Each Memorial Day weekend since 1911, hundreds of thousands of race fans gather at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing”. The Indy500 is a 200-lap race on a 2.5 mile course. 33 drivers compete for the Borg-Warner Trophy, introduced in 1936, which proclaims the event as the “Indianapolis 500-Mile Race”. Traditionally, the winner celebrates with a bottle of milk in Victory Lane (find out why)

The Borg-Warner Trophy, presented to the winner of the Indy500.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum is located within the speedway’s 2.5 mile track.

On a personal note, IndyCar racing is not a sport I closely follow, and I was skeptical when I stopped at the speedway and museum going through Indiana on vacation many years ago. But I was amazed. The exhibits, the history and the facility itself all made it one of the most memorable tourist stops in my life. I highly recommend spending several hours there if you have time in Indianapolis. Just standing in the middle of a 253 acre oval is a unique wonder.

Link to the Official Indy Sites: Race website, Facility and Track Map, Hall of Fame Museum

You can experience racing locally. Northeast Kansas has many destinations. Travel no farther than our own Heartland Park, which hosts a number of NHRA and other racing events.Take a look at the “Racing Stars of Tomorrow” participating in the Topeka Quarter Midget Association. The Kansas Speedway hosts notable NASCAR races, among others.

The library has a number of books and videos available to ramp up to the race.

An excellent start is Indianapolis 500: The Legacy Series: “A five-disc DVD set that starts with the dawn of modern Indy racing featuring legendary drivers. See how the cars are able to race at higher speeds due to new technology. Relive the glory of Team Penske’s dominance, Sullivan’s ‘Spin and Win’ and Big Al’s miraculous fourth win. See how the 90′s marked the changing of the guard. Legends hung up their helmets and opened the door for the current generation of racing heroes.”

Continue with a few books:

Tales From the Indianapolis 500: A Collection of the Greatest Indy 500 Stories Ever Told by Jack Arute, with Jenna Fryer, foreword by A.J. Foyt.

Jackie Stewart’s Principles of Performance Driving, edited by Alan Henry.

The library also has several books for the younger racing fan:

Indy Cars by Sean McCollum
Indy Race Cars by Janet Piehl
Indy Cars by Carrie A. Braulick
The World’s Fastest Indy Cars by Glen Bledsoe

Arriving at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from the Hotel Biltmore on July 30, Curtis met officials from the International Olympic Committee and the Los Angeles organizing committee. According to news accounts, a choir of 1,000 sang the Star Spangled Banner, trumpets sounded and 100,000 spectators cheered as the officials and athletes took their places and began the Parade of Nations.

Reporter Allison Danzig noted during the parade of 2,000 athletes from 39 countries the Canadian, Finnish and Italian athletes gave the “Fascisti salute” to the vice president as they passed his reviewing stand. It may seem odd to us today, but the salute was based in history on ancient Roman practice. It had not yet been entirely hijacked by Blackshirts, Nazis and what we today think of as fascism. She did note the German athletes “doffed” their yachting caps and cheered as they passed Curtis’ box. If you want “real” fascist salutes, fast forward to the 1936 Games in Berlin.

Vice President Charles Curtis (center) opening the 1932 Olympic Games.

Curtis opened the games with the proclamation: “In the name of the President of the United States I proclaim open the Olympic Games of Los Angeles Celebrating the Tenth Olympiad of the modern era.” Again, trumpets blared and cannon fire preceded the singing of the Olympic hymn, lighting of the torch, raising the Olympic flag and freeing thousands of birds.

It was a busy trip for the vice president.

He couldn’t escape politics or the Bonus Army controversy. On his way to Los Angeles, Curtis’ train stopped in Las Vegas (pop. 9,000) so he could make remarks on the benefits of Hoover Dam’s construction nearby. A few Bonus Army sympathisers heckled him. The vice president shot back, “You cowards, I’m not afraid of any of you!” Someone in the crowd cheered for Hoover’s opponent in the presidential race, Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “If you wait for him to be elected, you’ll be an old man,” Curtis replied.

In Los Angeles, the vice president presented fellow Kansan Amelia Earhart with a Distinguished Flying Cross for being the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic solo. It was, she remarked, “an overwhelming honor.” Curtis also helped dedicate a state office building in Civic Square.

Visit the library to find out more about Charles Curtis: his ties to Kansas and Topeka, family, and his Native American heritage. See his historic home, his burial place at the Topeka Cemetery or the state office building named after this legendary Kansan.

Love Boat Season 1 Volume 1

In a previous post, I said “If you were anybody in the 1960’s and 1970’s, you probably appeared on detective shows like Columbo and Mannix.” Very nearly the same thing can be said about series later in the 1970’s and early 1980’s like The Love Boat and Fantasy Island.

The Love Boat was an Aaron Spelling product launched on the real-life cruise ship Pacific Princess in 1977. A small regular cast framed two or three separate romance and relationship stories on a swinging west-coast passenger cruise. These varied from the absurd and corny to the poignant, touching and sentimental. Each episode usually had a storyline to fit any mood.

Many of the famous sailed on the Princess over the years: Charo, Barbi Benton, Jimmie Walker, Dick Martin, Vicki Lawrence, Loni Anderson, Jo Anne Worley, Leslie Nielsen, Dan Rowan, Patty Duke, Nanette Fabray, Mary Ann Mobley, Lyle Waggoner, Leslie Uggams, George Kennedy, Robert Urich, Reggie Jackson, Desi Arnaz, Jr. and many more.

The original regular cast included Gavin MacLeod as Captain Stubing, Bernie Kopell as the ship’s physician Dr. Bricker, Ted Lange as Bartender Isaac Washington, future Congressman Fred Grandy as Yeoman Purser Smith (known affectionately as “Gopher”) and Lauren Tewes as Cruise Director Julie McCoy.

The library currently has the first two seasons of The Love Boat on DVD. Each season has two separate volumes.

Welcome aboard: it’s love!

Peter Falk (1927-2011) certainly led an interesting life. Educated, having earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Syracuse University, he quickly left public service for the stage and later the screen. He landed film roles starting in the late 1950’s like Murder Inc., Pocketful of Miracles, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and Robin and the 7 Hoods.

From 1968 through 1978, Peter Falk appeared as the disheveled, raincoated detective Lt. Columbo. Those 45 original episodes are available for checkout on DVD.

The show had three elements to its popular formula:

- Peter Falk brought the character to life with his acting skill, sense of humor and spontaneity. He recalls in his book adding to Columbo’s confused aura by improvising bits not in the script, asking others in the scene nonsensical questions like, “How much did you pay for those shoes?” or “What do you think the property taxes run on a place like this?”

- Columbo fit the times. In the 70′s, crime dramas and unusual detectives were very popular. Mannix, Cannon, Barnaby Jones and Kojak were a few others.

- Guest stars. If you were anybody in the 1960’s and 1970’s, you probably appeared on detective shows like Columbo and Mannix. A few notables include Patrick McGoohan, Robert Culp, Jack Cassidy, Janet Leigh, Blythe Danner, Myrna Loy, George Hamilton, Robert Vaughn, Ida Lupino, Eddie Albert, Lee Grant, Ray Milland, Ruth Gordon, Patrick O’Neal, Trish Van Dervere and Leonard Nimoy.

Personal favorites?

Étude in Black (Season 2, Episode 1). Peter Falk’s real-life longtime friend, actor/director John Cassavetes, stars as an increasingly irritated orchestra conductor who murdered his paramour.

Fade in to Murder (Season 6, Episode 1). In a surreal episode, William Shatner chews scenery (and a tray of vegetables) playing actor Ward Fowler who, in a show-within-a-show, portrays quirky television police Detective Lucerne. Fowler murders his television show’s producer then, in split-personality mode as the fictional Lucerne, helps Columbo catch himself. Confused?

Watch Peter Falk movies and television shows, or read his memoir: Just One More Thing in regular or large print. You can’t watch, or read, enough for us.

“If I ran home, I got to watch Bob Ross!”
–Jason Talbot
Co-founder, Artists for Humanity

Bob Ross was a fixture on public television for years. His show The Joy of Painting was seen on nearly every PBS station in the United States. The shows, as The Best of the Joy of Painting, have been rerun and are still on even though Bob Ross died of lymphoma in 1995.

What was Bob Ross? Artist? Painter? Instructor? Businessman? Salesman? Fundraiser? Advocate? Motivational speaker? Crazy character? TV icon? Choose any; he was all of the above.

Ultimately, what was he trying to say? He is quoted several times in The Happy Painter that his goal was to teach non-painters a technique that could be mastered in a short time with a low chance of failure and allow anyone to “put a dream on canvas”.

Critics leveled a number of charges at Ross: his technique was simplistic and unrealistic; his subject matter varied only between basic landscapes and basic seascapes; he was more about business than art, using the painting to hawk his personal line of art supplies; a streak of mawkish sentimentality ran through his shows. While each charge may be debatable, the continued success of Bob Ross even 17 years after his death is proof enough his formula continues to strike a chord with viewers, painters and nonpainters alike. People still watch, paint, take Ross-style classes from certified instructors, stock up on his brand of art supplies and accept his sincerity when he signs off from television heaven: “I’d like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.”

The library carries several of Bob Ross’s Joy of Painting books and a detailed three hour workshop DVD. For more information, go to BobRoss.com. Ask your local PBS station about the 2011 documentary, Bob Ross: The Happy Painter for show times and information on obtaining a DVD.

The landmark case of Parents v. Kids has been argued onscreen in dozens of television series since the 1950′s. One classic of the type is nearly as old as television. Leave it to Beaver began in 1957 and ran for six seasons. The family situations are viewed today as nostalgic, wholesome, middle-class stories of a better time in American society… or the portrait of an idealized culture that never really existed where virtually no one was poor, divorced or ethnic.

For me, watching in the present day, it’s all of the above. Nice stories of emotional and ethical issues and decent parenting with small doses of patriarchy and benign corporate capitalism.

I give Ward and June, the fictional parents (and the writers behind them), a lot of credit. They talk through things with each other and the boys and will admit when they’re wrong. This dialogue from Episode 65 “The Price of Fame” illustrates that, and the entire series’ universal message from parents to kids:

BEAVER:  I’m sorry, Dad.
WARD:  No, Beaver, I’m sorry. I should never say anything to you that would make you afraid to come to me when you’re in trouble.
BEAVER:  Gee, Dad, you don’t mind me getting in messes like this?
WARD:  Well, I don’t want you getting into trouble, but when you do, I want you to feel your parents are the first ones to come to.
JUNE:  That’s right, Beaver.

(Episode teleplay by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher; story by Dick Conway and Roland MacLane.)

The Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library carries all six seasons of Leave it to Beaver on DVD (I know, because I watched them all, in order). The library also has the 1998 theatrical film based on the series, in which several characters from the original run have cameos.

There was a reunion movie (Still the Beaver) in 1983, followed by a series (The New Leave it to Beaver). That movie and series are not available on DVD; those properties seem to be in legal limbo.

Wikipedia has credible articles on the show and sources for more information.

The library has many DVD sets of television shows from the 1950s to today. Host a marathon of your favorite childhood series, maybe The Six Million Dollar Man. Catch up on current shows like Mad Men and Fringe. You can’t watch enough (for us).

The Presley family's grave site on the grounds of Graceland in Memphis.

Presley dies at age 42

“MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Elvis Presley, the Mississippi boy whose rock ‘n’ roll guitar and gyrating hips changed American musical styles, died Tuesday afternoon of heart failure.”

So began the story on the front page of the Wednesday August 17, 1977 Topeka Daily Capital. Elvis Presley made headlines for over twenty years for his music, movies and distinctive style. Though his life ended when he was only 42, his works, lifestyle and influence still hold a significant place in American culture.

On this, the 34th anniversary of the King’s passing, browse the catalog or stop by the library and learn more through books, films, music CDs, downloadable music and audio books and ebooks. Check the vertical files and newspapers in the Topeka Room to learn more about Elvis’ 1956 performance at Topeka’s Municipal Auditorium (now TPAC).

For all things Elvis and information on this year’s Elvis Week, visit Elvis Presley Enterprises.