Showing posts with label Local History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Local History. Show all posts

Friday, January 5, 2024

Nutwood, Dubuque's Most Famous Horse

An old sepia tone engraving of a very sleek horse.

From Horse Education by Thomas J. Murray (1890) at HathiTrust:

On the adjoining page will be found a good likeness of the celebrated horse, Nutwood, of a still rising fame. The gentlemanly owners are Messers. H. L. and F. D. Stout, of the Highland Stock Farm, Dubuque, Iowa. Nutwood is of a chestnut color, 15.3 hands high; weighs 1,160 lbs., foaled May 1, 1870.

... Except to state bare recorded facts of what Nutwood is, little need be said. Individually he is excellent, of superior conformation, of good size, with remarkable substance combined with finish and quality. He has the best of legs, sound and clean, and good feet. He has an even, gentle temper, and is kind and intelligent in disposition.

Henry L. Stout (1814-1900) was a lumberman who made a large fortune on the Mississippi River in Dubuque. He raced and bred horses here with his son Frank D. Stout (1854-1927), who in 1901 donated the land, in memory of his father, where Carnegie-Stout Public Library was built.

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Dubuque's Forgotten Gold

"There's gold in them thar' hills!"

Dubuque Iowa's Forgotten Gold by Peter Netzel is ready to check out from Carnegie-Stout Public Library.

What do you think? Is there any gold still buried on Kelly's Bluff?

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Carnegie-Stout Public Library's Book Press

Carnegie-Stout Public Library's Book Press

Carnegie-Stout Public Library's book press appears to be about 120 years old.

Screw presses are used for bookbinding. They help keep the covers of books flat and in place while the glue is drying. Cast iron presses like this one were made in the early 1900s.

When Carnegie-Stout opened on October 20, 1902, the Dubuque Cabinet Makers Association, a furniture company in business from 1867 to 1909, was located at 10th and Main Streets.

Whether donated or sold to the library, this press sure has been around for a long time! Do you think it will still be here in another 120 years?


Saturday, March 20, 2021

Who Can Use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive

Telegraph Herald Digital Archive

Thanks to a gift from the Clive W. and Mona M. Lacy Trust and a partnership with the Telegraph Herald, the Library now hosts a digital archive of the Telegraph Herald newspaper. Browse and search over fifty-seven thousand editions of the Telegraph Herald spanning almost two-hundred years. You may not even need a library card!

Who Can Use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive?

In-Person Visitors

All in-person visitors may use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive inside Carnegie-Stout Public Library. No library card is needed. Printing is 10 cents per page, and help is available at the 2nd Floor Reference Desk.

Dubuque Residents

Dubuque city residents may use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive online by clicking on Browse the Archive and then entering the full number on the back of your library card with no spaces, and your PIN, which should be the last four digits of your phone number. If these numbers do not work, or if you do not have a library card, please call us at 563-589-4225 and ask for the Cards Desk.

Iowa Residents

Other Iowa residents may be eligible for a free Open Access library card which should enable you to use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive online. For details, please call us at 563-589-4225 and ask for the Cards Desk.

Non-Residents

If you live outside of Iowa, you can purchase a non-resident card to use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive online. For costs and more details, see Get A Card, or call us at 563-589-4225 and ask for the Cards Desk.

Free, No-Card Option

Another option is to try the free Dubuque Newspapers in Google News Archive. While this option does not support keyword searches, it is very handy for browsing by date, and it does not require a library card. For tips and tricks, see How to Find Dubuque Obituaries Online.

Also, the State Historical Society of Iowa provides free access to Iowa and Dubuque newspapers in NewspaperARCHIVE.com. Go to Digital Resources and then click on "NewspaperArchives Iowa Database." At that page, use "Go to Advanced Search" to narrow searches to Dubuque.

Reference Help

If you cannot find what you are looking for, our reference librarians at yourlibrarian@carnegiestout.org may be able to provide further assistance, or call us at 563-589-4225 and ask for the Reference Desk.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Throwback Thursday: Library Job Has Amusing Side

While working on Carnegie-Stout Public Library's project involving archiving digital scans of the Dubuque Telegraph Herald I came across this little tidbit:


As I read this article from October 7, 1949, I thought to myself "this still happens today".  Despite nearly 67 years of progress, a librarian still provides reader's advisory and often gets to decipher vague and confusing book descriptions in an attempt to find a specific book.

A few years ago, one of my coworkers found a birthday card to his mother in a book on the shelf.  I myself have found cancelled checks, airplane boarding passes, letters, greeting cards, utility bills and shopping lists.  Just a few of the many random things used as a bookmark. Yep, working in a library still has an amusing side.

~Amy, Adult Services

Thursday, August 20, 2015

ThrowbackThursday The Cholera

"The health of the city of Dubuque was never better. While neighboring cities have been visited by that enemy of our race, the Cholera, Dubuque, with the exception of two or three strangers who died of it, has thus far escaped unharmed."
July 22, 1854

"The health of our city still continues excellent - with the exception of occasionally a case of Bilious derangement, our citizens are enjoying absolute immunity from sickness and pain."
July 29.1854

"There have been a few cases of Cholera in Dubuque, confined principally, to the floating population - and some few have died. To our knowledge there has been no panic or excitement whatever in regard to it, and we have not heard of any of our citizens flying from it - if any have done so, we can assure them, that they can, with perfect safety, return to the bosoms of their anxious families, and expectant friends, as there has not been a case of Cholera in Dubuque for several days past. Our friends at Hazel Green, who have been thrown into such a state of excitement about the ravages of Cholera in Dubuque, may rely upon the truth of our statement as avoe given."
August 18, 1854
Dubuque Weekly Observer, July 29, 1854
In 1854, 1424 people died of cholera in Chicago, and in fact, thousands would die across the nation during the nineteenth century cholera pandemicsCholera is a bacterial infection that causes intestinal distress and can lead to death from dehydration or other complications. Over the centuries it has killed millions of people throughout the world, and is still a significant danger in many parts of the world today. Thousands have died from cholera infections in Haiti since the earthquake in 2010.

You can read more about the history of cholera and its impact on the world in The Ghost Map: the story of London's most terrifying epidemic--and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world by Steven Johnson. Johnson tells the story of Dr. John Snow whose research led to our modern understanding of how cholera and other diseases spread, and what we can do to help stop them from becoming devastating outbreaks.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Throwback Thursday "Our Dubuque is hard to beat in the picture line."

Dubuque Weekly Observer, October 27, 1854

We are happy to learn that our fellow townsman, McKinney, the Daguerreotypist took the first premium at the State Fair held last week at Fairfield. His specimens having been pronounced by the Judges the best they had ever seen. Our Dubuque is hard to beat.
November 3, 1854

Dubuque Daily Observer, November 3, 1854 

The first Iowa State Fair was in October of 1854 in Fairfield, Iowa. You can read more about the history of Iowa State Fair on the official website. The 161st Iowa State Fair begins today in Des Moines, and lasts until the 23rd. If you can't make it to Des Moines this year, check out some of our books on the State Fair for readers of all ages.
If you're interested in learning more about the history of photography and daguerreotypes, check out Capturing the Light: the birth of photography, a true story of genius and rivalry by Roger Watson and Helen Rappaport.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

ThrowbackThursday Centennial Flood

“The Centennial will long be remembered in Dubuque, not for the magnificence of the daytime display, but for the dark tragic history of the night. The day was combatively pleasant, but coming on evening suspicious electricity laden clouds began to fleck the north western heaven, which gathered with mumbling and grumbling which was continued until after ten o’clock when the rain commenced to descend, apparently increasing in quantity with the passing hours.”

"The Great Flood of 1876"
Dubuque Daily Times
Dubuque, Iowa
Thursday Morning July 5, 1876
Read the whole article online



Our microfilm collection is missing the July 5th-7th issues of The Daily Herald, but the front page of the July 8th issue included this update on the Centennial Flood. Other breaking news on July 8, 1876: the defeat of General Custer at Little Bighorn or "Custer's Last Stand." The battle itself occurred on June 25th and 26th. click the article on the right to see a larger image.

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Throwback Thursday: 1965 Dubuque County Fair

The Dubuque County Fair is happening right now at the Dubuque County Fairgrounds.  Here is the entertainment line-up from 50 years ago:

Lassie (needs no further introduction)
Tiu Troupe (from the Ginny Tiu Show)
Johnny Tolitson, recording star

See the full lineup from the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald newspaper.  August 1, 1965, page 5.




Do you love State and County fairs but just don't have time to attend?

In State Fair a small-town family travels to the State Fair.  The father is looking for the blue ribbon for his prize hog, Blue Boy, mom is looking for glory in her cooking, and the kids are looking for love. DVD includes the original 1945 version and the 1962 remake. 

NPR Road Trips takes you to fairs all across the country with Fairs and Festivals: Stories that take you away. (60 minute audio CD)

Butter is a dramedy starring Jennifer Garner and Ty Burrell.  When long-reigning champion butter sculptor Bob is forced to step down, his zealous wife Laura enters the competition herself, to fight for their status as butter royalty. A win seems guaranteed until a formidable contender emerges: a 10-year-old Destiny, an African-American foster child of local couple Julie and Ethan. Suddenly, it's anybody's game and Laura will do anything to win, even if it means resorting to sabotage and seducing her foolish ex-boyfriend Boyd as a co-conspirator.

Monday, April 28, 2014

The Varsity Was the Smallest

One of the laundromats near Loras College used to be a movie theater. Rich and Kay Manternach managed that theater, the Varsity at 1111 Loras Boulevard, during the 1950s.
The Varsity movie theater circa 1954. Photo contributed by Rich and Kay Manternach.
The Varsity movie theater circa 1954. Photo contributed by Rich and Kay Manternach.
Rich says, “Ray Duttle was the guy who originally put up the buildings on Loras, a theater and a grocery store.”

“My father, Gus Manternach, had a grocery store on Locust Street. He bought the new building on Loras from Ray Duttle, and opened Manternach’s Market.”

“Paul Weitz bought the theater. Weitz ran it for a while, but then sold it to my dad for about $14,000.”

“A man named O’Rourke, I can’t remember his first name, leased the theater from my dad. O’Rourke had a fire in the late 1940s, and he decided to get out of the movie business, so he subleased the Varsity to me.”

“That sublease from O’Rourke was kind of a thorn in my side,” Rich says. “I could have gotten a better deal from my dad. The Varsity had been completely renovated after the fire, though. It had a new screen, new drapes, and fresh paint.”

“I was at Loras College on the G.I. Bill around that time, from ‘48 to ‘52. I majored in economics with a minor in accounting. Since I was getting into the movie business, my thesis at Loras was The Monopolistic Practices of the Movie Industry.”

“You see, all the big movie theaters in Dubuque, like the Strand, Avon, and Grand, were owned by one person,” Rich says. “The smaller theaters, like the State, RKO Orpheum, and the Capitol on the north end, were owned individually.”

Kay says, “The Varsity was the smallest.”

"Well, wasn’t the Capitol about the same size as the Varsity, Kay?” asks Rich. “Up by your neighborhood by 22nd and Central, on the corner where Hartig's is?”

Kay says, "I thought the Capitol was a little bigger, but I could be wrong."

Rich says, “The Varsity had 205 seats. When you first walked into the theater, we had a box office up front, a popcorn machine, and there were steps up to the projection room. Inside, the seats sloped down toward the screen, which was all the way in the back.”

“Tickets were 14 cents for a child and 40 cents for an adult," Rich says.

Kay says, "The Varsity only ran evening movies. The only matinees were Saturdays and Sundays. We were closed on Wednesday nights."

"We had two changes of movies each week,” Rich explains. “Movies would run for three days, usually one main feature and a cartoon, maybe short subjects and previews of coming attractions.”

“They were all second-run films, sometimes the third and fourth run, because there were so many theaters in Dubuque,” Rich says.

“We had From Here to Eternity, with Ernest Borgnine and Frank Sinatra and . . . who was that guy who died, Montgomery Clift?” asks Rich.

Kay says, “Lana Turner in The Bad and the Beautiful, I think that was the first movie we ran. That was a big hit.”

"And Frankenstein was a big movie, a big draw.” Kay says. “One Halloween we paid someone to dress up as Frankenstein, but we hadn't advertised it. When the time came, Rich lowered the lights, and Frankenstein came down the middle aisle, and the people shrank toward the walls. I remember that."

Rich laughs, "Since Kay is younger than me, she remembers quite a bit!"

Rich and Kay Manternach. Photo by Michael May.
Rich and Kay Manternach. Photo by Michael May.
Kay says, “Gregory Peck and To Kill a Mockingbird. James Cagney was popular, and we had a couple of his movies. There were a lot of musicals, which they don't have today."

Rich says, "I liked The Three Stooges. Kay didn't like them, but they were so crazy!"

Kay says, "Oh, you know what else was popular? The cowboy movies. Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. I remember those."

Rich says, "I know one thing that kept people coming back. The Strand was noted for serials. They'd show The Lone Ranger for 15 minutes, and then the following week they’d have the next episode.”

“They'd get all the kids in there on Saturday afternoons. Their mothers would give them 15 or 20 cents to go away, to go to the movies down at the Strand. Kids from all over wanted to go.”

“The cartoons were good back then, too. Bugs Bunny and, uh . . . ." Rich looks at Kay.

Kay says, "Road Runner."

Rich says, "Popeye, you know. They were good back then. I loved 'em.”

"Cartoons and features were separate,” Rich continues. “Our distributor was out of Des Moines. They'd have a salesman who'd come around, and he'd want to sell you the films.”

“If it was The Lone Ranger or something, it'd be $12.50, or maybe $15 for a three-day showing. Higher-grossing movies would be around $17.”

“If it was something like Gone with the Wind or From Here to Eternity, they put it in on a percentage basis, like 20% or 35% of the gross,” Rich says.

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
“To keep you honest on that, they'd take the number off of your ticket stock. They had a key to the theater, and they'd come in and drop off the reels in steel cases with handles.”

“Long films would have four or five reels, in 35 mm. We had two projection booths. The projectors were Simplex. You had to switch reels over with a pedal on the floor,” Rich says.

“As the film would progress near the end, there'd be a dot on the right hand corner, and that was when you'd start the other reel going. When the second dot came, you'd hit the pedal, and that switched you over to the other machine.”

“If the film broke, you'd pull the reel out and restart it on another reel. When you got through, you'd take that over and splice it with glue. They had a splicing machine, and you'd just glue it up there and put it back in, and it didn't delay the movie.”

“Simplex projectors were popular,” Rich says. “They had carbon-arc lamps. You had to put the carbons into them and they were self-fed. I don't think they use those, anymore.”

"I did everything upstairs.” Rich says. “I was in the projection room most of the time. They had a buzzer downstairs in case of trouble. Once in a while Kay would say I dozed off."

Kay says, "He'd fall asleep and the screen would go dark, and the buzzer wouldn't wake him up. We had a broom downstairs, and I’d take the broom handle and bang on the ceiling.”

"I worked full-time in an office after I graduated in ‘52,” Kay says, “but I'd go up to the Varsity at night and sell tickets for Rich, because I was free help."

Rich says, “I'd give her popcorn, but no money.”

Kay says, “Yeah, he didn't pay me.”

“Before the Varsity, Kay worked at the RKO Orpheum, where Five Flags is now.” Rich says, laughing. “She used to get me in free!"

“I worked at the Orpheum for about a year and a half when I was a kid,” Kay explains. "I was 15. I lied about my age to get the job. We wore uniforms. I was an usher.”

“It was fun,” Kay says. “A big deal. 40 cents an hour. We got two free passes a week and all the popcorn you could eat, if you saved the original box.”

“My sister Phyllis helped me at the Varsity, too,” Rich says. “Phyllis was held up at gunpoint one night when she was working as cashier.”

Rich pulls out an old newspaper clipping about the robbery. “They got away with $65. The police never caught them.”

Kay says, "The Varsity was a good family theater. We had a good clientele. A lot of youngsters."

"We never had any controversial films,” Rich says. “Dubuque was a very Catholic town at that time."

"I can remember a lot of the guys,” Rich says, “guys I went to high school with. There was one guy, I won't mention his name, he used to come down . . ."

Kay says, "Don't say his name. He’s very well known, today."

Rich continues, "He would sneak in after they closed the box office. I'd go down and politely ask him to leave, because, you know, he had money. I'd see him up at Timmerman's. He'd come up and pat me on the back, and we were still good friends."

“Another thing,” Rich says, "we never had central air. Back then that was not uncommon. When I grew up my folks just had a window unit on Alta Vista, and Kay's house never had it.”

“When we finally put air conditioning in at the Varsity, that was a big plus on hot summer nights. Everything is changed, now,” Rich says.

Kay says, “Yeah, we had a lot of traffic, but it got to the point where TV just killed the neighborhood theaters.”

“A franchise called Jerrold’s brought cable TV to Dubuque in the late ‘50s, and they started robbing the picture attendance,” Kay says. “We had to close the Varsity soon after, because we really couldn't make ends meet.”

“A lot of people started going to Cinema Center on the west end. Oh my God, that was a beautiful theater!” Rich says. “Both of my kids worked there."

"I went to work for Rainbo Oil Company. I worked in the office for them for a couple or three years, and then I managed a Super Station up there on 20th and Elm,” Rich says.

“Then Rainbo sold that property and it became a Pizza Hut, so I worked for a company out of Des Moines. I was in sales for most of my time.”

The Varsity laundromat at 1111 Loras Boulevard in Dubuque.
The Varsity laundromat at 1111 Loras Boulevard in Dubuque.
“My father’s market stayed open into the ‘60s, and he turned the Varsity into the laundromat,” Rich says.

"When they put the laundromat in, they had to raise the floor, you see, because it was sloped. They put in some side windows. The upstairs stuff was taken out, the Simplex projectors, and somebody must have bought them, but I don't know.”

“I don't know,” Rich says again. “Where were we when they did that, honey?”

Kay shrugs.

“We were probably cryin’ the blues,” Rich says, laughing.

Michael May is a librarian at Carnegie-Stout Public Library where he shows free movies and selects titles for the Blu-ray and DVD collections. His email address is mmay@dubuque.lib.ia.us.

Thanks to Bryce Parks at Dubuque365.com for including this article in the April 24--May 7, 2014 issue of 365ink.

Monday, March 31, 2014

Architecture Days Scavenger Hunt: The Librarian Way

I love the Architecture Days Scavenger Hunt. And I am terrible at it.

If you're not familiar, Architecture Days takes place every April. If you've got any interest in architecture or local history, there are a lot of things to look forward to. You can see the whole list on the Architecture Days page I linked above (and I'll give a special plug to the movie we're showing here at C-SPL).

I always get particularly excited about the scavenger hunt. Dubuque Main Street publishes a set of close-up photos of local buildings and all you have to do is identify them. Simple, right? I grew up here. I've been around these building all my life. They even provide a map showing the area from which they selected buildings. But every year I pull up the sheet of photos and realize that I don't recognize any of them. Apparently, I don't really pay attention to the buildings around me.

Luckily, I'm a librarian. I may not know the answers on this scavenger hunt, but I know how to find them!
(A small interjection: I realize I could just drive/bike/walk around looking for the buildings in the pictures. This seemed like more fun to me. That's why I'm a librarian.)

The theme of Architecture Days this year is Sacred Spaces. Looking at the photos, it seems that all the buildings are churches. So a good first step would be a list of all the churches in the given area. Simple!

The library subscribes to a database called ReferenceUSA. It's basically the fanciest phone book you've ever seen. You can get to it off of our website. Anyone can use it inside the library, and Dubuque residents can use it from home. To start looking for churches in ReferenceUSA, I want to look under U.S. Businesses. I'm trying to do something a little more complicated than just looking for a business by name, so I'll click Custom Search.


A custom search lets me build a search combining several different factors. In this case, I want to look for a specific business type in a specific area. For the type of business, I'll use Keyword SIC/NAICS. SIC and NAICS codes are business classifications defined by the government. We don't have to worry about the specifics, I'm just going to find the code for churches (866107 -- memorize it and impress people at dinner parties!).


Next I need to narrow things down geographically. I've got a lot of options for  a geographic search. It would be simple to just set the city to Dubuque, but that's not quite specific enough. Did you notice the box on the left side of the screen that gives a number for Record Count? As I add new facets to my search, that number changes to show how many businesses match my search. It shows 68 churches in the city of Dubuque, which is a lot more than I want to look at. Besides, if I just searched by city I wouldn't get to use my favorite part of ReferenceUSA:



Map Based Search! In the map interface, I can just draw a shape on the map and search inside it. We've got a few options here. We could select a point and search within a given radius from it. We could map out a driving route and search the businesses along those roads. But for this we want to draw a custom shape. I tried not to get too carried away trying to mark exactly the boundaries from Dubuque Main Street's map. When I was done, ReferenceUSA told me there were 19 churches in the area I selected and gave me a list of their names and addresses.

With a short list and all their addresses, I could certainly go look at all these buildings in person. But the Internet and I have come so far already, why give up on a good thing? Besides, it looks like it might rain. So how can I see all these churches without going outside?




Have you played with Google Street View? Google takes hundreds of photos, up and down all the streets in a town, and then stitches them together into virtual streets. You can essentially walk around town looking at buildings from several angles. Perfect!

I could go to Google Maps and search for each item on my list in order to Street View them, but I've got an idea save myself from jumping back and forth from list to map. I can download my list from ReferenceUSA as either a text file or an Excel spreadsheet. Once I've downloaded the spreadsheet and deleted everything but the addresses, I can paste them to BatchGeo.com.  BatchGeo takes lists of addresses and makes custom Google maps, with all the addresses marked with pins.


On my custom map, I can drag the little orange peg-man to each pin to have a look at the building and compare it to the scavenger hunt photos.


First up, I'll have a look at the pin way at the south of the group, St. Raphael's Cathedral. Some of those windows look awfully familiar . . . .


Architecture Days runs April 7-12. Scavenger hunt entries are due to the Dubuque Main Street office at 1069 Main Street by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16.

Good hunting!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Pennies from Heaven Was Not Filmed in Dubuque

Christopher Walken in Pennies from Heaven
Thanks to Bryce Parks at Dubuque365 for including my article "Pennies from Heaven Was Not Filmed in Dubuque" in the latest issue of 365ink.

If you're interested in watching Pennies from Heaven, you can check it out on DVD from Carnegie-Stout Public Library.

~Mike, Adult Services

---

Here's the full text of the article from https://partners.dubuque365.com/ink/365ink193.pdf#page=29.

Pennies from Heaven Was Not Filmed in Dubuque


In a recent discussion on the Facebook nostalgia page “You know you grew up in Dubuque, Iowa if you remember,” several people mentioned that the movie Pennies from Heaven was made in Dubuque, and as proof they cited IMDb.com, aka the Internet Movie Database.


Pennies from Heaven (1981) is an R-rated musical set in Depression-era Chicago. Steve Martin stars as a financially and sexually frustrated sheet-music salesman who seduces a seemingly naïve school teacher played by Bernadette Peters. The movie also stars Jessica Harper, Christopher Walken, Vernel Bagneris, and John McMartin. It is directed by Herbert Ross.


IMDb includes Dubuque as one of the filming locations for Pennies from Heaven, but if you watch the movie carefully, Dubuque does not appear on screen. Outdoor scenes which look vaguely like Dubuque’s Historic Millwork District were actually filmed around the 4th Street Bridge in Los Angeles.


According to Telegraph Herald articles from when the movie was made, a second unit film crew from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer did come to Dubuque in April 1981. The MGM crew spent “into six figures” in Dubuque on 50 hotel rooms plus food, gas, and phone bills. Out of 350 tri-state residents who answered the call for extras, about 50 were chosen and paid $40 a day, given 1930s haircuts, and fitted for costumes.


But unlike the Sylvester Stallone drama F.I.S.T. (1978) or the beer comedy Take This Job and Shove It (1981), Dubuque did not make the final cut of Pennies from Heaven. The single scene planned for Dubuque, of vintage cars crossing the Dubuque-Wisconsin toll bridge, was canceled because of overcast, rainy weather.


Filming did take place in nearby Galena, Illinois, on Main Street and at a farmhouse outside of town, but those scenes are very difficult to spot in the movie. The TH reported that because of the overcast weather, much of the footage was used by MGM only as “inspiration for building sets back in Hollywood.”


A couple of scenes in Pennies from Heaven supposedly show Steve Martin’s character driving on Illinois Route 1 from Chicago to Galena. In reality, Illinois Route 1 runs south of Chicago, not west to Galena. The road in the movie was actually filmed outside of Bakersfield, California. It is the same road made famous in the crop-duster scene with Cary Grant from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller, North by Northwest.


Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters were not at Galena during the filming of Pennies from Heaven. Their characters were played by stand-in actors from Chicago, which probably was a good thing. Around this time Steve Martin referred to Terre Haute, Indiana as “No Place, USA” and “The Armpit of America.” There’s no telling what he might have said about Galena.


In the bonus features on the out-of-print Pennies from Heaven DVD, MGM art director Bernie Cutler tells a funny story about filming in Galena. The curbs on Galena's Main Street were red, and there were no red curbs in the 1930s, so the film crew hired a painter to paint out the curbs. After the crew left for the day, they got an urgent call from the painter who said he had been arrested and taken to jail. The film crew had forgotten to tell the Galena Police Department about the curb painting.


Economic boosterism might explain why people believe that Pennies from Heaven was filmed in Dubuque. In the 2001 TH article “Area Reels in Cash from Film Projects,” Steve Horman, then president of the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce, said, “It’s safe to assume that anytime a company is filming we’re talking tens of thousands of dollars from the smallest commercials on up.”


According to the article, the Chamber’s Film Bureau published a pamphlet for “prospective film industry clients” called “Discover Variety in Dubuque” which included Pennies from Heaven on a list of films “produced” in Dubuque. And more than a decade later, in 2013, the new non-profit Dubuque Film Office still lists Pennies from Heaven under “Productions Shot In Dubuque” on its “Made in Dubuque” webpage.


Other examples of this appear online. A 2009 post on the Des Moines Register blog includes the entry “1981 – Pennies from Heaven, Dubuque” on its list of “Movies filmed in Iowa.” Also from 2009, when Iowa House Speaker Pat Murphy of Dubuque was asked about the Iowa Film Office scandal, Radio Iowa reported that “the 1981 movie Pennies from Heaven starring Steve Martin includes scenes from Dubuque.” The Iowa Film Office eventually closed over misused tax credits, but has since reopened under a new name, Produce Iowa, not to be confused with the Iowa State University Extension website, Iowa Produce.


The words “filmed,” “made,” “produced,” and “shot” may contribute to the confusion. If a film crew came to town, hired extras, and spent a lot of money on hotel rooms and gas, maybe the local film bureau could be excused for including the movie on its website, even if the local scene was canceled due to bad weather. IMDb, however, has specific guidelines about “filming locations.” Their guidelines say that “filming locations” are “where the filming took place.” While Galena meets this criteria, Dubuque should not be listed at IMDb as a filming location for Pennies from Heaven.


This is not to say that Dubuquers should skip Pennies from Heaven. It is strange and elegant and all the more wonderful for almost having been made in Dubuque.


Pennies from Heaven was adapted by screenwriter Dennis Potter from his 1978 BBC television series of the same name. The American version features disillusioned and depraved characters in elaborately staged dance scenes who lipsync popular songs from the 1920s and 1930s like “Love Is Good For Anything That Ails You” by Ida Sue McCune, “I Want To Be Bad” by Helen Kane, and “Let’s Misbehave” by Irving Aaronson & His Commanders.


This was Steve Martin's first dramatic role in a film, and his first movie after his breakout appearance in The Jerk (1979). But because so many people expected another comedy instead of an oddly moving, dark musical, Pennies from Heaven flopped, costing $22 million to make while only earning $9 million at the box office.


When asked about the film's box-office failure, Steve Martin said, "I'm disappointed that it didn't open as a blockbuster and I don't know what's to blame, other than it's me and not a comedy. I must say that the people who get the movie, in general, have been wise and intelligent; the people who don't get it are ignorant scum."


Fred Astaire was one person who “didn’t get it.” A clip of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing to "Let's Face the Music and Dance" from the 1936 musical Follow the Fleet appears in Pennies from Heaven, but Astaire was not impressed. He complained, "I have never spent two more miserable hours in my life. Every scene was cheap and vulgar. They don't realize that the thirties were a very innocent age, and that Pennies from Heaven should have been set in the eighties – it was just froth; it makes you cry it's so distasteful."


Even so, Astaire is said to have complemented Christopher Walken on his bartop striptease in Pennies from Heaven. Walken plays the tap-dancing pimp who will “cut your face.” The rest of the cast deserves high praise, too, especially Vernel Bagneris for his eerie interpretation of the title song. As The New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael said, "The dance numbers are funny, amazing, and beautiful all at once; several of them are just about perfection."


Besides the Busby Berkeley-style musical numbers, Pennies from Heaven includes a series of tableaux vivants, surprising scenes which replicate famous works of art, such as the 1942 painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper and the 1936 photograph Houses in Atlanta by Walker Evans (which in turn features the iconic billboard for Carole Lombard’s movie Love Before Breakfast from 1936).


You won’t spot Dubuque in Pennies from Heaven, but there are a lot of other remarkable things to see in this movie while you try.


Michael May is a librarian at Carnegie-Stout Public Library.


Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Presidential Elections and Dubuque

It's not every day the President of the United States visits Dubuque, but every eight years or so we find ourselves a destination on the campaign trail for reelection. Our last visit was by President George W. Bush in May of 2004. Other incumbent presidents who have visited Dubuque include Jimmy Carter in 1979, Franklin Roosevelt in 1936, Theodore Roosevelt in 1903, and William McKinley in 1899. John F. Kennedy visited Dubuque, too, but in 1956, five years before being sworn in as President.

Today President Obama will be speaking at the Alliant Energy Amphitheater at the Star Brewery. If you're curious about what's happening, but stuck at work or home, you can follow the action on Twitter, where professional journalists and average people will share their observations with the world. Subscription or no, you can follow the Telegraph Herald's updates on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TelegraphHerald or follow the general chatter by searching for tweets tagged #ObamaIA

Tags are a useful way to follow many current topics, especially when an official tag has been established, but you can also search Twitter for general keywords.

Besides Twitter, your public library is a great place to find information about presidential campaigns. Blogger John Nichols, after he covered the Iowa Caucuses here in 2008 for The Nation, argued that Barack Obama's presidency actually started at Carnegie-Stout Public Library in Dubuque.

Paul Ryan,
Vice Presidential Candidate
And more recently, a librarian in Janesville, Wisconsin, made an important contribution to a New Yorker article on Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan. Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, told this story to Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air:
You know, one of the most impressive things about Janesville, which is a really nice little town, is the library. They've got this fantastic library, and they have a little room at the library in Janesville devoted to the history of Janesville.

And when I went in to see a librarian and told her I was writing about Paul Ryan, and I wanted to learn about the history of the town and the history of his family, she stopped, and she said: Oh, Paul Ryan, I was a librarian at his high school. He was so popular. You know, I loved him.

And she was very proud to take me into the Janesville room and started pulling out his high school yearbooks and showing me, you know, the prom pictures and the class president pictures and all the rest. And then you get to one page in his senior yearbook, and, you know, as I guess a lot of seniors have, they had a senior survey. And Paul Ryan, in the senior survey, was voted by his classmates the biggest brownnoser. So that's how I found that out. His former librarian showed me his yearbook.
So what better place to learn about the campaigns than where a lot of the action is going down, at public libraries?

But seriously, if you're looking to read more about United States Presidential Elections, Carnegie-Stout has the books for you. Below are a few titles, but we also recommend searching the catalog for these keywords:
Presidents -- United States -- Election
Presidents -- United States -- Nomination
Political Campaigns -- United States

Selecting a President by Eleanor Clift & Matthew Spieler (324.973 CLI)

Why Iowa?: how caucuses and sequential elections improve the presidential nominating process by David Redlawsk (324.2777 RED, Iowa Books)

Tension City: inside the Presidential debates, from Kennedy-Nixon to Obama-McCain by James Lehrer (324.73 LEH) This title was the topic of a staff review, click here to read more.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Record-breaking rainfall

North Fork of the Little Maquoketa
(click to enlarge)
Image courtesy of Chel H.
It may be hard to believe, but last year at this time the tri-state area was dealing with aftermath of record-breaking rainfall.

On the evening of July 27th, a frontal boundary stalled along the Highway 20 corridor, spawning a series of thunderstorms that inundated the tri-states with record rainfall. Here at the library, we watched the streets outside the library flood briefly and momentarily lost power. Lightening struck and damaged the Bishop's Block Building downtown, but the library escaped with little damage, especially compared to many others in Dubuque, East Dubuque and the surrounding area.

While we're no strangers to flash floods and extreme weather here, the July 27-28 event broke six rainfall records for Dubuque, including the most rainfall ever recorded in a 24-hour period (10.62 inches; previous record of 8.96 in 2002), most rainfall recorded in July (16.01 inches; previous record of 12.68 in 2010) and most rainfall recorded in a single month (16.01 inches, previous record of 15.46 inches in 1965). It also caused the Mississippi River to rise four feet in 12 hours, caused an estimated $2 million in damage, left many homeless and resulted in one fatality.

Mississippi River level
(click to enlarge)
Image courtesy of NOAA
The National Climatic Data Center collects and publishes storm data from around the nation, including observations from weather spotters, photographs and illustrations. To read the report for the July 27-28, 2011 event, visit the NDCD's Storm Data Publication website, and select 2011-07. A .pdf report will be created; information from the event begins on page 180.

For news accounts, the library offers access to past issues of the Telegraph Herald to regular card holders. Just go to our Research Databases page and select NewsBank. Login with your library card number and PIN, and then select Telegraph Herald from the list of available newspapers. Click here for a list of selected articles about the event (login required to view articles).

And for a look back at some extreme weather events - from Union park to the floods of 1965, 1993 and 2008 - check out these books:
17th Street Flood by cypotter



Dubuque flood (behind John Deere) by ZimmyBuffett



Sources: National Climatic Data Center, NOAA, National Weather Service, and the Telegraph Herald.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

115 years ago....

While searching for an obituary in The Dubuque Herald from October 28, 1897, I came across this very important piece of news:

Old newspapers can be so much fun!

~ Amy, Adult Services

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Researching a Library Postcard


During the recent library haiku contest, I tried to write a poem about how Carnegie-Stout Public Library was here before any of us were born and would likely still be around after all of us have passed away, but I couldn't figure out how to say that within the required number of syllables.

Since then I found an item on eBay which reflects this idea about the permanence of libraries--and the impermanence of library users--as well as any haiku: a 100-year-old Carnegie-Stout postcard.

Postcard, Carnegie-Stout Public Library, Dubuque
click to enlarge image
I won the auction for the postcard with a bid of 70 cents, not a bad deal for a beautiful color image of Dubuque's public library from the turn of the century, close to the time when the Carnegie building first opened 1902.

The handwritten note on the back of the postcard is especially interesting. Arthur in Dubuque wrote to Miss Zoe Smith in Webster City, Iowa to say he was a free man now and working for the government and he'd like to come see her.

Postcard Back
click to enlarge image
I wondered about Arthur's newfound freedom. Did he just get out of jail? Or maybe he had divorced his wife? Would Zoe Smith be eager to see Arthur? Or would she be surprised, or maybe even frightened?

The card is postmarked December 27, 1912, and Arthur's address of 110 Center Place in Dubuque is legible, so I started my research with those bits of information in hopes of learning more about Arthur and Zoe.

Arthur

The 1910-1911 city directory at Carnegie-Stout Public Library shows that Arthur Kline lived at 110 Center Place with Joseph H. Kline, a postal clerk with the Railway Mail Service. Arthur worked at S. P. Wadley Company, a butter and egg wholesaler at 200 South Locust Street.

Joseph H. Kline was Arthur's father, according to the 1910 U.S. Federal Census. Arthur was 17 years old at that time, having been born around 1893. Before moving to Center Place, Arthur lived on Chestnut Street in Dubuque with his mother and father and younger brother and sister.

Google News ArchiveThe Kline's address on the postcard, 110 Center Place, is probably 1132 Center Place today. Some Dubuque streets were renamed and renumbered during the 1920s. The Klines are listed at 110 Center Place before those changes and at 1132 Center Place afterwards.

When Arthur's father Joseph died in 1926, his funeral services were held at home at 1132 Center Place. Arthur's mother Addie lived at the same address until she passed away in 1940, and Arthur's brother Russell Kline and his family lived in that house for many more years.

With a tip from Kris Gallagher, Teacher Librarian at Dubuque Senior High School, I found Arthur's senior portrait in the 1910 yearbook, The Echo. Arthur attended Central High School at 15th and Locust Streets. Arthur's full name was Joseph Arthur Kline. He appears to have gone by 'Arthur' until after his father Joseph died in the mid 1920s.

click to enlarge image
According to city directories and census records, Arthur's father Joseph was a railway postal clerk. This helped me figure out the handwriting on the front of Arthur's postcard: "Forgot to tell you I am a railway mail clerk."

So at the end of 1912, Arthur Kline, age 19, had an exciting new job with the government, in the same line of work as his father, which regularly took him at least as far away as Webster City, 167 miles from Dubuque. This must have seemed liberating to Arthur after attending high school, working for a butter and egg wholesaler, and living at home with his younger brother and sister.

I do not know if Arthur ever visited Zoe Smith, but less than two years after he mailed the postcard, Arthur married Mabel Irene Benedict in Fort Dodge, Iowa, about 20 miles west of Webster City. According to Iowa marriage records, Arthur was 22 and Mabel was 20 when they married in 1914.

When Arthur registered for the draft in 1917, he lived in Chicago and was employed by the "U.S. Gov." as a "R.R. Postal Clerk" at the LaSalle Street Station. At 25, Arthur was tall and medium build, with blue eyes and black hair. Although World War I lasted through 1918, later census records show that Arthur was not a military veteran.

Arthur and Mabel were still in Chicago in 1920. They were both employed as "terminal mail" clerks, and they lived with Mabel's mother Ida Benedict and Mabel's younger brother and sister in a rented house.

By 1930, Arthur and Mabel owned a home worth $8,500 at 21 Poplar Place in La Grange, Illinois near Chicago. Joseph was still a railroad mail clerk. They lived alone with their 9-year-old son, Robert.

Unfortunately, Arthur passed away a short time later. According to the Chicago Daily Tribune, Arthur died suddenly on December 2, 1936. He was 44 and was still working as a railroad postal clerk.

Arthur's funeral was held at home at 21 Poplar Place, and he was buried in the La Grange cemetery. He left behind two sons with Mabel, Robert and Joseph.

Zoe

Zoe Smith of Webster City was harder to track down. Zoe, about age 5, appears with her family in the 1900 U.S. Federal Census at 1100 1st Street in Webster City. Zoe's father Nathaniel Smith was a day laborer.

By 1910, Zoe and her family had moved to 1162 10th Street in Des Moines, about 70 miles south of Webster City. At that time, Zoe was 14 years old.

One of Zoe's older sisters, Merle Smith, still lived in Webster City in 1910. Merle owned a  millinery shop there until the 1940s. An announcement in the Webster City Tribune on July 25, 1913 seems to indicate that Zoe Smith spent time there, too: "Misses Merle and Zoe Smith went to Des Moines this morning, where the former goes to buy part of her fall millinery stock."

Webster City Tribune
click to enlarge image
I couldn't find much about Zoe Smith after 1913, around the time she was 17 and Arthur sent the postcard to her. Zoe Smith's name does not appear on a list of Webster City school graduates, so either Zoe did not graduate at all or she attended school somewhere else, maybe in Des Moines where she lived in 1910.

Oddly, a 'Zoe Smith' is mentioned in Bert Leston Taylor's humor column "A Line-O'-Type or Two" in the Chicago Daily Tribune on October 18, 1912: "LYLE BLACK and Zoe Smith were married in Liscomb, Ia., the other day, and no one thought to play the anvil chorus."

A Line-O'-Type or Two
click to enlarge image
Iowa marriage records show that a 'Lyle J. Black' was born in Webster City in 1895, but he went on to marry Ruth Casler in 1920. I couldn't find any other records to verify that Zoe Smith married Lyle Black, so perhaps the blurb in the Chicago column was a joke or just a strange coincidence.

Since I was stuck, I sent an email asking for help to Reference Librarian Ketta Lubberstedt-Arjes at Kendall Young Library in Webster City. Ketta replied with a copy of pages from a Webster City funeral home index which show that Merle E. Kellogg (nee Smith) died in 1967, and that Merle's sister Mrs. Zoe Herbel lived at 188 East 19th Street in Costa Mesa, California.

With Zoe's married name, I found her in the 1930 census in Los Angeles living with her husband, Earl L. Herbel. Zoe G. Herbel, 31 years old, was a saleswoman at a drygoods store. Earl, age 25, was a repairman at an auto repair garage. Like Zoe, Earl was originally from Iowa. They were married in Los Angeles around March 1926, according to an announcement in the Adams County Free Press of Corning, Iowa.

Zoe Gladys Herbel died on February 6, 1972 in Huntington Beach, California, and she was buried in Glendale, California, almost 60 years after Arthur sent the postcard to her.

Resources

Most of the information above came from Ancestry Library Edition, a genealogy database accessible at Carnegie-Stout Public Library. I looked at other library databases, too, including HeritageQuest Online, NewsBank, and ProQuest Historical Newspapers. And I checked old city directories and the card index of obituaries at Carnegie-Stout.

Some online sites were useful, like Encyclopedia Dubuque, FamilySearch.org, IAGenWeb, Google News Archive, NewspaperARCHIVE.com, and THOnline.com's Obituary Archive.

Ketta Lubberstedt-Arjes, Reference Librarian at Kendall Young Library in Webster City, Iowa, and Kris Gallagher, Teacher Librarian at Dubuque Senior High School, were both very helpful.

These resources can't tell us how Arthur knew Zoe, why Arthur chose a Carnegie-Stout Public Library postcard to send, or if Zoe ever received the card and responded. But they can provide a little context to help us better understand people, like Arthur and Zoe, who lived before us.


Michael May
Adult Services Librarian
Carnegie-Stout Public Library