Say goodbye to a few hours

You know how you sit down to check Facebook for just a moment, but then you find the sun has set, or it's hours later and the cat hasn't been fed?  It's so hard sometimes to stay focused, especially when the things we're browsing are interesting.

I might like interesting things more than the average bear, and I certainly like things that aren't interesting to most.  For my history research, family research, and general amusement I have a subscription to Newspapers.com -- it allows me to search and read so many old (and newish) newspapers, but it can be just as distracting as a quiz on Facebook telling you which Berenstain Bear you are.

So I caught myself heading down the rabbit hole the other day, and thought I should just kinda keep track of what I was jumping from to and fro.  So welcome to my wanderings:

I started in a Facebook group called "Historic Minneapolis," which for one reason or another linked me to another Facebook history group called

Sharing Minnesota History and Experiences

    ... which had an article and link to

History of the Police and Fire Departments of the Twin Cities, 1899

    ... which in chapter IV had a story about

WONIGKEIT AND IRMISCH ARE CONVICTED OF MURDER AND ARE HUNG (1892)

    ... so searching for the address to the saloon

Found Otto Wonigkeit in newspapers.com

    ... which had an article that clarified the victim's name was

Lindhoff

    ... which led me to a search result with an unrelated Linkhoff

Joseph Lindhoff, a young lad, was shot at today by some person unknown, and was slightly injured

    ... which was in a small article on deaths including

Chas H Kirkwood, of Ishpeming MI died between Ishpeming and Nauganee with the following details:

"At 11pm, Charles fell from the front platform of a crowded electric car. 

He caught the handle at the side of the step and was swung in front of the car, where he fell. 

The car passed over his legs, cutting both off at the knee. 

His face rested on the return circuit wire between the rails and he received a shock that caused instant death.

The car was stopped 100 feet further on and the body was picked up and carried back to Negaunee, where life was pronounced extinct.

Mr. Kirkwood was 45 years of age and a successful business man, owning multiple drug stores.

He leaves a widow and two children, aged 10 and 12. His son, aged 10, and his father's pet, has not slept or eaten since the accident and refuse to be comforted.

Mr. Kirkwood leaves a large estate free of incumbrance and a heavy life insurance."

Looking to see what happened to the "large estate" wondering if it became a Michigan Empire

...  where I found ads referring to 

Kirkwood pharmacy in Ishpeming

... and on the same page had an movie ad for 

The Wise Guy, starring James Kirkwood (Born in Grand Rapids MI in 1876, no idea if related)

... which introduced me to

James Kirkwood Sr., an Actor and Director

... whose career fizzled with the end of the silent film era.  He died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital

    ... which was created in 1940 after the untimely deaths of several former Hollywood stars (including Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, a wholly different rabbit hole), now destitute, shook the community.

    Scores of movie notables spent their last years here, as have far less famous people from behind the scenes of the industry. Those with money paid their own way, while those who had no money paid nothing. Fees are based solely on the "ability to pay."

    ... where, in 2020, actor Allen Garfield died of COVID-19 at age 80.  You remember him as Chief Lutz in Beverly Hills Cop 2

    ... anyway..

    ... one of James Kirkwood's 3 different marriages was to

Lila "Cuddles" Lee, an actress whose story includes a number of different cliches

... such as:

"being plucked from obscurity, discovered by songwriter Gus Edwards (fascinating wiki page) while playing on the street with other children."

    As a very young boy, Edwards worked as a song plugger at Koster and Bial's, at Tony Pastor's theatre, and at the Bowery Theatre. In those old vaudeville days, song publishers would often hire a very young boy to sit in the theatre, and immediately after a vaudeville star had sung one of the publisher's songs, the youngster would stand up in the audience, and pretending to be completely overcome by the song, break out in an "extemporaneous" solo of the same tune. 

    He discovered Walter Winchell, Elsie Janis, George Jessel, Eddie Cantor, Groucho Marx, Phil Silvers, Lila Lee, Georgie Price, Eleanor Powell, Hildegarde, Ray Bolger, Sally Rand, Jack Pearl, the Lane Sisters, and Ina Ray Hutton. 

    He also wrote  "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" (Oh holy crap that version is creepy!) among other songs.

    ... Back to Cuddles -- her turbulent marriage to matinee idol James Kirkwood in the 1920s came very close to an "A Star Is Born" scenario.  [Just found this researching links - the writer of the latest version of A Star Is Born was helped by the MPTF - who run the hospital/home listed waay up there.]  Her acting career was shooting up while his was plummeting. They divorced in 1931.

    She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

    Her erratic screen career decline was triggered by severe bouts with what was euphemistically referred to as tuberculosis, but whispered to be the results of acute alcoholism.

    For her tuberculosis in the 1930s, began an extended stay at the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital in Saranac Lake, New York until her death in 1973.

    She made a few dismal comebacks on stage and in TV soaps in the 1950s but to little fanfare. Her last picture was as a hayseed mom in the deservedly obscure Cottonpickin' Chickenpickers (1967).

    She had a son with James Kirkwood Sr, named..

James Kirkwood Jr, who:

    ... at age 12, he discovered the decomposing body of his mother’s fiancé, Reid Russel of whom he was allegedly fond, in the garden hammock of a friend’s house where they were staying.  How long had it been there?  Was the gun in the victim’s hand the weapon that had killed him?  

    Much mystery surrounded this incident, at first listed by the police as a suicide, later investigated as a possible homicide.  More about that in James' semi-autobiographical "There must be a Pony" - book or film.

    ... he wrote "Some Kind of Hero" and the play PS Your Cat Is Dead, made into a movie by Steve Guttenberg in 2002.  It's only partally semi-autobiographical.

    ... more importantly, James Jr. wrote A Chorus Line

    In 1976 he received the Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the Broadway hit A Chorus Line.

    He died of AIDS in 1989

I checked out the trailer for PS Your Cat Is Dead and now I want to see it.  

It stars Guttenberg and Lombardo Boyar, who played Raul in Happy Feet.  It's about an actor holds a burglar hostage on New Year's Eve, after his girlfriend leaves him and his cat dies.

    ... it also stars Cynthia Watros,

    ... who played Libby on Lost

    ... and has a (web) series called Cynthia Watros gets Lost which you can watch here.

    ... which looks good and bad and only has a few episodes, including one in which she works at a donut shop.

So what started as a comment on a Minneapolis history facebook page has caused me to end up wanting Donuts.  Hope you enjoyed the journey as much as I did.  :)

Got held up on the way to the Zoom call. Literally.

 Every other Thursday I meet with a group of guys from Face-it.  Since COVID began we've been doing Zoom calls instead of meeting in person.  Midsummer I realized I could use the two hours to go for a walk, use my earbuds and enjoy some exercise while I enjoyed the call.  It's a great group of guys, and a tremendous part of my support system.

I haven't been walking as much lately because it gets dark early and I was a little worried about the recent uptick in crime.  But tonight was "dinner on your own" night and I like me some Jimmy Johns, so I figured I'd go for my walk, grab some takeout sandwich, and bring it back home to enjoy on the porch.  It's been lovely weather lately.

As I started my walk I joked to the guys that I was walking through Uptown so I'd probably get mugged.  We all laughed, and the call proceeded - though I wasn't on video, I was just doing audio, because who wants to do a Zoom video call while walking, right?  My earbuds have "ambient sound" mode, so I can still hear what's going on around me, so it's pretty safe.

As I'm happily walking along 33rd, just about to get to Fremont, I notice a black sedan pull into the driveway a bit ahead of me.  They cross the sidewalk so I don't have to stop, but I do notice that the reverse lights go on.  So I'm paying attention to make sure they don't accidentally run over me.  They don't, and I carry on.

About fifteen feet later I sense and hear movement behind me, so I turn to see a young, maybe 14 year old, kid with a generic blue facemask, and he puts a hand into my back and says "don't say anything or I'll shoot."

Seriously?  He looked so young.  And kinda angry.

So let's back up a bit.  

I walked home from work downtown to our house in Kingfield almost every day for ten years.  It was a great way to get exercise, decompress from work, and save money on gas.  I really enjoyed it.  I did, however, get a little nervous sometimes when it would get dark early, and I was just aware that we have some level of crime in the city.  My plan was to be loud (I can be loud, more on that later) and to walk directly into the middle of the street I walk down.  That street is Blaisdell and during the commute, is so busy that blocking it by walking into the street is likely far more dangerous than getting mugged -- but it would be an effective way of drawing attention to my situation.

I thought about self defense weapons or things like that, but really thought being aware of my surroundings and wise to the fact that there are bad guys out there was probably the best I could do.  Most of the time a weapon in a situation like that is used on the victim anyway.

I never had any issues, and the fact that I'm male, with a large-ish profile might have had something to do with that.  I'm aware of my priveledge, even if it's because I drink too much Summit beer.  I would get myself amped up from time to time when I thought I might be at risk, but always felt a little let down I had never been tested.

So I'm finally in that situation where a crime is being perpetrated against me.  I get to find out how I would react.

Backing up a bit again..

I spent five years in the Marine Corps.  Not the infantry.  We were a smart group of Marines who honestly thought a lot of the macho military stuff was a bit silly but we went along with it because we dropped out of college or something.  But the Marines nonetheless.  I'm quite proud of my service, and regardless of my job in the Marines, I went through the same bootcamp as everyone else.  As a skinny nerd I might have had a rougher time, in fact.  In any case, one of the things I learned from the Marines is what my family calls my "Marine Voice."  It comes from your stomach, takes all of your bottled up emotions, jams them through your lungs taking every breath of air you hold, and comes barreling out of your throat almost skipping the mouth.  It's quite loud, and I've been permanently banned from using it in the car.  Or indoors.  Or anywhere, really.  As I've matured I've mastered my emotions a little better and control my anger or agression or whatever.  Did I mention it was loud?  I'm quite proud of that, and if I can figure out how to make money belting out whatever I can, it would be a fun job.

One of the other things I took from the Marines is a sense of problem solving that usually shows up as a direct need to face a situation, usually somewhat aggressively, and look for a solution.  I'm pretty good at remaining calm, and like to go into logic mode when I can.

So looking at this kid I just went into Marine mode.  Remembering that my time in the Marines was 30 years ago, it's just something that never goes away.  The thing in my back didn't feel like a sharp thing (knife) or anything really heavy (gun) and to be honest if it was a guy he wasn't aming it anywhere important, and it wouldn't be more than a .22, so it's just a little hole.  We have lots of hospitals around here, what's the worst that could happen?

Oh yeah, I'm a little dark, too, so regardless of my mental state I've always had a tiny bit of a death wish.

So at full Marine volume I say (shout?  emote?)  "Go ahead, shoot me" and then remembering that if you're being mugged on a New York street nobody will look at someone yelling "Help" but they'll look if someone says "fire!" I yell "Fire!  Fire!  There'a a fire here!" and so on.

The kid went from angry to wide eyed, confused, and scared in a heartbeat.  He turned and ran toward the car and I could see there were two others in the car.  Kids, really.  And they all had the same look of "what the hell is happening here?" on their faces.  

At this point I'm actively mad and he's running, but I'm walking briskly after him yelling for him to get out of the neighborhood, go away, things like that.  It's likely my language was fairly coarse.  Like, you know the phrase "swearing like a sailor"?  Well the Marines are a department of the Navy, just sayin'.

The kids offer some halfhearted responses, but to be honest I couldn't hear them over my own volume, and they didn't look like they were really trying that hard.  Off they sped, this old man standing on the sidewalk yelling his head off at them.  Problem solved.

I'll file a police report at some point but there was little point to calling 911.  Black car (likely stolen), didn't get a license, three kids.  Same description as the rest of the latest incidents.

So I turn, announce "All is well, carry on" to the neighborhood, and continued on to pick up my dinner.  Went right back to my (still on) Zoom call, luckily I was on mute.  When I told the guys they thought it was hilarious.  So did I.  Nothing like a good shot of adrenaline to put some pep in your step.

 

Yes, I know, it was technically foolish.  No, you shouldn't do this.  I shouldn't do this.  I could have been hurt, etc.  I made some assumptions and was lucky it went the way it did.  I love you too.