Is this man still in Duluth?
Yesterday my uncle was in Cafe Coco in Washburn, Wisconsin, and saw this poster on the wall. If I had to guess, I would say the person shown is a founding member of Colder by the Lake Comedy Theater. But does somebody know for sure?
It’s Lawrence Whalen, better known as “French Larry.” He died in 2013 and hadn’t lived in Duluth full-time since maybe the late 1980s, but one could argue he is “still in Duluth” and always will be.
I like that response. The Colder by the Lake Comedy Theatre is definitely a part of the city’s cultural history, so his legacy is very much still in Duluth. And you are almost certainly correct about his identity. According to the obituary of Lawrence Whalen — or Uncle Larry as he liked to be called (and French Larry too) — he had strong connections to Madeline Island his whole life and was very actively involved in local affairs, which would explain specifically why the poster is on the wall in a café in nearby Washburn.
He spent most of his time at Madeline Island, but in the late 1990s, he still maintained a very cool room at Emerson. He was my next door neighbor.
AKA Tim Honey
Larry was one of the original homesteaders at Emerson School.