pdx tales

[trailr]

PILLARS OF PORTLAND TV Pilot (part 1). 1986 pilot for an ill-fated Portland-based soap opera. The Willamette Week story about it is hilarious.

[pdxtales]

"Wessinger brothers brew for gourmet quaffers", May 30th 1977 A profile of the brothers (and great-grandsons of the company's founder) behind Portland's Blitz-Weinhard Brewing, which at the time was one of the nation's few remaining independent, family-owned breweries. The article explains that the company's new Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve was an upscale niche product. Which was actually true at the time, given the state of the beer market in those days; the article begins "It may be hard to visualize a six-pack of beer as custom-made". Clearly the year 1977 was a dark and primitive time. The old brewery was turned into upscale condos and offices a few years ago. I hadn't bought their products for years, but I still miss the brewery aroma wafting over downtown.

[ohsresearchlibrary]

Furnace Pouring, Oregon Steel Foundry Co. - July 22nd 1942. 2515 NW 28th Ave, Portland OR. Delano Collection, Org Lot 980, DE# 4384.

[pdxtales]

Front page of The Oregonian, September 12th 1985. Top story: Pete Rose breaking Ty Cobb's record for career hits, just beating out humanity's first visit to a comet.

Incidentally the space probe that visited this comet is finally returning to Earth's neighborhood this year. A team of volunteers is busy reviving it, and if all goes well it may be sent off for further adventures.

[pdxtales]

Ship arrival schedule, Import Plaza, July 21st 1963. The chalkboard listed what ships were coming to town and when, which distant seaports they were coming from, and what exotic treasures were on board. It's a terribly romantic idea, from back before container ships and globalization made everything boring. Cheap, and boring. Romantic or not, I count my lucky stars I'm not a 1963 sailor, braving the stormy Pacific on a rickety freighter full of brassware and gongs.

[ohsresearchlibrary]

"Boys and sails and brightly polished hulls filled "sea wall" at Westmorland park model boat regatta." Portland, OR, June 13, 1963 Portland Reporter Photographs Collection, Org. Lot 62, Box 30, Folder 2

[ohsresearchlibrary]

Original Loganberry Nectar - Wine Extraordinary. John D. Simon Co., February 17, 1939. Delano Collection, Org Lot 980, Acme# 15271.

[cassadagavortex-deactivated2012]

[ohsresearchlibrary]

"Nick Zeller races over finish at end of eight-lap junior race at third annual Rose Festival bicycle races. Accompanying him was downpour of rain" Photo by Ray Wing, June 8, 1964 Portland Reporter Photographs Collection, Org. Lot 62, Box 30, Folder 3

[pdxtales]

Assorted Portland courtroom items from April 30th, 1930. Divorce cases, child support, a bust for violating alcohol & weed prohibition, and a guy who signed a fraternity petition "unconsciously".

[pdxtales]

12/26/1950: Lurid ad for "How to Protect Your Child From the Sex Criminal", a book by Portland Police Sgt. Earl R. Biggs. I haven't found the text of either of Biggs's books (this or "Sex, Science and Sin") online so I'm not sure exactly what his views and advice were. A bio at the Northwest Digital Archives indicates he was more forward-thinking than you might expect from a cop in 1950, and he was actually a friend of Alfred C. Kinsey (of Kinsey Report fame).

The bio indicates that after retiring from the force, Biggs opened an antique store and later wrote an unpublished manuscript about psychic phenomena. FWIW.

[pdxtales]

"An Automobile Climbs Multnomah Falls" (February 21st, 1932) In which somebody drove a tiny Austin 7 sedan up the Multnomah Falls trail and parked it on the Benson Footbridge for a photo shoot. You might be able to pull this off with a Smart Car today; it's just that they'd arrest you afterward if you tried it.

[pdxtales]

"Portland Beard Menace Not Growing; It Only Seems So" (March 13th, 1966). In which the local paper of record wandered the streets looking for bearded men, interviewed the very few it found (since hippiedom arrived a bit late here), and then asked a couple of local professors to try to explain what the deal was with beards or the lack of beards. Dr. Walter G. Klopfer of Portland State (unbearded) had a theory about beards:

"Young men have an urgent need to prove themselves. In spite of their own uncertainty, they would like to give every appearance of independence and rugged manhood. In the early days of America, they could blaze trails and fight Indians… but what can they do today short of going to Viet Nam? "The beard has been a symbol of virility ever since the days of Samson. The student with a beard announces that he is not bound by traditions but is his own man. As he matures further, he may find other ways of asserting his manhood."

Dr. William Wiest of Reed College (bearded) disagreed, arguing that no blanket theory of beards (or non-beards) was possible and it was all just wild speculation.

"Unfortunately," he said, "it is equally easy to argue that those men who SHAVE regularly are so badly disturbed psychologically that they can only be described as obsessed with ideas of suicide. Another common speculation has it that anyone who places razor to chin is indulging in a shocking sexual perversion."

[pdxtales]

"Web of Newsprint", a modern sculpture that once sat in tiny Oregonian Printing Press Park, SW 1st & Morrison. It was unveiled April 1st 1970, and removed in May 1983, replaced by today's boring cobblestone plaza and historical plaques. I wonder what happened to the old sculpture? Did they just bulldoze it, or is it in a dusty county warehouse somewhere just waiting to be rediscovered?

[pdxtales]

"Mayor for Dance Ban", December 23rd 1924. The Multnomah County commission had recently banned all public dancing on Sundays. The city began receiving complaints about Sunday dancing, so Mayor Baker announced his support for the Portland police enforcing the new law within city limits. One of the complaints veers beyond Footloose-style puritanism into downright creepiness: "The petitioners also complained that the Jewish Neighborhood House operates Sunday dances and that the dancers are not restricted to Hebrews.". By February 1925, the police were raiding sites suspected of illicit Sunday dancin' and carryin' on. By July of that year, the law had already been overturned; as it turned out, the county lacked legal authority from the state to ban Sunday dancing entirely, since contemporary state law only banned dancing between midnight and 6 am.

[pdxtales]

Photo from Richard Nixon's campaign stop in Portland, September 14th 1960. Richard Nixon (who was Eisenhower's Vice President at this point) made a brief stop here during his first run for the presidency in 1960, which he ultimately lost narrowly to JFK. Nixon spoke briefly downtown, then appeared at the Lloyd Center ice rink, and then headed across the river to Vancouver. At his Lloyd Center stop, Nixon endorsed the state's proposal to use Eastern Oregon's Boardman Industrial Park as some sort of NASA center (which obviously never panned out), and went on to praise the new mall as America's answer to communism:

"Some suggest," he said, "that while we're ahead now, we're losing our grip. I've been in the Soviet Union. And I've seen the United States. Anybody who says the Soviet Union is going to catch the United States just doesn't know what he's talking about… If they think the United States has stood still, who built the Lloyd Center?"

[pdxtales]

"Shipment of Volkswagen Beetles parked by color at the port of Portland, 1965" via @ClassicPics. (As usual with 'Pics' Twitter accounts, the photo isn't credited to who actually took it, which is frustrating.)