History, Natural History & the Arts
Don McNeill and the cast and crew of his “Breakfast Club” radio show took over the WNBZ radio airwaves in Saranac Lake for a week in 1957 during their reign as Winter Carnival royalty.
McNeill was Winter Carnival King. Fran “Aunt Fannie” Allison was Queen. [Read more…] about In 1957 “Breakfast Club” Radio Reigned as Winter Carnival Royalty
Royal Academy of Belgium artist Edward P. Buyck de Morkhoven, known for his portraits of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other prominent politicians, lived in upstate New York for much of his adult life.
Buyck, also was known for his painting of race horses, landscapes and historical settings. At the time of his death in 1960, his painting of an old-time Albany scene at the corner of State and Pearl streets, still hung at the Munger-DeWitt Clinton Hotel in Albany. [Read more…] about WWI Vet, Belgian Painter Edward Buyck in NY
A year ahead of the 1920 presidential election former New York Gov. Charles Evans Hughes was considered a likely shoo-in for the Republican nomination, after narrowly losing the last election.
Hughes was New York governor from 1907 to fall 1910, when he resigned to accept nomination as a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice. [Read more…] about A 1920 Election Presidential Front-runner Bows Out
Catherine Curtis, an early woman motion picture producer, offered advice to women entrepreneurs.
“If there are any rules for success, the same ones apply for women as for men,” she said in an interview in 1921. “The essentials of success are the same in every career – determination, energy and an ideal higher than that of unselfish desire for personal gain and glory.”
Curtis, who grew up on Albany and lived for a time in Glens Falls, was a woman motion picture pioneer in a career that lasted about a decade before Curtis moved on to be a radio commentator, financial expert and conservative political activist. [Read more…] about Catherine Curtis: Glens Falls Film Pioneer
Are you getting Blue Coal for Christmas?
You might have asked Santa Claus that question, when he took to the air on WBGF radio 1370 of Glens Falls at 6:30 pm Dec. 6, 1930, sponsored by Merkel & Gelman department store.
But to be certain, you would have wanted a second opinion, because only “The Shadow knows!” [Read more…] about Blue Coal for Christmas: 1930s Glens Falls Radio
Aviator Floyd Bennett was back in Ticonderoga on March 13, 1928 after a 12-year absence. Since his last visit, Bennett had been to the North Pole and back, as co-pilot and mechanic with explorer Richard Byrd, and had received the National Geographic Society medal from President Calvin Coolidge.
But the one who had “risen to the top of his chosen profession” was still “the same old Floyd” that once worked at People’s Garage with Ticonderoga motorcycle policeman Carl O’Dell. [Read more…] about Floyd Bennett’s Last Visit To Ticonderoga
George Washington’s brown Inauguration suit may have been plain for the times, but it was tailored from American-made broad cloth. The majority of cloth used in the United States in 1789 was imported from Britain, said Eliza West, an expert on 18th century textiles.
Wearing a suit of British-made fabric would have been a faux pas in the young nation that won its independence from Britain, so Washington asked cabinet member Henry Knox, of Fort Ticonderoga fame, to locate a suit of American-made cloth. The irony, West said, is that the cloth was of such quality that many people would not believe it was American made, and accused Washington of political incorrectness any way. [Read more…] about Artifacts: History’s Primary Sources