The 1950 Communist Takeover of Mosinee

May 1, 1950. Communist invaders, played to perfection by local residents, seized control of Mosinee. Commie thugs dragged Mayor Ralph E. Kronenwetter and his Police Chief, Carl Geweiss out of their beds and into the town square (rechristened "Red Square" for the occasion). The police chief was reported to have resisted and was shot. Road blocks were set up around the town, citizens were forced to watch a red parade, the library was closed, a concentration camp was set up and prices of goods in the local stores became instantly inflated. To add to the misery, local restaurants served potato soup and black bread for lunch. The "invasion" was an event organized by the American Legion. Sadly, Mayor Kronenwetter suffered a cerebral hemorrhage as he arrived at a rally to restore democracy to his town. He never regained consciousness, and died five days later. He was 49. The commander of the local American Legion post, said, "It was a terrible coincidence".
A film crew captured the entire event. This footage would later resurface in the popular documentary of 50's culture, "Atomic Cafe". The event was also profiled in LIFE Magazine (photo).
It's definitely "Mosinee Day" here at Wisconsinology.

Ancient Wisconsin #2.......A shallow tropical lagoon in Mosinee

500,000,000 years ago. Near Mosinee, in north central Wisconsin, is a flagstone quarry laden with perfectly preserved late Cambrian Period fossils. Among the fossils found in this quarry are numerous jellyfish impressions set in layers of rippled sandstone where there once was a shallow tropical seashore. The huge Scyphozoan medusae jellyfish are not only one of the fiercest predators of their time but are also the largest jellyfish ever to be part of fossil record. The quarry contains different layers with densely populated impressions - likely result of a mass-stranding of these jellyfish by a series of tropical storms over a long period of time.
Such strandings frequently still occur on Earth, but in the Cambrian, there were no land predators.
The medusae jellyfish fossils have so far been found in seven layers in the quarry - 12 vertical feet of rock, a timespan of about one million years. I love imagining ancient landscapes, and Wisconsin's was extraordinary. It's hard to drive by the Mosinee area in Marathon County without thinking about the great island dotted shallow seas that dominated our landscape for so long. As always, click on any photo for a larger view. Please save and send photos that you like. The "Frank and Ed" series are popping up all over the place.

When Wisconsinites meet #4....they get stars in their eyes and hand out medals

1969. The bald guy on the far right is United States Defense Secretary, Melvin Laird. Laird, who grew up in Marshfield, Wisconsin, had government in his blood - he was the grandson of William D. Connor, who was Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin from 1907–1909. The couple in the middle are Astronaut (and future Apollo 13 commander) Jim Lovell and his wife, Marilyn. Jim grew up in Milwaukee and attended the University of Wisconsin. His wife is the former Marilyn Gerlach of Milwaukee. Lovell is shown receiving the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, which was presented after the successful flight of Apollo 8. With them is Admiral Thomas Moorer, later chairman of the joint chiefs.
"James Lovell Street" can be found in downtown Milwaukee.
Laird coined the term "Vietnamization" - handing the burden of fighting the war in Vietnam to the South Vietnamese forces - a policy which failed. He did urge stepping up troop withdrawal from Vietnam and he ended the military draft in the United States. Jessica Laird Doyle, wife of Governor Jim Doyle of Wisconsin is his niece. Both Laird and Lovell were Navy men.

1957...Big facts from the biggest year!

1957 was a huge year in Wisconsin history.
It just may be the most eventful year ever for the Badger State. Here's some handy facts.

#1...Lambeau Field was built. The dedication was performed by Richard Nixon. Many of you out there equate this with the building of the pyramids and the construction of the Parthenon or Notre Dame Cathedral. It may be bigger.....either way, the Lombardi era was about to begin.
#2...Ed Gein was revealed to the world. Gein Mania ensues.
#3...Joe McCarthy dies. The McCarthy era comes to an end. The funeral takes place in Appleton. Thousands line up to either pay their respects or make sure he's dead. The Kennedy's arrive in Appleton to honor a fellow Irish Catholic politician.
#4...The Milwaukee Braves beat the New York Yankees to win the World Series.
#5....The final and most important fact of all....The Wisconsin inland lake record lake trout was caught on Big Green Lake by Joseph Gotz on June 1, 1957 and weighed 35 lb 4 oz. (The Wisconsin record cisco was also caught on Big Green - June 12, 1969 by Joe Miller and weighed 4 lb 10.5 oz.)

Portraits #2....Carole Landis

Carole shows off her glove.....glamorous.

Wisconsin Action Figures #1

Attention cubicle dwellers! Famous Wisconsinites are represented in a wide variety of action figure and model sets. Douglas MacArthur, the man who would be King, comes G I Joe-sized with a command flag, field desk and a hopelessly inaccurate map of Chinese troop positions in North Korea.
Here's the very popular Houdini action figure complete with cuffs and a straight jacket. Be the first on your block to fight phony spiritualists. Declare to the world, "Everything has trick behind it." S&M people come from all over the world to have their picture taken in front of Appleton's famous "Houdini's Handcuffs" statue...they must be rolling crates of these figures out the door at the nearby Museum of History at the Castle.
The Iron Brigade's 6th Wisconsin Regiment can be yours forever. Wipe out the Stonewall Brigade, beat the living tar out of the rebs at the bloody railroad cut on the first day of Gettysburg, threaten your obnoxious fellow office workers who won't shut up about SEC dominance and the weakness of the Big Ten...then buy the 7th and 2nd Wisconsin regiment sets to complete your Iron Brigade collection Click here.

Pee Wee King

He was the first entertainer to bring drums and amplified instruments to the Grand Old Opry. He was the first to outfit an entire band in the rhinestone creations of Nudie, the rodeo tailor. He brought the polka and waltz sensibilities of his home state into country music. He gave Tennessee it's state song and wrote or co-wrote some of the biggest selling hits ever recorded. He was Frank Julius Anthony Kuczynski, born in Milwaukee, raised in Abrams,went to high school in Bayview, better known to one and all as...... Pee Wee King.
His songs include The Tennessee Waltz, Slow Poke and You Belong To Me (c'mon, you know it..."See the pyramids alooonng the nile...") all standards, all mega-sellers for countless artists. He is one of two Wisconsin natives in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Pee Wee King passed away in 2000 at the age of 84.

You Belong To Me is one of the most recorded songs ever written. It was heard last summer in Quentin Tarantino's film, Grindhouse. Many remember it from the Shrek soundtrack. I prefer the 1950's Jo Stafford version.

The Winner....D Wayne Lukas

D. Wayne Lukas trains horses...In fact, he just may be the greatest race horse trainer ever. He has conditioned more champions than any other trainer. His horses have won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes each four times, the Preakness Stakes five times, he has won 13 triple crowns(two in one season), three of his horses have been Horse of the Year, he is the first horse trainer to earn 100 million dollars in purse money and has been the years end #1 money winner 14 times. Like his Wisconsin counterpart in the sailing world, Buddy Melges(click), his accomplishments are far too numerous to mention.
Darryl Wayne Lukas was born and raised on a small farm in Antigo, Wisconsin. He got into UW LaCrosse on a basketball scholarship and earned a masters degree in education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He taught high school for awhile before returning full time to his earliest and greatest interest...horses. He is a legend, a member of the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame (the first person to enter both the Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse halls of fame!) and at age 73, he's still doing it.
"Throughout the history of horse racing no one person has made such an overwhelming impact as D. Wayne Lukas has to the Thoroughbred industry."

Portraits #1............Mildred Fish Harnack

1926, Madison days and better times...before Hitler ordered her execution(two posts down). She was born in Milwaukee.

Max Nohl for Blatz Team #2....The Diver and his Favorite Brew

Max Nohl, the inventor of Scuba Diving, the King of underwater salvage, and, at one time, the worlds deepest diver. You know him from Wisconsinology's most read post....
The Diver and the Sunken Necropolis. Max died in a two car accident that also took the life of R&B singer/songwriter Jesse Belvin. The accident occured near Hope, Arkansas, home of future president, Bill Clinton. Big thanks to Ian Anderson for this contribution.

Hitler vs The Badgers

Berlin, 1942. Wisconsin native and UW grad Mildred Fish-Harnack led a double life. She and her husband Arvid, a German national who she met while attending the University of Wisconsin, were respected academics at Berlin University. They also led The Red Orchestra, an anti-Hitler resistance group that included Greta Lork Kuckhoff, a UW grad student from Germany who had met Mildred and Arvid in Madison during the 1920s.
In early 1942, the Red Orchestra was rounded up and put on trial. Arvid Harnack was sentenced to death and Mildred was sentenced to six years in prison. The defense argued well in her favor, convincing the German judges that because of her job at the University translating great German works into English, she was an asset to the German cause. The decision angered and obsessed Hitler. He now took a personal interest in her case.
Arvid Harnack and many other members of the Red Orchestra were quickly hung with a short rope, a technique meant to prolong the agony of the victims. For Mildred, there was to be a retrial. On Jan. 16, 1942, she was sentenced to death and transferred to Prison. Five months of interrogation left her broken, unable to stand upright. On February 16, 1943, she was led into a courtyard and inside a red brick building that housed a guillotine.
She would be the only American woman to be executed on direct orders from Hitler.
In a cemetery in the Zehlendorf neighborhood of Berlin is Arvid and Mildred's headstone. "It was only by luck that Mildred was buried there. After execution, her headless body was put in a wooden crate and sent to an anatomical institute for dissection. But, as it turned out, a professor that Mildred knew recognized her remains and secretly cremated her. He kept her ashes in an urn and, after the war, returned them to the Harnack family."

On the night before their trial, Arvid wrote a farewell letter to Mildred, he wrote of Wisconsin.
"Do you remember picnic point, when we became engaged? Before that our first serious conversation in the restaurant on State Street? That conversation became my guiding star, and has remained so. You are in my heart. You shall be in there forever. My greatest wish is for you to be happy when you think of me. I am when I think of you."
Lovely.
The picture above was taken at the exact moment when Hitler learned that two key Badgers were resisting his headlong rush to destroy Europe. I'm reminded of a now forgotten song that we used to sing during recess in second grade....
Whistle while you work
Hitler is a jerk
Mussolini pulled his weenie
now it doesn't work....

I got one for Hirohito, too. Later.

The One Armed Governor

Governor Lucius Fairchild was defined by the empty sleeve that once held his left arm. John Singer Sargent, America's greatest portrait artist, captured him late in life as the first commander of the Grand Army of the Republic(GAR), a union army veterans organization.
Fairchild was with the 2nd Wisconsin Regiment of the famous Iron Brigade. These tough, tenacious fighters suffered overwhelming casualties in several battles. At the battle of Gettysburg the regiment lost 77% of it's men and Fairchild lost his arm. He finished the war a Brigadier General, returned to Wisconsin, married Frances Bull and became governor of Wisconsin. He was governor when the Peshtigo Fire, America's greatest natural disaster, swept across northeast of Wisconsin. He lived a charmed and happy life with his wife and daughters at their home in Monona - a place where one and all were welcome to the Fairchild's generous hospitality.
In the late 1800's Fairchild rose up one more time from his peaceful home to do battle. This time he took on President Grover Cleveland. Cleveland had already fought all attempts by Fairchild's GAR to get pensions for wounded veterans. Now, he approved the return of all captured rebel flags to their respective states. At a GAR meeting in New York City on June 15, 1887, Lucius Fairchild made a defiant proclamation, "May God palsy the hand that wrote the order! May God palsy the brain that conceived it! And may God palsy the tongue that dictated it!" For Fairchild, the flags were symbols of treason, and their return was an insult to the Union cause and all who had fought and died for it. The next day, speech was picked up by every newspaper in America and Cleveland withdrew his order.

Governor Lucius Fairchild is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison.
Here's a Wisconsinology post about a captured rebel flag (click).

Stamped #4.....What's his name.

Was every Scotsman from Wisconsin a living Legend? We've already had posts about those twin towers of power {and I don't mean 70's UW basketball stars, Kim and Kerry Hughes), Billy Mitchell and Douglas MacArthur. Now we have John Muir, preservationist,philosopher,founder of the Sierra Club and grandfather of the modern green movement.
Muir was born in Scotland. He grew up on a farm near Portage and attended the University of Wisconsin. It was while sitting under a locust tree on the university campus that Muir discovered his love for the natural world. Over the years, Muir's former UW professor Ezra Carr and his wife, Jean, would have a direct and continuing influence on Muir's life and work. They encouraged him to write, introduced him to important people and even found him a wife. John Muir, one time Badger and pioneer savior of California's natural wonders.

Ed and Frank.......go for a ride.

Frank Lloyd Wright and Ed Gein prepare to go for a drive in Frank's brand new Crosley Roadster.

Midgets and Cubans........great high school team names

Here is a partial list of some of Wisconsin's most excellent High School team names, past and present..(I'm rather partial to my high school team name, The Deerfield Demons.)
Ashland - Oredockers......iron ore, Edmund Fitzgerald, etc etc
Appleton West - Terrors...from the Electric City (click here)
Bayfield - Trollers.......as in fish.
Butternut - Mighty Midgets....Ya!!!! Midgets!!!!
Clintonville - Truckers...The Home of Four Wheel Drive and a piece of The Great Wall of China(click here).
Cuba City - Cubans.....Ha?!??
DeForest - Norskies...wouldn't "Vikings" or "Norsemen" sound a little more intimidating?
Elk Lk-Glenbeulah - Resorters....I don't know what to say.
Elk Mound - Mounders..speaking of which(click here)
Fond-du-Lac: St. Mary's Springs - Ledgers...is this some kind of accounting thing?
Horicon - Marshmen.....Sounds sinister, like a secret guerilla underground in the 17th century.
Hurley - Midgets.....More Midgets. Midgets X2..... We rule!!!!!!
Kaukauna - Galloping Ghosts
Kimberly - Papermakers...both Kaukauna and Kimberly are side by side in the Fox River Valley, Paper center of the World.
Laona - Fighting Kellys...what other kind are there?
Madison: East - Purgolders..can someone tell me what a "Purgolder" is???
Manitowoc - Shipbuilders
Mellen - Granite Diggers.....wow.
Milwaukee: Pius XI - Popes...that's the "Fighting Popes"!
Mineral Point - Pointers
Monroe - Cheesemakers.......and stinky cheese at that!
Platteville - Hillmen......the hillmen have eyes.
Rhinelander - Hodags
Washburn - Castle Guards....terrifying.
Please add any great names I may have missed.

The First Anti-Gay Discrimination Bill

Wisconsin Governor Lee Dreyfus, pictured above in Milwaukee with the Gipper, signed legislation in 1982 making Wisconsin the first state to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing and public accommodations. Yet another of way too many firsts. Dreyfus recently passed away. He is well remembered as an independent thinking member of the Republican party who ran a populist campaign in his quest to become the 49th governor of Wisconsin. Both the Republican party and Lee Dreyfus are Wisconsin natives. Dreyfus was born and raised in Milwaukee, and the Republican party was born in Ripon as the anti-slavery party before the Civil War. Thanks to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel for the picture.

Perfect Attendance....an old tradition

Thursday, January 17, 2008
U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl made every one of the U.S. Senate’s 442 votes in 2007, making Wisconsin only one of two states where both senators had perfect voting attendance records.
Feingold and Kohl were two of only 10 U.S. senators not to miss a single vote during the first session of the 110th Congress. The average U.S. senator made about 420 of the 442 votes cast in 2007.
“Wisconsinites depend on the people they elect to show up and represent Wisconsin in the Senate to the best of their ability,” said Feingold, who has only missed 10 votes in his 15 years as a U.S. senator, earning him a lifetime attendance record of 99.81%.
Along with Wisconsin, Maine was the only other state whose two senators were present for every vote.
Russ and Herb are only following a Wisconsin tradition best exemplified by the late Senator Bill Proxmire...The man who shook every single hand in Wisconsin.....twice. Said columnist and former Proxmire assistant Mark Shields,"Bill Proxmire took his job seriously. Between 1966 and his last year in office, 1988, he answered 10,252 consecutive Senate roll calls -- without missing one. This understandably did not endear him to his colleagues, whose opponents contrasted their less impressive attendance records.
In addition, he was back in Wisconsin at least three weekends a month, pressing the flesh and meeting with his state's citizens. The result: He once carried every county in the state."

InSinkErator.....the first garbage disposal

..was invented in Racine by John Hammes, an architect. He is the "Father of Garbage Disposal". First marketed in 1938, Racine remains the home base of InSinkErator Worldwide. Wisconsin has always lead the nation in the humdrum but all important world of garbage disposal and indoor plumbing...I like to think of them both as the foundation blocks of modern civilization.
Alright...so I'm scraping...not every post can be about a sunken necropolis...or a guy named Dick Bong...or a prizefighter who sold his bones to an evil doctor. You had better pay attention though, I've got a fistfull of blockbusters waiting in the wings.

The First USS Wisconsin and the Peace Conference

We all know the USS Wisconsin as the last standing battleship of the United States Navy and as that telegenic ship that launched first strike(tomahawk missiles) at the Iraqi Army during the final offensive of the 1990-91 Gulf War. There was another USS Wisconsin, and it's claim to fame was quite the opposite of it's modern counterpart....sort of.
The original USS Wisconsin was launched in 1898. She was christened by Elizabeth Stephenson,(photo-third from the left) the daughter of Senator Isaac Stephenson of Marinette.
In 1902, while the Wisconsin was the flagship of the Pacific Squadron, a crisis erupted in Panama. An ongoing revolutionary "disturbance" was threatening American interests on the isthmus, which was then part of Columbia. "American interests" at this time would be nothing short of steamrolling Columbia and building the Panama Canal. Rear Admiral Silas Casey took his flagship to Panama to preserve order. Casey intervened, offered his services as a mediator to both sides (the established Columbian order and the revolutionaries}and he allowed them to meet on board the Wisconsin. Prolonged negotiations followed, and both sides came to an agreement. A treaty was signed on 21 November 1902. In Columbia, the accord came to be known as "The Peace of Wisconsin." It was a brief moment. Politics and the inevitable pressure to build a canal across the isthmus of Panama (at all costs) would soon put a different light whatever it was that the peace treaty had accomplished.
The proud ship later circumnavigated the globe as part of Theodore Roosevelt's Great White Fleet and saw extensive service across the pacific before being scrapped in 1922. The above photo was taken in 1914.

There Will Be More Blood....The real Daniel Plainview

Edward L. Doheny of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The King of California oil, one of the richest men ever to walk the streets of Los Angeles, a key figure is the"teapot dome scandal" that brought down the Harding administration, a key contributor to institutions all over Los Angeles, the inspiration for Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel, "Oil" and the man behind the character, Daniel Plainview, in the new film "There Will Be Blood." The final scenes of the film take place in Doheny's famous 55 room Beverly Hills mansion, Greystone. The building,an oft used location familiar to movie goers everywhere, has a tragic past. Doheny built it as a wedding gift for his son, Ned. At the time, it was the most expensive building ever built in California.
"On February 16, 1929, four months after Ned Doheny, his wife Lucy and their five children moved into Greystone, Ned died in his bedroom in a murder-suicide with his secretary, Hugh Plunket. The official story indicated Plunket murdered Ned either because of a "nervous disorder" or inflamed with anger over not receiving a raise. Others point out that Ned's gun was the murder weapon and that Ned was not buried in a Catholic cemetery with the rest of his family, indicating that he had committed suicide. Both men were involved in the trial of Ned's father in the Teapot Dome scandal."
The man leading the investigation into the famous scandal was none other than Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin....the great father of all progressives. Doheny, on the right, is pictured with his lawyer
during the teapot dome hearings. Greystone Mansion is a public park and open to visitors and I'd like to thank Andy G., the man from the "dirty south" (of Milwaukee), for this whole thing.

There Will Be Blood....in Fond Du Lac

You gotta love a film whose protagonist, Daniel Plainview, is a self made "oil man" from Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin. For those of you from other regions of our state, Fond Du Lac means "bottom of the lake"-the lake
being Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin's largest inside border lake. Like most of the cities in northeast Wisconsin, the origin is French. By the way, the film ends in a classic
Wisconsin setting...a bowling alley. Loved it.

Pictographs and Beer Cans....a recent discovery

Not long ago, Daniel Arnold, an amateur archaeologist, stumbled upon a cave in southwestern Wisconsin near the Mississippi River. What he found was startling: over 100 pictographs covered the walls and ceilings of the large multi-chambered cave. He also found more than 100 beer cans. Apparently, the place was also a party den of recent vintage.
"The birds, deer, and bow hunters are of styles that had to be prehistoric, and the charcoal had been absorbed into the rock. This was real, this was old, and there was a lot of it."
The rock art, often grouped in panels like comic strips, depicts humans, birds and deer and abstract designs. Bow hunters are seen hunting deer. There is also an image depicting the use of a cradle board. Evidence of cradle boarding, the flattening of the back of the skull to create a distinctive appearance, has been found in 1,500-year-old mounds in the southwest corner of Wisconsin and in Iowa. The art is most likely the work of Ho-Chunk ancestors known as the effigy mound culture. "This culture,renowned for creating animal-shaped mounds, was developing throughout southern Wisconsin during the period when the pictographs were made."
The pictographs were carbon dated to 700 b.c. There's been no word on the beer can dating, or what process is being used to date the beer cans. Was the cave a 2000 party cave or a 1960's party cave? Curious minds seek answers. Dr. Mike thinks he can "eyeball-date" the cans to within a month of their manufacture. I think Carole's having her own cave party in the above photo of some of the actual pictographs. At present, the cave is safe and secure from revelers and other knuckleheads.

Mad Science #2....Seymour Cray, the father of the super computer

He was an infantryman in both theaters during World War II,an inventor,a legend in computing circles, the undisputed father of the supercomputer and most importantly, a man who took our state motto,"forward",very seriously. Chippewa Falls was his home town, birthplace and long time base of operations for Cray Research, the company he started in 1972 to build a new breed of computers. He died in a car accident in 1996.
The following is excerpted from an obituary in Computer World...

"SEYMOUR CRAY, the father of the supercomputer, died recently aged 71, following a car crash. He was one of the most original computer designers the world has ever seen, and a true maverick. Seeking a way to cool the machine he built in 1985, at the time the fastest computer in the world, he characteristically chose to immerse it in artificial blood.

Although never a household name, Seymour Cray was a legendary figure in the computing world. His designs for supercomputers were ingenious to the point of miraculous, and the machines he designed and built were, for much of the 60s, 70s and 80s, the most powerful -- and the most expensive -- on the planet."
The Cray Supercomputer Company, now headquartered in Seattle, maintains a presence in
Chippewa Falls, the place where it all began.

The Moment........The day the Midwest came back

The 1980's. People and businesses migrated out of the Midwest to the coasts, or worse, to Florida and other parts of the south. Everything was better in places where the sun was shining....or so we were told. They listened to soft music, wore pastel colored clothes and drank soft beer. Then Blue Velvet came out, and in one 10 second blast, everything changed for the better....or so it seemed. Wisconsinology offers it's thanks to David Lynch and Dennis Hopper for giving history a kick in the pants and freeing the national Zeitgeist from the prison blandness.

When Wisconsinites meet #3....they have a drink

Best friends since their days in Milwaukee, movie stars Spencer Tracy and Pat O'Brien share a table with friends in Hollywood. The two men attended Marquette Academy together and left school to enlist in the Navy at the start of World War I. Tracy later attended Ripon College, did well in drama, and decided on acting as a career. In New York the two shared a room while they attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1923 they both got nonspeaking parts as robots in the first play ever to use the word "robot".... "R.U.R".

The Beer Vendor and the Ice Bowl

I found this fascinating tale of one courageous beer vendor, who, like Scott at the antarctic, faced insuperable odds during that coldest of games. I would like to add that he performs one of the most respected jobs in our state.

Associated Press
Allan Hale, better known as "Hey, beer man," is set to retire Sunday -- maybe -- after 45 years on the job.
He trudges up and down his 35 steps in Lambeau Field for nearly five hours every game day, flashing a sly grin as fans cheer him. “When I get to the top, they say, 'Al, you made it!' and I make the sign of the cross and say, 'With His help!' Then they all laugh,” the 70-year-old grandfather said. “They're all asking me, 'How much longer, Al?' I intend to ask people Saturday if I should come back.”

The native of nearby Manitowoc, Wis., has spent 45 years as a beer vendor at Lambeau Field, and he isn't sure what he would do if he decides to retire after Saturday's playoff game between the Packers and the Seattle Seahawks.
Like Brett Favre, though, he won't give up without a large helping of suspense.
Hale works the section behind the visitors' bench at the 50-yard line, 117 and 119, about 30 rows up and says it's the same section that he started working in 1963, when Vince Lombardi was in the midst of bringing five NFL championships to Green Bay.

“I've never been out of that section all those years. I've had the grandpa, the son and the grandsons or granddaughters. It is unreal how much bonding there is through the Packers,” Hale said. “When you look around when you go to other stadiums, you see how many Packers fans there are. There are an awful lot of Packers fans across the country.”
Hale stumbled into the beer business by accident.
On Sept. 15, 1963, the Chicago Bears were in town (and won 10-3), his wife was pregnant and he lived at an apartment near the field. Hale, a plumber until he retired in 2000, wandered over looking for a ticket. When he found none, he was approached by a vendor who asked if he wanted to try selling beer. Hale did, and never stopped.

“I made $8.05 the first game and that's how I got started,” Hale said. “Beer at that time was 35 cents a bottle, three for a dollar because you didn't want to make that nickel change.”

Not that Hale even made a nickel during the famous Ice Bowl on Dec. 31, 1967, when Bart Starr and the Packers beat the Cowboys on their way to a second Super Bowl title.
“We sold none,” Hale said. “We thought that we were going to sell a big bundle because it was a big game. We went to open them up, but you didn't even have a chance to pour it. It froze then and there. They didn't hardly sell any coffee either because it was just intensely cold.”

Instead, Hale and the other vendors lingered where they picked up the beers because it was warmer. The game time temperature was 13 below zero with a wind chill of 46 below. “Periodically, we'd walk out and see the game,” Hale said. “People were huddled up and dressed for it. But it was unreal how that cold took care of all the food and liquor. People just huddled together. That was it.”

Now, Hale has quite a following in his section, and said he doesn't allow swearing or profanity. “It gets to be a family,” Hale said. “You know the people. You're not a stranger.”

Would Hale, who also works in concessions at the arena across the street, ever retire and leave Green Bay, where he watched stars from Bart to Brett? “I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't,” he said. “Go to Florida? I don't golf, so I can't go there. I don't know anybody there.”

Ancient Wisconsin #1....Yucatan Shells

"...there are more burial and effigy mounds in Wisconsin than any other part of North America."
1877. "A plow horse accidentally broke through the top of an early period (maybe 200-300bc) mound at Henschell in Sheboygan County. When the farmer and his neighbors investigated, they found fifty skeletons in sitting in a circle facing the center of the mound. A large marine shell from the Gulf Coast was on the floor in the middle of the group...."
The rivers were highways. The trade route from what is now the gulf side of Mexico to Wisconsin was a relatively routine thing. Sea shells from the Yucatan are a fairly common find in the soil of the Badger state. Always keep an eye out, the ground beneath your feet is alive with the stories of those who came before you.

Frank Lloyd Wright plows into Flower Truck

1933. Above is Frank Lloyd Wright's beautiful 1929 L29 Cord Phaeton. On it's side is the Choles Floral Company delivery truck, driven by Frost Choles. The accident scene is near Oregon at the corner of Highways B and MM,
not that far from Madison.

The Greatest Football State #2

by Dr Mike
Hi everybody, Dr. frickin' Mike here.
I can't say enough good things about our friends at the Leinenkugels Brewery in Chippewa Falls. But that's not what this post is about. Take a good look at the top picture. It's the pivotal moment (the photo op of photo ops...editor) from 1958 NFL championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants, a game called "The Greatest Game Ever Played". The man about to score the winning touchdown is Kenosha's Alan Ameche - Heisman winner at the University of Wisconsin,Rookie of the year and four time pro bowler for Baltimore. (He was also Hollywood legend Don Ameche's cousin...editor)
Next picture. #1 iconic NFL moment. This one is from the real "Greatest Game Ever Played." It's from the Ice Bowl.(of course it is!!!!!...editor.) Green Bay beats Dallas in the final seconds of the coldest game ever played. See the man flying over the top of Bart Starr with his hands raised? That's Chuck Mercein, the recently acquired Packer who made the winning touchdown possible, and who is also a Milwaukee native.
(I didn't know that!!????!!!!!.....editor)
(Dr Mike not only beat his deadline, he rode his bike over in the snow to deliver
this post. Thanks Florian.)

The Greatest Football State #1

I was at the Packer game on Saturday. You know the one...Like the good hosts that we are, we spotted Holmgren 14 points and he still lost. So, I'm in a euphoric Wisconsin football mood. And, in honor of that, I will prove that we are the football center of the universe by spotting my detractors 14 posts and not including some major Wisconsin football firsts(like the longest field goal ever, the first forward pass and it's inventor (scroll down a few posts)the first football star, etc. etc.I could go on, and I will if you want me to.)Let's just say, whatever it is or whoever it was...it was done here first or if it was done elsewhere, it was done by one of us. For the moment, you can gaze at the above photo of Alan Ameche in his Badger duster and think about the greatness that surrounds you, but has been hidden by years of unimaginative, pointlessly humble and plainly insecure, afraid-of-their-own-shadow commentators, teachers and media spokespeople. Here at Wisconsinology we are not afraid of the giant shadow that our state has cast over all that exists....Dr. Mike just called. He's so happy about the Packers that he fell off his barstool again. I hope he's not drinking Huber Beer. It's only 12:40. He's already writing the next post, as always, on the back of a bar napkin. His deadline is 5 pm today.

Directors at Work #2

La Crosse, Wisconsin's Nicholas Ray, on location in the early fifties.

Howard Hawks, Neenah's golden child, quite literally the grandson of the Paper Industry and the nephew of the beloved Theda Clark, the Kimberly Clark heiress who became the model for all the strong women in his films. Theda lives on as the namesake of Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah - for many years the number one sex change operation hospital of choice in the United States. Although born in Goshen, Indiana (while his parents were visiting his paternal grandfather) he was quickly whisked home to be the center of a Neenah social event that was tagged "The Christening Party of the Century." He's with Angie Dickinson in the above photo.
Joseph Losey, another director from La Crosse. Ironically, he was blacklisted during the McCarthy Era, moved to England and had a very successful career.
Kenosha's Orson Welles, hard at work on Errol Flynn's yacht during the production of "The Lady from Shanghai".

The Daughter of QWERTY.... and the Typewriter

This is Lillian Sholes, daughter of the inventor of the modern typewriter, Christopher Latham Sholes of Milwaukee. Mr. Sholes was last seen here(click), examining James Jesse Strang, the Voree Plates and...yes...he's the guy behind the QWERTY keyboard. If you stop and think about it, the QWERTY keyboard could be the most influential single invention in the history of mankind. Lillian Sholes is credited as the worlds first typist, machining credit goes to Kleinsteubers machine shop in Milwaukee. Nice job Milwaukee.

Stamped #3....The prodigal son of Wisconsin

Orson Welles was, in every way imaginable, larger than life. In 1983, with his
weight approaching 330 pounds, it was noted that he ate 18 hot dogs in one sitting. At the time he could only look forward to talk show appearances, bad commercials and the one constant in his life, steady voice work. He did have one of the greatest voices in the business: from his role as the "Shadow" in the 30's to the 1985 version of "The Transformer Movie", he always was in demand. In the postage stamp above, we celebrate the boy genius who made "CitizenKane", "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "The Lady from Shanghai",an artist whose work habits just didn't jibe with the system, and most of all, the man who once said,"...I've always been proud to be a badger."

The First Forward Pass and Eddie Cochems, The Father of the Forward Pass

By Dr. Mike
Hi Everyone. Dr. Mike here. Two things:

#1 - The first forward pass in a football game was thrown in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

#2 - The man who came up with that play was Eddie Cochems, a Wisconsin boy from Sturgeon Bay.

Eddie played college ball for the Wisconsin Badgers. He graduated in 1902 and
found a job coaching football at St. Louis University. The first forward pass was thrown in a game between St. Louis and Carroll College, at Carroll College in Waukesha on September 5, 1906. Tell that one to the kids. Armed with this revolutionary new play which Cochems called "air attack", St. Louis finished the season outscoring it's opponents 402 to 11. It took ten years for the rest of the nation to integrate the passing attack into their offenses. Why? Simple. Even back then, the news media ignored the Midwest. Word of the passing attack took years to filter across the Nation. Eddie Cochems was living in Madison when he passed away in 1953.

I hope you noticed that I don't write like Frank, with his "........" and "!!!??!!!",
starting sentences with "And", and all of his invisible friends. Thanks for reading.
Dr. Mike

(Hi, this is the editor, Dr. Mike is an idiot...... from frickin' Boscobel!??!!!!!?! And his real name is "Florian". So there.]

When Wisconsinites Meet #2.....Frank and Ed

Frank Lloyd Wright and Ed Gein meet to go over plans for Ed's new Shed.
"Frank had some really great ideas.", said the reclusive Handyman.
Ok, they never met. But what if they did?....... Ever think about that?
I do.

Gena Rowlands....... and the Welsh Community of Cambria, Wisconsin

In 1845 fifty Welshmen, with their families, emigrated from Dolwyddelan in North Wales. Among them were a number of Rowlands. They arrived in Wisconsin and immediately set out northwest from Milwaukee. In a spot roughly between the
Fox River and Fox Lake in Columbia County, they came upon "....a beautiful landscape stretching in splendor
for miles in every direction under the variable-colored rays of the setting sun,
they decided to make that locality their place of future abode, hoping that
they were thus forming a nucleus around which their countrymen in the future would gather to form a Welsh colony."
The community held on to it's native tongue into the early 20th century. What remains is a nice small town in a pastoral setting with great Welsh street names....Cambria, Wisconsin, the town where Madison born actress Gena Rowlands was raised.
Gena, of course, is a knockout beauty and the favorite actress of every neighborhood hipster. She lived in Milwaukee for awhile and attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison before moving to New York City in 1950(the best year ever to be an actor and study in New York)to study drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. You've seen her many times, she was in "Lonely Are The Brave" with Kirk Douglas (a personal favorite), "Tony Rome" with Frank Sinatra, the 1991 Jim Jarmusch film "Night on Earth" and most recently in the horror thriller "Skeleton Key". In 1974, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance "A Woman Under The Influence", one of many films she made with her late husband, the maverick film director and actor, John Cassavetes. It's a family business...Gena has the distinction of having been directed by both her husband and her son, Nick Cassavetes, who directed her in "The Notebook."
The shot above is my favorite photo of Gena. "Cambria" is Latin for Wales.

The Wizard of Zenda....Buddy Melges

Buddy Melges, three-time Yachtsman of the Year, five-time E-Scow National Champion, three-time 5.5 Meter World Champion, two-time Star world champion, Olympic gold medalist and so much more, is considered to be "America's greatest natural sailor ever."
Well....he is. He grabbed my attention during the first ever broadcasts of the America's Cup trials. His accomplishments are too many to list here, but let's just say that not only is he America's greatest sailor, but is also a seven time skeeter class ice boat champion. That's saying a lot in a state where ice boating is an old habit and the official speed record for any ice boat timed over a measured mile is 143 miles per hour - set in 1938 on the ice of Lake Winnebago in the Fox River Valley.
Zenda, Wisconsin is tiny and very rural. The unincorporated community lies just south of Lake Geneva. It's also the home of Buddy's son, Harry Melges III - yet another world champion sailor, and their performance boat company, Melges Performance Sailboats. Boat building goes all the way back to Buddy's Father, Harry Melges, Sr.
Buddy Melges was born in nearby Elkhorn, Wisconsin in 1930.

Blatz Team #1....."I'm from Milwaukee and I ought to know..."

"...It's draft brewed Blatz beer, wherever you go.
Smoother and fresher, less filling that's clear,
......Blatz is Milwaukee's finest beer!"
Lyrics for the very first version of the Blatz Beer song.

Alright Wisconsin!!!.......just don't forget the "excercise" part

By Michael KahnWed Jan 9, 6:25 AM ET
Drinking is healthy, exercise is healthy, and doing a little of both is even healthier, Danish researchers reported on Wednesday.

People who neither drink nor exercise have a 30 to 49 percent higher risk of heart disease than people who do one or both of the activities, the researchers said in the European Heart Journal.

"The main finding is there seems to be an additional beneficial effect of drinking one to two drinks per day and doing at least moderate physical activity," said Morten Gronbaek of the University of Southern Denmark, who led the study.

Several major studies have found that light to moderate drinking -- up to two drinks a day on a regular basis -- is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, and some have also found this leads to a lower risk of some cancers.

But the Danish study, one of the largest of its kind to examine the combined effect of drinking and exercise, found there were additional protective effects gained from doing both.

The researchers collected information on the drinking and exercise habits of nearly 12,000 men and women aged 20 years or older between 1981 and 1983.

Over the next 20 years, some 1,200 of the participants died from heart disease and about 5,900 died from other causes.

Non-drinkers had a 30 percent to 31 percent higher risk of heart disease compared to moderate drinkers, no matter the amount of physical activity they undertook. Moderate consumption was defined as between 1 to 14 drinks per week.

But teetotallers who exercised at least moderately were able to reduce their risk of heart disease, an important finding for people who abstain because of religious beliefs or other health issues such as pregnancy, the researchers said.

People who had the lowest risk of dying from any cause were physically active, moderate drinkers while those at highest risk were the physically inactive, heavy drinkers, the study found.
How about that rusty Old Style can! I'm going to have a good healthy drink, right now.

Billy Mitchell...The Father of the United States Air Force

Somebody has to stop me. Our state has an over abundance of "first ever....", greatest (insert any profession) ever" and "father's of (insert anything)"....and although I'm very partial to Jefferson's Ole Evinrude being the father of the outboard motor, let us move on to this slightly more important entry: Billy Mitchell - Father of the United States Air Force.
Like his contemporary, Douglas MacArthur, he came from a wealthy and ambitious Scottish family that arrived in Milwaukee in the first half of the 1800's. For you Milwaukeeans out there, Mitchell Street and Mitchell Park are named after his tycoon grandfather, Alexander Mitchell. Mitchell Field, better known as the Milwaukee airport, belongs to Billy.
He had that sometimes quiet, know-it-all arrogance that Wisconsinites used to have in abundance. He proved the superiority of Air Power at a time when military brass thought that the building more and bigger battleships was the key to winning future armed conflicts.
He was born in Nice, France The son of Wisconsin Senator John Mitchell and his wife.
In World War I he was the flamboyant shining star of the US Army Air Corps, easily recognized as the best known American in Europe. However, there was a problem....He had too many new ideas, and they were all brilliant. The US Army in World War I was not a good place for exceptional thinkers who don't suffer fools gladly, and Mitchell was alienating his superiors at every turn.
After the war, in a series of spectacular live bombing runs conducted on a fleet of decommissioned warships, he clearly demonstrated the dominance of air power over sea power. In 1925, He wrote an extensive report that predicted future war with Japan and the attack on Pearl Harbor. His message was loud and clear: invest in air power now, or pay a heavy price later. However, the Navy, with the full cooperation of the Army, successfully opposed his every move to begin the modernization and expansion of an independent Air Service. In 1926, he was court-martialed for insubordination. He resigned from the Army and spent his last years advocating air power to all who would listen.
He died in 1936. All of his predictions came true. Gary Cooper played Billy in the
1955 biopic The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell. Not bad.
I put another one of those USPS stamps honoring a Wisconsinite in the above picture. Don't worry, the "stamped" series of posts can easily reach 30+ without it.

Stamped #2........Alfred and Lynn

A beautiful illustration of America's first couple of the stage. They made their first Wisconsinology appearance in this post.
When not on the stage, Alfred and Lynn lived a great life, complete with yearly A-list house guests, at their estate in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin.
The first post in the "stamped" series of famous Wisconsinites was Appleton's Harry and Edna (here).

When Wisconsinites meet #1......Jack and Carole

Fairchild's Carole Landis and Milwaukee's Jack Carson after a radio show in Hollywood,1942. We first met Jack here. You all know Carole. In case you don't, type "Carole" in the search bar or check out post #1.

Mad Science #1... Increase Lapham.....The Father of the United States Weather Service

He is Wisconsin's first great scientist and first conservationist, he founded schools, he wrote the first book ever published in the state, he made the first accurate maps,and he thoroughly investigated Wisconsin's immense natural wonders. He is also "The Father and founder of the United States Weather Service" and is the author of one of my favorite books (it really is)....you know it, you love it,and you've read it cover to cover...that's right, he wrote "The Antiquities of Wisconsin", an 1855 Power Read published by the Smithsonian detailing the great number and range of burial and effigy mounds across our state. It remains an invaluable record of a great treasure that in his time, was going under the plow. Increase Lapham, ladies and gentlemen....don't forget him and thank the stars that he chose to be one of us.
There are many general summaries of Lapham's life and accomplishments on the internet, my favorite is this article by Erika Janik.
Mr. Lapham is seen investigating a fine looking, grade A, Badger State meteorite in the above photo. Is there any other kind?

Madison, Drunk Geniuses and the Mod Squad

When it comes to these categories....“Great Places to Raise a Family;” “Best Schools in the Nation;” “America’s Safest Cities;” “Best Cities for Working Moms;” “America’s Best Places to Live and Work;” “Where to Retire;” “Best Places In America to Start and Grow a Company;” “One of America’s Seven Dream Towns;” “Best Cities For Women;” “Best Bike Towns in the County;” and, “Most ‘Child-Friendly’ Cities.”...there is only one city in the entire nation that has continually topped every list in every magazine from Money to Good Houskeeping for over 50 years.....and that's Madison. Newer awards have named neighboring Middleton, a small and growing suburb of Madison as the greatest place to live..C'mon!....Middleton is a fast bloating vanilla leech sucking off of Madison's greatness. Please. Enough.
I love Madison, I used to live in Madison... and so did Michael Cole, star of TV's Mod Squad! He talks about his hometown in the following interview (that I swiped off the net)....
So do you ever come back and visit Madison, where you grew up, these days?

Michael Cole: Yes, as a matter of fact. It's on the east side of Madison, off by Oscar Meyer and stuff like that. The neighborhood was bars, churches, bowling alleys, bars, a couple of stores to buy a pair of jeans...

...and Bars?

Michael Cole: (Laughs)I know Madison fairly well. You know what's neat to me? The University of Wisconsin is one of the premier academic schools in the country. But they're also one of the hugest, by far, party schools in the country. I like the idea that we've got a lot of drunk geniuses walking around. (Laughs).

Michael Cole is a native east sider, born in 1945. The Mod Squad are (l to r)
Michael Cole, Clarence Williams III and Peggy Lipton.

Ward Allen and Albert the Alley Cat

In 1968, the National Association of Program Executives named the TV6 team of Ward Allen and Albert the Alley Cat the No.1 weather show in the country. I loved how Allen could draw the coolest looking directional arrows on his weather map...so I drew one in (with a mouse) on the above photo. Thanks Ward. I still practice drawing your arrows.
Albert the Alley Cat, and his twin brother, Filbert, was the voice and hand of puppeteer, hipster and late night horror host, Jack Du Blon. In the pre-cable TV era, from the brilliant retro movie programming of channel 18 to the sheer manic talent at channel 6, Milwaukee was television paradise. More on Jack Du Blon in a later post.

The Hollies meet Milwaukee

Graham Nash and The Hollies explain to Milwaukee entertainment reporter, Bob Barry,about why they can't perform in Milwaukee. Something about immigration permits and red tape. You'd think they were from Illinois or something. An unedited and priceless piece of British Invasion ephemera. I love it.
The patina of time is a gift that keeps giving.
Found at this very groovy YouTube channel....http://youtube.com/profile?user=sapphiretaurus

The Mama's Boy and the Golden Charge

There are so many Wisconsin boys who made deep, profound marks on the 20th century: Frank Lloyd Wright, the King and God of all architects...Joe McCarthy, the Grand Vizier of all Demagogues - whose name became shorthand for an entire era...Orson Welles, the boy who reinvented cinema, stage and radio and then destroyed his brilliant past by reinventing himself as the most comical and ubiquitous of 70's pop culture icons...Ed Gein,the lonely, talkative ghoul who shocked the entire world and erased all measure of normality in the post war era...and Douglas MacArthur, the son of a golden Wisconsin family who, as a boy, spent his years in far flung military bases before returning home to Milwaukee to get an education.
Every night in those far away outposts,just before bedtime, the boy would listen in rapt attention as his mother read aloud the story of the daring charge his father made leading the 24th Wisconsin regiment up heavily defended missionary ridge during the Battle of Chattanooga in 1863...a charge that sealed the fate of his family and the course of history in the next century..."he grabbed his regiment's national flag on the ridge's slope when the color bearer fell exhausted. Cannon shot from the high ridge slammed into their lines. The nearest officer was decapitated. The teenaged boy turned and shouted "On, Wisconsin!" to his momentarily stunned comrades, he carried the flag ahead, up the steep heights crying, "On Wisconsin....On.....on....on Wisconsin!" The Badgers followed and swept the rebels off the 1000 foot ridge..."
Young Douglas had much to live up to, and for better or worse, this future Shogun of postwar Japan and supreme American military commander in Korea, did just that.
Douglas is pictured above as a cadet at West Point, standing beside his proud mother,Mary Pinckney Hardy MacArthur.

Elvis, Man of Peace.....The night he broke up a fight in Madison

Elvis was between bloating binges when he broke up the fight on the corner of East Washington and highway 51, and he was sporting bangs...I'm not kidding. I saw his show at the Dane County Coliseum on the following night. He rushed through songs, mumbled a lot and handed out scarves to screaming middle-aged ladies. He was going through the motions as fast as he could. It could just as well have been a middle of the road Elvis impersonator on stage that night, and we're talking about a time when there were maybe 2 or 3 Elvis impersonators in the entire nation (including Andy Kaufman).....and then...............and then.....Out of nowhere,  just when I thought he was going to end the show by rushing through standard bullshit kitsch like "You gave me a Mountain" or "My Elusive Dreams", or far worse, "The Wonder of You"... He pulls out the great 1961 Timi Yuro hit (and true r&b power ballad) "Hurt"...And he actually sings it. For real. No clowning, no scarves, no mumbling, no awkward asides, no rushing through the song. He gave it everything he had. He built the song up to a powerful climax and closed in an extended operatic sustain. Magic. He really was the King. And then he was gone.

Dëthkløk's Drummer

Pickles, the drummer of Dëthkløk, is from Tomahawk, Wisconsin. Dëthkløk are the stars of the Cartoon Network's late night Adult Swim show, Metalocalypse.
Pickles has a sometimes perfect, and sometimes way off northern Wisconsin accent and each episode times in at a perfect, just long enough, 12 minutes. It's a great show...especially if you've ever played in a band.

Kings and Queens...Lee,George and Elvis

Las Vegas, 1956. Milwaukee's very own Liberace, backstage with the King, and his older brother, George Liberace. Just like Elvis, Liberace had a twin brother who died in childbirth. Can you imagine?.....TWO LIBERACES!...or is it "LIBERACI"?
It's been said that "Las Vegas stole it's style from Liberace." So true. George Liberace, seen standing demurely in the background, was a musician and business partner to his brother and was born in....... Menasha, Wisconsin.