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Thanks for visiting Historic Happenings! If you are not on the email list, and would like to be notified via email when a new posting of this newsletter is made, please email Terry Ommen at histerry@comcast.net. I will add you to the list. I will never share your email address with anyone without your permission.
Well, Dorothy Downing is the winner. She was the first to
correctly identify the last mystery spot as one of the ice shoots at the old
ice plant building now the Ice House
Here are your clues for the next one:
1)
This sign is in plain view—not hidden in any way
2)
This 3 link emblem symbolizes that people are bound
together
3)
At one time this building was sandwiched between Jasper
Harrell’s building and a theater
4)
The 3 initials stand for what “ the organization “ believes
are the 3 guiding principals of life.
On what building is this sign located? Good luck.
Bruce Geiger found this neat old photograph of an Orange
Belt Stage bus at the Visalia Bus Depot and boy is it nice. It is apparently a
1960 photograph showing the bus at the Greyhound Bus Depot at 211 S. Court
Street. During this period of time the location served the community like the
transit center does today.
This location was the pickup and drop-off point for
Continental Trailways, Greyhound Bus lines, and Orange Belt stages. It served as a taxi stand as well. The second
photo shows on the far left a partial view of the depot and shows its position
in downtown Visalia. It was on Court Street just south of the alley behind the
Town Center Post Office. Great picture, Bruce. Thanks for sharing it.
On September 25, 2016, former Visalian and Country Music
Hall of Famer, Jean Shepard passed away. Jean and her family came to Visalia
from Oklahoma in the early 1940s looking for a better life. The whole family
was musically inclined but Jean had the very special voice. All the family
members worked in the fields picking fruit around Visalia including Tagus Ranch.
Even Jean did this as a youngster. Jean
attended Visalia Senior High School and graduated in 1951. Carl Mathewson was
in her class and remembered her wonderful voice especially when she sang at
school assemblies.
Phil Kneeland also knew the Shepard family and knew early on
that Jean was going to be a big country western star. Gary Holder knew Jean’s
brother Hoyt and was also familiar with the family. While in high school Jean
organized an all girl singing group which later became known as Noble’s Melody
Ranch Girls. (Jean can be seen on the far right in both photographs.) When I talked to Jean about the advertising poster shown here and
asked about “6 Musicians From Hollywood” she laughed and said they were not
from Hollywood and she wasn’t sure how that got there. Jean’s big start began
when Hank Thompson heard her sing in 1951. She and her fellow country singer,
Ferlin Husky teamed up and their song “A Dear John Letter” made it to the top
of the country chart. In 1953 she continued her climb, this time to the Grand
Ole Opry and stayed a member until her passing. I had an opportunity to meet
Jean in her dressing room at the Opry in 2011 and got to see her perform on
stage. Quite a thrill for me.
Speaking of Jean Shepard and her almost royalty status to
country music fans, Visalia lays claim to another royal citizen—this one was
actual royalty. Eleanor or Nellie Calhoun was born in Visalia in about 1862.
Even though she left Visalia with her family for Bakersfield while still a
young girl, Visalia still claims her. Nellie had a gift. She was an actor and boy
could she act. She was a star in San Francisco and throughout the United
States. She toured Europe and became a famous French actress learning to speak
French fluently. She eventually married the Prince of Serbia and became
Princess Eleanor. Here is a rather poor photograph of her as Dora in the stage
play “Diplomacy” in about 1884. She
wrote her memoirs called Pleasures and
Palaces. The second photograph was Eleanor at the time the book was
published in 1915.
The Visalia Chamber of Commerce has been around for a long
time. In its early years, it was called the Board of Trade or Improvement
Association, but regardless of its name, the group that promotes business in
Visalia has always attempted to make the business climate a healthy one. Their office locations have moved
around town over
the years. In this photograph the chamber was housed in the old California
Highway Patrol office building on the northeast corner of Stevenson and Mineral
King. It stayed here for many years, then the building was torn down and the
chamber was on the move again. Does anyone recognize this patch? I have had it
for many years and need assistance in
identifying what years it was used. Help please!
In 1916, Visalia built a magnificent municipal auditorium
large enough to attract conventions and groups of all sizes to town. For nearly
50 years, it played host to all sorts of
events, meetings and activities. In 1963, the building was determined to be unsafe
and had to be torn down. During its heyday, it hosted wrestling matches,
political rallies, National Guard exercise and so many other events. It had a
stage and few, if any, remember the artwork on the main
curtain on the stage.
It had a mountain scene in the middle and at the bottom it showed settlers
heading west by covered wagon. There were also scenes of what I believe to be Giant
Sequoias on either side. Many of these stage curtain paintings were created by
well-known artists of the day, but the artist that painted this one remains a
mystery. Does anyone know how we can find out?
***Richard Drath shared a couple of things that I found
interesting and I want to share them with you. He said, “I heard that Marni
Nixon recently died. She did the voice over singing for many movie stars,
including Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.
I wonder if any of your followers remember her singing the lead role of Eliza
Doolittle in the COS production of My
Fair Lady. I don’t remember what year it was, but it many have been in the
early to mid-1960s.”
***Richard also said, “I seem to remember in the mid-50s
when the Lucy and Desi movie The Long
Long Trailer was shown at the Visalia Theater (not the Fox, the one farther
down Main Street) that there was a long, long trailer parked outside the
theater that you could walk through after the movie. I’m hoping someone else
might remember this and my memory isn’t playing tricks on me.”
***Start thinking about your December calendar. On Monday December
12th as part of the 210 Connect series, I will be doing a
presentation that I am calling “Structures, Styles and Stories.” It will be
about existing old buildings in Visalia with more information about them. It
should be informative, so watch for more details as we get closer. There will also be some pleasant surprises.
