The Right Room (references)

My new play The Right Room (see below for details) takes place in 1934, 1935, 1959 and 1994. The play is set in hotel rooms in the Greater Cleveland area, as well as in Minnesota and Missouri. 

There are numerous topical refences from each time period. You don't need to know them to follow the story, but for the curious and inspired, here are a few of those.

Cleveland went 66-47 before August 12, 1994

1994 Major League Baseball Strike - The strike began on August 12, 1994, and resulted in the remainder of that season, including the postseason and the World Series, being canceled.

Miami University - Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio.

Middlebury College - Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont.

Tight - (slang) Intoxicated; drunk. “We went drinking and got tight.”

Sweet Sixteen and Never Been Kissed - A 1932 pop song released by the Blue Mountaineers as a 78 rpm record on the Regal label.

On relief - To be or begin receiving assistance, financial or otherwise, from publicly or privately funded agencies (usually run by the government) due to a certain level of hardship, poverty, or need.

Gauloises - A brand of cigarette of French origin.

Prosit - Borrowed from German. Toast to indicate one is drinking to someone's, or to each other's, health.

Skol - Borrowed from Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish skål. A drinking-toast; “cheers.”

Be prepared - Motto of the Scouting movement, also a comedy song by Tom Lehrer, 1953.

Hastings - A city (mostly) in Dakota County, Minnesota, of which it is the county seat.

Joan Didion - “Goodbye to All That" is a 1967 memoir that explores Didion’s dizzying love affair with and ultimate departure from New York City.

"Someone is staring at you in Personal Growth"

When Harry Met Sally... - A 1989 American romantic comedy film directed by Rob Reiner and written by Nora Ephron.

Vermilion - A city in Dakota County, Minnesota with 114 residents (1930 census)

Ship spotting - A form of outdoor activity and tourism that is carried out worldwide by observing and photographing various ships in the waterways where there is a lot of ship traffic.

St. Olaf - A private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American pastors and farmers.

Home girl - An unmarried young woman, who lives with her parents. “I guess she's the type that people call home girls.” (Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie) 

The Willows Maternity Sanitarium

The Willows - The Willows Maternity Sanitarium was a prominent private maternity hospital and adoption facility for unmarried young women located in Kansas City, Missouri, operating from 1905 until 1969.

Lakewood - A city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, on the southern shore of Lake Erie. Established in 1889, it is one of Cleveland's historical streetcar suburbs and part of the Cleveland metropolitan area.

Brubeck at Oberlin - The concert is credited with making jazz a legitimate field of musical study at Oberlin, and furthermore initiating it as a subject of serious intellectual attention.

TIME - Dave Brubeck was on the cover of Time Magazine the week of Nov. 8, 1954.

Black & Tan Club - Black and tan clubs were integrated American nightclubs from the early-to-mid 20th century where patrons and performers of different races—primarily Black, white, and mixed-race—mingled freely during an era of strict legal and social segregation.

The Five Mile Crib

Beatnik - Member of a social movement in the mid-20th century, who subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle.

Eddy’s Boat Docks - The location formerly known as Eddie's Boat Docks in the Cleveland area is now the Emerald Necklace Marina operated by the Cleveland Metroparks.

The Crib - The Five Mile Crib is one of four water intake cribs in Lake Erie that supply the water system.

Merchant marines - The U.S. Merchant Marine consists of civilian- and government-owned commercial vessels that transport cargo and passengers during peacetime and act as a naval auxiliary during wartime.

The Wassermann test or Wassermann reaction (WR) - An antibody test for syphilis.

Barenaked Ladies - A Canadian rock band from Ontario.

Jane (song) - “Jane, doesn't think a man could ever be faithful / Jane, isn't giving me a chance to be shameful.”

Tipper Gore - Co-founded the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) in 1985 to lobby for warning labels on music with explicit lyrics. Once married to Senator and Vice President Al Gore.

Fevik - A coastal village and popular seaside resort in Grimstad Municipality in Agder county, Norway.

The Prophet - Written in English by the Lebanese-American poet and writer Kahlil Gibran, it has never been out of print.

George Gund II - An American banker, business executive, and real estate investor. He was a director and later President of the Cleveland Trust Company.

Convergence-Continuum presents "The Right Room" as part of the Verum Project at the Liminis, 2438 Scranton Rd. in Tremont, October 29 - 31, 2026

David Hansen presents "I Hate This (a play without the baby): The Silver Collection" in an intimate, private location, October 14-18, 2026. Contact for details.

Source: Wikipedia (A human-created and edited resource, Consider making a donation today.)

The Toothpaste Millionaire (references)

One of the first questions I was asked when preparing to adapt Jean Merrill's The Toothpaste Millionaire into a play script was whether or not I would update the story to 2024. It hadn't even crossed my mind, and I think that was the right call. You could do it, but then it would be an entirely different story.

Instead, I treated this book from 1972 as a period piece, and not only that, a city-specific piece, the events that occur centered in the very real suburb of East Cleveland.

The kids from ZOOM

My adaptation includes allusions to people, places and things from that time, and before we entered rehearsal, I created this brief list of references, many of which are edited from Wikipedia entries.

Zoom (stylized as ZOOM) is a half-hour educational television program, created almost entirely by children, which aired on PBS originally from January 9, 1972, to February 10, 1978, with reruns being shown until September 12, 1980. It was originated and produced by WGBH-TV in Boston.

David Cassidy (April 12, 1950 – November 21, 2017) was an American actor and musician. He was best known for his role as Keith Partridge in the 1970s musical-sitcom The Partridge Family. This role catapulted Cassidy to teen idol status as a superstar pop singer of the 1970s.

Teen Beat was an American magazine geared towards teenaged readers, published 1967–c. 2007.

The Whole Earth Catalog was an American counterculture magazine and product catalog published several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The editorial focus was on self-sufficiency, ecology, alternative education, "do it yourself" (DIY), and holism, and featured the slogan "access to tools".

The Morning Exchange is an American morning television program that aired on WEWS-TV (channel 5) in Cleveland, Ohio from 1972 to 1999. A highly rated and influential program, it was commonplace that on a typical day in the 1970s, over two-thirds of all television sets in the Cleveland market were tuned to The Morning Exchange.

Quincy Brame & Kierstan Conway
as Rufus & Kate
"The Toothpaste Millionaire"
(Talespinner Children's Theatre, 2024)

Monopoly is a multiplayer economics-themed board game. In the game, players roll two dice to move around the game board, buying and trading properties and developing them with houses and hotels. Players collect rent from their opponents and aim to drive them into bankruptcy.

WIXY 1260. On December 12, 1965, this AM station changed its call sign to WIXY, branding itself as WIXY 1260 (pronounced "Wicksy Twelve-Sixty"). WIXY soon began to dominate Top-40 radio in Cleveland, despite having a weaker signal than either WKYC (formerly KYW) or WHK. What an AM radio announcer sounded like in 1970.

"O-o-h Child" is a 1970 single, written by Stan Vincent, recorded by Chicago soul family group the Five Stairsteps and released on the Buddah label.

“It’s the Real Thing!” (Coca-Cola)
“Try It! You’ll Like It!” (Alka Seltzer)
“You Deserve a Break Today!” (McDonald’s)

Super 8mm (millimeter) film is a motion-picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement over the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format.

The Clean Water Act of 1972 is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution, and was signed into law by President Nixon.

1969 Cuyahoga River Fire. A June 22, 1969 river fire triggered by a spark from a passing rail car igniting an oil slick. It was not considered a major news story in the Cleveland media. However, the incident did soon garner the attention of Time magazine in an article on the pollution of America's waterways.

Right: Cuyahoga River in 1967

Walter Cronkite (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years, from 1962 to 1981. He was often cited as "the most trusted man in America."

The Lunar Roving Vehicle was a battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon during the last three missions of the American Apollo program (15, 16, and 17) during 1971 and 1972.

"Hot Fun in the Summertime" is a 1969 song recorded by Sly and the Family Stone.

Stouffer's Inn on the Square (now Hotel Cleveland) is an historic hotel at the intersection of Superior Ave. at Public Square.

The Talespinner Children's Theatre production of "The Toothpaste Millionaire" by David Hansen, based on the book by Jean Merrill and directed by Ananias Dixon, will be produced as party of Family Day at the BorderLight Festival on Saturday, July 27 at 3:00 PM

Randall Park Mall

Benjamin bear looks for his girl Missy in Randall Park Mall.
"Cleveland Is A Warm, Fuzzy Place" (1977)

"There's going to be a transfer of power ... from the central city to the southeast part of Cleveland ... I believe that after today the forces that want to keep downtown Cleveland intact had better get on their horse and start riding real fast."
- Randall Park Mall Developer Ed DeBartolo, 1973

Two million square feet of shopping ecstasy, the Randall Park Mall opened to the public on August 11, 1976. At the time it was the largest indoor shopping mall in the world. The city of North Randall had a population of 1,500. Randall Mall Park employed 5,000.

Randall Park didn't have one, but FIVE department stores; Higbee's, The May Company, Sears, JC Penney, and the Joseph Horne Company. The place was so big, some stores had two locations, one on each floor! There were over 200 hundred stores in all. And it was stylish -- marble columns, real tile floors, beautiful ceilings and futuristic ramps and crossovers.

The joy was short-lived however. With two years, the Beachwood Mall opened, siphoning away well-heeled customers, and the place began losing any of its original luster before the end of the 1970s. The place was just so vast, and little thought had gone into long-term maintenance. Attending the movie theater (and using its bathrooms) required trips up and down many staircases, and the theater (and its bathrooms) were filthy and dysfunctional. By the mid-1980s the mall was considered downright dangerous, and suburban residents began to refer to it as Vandal Dark Mall ... "dark" because, you know, the lights were out in all the closed storefronts.

Randall Park Mall closed in 2009.


UPDATE: Found this PD op-ed piece celebrating the opening of Randall Park Mall from August 1976.

Sources:
Wikipedia
Outside Cleveland, Snapshots of Poverty’s Surge in the Suburbs New York Times, 10/25/2011
DeadMalls.com
NewsNet5.com
The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns was founded in 1946 by Arthur B "Micky" McBride, and area real estate developer, the owner of a fleet of taxicabs, a printing company and he was a bookie -- erhm, he owned a wire service that provided information to bookmakers. Unarguably the most important decision he ever made in establishing his team was in bringing on Ohio State Buckeyes coach Paul Brown as vice president, general manager, and head coach.

The Cleveland Browns was either named after Brown himself, or was shortened from the name "Brown Bombers" which was the winner of a naming competition. Depends on who you believe. Brown preferred the name "Panthers" but that appellation had already been trademarked by someone else. The Cleveland Panthers. All right.

1954 was a good season for the Browns. They were NFL World Champions, clinching the conference with a 9-3 record before defeating the Detroit Lions for the championship (56-10.) This, in spite of the Browns' humiliating defeat by the Pittsburgh Steelers during their first matchup of the season, losing 55-27. This remains the most points Pittsburgh Steelers has ever scored in a single game against the Cleveland Browns.

Until December 8, 2011. Go Brownies.


Source:
Wikipedia
ClevelandBrowns.com

Arthur Loesser

Arthur Loesser (Aug. 26, 1894 - Jan. 4, 1969) was born in New York City and began playing piano at age six. A graduate of Columbia and the Institute of Musical Art (later known as Julliard) he toured the world as a concert pianist beginning in 1913.

During World War II he was an officer and a Japanese interpreter, and later became the first American to appear in Japan after the war, with the Nippon Symphony.

Loesser had joined the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1926, becoming head of the piano department in 1953. He was program editor and annotator for the Cleveland Orchestra (1937 - 1942), and a music critic for the Cleveland Press (1938 - 1956).

He also wrote popular books on music, Humor in American Song (1943) and Men, Women, and Pianos: A Social History (1954).

DID YOU KNOW ..? Loesser tells us the reason the piano became the most acceptable instrument for genteel ladies in the Western World is because of all of the things women aren't required to do to play one. They need not purse their lips, nor wrap them around anything, spread their legs or crane their necks. They just sit up straight and tap their fingers. But then, Loesser never saw Tori Amos.

In 1968, Loesser was awarded a special citation from the Cleveland Arts Prize for Distinguished Service to the Arts.

Arthur was the elder half-brother to Broadway composer Frank Loesser. It was Arthur who referred to himself as "the evil of two Loessers," a line Frank would steal and use in reference to his first wife.

Sources:
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
Wikipedia
Cleveland Arts Prize

Stan Freberg

Cleveland Television: August 21-27, 1954
Bob Clampett and his "Time For Beany" puppets during the last days of the show..Daws Butler and Stan Freberg had just left. WXEL and later WEWS carried the 15 minute puppet show from 1949-53. - Cleveland Classic Media
Stanley Victor "Stan" Freberg (born August 7, 1926) is such an important fixture in my world of 20th century American comedy, I can almost forgive him the fact that he despises rock and roll.

The son of a Baptist minister (wait - Freberg is a Baptist name?) got work right out of high school as a voice for animated cartoons, both for Warner Brothers and Disney. From 1949 to 1954, he and Daws Butler provided the voices for the Bob Clampett puppets Beany (Butler) and Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent (Freberg).


Freberg up top.
Freberg became a great success in creating outrageous commercials precisely because he hated, hated, hated commercials.

Freberg is credited with creating the first commercials which satirized commercials, changing them from brief, informational clips into amusing short films that were created to entertain.

His career was hampered, however, because he refused to advertise or accept sponsorship from any tobacco or alcohol companies.

It in unfortunate the extent to which he promoted his son Donovan Freberg in later work for Encyclopedia Britannica, one of the most loathed pitchmen in history.


Remember me?
Freberg's comedy albums started popping up in 1951. This particular number, a send-up of The Chords' Sh-Boom is particularly hilarious, and a big favorite in my house. It was released in 1954, b/w Wide-Screen Mama Blues. Other satires of popular music included a jazz pianist (he loved jazz) destroying a recording session of The Great Pretender and a rendition of Heartbreak Hotel where the echo effect has a mind of its own.


Press play.


Source:
Cleveland Classic Media
Wikipedia

Dorothy Dandridge

In 1954, Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) became the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film Carmen Jones. She was also the first black woman to be featured on the cover of LIFE.

Dandridge was born in Cleveland. Her father, Cyril, was a minister, and her mother, Ruby has been referred to as an "aspiring performer". Their relationship was tumultuous, father was abusive and in contradiction with contemporary mores, Ruby didn't put up with it. She left the house when five months pregnant with Dorothy, moving into her own home and making the acquaintance of a women who helped raise the girls. Dorothy lived at one time on 103rd Street, later on Central Avenue. Her childhood in Cleveland was brief, however. Following her parents' legal separation Ruby took she and her older sister Vivian on the road as an act called The Wonder Children, later The Dandridge Sisters.

Early film roles include an uncredited appearance in the Our Gang Short Teacher's Beau and as a singer in the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races. Her career was marked by highs and lows, where she would make up for a dearth of decent film roles with nightclub work. Ironically, for the role which defined the pinnacle of her career, her historic success in Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones, her singing was dubbed by another performer. The next film role offered her was as a slave in The King and I, which she declined.

Sources:
Wikipedia
Lakewood Public Library
National Association of Scientific Materials Managers (?)
Dorothy Dandridge (book) by Donald Bogle

Cedar Point

The official history of Cedar Point as an amusement park goes back as far as 1870, when it featured a dance pavilion, beer garden and bathhouses. Construction continued over the years, adding a broadway, theater and concert hall -- the first roller coaster, Switchback Railway, was installed in 1892.

By the turn of the 20th century it must have been quite a fun-time destination, with new rides and attractions added all the time. However, during the Great Depression there was little expansion and the place was becoming financially troubled, and by the end of World War II Cedar Point was falling apart, literally, the boardwalk damaged in many places, the timber on its last roller coaster, the Cyclone was rotting. 

 The only ride that remains from that period is the Midway Carousel, which was installed in 1946. In 1951 even the Cyclone had been torn down, though there were still plenty of existing rides including Laff-in-the-Dark, Moon Rocket, Loop-A-Plane and Bug (?) as well as funhouses -- Krazy Kastle, Fun House, and Noah's Ark. A 10-ride Kiddieland opened in 1952.

Krazy Kastle

In 1954 land adjacent to the park was acquired by Dr. Dean Sheldon for a bird sanctuary, and would become Sheldon's Marsh State Nature Preserve.

Noah's Ark

Sources:
Wikipedia
Ohio History Central
Laff-In-The-Dark.com

Memphis Kiddie Park

Memphis Kiddie Park at 10340 Memphis Avenue in Brooklyn (across the street from the Memphis Drive-In) opened on May 28, 1952. This tiny amusement park includes eleven rides, a concession stand and miniature golf. The first time a child of mine was invited there for a birthday party a few years ago (yes, it is still in operation) I was charmed by the atmosphere. It was sedate, not loud. Everyone was polite. I realized this was because there was no loud music playing, and because of the 50" and under designation for (almost) all of the rides, there was a complete absence of teenagers.

Adults can join the kids on the train which runs around the perimeter of the park, or on the Little Dipper, a steel roller coaster which holds the record for the longest continually operating roller coaster in the United States. It is also the most seriously uncomfortable joyride in the United States for anyone taller than 5'6". Big people can also accompany the small ones on the merry-go-round.

The girl and a friend on the "Space Shuttles" in 2008.

The very first time we visited, my son was just shy of two. He became enchanted by the Speedway and wanted to ride it again and again. So we held his third birthday party there. My folks came, and my father remarked that he'd always driven past this place, but never thought to bring his own kids there.

"Yes," I said. "I know."


Sources:
Cleveland.com
Wikipedia

Dave Brubeck

"Dave Brubeck's the swingingest."
- Jack Kerouac
David Warren "Dave" Brubeck (born December 6, 1920) is the swingingest. He was almost kicked out of conservatory because he couldn't read music, but his talent was so great they let him graduate with the understanding that he would never teach.

Serving in World War II he was allowed to create an ensemble (one of the first integrated musical combos in the Army) and met saxophonist Paul Desmond, with whom he would create his most legendary work.

He and Desmond formed the Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1951, and they were an huge hit on college campuses -- see not only Jazz at Oberlin (1953) but also Jazz at College of the Pacific (1953) and Jazz Goes to College (1954).

"This is incredible music, jazz or whatever, and you should buy it."
— Down Beat review of Jazz at Oberlin
Brubeck once cancelled a television appearance when he discovered they intended to keep his African-American bassist, "The Senator" Eugene Wright, off-camera.

It is true, there were those serious jazz fans during the 1950s who called Brubeck's work "Europeanised and overly formal." Without soul. You know what I'm saying.

But I wish to announce the opening of new sessions, and new fields, Daddy-o! Hello, Dave!




Source:
Wikipedia
Oberlin.edu
Guardian.co.uk
Poetry For the Beat Generation (Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen)

Captain Penny

By far the greatest Cleveland children's television star was Captain Penny, whose program (sponsored by Bosco chocolate syrup) debuted on WEWS in 1954. Through the years the Captain (performed by Ronald A. Penfound) presented Three Stooges, Little Rascals and Rocky & Bulwinkle shorts, and was assisted by a corral of supporting characters, including Jungle Larry & Safari Jane, as well as station agent Wilbur Whiffenpoof (program director Earl Keyes) and the heard but never seen Mister Nickelsworth.

Captain Penny ended every program saying, "You can fool some of the people some of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool Mom." He also made sure to remind kids, following any Stooges short, to "not try this at home."

This is all before my time. I know of Jungle Larry from a set of View Master reels and postcards that still remains stashed away at my folks house. However, I was touched to learn about the Pooch Parade, which featured animals from the APL that were available for adoption. What a good idea!

During the 1956 holiday season, Earl Keyes would portray a new character on the Penny program, Mr. Jingeling. But more on him later.

The show lasted until 1972. Ron Penfound, a chronic smoker, died of lung cancer in 1974.

Sources:
Hi There, Boys and Girls: America's Local Children's TV Shows (Hollis Tim)
TV Acres.com
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
Wikipedia

Lou Groza

Right in the middle of the post-game argument between Frank Kilroy of the Eagles and Lou Groza of the Browns was Russ Gestner, business manager of the Browns. The angry Groza finally was restrained from belting Kilroy. The Toe charged that Kilroy elbowed him in the face.

The Browns beat the Eagles 6-0, improving their record to 6-2 for the 1954 season. (Nov. 22, 1954)

- Cleveland Press photo by Fred Bottomer

Louis Roy "The Toe" Groza (January 25, 1924 - November 29, 2000) played his entire career for the Cleveland Browns. Back in the day, people used to commit to one team. The son of Eastern European immigrants, Groza was the shortest of his three brothers, growing to only 6'3".

While playing for OSU, Groza was drafted and upon discharge began playing for the Browns (1946-1959, brief retirement, 1961-1967.) He was an offensive tackle, but also an astonishing kicker, which is how he got the nickname The Toe, and not for some other reason.

Groza’s signature season came in 1954, when he was named NFL Player of the Year as a powerhouse offensive tackle and steady straight-ahead kicker who converted 16 of 24 field goals and 37 of 38 extra points. The season ended with Groza leading the way for the Cleveland offense in a 56-10 destruction of Detroit in the NFL championship game.

- Cold, Hard Football Facts.com

In 1954 the Browns went 9-3 for the season. It was the last year the Browns would ever win an NFL championship. Ever.

Sources:
Cleveland Press
Cleveland Memory Project
Wikipedia
coldhardfootballfacts.com

Tremont

The Cleveland neighborhood called Tremont sits west of the Cuyahoga and South of Ohio City. It is a stunning, ramshackle, exciting and sometimes dangerous downtown industrial/residential neighborhood, featuring over a dozen attractive churches including Pilgrim Congregational UCC (founded in 1859), St. Michael the Archangel Church (1888), St. Augustine (1893), St. John Cantius (1898), and St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral (1912). It is also home to Lemko Hall.

It was the site of the short-lived Cleveland University in the 1850s, a fact which gave name to the still-extant Literary Rd. and Professor and College Avenues. The neighborhood was called Cleveland Heights, then University Heights, and finally Tremont after the Tremont School, founded in 1910.

Homebase to a fastener manufacturer, the neighborhood was home to working-class immigrants following a familiar cycle -- the Irish and Germans in the late 1800s, followed by Poles, then Greeks by the end of the century, and also Syrians and by the 1950s a large population of Ukrainians. By 1954, Puerto Ricans were joining the population, and they play an important part of Tremont's neighborhood today.

Lincoln Park is a center of public activity, bounded by West 14th and West 11th Streets and Kenilworth and Starkweather Streets. A memory of Lincoln Park ...

"Sundays people would gather on the grass and benches to chat with friends or play cards, checkers, dominos and chess on the picnic tables. Some would bring picnic baskets from home while others stopped after church. Children played soccer or played at the pond that was in the center of the park, they also had a carousel and swings, too.

"Water fountains were at the corners of the park off Kenilworth/West 11th and West 14th and Starkweather. There were bushes completely around the whole park and Post Lamps that lit up the park at night. They had toilets, but Mom remembers them being dirty. Mom seemed to think there were no sidewalks on the inside of the park in the early days, but brother Mike says there were always there.

"I remember goldfish in the pond and Mike says they broke ground in 1957 to put the swimming pool in that still stands today. Swimming was free from 7 years old and up, but you had to sign in your name and age before getting in. They would check our toes and make us take a quick outside shower spray before getting through the bar gates. Wednesday was Family night for swimming where parents could come. Teenagers would climb the fence and skinny dip late nights, too." - Maria Cairns-Yuras

Sources:
Wikipedia
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
Cleveland Memory Project
Tremont History Project

Satchel Paige

Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982) may have been born anywhere between 1900 and 1908. He may have gotten his nickname as a young baggage-handler from jerry rigging a pole to carry four bags at once — or because he was once caught swiping a suitcase. Depends on who you ask.

Satchel was born in Mobile, Alabama. Entering reform school for shoplifting at the age of 12, he was mentored by Edward Byrd who taught him his loping pitching style. Released early from a five year gig, Satchel went semi-pro. As was common in those days, especially for Black players, he played wherever and whenever he could, not only for the team he had a contract with, but off-season games (in Cuba, for example) and “barnstorming” where you might often get to watch a mixed-race game. In 1931 he played for the Cleveland Cubs as part of the Negro League. 

Playing in a city that also had a white, professional team, had an effect on Paige.

"I'd look over at the Cleveland Indians' stadium, called League Park. All season long it burned me, playing there in the shadow of that stadium. It didn't hurt my pitching, but it sure didn't do me any good."

In 1936 Paige was playing for the Pittsburgh Crawfords.

The Cleveland News - Friday, July 3
Colored Aces to Play Here Sunday

Negro National League baseball will return to Cleveland Sunday with a double-header at League Park between the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, for years two of the strongest clubs in the loop.

Satchel Paige of the Crawfords rated the biggest crowd pleaser among the colored ball players is expected to pitch one of the two games here. He humiliated the Homestead team two years ago before 12,000 fans, turning them back without a hit.

As a member of the Negro League All-Stars he also barnstormed in Cleveland that summer, facing off against 17 year-old Bob Feller. Each pitched three innings, giving up one hit. Feller struck out eight, Paige seven.

In 1948 at the age of 42, Satchel Paige joined the Cleveland Indians. He is the oldest rookie in the history of the Major Leagues.

Sources:
Wikipedia
The Cleveland News

Western Reserve University

Western Reserve College was founded in Hudson, Ohio in 1826. Hudwas at that time the most populated area of the region. "Reserve" as it was known was the first college in Northern Ohio.

In 1882, railroad baron Amasa Stone donated half a million dolars to move the institution to Cleveland, where it became a "University." The site was adjacent to the Case School of Applied Science (founded 1880) and the two institutions worked together, sharing buildings and staff, long before they merged into a single entity in 1967.

WRU's undergraduate men's college was named Adelbert College after Amasa's son Adelbert who drowned when a student at Yale. In 1888 WRU establied the College for Women, which in 1932 was named Mather College in honor of Flora Stone mather, the college's second council president. Mather was a liberal arts school which also offered courses in home economics and education.

Sources:
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
Wikipedia

Philip Johnson

Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) is the famous bald architect with the big, round glasses.

Born in Cleveland, Johnson's ancestry is Dutch. He is descended from Jacques Cortelyou who mapped out the town plan for New Amsterdam for Peter Stuyvestant. Studying philosophy and history at Harvard, he took several long breaks to tour Europe where he developed his passion for architecture and fascism.

With fellow travelers he championed the modern style of architecture, creating the earthshaking show The International Style: Architecture Since 1922 at the Museum of Modern Art. However, he resigned his post at MOMA in the 1930s to dabble in journalism and criticize the "failure" of the fledgling welfare state. He became a foreign correspondent for Father Coughlin's magazine, Social Justice.

He was "enthralled" by Hitler, and became a disciple of Lawrence Dennis, who predicted that Capitalism was doomed, and that fascism was America's only bulwark against Communism. In 1934 he and some friends formed the National party, though it attracted little interest. He went to Louisiana to work for Huey Long, and after that man was assassinated, found his way to Coughlin's headquarters in Royal Oak, Michigan. In addition to the writing gig, the radio priest tapped Johnson for political organizing for his National Union party.

For ten years, Philip Johnson espoused anti-Semitic rhetoric until he followed the Nazi army into the invasion of Poland as a correspondent. He returned to the United States and enlisted in the Army.

In 1983 he designed the big, ugly extension of the Cleveland Play House and the big, dumb Bolton Theatre.

Sources: Wikipedia
Journal of Architectural Education
The Washington Post
Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin, The Father of Hate Radio

Streetcars

Huron at Euclid Avenue
(facing what is now PlayhouseSquare)
Cleveland streetcars were operated by the Cleveland Railway. In the late 1800s "electrified" streetcars, which were three times faster than horse-drawn streetcars, expanded suburban development out from the city for ten miles in every direction (except, you know, North.) People working in the city could escape the major influx of Southern and Eastern European immigrants and industrial-strength pollution.

Beginning in the 1890s we soon had the incorporation of East Cleveland (1895), Lakewood and Cleveland Heights (spiritual sister cities, each founded in 1903) and by the 1930s we saw the villages and new suburbs of Bedford, Berea, Euclid, Garfield Heights, Maple Heights, Parma, Rocky River and Shaker Heights all attain city status.



Sources:
Wikipedia
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

Spicy Mystery Stories

WHOA!


Click on to enlarge

April 1936 Issue

"Zang took my body and blew the breath of a soul into it. Before Zang, I was nothing. Now I am all!"

Produced by Culture Publications (I love that) this title is among the "weird menace" or "shudder pulp" genre, as distinguished from its hard-boiled detective counterparts through its use of supernatural or extraterrestrial themes. They were horror stories, a descendant of the Grand Guignol for their use of torture and brutality. For their time they were rather pornographic.

Sources:
The Vintage Library
Wikipedia

Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster

Jerome "Jerry" Siegel (October 17, 1914 – January 28, 1996) and Joseph "Joe" Shuster (July 10, 1914 - July 30, 1992) created Superman.

Joe and Jerry lived in the Glenville neighborhood and met attending Glenville High School, Class of 1932. Jerry wrote for The Torch, the school paper, and though he was shy and not terribly popular he was appreciated by the student body for his Tarzan parody, Goober the Mighty.

Joe was Canadian-born, moving with his family to Cleveland when he was 10. His eyesight was always terrible, and this is only one of the ways in which his artwork is so remarkable.

Jerry was born in Cleveland, his father owned a clothing store. His father died of a heart attack while the store was being robbed.

In 1934, after tossing an idea over and over in his head all night, repeatedly getting out of bed to hammer out more details, Siegel came up with the idea of a power, benevolent space-alien that resembled a man and came to Earth to protect people from criminals. Shuster drew the panels for a comic strip and they attempted to peddle it to publishers for four years before getting an offer to adapt it into a "comic" book format in 1938.

Shuster claims the hero, Superman, was meant to resemble Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., while his alter-ego Clark Kent was to look more like Harold Lloyd.

Sources:
Wikipedia
Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (Marc Tyler Nobleman & Ross MacDonald)

Lena Horne

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and raised largely by her grandparents. Her family, with roots African, European and Native American, was part of the "Black Bourgeoisie" a stratum of well-to-do people of color. Horne's own parents were looked down upon by the extended family, her father a numbers runner and her mother a traveling actress.

She spent time in the South with her mother, and later with her uncle Frank who became an advisor to FDR. Returning to New York she attended a public high school before leaving school without a diploma. At age 16 she joined the chorus of the Cotton Club, yes she did, and by 1934 had a featured role in the Cotton Club Parade. The next year she began touring with Noble Sissle and his orchestra.

According to BlackClassicMovies.com she headlined with Sissle under the name Helena Horne because he thought Helena sounded "classier" than Lena. However, when they played The Palace in early October, she was billed as Leona Horne.

Clevelanders on Palace Stage
The Cleveland News, October 1, 1936

Noble Sissle, who left Central High back in 1912 for the war and later success down the dance lanes, isn’t the only local-boy-makes-good at the Palace tomorrow.

The habitues of the Cedar and Central Avenue hot spots will remember Billy Banks. They swore by this lad a few years back as he danced and sang his way up and down the town’s Harlem.

Included in Sissle’s “Savoy Stompers” revue are the dancing stars of the Harlem Cotton club, “Pops and Louie”, Leona Horne, songstress, and Buddy Doyle, who comes out of the band to clown, figure prominently in the show.

Sources:
Wikipedia
BlackClassicMovies.com
The Cleveland News