Local history: Darned women drivers! 1946 Battle of the Sexes aimed to prove...
Women drivers were incompetent. They were not emotionally fit to sit behind the wheel of a car. Crashes would decrease if only they wouldn’t drive.An Akron firestorm ignited in 1946 when a local safety...
View ArticleLocal history: Unearthed Copley headstone is mystery beyond grave
While clearing an overgrown field, a Copley Township landowner has unearthed a mystery that goes beyond the grave.Huce Beach Jr., 70, of Akron, discovered a 19th century headstone buried in underbrush...
View ArticleLocal history: 40,000 searched for God at Akron’s Rubber Bowl during Billy...
Glory, glory, hallelujah! When 40,000 souls filled the Rubber Bowl in 1956, the Rev. Billy Graham prayed to save as many as possible.The famous evangelist, broadcaster, author and confidant of U.S....
View ArticleLocal history: Can you help solve these mini mysteries?
Who needs Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, Charlie Chan, Jane Marple or Hercule Poirot?We have Beacon Journal and Ohio.com readers who can use their detective skills to solve a few mini mysteries.So put on...
View ArticleLocal history: Wagon Wheel, prized trophy of Akron-Kent State football game,...
Kent State University Dean Raymond E. Manchester rounded up a dusty antique, spun a fanciful story and watched the good times roll.The blue-and-gold Wagon Wheel, a prized trophy presented to the winner...
View ArticleLocal history: Burlesque stripper Gypsy Rose Lee teased Akron in 1941
Burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee’s striptease act was so wholesome that kids were invited to take a peek.No, seriously. The Palace Theater advertised children’s tickets for 15 cents to see the legendary...
View ArticleLocal history: Cleveland nearly had a subway — thanks to Barberton’s founder
In the late 19th century, Akron industrialist O.C. Barber built the town of Barberton from the ground up. Twenty years later, he tried to develop the city of Cleveland from the ground down.The...
View ArticleLocal history: A stripper, a Bible and a murder
We’re looking back today, but not too far back.Here are a couple of updates on local history stories that were featured recently in This Place, This Time, plus a new mystery that a knowledgeable...
View ArticleLocal history: Political memorabilia collector pushes all the right buttons
Every day is Election Day in Michael Meiring’s world. With bipartisan zeal, he has led a lifelong campaign to find the perfect candidates for his political endeavor.Meiring, 63, is a national authority...
View ArticleLocal history: Houdini made great escapes in Akron
American illusionist Harry Houdini escaped handcuffs, straitjackets, chained trunks and water tanks. Try as he might, he couldn’t escape fate.The master magician and escape artist disappeared forever...
View ArticleLocal history: Too-close-to-call 1966 commissioner’s race is worth recounting
If you don’t think your vote matters, the Summit County commissioner’s race of November 1966 provides a valuable lesson. The election was so close that it took nearly a month before the final results...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Local history: Before they were stars, they were ours
Before they were famous (or infamous), their names appeared in the Beacon Journal. Actors, musicians, athletes, directors, a producer, a poet, an astronaut, a model and a serial killer are among the...
View ArticleLocal history: Grey Lodge, former home of rubber barons, has a colorful past
The origin of Grey Lodge is more colorful than its drab name might suggest. A landmark for more than a century, the Akron mansion has stood witness to joy, tragedy, drama, triumph and, through it all,...
View ArticleLocal history: ‘Miss Thanksgiving,’ a baby advertised for adoption in 1939,...
A smiling nurse brought a bundled baby to a new mother at Akron City Hospital on Thanksgiving Day 1939. “Here’s something to be mighty thankful for,” the nurse said cheerfully, presenting the 8-pound,...
View ArticleReaders share remembrances of Pearl Harbor Day
The afternoon of Dec. 7, 1941, my mother, Hazel Arnold, had taken my sister Narita and I to the movies at the Thornton Theater. When we arrived home, we found my father, Edgar Arnold, pacing around the...
View ArticleLocal history: President Eisenhower gave a lift to hitchhiking Marine from Akron
That’s the problem with hitchhiking. You really take your chances.You never can tell if the next motorist who picks you up is some kind of psychopath. Or maybe he’s the leader of the free world.U.S....
View ArticleLocal history: Buddies met different fates after switching jobs before Pearl...
The colorful postcard has faded over the decades. Its edges show wear and tear, and at least one fragile corner has fallen off. The ink-written note still remains legible:“Boy oh boy is it swell up...
View ArticleLocal history: Federal agents took away families of ‘enemy aliens’
Former Akron resident Eberhard Fuhr, 91, remembers hearing the Sunday radio broadcast in Cincinnati about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.He knew the United States would go to war,...
View ArticleLocal history: Kenmore girl’s unusual 1966 Santa letter led to lifelong...
Although it has been 50 years, retired Akron teacher Judy Williamson Mervine recalls assigning a letter for second-graders to write in December 1966 at Lawndale Elementary in Kenmore.She told the...
View ArticleLocal history: Ange Lombardi was suave maestro in golden age of Akron nightclubs
Five … four … three … two … one …Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne ...Bandleader Ange Lombardi was as familiar to Akron...
View Article