For your Election Day amusement Perfect Duluth Day flashes back one decade to 2007, when Don Ness was elected mayor of Duluth. Above is WDIO-TV Eyewitness News footage from the primary on Sept. 11, and below is coverage by Fox 21 and WDIO from the general on Nov. 6.
The World Wrestling Federation — now known as World Wrestling Entertainment — brought a card to Duluth for the third time on Oct. 8, 1987. In the video clip above, Randy “Macho Man” Savage declares his enthusiasm for his first trip to the Zenith City.
Announcer Gene Okerlund mentions Bam Bam Bigelow and Nikolai Volkoff in his opening remarks, but neither of them appeared at the show.
Here’s a look back to 1987 — when the Minnesota Twins won their first World Series and Wally the Beer Man was in the limelight.
Break out the Aqua Net and backward baseball caps, we’ve dug 25 years deep into the video vault to bring you a little “DHS VHS.” Yes, it’s the full and glorious one-hour and 13 minutes of the clumsily titled Duluth Denfeld Senior High School Class of ’92 Senior Class Video, compiled by Cyborg Productions of Prior Lake, Minn.
The documentary Eyegifts From Minnesota, by Bill Draheim, follows Mike Watt and his band at the time, the Jom and Terry Show, as they drive into Duluth and load in for a performance at the NorShor Theater on May 28, 2002. They tour the old R. O. Carlson’s bookstore, do some sightseeing in Canal Park and spend the night at Shaky Ray Records before heading south for shows at the Turf Club in St. Paul and the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis.
Watt wrote extensively about the tour, and the Duluth stop, on his “Our Oars Became Wings” Tour 2002 Diary. He marvels in the diary and in the film about seeing Lake Superior for the first time. He also mentions in the diary getting a tour of “the secret tunnels” under the NorShor and how it “feels haunted down there.”
in this 30-second news promo from July 14, 1997, KDLH-TV anchor Liz Brummond reports the Duluth City Council is set to vote on a living-wage ordinance requiring employers that receive taxpayer assistance to pay 90 percent of workers a minimum of $7.25 per hour or $6.50 per hour with benefits.
Councilors voted 5-4 in favor of the measure, putting Minnesota’s first living-wage ordinance into Duluth’s City Code.
Police & Violence: Domestic Disturbances Officer Safety Calming Techniques. Filmed in Duluth, featuring officers John Campbell and Scott Lyons of the Duluth Police Department.
At around 8 a.m. on June 22, 2007, a fire started in a waste conveyor machine at True North Cedar‘s manufacturing building on the Duluth Harbor. Employees attempted to fight the fire, but it was fed by sawdust and spread quickly. The warehouse, several boats and various equipment was quickly consumed in a huge smokey blaze.
Firefighters arrived at 8:17 a.m., but were unable to get hoses going until 8:50. It took a little more than an hour to put the fire out once water was available.
This weekend (tentatively) the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad begins its 37th season of running 90-minute tours along the St. Louis River. This historical documentary was produced in 1983.
Time for yet another classic from the collection of the late Emil Praslowicz, digitized by his grandson, Kip Praslowicz. In this edition a dance frenzy ensues at Chet & Emil’s in Birnamwood, Wis. as the Benaszeski Brothers bring the rock-infused polka action.
The World Wrestling Federation brought its first card to Duluth on May 14, 1987. The main event featured Billy Jack Haynes losing a chain match to Hercules Hernandez. The syndicated TV program Superstars of Wrestling featured two promos for the Duluth Arena card tucked into the commercial breaks of local broadcasts. One featured Haynes (above) and another starred Adrian Adonis (below).
Ten years ago the Homegrown Music Festival was in its ninth year — second year as a nonprofit. Don Ness was festival director at the time, but steering committee member Paul Connolly was called on to make an appearance on WDSE-TV’s Almanac North to talk with hosts Julie Zenner and Eric Olson. Connolly went on to serve as festival director for the 2008 and 2009 festivals.
Following the conversation, the band Cars & Trucks performs “Over the Moon.”
Ten years ago Scott Bateman found an audio clip online “of a really fascinating speech about Duluth” and turned it into this animation.
In this video from the early or mid-1980s, Ray Lemke interviews the passengers on a bus from Chet & Emil’s in Birnamwood, Wis., heading to a polka event at the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay.
The video is from the collection of the late Emil Praslowicz, digitized by his grandson, Kip Praslowicz.
