Lorain Journal Front Page – Jan. 18, 1954

We're due for some more snow on Friday, so I thought I'd post another Lorain Journal front page from January 1954, since Lorain was dealing with the white stuff back then as well. But as you can see, seventy years ago today, the city was putting on a happy face and indulging in some wintery fun.

As the caption for the charming montage notes, "Skating enthusiasts have been promised a few days of continuous cold by the weatherman. Lorainites, quick to take advantage of the cold spell, crowded the skating pond at Lakeview park around the clock Sunday."

The photographs really capture an innocent time, of kids just being kids, playing with their friends with no parents hovering over them. It almost makes you feel a little wistful.

Reading the addresses of the children as listed in the photo caption, I think it's interesting how they're from all over the city. I remember Mom telling me how she and her friends walked down to Lakeview Park from Sixth Street to ice skate; they pretty much walked everywhere – something today's kids don't do (for various reasons, including greater availability of rides, and safety).

Elsewhere on the front page: an item revealing Lorain achieved a record-breaking $1,700,000 in liquor sales in 1953. Now that's something to celebrate - perhaps with a drink! 

The article mentions the state store on Seventh Street in Lorain. I'm betting fewer and fewer people remember State Liquor Stores, and having to go to one to get their favorite bottle of booze. 

The former State Liquor Store at 201 Seventh Street

Journal Entertainment Page – Jan. 10, 1964

Judging by this page of advertisements from the January 10, 1964 edition of the Journal, there were still a lot of entertainment options to choose from in the Lorain area, even in the mid-1960s. It's a nice glimpse of the city still in its heyday, which many of us Baby Boomers were lucky enough to experience as kids.

It's the dead of winter, so the Mid-America Boat Show was underway in Cleveland. Surprisingly, there's a big headliner: legendary trumpeter and performer Louis Armstrong, appearing with his All Stars. I'll bet that was a great show.

Here he is on the Ed Sullivan show in October 1964 performing his big hit, "Hello, Dolly!"

Now back to the Entertainment page.

If nightclubbing was your taste, there was the 'new' Elberta Inn, Colony Bar, Lincoln Park, and Dewey Road Inn. For teens, there was The Note out in Ruggles Beach and roller skating at Lorain Arena.

There are a few clubs that I've never heard of: Lemon Tree Lounge in Vermilion, Driftwood Nite Club on Elyria Avenue, Shore Bar on North Broadway in Downtown Lorain, and Oasis Club out on E. 28th St. So I guess there's still a few businesses for me to research.

If you were just interested in grub, there was Vians, Manners, and Kenny Kings. 

And there's also Effy's at 1869 E. 28th Street – a drive-in that, coincidentally, someone recently emailed me about.

And note that Ronnie and the Rainbows were appearing at Three Sisters on Broadway at 20th Street.

That's well-known local guitarist and musician Ron Zehel, who's been mentioned on this blog a few times, from performing at the Mary Lee Tucker Show, as well as The Note.

Lorain Journal Front Page – Jan. 12, 1954

Well, we had our first taste of real sub-zero temperatures the last few days. It certainly makes things interesting, especially when so much of the country is also in a deep freeze. 

It's not unlike the weather of seventy years ago, as noted on the front page of the Lorain Journal of January 12, 1954.

As stated in the article, "The full fury of winter lashed Lorain, as the state was caught in a bitter cold wave which promised to send temperatures to zero in some parts of Ohio tonight.

"The cold front which brought snow squalls that cut visibility to a half mile along Lake Erie swung from the west shortly after dark Monday and city and state road crews were called out shortly afterward to spread cinders and salt in an effort to keep streets and highways from becoming slippery and hazardous.

"Temperatures in Lorain remained in the 20's during the night although readings as low as five above were reported from the southern section of the state, where snowfall, however, was light."

Elsewhere on the front page: a photo of the aftermath of a collision of a New York Central passenger train and a tractor trailer truck carrying pipe near Amherst; a police chase involving six police cruisers from four cities and two states in pursuit of a car driven by a fifteen-year-old; a political crisis in Rome; an effort to build another turnpike going diagonally across the state of Ohio; criticism launched at President Eisenhower's suggestions for tweaking the Taft-Hartley labor act; and the capture of four Ohioans who escaped from the Trumbull county jail.

Best story of all: the one about 'Dragnet Launched For Doughnut Con Artist."

Jack LaVriha Profile – Feb 1972

A blog post last week featuring a Lorain Journal front page from January 11, 1954 included an article that mentioned Jack LaVriha. I thought it would be a good time to post this profile of the well-known newspaperman, who many of us remember as a longtime reporter at the Journal as well as the announcer at many Lorain parades. He was also a tireless supporter of getting Lorain hostage Terry Anderson released.

The profile, written by Bill Scrivo, appeared in the Sunday Journal on Feb. 20, 1972.

It reveals that Jack LaVriha had a pretty interesting career, with much of it away from the newspaper business. He also spent some time as the editor of the Lorain Sunday News (a weekly newspaper from which I post articles here from time to time).

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Going back to the article from last week that mentioned Mr. LaVriha, there was a real feud between the Lorain Journal and radio station WEOL out of Elyria in the 1950s. You can read about it on the Wiki entry for WEOL, as well as the resulting Supreme Court decision about the Journal's attempt to keep its advertisers from also buying ads on the competing radio station. 

But what the WEOL history neglects to mention is that the Lorain Journal applied for a TV license in June 1952 – followed by WEOL applying for the same channel, apparently just to be stinkers. With the resulting months of delays with two competing applications, the radio station effectively scuttled the newspaper's attempt to launch a TV station. When the smoke cleared and the Journal withdrew its application, WEOL had the TV license – but never built a studio or went on the air.

On Area Movie Screens – January 10, 1964

We'll close out the week here on the blog with yet another look at what movies were playing at the local theaters – in this case, a mere sixty years ago. Above is the movie page from the January 10, 1964 Journal.

The main reason I posted it is because it includes an ad for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World – one of my favorite movies (which I wrote about here). Our family saw it in Cleveland at the Palace and it's a cherished memory of mine (and an early one too since I was only about five years old). I watch the movie on DVD every few years and it always makes me happy, as well as making me want to visit California to see some of the locations where it was filmed.

Here's a promotion for the movie that I've never seen before. It's pretty funny.

Elsewhere on the page, there was quite a variety. James Garner, one of my father's favorite actors (who he always referred to as 'Rockford') was starring with Doris Day in Move Over, Darling (1963) at the Tivoli. It's interesting that even at that late date, the movie ad promotes that 'news and color cartoon' were part of the bill. Animated cartoons made for the big screen were pretty bad by that time.

At the Palace in Lorain was a pretty good horror comedy, The Comedy of Terrors, starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone. Joe E. Brown was listed as a 'special guest star.' He was a busy guy apparently, because he was in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World too.

Over at the Ohio Theatre was one of the popular British 'Carry On' films, Carry On Regardless.

Also on the bill was another British comedy, Dentist on the Job (released in the U. S. as Get On With It). I guess Lorainites' tastes in movie comedy had to evolve, since the last Bowery Boys movie had been released in 1958.

Lorain Journal Front Page – Jan. 11, 1954

Seventy years ago today, this was the front page of the Lorain Journal. As usual back then, it's loaded with local, national and international news (as opposed to today's Morning Journal news stories, which are softer than the enamel on my molars).

Front and center is a nice photo of the Ernest T. Weir in winter. The caption notes, "The biting cold air this morning (it reached four degrees above zero, according to some reports) drew mist from the Black River that nearly hid from view the boats tied up for the winter. The mist subsided later in the morning as temperatures rose into the twenties. This picture of the Earnest [sic] T. Weir, taken about 11 a. m., still shows the fingers of vapor playing along the ship's hull.

Did you know that Lorain's harbor still has ship traffic? Historian and author Matthew J. Weisman monitors the comings and goings of vessels on the Black River in Lorain, and is happy to email a Lorain Harbor Port Activity report to anyone that is interested. In addition to information about the ships and what they are doing in Lorain, Matthew also includes photos and fascinating historical tidbits. Send me an email (the address is in my profile at the bottom of this page) if you would like to be added to his mailing list.

Elsewhere on the page: President Eisenhower recommending some changes to the Taft-Hartley Act, consisting of compromises between what labor leaders wanted and what management wanted; a tragic plane crash that killed the president of Braniff Airlines, as well as his duck hunting partners and two pilots; some good news for the Fruehauf Trailer plant in Avon Lake; the 'heaviest snowfall in five years' that hit the Mid-Atlantic Seaboard, bringing 15 inches of snow; a heated discussion in the Ohio House of Representatives about the need for a second Ohio Turnpike to run from Conneaut to Cincinnati; and the launching of the political career of Charles A. Mosher, who would go on to serve eight terms as a Republican member of the U. S. House of Representatives.

Buckeye Beer Ads – January 1954

This vintage bottle is currently on eBay

Buckeye Beer, the Toledo-based brew that dates back to 1836, has been the subject of a few blog posts as the brand was featured occasionally in advertisements in the Lorain Journal in the 1950s and early 1960s. The ad campaigns I saw were quite creative and made good use of illustration.

This clever series of Buckeye Beer ads (below) ran in the Lorain Journal during January 1954. Although only six ads are shown, amazingly, the ad campaign featured a different one each day of the month. They always appeared in the Sports section on a left hand page, and always in the lower right corner. Each ad depicted a frustrated man – in trouble with his wife, performing an unpleasant duty, engaged in an annoying sports situation – who needs to 'buck up' with a Buckeye Beer. 

Most of the ads in the campaign were drawn by cartoonist Walt Ditzen, who enjoyed a fine career with his nationally syndicated 'Fan Fare' sports strip. Ditzen had a great, funny style. Of the ads shown above, he did all but the one of the man losing at checkers to a little kid.