On the Trails at Miami Whitewater Forest

Dear George,

I finally got out for my first camping trip of the season, spending two nights and three days at Miami Whitewater Forest.  Miami Whitewater has great hiking trails -- definitely a favorite for sheepdog outings.  I'd say the forest is enjoying its summer peak.   These pics are from the Timberlakes Trail, the Oak Leaf Trail, and the Badlands Trail.

Love,

Dave

G-mail Comments

-Jennifer M (6-28):  Great photos!

Our Favorite Radio Programs of 1949

Dear George,

It’s hard to believe, but I never saw an image on TV screen until my early teens.  That happened in a hotel on a family trip to Chicago around 1951.  Menominee didn’t get television until WBAY debuted in Green Bay in 1953.  I was in the tenth grade.  WBAY was only the second TV station in the state of Wisconsin, and there weren’t any stations yet in the U.P.  My friend Sally H’s parents got a TV set that year, though my parents, who seemed to regard television as some newfangled, sinister force, didn’t buy a set for another three or four years.  It didn’t matter much because we were hooked on the programs that our local radio station, WMAM, broadcast.  Steve, Peter, Vicki, and I would gather on the window seat in our living room nearly every evening and listen to our favorites on our family radio, especially the Sunday night lineup of Fred Allen and Jack Benny.  I’ve listed below what I remember to be our ten favorite programs from 1949.  I was 12 that year, Steve was 8, Peter 4, and Vicki 2.  Steve and I took in every word.  Peter and Vicki, I’m not so sure.  But those were the days.

Love,

Dave

No. 10.  Our Miss Brooks.  We liked Our Miss Brooks because it was about an attractive high school teacher and her funny students.  Eve Arden played the witty Connie Brooks, an English teacher at Madison High.  Other characters included Osgood Conklin, the blustery school principal; Walter Denton, a goofy student who drove Miss Brooks to school; and Philip Boynton, Miss Brooks’ shy romantic interest.  Audiences ranked Eve Arden the number one radio comedienne for 1948-49. 

No. 9.  Burns and Allen.  George Burns and Gracie Allen had been vaudeville performers before they moved on to radio.  Gracie was totally dizzy, while George played her straight man.  Other regulars included Meredith Wilson and the Sportsman Quartet.  In a series of 1940 episodes Gracie ran for U.S. president as the candidate of the Surprise Party ticket whose platform advocated more nonsense.  When the election was over, supposedly the citizens of Menominee, Michigan, invited Gracie to be their mayor, but she respectfully declined, saying she couldn’t live in two places at once.  

No. 8.  The Aldrich Family.  The funniest kid on radio was Henry Aldrich, a good-hearted but bumbling teenager.  Every show began with Henry’s mother calling, “Hen-reee!  Hen-ree Al-drich!”  Then Henry would call back “Com-ing, Mother!”  The show dealt with Henry’s misadventures with girls and various friends.  It was sponsored by Jello -- J-E-L-L-O.      

No. 7.  The Shadow.  We listened to comedies the most, but there were exciting mystery and adventure programs too.  Our favorite was The Shadow.  Each episode began with the lines, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?  The Shadow knows!”  The Shadow had the hypnotic ability to "cloud men's minds" and thus be invisible to them.  Episodes dealt with the Shadow's crime-fighting adventures against evil masterminds.  The Shadow's real name was Lamont Cranston, a "wealthy young man about town."  Cranston's romantic interest was socialite Margo Lane who was able to see through the Shadow's mind-clouding abilities.

No. 6.  Duffy’s Tavern.  Curiously, tavern-owner Duffy never was actually heard on this program.  Instead each episode began with Archie, the tavern’s manager, answering the phone and saying, “Hello, Duffy’s Tavern, where the elite meet to eat.  Archie the manager speakin’.  Duffy ain’t here – oh, hello, Duffy.”  Archie was constantly engaged in some sort of comic misadventure with his man-crazy daughter, Miss Duffy; waiter-janitor Eddie; or kooky patron Clifton Finnegan.   

No. 5.  Fibber McGee and Molly.  Fibber and Molly were played by a real-life couple, Jim Jordan and Marian Driscoll.  The McGees lived at 79 Wistful Vista where Fibber was regularly involved in hare-brained schemes to make money while his common sense wife would comment, “T’ain’t funny, McGee!”.  Other players included blowhard Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, the hard-of-hearing Old Timer, a precocious little girl named Teeny, Mayor LaTrivia, and Beulah, the McGee’s black maid (in fact played by a white male). 

No. 4.  The Great Gildersleeve.  Gildersleeve graduated from the Fibber McGee and Molly show to a series of his own.  He was the water commissioner of Summerfield and also kept busy bringing up his orphaned niece Marjorie and nephew Leroy.  Gildy’s friends included Judge Horace Hooker, pharmacist Richard Q. Peavey (“Well, now, I wouldn’t say that!”), and Floyd Munson, the neighborhood barber.  Gildersleeve was usually engaged in awkward romances, including H.S. principal Eve Goodwin, Georgia widow Leila Ransom, and Leila’s cousin Adeline Fairchild.  Gildersleeve was masterfully played by Harold Peary.    

No. 3.  The Life of Riley.  William Bendix played Chester A. Riley, a riveter at a California aircraft plant.  Riley’s life attitude was caught by his favorite expression, “What a revoltin’ development this is!”  Riley’s everyday problems were typically made worse from advice from his nextdoor neighbor Gillis, though the friendly undertaker Digby (Digger) O’Dell would show up to “help him out of a hole.”    

No. 2.  The Fred Allen Show.  Though he’s not as well-known today as some of his contemporaries, I think some of the driest and wittiest humor on radio came from Fred Allen.  The heart of each show involved Fred’s stroll with his wife Portland Hoffa down “Allen’s Alley.”  There they would run into and discuss the issues of the day with poet Falstaff Openshaw, Jewish housewife Pansy Nussbaum, New England Farmer Titus Moody, and loudmouth Southern senator Beauregard Claghorn.  All of these characters were beloved.   

No. 1.  The Jack Benny Show.  Jack Benny was the master comedian of the day, and he and Fred Allen maintained a make-believe running feud with one another on their respective shows.  The Benny show featured Jack as himself, his valet and chauffeur Rochester, emcee Don Wilson, singer Dennis Day, Jack’s love interest Mary Livingston (his actual wife), hip bandleader Phil Harris, and Mel Blanc who played lots of crazy characters.  The program usually opened with a number by the band, Jack’s chatting with the regulars about the news of the day, a song from Dennis Day, and then a funny sitcom episode.  I can still listen to or watch Jack Benny for hours on end.

APPENDIX: OTHER SHOWS WE LIKED IN 1949:

The Adventures of Sam Spade

The Adventures of the Thin Man

Amos 'n' Andy

Archie Andrews

Dragnet

The Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show

Inner Sanctum Mysteries

Jack Armstrong the All American Boy

The Judy Canova Show

Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge

Lum and Abner

Mr. and Mrs. North

Ozzie and Harriet

The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show

Quiz Kids

The Red Skelton Show

The Sammy Kaye Show

Truth or Consequences

Twenty Questions

You Bet Your Life

Your Hit Parade

     

Sources: 1940s.org (OTR-Radio); Old-Time.com (The Original Old Time Radio); Otrsite.com (The Vintage Radio Place);  Wikipedia; Google Images (for photos)

Clifton in Verse (Part Two)

Map of Clifton

Dear George,

I meant to add these Clifton photos and poems a while back, but that’s how it goes.  As a bit of background, our Clifton neighborhood was incorporated as a village in 1850.  Located out in the countryside, it was a wholly separate entity from the city of Cincinnati which was three miles to the south.  Clifton was perched high on a hill and quickly became a favorite destination for wealthy Cincinnati families who built mansions along Lafayette Avenue for their summer homes.  Ludlow Avenue, Clifton’s business district, became the center of the village’s commercial activity, growing particularly with the extension of the streetcar system from the city below in the late 1800’s.   Ludlow Ave. is still the center of the action in Clifton and one of the most vibrant neighborhood business districts in the city.  Part One of “Clifton in Verse”, which I posted a couple of months ago, covered some of the highlights of on the southern side of Ludlow Ave.  Here’s another bunch of our neighborhood attractions, this time along the north side of the street (moving from the west end of the four-block business district to the east).  I’ve only included about half of the places on this strip.  While we don’t have any ocean beach or salt water, my sister-in-law Ami says a walk along Ludlow is sort of like visiting a seaside resort.  My hope is to inspire some visitors to come and check out our neighborhood.

Love,

Dave

Clifton Performance Theater

CPT puts on the most modern plays

The last dealt with undersized peepers

It seemed to elicit the critics’ praise

I thought to myself, “Jeepers Creepers”

Favorite Vapors

E-cigarettes have become the new thing

Now Cliftonites have their own shop

I thought for a moment of having a fling

Then worried that I wouldn’t stop

Habaneros

Habaneros has mucho delicioso stuff

I go for the burrito or the taco

Their regular platter is more than enough

You’ll think that you’re back in Morocco

Ambar India

Ambar’s a trendy spot for dining

It draws in the crowds by the dozens

If it’s curry for which you’re pining

It’s here you should bring all your cousins

Ace Hardware

Ace is the best for a gizmo or tool

You can buy a fine drill or a saw

But each time I work on our vestibule

I wind up with flaw after flaw

Olive’s

Olive’s has a delicious menu

With corned beef and cabbage and soup

It’s Katja’s and my favorite venue

We go there so we can regroup

D. Raphael

This is the place for wife gifts to shop

For birthdays it’s utterly handy

I’ve found that their jewels are never a flop

Katja likes them much better than candy

The Hookah Café

I don’t know what’s up with the Hookah Café

It’s Ludlow Ave’s newest “in” shop

The customers smoke in a very odd way

Makes you wonder just what kind of crop

Graeters

Graeter’s should be in a fairy tale

Their rasberry chip is delicious

Their cakes and cookies never go stale

Best of all it’s completely nutritious

La Poste

La Poste is our finest eatery

It’s just off Ludlow on Telford

My family would say it is “Peter-y”

It’s where you might see Robert Relford

Sitwells

Sitwells is our neighborhood coffee place

It’s a hangout for hippies and such

When younger it used to be my sort of space

But at fifty I grew out of touch

Esquire Theater

Each year the Esquire wins “Best of City”

For art films it can’t be beat

Some are weepy and others are gritty

But they all keep you glued to your seat

Thai Cafe

The Thai Café has closed its doors

No more Pad Thai for the folk

I hope that the new place will feature smores

(But, of course, that’s my silly joke)

Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro’s our most unique store

It stocks carved masks from Tanzania

I always peek in when I pass by the door

Those masks could well be my next mania

Biaggio’s

Biaggio’s features Italian cuisine

Plus the finest of pound cakes and pies

The sauces are spicy, the pork is quite lean

And the pasta brings tears to your eyes

Adrian Durban -- Clifton Florist

Katja buys flowers at A. Durban’s shop

They create such fantastic bouquets

For Valentine’s Day be sure to stop

Your sweetheart will be in a daze

Skyline Chili

Skyline is what we locals crave

Once you’ve had it you’ll never turn back

Cliftonites eat it from cradle to grave

It’s sort of like smoking crack

J. Gumbo’s

Whenever we miss the Big Easy

We go to J. Gumbo’s to dine

The pasta is never too cheesy

And the red beans and rice are just fine

Subway

Clifton has blocked the fast food chains

They’ve even rejected McDs

Nonetheless Subway still remains

All those veggies put Cliftonites at ease