Rena Vivian Smith as Madam Butterfly, Cosmopolitan Magazine, February 1907
The latest “Forgotten Duluthian” posting by David Ouse at the Duluth Public Library’s Vintage Duluth blog is about Duluth’s Madame Butterfly, Rena Vivian Smith.
The Denfeld class of 1948 held its 70th reunion last week. Marking that occasion and the upcoming return to school, we present select images from the 1948 Denfeld Oracle, the school’s annual yearbook.
This 1897 issue of Duluth’s Labor World shows the waterfall and cauldron of “the Glen” in Chester Park. From 1894 to 1902 the area was named Garfield Park.
While out hiking with The Big E and our daughter this weekend he reminded us both there used to be cabins on Park Point. Does anyone know when they were torn down?
One century ago, as “The War to End All Wars” raged on, Mary Scott Bywater of Duluth wrote and published a forgotten anthem.
The recent PDD posting about the 1960s song “Ruth from Duluth” has led to a potentially related historical sidebar. It turns out that in the 1940s there was a carnival performer promoted as the 750-pound “Ruth from Duluth.”
Very few details are available in the five periodical clippings unearthed so far.
The Billboard, June 30, 1945:
Undated postcard.
This postcard was mailed 110 years ago today — Aug. 14, 1908. It depicts a scene looking northeast on Third Street at about 24th Avenue West. The church steeple in the right foreground is Bethany Lutheran Church, built in 1903.
This little tune, purportedly released in December of 1965, is about a “little pretty girl” from Duluth who “eats corn on the cob through a picket fence.” Enjoy.
Photo courtesy of Kip Praslowicz
There’s a show currently hanging at Blacklist, photography all shot on film by area photographers. The pieces come from members of the Duluth and Northern Minnesota Film Photographers, a group that meets monthly to discuss the process, challenges and variations of shooting on film. The evening will be both a reception for the show and one of the monthly meet-ups.
The fancy booklet above is circa 1930. Western Auto Supply Company once occupied the building that is today known as the Center for Non-violence at 202 E. Superior St. in Duluth.
This photo from Detroit Publishing Company is dated 1908 — 110 years ago — although some evidence in the comments to this post indicate suggest it could have been shot prior to that year. It depicts a scene on East Superior Street in Duluth. The mysteries: What block? Are the homes in the image still there? Can someone recreate the mystery photo with a modern image from the same spot?
Finally unearthed from the PDD video archive, clips from the May 10, 1988 World Wrestling Federation card at the Duluth Arena. The segments available here are matches that were broadcast on the syndicated television program Superstars of Wrestling on May 22 and 29, 1988. Numerous other matches were taped at the same Duluth card and broadcast in subsequent weeks.
Left to right: Virginia Wingness, Steve Walli, Gary Logergren, Paul Town and Kathy Wilson.
Photo from The Times ’68, Lincoln Park Junior High School’s yearbook.
