Category Archives: 1950s

Vintage view of Gary-New Duluth fire and police hall

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This undated view shows the fire hall and police station on Commonwealth Avenue in the Gary-New Duluth neighborhood. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable about cars can date the photo based on the police squad parked in front:

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And, when this photo was taken the building didn’t just house a fire station and police station – it had a branch of the library in the basement:

The fire hall still stands, and still serves as a fire hall. The police station portion of the building now houses the Gary-New Duluth Community Center.

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Corner of Superior and Fourth Avenue East, 1959

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This photo from the News Tribune files, which appears to be dated 1959, shows the north side of Superior Street looking from the corner of Fourth Avenue East. The site of the building being torn down in this picture is now the home of Voyageur Lakewalk Inn. Click on the photo for a larger view.

The back of the photo has the address of the doomed building – 329 E. Superior – and the word “landmark,” without further explanation. Can anyone shed light on this mystery? Why would this building have been a landmark, or otherwise special for some reason?

According to a 1959 city directory (and confirmed by a small sign in the window), the last occupant of the building was Speedometer Service auto repair. Next door at 331, in a structure already razed by the time this photo was taken, the 1959 directory lists Larry’s Clutch & Brake Service, George-N-Henry outboard motors and a few apartment tenants.

To the left…

… in 1959 the building at 323 E. Superior, the facade of which is just visible, housed The Antrobus Shop, a women’s clothing store. The sign right below the shop’s billboard points the way to Hutchinson’s used car lot across the street.

The Antrobus Shop building survives today – it apparently now houses a tattoo shop – tucked between the Voyageur Lakewalk Inn and the Hacienda del Sol restaurant building.

At upper right (perhaps better seen in the full picture), you can see the unique roof line of the Hemlock Garage building. And some of those buildings in the background, up along First Street, still stand today, though obscured from this vantage point by a parking ramp (see below).

Here’s one more zoomed-in view, of the demolition workers forever frozen in time atop the building:

Here are two present-day views of this site, starting with an approximate re-creation of the original photo:

And for a better view of the former Antrobus Shop building, here’s a look down the block to the west:

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Klearflax Linen Looms, circa 1953

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Klearflax Linen Looms, Grand Avenue and 63rd Avenue West, circa 1953. (News-Tribune file photo)

This photo from the News Tribune archives shows Klearflax Linen Looms, once a mainstay of industry in West Duluth before it closed in the mid-1950s. The photo above, if it was in fact taken in 1953 as suggested by some remarks scrawled on the back, would have been from shortly before the plant closed.

Klearflax was featured in the News Tribune’s former “Then & Now” feature back in 2004. The brief column included this historical information:

Klearflax Linen Looms Inc. was founded by Julius Howland Barnes, an industrialist and national figure who lived in Duluth and New York. Beginning in 1909, Klearflax rugs were exclusively linen, and business boomed. Then business fell off; some speculated it was because folks were investing in automobiles rather than home furnishings.

Barnes sought to find out how to use flax straw, at the time largely burned in Minnesota fields, to make various products. It made durable, artistic rugs.

According to Pat Maus, archivist of the Northeast Minnesota Historical Center, one of the Klearflax rugs was in the main entry of the New York Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Another special design rug was made in 1939 — weighing a half-ton, costing $300,000 and 15 feet by 30 feet — for the Finnish capital in Helsinki.

The Klearflax building, at 6320 Grand Ave., was imploded and taken down in the early morning of April 4, 1987.

A champion of the St. Lawrence Seaway for decades, Barnes died at age 86 in the Holland Hotel two months before the Seaway was opened on June 26, 1959, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth.

- end -

The former site of the Klearflax Linen Looms factory in West Duluth, as seen in fall 2003. (News Tribune file photo)

This story about a gathering of former Klearflax workers appeared in the News-Tribune on Oct. 20, 1973:

Nostalgia reunites Klearflax workers

News-Tribune

“Oh, those company picnics!”

“Remember the strike?”

“What a heck of a softball team!”

“When they were dyeing, the smell came right up the elevator shaft and we nearly died, too!”

Those are examples of the hip-deep nostalgia which Friday night gripped the reunion of about 100 former employees of the now defunct Klearflax Linen Looms, Inc., which closed its plant doors in West Duluth 20 years ago.

The reunion “kinda just happened” after the idea occurred to Mrs. Florence Nelson of Duluth, who, most of the former Klearflax employees assembled in the David Wisted American Legion Post agreed, should have the credit for the event.

Several months ago she asked a few Duluthians who formerly were her coworkers in the plant what they thought about promoting a reunion. They set the date and began contacting some of their other former coworkers.

“We didn’t know what the response would be, but didn’t expect anything like this,” Mrs. Nelson said as she pointed to the group of 184 persons at dinner in the clubrooms.

Chain reaction contacts did the trick. As one former employee agreed to attend, he called others he knew and invited them.

Attending the reunion were couples who met while working in the plant, fell in love and married. Included in that category were Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Bowman, Glastonbury, Conn.

Bowman was known to everyone working in the factory when it closed. He was the vice president, rising through the ranks from handyman drawing 22 cents per hour and working 60-hour weeks.

It was a reunion twice over for Bowman and Harry (The Horse) Bloomquist of Duluth, who sat across the bargaining table from the vice president while serving in a similar capacity for the union.

They talked at length about the five-week strike back in ’48.

They were joined by Henry Mickelson, Duluth, who recalled working a nine-hour day, six days per week and taking home $9.

“My pay envelope (he started working there in 1915) had a $5 gold piece and four silver dollars,” Mickelson recalled.

The event also reunited Bowman and Albert Weber, Duluth, who was treasurer of the firm when it closed the doors of the plant, primarily due to inability to meet the competition of other factories with more modern equipment.

Duluthian Dale McKeever, who gets much of the credit along with Mrs. Nelson in originating the reunion, agreed with her statement that “it was a fun place – we were one big, happy family.”

McKeever said management of the company was well-liked by the employees and there was a good labor-management relationship despite the one strike.

McKeever and Mrs. Nelson recognized “just about all of them,” referring to the former coworkers who attended the reunion.

So did Bowman, although his memory had to be jogged by others at times. He’s spry at the age of 79.

The firm’s rugs were marketed throughout the world. The company was founded by Julius H. Barnes, early industrial leader in Duluth, known also for his activity in the shipbuilding field.

The building at 63rd Avenue West and Grand Avenue now is occupied by the W-K Manufacturing Co.

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Share your memories of Klearflax or other long-gone Duluth factories by posting a comment.

Photos of Babbitt from the 1950s

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Sunday’s News Tribune includes a News Tribune Attic print edition column about a photo of a grocery store in Babbitt in the 1950s.

A few weeks back that photo ran in the paper, and I asked if any readers knew the people in the picture. They did – and you can read the story at the DNT home page to learn more.

Meanwhile, here is that photo – and a few others from Babbitt in the 1950s:

This photo, labeled “Babbitt Store – Mrs. Roland Wright and son Jon” – ran with the News Tribune Attic print column on Aug. 21. We asked if any readers could provide any more information about the photo – and heard from Jon Wright himself. (News Tribune file photo)

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This photo from the News Tribune files is unlabeled, but was filed with other photos from Babbitt and appears to date to the 1950s or 1960s. It shows a crew working on a new cement sidewalk, with local kids watching closely – perhaps waiting patiently for the chance to write their names in the wet cement? (News Tribune file photo)

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Mrs. John Hyvarinen teaches school – possibly a first- and/or second-grade class – in Babbitt in the 1950s. Do you recognize any of the students? (News Tribune file photo)

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Kids walk past a building labeled “Babbitt School Grades 1 & 2″ in the 1950s. A Standard gas station is in the background. (News Tribune file photo)

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Do you know anything about this car?

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A reader passed along this clipping from Reminisce magazine, about a one-of-a-kind (or close to it) car supposedly built in Duluth in the 1950s:

The same car also was featured in Hemmings Motor News last year.

A quick initial search of the DNT files turns up nothing on Pingel or the Sterling Stein. Does anyone out there have any information to offer? If so, post a comment.

I may not be able to moderate comments for a few days, but they’ll be saved and I’ll approve them as soon as I have the opportunity.

Duluth’s long-gone King Neptune statue

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Reader John Michel e-mailed a couple of photos earlier this month of the 26-foot-tall King Neptune statue that used to grace Canal Park from 1959 to 1963. There’s this view from a postcard:

And then this view from the other side that he found online; I don’t have a source, so if you know where it came from, let me know and I’ll post the proper credit:

This photo was reversed hen I first posted it; it’s correct now.

The statue had a brief but tumultuous history in Duluth. The News Tribune’s Chuck Frederick did a great job of recounting the tale in a column that ran September 9, 2006. Here it is:

STATUE OF LIMITATIONS

By Chuck Frederick, News Tribune

Sometimes olden is just old. Not historic. Not significant. And when gone, not a lost treasure. Just lost.

So goes the story of Duluth’s King Neptune. Memories of the 26-foot, 2,000-pound statue that once stood guard over the Duluth ship canal were sparked this summer when Duluth historian and postcard collector Tony Dierckins came across a card featuring the mythical Roman god of the sea. Dierckins dropped me a whatever-happened-to e-mail and the News Tribune published a call for answers — and memories.

The story that emerged, disappointingly, wasn’t nearly as golden as Duluth’s once-proud painted statue.

“Neptune was a hunk of junk,” Duluth’s Lyle Bergal recalled. “Depressing to look at. An eyesore. It was just a disgrace to the city.”

However, as Bergal also recalled, the statue didn’t start out that way. In fact, the big guy was heralded by Duluth Mayor E. Clifford Mork as a “tremendous tourist attraction,” especially among “picture-taking travelers” in 1959, shortly after the Minnesota State Fair Board voted to donate the statue to Duluth. Neptune had been on display during the Great Minnesota Get-Together to commemorate the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The city’s chamber of commerce, visitors bureau, and retail merchants association came up with the cash to truck Neptune from St. Paul to Lake Superior. At least a dozen businesses provided men or equipment to load and unload Duluth’s newest resident.

With a trident in one hand and a replica of the Ramon de Larrinaga, the first large ocean-going vessel to reach Duluth, in the other, Neptune was hoisted with a crane onto a concrete base not far from the maritime museum. The late-fall dedication was well attended, and D.T. Grussendorf, the State Fair Board member from Duluth who was honored for nabbing Neptune, said the statue exemplified Duluth’s “rugged individualism” and “tenacity.”

“City officials and civic boosters made a big deal about its unveiling,” longtime News Tribune columnist Jim Heffernan recalled. They sure did. Mayor Mork even christened the statue by smashing a bottle of champagne. Luckily, he aimed at the concrete base.

Lucky because, within weeks, Neptune began showing his true quality — or lack thereof. Small stones thrown up on shore by Lake Superior’s waves punched holes into his robe. That despite Neptune’s reported construction of durable fiberglass and a weather-proof plastic composite.

The following spring, Neptune had to be patched and repainted, a maintenance job city crews wound up repeating annually. “He was awfully hard to keep repaired,” Charles K. Ulsrud, the city’s superintendent of buildings and grounds told the Duluth Herald in 1963. “We just couldn’t keep him from falling apart.”

The losing battle wasn’t helped when kids and other vandals threw stones at Neptune or kicked holes into him. The city had to spend about $300 a year — nearly $2,000 today — for paint and patching material. And that’s a figure that doesn’t include workers’ time.

“He was quite an expense for the city and he never really did look good,” Ulsrud said. “If the city’s going to have such a statue, it should be constructed of a more durable material.”

As it turned out, Neptune’s plastic and fiberglass construction was only durable in a thin layer on the outside. The rest of his body, it was later discovered, was made of papier-mache, the “stuff kids use in school to make toy figures,” as the Herald reported.

“Papier-mache does not do well in Northland winters nor does it hold up to the occasional fall storm and high waves,” Thom Holden, director of the Lake Superior Maritime Visitors Center, pointed out via e-mail.

After only four years in Canal Park, a battered Neptune was in desperate need of major repairs. City crews, using blow torches to dismantle the pipes that held him in place, went to work to take him down in June 1963.

That’s when Neptune’s true construction material was first realized. The statue caught fire and, within minutes, was reduced to ashes.
“Duluthians had mixed emotions about Neptune,” the Herald reported on its front page on June 4, 1963. “Many thought him to be unutterably ugly and wondered why he faced out to the ship canal rather than toward the park, where he could be seen. Some thought the old fellow had been neglected, that one of his stature deserved better care.”

He probably did.

“It was a gallant effort,” Bergal said, referring especially to the good intentions that brought Neptune north.

“There are postcards and memories of his presence,” wrote Holden. And “there are still those nights … that he occasionally pays a visit to escort a lonely vessel through the canal.”

In concluding its coverage of the Neptune inferno in 1963, the Herald reported: “Fire officials declined to estimate the loss.”

Tough to put a dollar figure on an “eyesore” and “disgrace,” I guess.

Not a lost treasure. Not this time. Just lost.

-end-

Share your memories of the Neptune statue by posting a comment.

Famous Lashua, Duluth’s singing cowboy

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The post on Duluth’s first television station from a few weeks back included a mention of “Famous, a country-western singer.”

The name “Famous” piqued my curiosity, so I went digging in the files and found out a lot more about Famous Lashua, Duluth’s singing cowboy, including this article from February 6, 1983:

Famous Lashua, Oct. 21, 1953. (News-Tribune file photo)

Duluth’s singing cowboy remembers

By Bob Ashenmacher, News-Tribune staff writer

He was Duluth’s singing cowboy during the heyday of radio.

He wrote country-western songs that were recorded by some of the biggest names. He made one of the earliest live television broadcasts in Duluth.

So what ever happened to Famous Lashua?

“Every once in a while that comes up,” Lashua, now 66, said from his home in Mountain Iron. “I get mentioned on one of the radio stations I worked for – maybe on a call-in show or something. People wonder where I went.”

He moved from Duluth in 1964 to take over a dry-cleaning business in Virginia. He and his wife Ruby retired two years ago. Lately he’s recovering from an artificial hip operation.

Lashua doesn’t regret leaving show business.

“I’d been in it for 30 years. This (the dry cleaners’) was a chance to get into a good, growing business, so we bought it.”

But his enthusiasm for the music days remains.

“Oh, the way I got into it is funny. I’d gone out West on a freight (train) when I was 16, gotten a job on a ranch. The cowboys there, it was a big joke for them to put me on a wild horse. I did pretty good – an old Indian wanted to put me in the rodeo. Anyway, I wrote a letter to a girlfriend back in Rhinelander and to dress it up a bit I said, ‘We’re sitting around the campfire singing songs and I’m playing my guitar.’ I was BS’ing – I didn’t know a guitar from any other instrument.

“When I came back home in ’36, well, of course I run into the old girl again, and the first thing she wants me to do is sing for her. So I had to quick scare up a guitar and get me a music book for two bits. After about a week I could sneak by with ‘Home on the Range.’ I did it for her, and she liked it. It went from there.”

Songwriter and performer Famous Lashua spins country and western music on WDSM radio in early 1964. Note the Hotel Duluth / Greysolon Plaza facade visible through the window. (News-Tribune file photo)

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Except for a brief stint in Kentucky, Lashua played music locally for almost three decades. He had a pleasant soprano voice that lent itself well to relaxed country-western tunes.

He worked in many settings, from WEBC radio’s 15-piece orchestra to a popular band called Uncle Harry and His Hillbillies to a solo act.

He was master of ceremonies on “Corn’s A’Poppin,” a weekly KDAL radio show broadcast live from the stage of Duluth’s Lyceum Theater for three years in the mid-1940s.

“Every Monday night, right after the stores closed,” he said. “We had full houses – boy, it was great. We’d bring in some local acts each night. Some girls tap dancing or a local kid singing.”

Among his more unusual gigs was one with an organist who was dying of cancer. They played together on a show sponsored by a funeral home.

“He knew he was done for,” Lashua said, “but he insisted on continuing playing. During commercials I’d sing hymns and he’d play organ softly in the background and once in a while he’d break down and cry. … That was harder than digging ditches, I tell you.”

The early TV appearance came when engineers of Duluth television station WDSM were preparing to go on the air and wanted to test the signal.

“There wasn’t even a studio yet, just a garage up on the hill by the antenna. … We dragged a log in out of the woods. I sat on it and played some songs.”

All the while, Lashua was writing songs.

Red Foley had a big hit with his “Chocolate Ice Cream Cone.” It was among the top 10 country songs of – he thinks it was – 1952 and was eventually covered by 10 artists. Vaughan Monroe and Hank Snow each recorded his “Ghost Trains.” The Blue Sky Boys did his “I’m Glad.” His own favorite among his originals: “A thing called ‘Little Miss Mischief.’ It was recorded by the Oklahoma Sweethearts. I liked that one, but it never went anywhere.”

Where’d he get that stage name, “Famous,” anyway?

“They’ve been asking me that for years,” he said. “It’s my real name. My folks must have had big plans for me. Either that or they were running out of names – I’m the ninth out of 10 kids.”

Now that he’s retired, Lashua wouldn’t mind putting together a little radio show of his own again.”

– end –

Famous Lashua, undated photo. (News-Tribune file photo)

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Famous Lashua died on May 3, 1992, at the age of 76.

A Google search turns up quite a bit of information on Famous Lashua. For a site with a number of mp3 files of his songs, click here. Among the files available is “Choc’late Ice Cream Cone,” which was a country hit back in the early 1950s. It’s a sweetly innocent song, certainly from another era. Not quite sure how it would be received today. I found this image of a folio of sheet music for the song on Amazon.com:

A few more sites with information about Famous Lashua can be found here and here.

Share your memories of Famous Lashua, or other well-known Northland musicians, by posting a comment.

Photo mystery solved… and other odds and ends

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Here is a copy of a News Tribune Attic “print edition” column that appears in today’s paper. It provides the answer to the crime scene mystery photo from a few weeks back, as well as catching up on a few other odds and ends from past print columns….

News Tribune Attic readers helped identify the men in this photo… read on to learn more. (News Tribune file photo)

Over the past few months I’ve tossed out a few questions about old photos and stories from the News Tribune archives. Now, I’ll share what I’ve heard back from readers.

We’ll start with the most recent question, which resulted in the most definitive answer. On May 15 I ran a photo showing a crime scene, with what appeared to be law enforcement officers examining a bullet.

Readers Sandra Sterling and Tess Thorstad both e-mailed that the man on the right looked like Alfred Senarighi, who had worked for the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office (he’s Thorstad’s father).

Senarighi’s name jogged my memory — I vaguely remembered seeing it months earlier, in the captions for a folder of old crime scene photos. And sure enough, the lone “mystery photo” was part of that larger file; it had been separated years, possibly even decades ago.

So what does the photo show? It’s the aftermath of a triple-murder at a farmhouse near Floodwood in November 1953. At the scene in the early morning hours are, from left, St. Louis County Sheriff Sam Owens; William Dinkel of the sheriff’s criminal investigation staff; and Senarighi, then a deputy sheriff.

Owens served as sheriff from 1931 until 1967. An interesting side note — Owens was appointed St. Louis County sheriff after a judge ruled that the winner of the 1930 election, Emil Erickson, was not an American citizen, and was disqualified from holding office. He had been born in Norway and never was naturalized.

As I was pulling that information together, a note arrived from reader Glen Kartin, naming all the men in the photo, and correctly identifying the date and place. Thanks to all who helped put that mystery to rest.

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Unlike the first mystery photo, the exact date and location of this picture remains a mystery. (News Tribune file photo)

Abandoned houses photo

There were quite a few responses to the mystery photo of a man looking at abandoned houses that ran with this column on March 6.

Unfortunately, no one could offer a definitive identification of where the photo was taken.

There remain two main camps of opinion on the location of the photo, both based on the idea that it’s a picture of homes being razed for the construction of Interstate 35 through the western and central parts of Duluth.

A slight majority of responses placed the photo near the corner of 51st Avenue West and Bristol Street in West Duluth. Several other readers said they believed it’s from the vicinity of 27th Avenue West and Helm Street.

Reader Denise Johnson of Superior said she thought the photo was from the Bristol Street area. She sent some nice recollections of her childhood in that neighborhood — memories that may resonate with some of you, too:

“I grew up on 63rd Avenue West, above Bristol Street. My siblings and I, along with the neighborhood kids, often watched the workers leveling homes and building I-35. I remember feeling such sadness, as they tore down homes and changed the landscape of our beloved neighborhood. The area where I-35 crosses 63rd Ave. West, traveling back to where the train tracks used to be along Green Street, was a children’s dreamland playground. There were fields of wild flowers and every type of fruit tree and bush, you could imagine. …

“I remember vividly the timeframe during which they tore the houses below Bristol Street down. A huge barn owl decided to make a temporary home in our backyard. As a child, I was in awe of its size. My mother allowed the owl to live in our yard, until it moved on. She told us that it probably had been living in one of the abandoned homes below Bristol Street. It chose our yard as a pit stop on its journey to find a new
home. …

“When the workers began hauling in truckloads of fill to build the massive hill off of 63rd Avenue West and Bristol Street, our playfield was lost to us. Being resilient kids, we found one benefit in that large mass of fill. That hill made a great slope for our sleds and toboggans. …

“Along 63rd, below the freeway overpass, a new sidewalk was laid after the completion of I-35. I walked down to watch the workers, asking them if I could please put my name, and siblings’ names, in the sidewalk. I was given permission to put our initials, not our full names, in the corner of one square of concrete. The workers smiled as I took a stick and etched, with pride, our initials into the fresh concrete. Years later, as an adult, I traveled back to the old neighborhood. I walked the same section of sidewalk, finding our initials buried under 30+ years of dirt.

“I don’t know who the gentleman is in the photo. I see a sadness in his posture. Perhaps, he is reminiscing about his pre-I-35 childhood, as I am now.”

Ely Bottling Works

After an archive story and photo about the Ely Bottling Works ran March 13, several readers shared their memories about the soda factory and its owner, Charlie Lampi. Some readers also sent photos of Ely Bottling Works bottles and memorabilia, including these:

Shirley Shusta of Ely sent this photo of a Jacob Lampi (Jacob was Charlie’s dad) bottle with an attached pumping apparatus. It’s standing atop a Kist Beverages box; Kist was the company from which Charlie Lampi bought his soda flavor extracts.

Mary Jackman Sanders sent photos of a similar bottle – only it was etched with the name John Jackman, her great-grandfather and the man who started the Ely Bottling Works. Jackman sold the business to the Lampi family.

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Kurt Soderberg sent a photo of a different style of Ely Bottling Works bottle that he has:

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And Dan Anderson of Cloquet, who grew up in Ely, sent these photos of a vintage bottle opener:

Anderson shared some childhood memories of the Ely Bottling Works:

“I passed the ‘Works every day on my walk to school and I always thought it was a cool building. There was always activity and I remember the rattle of the pop cases being loaded onto the truck on the rollers.

“They had the best pop (cream soda, orange, and lemon-lime) around.  It was a real treat to have pop back in the ’60s before it became ubiquitous and bad for us.”

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Share your memories by posting a comment.

Duluth’s first television station, WFTV

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After posting a 1950s-era photo of Superior Street a few weeks ago that showed a sign for WFTV, Duluth’s first television station, I was curious to learn more about that operation. I did some digging in the News Tribune files and came up with this, which ran in today’s paper:

WFTV newscaster Gordon Paymar (right) goes through a test show on June 4, 1953, three days before the station – Duluth’s first – started broadcasting. Running the cameras are Lee Butkiewicz (left) and Fred Badecker. (News Tribune file photo)

LIGHT OF DULUTH’S FIRST TV STATION FADED QUICKLY

By Andrew Krueger, News Tribune, June 2, 2011

It arrived with great fanfare, ushering in a technological and entertainment revolution in the Twin Ports.

But little more than a year later, it was left in the dust by more powerful upstarts, and relegated to being a largely forgotten footnote in local history.

Fifty-eight years ago next Tuesday, at 2 in the afternoon, WFTV Channel 38 started broadcasting as Duluth’s first television station.

“The opening program will mark the start of a new form of mass communication in the Head of the Lakes area,” the News Tribune reported on June 5, 1953, two days before the first broadcast. “It will make available to this area a type of broadcasting which up to now has been received on a catch-as-catch-can basis from the Twin Cities.”

From the beginning, WFTV faced an uphill battle as an ultra-high frequency (UHF, i.e. high channel number) station in an era when few existed.

Up to that time, anyone in Duluth with a TV set would have tried to snag occasional signals from distant VHF (i.e. lower channel number) stations in the Twin Cities. In the days leading up to WFTV’s first broadcast, local stores placed many ads in the News Tribune touting TV sets and antennas that could pick up the new UHF signal.

WFTV, owned by Great Plains Television Properties, took out its own full-page ad on June 5, introducing the station and its staff. “This is it,” the station proclaimed. “The big event is here. … The hard work and months of planning are now completed. … The excitement is now at its highest.”

The first show was something called “WFTV Opening Salute,” the specifics of which were not described in news accounts of the time. Next up was Billy Graham, followed later in the afternoon by footage of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, held the week before.

Early network shows on the station included “I Love Lucy,” “Flash Gordon,” “The Web,” “Dragnet” and “Philco TV Playhouse.”

WFTV program director Robert Potter (standing) and assistant chief engineer Douglas Cole monitor a test show production on June 4, 1953 at the station’s studio’s in downtown Duluth. (News Tribune file photo)

WFTV produced local news, sports and weather programs, initially hosted by Robert Potter, Gordon Paymar, Bill Kirby and Ernest Orchard. According to contemporary news stories, WFTV also had local women’s programs produced by Elizabeth “Libby” Smith; commentary from Wallace W. Hankins; entertainment from Famous, a country-western singer; and a “kiddie program” conducted by Earl Henton — who later went on to a long career at KDAL / KDLH.

WFTV’s first studios were in space shared with WEBC radio at the corner of Superior Street and Fourth Avenue West — a building that today houses Beacon Bank and other offices. In March 1954, WFTV moved to studios at Superior Street and Third Avenue East.

WFTV enjoyed a monopoly in the market for the better part of a year, but by early 1954 two new stations — KDAL, channel 3, and WDSM, channel 6 — signed on. Not only did they snag some of the top network programming from WFTV, but as VHF stations, they were more powerful and easier to receive. We know those two stations today as KDLH and KBJR.

WFTV lingered on for several more months, but on Friday, July 9, 1954, the Duluth newspapers carried word that the city’s pioneering television station would cease broadcasting that Sunday at 10 p.m.

“We find the market unprofitable,” general manager C.G. Alexander told the Duluth Herald, “and rather than spend more money, the best thing is to call it quits.”

And so on July 11, 1954, WFTV’s days in Duluth came to an end. The station that brought the Twin Ports into the age of television faded to black.

WFTV public service director Ernest Orchard (left) and program director Robert Potter, as seen in a station ad in the News-Tribune on June 5, 1953.

First day of programming

The schedule for the first day of broadcasting on Duluth’s WFTV Channel 38 on June 7, 1953, as printed in that day’s News Tribune:

9 a.m. — test pattern

2 p.m. WFTV Opening Salute

3 p.m. — Billy Graham

3:15 p.m. — TV Matinee

4 p.m. — Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

5:30 p.m. — First Presbyterian Church

6:30 p.m. — Front Page Detective and Between Acts

7 p.m. — Toast of the Town

8 p.m. —TV Playhouse

9 p.m. —Boston Blackie

9:30 p.m. — Hollywood Half Hour

10 p.m. —News in View

10:15 p.m. — WFTV Weather Man

10:20 p.m. — Sports Spindle

10:30 p.m. — WFTV Theater

Call letters live on

While WFTV went off the air in Duluth in 1954, its call letters found new life in the 1960s when they were picked up by an Orlando, Fla., television station — where they remain to this day.

WFTV assistant program director Gordon Paymar (left) and women’s director Elizabeth M. Smith, as seen in a station ad in the News-Tribune on June 5, 1953.

WFTV staff

The staff of Duluth’s WFTV at the time the station went on the air, according to a station ad in the News Tribune:

James C. Cole, manager

Robert Potter, program director

Gordon Paymar, assistant program director

Ernest Orchard, public service director

Elizabeth M. Smith, women’s director

Norman Gill, chief engineer

Douglas Cole, assistant chief engineer

Theodore Steinberger, engineer

Roger Elm, engineer

Lee Butkiewicz, engineer

Fred Badecker, engineer

Elgie Mae Carter, traffic director

Harvey Wick, film procurement director

Tony Marta, account representative

Thomas Fiege, account representative

Mildred Reed, secretary

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WFTV Channel 38, Duluth’s first TV station, shared studio space with WEBC Radio in a building at the corner of Superior Street and Fourth Avenue West. The building today houses Beacon Bank and other offices. This view is from the mid-1950s and is a cropped version of the original photo; to see the full version, click here. (News Tribune file photo)

Here is an online extra – the full text of an article about WFTV that ran in the News Tribune on June 5, 1953, two days before it started broadcasting:

TV in Duluth starts Sunday

News-Tribune

Television broadcasting will get under way in Duluth at 2 p.m. Sunday when WFTV goes on the air over Channel 38.

The opening program will mark the start of a new form of mass communication in the Head of the Lakes area. It will make available to this area a type of broadcasting which up to now has been received on a catch-as-catch-can basis from the Twin Cities.

Actually, WFTV has been on the air for a number of days already, but with a test pattern only. The test pattern has been on the air to give TV owners a chance to adjust their sets to receive UHF, the ultra-high frequency wave length on which WFTV will broadcast. That test pattern will continue on a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule until the opening broadcast.

No shadow areas

Before the test pattern went on the air, there was wide difference of opinion on whether there would be “shadow” areas at the Head of the Lakes into which the TV picture would not reach. WFTV officials said last night that so far, extensive testing has established no complete shadow areas in Duluth. They said they now have TV sets receiving the test pattern in all parts of the Duluth-Superior area.

The pattern also has been received all along the South Shore as far as Ironwood, Mich., and along the North Shore as far as Grand Marais.

The test pattern was run primarily to enable conversion of VHF sets to the UHF band. Most of the sets in Duluth prior to the coming of WFTV were adjusted only for the VHF type of broadcasting emanating from the Twin Cities.

Although it has been established that the TV picture will be received in most parts of the area, there is considerable experimenting going on yet with antennas. In some places the bow-tie antenna, or some version of it, is working best. Some owners are receiving the UHF signal clearly on their old antennas, and in a few cases the signal has come in with only an inside antenna Some isolated areas have had difficulty adjusting sets.

Schedule posted

WFTV’s regular broadcast schedule will include programs daily from 2 to 11 p.m. Sunday’s program, however, will run until midnight.

Among features planned Sunday are opening ceremonies at 2 p.m. The coronation will be shown from 4 to 5:30 p.m.

The station will carry a number of network as well as local shows, according to James C. Cole, station manager. Network shows will be carried on film, as there is no direct wire or microwave link between WFTV and the TV networks.

However, Cole said, the Duluth audience will see many of the network shows at the same time as other parts of the nation. He said most of that type of shows are prepared in advance on films and released simultaneously all over the country.

Among the shows the station will carry will be such drama features as Dragnet, The Web, I Love Lucy; drama featuring Robert Montgomery; and such kiddie serials as Flash Gordon and Rocket to the Moon. Other features will include Arthur Godfrey, Groucho Marx, the Hit Parade, Toast of the Town, the Dennis Day show and Philco TV Playhouse.

Also on film will be the “Telenews,” the daily highlights of newsreel films. “Live” shows will be produced locally and will include news, interviews, music and the demonstration type of programs.

WFTV will share two hours of its broadcast schedule with Arrowhead Television Network, an affiliate of WEBC radio. WFTV studio and tower facilities were leased from WEBC in exchange for the two hours of air time. The ATN organization will be on the air daily from 3 to 4 p.m. and from 5:30 to 6 and 6:30 to 7 p.m. The two organizations will operate independently.

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And one more online extra – here is a copy of the complete TV schedule for WFTV, along with Twin Cities stations KSTP and WCCO, from June 8, 1953:

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Looking back at Duluth Central High School

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Sunday’s News Tribune features a story looking back at the history of Duluth Central High School, which will close this year after nearly 120 years of classes and memories at two locations.

The first Central opened in 1892 in the downtown building now known as Old Central High School, with its landmark clock tower. In 1971, Central students moved up the hill to the present location, with one of the best views in town.

Central High School has been featured a few times in the Attic; here are some of those posts:

Ceiling collapses at Central, 1963

Building new Central High, 1971

Driver’s ed at Central High, 1971

Longtime Central teacher and coach John Swain, 1969

Here is a gallery of more Central High School photos not previously featured in the Attic; click on the photos for a larger version….

Share your memories of Duluth Central High School by posting a comment.