History
Does anybody know of any West Junior High yearbooks?
I’m looking for a yearbook from West Junior High from around the year 1938. I’ve checked DPL and all round the school district. I’m wondering if anybody has one laying around in an attic somewhere.
Before Big Daddy’s Burgers …
I’ve been to Big Daddy’s Burgers in Piedmont a couple of times and liked it, I need to go again sometime. However, I have a memory of another diner, an even smaller one, just next door to Big Daddy’s, (to the left at the end of the building). When I was kid, likely in the mid-to-late 1980s, my Grandma took me there when we were visiting my Great Grandma at Viewcrest nursing home. I may have only been there once, maybe twice, but it made an impression, mostly due to it’s size, it was the very definition of a hole-in-the-wall diner. There was a lunch counter that ran most of the length of it, the cook made the food right behind it, I don’t think there were even any tables, just the counter since it was so small.
Does anyone remember this place, the name, and I know this is stretching it, but perhaps pictures? It’s just one of those childhood memories that has stuck with me, and I’d love a little history? Thanks in advance!
A little early with his Halloween jokes
Duluth News Tribune cartoon by R. D. Handy from 100 years ago — Oct. 23, 1913.
KBJR Topline News and Cheers at the Western Tavern in 1993
Embedded above is the complete Topline News broadcast from May 20, 1993. You’ll notice it’s pretty short; that’s because from 1992 to 1998 KBJR experimented with an abbreviated 10 p.m. news program that ran about six minutes, not counting commercials, followed by a re-run of Roseanne with sports scores at bottom screen. (more…)
Jerry Polinsky tries his luck in Atlantic City
Related to Minnesota Woolen Mills posts on Perfect Duluth Day is this December 1978 Corporate Report article.
Jerry Polinsky Tries His Luck in Atlantic City
Considered ‘insolvent’ in Duluth, the former Minnesota Woolens executive is laying heavy bets along the Boardwalk …
By Charles I. Mundale
In early summer 1977, a new hotel corporation was formed in Atlantic City, N.J.
In late summer 1977, an old retailing company bellied up in Duluth, Minn. (more…)
Fashion Wagon – Minnesota Woolen
A vintage flannel caught my eye this afternoon while taking a break from work and strolling into the Wise Buys thrift store in Bellingham, Wash. I was shocked to see “Duluth, Minnesota” on the tag. Does anyone know where this was located? I have never heard of it before.
A quick Google search shows the trademark was registered around 1960 and expired in 1987.
My arms are still itching from trying the shirt on.
A Case of Kid Cussedness from 1901
A Letter to the Editor at the Duluth News-Tribune on November 11, 1901:
I would respectively [sic] call the attention of the chief of police to an example of “Hoodlumism” on a street car in your city as I have never witnessed anywhere.
Surely the “kids” are under the surveillance of the police authorities, if the bums cannot be controlled.
Business relative to a burned building called me to Duluth Heights. When I returned to the city, just getting dark, half a dozen passengers came on the car; while passing a store, seven “kids” climbed aboard, and clear down to the incline gave such a specimen of cussedness that would never be tolerated on the Bowery.
Wrestling, scrapping, kicking and yelling, annoying all the passengers, even to insulting two women passengers by throwing one another’s dirty cans into the faces of the women!
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The Nonchalant Jaunt and other 2003 stuff
The Perfect Duluth Day Archives for September 2003 feature a number of posts about the Nonchalant Jaunt, an event in which seven hearty PDDers walked the length of Duluth, from the Wabegon Supper Club in the Superior Township to the Lakeview Castle in the Duluth Township.
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Duluth banker brings home “what probably are the first amateur motion pictures in color of native and animal life in Africa”
An interesting item from the New York Times, July 07, 1937:
Amateur films jungle in colors: Duluth banker sails today from Paris with rare movies of natives and animals
Laurence O. Anderson of the Northern National Bank of Duluth, Minn., after a month’s holiday in the Belgian Congo, will sail for the United States tomorrow on the Normandle with what probably are the first amateur motion pictures in color of native and animal life in Africa.
Video Archive: David Lee Roth 1987 Duluth Concert Promo
There’s already a post on PDD about the two Van Halen shows in Duluth, so here’s some love for ol’ Diamond Dave … or as the TV spot says “Dynamite.”
Decades before GTFO skateboarders …
The Ramp Riders vs. The Thrashers.
A not-so-perfect Duluth day in 1869
Because it’s fun to write about crime if it’s more than a hundred years old, I submit for your reading pleasure an article on Duluth’s first murder.
Writing it made me think of this a lot:
Skyline Art Gallery features local artists; showcases Duluth history
This weekend I visited the Skyline Art Gallery for its grand opening. This location, right near the crest of Thompson Hill is an area that I recognize as the spot where I feel like I am “home” and the awe-inspiring views of the great inland sea and the cities of Duluth and Superior open up before your eyes when approaching on I-35 from the south. I’m sure that many others have a similar sentiment, the owners of this gallery could be included in that group.
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Video Archive: Flipping the bird across Duluth, from east to west, decade to decade
The video above, by Mark Ryan, is a collection of film footage from 1970 of dudes hanging out at the old London Inn and other places in eastern Duluth, flipping off the camera. It first appeared on PDD in 2008.
I brought it back for this post because I just came across some footage I shot in the halls of Denfeld on Oct. 17, 1988, that I hope is of similar quality.
Audio Archive: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s honorary degree acceptance speech at University of Wisconsin-Superior in 1996
On May 17, 1996, the University of Wisconsin-Superior held its 100th commencement ceremony at Siinto S. Wessman Arena. Dr. Joe Domitrz, Dean of the College of Business and Economics at UW-Whitewater, gave what had to be one of the most overshadowed commencement addresses of all time, because Arnold Schwarzenegger took the microphone a bit later to accept an honorary Doctor of Human Letters degree.
The event was carried live by KUWS Radio and Schwartzeneggar’s remarks were later rebroadcast on the KUWS program Between the Lines. Captured in the video above is the radio rebroadcast played on Public Access Community Television in Duluth back in ’96.
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Around the time Wesley Willis died …
From the August 2003 Perfect Duluth Day archives:
- The B-52s cancel a Duluth show due to lack of ticket sales.
- Starfire endorses Greg Gilbert for mayor and plots to cover Enger Tower in bedsheets.
- Ca-chee recalls her days as a bad ass in shop class at “Ordeal” Junior High.
- Dirty Knobs vs. Duluth, Minnesota is released
- More skinny dipping.
- Godsey drinks excessively. (more…)
That pizza joint on the hill
Oh, my 40-year-old brain! I have been sitting in the same chair all day trying to remember the name of the pizza place that was up on the hill, I think, across from Shakey’s. It had a weird pizza joint / olde tyme candy shoppe / barbershop quartet theme. The logo was a guy with a handlebar mustache wearing a striped red shirt. My brother remembers enormous jaw breakers. Extra credit to anyone who can name the owners. They went to Holy Rosary.
Please help. I may never sleep again.
Freediving the Ruins of Duluth’s Outer Harbor
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyh72tSSZys
Freediving the century-plus-old ruins of Duluth’s outer harbor. First the old breakwater wall (cribbing filled with rocks) that stretches 1000′ from the Vietnam Memorial to the red buoy. The buoy’s function is to mark this as a shipping hazard (at that distance from shore the buoy is in 30 feet of water). The destruction of the breakwater wall in a storm spurred the digging of the canal. Then the column or pillar of Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum, essentially a bundle of timbers sheathed in concrete. Then Uncle Harvey’s itself, in 16 feet of water, also built on cribbing.
The F-94C Starfire of Memorial Park Fame
The relic in the photo above is a Lockheed F-94C Starfire. It was on display at Memorial Park in West Duluth from May 1960 until October 1996 (photo of its removal above). It is not the same airplane that is currently displayed in the parking lot of American Legion Post 71.
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Video Archive: Low video “Over the Ocean” premiere on MTV from 1996
MTV’s Matt Pinfield introduces the premiere of Low’s “Over the Ocean” video during the program 120 Minutes. The video was directed by Philip Harder; the song is from Low’s album The Curtain Hits the Cast.
Dispatches from the Low/Radiohead tour, Green Man, skinny dipping and other happenings from July 2003
July 2003 is the first complete month of archived posts on Perfect Duluth Day. It was a time when Facebook didn’t exist and the word “blog” was still a year away from being named Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year.
PDD was a pretty different thing back then, both in appearance and attitude. Founders Barrett Chase and Scott “Starfire” Lunt used the Blogger publishing platform initially (until August 2004). If you look at the archive, it’s getting sloppier all the time as many of the images that were hosted on other sites aren’t there anymore and most of the links are dead.
Blogger didn’t support commenting in those days, so Barrett and Scott found some other thing to use, but the company behind it went out of business years ago, so all the comments from the posts on Blogger are long lost.
Since it was pre-Facebook, and was started among a group of friends, PDD initially was used a bit like Facebook, with a lot of inane daily updates — many of which stand the test of time and are cool to revisit, while others … not so much.
So what were the major happenings ten years ago as far as PDD was concerned?
- Starfire was a rock-and-roll nanny in Europe, traveling with Low and Radiohead (photos above).
- The second annual Green Man Festival was held at Spirit Mountain, featuring a giant gob of bands — the Big Wu, Wookiefoot, Shannon Wright, Heiruspecs, the Black-eyed Snakes, Ol’ Yeller, Pleasure Pause, Mark Mallman, White Iron Band, Cry on Cue, Spider John Koerner, Sweet Potato, Charlie Parr, Haley Bonar and so on.
- PDD achieved the number-one ranking on Google for the search term “skinny dipping pics.” Quoth Starfire: “I can’t tell you how proud I am of all of you.”
Listening to Steve O’Neil
More than 15 years ago, Minnesota Public Radio aired a half-hour documentary about Loaves and Fishes here in Duluth. This was not long after Steve O’Neil and Angie Miller had started the first Loaves and Fishes house.
Stephen Smith produced the story. It includes lots of audio from Steve and Angie. You can listen to or download it here.
Found: Warehouse Bar artifact
1988 relic.
Video Archive: Bad Company and Damn Yankees at the DECC Arena in 1991
Bad Company played Grand Casino Hinckley last night with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. Twenty-two years ago, Bad Company toured with Damn Yankees and played the DECC Arena.
The memorable part of the show was that the news came out during the concert that the Gulf War had ended. Ted Nugent celebrated by shooting a cutout of Saddam Hussein with his crossbow. (This seemed spontaneous, but it was actually something he was doing throughout the tour, because he’s Ted Nugent and that’s what he does.)
Casa Motel and Duluth Motel History
In a vein somewhat similar to the Ye Olde Corner Grocery post, I recently saw that the Casa Motel is for sale. That shoebox-looking motel has been a curiosity since I was a kid. It had a certain “stigma” about it, but I’ve always wondered, why there? What made someone build a motel there, in 1965? (more…)