The Historians

The 2023 Historians Podcast Go Fund Me second week of March.

Online at The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  or the U.S. Mail Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Monday, March 6, 2023

“Smoke.” More information about the Weekend story

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Focus on History "The Daily Gazette"

Amsterdam Sportsmen’s Shows

The league formed in 1931 and the annual shows began in 1933, first at the South Side armory then the junior high.

Wednesday, March 8, 2023-From the Archives, Episode 455-Buddy Levy author of Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic (1913) Voyage of the Karluk.  Levy, who lives in Idaho, is a go-to author for Arctic history.

The History artical this Thursday

Susie and if you knew her

noun ; a · a distinct often numbered section of a writing. an article of the constitution ; b · a separate clause ; c · a stipulation in a document 

Friday, March 10. 2023-Episode 465-Denise Doring VanBuren is president of the Beacon New York Historical Society and author of two books and editor of a third book about Beacon’s history.  Dia Beacon, a modern art museum revived formerly industrial Beacon starting in 2003.

Reginald Harris and Smoke

By Bob Cudmore

   Two years after the soldiers came home from World War II, Mohawk Carpet Mills in Amsterdam published a small picture book called “Smoke: The Story of a Fight.”

   The unusual title linked the smoke of hearth fires and factories on the home front, "the servant of man," with the smoke of warfare, "the master."

   “Smoke” was dedicated to the 1200 men and women of Mohawk "who answered the call to duty" and "the thirty-three who will never return."  Loy Baxter designed the book.  The author was Reginald Harris.

   The fabric used to bind “Smoke” was canvas, produced at Mohawk during the war.  The war machine did not need carpets.  From 1941 to 1945, Mohawk and Bigelow Sanford, the city's other major carpet mill, converted production to the manufacture of canvas, tarpaulins and blankets.

   Millions of yards of cotton duck were made for tents, tarpaulins and turret covers.  Amsterdamians also produced more than five million blankets for the war effort.

   "Men lived in blankets," wrote Harris, "Men waited in blankets. Men fought in blankets. Men died in blankets."

   In “Smoke,” Harris described local volunteer and salvage efforts, "Mohawk people gave up their leisure hours to roll bandages, collect clothing for war torn countries and raise thousands of dollars for relief."

   Harris also lauded blood, bond and salvage drives on the home front, "It got so you didn't dare put your evening paper down for fear of losing it to the salvage drive."

   In a printed insert, Mohawk president Howard Shuttleworth expressed pride in company workers "who gave unselfishly of their time and who spent long hours at their machines that we might fulfill the demands of the War Department for our wartime products."

   The machine shop and foundry at the carpet mills also turned out a control stick support for the Navy Hellcat airplane and machinery used in radar, landing craft and tanks.

   Mohawk employed a record 5,500 workers during the war at its lower mill in the East End and upper mill on Lyons Street, the factory complex devastated by arson fires in 1992 and 1994.

   A native of Kidderminster, England, “Smoke” author Reginald Harris came to Amsterdam as an infant.  He was an executive at Mohawk Carpets and after the war became administrative assistant to company president Herbert Shuttleworth II,

   Harris actually was best known for his musical ability.  He earned a music degree at Syracuse University.  Proficient in playing piano and organ he was choir director for many years at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church.  He brought together male and female singing groups during the 1940s to form the Mohawk Mills Chorus. 

   The songsters appeared on NBC television in 1949 singing Christmas tunes with Roberta Quinlan on her Mohawk Showroom program.  The next day the chorus recorded an album at the RCA Victor studio in Manhattan.

   It took six hours to record the album, according to chorus member Ralph Cook of Amsterdam.  The group had gone to New York in three Pullman cars and Cook recalled the carpeting in the Pullmans was from the looms of Mohawk.

   In that era, chorus members Genevieve Warner and Albert Sochin Da Costa went on to perform professionally with the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

   Harris died unexpectedly at age 55 in 1960.  The Recorder eulogized him as “a citizen of culture and good taste, he possessed an abiding love of good music.”

   The chorus was subsidized by the carpet mill during Harris’s lifetime but when Mohawk left Amsterdam the singing organization sought other funding and since 1962 has been called the Mohawk Valley Chorus.  Membership has expanded well beyond the Amsterdam area.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, March 6, 2023

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

The "just out" Historians schedule for the week is posted scroll down 

Sportsmen’s Shows and Susie

Sunday, March 5, 2023

The fabric used to bind “Smoke” was canvas, produced at Mohawk during the war.  The war machine did not need carpets.  From 1941 to 1945, Mohawk and Bigelow Sanford, the city's other major carpet mill, converted production to the manufacture of canvas, tarpaulins and blankets.

Reginald Harris and Smoke

By Bob Cudmore

   Two years after the soldiers came home from World War II, Mohawk Carpet Mills in Amsterdam published a small picture book called “Smoke: The Story of a Fight.”

   The unusual title linked the smoke of hearth fires and factories on the home front, "the servant of man," with the smoke of warfare, "the master."

   “Smoke” was dedicated to the 1200 men and women of Mohawk "who answered the call to duty" and "the thirty-three who will never return."  Loy Baxter designed the book.  The author was Reginald Harris.

   The fabric used to bind “Smoke” was canvas, produced at Mohawk during the war.  The war machine did not need carpets.  From 1941 to 1945, Mohawk and Bigelow Sanford, the city's other major carpet mill, converted production to the manufacture of canvas, tarpaulins and blankets.

   Millions of yards of cotton duck were made for tents, tarpaulins and turret covers.  Amsterdamians also produced more than five million blankets for the war effort.

   "Men lived in blankets," wrote Harris, "Men waited in blankets. Men fought in blankets. Men died in blankets."

   In “Smoke,” Harris described local volunteer and salvage efforts, "Mohawk people gave up their leisure hours to roll bandages, collect clothing for war torn countries and raise thousands of dollars for relief."

   Harris also lauded blood, bond and salvage drives on the home front, "It got so you didn't dare put your evening paper down for fear of losing it to the salvage drive."

   In a printed insert, Mohawk president Howard Shuttleworth expressed pride in company workers "who gave unselfishly of their time and who spent long hours at their machines that we might fulfill the demands of the War Department for our wartime products."

   The machine shop and foundry at the carpet mills also turned out a control stick support for the Navy Hellcat airplane and machinery used in radar, landing craft and tanks.

   Mohawk employed a record 5,500 workers during the war at its lower mill in the East End and upper mill on Lyons Street, the factory complex devastated by arson fires in 1992 and 1994.

   A native of Kidderminster, England, “Smoke” author Reginald Harris came to Amsterdam as an infant.  He was an executive at Mohawk Carpets and after the war became administrative assistant to company president Herbert Shuttleworth II,

   Harris actually was best known for his musical ability.  He earned a music degree at Syracuse University.  Proficient in playing piano and organ he was choir director for many years at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church.  He brought together male and female singing groups during the 1940s to form the Mohawk Mills Chorus. 

   The songsters appeared on NBC television in 1949 singing Christmas tunes with Roberta Quinlan on her Mohawk Showroom program.  The next day the chorus recorded an album at the RCA Victor studio in Manhattan.

   It took six hours to record the album, according to chorus member Ralph Cook of Amsterdam.  The group had gone to New York in three Pullman cars and Cook recalled the carpeting in the Pullmans was from the looms of Mohawk.

   In that era, chorus members Genevieve Warner and Albert Sochin Da Costa went on to perform professionally with the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

   Harris died unexpectedly at age 55 in 1960.  The Recorder eulogized him as “a citizen of culture and good taste, he possessed an abiding love of good music.”

   The chorus was subsidized by the carpet mill during Harris’s lifetime but when Mohawk left Amsterdam the singing organization sought other funding and since 1962 has been called the Mohawk Valley Chorus.  Membership has expanded well beyond the Amsterdam area.

The 2023 Historians Podcast Go Fund Me in March.

Online at The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  or the U.S. Mail Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Monday, March 6, 2023-Story behind the story-Reginald Harris and “Smoke.”

Tuesday, March 7, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette—Amsterdam Sportsmen’s Shows

Wednesday, March 8, 2023-From the Archives, Episode 455-Buddy Levy author of Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic (1913) Voyage of the Karluk.  Levy, who lives in Idaho, is a go-to author for Arctic history.

Thursday, March 9, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-If you knew Susie

Friday, March 10. 2023-Episode 465-Denise Doring VanBuren is president of the Beacon New York Historical Society and author of two books and editor of a third book about Beacon’s history.  Dia Beacon, a modern art museum revived formerly industrial Beacon starting in 2003.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, March 5, 2023

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Tomorrow, posted early, The story of "Smoke"

Reginald Harris

   The fabric used to bind “Smoke” was canvas, produced at Mohawk during the war.  The war machine did not need carpets. 

The 2023 Historians Podcast Go Fund Me in March.

Need to raise $100.00 this weekend. Online at The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  or the U.S. Mail Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

March on The Historians

Friday, March 10, 2023-Episode 465-Denise Doring VanBuren is president of the Beacon New York Historical Society and author of two books and editor of a third about Beacon’s history.  Dia Beacon, a modern art museum, revived formerly industrial Beacon starting in 2003.

Residents of Beacon, New York, are justifiably proud of a community that is rich in history and promise. In this exquisite collection of images, local historians Robert J. Murphy and Denise Doring VanBuren uncover the fascinating past of Beacon and
the people who have called it home. 

Friday, March 17, 2023-Episode 466-Kate Fagan is author of HOOP MUSES-An Insider’s Guide to Pop Culture and the (Women’s) Game an Adventure through Basketball History. Fagan is a native of Schenectady and writes for Sports Illustrated.

Friday, March 24, 2023-Episode 467-Charles Morgan Evans is author of Helicopter Heroine--Valerie Andre, Surgeon, Rescue Pilot and Her Courage Under Fire.  Andre piloted primitive helicopters to rescue wounded soldiers for the French army in Indochina in the 1950s.  She became the first woman in the French military to be promoted to General.

Episode 464

Steve Haggerty is author of Norman Rockwell’s Models: In and Out of the Studio.  In 1940, illustrator Norman Rockwell, his wife Mary and their three sons moved to West Arlington, Vermont. The artist discovered a treasure trove of models. Haggerty’s book‘details these models’ lives, friendships with the artist and experiences in his studio.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, March 4, 2023

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

“The Mohican Indians living in the upper Hudson Valley called their enemies, who lived in the valley to their west, 'Mohowaug’—they eat living creatures,” Keesler said in an interview in 2002.  Europeans corrupted the Mohican slur into the word Mohawk.  Keesler said the Mohawks called themselves “Kanyenkehaka” and the valley they lived in “Kanyenka.”

The 2023 Historians Podcast Go Fund Me in the month of March. "need a little Elbow Grease" Online at The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  or the U.S. Mail Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. 

Recalling historian M. Paul Keesler

By Bob Cudmore

          Later this year, relatives and friends of the late M. Paul Keesler hope to publish the book that the late Mohawk Valley historian and outdoorsman was working on before his death.  Keesler died of cancer on July 27, 2005 at age 67.

          The working title for Keesler’s last book was “Mohawk—Discovering the Valley of the Crystals.”

          The Mohawks did not choose to be called by that name, according to Keesler.

          “The Mohican Indians living in the upper Hudson Valley called their enemies, who lived in the valley to their west, 'Mohowaug’—they eat living creatures,” Keesler said in an interview in 2002.  Europeans corrupted the Mohican slur into the word Mohawk.  Keesler said the Mohawks called themselves “Kanyenkehaka” and the valley they lived in “Kanyenka.”

          For years, the common wisdom was that the Mohawks were calling themselves the “people of the flint” and calling their homeland the “place of the flint.”  

But Keesler came to the conclusion that the Mohawks’ name for themselves meant “people of the crystals” and the name for the homeland meant “place of the crystals.”

          Flint was important for making cutting edge tools and weapons but no major source of flint has been found in the Mohawk Valley.  University at Albany anthropologist Dean Snow has pointed out that the valley is a major source of clear quartz crystals embedded in dolostone rocks.  These crystals are called “Herkimer diamonds” today and a tourist site north of Herkimer exists where people look for these “diamonds.”

          “Crystals were symbolically important (to American Indians) as amulets of success, health and long life,” Keesler said.  “The Mohawks were the main suppliers of quartz crystals up to 1644.”

          Keesler added, “Mohawks and Indians around the Northeast used these crystals as a religious item.  They were found at gravesites.”

          Before he died, Keesler maintained a “book-in-progress” web site as he gathered information for his book--www.paulkeeslerbooks.com  He explored the 161 miles of the river from Rome to Waterford, 30 miles on foot and the rest by canoe.  He also explored tributaries including the Schoharie Creek and the two Chuctanunda creeks in Amsterdam.

Keesler once said, “Exploring is more fun than writing.  I keep coming across things and start wondering why this is here, why is this old mill dam here, why is this village here.”

          Originally an air traffic controller for the Federal Aviation Administration, Keesler began his writing career in 1966 with a magazine article about fishing on West Canada Creek.  For several years, he wrote the outdoors column for the Utica Observer Dispatch.  In 1972, he founded the Mid York Sportsman magazine, which became the New York Sportsman in 1975.  In 1992, he retired as editor of the magazine and wrote three books about history and the outdoors.  “Kuyahoora—Discovering West Canada Valley” was a book he published in 1999 describing the history and wildlife of the valley of the West Canada Creek, which flows into the Mohawk River at Herkimer.  Keesler lived in Newport, along the creek.  Kuyahoora was the Indian name for the creek and means “leaping waters” because of a spectacular waterfall.

This past week, a portion of State Route 28 between Middleville and its junction with Route 12 in Mapledale was named the M. Paul Keesler Memorial Highway.

"He was the nicest, loving, good-hearted man you could ever ask for," Gert Keesler, his wife of 24 years, told the Utica Observer Dispatch at the time of his death. 

"Everyone looked up to him when it came to outdoor communications," said friend and fellow outdoor enthusiast Bill Lloyd, also of Newport.  "He was the premier authority when it came to the outdoors in New York."

Friday, March 3, 2023- Episode 464-Steve Haggerty is author of Norman Rockwell’s Models: In and Out of the Studio.  In 1940, illustrator Norman Rockwell, his wife Mary and their three sons moved to West Arlington, Vermont. The artist discovered a treasure trove of models. Haggerty’s book‘details these models’ lives, friendships with the artist and experiences in his studio.

Saturday March 4, 2023-From the Archives- Episode 102, March 13, 2016- Neil Yetwin, a history teacher, is author of a book on a War of 1812 hero who became the first Jewish New York State Assemblyman, “To My Son: The Life and War Remembrances of Captain Mordecai Myers.”

Sunday, March 5, 2023-Reginald Harris and “Smoke.”

Two years after the soldiers came home from World War II, Mohawk Carpet Mills in Amsterdam published a small picture book called “Smoke: The Story of a Fight.”

The Historians with Bob Cudmore now on Audacy

https://www.audacy.com/podcast/the-historians-3c5a2

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, March 2, 2023

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Just off the digital press

Friday, March 3, 2023- Episode 464-Steve Haggerty is author of Norman Rockwell’s Models: In and Out of the Studio.  In 1940, illustrator Norman Rockwell, his wife Mary and their three sons moved to West Arlington, Vermont. The artist discovered a treasure trove of models. Haggerty’s book‘details these models’ lives, friendships with the artist and experiences in his studio.

Please contribute to the 2023 Historians Podcast ready money. Much Thanks to all who do every year. Online at The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  or hurry off a check Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. 

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Bridge Line Historical Society

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Remembering historian Paul Keesler

Later this year, relatives and friends of the late M. Paul Keesler hope to publish the book that the late Mohawk Valley historian and outdoorsman was working on before his death.  Keesler died of cancer on July 27, 2005 at age 67.

          The working title for Keesler’s last book was “Mohawk—Discovering the Valley of the Crystals.”

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Please contribute to the 2023 Historians Podcast ready money. Much Thanks to all who do every year. Online at The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  or hurry off a check Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. 

My father recalled he could watch a movie and four or five vaudeville acts at one of Amsterdam’s theaters for 25 cents in the 1920s.

Vaudeville days

By Bob Cudmore

Red haired Amsterdam native Inez Courtney was 15 when she performed a specialty dance act during a three day run in the vaudeville show at the Rialto Theater in Amsterdam in October 1923.  People referred to her as St. Vitus, Mosquito and Lightning.  Born into a large Irish-American family, Inez took up the stage after her father died.

Vaudeville was a mix of specialized stage acts including dancers, singers, comedians and even roller skaters.  Vaudevillians toured America, some visiting big cities and others going to smaller towns.

My father recalled he could watch a movie and four or five vaudeville acts at one of Amsterdam’s theaters for 25 cents in the 1920s.  The Rialto on Market Street was part of the Keith vaudeville circuit.

At least one Amsterdam movie theater prided itself on not providing vaudeville.  The Orpheum, on Market Street, did feature movie stars on tour making personal appearances.

By 1926 dancer Inez Courtney of Amsterdam had left vaudeville for Broadway, performing in “The Wild Rose” and other musicals.   She won acclaim for her role in the 1927 musical “Good News” about college life.  In 1930 she went to Hollywood.

Under contract with Harry Cohn at Columbia Pictures, Courtney appeared in non-musical roles, usually as the wise-cracking friend of actresses such as Jean Harlow or Ginger Rogers. Courtney performed in 58 films between 1930 and 1940 including “The Raven”, “Suzy”, and “Turnabout”, her last movie.

Courtney was married twice, the second time to an Italian nobleman.  When she retired from the movies in 1940 she moved to Rome with her husband Luigi Filiesi, a wine merchant.  She died of undisclosed causes at a hospital in New Jersey in 1975 at the age of 67.

ROLLER SKATES

Another vaudeville act that originated in Amsterdam apparently never made it to the movies.  Hyman and his brother Barney Nathan were roller skaters.

According to the American Vaudeville Museum, there was a roller skating vogue in the early 1900s including Dare Devil Frank, Fielding and Carlos and the Skating Macks.

The Nathan Brothers’ act was created by Hy Nathan when he ran the roller skating rink at a facility called the Colonial on Liberty Street in Amsterdam.  Roller skating was advertised four days a week at the Colonial as early as 1906.

A 1912 newspaper story reported that Hy Nathan had canceled a ten mile roller skating race between Alfred Shrubb, the English champion, and Billy Queal, the American champion, which had been scheduled for the Colonial.  Nathan said there was not sufficient interest in the race. 

Hy and Barney Nathan toured on the Keith vaudeville circuit in America starting in 1918.  They also performed in Europe.  In February 1922 Hy Nathan was quoted by the Recorder as saying that the brothers were on tour in Ireland with their self-described “sensational” roller skating act.  The Nathans performed in Ireland during the first day of freedom for the Irish Free State,

The news account stated, “They expect to fill a number of European engagements before returning to America.  Hy Nathan was home last summer on a brief visit.”

In 1924 a newspaper story reported the Nathan Brothers were in Paris and about to tour Germany with stops scheduled in Berlin and Munich.  In 1928 the skating brothers sent a card from Hamburg, Germany to Amsterdam friend James Aiken via the mail service of the German dirigible Graf Zeppelin.

A 1929 Amsterdam newspaper account of a contested will involving property in the Nathan family lists Hyman Nathan as one of the heirs.  No further word turns up, however, on the career of Hy and Barney Nathan, the vaudeville roller skaters.

Wednesday, March 1, 2023-From the Archives-Episode 45, January 30, 2015 Railfan Jim Bachorz of Bridge Line Historical Society

Thursday, March 2, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Remembering historian Paul Keesler

Friday, March 3, 2023- Episode 464-Steve Haggerty is author of Norman Rockwell’s Models: In and Out of the Studio.  In 1940, illustrator Norman Rockwell, his wife Mary and their three sons moved to West Arlington, Vermont. The artist discovered a treasure trove of models. Haggerty’s book‘details these models’ lives, friendships with the artist and experiences in his studio.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Monday, February 27, 2023

Story behind the story, radio star King Owen.

Please contribute to the 2023 Historians Podcast fund drive.  Our latest donors were David Gauthier and Audrey Kupferberg. Please donate online at The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore   or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  So far we have raised $770.  Thank you! 

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Vaudeville Days

Red haired Amsterdam native Inez Courtney was 15 when she performed a specialty dance act during a three day run in the vaudeville show at the Rialto Theater in Amsterdam in October 1923.  People referred to her as St. Vitus, Mosquito and Lightning. 

Wednesday, March 1, 2023-From the Archives-Episode 45, January 30, 2015 Railfan Jim Bachorz of Bridge Line Historical Society

Thursday, March 2, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Remembering historian Paul Keesler

Friday, March 3, 2023- Episode 464-Steve Haggerty is author of Norman Rockwell’s Models: In and Out of the Studio.  In 1940, illustrator Norman Rockwell, his wife Mary and their three sons moved to West Arlington, Vermont. The artist discovered a treasure trove of models. Haggerty’s book‘details these models’ lives, friendships with the artist and experiences in his studio.

The king of morning radio; baseball at Shuttleworth Park

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History 

   King Owen was a radio star and night club entertainer.  He died in 1955 from long standing health problems, perhaps tuberculosis, at age 40.

    His real name was Avery King Clizbe, Junior.  His nephew William Clizbe, president of the Broadalbin-Kennyetto Historical Society, researched his uncle’s life.

   The singer was born in Amsterdam in 1914, the son of Avery King Clizbe, Senior, head teller at City National Bank, and Mary Clizbe.  The singer’s brother James, William Clizbe’s father, was two years older.  The family lived on Church Street in a row of brownstones between Grove and High streets.

   Avery, Junior, learned to play piano and cello.  He performed hillbilly music on WGY in the 1930s.  He sang with the High Boys and Radio Rangers, Doye O’Dell and Max Raney on the Schenectady station.

   Avery moved to Connecticut where he was part of a musical group who performed on NBC’s Blue Network with over 33 affiliate radio stations around the country.

   Avery came back to the Mohawk Valley in 1938 and married Gene Haff, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Haff of Broadalbin.  Avery and Gene had two daughters, Marcia and Lynne.

The couple made their home in Broadalbin but Avery pursued his career on the road, checking in with postcards and telegrams.  He played in the western United States and performed at Radio City in New York City with Doc Schneider and the Texans.  He also played the organ for some network radio shows in New York

   In the mid-1940s Avery came back to Broadalbin.  He was hospitalized for a time at the Homer Folks Tuberculosis Hospital in Oneonta.

   William Clizbe said his uncle played piano plus organ, guitar, cello and accordion.  He recalled that his uncle smelled of tobacco and carried an inexhaustible supply of pink Canada Mints.

   “He was an incredible talent,” William Clizbe said.  “He could listen to a song twice and then play the tune.”

   As King Owen, Avery played piano, sang, took requests and bantered on the radio during his last years, first on WCSS in Amsterdam then at WENT in Gloversville-Johnstown.

  At WENT King Owen did not perform country music but instead sang the popular songs of the day.

   He met Helen Comrie, the station bookkeeper.  She became his second wife after he and Gene Haff divorced.

   According to WENT’s 1952 broadcast schedule printed in the Leader Herald, the station signed on at 6:28 a.m.  A religious program, news, weather, sports, a show called Cock-A-Doodle Review and a segment named Quiet Time advanced the clock to 7:40 when King Owen took to the airwaves.  He performed until 9:45 when it was time for In Town Today followed at 10 by Arthur Godfrey on the CBS radio network.

   After leaving WENT, King Owen was on the air at WWSC radio in Glens Falls in 1954.  He died the next year at St. Mary’s Hospital in Amsterdam.

   WENT has a picture of the smiling singer in a suit and what looks like a bow tie, at a piano in front of a WENT banner.  The picture is signed, “Airfully Yours, King Owen.”

HEAVY HITTER

   Reader Bill Tucker commented on the recent column on Amsterdam’s Shuttleworth Park.

   Tucker played a high school baseball game there in 1965 as a junior from Albany’s Vincentian Institute.  Tucker remembered the ball field was big and deep in center field.

   One of Tucker’s best friends blasted one there as a pinch hitter, “He got all of it so hard that it hit the fence sign on one bounce.

   “Now it is great to know Joe (Dimaggio) and Yogi (Berra) played there too!!!”

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, February 27, 2023

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

The Historians Go Fund Me 2023 "forge ahead" this week to raise $100.00. Use the Historians Go Fund Me link The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore

or the U.S.Mail Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302

The king of morning radio; baseball at Shuttleworth Park

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History 

   King Owen was a radio star and night club entertainer.  He died in 1955 from long standing health problems, perhaps tuberculosis, at age 40.

    His real name was Avery King Clizbe, Junior.  His nephew William Clizbe, president of the Broadalbin-Kennyetto Historical Society, researched his uncle’s life.

   The singer was born in Amsterdam in 1914, the son of Avery King Clizbe, Senior, head teller at City National Bank, and Mary Clizbe.  The singer’s brother James, William Clizbe’s father, was two years older.  The family lived on Church Street in a row of brownstones between Grove and High streets.

   Avery, Junior, learned to play piano and cello.  He performed hillbilly music on WGY in the 1930s.  He sang with the High Boys and Radio Rangers, Doye O’Dell and Max Raney on the Schenectady station.

   Avery moved to Connecticut where he was part of a musical group who performed on NBC’s Blue Network with over 33 affiliate radio stations around the country.

   Avery came back to the Mohawk Valley in 1938 and married Gene Haff, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Haff of Broadalbin.  Avery and Gene had two daughters, Marcia and Lynne.

The couple made their home in Broadalbin but Avery pursued his career on the road, checking in with postcards and telegrams.  He played in the western United States and performed at Radio City in New York City with Doc Schneider and the Texans.  He also played the organ for some network radio shows in New York

   In the mid-1940s Avery came back to Broadalbin.  He was hospitalized for a time at the Homer Folks Tuberculosis Hospital in Oneonta.

   William Clizbe said his uncle played piano plus organ, guitar, cello and accordion.  He recalled that his uncle smelled of tobacco and carried an inexhaustible supply of pink Canada Mints.

   “He was an incredible talent,” William Clizbe said.  “He could listen to a song twice and then play the tune.”

   As King Owen, Avery played piano, sang, took requests and bantered on the radio during his last years, first on WCSS in Amsterdam then at WENT in Gloversville-Johnstown.

  At WENT King Owen did not perform country music but instead sang the popular songs of the day.

   He met Helen Comrie, the station bookkeeper.  She became his second wife after he and Gene Haff divorced.

   According to WENT’s 1952 broadcast schedule printed in the Leader Herald, the station signed on at 6:28 a.m.  A religious program, news, weather, sports, a show called Cock-A-Doodle Review and a segment named Quiet Time advanced the clock to 7:40 when King Owen took to the airwaves.  He performed until 9:45 when it was time for In Town Today followed at 10 by Arthur Godfrey on the CBS radio network.

   After leaving WENT, King Owen was on the air at WWSC radio in Glens Falls in 1954.  He died the next year at St. Mary’s Hospital in Amsterdam.

   WENT has a picture of the smiling singer in a suit and what looks like a bow tie, at a piano in front of a WENT banner.  The picture is signed, “Airfully Yours, King Owen.”

Tomorrow, Monday, February 27, 2023-Story behind the story, more about radio star King Owen.

HEAVY HITTER

   Reader Bill Tucker commented on the recent column on Amsterdam’s Shuttleworth Park.

   Tucker played a high school baseball game there in 1965 as a junior from Albany’s Vincentian Institute.  Tucker remembered the ball field was big and deep in center field.

   One of Tucker’s best friends blasted one there as a pinch hitter, “He got all of it so hard that it hit the fence sign on one bounce.

   “Now it is great to know Joe (Dimaggio) and Yogi (Berra) played there too!!!”

Tuesday, February 28, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Vaudeville Days 

Wednesday, March 1, 2023-From the Archives-Episode 45, January 30, 2015 Railfan Jim Bachorz of Bridge Line Historical Society

Thursday, March 2, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Remembering historian Paul Keesler

Friday, March 3, 2023- Episode 464-Steve Haggerty is author of Norman Rockwell’s Models: In and Out of the Studio.  In 1940, illustrator Norman Rockwell, his wife Mary and their three sons moved to West Arlington, Vermont. The artist discovered a treasure trove of models. Haggerty’s book‘details these models’ lives, friendships with the artist and experiences in his studio.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, February 26, 2023

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The Historians Go Fund Me 2023. A rocky start, but picking up steam Thanks to The Historians people The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  

On-Line or a check, envelope and stamp Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Before Bob, King Owen

Gloversville radio star

The story posted tomorrow morning

The singer was born in Amsterdam in 1914, the son of Avery King Clizbe, Senior, head teller at City National Bank, and Mary Clizbe. 

Episode 463-In this first Highlights Edition of 2023 we revisit: Bill Buell’s Schenectady stories from the 1920s, NY State Historian Devin Lander, Jerry Snyder of Historic Amsterdam League, Jon Sorensen’s book When Mommy Was a Commie, Alan Maddaus on a jet bomber crash in New York’s Adirondack Mountains and Mark Dawidziak on Edgar Allan Poe. 

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, February 25, 2023

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