. 29th-st, had drawn the cover picture now appearing on this week's issue.

"The picture's of a house," he said (we could see that ourselves), "and what's more, it's a picture of a house in Lorain."

We Start to Work
All well and good, we figured – it would make a good "local" story – you know, a picture of a Lorain house being distributed all over the country, and so we rolled up our sleeves and started to work.

We agreed that it would be a good idea that the publicity man contact Mayor Patrick J. Flaherty and have him "officially" inspect the house.

The promotion man started for the mayor's office and, within a few minutes, he telephoned that the mayor "is all behind the plan."

"Come right down, we'll go out there right away," he declared.

This is where all the trouble started.

At least 10 people were waiting to see "hizzoner" about matters ranging from paying for an ad in a picnic program to a woman complaining about the water at her house being turned off.

Another Half-Hour
After a weary half-hour, we started. The publicity man found the name and address of Dohanos' parents and we were headed there to see if the picture corresponded with their house. It didn't.

Mrs. Dohanos stated that the house in the picture was located on 1st-st. In fact, she said, it was the house that Stevan was born in 39 years ago.

Back to Broadway again, the mayor decided it was time to eat. The restaurant was jammed with people and it cost 45 minutes, besides the check.

Down to Business
The mayor then had to stop at his office and at the same time thought he'd better call City Street Supt. Albert McDermott to see if the house was still on 1st-st. We were getting down to business again.

A half an hour later and we were to start again. But 10 more citizens of our city greeted the mayor as we attempted to get back on the trail again so that was another half hour. It was now three hours since our search started.

We climbed back into the car and drove thru the alley behind the police station – a matter of 200 yards – and it was there that we found where the house was when Dohanos sketched the picture two years ago.

Yes, you guessed it. It was one of the houses that was torn down by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad to make room for their new docks at the foot of Broadway.

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Well, at least we know WHY Stevan Dohanos painted that particular house.


Next: Where was the house located on First Street anyway?

Stevan Dohanos House Mystery – Solved! Part 1

The mystery of identifying the house that Lorain native Stevan Dohanos used as a subject for a Saturday Evening Post cover painting (shown above) back in 1946 (which I told you about here) is over. And only a few weeks after it started.

But before I reveal my findings (in Part 2), I'm going to drag it out a bit – for suspense!

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Trying to find the house was one of the more offbeat things I've ever gotten involved with as a result of this blog. I began with the assumption that the house was still standing in Stevan Dohanos' old neighborhood – which, after a lot of driving around – I determined wasn't the case.

Then I thought that maybe the house belonged to a friend of the family. Or perhaps it was one that he saw while driving around Lorain and and wanted to paint.

Could this be it?

That meant that the house could be anywhere.

Thus, I was always on guard. And it really started to affect my behavior (which wasn't all that normal to begin with).

For example, while on the way home from grocery shopping at Sheffield Center a few Sundays ago, I was suddenly gripped by an irresistible impulse to detour down some random Lorain side street in search of the house. Of course, each time that has happened, I expected the house to magically appear, exactly like it does in the painting.

Here's another good example of nuttiness. While picking up a pizza, clear out of the blue, a voice in my head said "It's on 11th Street." So of course, I drove over there expecting to find it – with no success.

That'll teach me to listen to little voices in my head!

Fellow blogger Lisa tried to help by pointing out to me that there are a limited number of neighborhoods in Lorain where the sidewalk meets the street with no tree lawn, and that they are concentrated in the 6th, 7th and 8th Street areas between Oberlin Avenue and Washington Avenue.

It was a great clue, and it limited the search to a relatively small part of Lorain – which I drove around with no success.

Or maybe this one?

Of course, since the Post said that Stevan Dohanos had sketched this house a few years before he painted it – as opposed to sitting across from it and rendering it – I didn't know for sure if he used a little artistic license in his composition. I reasoned that he may have just used that particular sidewalk and curb combination so that the young ballplayers would have a place to sit, with little visual clutter to distract the reader.

Thus, I continued to think that the house might be in any old neighborhood, no matter what the sidewalk looks like. So I continued my search – driving, looking, scanning, etc.

I had seen a couple of houses where I practically slammed on the brakes and yelled, "THAT'S IT!!!" But after a closer look, there was always some major structural difference that either ruled out a match or made it a dubious proposition.

So I kept on looking.

Next: The mystery is solved!

A Stevan Dohanos Painting Mystery

Famed Lorain-born artist Stevan Dohanos, nationally known for painting more than one hundred Saturday Evening Post magazine covers, sometimes featured Lorain settings in his compositions – including the house in the cover shown above. The painting – known as "Star Pitcher" – ran on the cover of the July 20, 1946 issue.

Dennis Lamont had alerted me that a copy of the magazine was on Ebay, and I ended up buying it for a measly ten bucks. What I was hoping for was that inside the issue, the house's address would be identified. When I saw this (below) I was pretty excited.

Unfortunately, it doesn't say where the house was in Lorain. So I hit the newspaper microfilm at the Lorain Public Library from that period of time, reasoning there would be an article with a photo of the grinning owners in front of the house, holding a copy of the Post. I looked at film from well before and after the issue date – with no such luck.

I also had no success going through clippings in the Library's Special Collection files, as well as the Albert Doane Collection. I also checked the files down at the Black River Historical Society and came back empty-handed.

I driven around a lot of old neighborhoods in Lorain, including the old Charleston historic area, near the old St. Joe's, near parks (remember – Mr. Dohanos needed a spot from where he could sketch the house), and others.

I've even driven around one of Stevan Dohanos' old neighborhoods (in South Lorain), looking for a house with that distinctive single window on the second floor and unique porch. All I got for my effort was a bunch of suspicious looks from people sitting on their front porches. (I'm lucky they didn't call the cops.)

Anyway, I'm putting out the call for help. Does anyone recognize this house?