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Hollywood Legends Brought Local Author’s Novel to Silver Screen
By Bill Kemp. Published on March 5, 2006.
Bloomington writer Harold Sinclair always looked a little out of place, whether it was standing in the middle of John Wayne and filmmak...
Notorious silent movie drew local protests
By Bill Kemp. Published on February 7, 2016.
The 1915 silent film “The Birth of a Nation” is acclaimed today as one of the greatest achievements in motion picture history. At the s...
Dance marathons, walkathons once talk of the town
By Bill Kemp. Published on March 13, 2016.
Although born out of the Roaring Twenties, dance marathons and walkathons peaked in popularity during the 1930s and the Great Depressio...
Duke Ellington big draw in Twin Cities
By Bill Kemp. Published on June 5, 2016.
Someone once said, presumably half in earnest and half in jest, that American contributions to world culture could be reduced to three ...
Pantagraph reporter turns sci-fi writer
By Bill Kemp. Published on November 13, 2016.
You might’ve missed it, but Thursday, Nov. 10, marked the 50th anniversary of the first airing of the Star Trek episode “The Corbomite ...
Homemade Christmas dinner once a McLean County jail tradition
By Bill Kemp. Published on December 25, 2016.
“Unfortunate souls who spend Christmas Day in the county jail will at least have a tasty dinner to help them mull over their predicamen...
Bloomington home to world champion singing mouse
By Bill Kemp. Published on June 25, 2017.
“The voice that spanned continents and oceans to win international acclaim is forever stilled,” announced a somber Pantagraph in Octobe...
Marbles popular with young and old alike of 19th century
By Bill Kemp. Published on August 6, 2017.
Dr. Edwin M. Colburn, an early Bloomington physician, recalled the popularity of marbles and other games in the early 1840s. Not among ...
Julia Vrooman brought jazz to WW I doughboys
By Bill Kemp. Published on September 24, 2017.
“Julia Scott Vrooman has always been in the news,” noted The Pantagraph in early October 1976. The occasion was her 100th...
Colonial Theatre once Colfax mainstay
By Bill Kemp. Published on April 29, 2018.
As with most small town movie houses, the Colonial Theatre in Colfax offered area residents more than a parade of Hollywood legends on ...
Million-dollar cartoonist got start in Bloomington
By Bill Kemp. Published on August 12, 2018.
Although nearly forgotten today, Bloomington-born artist Sid Smith was a towering figure in American popular culture. From 1917 until h...
‘Welby and Pearl,’ minstrel act with local roots
By Bill Kemp. Published on October 28, 2018.
For the better part of four decades, friends Jacob Welby Bucher and Charles Carroll Fell of Bloomington performed as the popular vaudev...
Reagan’s conservatism forged during years with GE
By Bill Kemp. Published on January 20, 2019.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan was no stranger to Bloomington-Normal, though most of his visits occurred decades before he reached the Wh...
TV’s early years included short-lived Bloomington station
By Bill Kemp. Published on February 3, 2019.
Strange thought it may seem, in the early, golden days of commercial television there was an ABC affiliate right here in Bloomington....
ISU held racially segregated spring dances in the 1930s and ’40s
By Bill Kemp. Published on April 28, 2019.
The racial climate throughout the United States deteriorated steadily in the first quarter of the 20th century. During this period, Jim...
West side Subway Club earned notoriety in late ’50s
By Bill Kemp. Published on May 5, 2019.
Try as he might, Bloomington Mayor Robert McGraw could not close the Subway Club, an afterhours “set-up” joint on the city’s west side ...
Buck Mann Park hidden west side gem
By Bill Kemp. Published on May 12, 2019.
Tucked away on Bloomington’s far west side, Buck Mann Park is one of the lovelier, out-of-the-way corners in all the Twin Cities....
Twin Cities once hosted own Chautauqua
By Bill Kemp. Published on June 9, 2019.
“The most American thing in America.” That’s what Theodore Roosevelt said of the Chautauqua movement, the popular, week-long outdoor ga...
Mandolin enjoyed ‘golden age’ in late 19th century
By Bill Kemp. Published on September 29, 2019.
“The members of the Lotus Club last evening entertained their lady friends at their rooms on North Center Street,” noted The Pantagraph...
May Christian, forever her own woman
By Bill Kemp. Published on October 6, 2019.
“I was always too independent,” Bloomington resident Annie May Christian confided in a remarkable scrapbook she compiled around 1903....
New Year’s Eve 1919 meant hope for better times
By Bill Kemp. Published on December 29, 2019.
One hundred years ago, New Year’s Eve 1919 brought hope for better days to come. After all, the nation had been deeply scarred by the t...
Undertaker’s invoice window into Bloomington’s rich past
By Bill Kemp. Published on February 9, 2020.
As a not-for-profit institution, the McLean County Museum of History depends on the generosity of the public to “grow” its object and a...
Community Christmas ‘sing’ once annual event
By Bill Kemp. Published on December 13, 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the cancellation of countless holiday gatherings, school pageants, office parties, concerts, dinner da...