Category: Memorabilia Moment

How ‘Soupman’ became Soupy Sales

soupy

Death noted: TV comedy pioneer Soupy Sales, born Milton Supman in Franklinton, where his parents Irving and Sadie ran a dry-goods store. According to today’s obituary in the New York Times, “His last name was pronounced ‘Soupman’ by neighbors, so he called himself Soupy as a youngster.” He was 83.

After joining the Navy, earning a journalism degree from Marshall College and working as a disc jockey, he found fame catching pies in the face and dodging paw swats from White Fang, “the biggest and meanest dog in the United States.” “The Soupy Sales Show,” first aired as “Soup’s On” on a Detroit station, made its network debut on ABC in 1955.

Confederate generals found postwar work in D.C.

572 Stedman

“From the end of Reconstruction until 1890, Confederate veterans held a majority of the best offices in the Southern states…. Confederate generals held 18 of the seats in the 45th Congress, 1877-1879, with 49 other seats from the South held by lower-ranking soldiers and sailors….

“The last Confederate veteran to serve in Congress was Major Charles M. Stedman of North Carolina, who died in 1930 [at age 89].”

— From “The Last Review”  by Virginius Dabney (1984)

Charles Manly Stedman was elected to the House of Representatives 10 times by his Greensboro district. This pinback must be from Stedman’s second  unsuccessful run for governor (1903), rather than his first (1888), since such celluloid political buttons weren’t introduced until the McKinley-Bryan presidential campaign of 1896. And of course he looks more like 62 years old  than 47.

A star is born in Winston-Salem

On this day in 1913, Old Joe, a dromedary in the Barnum & Bailey circus passing through Winston-Salem, posed for the Camel cigarette package.

Because the camel image on the existing pack didn’t suit R.J. Reynolds, Roy Haberkern, his secretary, went to the circus in search of a replacement. Haberkern found the trainer unwilling to allow photographs—until he threatened to end the company’s tradition of closing its factories when the circus came to town. Even then, Old Joe balked until the trainer slapped him on the nose, motivating him into his soon-to-be world-famous stance.

This is a lithographed metal fan pull, about 4 inches in diameter, used to operate the ceiling fans typical in stores before air conditioning.

Lloyd Free

Before Dennis Rodman, there was Lloyd Free. Unarguably one of the NBA’s quirkiest personalities, Free brought his exciting style to the league in the late 1970’s. After growing up in Brooklyn (where he earned the nickname “World” for his 360-degree dunks), Lloyd Free attended Guilford College from 1972-1975. As a freshman, he helped lead the Quakers to the 1973 NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) Championship; he was also given MVP honors in the tournament. After three years at Guilford, Free turned professional and was drafted as a second-round pick by the Philadelphia 76ers. During his thirteen-year career, Free averaged 20.3 points per game. In 1980, he was second in the league in scoring; the same year, he legally changed his name to “World B. Free.” Since retiring from basketball, Free has served as the 76ers “ambassador of basketball,” greeting fans at games in his typically flamboyant wardrobe.

James, Carly, and friends say no thanks to nukes

Musicians United for Safe Energy, or MUSE, was founded shortly after the Three Mile Island accident to oppose nuclear energy. MUSE organized a series of “No Nukes” concerts in New York in September 1979.

Rolling Stone devoted a cover to the headliners (including James Taylor depicted with his hand atop the head of wife Carly Simon) and later called the concerts “a high-water mark of inspiration and optimism… a stunning testimony to the depth of the shared beliefs of the generation which came of age in the sixties.”

81st Infantry Division

I had an interesting experience while researching the 81st Infantry Division last week. The unit, which was formed during World War I, was made up of recruits from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. Training was held at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, near Wildcat Creek. During training, it was decided that patches could make it easier for the soldiers to identify one another in battle. So the patches were made; naturally, the wildcat was the emblem used. The 81st infantry division’s patches were deemed such a success that the Army implemented them for all units.

If that wasn’t interesting enough, I stumbled across this nugget of information the very same day: former North Carolina Governor William B. Umstead was a member of the 81st Infantry Division–the very same Wildcats! I rarely remember details when it comes to military ranks and divisions, so I was quite surprised (and pleased) to put together those two pieces of information. Serendipitous, you might say.

Bickett decries ‘wicked appeal to race prejudice’

“The scheme is so transparently impossible, so plainly a gold-brick proposition, that ordinarily the inmates of a school for the feebleminded could not be induced to part with their coin for a certificate of membership…

“But running through the whole scheme is a wicked appeal to race prejudice. There is a hark back to the lawless time that followed the Civil War…There is no need for any secret order to enforce the law of this land…Just now all of us need to be considerate and kind and trustful in our dealings with the Negro.”

— Gov. Thomas Bickett, circa 1921, responding to the revival of the KKK inspired by The Birth of a Nation. Bickett was quoted in an NAACP handbill calling on citizens not to “allow Ku Klux Klan propaganda to be displayed in the movies in New York City.”

The Dictionary of North Carolina Biography describes Bickett as “a traditionalist in his attitude toward race relations [who] nonetheless manifested a sympathy for the lot of the blacks uncommon among Southern politicians of his time.”

Tribute to an ‘attractive Indian princess’

Indera Mills was incorporated in Winston-Salem in 1914. According to the company’s Web site,  founder Francis Henry Fries took the name Indera from “an attractive Indian princess…whom he met while on vacation with his family in Egypt in 1907.”

In the beginning, Indera produced knitted slips and vests, union suits, knee warmers, and bathing suits. Today it specializes in thermal underwear.

In 1997, Indera Mills began outsourcing sewing to Monterrey, Mexico, and closed its factory in downtown Winston-Salem. The remaining work is done in Yadkinville.

This celluloid advertising piece, about 6 inches wide, was intended for display at store counters.

Watch Winston-Salem grow (sorry, Charlotte)

“The spirit of growth was so pervasive that the motto of Winston-Salem during the early years of the 1900s was ’50-15,’ or 50,000 inhabitants by 1915. That goal was nearly met, for by 1920 the population was 48,375—a 113 percent increase from the population of Winston and Salem in 1910…From about 1915 to 1930, Winston-Salem was the largest city in North Carolina.”

–From From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Forsyth County by Gwynne Stephens Taylor (1981).