Frank Hoolihan sent this postcard to Mrs. Galivan in Buffalo, NY imploring her to tell Sarah not to let anyone know that he’s in Duluth. He doesn’t want his mom to find out. I suspect he sailed up the Great Lakes to Duluth to get away for some reason. Or maybe he was just on a lark. It does raise a few questions. I can’t make out the year in the postmark but I’m guessing around 1909 or so.
Summer scenes from several of Duluth’s many swimming locations to help shake off what seems a very long winter.
A rare Skyline postcard by Chester Klock, an artist who worked a very short spell at the Duluth Herald in 1942 drawing a feature cartoon called “Plumb Local.” The job was cut short when America entered World War II, and Klock moved to Wisconsin to contribute to the war effort by working for Allis-Chalmers. After the war, Klock moved to Denver where he drew cartoons for the Denver Post until 1953. He finished out his career in California.
This former Duluth trolley makes frequent trips back and forth between Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. Trolleys are restored and operated by the Minnesota Transportation Museum.
A couple cards I’ve not seen before. Both are postally unused.
Bob mentions a couple of Northland towns at the beginning of their first song.
“Take Me Out To The Ball Game” was written by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer in 1908. These images were shot the same year to help sell the song to the public.
The singer in the video is Edward Meeker, one of Thomas Edison’s technicians. This is how they sold music (sheet music, specifically) back in the day — kind of an early form of music video. These were called illustrated songs. An “illustrator” would stand on stage and sing the song while glass slide images portraying the song’s storyline were projected on a screen. Anywhere from 12 to 16 slides were produced for a song. The last slide was usually the chorus text so audience members could sing along. In this version, I’ve enhanced the chorus with slides from other baseball songs. Illustrated songs were often part of vaudeville and early movie theater programs. Notice the giant wad of Cracker Jacks Katie Casey is enjoying. That’s how it was sold back then.
Spring is just around the corner. Maybe two corners.
