Category: default || By jt3y

Anyone who sends me to the library, a historical society or any other data center to do research does so at their own risk, because I have an interest in practically everything. (And expertise in practically nothing.)

Send me on a 10-minute errand to verify something at the Recorder of Deeds, and I might return two hours later with 1780s maps of land grants in Elizabeth Township. Ask me to retrieve a photo from the Pennsylvania Department at the Carnegie Library and I will become engrossed in 1930s planning commission documents. I stop at the McKeesport Heritage Center to pay my dues, and three hours later I'm still there, paging through police blotters from the 1900s.

I graze on information like some people peck at snacks and appetizers at a party --- a little nibble of this, a handful of that.

This has other disadvantages besides the obvious time management problems. My head is full of completely pointless information on hundreds of topics, but I'm not an expert on any of them, and usually I can't remember where I read something if I'm asked.

I've derailed more than one conversation with family and friends by spouting some arcane bit of useless trivia that's completely unverifiable. I haven't quite entered Cliff Clavin territory, but I'm one pair of white socks away.

Anyway, this week I had to look up some information in Business Week, Fortune and Newsweek from the 1950s. Microfilm is especially deadly for an information grazer because you never know what you're going to stumble across on your way to the information you need.

Thanks to the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (those big green volumes of indexes to magazine stories --- remember them?), I had the dates and page numbers of the articles I needed, but I had to scroll past page after page of other things that tickled my interest.

I love reading the advertisements --- what car buff could resist a two-page spread from a February 1958 issue of Newsweek touting the new Plymouth Savoy with "Golden Commando V-8," "Push Button TorqueFlite transmission" and "Directional Stabilizing Fins"? Especially since --- as I've noted in the Almanac before --- the '58 Plymouths are one of my all-time favorite car designs. You'd better believe I needed a copy of that.

At other times you run across stories that are suddenly of more enduring interest, like a two-page profile of George Romney --- father of newly-announced presidential candidate Mitt Romney and then the president of American Motors. In 1958 Romney the elder was the only automobile executive in Detroit who was staking his company's future on compact cars.

When Romney left to become governor of Michigan, his successor came in and scrambled the product lineup, sinking AMC within a decade.

I notice, by the way, that Mitt Romney took some flak for launching his candidacy at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. A group of Jewish Democrats accused Romney of anti-Semitism. That's a load of baloney for many, many reasons, not the least of which that Henry Ford's descendants have no record of sharing the old man's warped political views --- in fact, as the Detroit News points out, when the American Jewish Committee presented its National Human Relations Award to William Clay Ford Jr., they did it at the Henry Ford Museum.

Besides, Romney could have launched his campaign at a site having to do with AMC, but a vacant lot in Kenosha, Wis., wouldn't have provided much of a backdrop.

(Now, do you see what I mean about the pointless digressions?)

And if you're a failed newspaper reporter and local history buff like me, you'd have to love an ad in Business Week from March 1958 touting the effectiveness of advertising in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "fastest-growing newspaper in America's eighth-largest market."

It's been a long time since Pittsburgh was America's "eighth-largest market," and an even longer time since newspaper circulation was growing. No matter what you think of the two current choices (and I know a lot of people who don't think much of one, the other or both), the city is still fortunate to have two independent, competing papers. Few cities of Pittsburgh's size can boast that.

But in 1958, Pittsburgh had three daily papers --- the morning P-G and the afternoon Sun-Telegraph and Press --- all under separate ownership. The Sun-Tele (a Hearst paper) was already on life support by 1958 and would be folded into the P-G in 1960, an acquisition that nearly sunk that paper and forced it into a joint operating agreement with Scripps-Howard's Press. And we all know how that turned out.

(Another pointless, trivial digression! I'm full of 'em today!)

I'd better stop here before I really run off the rails --- but not without a plug for a service I've been using for a year, and which I really enjoy. It's called Newspaper Archive, and it's a searchable Internet database of millions of newspapers on microfilm from the 1800s to the present.

Unfortunately, the Daily News isn't one of them, but you can read the Charleroi Daily Mail, the Monessen Daily Independent, the Indiana Gazette, the North Hills News Record and hundreds of other titles.

It's not cheap --- about $70 per year --- but if you're doing any kind of historical or genealogy research, it is an invaluable asset.

Or, if you just want to learn pointless, time-consuming trivia, like me, it's the equivalent of information crack.

. . .

Youth Crime Task Force: In the wake of a shooting last week on Jenny Lind Street that sent a 17-year-old boy to the hospital, Mayor Jim Brewster has created a coalition to try and address root causes of gun violence among teens. Members will include local teen-agers, representatives from the police department and school district and the NAACP, among others.

Jen Vertullo had the story in the News (subscriber-only link), while Eric Slagle had a follow-up in the P-G.

. . .

Play's The Thing: On a lighter note, Margaret Smykla of the P-G caught up with the volunteer thespians of the McKeesport Little Theater. The MLT will be presenting John Patrick's comedy "The Curious Savage" next month as part of its 46th season in the city.

. . .

To Do This Weekend: McKeesport Symphony Orchestra presents a chamber/small ensemble concert, featuring two semi-finalists in its annual "Young Artist Competition," Michael McCarthy and Ingrid Petersen. That's at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the auditorium of McKeesport Area High School, 1960 Eden Park Blvd. Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for students and $12 for senior citizens. Call (412) 664-2854.