On July 4, 1825, construction of the Ohio-Erie Canal began with the turning of the first shovel of earth in the Buckeye Lake area. Completed in 1830, it formed the Licking Summit Reservoir, which became known as Buckeye Lake. To increase weekend business on its streetcars, the Columbus, Buckeye Lake and Newark Traction Company bought land at Buckeye Lake and built an amusement park, advertising it as “the Playground of Ohio.” The Buckeye Lake Amusement Park and the Buckeye Lake Yacht Club on Watkins Island were very popular, and during the big band era, many visitors came to dance at the Crystal Pavilion and the Lake Breeze Pier Ballroom, which featured the sounds of Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton, Lawrence Welk, and Louis Armstrong.
Where did big bands and swing music go? They didn't leave. . . but many Americans actually believe they disappeared along with ballrooms, jukeboxes, bobby sox and zoot suits decades ago. Band leader Brooks Tegler, who has recreated the great music of World War II with his Army Air Corps Review Big Band, offers a good response. "In order for something to come back, it needs to have gone away. Big bands have wrongly been put in that category. They never went away." And that's the essence of the chapters of my book about America's big bands, ballrooms and dancing's past and present. And there's a good look at the future through the eyes of a number of young bandleaders from the east to west coast who carry on in the tradition of Guy Lombardo, Glenn Miller, Harry James, Woody Herman, Duke Ellington and a host of other music legends in their own distinctive way. The struggle to survive in the music business hasn't been without losses and a need for life support. It did when Miller, Benny Goodman, James and Ellington were in their heyday. It's a financially precarious business regardless of your talent. Inevitably, music and dancing evolved and matured. The reasons are numerous and linked to our heritage. But like marching bands on the 4th of July, imagine a country club new year's eve without live dance music and a big band. Think about the many community social events and high school and college proms let alone wedding receptions that still insist on having live bands to play the foxtrots and swing numbers people enjoy. My research shows that while there were approximately 800 big bands on the road during the swing era of the 1940s, today there are nearly 1,300 big bands, according to a Google search and a review of hundreds of territory bands. Consequently, neither the bands nor the music vanished. . . they scattered throughout the American countryside.
This fascinating account of one of the state's largest resorts is richly embellished with old photographs and illustrations. Donna Fisher Braig covers the prosperity of the area, the community, the people, historical houses and farms, the Islands, and the many changes. In the 1960's, the park's decline started and the area took on a new look and atmosphere. The progress and development of Buckeye Lake in the '80s and '90s rounds out a long and important history. The author's accounting of this place she calls home is truly original and moving, and written from the heart.
Northeast Ohioans who grew up visiting amusement parks in the 1940s through 1970s will cherish the memories and memorabilia captured in this vivid, nostalgic portrait of days gone by. Includes: Euclid Beach Park, Luna Park, Geauga Lake Park, Puritas Springs Park, White City, Memphis Kiddie Park, Geneva-on-the-Lake, and others.
This complete guide to creating a scrapbook helps you collect and preserve your favorite family memories. Lasting Memories features hundreds of pages from dozens of memory albums to show you how to plan each scrapbook page. You will learn how to combine photographs with personal memorabilia to create lasting memories of family experiences. Chapters on color, layout, and captioning help you plan and build pages that tell the whole story. Includes: Hundreds of colorful pages from old and new scrapbooks Ten quick-reference "Idea Boards" offer dozens of ways to decorate pages using diecuts, stencils, stickers, paper punches, rubber stamps, and more
In The Bear Doesn’t Know, Paul Schullery—honored naturalist, storyteller, and former Yellowstone ranger—has given us a bear-lover’s book of wonders. It is rich in the joy, beauty, inspiration, and pure fun to be had during a life well lived in bear country. While exploring the cultural complications of an animal we have long both feared and adored, he chronicles the bumpy course of our coming to terms with the mysteries of bear ecology and behavior. Schullery brings to the matter of bears a long view—of our centuries-long and always-evolving perception of wild bears, of the scientific exploration of bear ecology and behavior, and of the sometimes bitter struggles to protect bear populations for the future. Featuring Schullery’s trademark gifts for historical inquiry and scientific translation, as well as for mixing humor with telling insight, Schullery enlivens The Bear Doesn’t Know with many of his own quirky tales of life in the wildlands of North America and in the obscure realms of bear folklore and literature. North America’s bears have become universally recognized symbols of wild landscapes and the struggles to preserve them. In this collection, Schullery illuminates and celebrates the bears and their world, making plain why they always have and always will matter so much to us.
