The Digs: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

1951: Gene Kelly in “An American in Paris” As an...

Fri, 24 May 2013 06:01:31 -0400

Gene Kelly, 10, is in the center, between brothers Jim, left, and Fred. (Photo credit: Unknown)

Gene Kelly at Peabody High School. (Photo Credit: Unknown)

Gene Kelly and wife Betsy Blair at the Wilkinsburg home of the Kelly parents. ( Photo by Bill Herman, Sun-Telegraph)

Gene Kelly with Frank Sinatra, left, and Fred Astair, right, in 1975. (Photo by UPI)

Gene Kelly with Pirates announcer Bob Prince, left, and Mayor Richard Caliguiri at Mellon Square in 1981. (Photo by Jim Klingensmith, Post-Gazette)

1951: Gene Kelly in “An American in Paris”

As an actor, dancer, director and choreographer, Gene Kelly excelled on the Broadway stage, the movie screen and behind the lens of a movie camera.

The Pittsburgh native moved with muscular grace and his innovative approaches pushed the boundaries of the movie musical. “On the Town,” a 1949 film in which Kelly played a sailor on leave, was the first movie musical to be shot on location. Filming men dancing on the streets of New York City presented many challenges for cast and crew. Whether he danced with a mop, a mouse or Leslie Caron, Kelly thrilled his audiences with a singular, sensational ebullience. In the memorable “Singin’ in the Rain,” his partner was an umbrella as he splashed, skipped and strolled his way into movie history.

He was born Eugene Curran Kelly in East Liberty on Aug. 23, 1912. His mother, Harriet, insisted that all five of her children take music and dance lessons. In the 1930s, during the Depression, he taught at the successful Kelly School of Dance with his brother, Fred.

His big break came in 1940, the year he was cast to play the unscrupulous central character in the Broadway production of “Pal Joey.” A critic for The New York Times observed that Kelly was not only “glib-footed, but he has a feeling for comment and content that give his dancing personal distinction and raise it several notches as a dancing art.”

He arrived in Hollywood in 1941, where David O. Selznick had signed him to an exclusive contract. A 1944 film called “Cover Girl” showed Kelly dancing with an ectoplasmic version of himself that represented his character’s conscience. Kelly received sole star billing for “An American in Paris.” In 1951, the movie won eight Academy Awards, including best picture. Kelly received a special Oscar for his contributions to screen choreography.

On Saturday night, the name of this multitalented Pittsburgh native will be invoked often as talented students from 29 schools in Allegheny County take to the stage of the Benedum Center in Downtown’s Cultural District. That’s when the Pittsburgh CLO presents the 23rd annual Gene Kelly Awards, which honors the best in local high school musical theater. Thousands will cheer as exuberant students sing and dance memorable numbers. More than 20 cash and university scholarships will be awarded. Winners of the best actor and best actress award will head to New York on July 1 to represent the Kellys in the National High School Musical Theater Awards.

For those who attend, the Gene Kelly Awards are part high school prom and part pep rally for musical theater. We like to think that Gene Kelly, who died in 1996 at age 83, is there in spirit, tapping his dancing feet and singing joyously, somewhere off stage or even in the rain.

—Marylynne Pitz

August 1932: Mourning the bloody end of a racketeer husband All...

Wed, 22 May 2013 06:01:35 -0400

John Bazzano, second from left, in an undated photo. (Photo credit: Unknown)

A $5,000 casket containing Bazzano is carried from his Mt. Lebanon home. (Pittsburgh Press photograph)

Flowers for the slain mobster filled seven autos. (Pittsburgh Press photograph)

Newspaper coverage of the Bazzano murder.

August 1932: Mourning the bloody end of a racketeer husband

All Rose Bazzano knew was that her husband John was on a business trip to New York. It wasn’t John’s habit to tell his wife about his business. So it naturally came as a shock to Rose when her husband’s body, wrapped in a burlap bag, was found near a refuse pile called Tin Can Mountain in the infamous Red Hook section of Brooklyn. John Bazzano had been stabbed 20 times with an ice pick. A rope used to strangle him was still tightly twisted around his neck. His tongue had been cut out and his lips sealed with tape.

John Bazzano dead? Rose couldn’t believe it.

“John, come home,” she pleaded while sitting in the darkened drawing room of the luxurious Bazzano home at 1287 Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon. She wept so fiercely, newspapers reported, that no physician’s prescription would calm her.

John Bazzano was listed in the 1930 census as a retail merchant and confectioner. Newspapers identified him as a member of an underworld outfit run by the eight Volpe brothers. The Volpes were racketeers from the Turtle Creek Valley. They were swaggering, arrogant men who lived in cheap apartments and flashed wads of money in nightclubs.

At the time, racketeers were doing a booming business in the Pittsburgh area. They’d stepped in to supply alcohol after Prohibition became the law of the land. By the early 1930s, mobs had become thoroughly entrenched in many parts of Allegheny County. Bazzano was considered by the newspapers to be an underworld “czar” who controlled the county’s yeast racket, which took in an estimated one million dollars each year.

The Volpe brothers were in the process of expanding their affairs into East Liberty and the North Side. This didn’t set well with Bazzano. He wanted the Volpes out of the picture.

The hit took place at a dingy coffee shop that Bazzano owned on Wylie Avenue in the Hill District. On the morning of July 29, 1932, gunmen opened fire while the Volpes were inside. Three of the brothers died, one while eating a bowl of corn flakes.

Unfortunately for Bazzano, the hit was unsanctioned by New York’s mob bosses. Within days, the bosses summoned Bazzano to a meeting. Bazzano had to know this wasn’t good news. Refusing the invitation, however, wasn’t an option.

Bazzano checked into New York’s Pennsylvanian Hotel and, on Aug. 6, attended a gathering of underworld big shots at an empty building in the city’s Red Hook district. For Bazzano, the meeting didn’t go so well.

His mutilated body was returned to his palatial Mt. Lebanon home and placed in a $5,000 casket. After a quiet service at the home, Bazzano’s body was blessed by a priest. A procession of 75 cars followed the hearse to a cemetery in Arnold. Seven autos were loaded with flowers.

A few days later, police in New York arrested 14 mob members, but couldn’t find enough evidence to charge them with killing Bazzano. Instead, they were charged with loitering.

— Steve Mellon

Aug. 30, 1985: High wire act at Three Rivers Stadium On a hot...

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:01:00 -0400

Aug. 30, 1985: High wire act at Three Rivers Stadium

On a hot August night in 1985, Walter J. Lascola was seated in the stands watching the Pittsburgh Steelers play the New York Giants.

With two minutes remaining in the game, Lascola, 24, made a bet with a friend and began a high wire act that enthralled fans and stopped the pre-season contest. He began crawling across a guy wire strung across the fifth level of Three Rivers Stadium.

The wire, which was about 60 feet above the ground, held up a net behind the goal post. The wire was directly above members of a band and authorities immediately moved them out of the way.

Play stopped and the crowd, as well as the football players, watched Lascola inch his way across the wire for about 10 minutes. Security guards followed underneath him, carrying a large white cloth to catch him if he fell.

Once Lascola reached the middle of the wire, he was able to shinny safely down to the top of a dugout. As he did, the crowd cheered.

He raised a hand to the crowd for one last round of cheers before police took him into custody and charged him with disorderly conduct and recklessly endangering another person.

As police led Lascola away, he was overheard saying, “When I was one-quarter of the way across, I got scared and started praying.”

The Steelers lost to the Giants, 24-14. Coach Chuck Noll frustrated by a string of pre-season losses, remarked after the game, “We didn’t exhibit anything.”

The Steelers might have lost their nerve but Lascola put on quite a show.

—Marylynne Pitz

1985: Our ’80s hair and other painful memories Those of us...

Fri, 17 May 2013 06:01:00 -0400

Tricia Solo sports a volcanic eruption of hair at Metropol. (Pittsburgh Press photo by Melissa Farlow)

Cornell High students David Quarles (left) and Ron Cononge were 80s trendsetters. (Pittsburgh Press photo by Andy Starnes)

Enormous padded shoulders were hip. (Post-Gazette photo by Mark Murphy)

Odd two-toned mullets got these guys fired from an Allentown, PA, restaurant. (Photo by Allentown Call, via AP)

A Philip Pelusi style in Pittsburgh. (Post-Gazette photo by Joyce Mendelsohn)

Carol Sinkler gets a hair weave in McKeesport in 1988. (Pittsburgh Press photo by Annie Lennox)

This was known as an evening style. (Post-Gazette photo by Mark Murphy)

1985: Our ’80s hair and other painful memories

Those of us who came of age in the 1980s sacrificed greatly as we waged a costly war on prudent judgment. The wounds remain. We dig deep into our clothes closets and tearfully gaze upon our well-worn parachute pants and “Members Only” jackets. Flashbacks of Urkel haunt us. At night we awaken in terror, screaming, “Where’s the beef?”

When that happens, we repeat our battle cry, “Don’t worry, be happy.”

Why have you deserted us, Rick Astley and Duran Duran?

Hair was the weapon we used with most tragic results. Proof is found in the PG files, in a folder labeled, “Hairstyles, 1980s.” Our arsenal included big hair, punk hair, weaves, asymmetrical wedges, big bangs and perms. We employed Aqua Net to forge hair into shapes resembling great natural disasters. Volcanic eruptions and catastrophic hurricanes come to mind.

Sadly, our enthusiasm led us to employ tools of such inhumanity that we now hang our heads in shame. Scientists continue to study the long-term psychological damage caused by a decade of exposure to the mullet. International treaties now bar its use.

We propped our well-coiffed heads on enormous padded shoulders and walked like Egyptians into the pop culture fray.

After humiliating setbacks, such as Toni Basil’s “Mickey” video and countless Journey ballads, all of which were insipid even by ’80s standards, we simply bought more hairspray and followed in the footsteps of Howard Jones, who proved to us that gravity didn’t matter. Then all of his hair fell out.

We were cool until Nirvana came along. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” rendered us irrelevant. Poison and Cinderella were banished to the county fair circuit. Our hip hair became ridiculous. Within a few years it turned gray.

Perhaps we never had a chance. We ’80s warriors bore the burden of having our ranks spoiled by the likes of Mr. T and Papa Smurf and young Madonna.

But weep not for us of the Pet Shop Boys generation. It could have been worse. At least we didn’t come of age in the 1970s.

(Top photo: Students at the Fashion Institute of Pittsburgh show off their new wave style. Pittsburgh Press photo by Bill Wade)

— Steve Mellon

April 30, 1989: “Mario Lemieux” Mario Lemieux might...

Wed, 15 May 2013 06:01:00 -0400

The winning goal by Rob Brown, Flyers goalie is Ron Hextall, #28 is Flyers Kjeill Samuelisson and Pens Mario Lemieux #66 (The Pittsburgh Press photo)

Zarley Zalapski congratulates Lemieux on scoring his 5th goal to put the Flyers away 10-7, Apr.26, 1989 (The Pittsburgh Press photo).

Lemieux is greeted by Dave Hannan after scoring in the first period against the Flyers, Apr. 26, 1989 (The Pittsburgh Press photo)

Coach Gene Ubriaco congratulates Mario Lemieux, Apr. 26, 1989 (The Pittsburgh Press photo)

April 30, 1989: “Mario Lemieux”

Mario Lemieux might – might – be able to laugh at this picture and his Teen Wolf playoff beard now, two dozen years after it was taken. But at that moment, there was nothing amusing to the 23-year-old Penguins captain as he faced the press just after his team was jettisoned from the 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs.

The post-season appearance was the first for Pittsburgh’s French-Canadian sauveur and the team’s first since 1982. Led by Lemieux, whose 199-point regular season stands as the franchise’s record and the fifth-most all-time, the Penguins were poised for a deep playoff run after an opening round sweep of the New York Rangers.

Notoriously rugged cross-Commonwealth antagonists the Philadelphia Flyers were the Penguins’ Patrick Division Finals opponents. Pittsburgh opened the series with a 4-3 home victory and the teams traded wins to the tune of a 2-2 series tie.

Then, in Game 5, Lemieux went positively nuclear in a 10-7 win with a five-goal, eight-point night that set or tied four NHL post-season single-game records – most goals in a game, goals in a period (4), points in a period (4) and points in a game – and remains as one of the single greatest playoff performances in hockey history, all while dealing with a nasty neck injury.

The Post-Gazette’s Penguins’ beat writer Tom McMillan, now a vice president with the team, wrote:

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen an athlete come up with as potent a game as he did tonight,” said center Dave Hannan, one of the Penguins’ blue-collar players who stood in awe. “He started so fast, and everyone else just picked it up because they wanted to be a part of it. It was unbelievable. Wow.”

“Lemieux, who couldn’t move his neck when he awoke Monday morning, reported less pain and considerably more range of motion when he showed up at the rink last night. “I felt pretty good,” he said. No kidding.”

With momentum and a 3-2 series lead a trip to the Wales Conference Finals – and perhaps beyond – seemed imminent. But sometimes destiny takes the scenic route.

McMillan wrote:“At least now, Mario Lemieux will shave his playoff beard.”

“It was a scraggly little thing anyway – several weeks worth of determined facial growth that, in the end, reminded us how young these Penguins were. If you can’t put forth a full playoff beard, you’re not quite mature enough to win a Stanley Cup. These things take time…”

“It’s tough to accept right now, but we have to learn from this,” Lemieux said … “Hopefully we can regroup next year and go as far as the finals.”

He was off by a year. The Penguins missed the playoffs the next season, but they’d win two consecutive Stanley Cups after that, with Lemieux earning back to back Conn Smythe trophies – sans playoff beard.

— Dan Gigler

Frank Lloyd Wright, the organic architect In 1991, the American...

Mon, 13 May 2013 06:01:00 -0400

Frank Lloyd Wright: genius at work, Jan. 31, 1988 (Photo by Pedro E. Guerrero)

Wright visits his 1910 Robie House in Chicago, Ill., March 18, 1957 (AP photo)

Frank Lloyd Wright, March 11, 1956 (The Pittsburgh Press photo)

Fallingwater, 2005 (Photo by Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette)

Frank Lloyd Wright with Kaufmann, Sr. (Credit: Unknown)

Building of Tomorrow in Tokyo by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1990 (AP photo)

Frank Lloyd Wright with his third wife Olgivanna, June 8, 1952 (Credit: Unknown)

Frank Lloyd Wright, the organic architect

In 1991, the American Institute of Architects recognized Frank Lloyd Wright as “the greatest American architect of all time.” Talented, radical and passionate about his vocation, Wright was a visionary master. He defied architectural doctrines of his time, challenged the tyranny of the skyscraper and was recognized as a true iconoclast believing that form and function in building should be “joined in a spiritual union.”

For Wright, American cities of the 20th century were a bad dream come true: stagy grandeur, disruptive of surrounding environment, flashy, and dwarfing the human spirit — they represented everything he despised. Wright once referred to New York as “a great monument to the power of money and greed… a race for rent.” He didn’t care much for Pittsburgh either. In 1935, he was quoted saying, “If I were remaking this city, the first thing I’d do would be get rid of that damned smoke.”

His philosophy of architecture was reflected in the Prairie School movement. The movement focused on the importance of harmony and aesthetic congruence between humanity and the surrounding environment. The philosophy embraced structures that grew organically, shaped by their natural surroundings and the needs of their human inhabitants, buildings that ‘hugged the Earth’ and merged with the landscape rather than dominated it.

“Simplicity and repose are qualities that measure the true value of any work of art,” Wright said. Simplicity was his mantra and the ability to simplify, he believed, was the hardest skill for an architect to perfect. ” ‘Think simple’ as my old master used to say — meaning reduce the whole of its parts into the simplest terms, getting back to first principles,” he said. It was for the simplicity and elegance of Wright’s creations that he received international praise from Germany to Japan.

Wright designed more than 500 structures, 300 of which survive.

Robie House, which he built in 1910 in Chicago, was recently included in the list of “Ten buildings that changed America.”

But the people’s favorite is, of course, the famous Fallingwater. It was built from 1934 to 1937 for the Kaufmanns at Mill Run, Fayette County. Constructed over a 30-foot waterfall, Fallingwater is unique; its design defines ‘organic architecture.’

Frank Lloyd Wright also had projects that were never meant to be. When his plans for a building in Yosemite were rejected, he was unhappy with the government; when Venice tabled his proposal for a glass and marble palace on the Grand Canal, he was mad at the tourists.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s personal life was tempestuous, filled with adventures, struggle and turmoil. Wright was married three times and fathered seven children. He died in 1959 at age 91.

He mentored a lot of successful architects and left behind many bits of wisdom in books and lectures. One piece of advice he tried to sear into the minds of his apprentices was, “Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”

— Mila Sanina

1944: “Mother’s Day.” Mother’s Day has...

Fri, 10 May 2013 06:01:00 -0400

Helen Manz turns 90 (The Pittsburgh Press photo)

A Pittsburgh Press clipping for Helen Manz' story

A proclamation of Mothers Day, 1910 (Source: http://www.wvculture.org/history/women/mothersday05.jpg)

A proclamation of Mothers Day by President Wilson, 1914 (Source: The National Archives)

1944: “Mother’s Day.”

Mother’s Day has been celebrated for almost 100 years. In the United States, it became a recognized holiday in 1914 because of Anna Jarvis. Born in 1864 in Webster, W.Va., Anna Jarvis, inspired by her mother, started a campaign in 1907 to make Mother’s Day an official holiday two years after her own mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis, passed away.

In 1910, the governor of West Virginia officially proclaimed Mother’s Day an official holiday in the state. “Our days of youth may be over, and the closer ties that bound us to our mother may have been loosened, but not a link in the chain of affection that bound her heart to ours has been broken, and we are thinking of Mother today as we always did, the noblest, sweetest and best of all God’s creatures.” In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a Congressional resolution proclaiming the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

Although Ms. Jarvis achieved her goal of making Mother’s Day an official U.S. holiday, she grew disappointed by its commercialization.

“A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother — and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment,” Ms.Jarvis said in disillusionment.

In 1948, Anna Jarvis died in West Chester, Pa., but Mother’s Day survived. And Pittsburgh newspapers have been honoring mothers from the community for many decades. Every year, there is a mention of Mother’s Day in Post-Gazette, and until 1992, The Pittsburgh Press covered it, too. Some mothers’ stories are quite remarkable. The story of Helen Manz is one of them.

In 1944, Ms. Manz, a North Side woman, received “a mother of the year award” from the armed services. The award was given in recognition of her own sacrifice and her family’s war effort. Seven of her 10 sons were in the service during World War II. “She was so proud of the seven stars on her window, each star representing a son in the service.”

In an interview with The Pittsburgh Press, her son Charles said, “My mother had more sons in the war than any other mother in Pennsylvania. My brothers Adam, Raymond, Richard, James and Joseph were all in the Army. Vincent and John were in the Navy and Frank, Bill and I were in defense work.” As part of Ms. Manz’s mother of year award, she travelled in 1944 to Atlantic City, N.J., to reunite with her son, Richard, who was wounded at the Battle of Anzio in Italy. All of her sons returned safely, but John was killed in an auto accident years later.

In 1980, The Pittsburgh Press ran a special for the 90th birthday of Helen Manz. At that point, she had a family of 31 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

Born on the North Side to German immigrant parents, Ms. Manz said that her family was widely known in the soap industry. In those days Staab soap was a household name among many German families in that area. Helen married a German immigrant who was a well-known meat cutter on the North Side. The couple had 10 boys and two girls. The Manz children were raised during the Depression and they remembered their mother scrubbing floors and doing all her baking and canning to keep the family going.

Ms. Manz taught her children to work hard, live right, speak softy, but carry a big stick. “I was tough with my children. I never let my boys get the upper hand. When I thought they needed it, they got a good tanning,” she said in the interview with The Pittsburgh Press.

Keep it real, dear mothers! And have a wonderful Mother’s Day!

— Mila Sanina

1969: “Mean Joe Greene” If it was Chuck Noll’s task...

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:26:00 -0400

Feb. 10, 1982

Jan. 7, 1980: Not-so-mean Joe Greene

Jan. 21, 1971 -- Joe Greene getting ready for the Pro Bowl game with Andy Russell

1969: “Mean Joe Greene”

If it was Chuck Noll’s task to resurrect a moribund football franchise when he was hired as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969, then Charles Edward “Mean Joe” Greene surely was the rock on which he would build his team.

Mean Joe would go on to be among the greatest and most iconic athletes in Pittsburgh sports history, but when Noll made the defensive tackle from North Texas State the fourth overall pick in the 1969 draft, there was a brief furor that the team had passed on Notre Dame quarterback and Butler native Terry Hanratty.

In the Jan. 29, 1969 Post-Gazette, sports writer Jack Sell wrote:

“The Steelers yesterday drafted a guy named Joe as the No. 1 choice in the combined NFL-AFL college player lottery. That failed to send a single season ticket buyer to the club’s office in Hotel Roosevelt.

“When news of Greene’s selection was made public, it got a rude reception from Steeler rooters, who have watched the local club foul up in the past. They were disgusted that Hanratty was passed.”

Noll remained firm on the draft pick.

“Most of the pro scouts rate Joe Greene from North Texas State as the greatest college defensive lineman in action,” he said of Greene at the time.

The Steelers selected Hanratty in the second round, though his career was spent mostly as a backup to standout quarterback Terry Bradshaw, drafted the following year. Greene, however, went on to arguably become the greatest player in team history.

A fierce competitor and a terror to opposing offenses, Greene earned his Mean Joe nickname on the field, but was regarded as a gentle giant off of it.

Later that year, when he signed his first professional contract, a photographer asked him to smile at the press conference.

“Smile?” Greene replied. “I’m not supposed to smile. I’m supposed to be mean.”

— Dan Gigler

“Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway and his career” On Nov. 7,...

Mon, 06 May 2013 06:01:00 -0400

Gen. Ridgway, 96, received a Combat Infantry Badge in 1991. At left are U.S. Sens. Sam Nunn and Strom Thurmond. At right is Gen. Colin Powell. (Pittsburgh Press Photo by Tom Ondrey)

Gen. Ridgway with Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. (Associated Press photo)

Gen. Ridgway, wife Mary and son Matt Jr. on a canoe trip. (Post-Gazette photo by Charles Stuebgen)

Gen. Ridgway, left, in 1953 with NATO officers Lt. Gen. Paul Ely and Gen. Omar Bradley. (International News Photos)

Gen. Ridgway in 1952 with the Duke of Edinburg (left) and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. (International News Photos)

“Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway and his career”

On Nov. 7, 1991, Army Gen. Colin L. Powell with a delegation of U. S. Senators visited the Fox Chapel home of Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway.

That day, Gen. Ridgway, 96, a hero of World War II and the Korean War, received the Congressional Gold Medal and the infantryman’s combat badge. Powell, then chairman of the Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented the medal valued at $25,000 to Gen. Ridgway. To this date, it is considered to be the highest civilian honor Congress can bestow.

While Ridgway was thrilled with the medal, he was especially delighted with the infantryman’s combat badge, the other honor he received that day. During World War II, only infantrymen who had served a minimum of 90 consecutive days in a combat zone wore it. He did not fit that criterion but an exception was made in his particular case.

Sixty-eight years ago this week, along with the rest of the world’s freedom-loving citizens, Gen. Ridgway celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II. He knew many heroes of that conflict, including Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

A true Army brat, Gen. Ridgway was born at Fort Monroe, Va., where his father, Colonel Thomas Ridgway was stationed. In 1913, Ridgway entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Before dawn on D-Day, Gen. Ridgway made a combat jump into Normandy on June 6, 1944. Risking his life, he directed soldiers to secure the bridgehead over the Merderet River.

By 1951, Gen. Ridgway was in Korea, where he rallied United Nations forces to seize strategic territory.

In 1953, Ridgway became U.S. Army Chief of Staff, the most frustrating assignment of his career. He disagreed with President Dwight Eisenhower’s decision to emphasize the threat of nuclear bombs over investment in maintaining a strong army of foot soldiers. Gen. Ridgway opposed American involvement in the Vietnam War. He also did not believe that women should be admitted to the U.S. service academies.

After his death at age 98 in 1993, Ridgway was buried with full military honors in Arlington Cemetery.

—Marylynne Pitz

1956: Marte Latham, “Queen of the Jungle” Marte Latham was...

Fri, 03 May 2013 06:01:00 -0400

In 1956 Mrs. Latham found giant earthworms in Colombia. (Photo credit: Unknown)

Mrs. Latham with famous zoologist and TV host Marlin Perkins. (Photo credit: Unknown)

The Latham home in Wexford was home to a collection of wild animals. (Pittsburgh Press photo)

Newspaper account of a close call.

1956: Marte Latham, “Queen of the Jungle”

Marte Latham was warned against venturing into the remote, unexplored jungles of Colombia without a military escort. It’s too dangerous, state department officials said. But she got tired of waiting. Giant earthworms could be found in those jungles. There was no time to waste.

So into the rugged rainforest went Mrs. Latham, packing a Winchester 88 rifle and accompanied only by native Colombians. Experts scoffed and said this housewife from Mt. Lebanon would never find the worms. It was the summer of 1956. The last reported sighting of the worms had come 26 years earlier.

High in the Andes Mountains, Mrs. Latham hired one of the native Colombians to dig a hole. Six feet down, Mrs. Latham found what she was looking for: worms that measured as long as 5 feet. She found 11 of the slimy beasts, packed them in crates marked “Precision Instruments” to ensure safe handling, and brought them to the United States, where they ended up in places like the Smithsonian Institution.

Mrs. Latham, a Pitt graduate, was described in Pittsburgh newspapers as an explorer, a research scientist, a naturalist, a “huntress,” a dealer in wildlife and “Queen of the Jungle.” By the mid 1950s, she was living with her family along Pearce Mill Road in Wexford and making frequent trips to South America to find rare animals. Her travel kit contained a toothbrush, a machete, a .38 snubnose revolver and lipstick.

Her Wexford house became a sort of menagerie that included animals such as an anteater, a slender loris, a boa constrictor and a variety birds and turtles.

By the early 1960s, Mrs. Latham had written a book titled “My Animal Queendom” and was appearing on television programs such as “To Tell the Truth” and “The Tonight Show.” Newspapers reported that she’d discovered a tiny frog that produced one of the most powerful poisons on Earth, and had them sent to scientists seeking new drugs for human ailments.

But it wasn’t all science and research for Mrs. Latham. She had a flair for fashion. On her head, Mrs. Latham sometimes wore live plumage. She trained canaries, parakeets and an Australian cockatiel named Sir Topper to perch nearly motionless atop spring hats. She claimed she’d worn such a hat into department stores and had walked through crowds without ever losing a bird.

— Steve Mellon

1906: “Pittsburgh’s Liberty Avenue” In...

Wed, 01 May 2013 08:01:00 -0400

Subway dig on Liberty Avenue, June 20, 1982 (Pittsburgh Press photo)

Liberty Ave., Nov. 23, 1981 (Post-Gazette photo by Mark Murphy)

Flood of 1936 (Photo by Acme Newspictures)

Busy Liberty Avenue, April 10, 1977 (Pittsburgh Press photo)

Aftermath of the dynamite explosion on Liberty Ave, July 20, 1973 (Photo by James Klingensmith/ Post-Gazette).

1906: “Pittsburgh’s Liberty Avenue”

In Amsterdam, it’s called De Wallen. In London, it used to be King’s Cross. And in Pittsburgh, in the 1970s and ’80s, it was Liberty Avenue, the red-light district of Downtown, the center of vice and crime. Prostitutes and gang members worked the streets. There were strip clubs, gay bars, adult novelty stores and movie theaters showing X-rated films. But that was Liberty Avenue in the ’70s and ’80s.

During the pre-industrial era, Liberty Avenue was the most desirable residential area of Pittsburgh. It had become the center of city’s trade activities, hosting local brewers, small manufactures and food suppliers. In 1894, the construction of the Joseph Horne Co. department store marked a new era for Liberty Avenue and Downtown — the advent of retail in Pittsburgh.

Industrialists, such as Henry Phipps, invested into building Downtown. The gigantic Fulton Building, the Clark Building, the Midtown Towers, the Second National Bank and others fascinated the eyes of Pittsburghers, especially newspaper photographers. These new grandiose constructions were punctuated by inception of the cultural life in the area — the Stanley Theatre, the Lowe’s Penn and the Harris Theatre. In their own right, they were an early effort to transform Downtown into a cultural center of the city.

But then came the 1930s with the Depression, then the famed St. Patrick’s Day Flood. Liberty Avenue, as a result, endured significant damage and subsequent decay.

In 1984, the hope for Liberty Avenue renewed when The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust started working to transform much of the area into what it has become today — a center for the arts — the Cultural District.

— Mila Sanina

1954: “Branch Rickey, Pirates’ general...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 06:01:00 -0400

Rickey in his Forbes Field office in December of 1952. (Photo credit: Unknown)

Smiling Branch Rickey with his ever-present cigar

1954: “Branch Rickey, Pirates’ general manager”

As a catcher, Branch Rickey was mediocre. As a manager of baseball teams, he was innovative and his ideas improved the game we know today.

His decision to sign Jackie Robinson helped alter Americans’ attitudes toward black athletes. On April 15, 1947 — 66 years ago this month — Jackie Robinson strode onto Ebbets Field, joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke the game’s unwritten color barrier. Robinson had promised Rickey he would not fight back when racial epithets were hurled at him.

Rickey grew up on a farm in Ohio and was raised as a Methodist. Out of respect for his faith, he never attended a baseball game on Sunday. Owlish, rumpled and folksy, he had bushy eyebrows and an ever-present cigar in his hand.

He developed the farm system for the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers, a model adopted by all other Major League teams. He also pioneered the use of baseball statistics. An ownership change at the Dodgers brought Rickey to Pittsburgh as general manager of the Pirates. In the 1952, 1953 and 1954 seasons, the team lost 100 games, prompting local sportswriters to call the players “Rickey Dinks.”

Rickey also traded the best player on the Pirates — Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner, a left fielder and home run champion. Rickey traded Kiner in 1953 when the star slugger had a salary dispute with the Pirates.

“If I can finish last with you, I can finish last without you,” Rickey told him.

Rickey signed Curtis Roberts, the Pirates’ first African-American Major League player. The second baseman played his first game with the team in April 1954.

A year later, Roberto Clemente debuted with the Pirates in the first game of a double-header against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Rickey was partly responsible for choosing Clemente in the rookie draft.

Also during the 1950s, Rickey became the first general manager in baseball to order every player on the team to wear a batting helmet. He owned stock in the company that made the helmets.

—Marylynne Pitz

Dec. 31, 1969: “Murder of the Yablonskis” Three small-time...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:01:00 -0400

Funeral mass for the Yablonskis was conducted by Msgr. Charles Owen Rice. (Pittsburgh Press photo by Al Hermann Jr.)

Wire photos of Margaret, Charlotte and Joseph Yablonski.

The Yablonskis lived and died in a 200-year-old stone farmhouse. (Pittsburgh Press photo by Al Hermann Jr.)

State police examine a Yablonski car with flattened tires. (Pittsburgh Press photo by Al Hermann Jr.)

Newspaper coverage of the murders. The bodies were discovered Jan. 5, 1970.

Prison bars reflected in the face of W.A. Tony Boyle at Western Penitentiary. (Pittsburgh Press photo by Ross Catanza)

Dec. 31, 1969: “Murder of the Yablonskis”

Three small-time burglars from Cleveland celebrated New Years Eve in 1969 by sitting in a car on a lonely road near Clarksville in rural Washington County. They drank beer and whiskey and waited for the lights to go out in an old brick farmhouse they were watching not far away. Perhaps the men were building up their courage. This was no routine theft job. This was the big time — murder for hire.

At 1 a.m., the farmhouse went dark. The three men — Paul Gilly, Aubran Martin and Claude Vealey — approached the house, flattened the tires on two cars in the driveway, cut telephone wires, then entered the residence through a back door. After taking off their shoes, the three crept upstairs.

They carried two weapons — an M1 carbine and a revolver. Martin wielded the revolver. He snuck into the bedroom of Charlotte Yablonski, 25, and shot her two times in the head. Vealey and Gilly entered the bedroom of Charlotte’s parents, Joseph (known as “Jock”) and Margaret Yablonski. Vealey attempted to fire the carbine but the clip fell out. Gilly picked up the clip, inserted it into the weapon and managed to fire one shot at Joseph Yablonski. Then the gun jammed.

By then Martin had entered the room. Joseph Yablonski was making a move for a nearby shotgun. Martin fired four shots with the revolver, killing both Joseph and Margaret.

So went the final political assassination of the bloody 1960s.

Joseph Yablonski died because he was considered a threat by W.A. “Tony” Boyle, a cantankerous bully who served as president of the miners union, United Mine Workers of America. Charlotte and Margaret died because the killers wanted no witnesses left behind.

Three weeks before the murders, Yablonksi had challenged Boyle for the union presidency but had lost his bid by a nearly 2-1 vote. Yablonski felt the election was fixed and said so. Federal authorities were looking into the matter.

Mining was a tough business. The UMWA was a tough union run by a tough guy — Boyle, who was corrupt and out of touch with the miners he represented. Yablonski believed changes were needed. He’d been working in mines since he was a boy. His involvement in the union began after his father was killed in a mine explosion.

Yablonksi met with Boyle in June of 1969, and the two ended up shouting at each other. About this time, Boyle decided Yablonski had to go. For good. Gilly, Martin and Vealey were hired for the job.

Police would later classify the three men as “clowns.” They left fingerprints all over the Yablonski place and were soon captured, tried and convicted. Before Boyle was to appear in court on charges of instigating the murder plan, he tried to kill himself by overdosing on drugs. He failed, only to die later in prison while serving three life sentences.

At a funeral mass for the Yablonskis, Msgr. Charles Owen Rice called the murders an “echo” of the killings of John and Robert Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Joseph, Margaret and Charlotte were then laid to rest on a windswept hillside in subzero temperatures.

Major reforms were soon enacted in UMWA politics and in miners’ health and safety. The changes sought by Joseph Yablonski and others finally arrived. The price: $1,700 offered to each of the three inept assassins and the blood of the Yablonski family.

— Steve Mellon

1976: “Mean Joe Greene and Bennie...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 06:01:00 -0400

1976: “Mean Joe Greene and Bennie Cunningham”

Thursday night, the NFL’s annual player selection meeting — a.k.a. the draft — will commence at 8 p.m. in New York City and probably before the 10 p.m., the Steelers will have added their newest member — a young man who, not only will the team have high hopes for, but so will Steelers fans from Ross Township to Rome, Italy.

And sometime within the next week or so, this newly minted Steeler (and soon-to-be millionaire) will be trotted out before the local media at the team’s headquarters on the South Side for a news conference.

He’ll be introduced by Art Rooney, Kevin Colbert or Mike Tomlin, answer the perfunctory questions, and pose for a picture holding a Steelers jersey with his last name on it and the No. 1 in honor of his draft position. And if the last 10 to 20 years are any guide, he will likely be wearing some kind of a conservative suit, blazer or at the very least a polo shirt with the team logo on it.

He will almost certainly not, however, be wearing anything nearly as garish as what 1976 Steelers first-round pick, tight end Bennie Cunningham of Clemson, wore on his inaugural visit to the Pittsburgh: puka shell necklace, half buttoned, patchwork denim butterfly-collared shirt with matching bell bottoms (with flares so wide they could envelop a small dog). And to boot, an Afro that would make Questlove envious.

But that’s nothing compared to Mean Joe Greene’s sportcoat. Thankfully, this picture is black and white because that jacket is so dizzying that in full color it might induce a seizure to an unsuspecting epileptic.

In this picture, Greene welcomes Cunningham to town, one No. 1 pick to another.

Writing in the April 24, 1976, Post-Gazette, Vito Stellino said of Cunningham, “A 6-5, 255-pounder … Cunningham seemed eager and almost awed at the thought of joining the Steelers.”

Cunningham said: “It’s a little tougher to make it at Pittsburgh than with any other team. There’s not much room for improvement. I know even the first-round pick doesn’t even always make it.”

Though never a superstar — few tight ends were in that era — Cunningham would go on to have a solid 10-year career with the Steelers and was named to the franchise’s 75th anniversary All-Time Team.

— Dan Gigler

1905: “Antique Cars of Pennsylvania” They may look...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 06:01:00 -0400

1915 Stanley Steamer (Sun-Telegraph photo)

1948: The Glidden Tour to Bedford Springs (Sun-Telegraph photo)

Sept. 28, 1951: The 1910 Regal in the 1951 Glidden Tour (Sun-Telegraph photo)

1925: 1904 Oldsmobile (Sun-Telegraph photo)

1905: “Antique Cars of Pennsylvania”

They may look bulky, clunky and even awkward to a modern eye, but antique cars have their charm and occupy a prominent place in auto history of Pittsburgh. Car races dating to the beginning of the 20th century, antique car shows and powerful Pittsburgh capital holders able to afford the elite automobiles are part of Pittsburgh’s auto history.

The story of antique cars in Pittsburgh unfolded in parallel with developments in the automobile industry in the United States starting in 1895, when the first automobile patent was approved.

The antique era in auto history covered the period from 1895 to 1920.

The earliest photo of antique cars found in Post-Gazette’s library was published in 1905 by the Sun-Telegraph. It shows three of Pittsburgh’s progressive physicians lining up their cars during a Sunday afternoon drive near Freeport. The photo caption identifies them left to right: Dr. George A. Urling and family; Dr. John A. Hawkins and family; family and Frank D. Saupp, and Dr. H. W. Urling and family.

Before 1920, only the wealthy owned automobiles in America. According to the Horseless Carriage Club, “Ownership required a pioneering spirit, inventiveness and superior mechanical ability to keep these early automobiles functioning. These early automobiles were called horseless carriages as they were capable of transporting people and freight faster and longer distance without the need of a horse to pull them.”

“Unlike a horse, the automobile did not require feeding or veterinarians to maintain health when not in service, but like a horse they often got a lecture in a colorful language by the owner when they would not perform.”

Pittsburgh had its own Chapter of the Horseless Carriage Club of America. The Sun-Telegraph captured its president Gene Connelly (second photo on the right) at the helm of a 1915 Stanley Steamer Mountain Wagon. It was the first station wagon in America. The automobile hauled guests from railway stations to mountain resorts in the East.

The unique characters of antique automobiles continued charming wealthy Pennsylvanians years later. Cadillacs from 1910, Regals and 1909 Pierce Arrows took part in the Glidden Tour to Pennsylvania’s prestigious Bedford Springs resort in 1948 (third photo).

In 1951, the trend continued. The Sun-Telegraph photo from that year (fourth on the right) shows the 1910 Regal, one of the sportiest cars in the annual Glidden tour, piloted by James C. Sutton of Bristol, Pa., and Stanley Wilkinson, Philadelphia. According to the Sun-Telegraph, Sutton bought it in a junk yard for $75.

The American Automobile Association established the Glidden Tour in 1902. The tours took place yearly until 1913. The event was terminated because of the poorly developed road system in the U.S., recurrent problems with accidents and public complaints. Long before the Dakar rallies, these tours were usually tests of endurance for the participants: the roads were terrible, accidents were numerous, cars broke down all the time and drivers had to be prepared to repair their horseless carriages on the run. Residents of the communities were not very happy when the tours crisscrossed their land, damaging property and scaring horses. The Veteran Motor Car Club of American brought the Glidden Tours back in 1946.

— Mila Sanina

1970: “Steelers draft Terry Bradshaw” Among the most...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:01:05 -0400

Terry Bradshaw at Duquesne Incline, 1970 (Ed Morgan, Post-Gazette)

Terry Bradshaw on the phone with his parents, shares the news that he was drafted as a Steeler (AP photo)

Terry Bradshaw at Three Rivers Stadium, the battlefield he would be entering that year after being drafted, Feb. 14, 1970 (Photo by Al Hermann, Post-Gazette)

Newspaper clipping from Jan. 28, 1970, the day Bradshaw was drafted by Steelers (Post-Gazette)

1970: “Steelers draft Terry Bradshaw”

Among the most romanticized of turns of fate, a coin toss takes seconds and has dead even odds, yet can be the linchpin for ramifications that span decades.

Not to be melodramatic or anything.

But it is hardly a stretch to say that the Pittsburgh Steelers — the most successful franchise in the modern history of the National Football League and an internationally recognized sports brand — owe everything to a coin flip.

All those Super Bowls, Terrible Towels, and immortal moments, it can be argued, came down to a coin flip between Dan Rooney and his Chicago Bears counterpart Ed McCaskey that awarded the Steelers the rights to draft Terry Paxton Bradshaw, a 21-year-old quarterback from Shreveport, La., first overall in the 1970 NFL Draft.

Jack Sell’s Post-Gazette story from Feb. 14, 1970, explains: “… Chuck Noll isn’t superstitious. Neither is he a winner as last season’s 1-13 record affirms. That was the worst in the club’s 37 seasons of futility.”

“Actually it was because of Noll’s 13 that Bradshaw was here yesterday. The Steelers tied the Bears for the poorest mark in the two big leagues, then won a coin flip for first choice two days before the Super Bowl in New Orleans. The Bears blew a chance at No. 1 when they chewed up the Steelers for their lone victory in Wrigley Field, an ancient arena where the Gold and Black has never won a ball game.”

Sell wrote the story on the occasion of Bradshaw’s introduction to the Pittsburgh media a few weeks after his selection. “On Friday the Steelers entertained Quarterback Terry Bradshaw of little Louisiana Tech, their No. 1 draft pick. The red carpet was rolled out for a press reception and dinner in the LeMont Restaurant atop Mt. Washington where the young gridder could gaze down at Three Rivers Stadium, the battlefield he will be entering this year.”

That would never, ever happen today. One closely monitored press conference with the new pick at the team’s facilities is all the media would get.

But the Steelers weren’t sold on the Blonde Bomber until they saw him in person, as Sell reported in the Jan. 28, 1970, Post-Gazette, the day after the pick. “A personal scouting trip by Coach Chuck Noll of the Steelers to practice sessions preceeding the North-South game in Miami and the Senior Bowl in Mobile convinced him that Quarterback Terry Bradshaw, the 6-3, 215 pounder from Louisina Tech, was the top college football player in the nation. So he was drafted No. 1.

“‘Terry is an extremely accurate drop back passer and he can take off and run with the ball if necessary,’ Noll declared yesterday in a lull during the annual pro lottery proceedings in Hotel Roosevelt.

”’… You have to get closeups to judge accurately. Terry convinced me that he was the most valuable piece of property in the college ranks.’”

“Vice President Dan Rooney explained yesterday that his club delayed making their final decision on Bradshaw until late Monday night.

“‘We had numerous trade offers for the No. 1 pick but most of them were for a lot of junk,’ Rooney said. ‘But three or four were legitimate and we considered them carefully. However, we felt none offered us enough talent to equal the worth of Bradshaw.’

“… The 21-year-old Bradshaw is the first No. 1 draft pick from a college division school. The Little All-American QB lacks the glamour of O.J. Simpson, last year’s first choice by the Buffalo Bills from USC, but Bradshaw is being tabbed as a sure fire pro star.”

It’s entirely possible that the Steelers would have been good without Bradshaw. Dan Rooney had taken over operation of the team from his lovably losing father in 1969, intent on building a winner. That same year he hired head coach Chuck Noll to carry it out and they drafted Mean Joe Greene.

They added another Hall of Famer, cornerback Mel Blount, in the third round of the same draft as Bradshaw. They would add six more eventual Canton enshrinees — Jack Ham, Franco Harris, Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster — plus countless other role players over the next four years before winning Super Bowl IX.

But there’s something about a golden boy quarterback. Could the Steelers have become a football dynasty if Rooney had lost the coin toss and Bradshaw became a Monster of the Midway?

As Bradshaw is alleged to have said: “you can lose with me, but you can’t win without me.”

And win the Steelers did. With him.

— Dan Gigler

1970s: “M. Jane Scully, Pittsburgh advocate for women,...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 06:01:00 -0400

M. Jane Scully at the Duquesne Club, 1970s (Post-Gazette photo)

Sister M. Camillus Scully in full habits

M. Jane Scully shows off her batting expertise by swatting a ball made of scrap paper, 1976. (Post-Gazette photo)

1970s: “M. Jane Scully, Pittsburgh advocate for women, justice and peace”

It was not easy for Irish Roman Catholics to get ahead in Pittsburgh during the 1930s but education provided a path. As one of five Irish siblings, M. Jane Scully grew up first in Dormont and later in Squirrel Hill. From a young age, she was a student of politics and a voracious reader. Both interests served her well.

After joining the Religious Sisters of Mercy in 1940, the amiable, freckle-faced woman was a teacher, a librarian, a fund raiser and, finally, at age 47, president of Mount Mercy College.

But before rising to that lofty position, she was a student. After graduating from Mount Mercy, Sister Scully was awarded a graduate fellowship in the School of Social Service at the University of Pittsburgh. She also earned a degree in library science at Carnegie Library School and a master of arts in library science at the University of Michigan.

When she was elected president of Mount Mercy College in 1966, her religious name was M. Camillus Scully and she wore a full habit. She also was the first alumna of the school, now Carlow University, to be named its chief executive officer. Her successful tenure lasted 16 years.

In several ways, she was a pioneer. In the 1970s, she became the first woman to serve on Gulf Oil’s board of directors. She also was one of the first women admitted to membership in the Duquesne Club, once a male-only bastion of corporate power.

That was quite a climb up the ladder after a twelve-year stint as Mount Mercy’s librarian, a job she held from 1950 to 1962. In 1965, she was named director of development and began planning the school’s expansion. She also was an associate professor on the English faculty.

After the reforms of Vatican II, many nuns returned to their baptismal names and stopped wearing full habits. Sister Camillus followed that trend in 1968, returning to her baptismal name of M. Jane Scully.

Sister Jane also advocated for women to have athletic opportunities on college campuses.

“I think it’s very important that young women have the opportunity to develop their fullest potential. And if scholarships contribute to that opportunity, then scholarships should be made available,” she told the Post-Gazette in 1976. She even took time to show off her batting expertise for a reporter by swatting a ball made of scrap paper.

When she retired in 1982, she was honored during a dinner at the Duquesne Club. A grateful Sister Scully remarked that she had been able to serve God, women, justice and peace.

And we just learned today that Sister Jane is still around. She is in her 90s and relies on a wheelchair and an aide to get around, but she still attends the occasional event on the Carlow campus.

—Marylynne Pitz

Circa 1955: “Pittsburgh at Night” Pittsburgh hasn’t...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 06:01:00 -0400

Unidentified Pittsburgh steel mill on Dec. 31, 1939. (Photo credit: Unknown)

Time exposure of the Civic Arena, July 4, 1962. (Pittsburgh Press photo by Dale Gleason)

The J&L steel works on the South Side, 1946. (Photo credit: Unknown)

Pittsburgh, from the Hill District, near the Connelly Trade School on Bedford Avenue, Jan. 9, 1955. (Pittsburgh Press photo)

Circa 1955: “Pittsburgh at Night”

Pittsburgh hasn’t always been beautiful in the harsh light of day. In her industrial years she was described as smoky, dirty, gritty and filthy. In fact, our lovely city once endured the reputation of being “hell with the lid off.”

But by night, Pittsburgh has always been spectacular. The industrial fires that sent smoke into our air and blackened our stone buildings also created stunning displays of light. Darkness provided a stark backdrop while concealing the city’s less appealing characteristics.

And of course Pittsburgh’s abundant hills served as fantastic viewing platforms.

The city’s business district, with its buildings clustered into a small triangle of land, has always gleamed in the night. Even in our dirtiest days, rivers poisoned with waste appeared as shimmering plates of glass and potholed streets emerged as ribbons of light. Above it all rose the Gulf Building, regal in its glowing crown.

Photographers took notice. The ugly city they knew by day magically transformed itself every night into a beautiful metropolis. Many set out to capture that beauty with their bulky cameras. Here are a few of the results.

The earliest picture was taken in 1939, as the country was climbing its way out of an economic depression. It shows what appears to be a church steeple silhouetted by the light of an unidentified steel mill. The optimistic caption in The Pittsburgh Press read, “A sure sign of better times in Pittsburgh is this nighttime scene on the industrial front, the sky lighted by belching furnaces.”

In an image made in 1946, the J&L steel mill on the South Side is so ablaze with light that it appears to harbor something angelic.

And at the official opening of the Civic Arena’s dome on July 4, 1962, Press photographer Dale Gleason was moved to shoot a time exposure of the event. As the great roof made its “epic journey,” Gleason opened his shutter a number of times, thereby “x-raying the Civic Arena,” declared the caption.

Much has changed since these pictures were made. The mills are gone, the Civic Arena is gone. We still have the Gulf Building, though, and the lights. And Pittsburgh has emerged as a city that looks great even on the brightest of days.

— Steve Mellon

Aug. 23, 1952: “Jackie Robinson visits the North...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:01:00 -0400

Jackie Robinson first played at Forbes Field as a major leaguer on May 15, 1947. (Photo credit: Unknown)

Teammates congratulate Jackie Robinson after a home run at Forbes Field on June 4, 1952. (Pittsburgh Press photo)

The ball gets past Jackie Robinson while Pirate Danny Murtaugh slides into third during a game on June 9, 1948. Murtaugh later became Pirates manager. (Associated Press photo)

Aug. 23, 1952: “Jackie Robinson visits the North Side”

Today’s release of the movie “42” inspired us to seek out our file of Jackie Robinson pictures. We found four folders. Most contain images provided by the wire services — basic baseball action shots: Robinson at bat, sliding into second base, or trotting around the bases.

However, a handful of pictures show Robinson in Pittsburgh and out of uniform.

Our favorite picture is a wonderfully chaotic and telling image of Robinson visiting a group of children on the North Side. Robinson is a striking figure in a light suit, and he appears comfortable among an adoring throng. We love the children’s faces. By our rough count, 60 are present. Mostly, they are the faces of African-American children — some so small they must strain to be visible to the camera — though a few white faces can be found. A small white hand pats Robinson on the back.

The picture was shot in August, 1952. The original caption does not give a specific location. Robinson, the caption reads, spoke to the children about the importance of clean living.

Perhaps we’re attracted to the image because it makes us feel good about our city and our place in history. The man who broke baseball’s color barrier is seen in a happy moment, in Pittsburgh, surrounded by a crowd that obviously loves him.

Circumstances were somewhat different five years earlier when Robinson came to town in his debut at Forbes Field as a Brooklyn Dodgers player. Then, he stayed at the Ellis Hotel on Center Avenue in the Hill District. His teammates were lodged a few miles away, at the Schenley Hotel. The date was May 15, 1947. Exactly one month had passed since Robinson made history by becoming the first black to play baseball in the major leagues. It had proved to be an eventful month.

In St. Louis, Robinson was barred from staying with his teammates at the Chase Hotel. And in Philadelphia, the team’s luggage was unceremoniously plopped on the sidewalk outside the Benjamin Franklin Hotel. The hotel manager said the Dodgers were unwelcome. Come back when you get rid of the African-American, he said.

The manager, however, used a term somewhat different than “African-American.”

Because of that incident, the Dodgers’ traveling secretary made arrangements to have Robinson stay with black families or in hotels separate from his teammates.

Ugliness extended to the playing field. In Philadelphia, the Phillies’ manager threw a black cat on the field and yelled out to Robinson, “Here’s one of your brothers.”

One reserve player for the Pirates reported that infielders received an automatic fine if they didn’t try to bean Robinson on a double play.

Then there was the verbal abuse and heckling from the opposing dugouts. You can imagine what was said. It happened in Pittsburgh, too.

While at the Ellis Hotel on Center Avenue, Robinson mostly stayed in his room, recalled the hotel’s owner, Frank Ellis.

We love the picture of Robinson surrounded by the throng of adoring children, but the image we must remember is one we only can imagine — that of Robinson in a strange room in a strange town, separated from his teammates and alone with his thoughts. Surely he is, at that moment, aware of the historic burden placed upon his shoulders and the insults and hate that await him. And yet he remains filled with resolve.

— Steve Mellon

1960s: ”Park Schenley Restaurant —...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 06:01:00 -0400

Frank Turi supervises preparation at Park Schenley, Nov. 1984 (Photo by Greg Blackman, The Pittsburgh Press)

Park Schenley before changing ownership, 1983 (Photo by Lui Kit Wong, The Pittsburgh Press)

Frank Bruni (in the middle) and his colleagues in front of the Park Schenley restaurant, 1983 (Pittsburgh Press photo)

Gourmet dinner at the old Park Schenley, 1964 (Photo by Moyer, The Pittsburgh Press)

Meal for gourmets at the old Park Schenley restaurant, 1958 (Photo by Al Hermann, The Pittsburgh Press)

1960s: ”Park Schenley Restaurant — Pittsburgh’s 21 Club”

The Park Schenley was more than just a restaurant. It was an institution for those who liked exquisite dining and cared deeply about the atmosphere and the restaurant experience. Located in the heart of Oakland, it was one of Pittsburgh’s favorite and the region’s finest restaurants and the social center of the city in 1950s and ’60s.

The first big project of the local architect Tasso Katselas, whose works later included the Pittsburgh International Airport, the Allegheny County Jail and the Carnegie Science Center, the restaurant was an instant and overwhelming success with superb food and drink complementing the ambiance.

When Katselas just started working on Park Schenley, he had no office or staff. He built a plywood drafting board on site and began drawing. The interior design of Park Schenley was ahead of its time and nothing like it could be found in Pittsburgh in 1954. “The perimeter of the dining room had flexible alcove bench seating and the center space used columns as pivots for larger groups.” The bar was long and curved, its shape reflecting in undulating wood ceiling above.

The restaurant was popular for its exquisite cuisine, courteous waiters, pleasant ambiance and the roast beef cart that was wheeled to the table to serve the cut a diner had ordered. The person chiefly responsible for the menu was Dino Nardi, who earned high praises in the United States and in Europe. Among Chef Nardi’s popular masterpieces were Cote D’Azure paulet in skillet, curry of jumbo shrimp in casserole, stuffed deviled crab Park Schenley and roast Cornish game hens.

The giant of local restaurant restaurant business and ”a man of an absolute heart of gold,” Frank Blandi was the restaurant’s owner until 1983. Blandi opened the Park Schenley in 1954 on Forbes Avenue across from the Schenley Hotel, now the Pitt Student Union. The restaurant was moved to the Royal York building on Bigelow Boulevard in 1964, when the Hillman Library was built on its place.

Under Blandi’s leadership the restaurant won multiple awards, including a national Dining Distinction award in 1957, three years after it opened. Park Schenley’s prime rib earned it a roast beef award from Maurice C. Dreicer, noted gourmet from New York. In 1981, the Park Schenley was one of 50 award-winning restaurants to participate in “A Taste of America” at a presidential inaugural reception in Washington.

But these awards were not his only accomplishments. Blandi started the Gourmet Dinners for Children’s Hospital through The Pittsburgh Press Old Newsboys Fund in the old Park Schenley restaurant and LeMont on Mount Washington, the restaurant he founded. Those dinner were lavish, seven-course offerings that guests paid as much as $200 a piece to attend. He raised $600,000 through this campaign for Children’s Hospital. “Nothing has given more satisfaction than raising that kind of money for kids whose parents can’t afford their medical care,” Blandi said.

In 1983, the Park Schenley changed owners and had undergone major transitions. The restaurant was remodeled: a neo-deco sand-carved glass panel by local artist Rudi Maros became a centerpiece of the dining hall.

— Mila Sanina