The Historians Podcast yearly fund drive at $3125.  To stay on track to reach our $6,000 goal by year’s end we need to raise $150.00 by this Friday, July 22, 2022.  Please help by donating online here- https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or send a check in The U.S. Mail made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  

Monday, July 18, 2022- The story behind the story podcast-Twilight League baseball, paging the doctor at the Glove Theatre

Tuesday, July 19, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-The Tower Inn

My cousin, Betty Segen Pronk was a waitress at the Tower from her senior year in high school through her early years as a teacher.  Norma-Jean Qualls was the daughter of a woman who was also a Tower waitress and a teacher.  Pronk and Qualls provided the following information. 

The Twilight League; Paging the Doctor

By Bob Cudmore

   After minor league baseball ended in Amsterdam in the 1950s, town resident Frederick J. Mitchell recalled that two Amsterdam teams participated in the Schenectady Twilight League, playing home games at what was still called Mohawk Mills Park.

   There were about eight teams in the Twilight League which Mitchell recollected existed from 1959 to 1967.  One Amsterdam squad was called the Rugmakers, the same name used by the former New York Yankees minor league franchise.   

   Mitchell said the Rugmakers were mainly college and high school students, in general younger than members of the other Amsterdam team, called the Textiles, many of whom had played minor league ball in the area.  The Textiles were sponsored by the carpet mill union, the Textile Workers Union of America.

   Mitchell wrote, “Both teams enjoyed very good fan support and the attendance in Amsterdam exceeded that of any club from Schenectady.  A rivalry developed here, needless to say, but never a bitter one.  In fact, most fans supported both entities.” 

BILL FENNHAHN 

   In 1961 Bill Fennhahn pitched for the Amsterdam Textiles.  The junior high textile shop instructor, Fennhahn was president of the city teachers’ union.

   Fennhahn was wounded several times in World War II.  His worst injuries were sustained when his legs were broken and nerve fibers severed by machine gun fire in Germany. 

   Fennhahn’s daughter, Patricia Fennhahn Dunn, said her dad became a teacher when his injuries prevented him from signing on with St. Louis to play baseball.

ALL STARS

   Mitchell said at least during one year, two all-star games were played in the Twilight League, one at Schenectady’s Central Park and the other in Amsterdam.

   Mitchell said, “At that late game I recall watching a walk off home run sail over the left field screen.  It was hit by Billy Connors, who later became a Yankee pitching coach.” 

   Mitchell is grateful to the Amsterdam Mohawks, who now play at the refurbished former Mohawk Mills Park. 

   The ball field was renamed Shuttleworth Park to honor the late Herbert Shuttleworth II, the carpet mill executive who at one time headed the Rugmakers in the Canadian-American League and who continued the Mohawk Carpet company practice of financially supporting the ballpark. 

   In the Twilight League era, Mitchell recalled that food and soft drinks were available, but no beer.  Mitchell said beer was not sold there during the Shuttleworth years, even when the team was the Yankee farm team in the Canadian American League.

   Mitchell said, “The Yankees (who played twice in Amsterdam in the 1940s) were not at all happy with that, so I’ve been told.”

PAGING THE DOCTOR

   A sign that could flash a number hung inside the Glove Theatre in downtown Gloversville sixty years ago, next to the clock that advertised WENT radio. 

   Bob Landrio of Johnstown wrote, “I was told doctors attending a movie would be issued a number and if they had an emergency call the number would illuminate to go to the office.”

   Landrio said that there frequently was a long line to get into the Glove Theatre, “And you learned quickly where and where not to sit.  Staying out of firing range of the balcony was a priority, especially with a date!” 

   Landrio and his wife Debbie have created the Town Line Museum on Route 29 that remembers the 1950s and early 1960s with memorabilia ranging from jukeboxes and arcade games to Pez dispensers. 

   They have turned a building on their family property into a replica of a 1962-era gas station, ice cream parlor, barbershop, grocery store and more.  The museum is open until Labor Day by appointment made by calling 762-5853.

Wednesday, July 20, 2022-From the Archives- December 3, 2021-Episode 399 Stephen Riegel is author of Finding Judge Crater: A Life and Phenomenal Disappearance in Jazz Age NY.

Thursday, July 21, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Mayor Theron Akin 

Personal attacks and viciousness dominated the four years that Theron “Doc” Akin was Amsterdam mayor in the 1920s. 

   Historian Hugh Donlon wrote that political pamphlets were full of “innuendos so gross and vicious that some of the campaign literature was later prized as collectors’ items.”

Friday, July 22, 2022-Episode 432-The third Highlights Edition of 2022 has excerpts from 12 podcasts including stolen Little League Dreams, an Erie Canal balladeer and a boy’s life in Ilion, New York.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, July 18, 2022

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