Marijuana seems to be in the news every day now, gaining respectibility.
Canada legalized recreational marijuana in mid-October 2018. In the United States, the recreational use of marijuana is legal in ten states. And Ohio legalized medical marijuana back in 2016.
That’s why it was fairly amusing to see the editorial below, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on November 22, 1968.
I’m on board with the idea that someone shouldn’t rot in prison for having a small amount of marijuana. But I’ll probably never budge in my opinion that recreational marijuana is a bad idea that I hope is never exported here from the Great White North.
Today we have a Lorain Journal ad for the Kryl All Girl Orchestra, which I thought was interesting. Sponsored by the Lorain Lions Club, the group was appearing at the Lorain High School auditorium on November 14, 1945.
The group was under the direction of Bohumir Kryl, who was a renowned Czech bandleader, cornetist and pioneering recording artist.
His All Girl Orchestra seems to have been just one of his many musical endeavors. It featured two of his daughters, one on violin and the other on piano.
According to the archeophone.com website, Kryl formed his all-female symphony group in the 1930s. The website notes that the group played to rave reviews right into the late 1940s.
It’s interesting that the Lions Club brought such a group to Lorain, which at that time was still a working man’s town more likely to support boxing matches held at the Antler’s.
Anyway, the all-female theme of the group seems to have been ahead of its time.
****
Want to hear a recording of Bohumir Kryl on the cornet playing variations on Carnival of Venice? (Those of us that played trumpet in our youth remember that tune very well. This version has some tricky double and triple tonguing in it that Kryl handles masterfully.)
Visit the Free Music Archives website here and enjoy!
Here’s a full-page ad for the Grand Opening of Kaminski Oldsmobile at 2950 Broadway. The ad ran in the Lorain Journal on November 8, 1957.
As I noted back in this 2011 post, the 2950 Broadway address was originally the home of Kunick Motor Sales in the early 1950s. Vogt Oldsmobile took over the location a couple years after Kunick. Kaminski moved in after Vogt.
Kaminski only stayed at that address for only a couple years before moving the dealership to a new home on Henderson Drive (where my parents launched their decades-long love affair with the Oldsmobile brand).
Today, the 2950 Broadway address is home to Steel City Auto Sales & Service.
****
Believe me, posting this on the day after General Motors made its depressing announcement of plant closings and job cuts was not planned.
It's a sad, sad thing. But you can't make people buy vehicles they don't want.
I've never owned an SUV in my life and don't plan to. But I probably would have kept buying Oldsmobiles if GM had continued to make them. I'm loyal even when it doesn't always make sense.
****
Look what I received in my email this morning from an anonymous contributor and fellow Olds enthusiast: a nice vintage postcard featuring the building at 2950 Broadway as it looked when it was the home of Vogt Oldsmobile.
It's nice to see the building in its heyday as an auto dealership. Thanks to my anonymous contributor for sharing!
If you’re a fan of old steam locomotives, this one’s for you.
The photo (by Journal Photographer Terry Thomas) of old Nickel Plate Engine 759 crossing the Black River railroad bridge appeared in the Lorain Journal on November 12, 1968.
The caption notes that Engine 759 was built in 1944 and passed through Lorain many times before being retired in 1958. The caption also mentions that the train “may be used as one of the engines celebrating the centennial of driving the Golden Spike at Promontory Point, Utah, the occasion in the 19th century when this nation’s east and west were first tied by rail.”
Engine 759 was indeed used in that celebration. The steam locomotive even has its own Wiki page, which reveals that it was built in Lima, Ohio. It is currently on display at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
I remember as a kid seeing this California tourism ad
featuring John Wayne in Life magazine.
John Wayne was still hugely popular with movie audiences in the 1960s and 70s, and our family was no exception.
My parents took us to Amherst Theater to see many of his first-run movies, including The War Wagon (1967), True Grit (1969), The Undefeated (1969), Chisum (1970), Big Jake (1971), The Cowboys (1972), and Cahill, United States Marshall (1973). We also saw some of his other films from that era at Lorain’s summer movie program for kids.
Today, most of John Wayne’s best movies are available on DVD or rerun endlessly on channels such as Grit TV. But back in 1968, if you wanted to see a specific John Wayne movie, you had to wait for it to show up on television – if it did at all, since many of his films were out of distribution for decades.
Thus, a John Wayne movie on TV back then was something special.
So it’s not too surprising to see the ad below promoting the Friday night showing one of the Duke’s best movies, Red River (1948) on Channel 43. The ad ran in the Journal on November 22, 1968.
I know we were watching that night. (What seems strange to me now is that the movie – which seemed so old at the time – was only 20 years old in 1968.)
In the movie, John Wayne plays Tom Dunson, a pretty tough character who builds a cattle empire with his adopted son Matthew Garth, played by Montgomery Clift.
The Duke’s loyal sidekick is played by Walter Brennan.
The main plot of the movie is the big cattle drive during which Dunson’s ruthless actions towards his hired hands eventually cause a rift between him and Matt. Matt ends up taking over the herd from Dunson, leaving him behind. Dunson then vows to kill him.
It all ends happily and sappily, with Dunson and Matt reconciling at the end of the movie.
But not before a big fist fight between the two. I remember thoroughly enjoying watching Wayne punch Montgomery Clift. And not believing that Clift could really smack the Duke around.
Anyway, the movie had a big effect on my siblings and me. It got us all working on our imitations; John Wayne (“Someday you’ll turn around... and I’ll be there. And I’ll kill you, Matt.”); Walter Brennan (“You was wrong, Mr. Dunson.”); and Hank Worden (“Plantin’ and readin’... plantin’ and readin’).
I can still recite huge chunks of dialogue from that movie. I never forgot the ‘ode to beef’ in the movie, in which John Wayne extols how beef makes people strong... makes them grow.
Not surprisingly, I’m still a big John Wayne fan. And I watch Grit TV every day, especially when one of the Duke’s movies is being shown.
The Duke as "Tom Dunson" samples some chuckwagon grub in Red River
1968 Football Program Cover
(Courtesy Ohio State University archives)
Well, it’s the day of the big game. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Since I’ve been featuring snippets of Ohio State’s 1968 National Championship season here on the blog, above is the cover of the football program for the game against Michigan that year.
And here is the Journal’s coverage the next day of the Buckeye blowout victory.
The funny thing is, while I was at Ohio State, I never attended a Michigan game in Columbus. My dormitory roomies and I used to scalp our tickets. (Greed is a terrible thing.)
I guess that’s why the cover of the 1978 program (below) featuring Tom Cousineau doesn’t look familiar to me.
Courtesy Ohio State University archives
It’s too bad Ohio State lost that game and ended up in the Gator Bowl, where Woody Hayes unfortunately wrapped up his coaching career.
Well, it’s the day after Thanksgiving. Hope your holiday was great!
Fifty years ago, the day after Thankgiving was November 29, 1968. And that was the day that Santa Claus made his traditional arrival at Sheffield Shopping Center, as announced in the full-page Journal ad above.
(It’s kind of a strange looking Santa in the ad. Although he is usually described as being able to fit in a miniature sleigh, this ‘jolly old elf’ looks to be towering more than six feet tall. He also has one of the longest and most bendable torsos I’ve ever seen.)
I don’t remember making the trek to Sheffield Center for a Santa Claus arrival more than once if at all. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we were too busy watching cartoons. (The ABC television network used to rerun a bunch of their Saturday morning TV programming on that Friday after Thanksgiving, which I wrote about here.)
Anyway, on that same day after Thanksgiving 1968, the article below ran in the Journal. It tells of the appearance of Edna Kaye’s Steel City Strutters of Lorain at Philadelphia’s 49th annual Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The photo of the Snoopy balloon is from the Macy’s parade in New York. Note the lighthearted holiday fare playing at the Astor.
