An Oneontan who worked for Guglielmo Marconi thought the inventor was crazy. Shoppers recalled their panic by what they once saw up on the town clock. The search was on for Mr. Dollar and Jack the parrot was a sight to see and hear. These were some of the amusing items going on in Oneonta in August 1937.
• “The recent death of Guglielmo Marconi revived for William J. Williams of 4 King street memories of days when he worked on the equipment for the first wireless and thought the ‘father of radio’ a little crazy,” it was reported in The Oneonta Star of Wednesday, Aug. 4. Marconi had passed on July 20.
Williams was a blacksmith in a shipyard in Hayle-Cornwall, England, when his employers contracted for the job of making the wireless equipment for Marconi.
The men on the job knew nothing about how the equipment was to be used or for what, as they just worked from the blueprints. The rumors soon circulated that the equipment was to be made for a man who wanted to send a message without wires. This was in the mid- to late 1890s.
“We thought he must be a bit ‘cracked,’” Mr. Williams commented in 1937. In 1901 the equipment made at Hayle-Cornwall was used to transmit a message from Newfoundland to England, an experiment.
Williams came to America in 1903 and moved to Oneonta in 1909. He was employed as a janitor at the Citizens National Bank and Trust Co., then found where 189 Main St. is today.
• Walter E. Dunbar had won the contract to renovate and paint the town clock on Main Street, which was then found atop the Westcott Block, now a parking lot between the Ruffino Mall and 242 Main St.
The task brought up memories of the same work done about 15 years earlier by another, unnamed contractor. At that time, shoppers along Main Street were horrified when they saw a painter fall asleep, with the potential to fall four stories below.
“It seems that he had been out the night before imbibing of the cup that cheers,” the Star reported on Aug. 20, “and after going to work on the upper cupola, drowsed away in the hot sun. He had mounted to his perch on a ladder which had been removed to be used by other painters on another portion of the building.”
“The good fortune that protects children and others … smiled on him, as he drowsed off he leaned forward against the shingles, instead of backward. Fearful that if they shouted to awaken him he might come to with a start and plunge to his death, fellow workmen hastily returned the ladder and quietly mounted to his side.”
The 1937 clock renovations were completed without incident.
• The Great Depression was still having its effects in 1937, so merchants in downtown Oneonta created an incentive to get shoppers into their stores. If you spotted Mr. Dollar during Dollar Days on Aug. 20-21, you could win a dollar. There was a little work involved, however.
“He was spotted by 29 persons who complied with the contest rules and received orders for $1, which were paid by the Chamber of Commerce.” You had to be there between 10 and 11 a.m. Friday, as Mr. Dollar would be out window shopping.
To be eligible to win, you needed to clip a Dollar Day advertisement out of the Star and have it with you. Plus you had to use these exact words when you spotted Mr. Dollar: “You are Mr. Dollar, and here is my copy of an Oneonta merchant’s Dollar Day ad.”
“Although strong buying was reported yesterday,” according to the Star of Aug. 21, “stocks of special Dollar Day values remain comprehensive and many opportunities remain for shoppers here today.”
• “Jack, the parrot, rides in style since he has acquired accommodations for motoring,” it was reported on Monday, Aug. 30.
“The bird sits haughtily on a long perch constructed inside an oblong wire cage as he accompanies Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ireland of 5 Walling avenue in their car.” It was built by a friend of the family.
“He sits quietly on his perch surveying the scenery with a superior air. Only when a stranger stops by the car to speak with his master or mistress does he make any disturbance. At those times he scolds in a loud voice at the intruder. His voice is much louder and more irritated in tone if the person happens to be a woman for Jack is known to his friends as ‘a woman hater.’”
On Monday: Local life and times in August 1987.
City Historian Mark Simonson’s column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. Write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Mark Simonson
‘Mr. Dollar,’ other characters populated 1937 Oneonta
- Mark Simonson
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General Clinton Canoe Regatta got a new home in 1972
Ever since 1963, when Charles Hinkley and a group of Tri-Town businessmen came up with the idea for what we know today as the General Clinton Canoe Regatta, people lined the shores of the Susquehanna to watch the canoeists as they made their 70-mile trek from Cooperstown to Bainbridge.
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Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
You know an issue is divisive when a vote to resolve it is quite close. In Oneonta during the early 1930s there were probably plenty of discussions or arguments at the family dinner table or sermons from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, regarding whether or should be able to see a movie in Oneonta on Sunday.
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Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
Area residents mulled over the idea of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller as their next President of the United States. New fitness opportunities emerged for all ages. One area landmark was saved while another was razed. It was only a part of our life and times in May 1968.
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Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
In the economy that was the Great Depression, there were times people would do what it took to try to earn some money.
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Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
I realize I've got the wrong month in mind when I say "May came in like a lion." However, that's what happened in 1983 as a number of twisters moved through our region, leaving plenty of damage behind in their trails. Add some melting snow and heavy rain, and scenes of cleanups were widespread 30 years ago this month.
- Saturday, May 4, 2013
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Disaster, expansions put people to work in May 1913
- Monday, April 29, 2013
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Job opportunities abounded in area 45 years ago
If you were looking for a job in April 1968 in our area, or perhaps looking to change your employment situation in the near future, opportunities were pointing in your favor.
- Saturday, April 27, 2013
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Oneonta greeted an aviation giant in 1928
An early aviation superstar came to Oneonta in 1928.
- Monday, April 22, 2013
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Area saw its own armed standoffs 30 years ago
This past Friday, we watched how the Boston area went into a lockdown during a tense search for the last suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Had I still been living and working in that area, as I was in the early 1990s, I would have had a day off from work Friday, as police scoured the city of Waltham.
- Saturday, April 20, 2013
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U.S.S. Maine explosion, war drew much local sentiment
For most people in our area in early 1898, a growing conflict between two distant nations probably didn't get much attention, other than some glances at the newspaper. When a young Oneonta man was one of many injured or killed in an explosion of a battleship he was aboard, the local attention increased markedly to what was soon to become the Spanish-American War.
- Monday, April 15, 2013
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Oneonta river walking path came from a surveyor's daydream
Leon Kalmus of Oneonta spent a lot of time surveying land near the Susquehanna River in the early 1970s around the time Interstate 88 was being planned and built in this area. What he saw along the shores of the river, he called “pristine,� and soon had an idea for some kind of walking or hiking pathway along the shores of the river in the town of Oneonta.
- Saturday, April 13, 2013
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Decline of Prohibition led to return of beer in April 1933
“I think this would be a good time for a beer,� remarked President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he signed the Cullen-Harrison Act on March 22, 1933. This marked the beginning of the end for Prohibition that year.
- Monday, April 8, 2013
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Dietz Street shifted from residential to commercial through the years
By taking a walk along Dietz Street today, heading north to Walnut Street, one can see a lot of businesses and the recently refurbished parking lot on the east side of the street. It would take some imagination to see this street lined with houses and a church, but prior to the late 1940s, that’s what was there.
- Saturday, April 6, 2013
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Oneontans voted for a 'dry' city in 1918
- Monday, April 1, 2013
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Future city historian kept family busy for Easter and April 1958
- Saturday, March 30, 2013
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Colliscroft became new Oneonta landmark in 1902
If the Oneonta building trade sector of the economy could have awarded a plaque to a most valuable individual customer of 1902, it would have nearly been a shoo-in. That was Edward H. Pardee, who was listed in the Oneonta Directory around that time as a farmer, on Southside.
- Wednesday, March 27, 2013
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Historic Cooperstown cottage got a new address in 1988
To unknowing tourists seeking information from the tourism information center at 31 Chestnut St. in Cooperstown, they would probably believe that the mid-19th century cottage had always been on that site. It blends in well with some of the grand old houses along that street, and the same tourists might think it has an interesting history behind it.
- Saturday, March 23, 2013
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Free mail delivery began in Oneonta 125 years ago
- Monday, March 18, 2013
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Oneonta enacted first building code 60 years ago
There will be no parade, fireworks display or commemorative coins minted for the occasion.
- Saturday, March 16, 2013
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Area isolated during historic March 1888 snowstorm
Earlier in the week, we recalled the "Blizzard of 1993," which was one containing historic snowfall that fell on our region on Saturday, March 13. It was the largest recorded in a single local snowfall in the 20th century, and ever since another storm dating back 105 years. The latter snowfall was worse than the 1993 storm, falling overnight into Tuesday, March 13, 1888. It was commonly referred to as the "Blizzard of 1888."
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