History Posts

Video Archive: Homegrown 2003

Here’s a sloppy VHS version of KDLH-TV’s coverage of the 2003 Homegrown Music Festival, including clips from the only Homegrown Kickball Classic ever held at the Wade softball fields — and the only time a TV news personality was invited to participate in the game.

Starfire’s fabulous mohawk appears near the end, although the quality of the video doesn’t do it justice.

Video Archive: 1989 World Series Earthquake

Duluth sports anchors report on the Oct. 17, 1989, Loma Prieta Earthquake that disrupted the World Series at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Featuring WDIO’s Steve LePage and KBJR’s Paul Guggenheimer.

Guy Lombardo regrets

I don’t know if I was being cheap or just avoiding my hoarding instincts, but I regret not coughing up $8 for this Guy Lombardo record at the Wallace Henkins Estate Sale in May. It appears to be a live recording on Duluth station WEBC from Oct. 14, 1948 — I’m not sure. It was an over-sized record, and I wasn’t sure if it would fit on my turntable. So, who picked it up and how long until it’s shared on the Internet?

Video Archive: Locker Room gets Blastered

The Third Base Bar on Tower Avenue in Superior used to be the Locker Room Lounge and Grill. Here is pro wrestling’s Gary “The Blaster” Lindgren extolling the virtues of the Locker Room, circa 1989.

Curiosity: Mysteries Near Boy Scout Landing

I have a curiosity about the history of our town and the surrounding area, and PDD has been a great source for finding answers and discovering new things. I hope someone can solve these mini mysteries, (at least they’re a mystery to me).

Out by Boy Scout Landing, there is this wedge-shaped foundation, (Search Google Maps for: 46.654688, -92.224903). It looks as if it was some sort of industry long since gone.

Hell Yeah!!!

Granada Stage Bar

Here is a photo I took of the Granada Stage Bar during a snow storm in the early 1980s, a few years after moving to town. I don’t know or remember anything about it, including its actual location. In my mind I think it was on Superior St, but that organ has been wrong on a regular basis. Anybody have any knowledge of it?

The Rise and Fall of the Red Herring (the old Rocket Bar)

Regarding the Rocket Bar renovation:

Well, folks, far-be-it from me to talk the talk and not walk the walk, but when a few hundred thousand greenbacks comprise the difference between the “talk” and the “walk,” well, shucks … it was a good run.

Pruning Time in Duluth

Since this old comic was available for a quarter at the Wallace Hankins Estate Sale, I thought I’d scan and post it, in case anyone finds it interesting or knows specifically what it’s about.

I would guess it’s from the 1930s, when buses began replacing streetcars, which may have resulted in cutting trees to widen roads, or maybe the tree is simply a metaphor for how the streetcar business would be hacked to death by buses.

The headline leads me to believe this was a newspaper editorial comic that the Park Point Community Club had printed on card stock and distributed around town to raise a fuss. The signature on the comic is John Harrison.

The Lark of Duluth

Former Perfect Duluth Day intern Jamie Merideth shot and edited this video about the replica of the Lark of Duluth, “The World’s First Airliner,” being built at Sky Harbor.

There will be a Centennial event at Sky Harbor this summer from July 12-14.

Park Point Ferry

You might have seen the news story on a University of Wisconsin-Superior feasibility study of a water taxi between Barkers Island and Park Point. In what’s old is new again, I remember hearing of a ferry that used to run between Superior and the end of Park Point, when a community of summer cabins existed out there. But I can’t find any information on it, such as when it operated and where it docked on either the Superior or Park Point sides. Does anybody know where I can find any information on that?

Duluth’s Lakewalk That Wasn’t

The comments on the recent post about wine rooms as breeding places of vice in Duluth a century ago delved into the history of prostitution in Canal Park. If only someone had come up with the idea for the Lakewalk back then …

Chop suey houses recognized by new regime as detrimental

From 100 years ago — April 17, 1913 — Duluth News Tribune:

“The Main” Trailer

In 1982 Bob Jansen was fired from his job as a college professor for being gay. After suing the institution that fired him, he took his settlement money to open the first openly gay bar in the Duluth/Superior region: The Main Club. The Main follows Jansen’s history and the history of the bar while exploring social trends that may threaten the continued existence of historically significant queer spaces like the Main Club.

Directed by Julie Casper Roth.

Blustery out at the Congdon’s today

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