I need to say at the onset here that I really hate internet lists…like "100 Things To Do In Milwaukee Right Now" or "13 Things You Never Knew About Beer" or "41 Ways To Fill Space When You Are Writing A Weekly Blog." To me, these barely qualify as writing. But I am confident that this does not qualify as a list. Let’s call it a series. It’s also an idea I shamelessly stole from others.
But I also think this could be really fun. I love antiquing and eBay hunting for Milwaukee things. And I love to be able to connect those things to the city’s history, particularly everyday objects that were never meant to be historical markers. People write entire books about things like City Hall and the Old Soldiers Home (and are totally justified in doing so), but there is something to be said for finding something as innocuous as, say, a postcard, pinback or ink blotter and being able to tell a story about it.
I have no idea how many objects I’ll end up writing about and I do not expect this to became an actual history of the city. Still, it’s something that I think could be fun and informative. I’m going to start with some things I have just lying around my apartment, but in future installments I plan on getting out there and doing a little detective work in tracking down some cool Milwaukee stuff that most people have never seen before. Also, I really encourage anyone with any recommendations—especially anything you might own yourself that you’d like me to paw at—to post them in the comments or email me at mjprigge@uwm.edu. Or, if you think I’m in over my head, tell me so and I’ll get to work on coming up with "11 Essential Milwaukee Bars (And Eight You Never Want To Visit)."
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It’s Tough to Beat a Mayor in This Town
Elect Carl Zeidler blotter, 1940. (Author’s Collection)
Not counting Tom Barrett’s defeat of Marvin Pratt—who was the unelected “acting” mayor when Barrett beat him—Carl Zeidler’s upending of Daniel Hoan in 1940 is the only time an incumbent Milwaukee mayor lost a reelection bid in the past 98 years. Hoan himself was the last to do it before Zeidler, beating Gerhard Bading in 1916. The Zeidler-Hoan matchup of 1940 was more about style than substance. Although the Socialist Hoan was considered one of the ablest public servants in the nation (he was even featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in way chill pose in 1936), the young and energetic Zeidler painted himself as a new man for a new time. He trumped the elder Hoan quite easily, but fate had other plans for his legacy. When the U.S. entered World War II, Zeidler resigned his office mid-term and joined the Navy Reserve. In December 1942, his merchant marine ship was lost off of South Africa. The body of Milwaukee’s “boy mayor” was never recovered. Zeidler’s most lasting impact on Milwaukee was probably through the actions of his younger brother, Frank, who admitted that the familiarity of his name had more than a little to do with his election as mayor in 1948. Frank was the last Socialist mayor of a major U.S. city and served until 1960 when he retired.
The Brewers Come Alive in ’75!
“Thanks a Million” Milwaukee Brewers pinback, c. 1975. (Author’s Collection)
Henry Aaron started his Major League career in Milwaukee in 1954. Robin Yount retired as a Milwaukee Brewer in 1993. And in the middle of this 40 year span, Hammerin’ Henry and The Kid played two seasons as teammates. I cannot think of any other instance of two legendary players—best known for playing with different franchises in the same city—who were ever teammates at such different stages in their careers. In 1975, Robin Yount was still just 19 years old, a raw talent adjusting to Big League life. Hank Aaron was 41 years old, probably one of the most famous athletes in the world, but left with only flashes of his once-amazing talent. The Brewers traded for Aaron before the season, hoping he still had some life left in his bat. But age caught up with Aaron when he returned to Milwaukee, he batted just .234 and hit only 12 home runs in what was easily the worst season of his career. The “million thanks” is a reference to the franchise-high attendance mark the Brewers hit that year. They drew 1.2 million fans in 1975, a stunning 27% jump over the year before. The addition of Aaron obviously helped, but so did a surprisingly competitive Brewers team. In just their sixth season of existence, the Brewers held first place in the AL East as late as the Fourth of July but slumped badly in the second half and finished in fifth place. Aaron played one more unremarkable year before retiring. Yount hung around for another couple decades, winning two MVP awards and leading the Brewers to their only World Series. He joined Aaron in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.
Beating Chicago at a Game of Bridge
"Grand Ave., Bascule Bridge, Milwaukee, Wis.” Postcard, c. 1906. (Author’s Collection)
Postcards were almost like the text messages of their time. It’s amazing to look through postcards from the early 1900s and see how little people wrote on them. You can see that the sender of this one simply wrote “6/17/06 Hello” and then signed his or her initials. There is nothing on the backside but the address of the recipient (Miss Lorena Layer of Louisville, Kentucky), meaning that hello was all the sender had to say about Milwaukee. Despite the sender’s brevity, there is actually quite a lot to be said about this image. The Grand Avenue (now Wisconsin Avenue) bridge was probably brand new when this image was made. The Grand Avenue bascule was installed in 1902, the first of its kind in the nation. While this style of bridge is usually associated with Chicago, Milwaukee had one operational a full two months before the Windy City. Given the novelty of the bridge at its opening (and also judging by the yet-to-be-improved Gimbel’s Building at the left of the image), this scene probably occurred just after the bridge went into service. The vessel coming downriver is a sidewheel passenger steamer, a very popular means of traversing Lake Michigan between the 1870s and 1920s. A colorized version of this same card is held in the UW-Milwaukee “Greetings from Milwaukee” postcard collection. The sender of that card was a bit more taken with the bridge and the delays it caused to street traffic.
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