BULLETIN PRESIDENT TREASURER EDITOR John Bachochin Loren Moore Mike Prero 15731 S
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BULLETIN PRESIDENT TREASURER EDITOR John Bachochin Loren Moore Mike Prero 15731 S. 4210 Rd., POB 1181 12659 Eckard Way Claremore, OK 74017 Roseville, CA 95678 Auburn,CA 95603 918-342-0710 916-783-6822 530-906-4705 No. 373 February 2016 by Mikeby Prero Mike Prero Hospitals! They’re like lawyers. No one wants to go to one, but when you need one...you need one! The earliest documented institutions aiming to provide cures were ancient Egyptian temples. In Ancient Greece, temples dedicated to the healer-god Asclepius functioned as hospitals. India had hospitals at least No. 373 SIERRA-DIABLO BULLETIN-February 2016 Page 2 as early as c. 400 BC. Historically, hospitals were normally founded and funded by religious orders or charitable groups or individuals. Nearly 100,000 Americans are hospitalized every day, which means nearly 40 million every year. It’s difficult to compare and rank all hospitals. They differ greatly in service, results, etc., but many specialize in certain areas. For example: the Anderson Cancer Center in Huston is ranked no. 1 in cancer treatment; the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio is ranked no. 1 in cardiology and heart surgery; and the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City is ranked no. 1 in Orthopedics. Still, a U.S. News & World Report listing of the top ten best U.S. hospitals, released last year, gives the following: 1. Massachusetts General Hospital 2. Mayo Clinic 3. UCLA Medical Center (tied) 3. Johns Hopkins Hospital (tied) 5. Cleveland Clinic 6. Brigham and Women’s Hospital 7. New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell 8. UCSF Medical Center 9. Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian 10. Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University Many hospitals used to issue their own matchbooks. Of course, they don’t anymore. [sigh!] I have 833 in my own collection, and that includes military hospitals. No. 373 SIERRA-DIABLO BULLETIN-February 2016 Page 3 Arthur Murray Dance Studios Arthur Murray (April 4, 1895 – March 3, 1991) was an American dance instructor and businessman, whose name is most often associated with the dance studio chain that bears his name. His pupils include Eleanor Roosevelt, the Duke of Windsor, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, Barbara Hutton, Elizabeth Arden, Manuel L. Quezon, and Jack Dempsey. Television evangelist D. James Kennedy and Little House on the Prairie actress Katherine MacGregor were instructors of Murray's technique. Arthur Murray was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame in 2007. In 1919, Murray began studying commerce at the Georgia School of Technology, and taught ballroom dancing in Atlanta at the Georgian Terrace Hotel. In 1920, he organized the world's first "radio dance", which were broadcast to a group of about 150 dancers (mostly Tech students) situated atop the roof of the Capital City Club in downtown Atlanta. His first business was selling dance lessons by mail, using a kinetoscope. Though the idea was successful, he had problems with the business, which failed. His second business was drawing and selling "footprints" which prospective dancers placed on the floor and followed to learn dancing. This mail-order business remained successful. His third business, launched in 1925, involved selling branded dance lessons through franchising. He trained dance instructors for the Statler Hotel chain, who then went to various hotels and gave lessons; Murray kept some of the profits from each franchise. This business was expanded more widely in 1938, when an Arthur Murray dance studio franchise was opened in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Others followed. His slogan was: "If you can walk, we teach you how to dance," and the company guaranteed that the pupils learn to dance in ten lessons. After WWII, Murray's business grew with the rise of interest in Latin dance, and he regularly taught and broadcast in Cuba in the 1950s. Murray went on television with a dance program hosted by his wife, Kathryn Murray, The Arthur Murray Party, which ran from 1950 to 1960, on CBS, NBC, DuMont, ABC, and then on CBS. Among the Arthur Murray dance instructors in the early 1950s was future television evangelist D. James Kennedy, who won first prize in a nationwide dance contest. The Murrays retired in 1964; but they continued to be active for some time, appearing as guests on the Dance Fever disco show in the late 1970s. By then, there were more than 3,560 dance studios bearing his name. In 2007, about 220 Arthur Murray Studios remained in operation. Arthur Murray Dance Studios claims to be the second-oldest franchised company (the first, A&W Restaurants, began in 1919). [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Murray] No. 373 SIERRA-DIABLO BULLETIN-February 2016 Page 4 Billboard Billboard was Universal’s famous trade- mark for one of its 40-strikes. It actually originated from the Billboard Match Co. sometime soon after 1931. Universal probably gained access to the copyrights when Billboard went out of business. Universal then began producing its own Billboard covers in 1936 and apparently continued the line until its own demise in 1987. Universal also began using another 40-strike trademark in 1936, the Royal Flash. All of the earliest dated Universal 40-strikes (from the 1930s) that I have are all Royal Flash, but the actual trademark is ROYAL FLASH BILLBOARD MATCH. Sometime much later, Universal dropped the Royal Flash and just used Bill- board. I don’t know what the difference was supposed to be between Royal Flash and Billboard, except for the ages. I could never see any. Billboard proved to be very popular over the years. There’s no listing, but the late Andy Anderson’s, MO, collection numbered 9,301 as of July 1996, although there’s always an inherent problem when collecting a trademark. Sometimes, the trademark’s not there! For example, Cameo’s almost always carry the trademark inside; Mirro-Gloss covers, on the other hand, rarely carry the actual trademark; and Pearltone is never seen on a cover. If you look at your Universal 40-strikes, the more modern ones, you’ll see many are simply blank inside. No Billboard. Are they Billboards? Or, did Universal see Billboards as being a ‘notch up’ and distinctly different from the ‘blank’ 40s? We’d have to have a Universal salesman answer those questions. No. 373 SIERRA-DIABLO BULLETIN-February 2016 Page 5 Featuring Full-Lengths! Service Stations Gas Stations have always been pretty popular with collectors, and so have Full-Lengths. Put the two together and you get...some very nice covers. Just take a look! Gas stations are an excellent example of how one invention spawns other inventions. Once you had cars with combustion engines, gas stations had to be developed. Filling stations, as they were originally called, eventually evolved into ‘service stations’. Then, the service disappeared (in more ways than one), and they just became ‘gas stations.’ The first places that sold gasoline were pharmacies, as a side business. The first actual filling station was the city pharmacy in Wiesloch, Germany, where Bertha Benz refilled the tank of the first automobile on its maiden trip from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in 1888. The first in the U.S. was in St. Louis, MO, in 1905. Reighard’s Gas Station in Altoona, PA claims that it dates from 1909 and is the oldest existing station in the United States. The first alternative fuel station opened in 2003 in San Diego. I should take a moment here to explain (once again) why I seem to so often focus on the older, front-strike issues. There are certainly newer, reverse-strike covers falling into the same category, but it’s the older covers that sport the best artwork. Newer covers may well be slicker, but you only see this type of art on the older covers. No. 373 SIERRA-DIABLO BULLETIN-February 2016 Page 6 An American Tour: 98 Memphis’s LakeLand No use looking for this attraction. It was a product of by-gone days. But, for awhile,... Built in 1959, there was a sizable amusement park northeast of Memphis, TN, known as Lakeland. The evolution of Lakeland started with the construction of a dam and the building of one of the largest man- made lakes in Tennessee in 1959. It was located around the intersection of I-40 and Canada Road. The Park opened its’ doors on June 2, 1961 with two trains; one of them had an old fashion train robbery for the guests to experience. The ride that most people remember best was Skyride, which offered a ride over the lake and back, but it was the famous Skyride from the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. You could also ride a river boat around the lake. Of course, there were all the standard rides of any park of the day. It closed down in 1976. One of its key attractions was a steam railroad known as the "Huff N Puff". The locomotive was an 0-4-0 with tender and it pulled a couple of open air rider cars. After the park closed, the train was sold to a group in Mississippi and sat for several years. Lakeland was torn down and is now a subdivision. Garner Lake, a man-made lake, was the centerpiece of Lakeland Amusement Park. Eventually the town of Lakeland, TN, evolved from the park. No. 373 SIERRA-DIABLO BULLETIN-February 2016 Page 7 Ads Regist by April 1st. Heritage has proudly represented Tryon, Inn has remodeled the meeting NC, since 1928. He is both a rooms and updated the sleeping symbol of the community's love W E E K L Y O N - L I N E rooms.