Blast from the Past: A Duluth Armory Trivia Contest

FLASHBACK FRIDAY

For a number of years one of the highlights of our Duluth Dylan Fest was the Salute to the Music of Bob Dylan concerts assembled by Magic Marc Productions. In addition to being a great night of music for those who attend the Salute concert served as a fund raiser for the Armory Arts and Music Center.

As noted in Dylan's autobiography Chronicles: Volume One, it was here at the historic Duluth Armory that Dylan as 17-year-old saw Buddy Holly's second-to-last concert just before his untimely death in an Iowa cornfield along with Ritchie Valenz and The Big Bopper. Holly was only 22.

These were not the only famous folk, however, to pass through the Armory's halls. For this reason, I thought I would offer up this quiz as a form of entertainment. I like games and most of us enjoy trivia to some extent. (It made the creators of Trivia Pursuit wealthy for sure.) So here it is.

A DULUTH ARMORY TRIVIA QUIZ

A major feature of the Historic Duluth Armory is what it reveals about American celebritydom in the past century. The Armory’s Great Hall has been a virtual who’s who parade that says much about our iconic connections to America-at-large. It’s an illustrious history worth preserving, not simply for its past but for the foundations it offers for the future.

The following is a list of people who may or may not have performed or appeared at the Armory. Take a sheet of paper and number it from 1 to 12. Your assignment: Identify which name in each set of four did NOT appear at the Duluth Armory in the past century? Once you have filled out your sheet, look for the answers at the very end. No peeking.

Beach Boys on the Ed Sullivan Show, 1964.

1.
A. Marian Anderson
B. Louis Armstrong
C. The Beach Boys
D. Ricardo Montalbán

2.
A. Leonard Bernstein
B. Boston Pops with Arthur Fiedler
C. Johnny Cash
D. Stonewall Jackson

3.
A. Dale Carnegie
B. Patsy Cline
C. Cher and Sonny Bono
D. Tyrone Power

4. 
A. Doris Day
B. Jimmy Dean
C. Dion
D. Duke Ellington

Will Rogers. (Public domain)

5.
A. Roy Rogers
B. Jimmy Rodgers
C. Will Rogers
D. Oral Roberts

6.
A. Tommy Dorsey
B. Duke Ellington
C. Everly Brothers
D. Marty Robbins

7.
A. The Guess Who
B. Harlem Globetrotters
C. Buddy Holly
D. Hoosier Hot Shots

8.
A. Bob Hope
B. Liberace
C. Roy Orbison
D. Jack London

9.
A. The Osmonds
B. Floyd Patterson
C. John Philip Sousa
D. Minnie Pearl

10.
A. Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels
B. Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
C. Isaac Stern
D. Harry S. Truman

11.
A. Hank Williams Sr.
B. Harry Truman
C. Ritchie Valens
D. Frankie Yankovic and the Yanks

12.
A. Bobby Vee
B. Bobby Vinton
C. Lawrence Welk
D. Ritchie Valens

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Billy Hallquist (left) performed here as a lad long ago.

The late Billy Hallquist (left) played in several Salute concerts.

ANSWER KEY: DULUTH ARMORY TRIVIA QUIZ
Everyone listed in every set of four has been here and done that. In other words, all the folks listed performed or spoke here at one time or another in the past.

NOTEWORTHY
Read the Bob Dylan interview in Today's NYTimes on the eve of his latest album of original tunes being released. Bob Dylan Has a Lot on His Mind

The Volstead Act: What Did We Learn from Prohibition?

Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and into dark places, and does not cure it or even diminish it. --Mark Twain

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.
--Albert Einstein

Alcohol didn't cause the high crime rates of the '20s and '30s, Prohibition did. And drugs do not cause today's alarming crime rates, but drug prohibition does.
--James Carriger Paine

For every prohibition you create, you also create an underground.
--Jello Biafra

* * * *
The past several days I have been watching Ken Burns' disturbing documentary on Prohibition. It's impossible to watch this without thinking of its contemporary applications. (i.e. the war on drugs).

The cost of the drug wars is far more than simply financial. Tens of thousands of lives have been wasted (i.e. people killed) in Mexico alone by the gangs that have risen to power as a result of the drug trade.  It's a strange world we live in.

I keep trying to understand what makes it different this time. Maybe one difference is that nearly every politician and rich person drank some form of alcohol in those days. (Teetotaler John D. Rockefeller was likely an exception.) It is probably less likely that all our congressional reps are smoking weed, though I wouldn't be surprised to learn there's been recreational drug use in the Capitol. (Only speculation, of course.)

Maybe another difference is that pot has been portrayed as a gateway to more addictive substances. I'm guessing that not every beer drinker advances to gin and tonics.

* * * *
Communism is like prohibition, it is a good idea, but it won't work. --Will Rogers

* * * *

Several states have legalized marijuana now, and the push for legalization continues to extend to other states, so it will no doubt be a political issue for years to come. For this reason here are a handful of articles worth reviewing.

Prohibition Then and Now. (Constitution Center, 2012)

Prohibition: A Parallel to Modern War on Drugs (Seattle Times, 2011) Due to its proximity to Canada, Seattle featured prominently in the alcohol trade during Prohibition.

Though the Temperance movement began before the Civil War, it came to fruition only after the First World War settled. From the beginning there were leaders who had issues with this cause, including Abraham Lincoln who said, “Prohibition... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”

Nevertheless, in January 1919 the 18th Amendment was ratified prohibiting the manufacture, sale, transportation, import, or export of intoxicating liquor. Woodrow Wilson vetoed the amendment, but was overruled that fall by Congress.

Across the Atlantic Winston Churchill said he believed Prohibition was "an affront to the whole history of mankind."

* * * *
There was no late night television in those days, but we can assume that Dave Letterman/Johnny Carson equivalents were poking fun of the situation. Here are some comments related to the evils of drinking:

Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water. --W.C. Fields

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. --Henny Youngman

Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. --Dave Barry

Related Links
The Price of Prohibition (Reason Magazine)
Prohibition-Era Detroit
Read my 2009 commentary on this issue: Prohibition and the Drug Trade
Illustrations by Ed Newman

Meantime, life goes on all around you... 

Wooden Teeth & Romantic Scandals

The first portion of this blog entry is reprinted from a blog entry in May 2009.

I’ve been listening to an unabridged audio presentation of P. J. O’Rourke on The Wealth of Nations. It appears to be a relatively brief overview of that rather hefty tome by Adam Smith. O’Rourke is a satirist, libertarian and economic conservative who hails originally from Ohio. His early writings appeared in the National Lampoon, where he helped launch the careers of John Belushi and Chevy Chase.

To be quite frank, the book has not been a compelling read, but I’ve hung in there and there are some good sentences. And it is a much more entertaining book than the tedious nine hundred-plus page original, though the original (by Adam Smith) has had far more influence than this book will ever have.

The reference to wooden teeth and romantic scandals is more or less a comparison of Smith to our founding father, George W. Neither wore big happy grins, nor did their personal lives offer much grist for the rumor mills. O’Rourke addresses this matter only because it seems proper to assess the private lives of public philosophers, though for some reason he suggests public figures in government ought not be subjected to the same scrutiny.

Adam Smith kept no personal diary so that unlike our modern public figures whose every life detail is summarized in Wikipedia we know very little about the man except a notation by Sir Walter Raleigh, which may or may not be reliable.

There was another interesting sentence about fluctuations in the price of silver over the previous four centuries, but all in all, as I approach the end of the book I am pretty much ready for the next read.

March 4, 2012
The stack of books clamoring for my attention is a bit daunting right now, not including the numerous downloads patiently waiting in my Kindle. That list includes Neuromancer by cyberpunk author William Gibson, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, In the Company of Rilke, My Seinfeld Year, The Quotable Will Rogers, Being and Nothingness, Reverie, Raylan: A Novel, Dali Dreams of Gala and more. Who can tell what a day will bring forth.

On the Twin Ports arts scene front, there’s an art opening that could be worth attending. Ochre Ghost Gallery owner Jessica Liszewski's exhibition Irresistible Sorcery will be Jessica's first solo show at O.G.G. and it promises to be magical. There will be live music from Duluth songwriters Kyle Ollah and Lee Petersen with doors opening at 6:00 p.m. and carrying on till the usual ten o’clock closing.

If you’re on the mailing list, which you really ought to be if a fan of the local art scene’s bleeding edge, then you will have received member/curator Gustaf Ekstrand’s invitation, which included this description of Liszewski’s event….

An unpredictable spell has been cast by winter's witches.

The witch of weather has revealed that her polarity is bi-curious, sending the Arctic and North Atlantic Oscillations spinning wildly with lust. In an effort to seduce her, they have cast a spell on La Niña, the powerful temptress who just last year aroused record wetness in Australia, causing severe drought in the envious African horn.

The spell has sent La Niña's stimulating powers to the subconscious depths of her mind, only becoming active during her nap time dreams. Now aware of this, she has set herself up for hibernation, vowing to hypnotize the witch of weather into winter wind permanence by constantly dreaming of arctic lap dances. She has built a dream cave in an unused bear's den, and furnished it with an empress-sized bed clad with a comforter made from the plush pelt of a fur worm.

From the heights of Skunk Hill, a sorceress descends from her communal castle armed with gemstones and agates. She is sending her favorite hunters and warriors out to find the fabled den and wake La Niña from her hibernation, to break the hypnotic spell of her gyrations and ensure us all a proper beach life where Superior shores North and South meet.

If the quest fails, our beach life may be forever frozen in the slushy, icy essence we now find ourselves.

See you later, kids. Enjoy the show.

The Pointed, Home-Spun Wit of Will Rogers

"Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for." ~Will Rogers

Despite being a 10th grade drop-out, Will Rogers achieved world fame, travelling around the globe three times and performing in 71 movies (21 “talkies”.) An American cowboy, vaudeville performer, social commentator, actor and wit, he became one of the best known celebrities of the 1920’s and 30’s. Americans read his columns in the paper, went to see his films on the silver screen and listened to his radio talks in living room.

Rogers published more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns, some of which were assembled in this volume, A Will Rogers Treasury. Just reading the titles of the columns assembled in this collection will give you a glimpse of the man.

Will Has Read Another Book
The Prince of Wales Marries?
A Harvard Cannibal
Whooping It Up for Wall Street
Too Smart to Be Happy?
Home Cooking
Wheat and Combines
The Philosophy Racket
No Tax on Optimism – Yet
Good Crops Can Do a Lot for a President
Caviar and Vodka

Describing vodka, Rogers wrote, “It gives the most immediate results of any libation ever concocted, you don’t have to wait for it to act. By the time it reaches your adam’s apple, it has acted. A man stepping on a red hot poker could show no more immediate animation.”

From his “Nomination” of Henry Ford for President, “Some are against him because he don’t know history. What we need in there is a man that can make history.”

Here are some witticisms from the pen of this uncommon common man. Notice how applicable so much of this is today. Will Rogers left us in 1935.

• Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate; now what's going to happen to us with both a Senate and a House?
• Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.
• Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
• I never expected to see the day when girls would get sunburned in the places they do today.
• I'm not a real movie star. I've still got the same wife I started out with twenty-eight years ago.
• Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.
• On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.
• Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators.
• The best doctor in the world is the veterinarian. He can't ask his patients what is the matter-he's got to just know.
• The movies are the only business where you can go out front and applaud yourself.
• The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.
• There is nothing as stupid as an educated man if you get him off the thing he was educated in.
• There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators.
• There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.

There are probably a lot of young folks today who don't have a good sense of who Will Rogers was. If you're one, I hope these morsels will give you an appetite for more.

In the meantime, have a really fine day.