THE PLAIN DEALER . SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 1998 5-D OUR CENTURY 1926

AT A GLANCE Gardens honor early ethnic groups On the air and in our homes It was Leo Weidenthal, The Plain Dealer’s City Hall reporter, who first suggested honor- ing the ethnic groups that built Cleveland with a series of gardens. That was in 1916, at the dedication of the Shakespeare Garden in Rockefeller Park. There was a backlash against “foreigners” during World War I and the “Red Scare” that followed, but by 1926, passions had calmed and the Cultural Garden League (now Federa- tion) was formed “to encourage friendly inter- course, to beautify our civic parks, to memori- alize our culture heroes and to inculcate appreciation of other cultures.” On May 5, Chaim Nachman Bialik planted three cedars of Lebanon at a site designated for a Hebrew cultural garden. It quickly was followed by German, Italian, Lithuanian, Slo- vak and Ukrainian gardens. · Most of the heroes of the 1920 were gone, and the Indians had fallen into the second division in 1925. But they came roaring back in 1926. George Burns batted .358 with a major-league record 64 dou- bles and was named the ’s most valuable player. had a re- cord of 27-11 with a 2.83 ERA. Dutch Levsen PLAIN DEALER FILE won 16, including complete-game victories in NBC Radio broadcast took place on Nov. 15, 1926, from the Grand Ballroom of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, now the site of the Empire both ends of a doubleheader with the Red Sox, something no other has done State Building. One-thousand guests turned out for the broadcast, including (far left) Charles A. Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, and about 2 million people tuned in. The program, which featured Will Rogers and the vaudeville team of Weber and Fields, was carried by 25 stations in 21 cities. In mid-September, the Indians trailed the Yankees — loaded with six future Hall-of- Famers — by only five games Radio captures Cleveland’s fancy; with a six-game series coming ever yone tries to cash in on novelty up at Dunn tional Electric Lamp Association and Field. The Yan- By Fred McGunagle National Carbon Co. also were mak- kees beat Uhle ing radios. H. Lesser & Co. advertised in the opener, Americans had a new entertain- a Freshman 5-Tube Model “in beauti- but in the next ment medium, one that came right ful mahogany console” for $99.50, the day’s double- into their living rooms. It created a equivalent of more than $1,000 today. header, Levsen hot, new industry to drive the boom- One improvement that spurred and Garland ing economy. Naturally, Cleveland — sales was the “loud speaker,” a horn Landis Buckeye “the Fifth City,” as it proudly called up to 30 inches wide that allowed pitched back- itself — was at the forefront both ar- more than one person to listen to a to-back two- tistically and economically. set. Entire families gathered around hitters. The pitching of and Uhle Radio sales had amounted to less the new purchase, which held a place shut down the Yankees the next two days. than $2 million in 1920, the year that of honor in the living room. The man Now the Indians were only one game back, an announcer at KDKA in Pittsburgh of the house usually had the task of but and Lou Gehrig homered read presidential vote totals over the minding the contraption’s many against Levsen and the Yankees won the final air. By 1922, when WEAF in New knobs, battling static, fade-out and game, 8-3. The Indians finished second, three York carried the first commercial — strange whistles. games behind. a 10-minute, $50 pitch for a real es- WTAM had by far the most pro- A month later, announced his tate development — sales were $60 grams of the three local stations, retirement as a player and resigned as man- million, mainly to hobbyists who starting with a special weather report PLAIN DEALER FILE ager. A month later, Ty Cobb resigned as moved up from homemade crystal for aviators at 12:30 p.m., and then an A gypsy group broadcasting from WHK in 1923. An ancient horn hour of Ernest H. Hunter at the State player-manager of the . It sets and whose earphones were now microphone is at right. turned out that both had been accused of con- able to pick up distant cities. Theater organ. The station came back spiring to fix a Detroit-Cleveland game in By 1926, sales topped $500 million, on the air with a brief rundown of 1919. and Cleveland trailed only New York baseball scores at 4:05 p.m., and then had created one of the two national 30 percent of households had radios. Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, who had and Chicago in production. There from 6:30 to 11:30 p.m., hotel orches- showcase stations in New York, WJZ. RCA — the market called it “Radio” been appointed baseball’s first commissioner were 20 local manufacturers whose tras, talk and organ recitals. WEAR The other was WEAF, owned by — was the hottest stock on the New in the wake of the , eventu- business was confined to radios. listed market reports, weather fore- American Telephone & Telegraph York Exchange. Sarnoff built another casts and time signals, while the fea- ally cleared them. Speaker played the next Companies in other industries, such Co., which saw radio as a natural ex- network around the stations he year with Washington and Cobb with Philadel- as Willard Storage Battery Co., Na- tured presentation of WHK, Cleve- bought from AT&T. He called the land’s oldest station, was the tension of its business. phia. Both were named to the Hall of Fame, Sarnoff proposed a deal: If AT&T first group the “Red Network,” fore- Cobb in 1936 and Speaker in 1937. International Bible Students Associa- runner of NBC. The second group tion Program. (A fourth station, got out of the radio business, RCA was the “Blue Network,” which in the WJAY, came on the air Jan. 1, 1927.) promised to use its lines exclusively · 1950s became the American Broad- On March 28, 1926, WTAM broad- for a national network Sarnoff pro- Prohibition enforcement was as controver- casting Co. In 1928, William S. Paley cast the largest production created posed to start. AT&T accepted, and in sial in the suburbs as in Cleveland. In Euclid, September 1926, Sarnoff formed the formed the Columbia Broadcasting Mayor Charles Ely summoned the Village for radio to date. “The Battle of Get- tysburg,” written and directed by National Broadcasting Co. System, with WHK as an affiliate. Council to a midnight meeting to fire Police It went on the air Nov. 15, with Early network programs reflected Chief Elmer Hill. Without telling Ely, Hill had William Ganson Rose, was an hour- long show staged in Public Hall with 3,600 miles of AT&T wire. Millions of their sponsors: the Clicquot Club Es- brought in state Prohibition agent Martin Americans listened for four hours as kimos, A&P Gypsies, Ipana Trouba- Bruder and University Heights police to help hundreds of extras from the Cleve- land Stunt Club loudly marching, Graham McNamee, from the dors. Rapt families listened around him raid three homes in which he believed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, expensive consoles. Critics bemoaned speakeasies were operating. beating bass drums to simulate can- non fire and hitting leather uphol- introduced stars from around the the dying art of conversation. Record He said he took the step because every time country. In Independence, Kansas, sales fell. Radio became America’s he tried to execute a search warrant issued in stery with rattan sticks for rifle fire. Also involved were three companies Will Rogers did a monologue. Ben most popular form of entertainment. Euclid, the suspects had been tipped off about Bernie, Vincent Lopez and B.A. Rolfe Radio changed the country in other the raid. He picked the University Heights of the 145th Infantry, three military bands and buglers. led their orchestras. ways, too. Regional dialects started to squad because it seemed to be “free of taint.” The cost was an unheard-of merge into the “middle American” Nevertheless, the raids failed — the three More typical of WTAM’s specials, however, was the broadcast of the $50,000, including more than $35,000 favored by announcers. Trends places raided appeared to have been tipped to performers. The Associated Press spread rapidly across the country. off. cattle auction at the Junior Live Stock Show and Meat Exposition in Public reported that the network soon would Politicians had a new way to reach · Hall — to be conducted, the station reach “from coast to coast and from voters, as Franklin Roosevelt was announced, by “Col. Fred Ruppert, the gulf to the Canadian forests,” and quick to appreciate. Instantaneous Cleveland no longer had the National Foot- famous auctioneer.” it all would be free to listeners: “Ad- coast-to-coast communication be- ball League Bulldogs, but it had a team in the came commonplace. For the first PLAIN DEALER FILE David Sarnoff recognized that it vertisers are expected to foot the new American Football League. The Cleve- would take better programming if he costs with a margin of profits to the time, the nation was truly becoming e land Panthers started well, defeating Red WTAM announcers during a wanted to boost sales of the Radiola broadcasting companies.” pluribus unum — one out of many. Grange and his New York All-Americans, 10- Christmas fund-raising broadcast in radios made by his company, the Ra- It worked. Radio sales boomed to McGunagle is a Cleveland free- 0, before 22,000 fans at Luna Park, and win- dio Corp. of America. RCA already $842 million by 1929, though still only lance writer. ning two of the next three games. 1931. Only 1,000 Clevelanders turned out for the Panthers’ Oct. 31 game. Stearns Advertising sued the team for $1,000; a judge placed the LOOKING AT A YEAR Panthers in receivership. The team dis- banded, stranding the players in Philadelphia. · Jan. 27: Scottish inventor M. John drinking, dishonesty and neglect of Sept. 23: Gene Tunney defeats Jack Castro, Bob Haldeman, Lloyd Bent- The YMCA had been offering engineering Baird demonstrates a new machine academics. Dempsey to win the world heavy- sen, Marilyn Monroe, Ralph Aber- courses as the Cleveland School of Technology capable of wireless transmissions of July 2: The House Judiciary Com- weight boxing crown before a crowd nathy. since 1921. In 1926, Sereno P. Fenn, a mittee hears testimony and evidence of 130,000 in Philadelphia. Sherwin-Williams Co. executive and former pictures, calling his invention a “tele- vision.” that Prohibition is responsible for an Dec. 14: Missing for nine days, Died: Labor leader Eugene Debs, YMCA president, donated $100,000 for a new increase in crime. mystery writer Agatha Christie is French artist Claude Monet, film star building. April 25: The American Association Aug. 6: New Yorker Gertrude found alive and well, but suffering Rudolph Valentino, sharpshooter An- The school changed its name to Fenn Col- of University Professors issues a re- nie Oakley, escape artist Harry Hou- lege in 1930. In 1965, it became the backbone Ederle becomes the first woman to from amnesia. of Cleveland State University. port saying college football promotes swim the English Channel. Born: Queen Elizabeth II, Fidel dini.