Hoosier History Live

Nearly 200 years before the era of ubiquitous cell-phone "selfies" - and decades before the Brownie camera introduced snapshots to the mass consumer market - photographers were capturing images across Indiana.

Clear back in the 1820s, a teenager in New Harmony was experimenting with "solar picture drawings." In the early 1840s, a professor at Indiana University became Indiana's earliest documented photographer.

For this exploration of photographers and early photography studios beginning in the early 19th century, Nelson will be joined by photo historian Joan Hostetler, founder of the Indiana Album. The organization maintains the Indiana Photographers Project, a database that records biographical and studio information about photographers who have worked in the state from the early days of photography to the present.

The two longest-operating studios in Indiana, according to Joan, are the McDonald Studio of South Bend, which was founded in 1861, and the W.H. Bass Photo Co., which is based in Indianapolis and has roots dating to 1897. Both studios are still operating today.

During our show, Joan will discuss itinerant photographers during the 1800s who traveled across the state in wagons, bringing along tents. Other itinerant photographers traveled aboard skylight boats on the Ohio River.

We also will explore the under-recognized role of women in photography. "Often wives and daughters [of photographers] were vital to the business," Joan says. "But they were not recognized, or given just a nod with a studio name such as 'Wright & Wife.' "

In 1828, New Harmony teenager James Miles Wattles experimented with what were then called "solar picture drawings." Joan notes this was a decade before photography was widely introduced.

According to Joan, Indiana's earliest documented photographer was Theophilus Wylie, an early daguerreotypist and half-cousin to Andrew Wylie, the first president of Indiana University. As an IU science professor, Theophilus Wylie (1810-1895) began making daguerreotypes in 1841. A daguerreotype is an early photographic process produced on silver-plated copper.

The Indiana Photographers Project database helps historians, genealogists and archivists with their accuracy and precision as they date historic photographs. The data also helps determine copyrights and recognize the accomplishments of Hoosier photographers.

Some photo facts:

• The Indiana Album plans to publish a book or online directory about photographers who have worked in the state and their studios. The goal is to publish within the next few years.
• Joan Hostetler, our guest, and Nelson, our host, co-authored Indianapolis Then and Now (Pavilion Books, revised edition 2015), a visual history book about the Hoosier capital.
• One of the earliest known streetscape photos of Indianapolis (see below) was taken in about 1857. A copy of the historic photo is featured in The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, Indianapolis Then and Now and other city history books.

Typically, the 10 Most Endangered Places list of Indiana Landmarks features single sites, such as a historic church, school, hotel or bridge with an imperiled fate. But in the case of a small city on the Wabash River in far-western Indiana, the entire downtown is on the endangered list.

Attica, Ind., flourished with the building of the Wabash and Erie Canal during the 1840s and, about 10 years later, the completion of the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railroad that came through Fountain County city, where 3,245 people currently live.

Hotel Attica, which was built in 1853 (and known initially as the Revere Hotel), was the overnight lodging spot for notables including Teddy Roosevelt, Al Capone and Bing Crosby. A Masonic Temple became a popular gathering place. Houses and commercial buildings were constructed in a range of architectural styles from Federal and Italianate to, eventually, Art Deco.

Today, Hotel Attica is vacant, with structural damage that includes a partially collapsed façade. Some 19th century buildings have been neglected, resulting in significant deterioration. And the Devon Theater, a 1938 cinema house that's been a beloved landmark, is struggling to endure.

As Hoosier History Live explores Attica - where the Attica Downtown Historic District and three other historic districts are listed on the National Register of Historic Places - Nelson's guests will include Tommy Kleckner, the western regional office director of Indiana Landmarks.

Nelson also will be joined by Lexxi Haddock, president of Attica Main Street. A native of Attica, Lexxi returned to her hometown to live after graduating from college in 2014. In addition to raising her two young daughters with her husband, Andy, Lexxi is a title insurance agent and a civic leader active with the Friends of the Attica Public Library and the Covington Business Association.

Tommy emphasizes that, despite the challenges that confront Attica's downtown, the city retains several assets, including historic residential neighborhoods - some with houses dating to the canal era - as well as a 90-acre park and an area known as Cottrell Village with a church constructed circa 1850 in the Greek Revival style.

But Hotel Attica, the Masonic Temple and other downtown buildings are, according to Tommy, "imminently threatened by neglect." The hotel's west façade collapsed in 2012 during a severe windstorm; three years later, the hotel closed. The façade remains unrepaired and continues to crumble.

Many of the hotel's famous guests stayed in Attica because they were traveling through town by train. Attica was founded in the 1820s, but grew slowly until the canal and railroad era; according to Tommy Kleckner, the population grew by 70 percent during the 1850s.

By the early 20th century, the city also became a hub of brick manufacturing. Beginning in 1907, Poston Brick Company shipped bricks across the country for nearly 70 years. More than 25 academic buildings at Purdue University were constructed with Poston Brick.

In addition to downtown Attica, the 10 Most Endangered Places list includes a Carnegie library in Elwood; a vacant Presbyterian church with dozens of Tiffany stained glass windows in Richmond, and a former jail and sheriff's residence in Tipton County.

Why did the despicable Ku Klux Klan become pervasive across Indiana during the 1920s?

Who joined? And does the tendency of the general public to focus on Klan Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson (and his lurid scandals) dilute the more insidious - if less sensationalistic - impact the KKK had on life in Indiana in the 1920s?

These are among the questions that acclaimed Indiana historian James Madison tackles in his new book, The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland (IU Press), which explores one of the most shameful eras in the Hoosier state. From 1923 through 1925, the peak of the KKK's influence in Indiana, "up to one third of the state's native-born, white Protestant men signed up," Jim Madison notes.

Jim, an IU professor emeritus of history whose honors and awards include being designated a Living Legend by the Indiana Historical Society in 2016, will be Nelson's guest as Hoosier History Live continues its mission to explore all aspects of the state's heritage. Jim Madison's other books include Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana (2014) and A Lynching in the Heartland (2001), which explored the 1930 lynching in Marion, Ind., of two African-American teenagers. That notorious episode was not connected to the KKK.

The Klan that dominated Indiana during the 1920s was the second of three incarnations of the organization in American history, Jim notes. The first, which formed soon after the Civil War, prevailed in Southern states and terrorized African Americans newly freed from slavery.

In contrast, the Klan's primary targets in Indiana during the 1920s were immigrants and Catholics, according to The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland.

By many accounts, one of the largest Klan gatherings (or "Konklaves") unfolded in Kokomo on July 4, 1923. Thousands of Hoosiers were joined by visitors from other states for an event that featured fireworks; a massive cross that was soaked in kerosene and set on fire; a parade of robed men and women accompanied by nine bands, and the dramatic arrival of Stephenson (1891-1966) in an open cockpit biplane.

"Klan men and women saw themselves not as bigoted extremists, but as good Christians and good patriots joining proudly in a moral crusade," Jim writes. Membership rosters, he adds, demonstrate that Hoosiers who joined the Klan were not exclusively stereotypical "rubes" lacking in education or sophistication. Instead, membership consisted of "a wide range of people, most from the middle ranks of society. Respectable lawyers, Masons, police officers, churchwomen, teachers, mayors and businessmen joined the Klan in Indiana."

Klan membership cards and receipts for KKK memorabilia in Hamilton County from 1923 to 1926 - discovered during the 1990s in a trunk stored in a barn - are now at the Indiana Historical Society. The documents are available for viewing by the public by making an appointment with the historical society's library.

Opposition to the Klan did exist in Indiana. In 1924, hundreds of University of Notre Dame students protested Klan members, even pulling off their hoods and throwing potatoes at them, a clash described in The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland. Four years later, the Indianapolis Times newspaper received a Pulitzer Prize for its anti-Klan reporting. Many Hoosiers who opposed the KKK, though, opted to remain silent.

Allies of the Klan included Gov. Ed Jackson, whom Jim Madison describes as "the undisputed holder of the title of the worst governor in Indiana history." At Jackson's inaugural reception in January 1925, Grand Dragon Stephenson stood by his side. Later indicted on charges of attempted bribery, Jackson "escaped jail only on a technicality," Jim writes.

The peak years of Klan membership in Indiana were 1923 and '24. Local chapters, called Klaverns, existed in every county.

World War I, which ended in 1918, "had advanced suspicions of the foreign born . . . anyone not judged to be 100 percent American," according to The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland. The suspicions swept across Indiana, Jim Madison writes, in part because the state was more homogeneous than many others. Some of the counties with the highest per capita Klan membership had the least diversity.

In 2010, Hoosier History Live explored the Klan's stranglehold on Indiana's political and cultural life during the 1920s. Research by our guest on that show, IU professor emeritus Allen Safianow, assisted Jim Madison in putting together The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland.

As the two largest natural lakes in Indiana, they have been the scenic locations of summer homes for more than 100 years, with vacation lodging options ranging from waterfront mansions to cottages and bungalows. They've also attracted their share of celebrities and even notorious characters.

Lake Wawasee, southeast of the town of Syracuse in Kosciusko County, and Lake Maxinkuckee - with the town of Culver (Marshall County) near its shores - share glacial origins along with most of the lakes of northern Indiana. (Lake Monroe in southern Indiana is larger than either of the two, but it is man-made.) The two largest resort lakes in northern Indiana are the focus of this encore broadcast of a show that originally aired in July 2018.

Col. Eli Lilly, founder of the pharmaceutical business that eventually became an international giant, and his descendants have had summer homes at Wawasee since the late 19th century. A lavish hotel at the lake, The Spink, hosted visitors including Al Capone and Hollywood notables like Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Originally built in 1926, the Spink was sold to a Catholic order in the 1940s and remodeled to become a seminary; it later served as a boarding school and was eventually remade into condominiums in the 1980s.

At Lake Maxinkuckee, several generations of the Vonnegut family from Indianapolis enjoyed summer homes. Reflecting on boyhood summers there, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. called the lake "my Aegean Sea" and "my Eden lost." Other famous Hoosiers, including composer Cole Porter and novelist Booth Tarkington, also visited friends or spent summers at Lake Maxinkuckee homes. Tarkington even wrote part of his first bestseller, The Gentleman from Indiana (1899), there.

Two Native American tribes lived along the shores of the lakes since at least the early 1800s.

Miami Indians lived on the Lake Wawasee site that later became the location of the Spink Hotel. Potawatomi Indians lived at Lake Maxinkuckee, which occupies about 1,800 acres of spring-fed water and is 88 feet deep at its deepest point.

Two guests with lifelong involvements with the resort lakes join Nelson in studio:

• Fort Wayne native Charles Braun, the attorney who hosts Legally Speaking, the WICR-FM call-in legal advice show, shares insights about Lake Wawasee. Over a span of nearly 100 years, five generations of the Braun family have rented or owned property on Lake Wawasee. For many years, Charles' mother owned a condo at the former Spink Hotel

• And Culver native Jeff Kenney, the archives manager for the Culver Academies Museum, who regularly provides historical commentary on boat tours of Lake Maxinkuckee.

"Maxinkuckee is one of the most studied lakes in the world, thanks largely to the work of biologists Evermann and Clark, whose massive, two-volume study published in the early 1920s is still taught today in classes related to freshwater biology," Jeff says.

Culver Military Academy, the private, college-prep high school, is located at Lake Maxinkuckee, but the full story of the school's history awaits coverage in a future show. We've got plenty to dive into with the resort lakes, where history continues to unfold. A cover story in the July 2018 issue of Indianapolis Monthly magazine noted that at Lake Wawasee, the historic Oakwood Resort has reopened, reporting, "The 125-year-old lodge hosts a salon, spa and the Pier Restaurant , with a great view of Wawasee's many expensive boats."

Referring to Kurt Vonnegut's affection for Lake Maxinkuckee, the magazine notes: "The author couldn't have fabricated a more scenic locale in his novels . . . Indiana's second-largest natural body of water offers shoreline restaurants, well-lit trails and a small town full of boutiques."

According to our guest Jeff Kenney, the arrival of a railroad to Culver in 1884 "launched the plethora of summer cottagers who settled on the lake . . . bringing some 7,000 visitors from across the state to Maxinkuckee on any given summer weekend." Current owners of homes at Lake Maxinkuckee include Jim Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts, and a brother of Vice President Mike Pence.

At Lake Wawasee, the original Spink Hotel was built in 1926 by Indianapolis entrepreneur Edgar Spink at a cost of $350,000, according to our guest Charles Braun. The hotel was operated for several years by his two daughters, who made it a nationally known resort, with opportunities for gambling among its enticements.

During the show, Charles also discusses Syracuse Lake, which is near Wawasee and doesn't have as much of the larger lake's "abundant boat traffic," as Indianapolis Monthly puts it. The magazine refers to Syracuse Lake as "a quiet alternative."

Some history facts:

• Maxinkuckee ice was an export of the area in the days before modern refrigerators. "[It] was sold, thousands of tons of it, all over the Midwest from 1880 to 1937," Jeff Kenney says.
• A Hoosier who was among the survivors of the Titanic shipwreck in 1912 became the head gardener at Culver Military Academy.
• A musical composition called the Wawasee Waltz was written in the mid-1890s. The Syracuse Public Library and the Syracuse-Wawasee Historical Museum have posted a recording of the waltz online, along with period postcards of lakeside activities.

She started singing as a 5-year-old girl at Mt Calvary Baptist Church in Indianapolis, where her grandfather was the minister.

Soprano Angela Brown, 56, went on to become an international opera star, performing everywhere from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City - where she made a sensational debut in 2004 - to prestigious venues in Paris, London and Shanghai. She has sung the national anthem at the Lincoln Memorial In Washington D.C. and at games of the Indianapolis Colts and Indiana Pacers in her hometown.

Angela, a 1982 graduate of Attucks High School who later studied at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, has been blazing trails, including some beyond the music world.

She recently founded Freddie Mae's Daughter, a company offering such products as "handcrafted jewelry, masks and other Afrocentric accessories." The business is named for Angela's late mother, Freddie Mae Brown, an Indianapolis artist and nurse. Angela also is converting her one-woman show, Opera from a Sistah's Point of View, into a virtual program for opera companies across the country; the show includes Angela's re-telling of opera plots from a Black perspective.

Angela will discuss these endeavors - and others, including a new podcast with Classical Music Indy that she co-hosts, Melanated Moments in Classical Music - when she is Nelson's guest. The podcast showcases music composed by, for or about Black people, with commentary from Angela and her co-host, sociologist Joshua Thompson.

She also will discuss her roots in Indianapolis, where Angela still owns a house. In her hometown, she has given master classes at Indianapolis Opera.

Also in Indiana, she has created Morning Brown, Inc., a non-profit foundation with a mission that involves, according to its website, "bridging the gap between accessible, live-music programs and underserved individuals, schools and communities."

Angela, who has been acclaimed for her singing of spirituals as well as opera, grew up near Broadway and 30th Streets. According to a profile of her in 19 Stars of Indiana: Exceptional Hoosier Women (IU Press, 2009), her father, Clyde Brown, was an autoworker at a Chrysler plant for more than 40 years. Like Freddie Mae Brown, he died in 2008.

At Attucks, Angela became active in the vocal music program. Her mentor was choir director Robert Fleck; Angela has told interviewers that "his encouragement made a lasting impression." Hoosier History Live explored the music program during an Attucks High School history show in 2014, which cited Angela Brown as among the distinguished alums.

Her debut at the Met - which resulted in national media coverage from the New York Times, CNN and Oprah magazine, among others - was in Aida, an opera by Verdi. She portrayed the title role of an Ethiopian princess who briefly enjoys happiness before tragedy ensues.

"The opera ended amid cries of 'Brava!' and an immediate and extended standing ovation," according to 19 Stars. "Adoring fans rushed down the aisles proffering bouquets and throwing flowers onto the stage."

Since her triumph at the Met, Angela has collaborated with American composer Richard Danielpour on several projects. He set the poetry of Maya Angelou for Angela's voice in an orchestral song cycle titled "A Woman's Life." She has performed the piece with symphony orchestras in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Nashville, Tenn.

In 2011, Angela married Anselme Blaise Argelier, a French dancer. Their wedding was in Paris, where the couple had met several years earlier when both were performing in an opera. In recent years, Argelier has retired from dancing; as a result, the couple has been able to spend more time at their home in Indianapolis.

With the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Angela has performed at yuletide pops concerts; she also has been a soloist with the Carmel Symphony Orchestra. Her honors include induction into the Indianapolis Public Schools Hall of Fame.

Amid the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of women's voting rights this month, it's important to acknowledge the arduous, decades-long struggles that were involved in reaching that historic milestone.

It's also important to dispute myths about the women's suffrage movement that have persisted ever since the 19th Amendment became official on Aug. 26, 1920.

Hoosier History Live will challenge several of the myths during the next show in our periodic series about the suffrage movement in Indiana. Anita Morgan, author of the recently released book, We Must Be Fearless: The Woman Suffrage Movement in Indiana (Indiana Historical Society Press) will be Nelson's guest to discuss the misconceptions that have endured. Anita, a native Hoosier, is a senior lecturer in history at IUPUI.

Among the myths that she plans to challenge: the misconception that the suffrage movement in the Hoosier state primarily consisted of, as she puts it, "white, Protestant, middle-class women." Although African-American and Jewish women may have been excluded in other states, Anita's book describes their activist roles in Indiana from the beginnings of women's suffrage in the 19th century.

Legendary entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker hosted a meeting of an African-American suffrage group at her home in Indianapolis, with public school teachers taking leadership roles. One of the teachers, Francis Berry Coston, also used her position as a literary critic for The Indianapolis News to urge African-American women to vote.

In addition to Indianapolis, African-American chapters of suffrage organizations formed in Marion and Muncie, according to We Must Be Fearless. The book also describes the activism undertaken by the Terre Haute Council of Jewish Women and counterpart organizations in other Indiana cities.

Another myth, according to Anita Morgan, is that "once women had the vote, they did not use it." Anita points to research documenting impressive turnouts of women voters in the 1920 and 1924 elections, both in Indiana and nationally. She also notes that suffragists in Indiana set up "suffrage schools" so women could learn about the "mechanics of voting" and the various offices on the ballots.

History fact: Clear back in 1909, women ran for school boards in Indianapolis and Terre Haute, the only cities in the state with elected school boards then, according to We Must Be Fearless. Both female candidates won, even though they could not vote yet in national and state elections.

During our show, we also will explore myths that Indiana women did not have an impact on the national level. In fact, many Hoosier suffragists, including several Quakers who were at the forefront of the movement here, ended up in national leadership roles.

Others who attained national prominence included Indianapolis educator and civic leader May Wright Sewall, whom we discussed during a Hoosier History Live show in January. We explored suffrage strides, setbacks and the role of Zerelda Wallace, a former Indiana first lady, during a show in March.

Our guest Anita Morgan will be participating in a virtual Suffrage Centennial Block Party at 11 am on Aug. 29. More information about her presentation, which is being arranged by the Indiana Historical Society, is available online. Her presentation is among a series of events this year, with many coordinated by the Indiana Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission.

Like an almost-forgotten Hollywood classic enjoying an unexpected revival of interest, drive-in movie theaters are in the spotlight again with the Covid pandemic-related resurgence of outdoor film showings.

As if on cue, Hoosier History Live will explore the rise and fall of drive-in theaters, which boomed in popularity in the years after World War II. During the 1950s, more than 120 drive-ins flourished across Indiana, according to driveinmovie.com.

The Westlake Drive-in on the west side of Indianapolis, one of the state's most popular venues for outdoor movies, typically was jammed with more than 1,200 cars per night, according to a retrospective story on WRTV-Channel 6. In contrast, only 75 vehicles were counted at the Westlake when it closed in 1982. It was replaced on its site at West 10th Street and High School Road by a healthcare facility.

According to several accounts, about 20 drive-in movie theaters have been operating across Indiana during recent years. They include the Tibbs Drive-in on the southwest side of Indy, the only remaining one in Marion County - unless you count temporary venues for outdoor movies that have been popping up to accommodate public health concerns related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

For our show, Nelson's guests will include a movie preservationist and collector who is among those converting from indoor to outdoor showings. Film historian Eric Grayson has shifted from indoor screenings of vintage movies at Garfield Park to "drive-in style" events for at least the next few months at the park on the south side Indianapolis.

With Eric joining Nelson, we will explore the factors that sparked the heyday of drive-in theaters, which featured large outdoor screens, projection booths, concession stands and, in some cases, playgrounds, picnic tables and other enticements for movie-goers.

We also will explore the genres of movies that were effective at drive- theaters - the bygone Twin-Aire Drive-in on the southeast side of Indy periodically promoted horror film marathons that appealed to cars crammed with teenagers - and the genres that did not work as well.

We also will delve into the factors that spelled doom for so many drive-ins. They included rising real estate values in cities that made summer-only land usage impractical; drive-in theaters that have endured tend to be in small towns or rural areas.

According to an article published by the Smithsonian Magazine, even in the heyday of drive-ins during the 1950s movie studios preferred to slot their top first-run releases into indoor cinemas because of scheduling flexibility that resulted in more ticket sales. An indoor theater, the article notes, "could show one film five or six times a day instead of only at night ... Drive-ins were left to show B movies."

But not always. Many drive-ins specialized in family-oriented fare. Parents often preferred drive-ins because of the ease of bringing young children (and sometimes even their dogs) in their cars. At the other extreme, some outdoor theaters went the X-rated route during their waning years.

At Garfield Park, showings of vintage movies from the collection of our guest Eric Grayson will include Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) on Aug. 22, This Island Earth (1955) on Sept. 19 and others; more details are available online.

Outdoor movie theaters in Indiana that have continued to endure include the Centerbrook Drive-in in Martinsville and the Skyline Drive-in in Shelbyville.

Those that bit the dust include the Shadeland Drive-in in Indianapolis, which, according to an article on Historic Indianapolis, closed in 1985 after a run of nearly 30 years.

The pageantry, competition and drama of the Tokyo Summer Olympics was supposed to be underway at this point, concluding with a closing ceremony on Aug. 9. Instead, the games have been postponed until July 23-Aug. 8 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic - and some analysts have speculated they may not even happen then.

Regardless, Hoosier History Live will spotlight Olympians with connections to Indiana who competed in an array of sports for more than 100 years. Rather than focusing on superstars such as Mark Spitz, the swimmer who captured a then-record seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, or basketball sensation Larry Bird and others on the "Dream Team" of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, we will explore Olympians whose lives, before or after the games in which they competed, involved compelling - and sometimes little-known - personal stories.

Among the stories of Hoosier-connected Olympic athletes we'll explore:

• A gold medalist in the long jump who grew up in poverty and recently retired, at age 89, from a career as a dentist at Logansport State Hospital.
• The first African-American gold medalist in the decathlon who, after the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, became a pro football player - and, according to several accounts, was fired for marrying a white woman.
• Hoosier athletes who followed up their Olympics experiences by becoming FBI agents and, in at least one case, a Navy SEAL.

Our guide as we make our way through these inspiring stories of athletic excellence will be Indianapolis Star sportswriter David Woods, who has covered every Summer Olympics since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. (Even before that, he began interviewing Olympians in 1972 and, as a freelancer, wrote about the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics). David is the author of a new book, Indiana University Olympians (IU Press), which features profiles of 49 diverse athletes.

Among them is Dr. Greg Bell, the newly retired octogenarian dentist, who excelled in the long jump at the 1956 Olympics. As the seventh of nine children in an African-American family, he lived in a chicken house on a truck farm near Terre Haute for his first 12 years. For many of those years, the chicken house had no electricity, according to David's book. When his principal at the former Garfield High School suggested he try broad jumping (as the event, which Greg Bell never had heard of, was called then), he immediately set a school record.

Following his triumph at the Olympics in the long jump and two NCAA championships (he never lost a collegiate competition while at IU, David notes), Greg Bell attended the IU School of Dentistry. He paid his way through dental school by working on a farm near Indianapolis.

Other athletes at the 1956 Olympics included Milt Campbell (1933-2012), who was born in New Jersey but attended IU in the 1950s. He became the first African-American gold medalist in the decathlon but suffered from "a lack of recognition during much of his lifetime," David writes. Excelling in swimming, wrestling, judo and other sports, Milt Campbell played football at IU for two years. In 1957, he was chosen by the Cleveland Browns in the NFL draft, but lasted only one season.

"He was cut apparently because of his off-season marriage to a white woman," according to Indiana University Olympians. David's book points out that Campbell is the only athlete to have been inducted into both the National Track and Field Hall Fame and the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Like Milt Campbell, diver Lesley Bush grew up in New Jersey but attended IU. She was just 16 years old, new to the sport of diving, and, according to David Woods, "not on any list of Olympic hopefuls" when she captured a gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. IU's former diving coach, Hobie Billingsley, called Lesley Bush's victory the greatest upset in the history of competitive diving.

Billingsley's colleague at IU, legendary swimming coach James "Doc" Counsilman, built a dynasty of Olympians during the 1960s and '70s that included Indianapolis native Mike Troy, a gold medalist at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Eventually he became a Navy SEAL and was awarded a Silver Star for heroism during the Vietnam War. Mike Troy died last August at age 78.

Decades earlier, two native Hoosier Olympians become FBI agents. Track star Don Lash (1912-1994) attended Auburn High School, which did not have an indoor or outdoor track. "He discovered his talents while chasing rabbits on his grandfather's farm," according to David's book.

Although Don Lash set world records before and after the 1936 Berlin Olympics, he did not win a medal at the games. But his prowess evidently became an asset during his 21-year career with the FBI. "He was assigned to cases in which agents thought a suspect might flee on foot so that he could catch them," David writes.

The other Olympian-turned-FBI agent was Fred Wilt (1920-1994), a native of Pendleton, Ind. He competed in track events in the 1948 London Olympics and the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Like Don Lash, he did not win an Olympic medal, but he set world records at other competitions. Lash followed up his 22-year career at the FBI with a stint as the women's track coach at Purdue University.

No need to pity Indiana's snake population, but let's acknowledge that misconceptions abound about the reptiles that commonly evoke terror and scorn. Of the many species of snakes native to the state, only four are considered venomous.

Hoosier History Live will spotlight those four - including the most rare, the dreaded water moccasin (also known as the cottonmouth) - along with a range of others in the spectrum of snake species. We also will discuss a lizard that's often mistaken for a snake because it is legless.

The insights will come from Nelson's guest, herpetologist Nate Engbrecht of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

Some tidbits about a few of the snakes that can be found on Hoosier soil (or in the water):

• Common gartersnake: Harmless to humans, it is "probably our most familiar local snake species," Nate says. Some Hoosiers call it a "gardener snake" or "garden snake."
• Water moccasin/cottonmouth: "A lot of people think they see water moccasins in Indiana, but the species is very rare," Nate says. "It has been documented at only one or two Indiana sites, and has not been verified in the state in over a decade. We have a number of non-venomous water snakes that are probably what most people are seeing." Documented sites have been in Dubois County and in Harrison County, along the Ohio River. But Nate emphasizes that only the Dubois County site is thought to still have the possibility of resident water moccasins – and the species has not even been seen there since the early 2000s. "So their current status in the state is undetermined."
• Copperheads: These venomous snakes are somewhat widespread in southern Indiana.
• Gray rat snake: Although it can be found statewide, the gray rat snake (sometimes called a "black rat snake" or, simply, a "black snake") also is most prevalent in southern Indiana.
• Eastern hog-nosed snake: It's not especially common, but can be found across Indiana, Nate says. "This is the most 'theatrical' of our snakes," he adds, noting its "elaborate defensive display that involves flattening its neck like a cobra, striking, hissing, vomiting, defecating and, in a grand finale, [it] will turn over on its back and play dead - mouth agape with tongue hanging out." Eastern hog-nosed snakes eat toads and frogs.

The legless lizard that resembles snakes is the glass lizard. Of the six species of lizards found in Indiana, the glass lizard is the only one without limbs. According to Nate, glass lizards can reach 2 to 3 feet in length, although their tails often comprise nearly 70 percent of that.

Glass lizards - which are found in grasslands, sandy woods and the Dunes in northwest Indiana - are so named because their tails tend to break easily when they are handled. The tails regenerate, but the replacement often is not as long as the original, Nate says.

He adds that, although glass lizards are "snake-like in appearance," they have eyelids and ear openings, features lacking in snakes found in Indiana.

Across the state, lakes, marshes, ponds, ditches and other aquatic habitats are home to the common watersnake that often is mistaken for a water moccasin. Although the common watersnake is not venomous, Nates says they tend to be "feisty when handled."

Another species that can be found statewide is the eastern milksnake. A medium-sized snake that sometimes has a brilliant red body, the eastern milksnake occasionally is discovered around farms and barns.

It is not venomous, nor is Dekay's brownsnake, which Nate describes as a small, unassuming snake that typically is gray or brown. He notes that the Dekay's brownsnake benefits gardeners by eating slugs.

Nate joined botanist Michael Homoya as a guest last November for a Hoosier History Live show about rare species of plants and animals in Indiana.

Even aside from the roller coasters at Indiana Beach, the ups and downs have been dizzying at the iconic tourist attraction on the shores of Lake Shafer at the Hoosier town of Monticello.

The heyday of the beach, boardwalk, amusement center, arcade and ballroom - where the Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher and Janis Joplin performed - lasted for decades after the park opened during the 1920s. After a series of ownership changes, Indiana Beach has been continually in the news this year: In February came the stunning announcement that it would close after 94 colorful years. That was followed by another ownership change, which paved the way for the reopening of Indiana Beach earlier this month.

Hoosier History Live will explore the history that began in 1926, when founder Earl Spackman created a summer getaway then known as Ideal Beach, which initially was just a sandy stretch of lakeshore and a refreshment stand that he built with two-by-fours. By the Big Band era of the 1940s, the ballroom had become a venue for such musical headliners as Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. Fireworks, water skiing demonstrations, a Ferris wheel and other attractions ensued.

Nelson will be joined by two guests, both of whom live in Monticello:

• Joy Spackman Bailey, the granddaughter of founder Earl Spackman, who began working at Indiana Beach as a teenager checking coats in the ballroom and helping at a soda fountain. Also during the 1950s, when the attraction was owned by her father, Tom Spackman, Joy participated in water skiing demonstrations on the lake that captivated hundreds of spectators. Later, she was a teacher at various local schools. She also is an artist and past president of the White County Historical Society.
• And author W.C. Madden, known as Bill, who is the editor of Monticello Magazine, a quarterly. He has written more than 40 books, including the newly released History of Twin Lakes (Shafer & Freeman Publishing) which includes a chapter about Indiana Beach, and Indiana Beach: A Fun-Filled History (Arcadia Publishing, 2013).

The path forward for Indiana Beach became rocky after the Spackman family sold it in 2008. Non-local, corporate ownership ensued, with much higher admission prices. California-based Apex Parks Group bought Indiana Beach in 2015, by which point many of the amusement park rides were deteriorating, according to news accounts. The announcement in February that Apex was closing the park - followed by news that Apex was filing for bankruptcy - made the front pages of newspapers across Indiana.

So did the unexpected news that Chicago-based businessman Gene Staples had purchased and would reopen Indiana Beach. The White County Commission and the White County Council offered $3 million in financial incentives to attract a new owner, according to news accounts.

Younger generations often are surprised to learn that Indiana Beach ever attracted top entertainers like Peter, Paul and Mary, the Who, Janis Joplin and the Beach Boys, who drew thousands of concert goers during the 1960s.

"Long-time owner Tom Spackman hired booking agents to bring in top acts," the Lafayette Courier-Journal wrote in a 2011 retrospective of the performers, described by the newspaper as a who's who of future Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees. "The Monticello stop was usually sandwiched between gigs in Chicago and Indianapolis."

But it's not only the celebrities that stand out in the memory of our guest, Joy Spackman Bailey.

She reflects back on her unusual childhood: "Imagine growing up amid roller coasters, carousels and cotton candy. My brothers and I would ride our bikes up and down the boardwalk, playing tag and hide-and-seek . . . I'm not alone in feeling that there was magic in the air those summers I spent at the park."

But there also were challenges, almost from the beginning. In late May 1930, hours before a pavilion at Indiana Beach - then still known as Ideal Beach - was set to host its first band and dance, a devastating fire swept through the entertainment center, completely destroying it.

Owner Earl Spackman vowed to reopen after the disaster, and according to our guest W.C. Madden, his workers were able to have a pavilion ready in just a few weeks, enabling a July 4 gala.

The park was renamed Indiana Beach in the 1950s by Tom Spackman. His daughter, our guest Joy, notes that Louis Armstrong entertained crowds there five times between 1955 and 1962. Other favorite performers included Vaughn Monroe, Brenda Lee, the Four Seasons and the Kingston Trio.

Eventually, though, the focus at Indiana Beach shifted from dance halls, concerts, swimming and sunbathing to the amusement park rides, which included a roller coaster called the Hoosier Hurricane. For decades, Indiana Beach was known for its TV commercials that proclaimed: "There's more than corn in Indiana."

The ownership changes in recent years, along with steeper daily admission prices and what many White County residents felt was a lack of creativity and vision, were disheartening. An Indianapolis Monthly magazine article summarizes the advice for new owner Staples: "Repair the relationship with the local community."

After the shock of the closing announcement, the recent reopening has made Joy Spackman Bailey optimistic. "We are so thankful to see the park up and running again," she says. "Things can only get better."