Famous People with a
Jim
BACKUS (February 25, 1913 - July 3, 1989) Born in
Hector BOIARDI
(1897-21 June 1985), known to millions as Chef Boy-ar-dee, began as a local
restaurateur. Boiardi, son of Joseph and Mary (Maffi) Boiardi, began cooking in
Margaret
BOURKE-WHITE (
York, she graduated from Cornell University
in 1927 and after a failed first marriage came to Cleveland, where her widowed
mother had moved. Here she explored the industrial region of the city called
the Flats, which she called "a photographic paradise,'' and photographed
stately homes for the local social publication Town & Country Club
News. She also photographed the newly completed Terminal Tower, where she
opened her first studio. Her curiosity and interest in steelmaking led her to
seek permission from Elroy J. Kulas to photograph in his mill, the Otis Steel
Co. Pleased with the results, Kulas had them published in The Story of Steel, a
booklet distributed to Otis Steel stockholders. Bourke-White left Cleveland for
New York in 1929 when Henry Luce hired her for his new publication, Fortune, on
the basis of her steel pictures. He later chose her as one of the 4 original
staff photographers for Life. Ultimately, Bourke-White became the first woman
accredited as a war correspondent (1942), traveled with Gen. Geo. Patton's 3d
Army through Germany (1945); and photographed Gandhi in India a few hours
before his assassination (1948). She married novelist Erskine Caldwell in 1939
but was divorced in 1942. She died at the age of 67 in Stamford, Conn.
Paul
E. BROWN (7 Sept. 1908-5 Aug. 1991) was the head coach of the CLEVELAND
BROWNS from its beginnings in 1946 through 1962. An innovative and highly
successful coach at all levels, Brown developed coaching procedures that
revolutionized modern football and earned him election into the Pro Football
Hall of Fame in 1967. Brown was born in Norwalk, Ohio, the son of Ida
(Sherwood) and Lester Brown. He moved with his family to Massillon, O., where
Brown became the quarterback of the high school football team. Considered too
small for football at Ohio State Univ., he transferred to Miami Univ. in Oxford,
O., and played quarterback there in the 1920s. Brown began his coaching career
in 1930 at Severn Prep School in Annapolis, Md. He returned to Massillon in
1932 as head coach at Washington High School. In 9 seasons his teams won 80
games, including a 35-game winning streak. In 1941 Brown became head football
coach at Ohio State, where his team won the national championship in 1942.
During WORLD WAR II Brown was the head coach at the Great Lakes Naval Training
Ctr. near Chicago. In 1945 he agreed to become head coach and 5% owner of a new
professional franchise being formed in Cleveland. Brown was able to recruit the
best players he had seen in his years at Ohio State and Great Lakes for the team
which was named in his honor. Beginning in 1946, the Browns won 4 consecutive
All-America Football Conference championships (1946-49) and 3 National Football
League title games (1950, 1954, and 1955) while compiling a record during his
tenure of 158-48-8. Nine of the Brown's players were inducted into the Hall of
Fame. Nevertheless a new team owner, Art Modell, fired Brown on 7 Jan. 1963.
Brown returned to coaching in 1968 after establishing the CINCINNATI BENGALS.
Retiring as coach after the 1975 season, he continued as the team's
vice-president and general mgr. Among his coaching innovations were the use of
intelligence tests for players, the creation of written playbooks, the calling
of plays through messenger guards, the grading of players after the review of
game films, and the adoption of the protective face mask. Brown was first
married in 1929 to his high school sweetheart, Kathryn (Katie) Kester. After
her death in 1969, he married his former secretary, Mary Rightsell, in 1973. He
died in Cincinnati, survived by 2 sons, Mike and Pete. He is buried in Rose Hill
Memorial Park, near Massillon.
Charles F. BRUSH (17 Mar.
1849-15 June 1929), one of America's most distinguished inventors, was born in Euclid
Township. He received his mining engineering degree from the University of Michigan
in 1869. He worked 4 years in Cleveland as a chemist, then formed an iron
dealing partnership with Chas. E. Bingham. In 1876, Brush received one of his
50 career patents, for the "perfect" open coil-type dynamo, a
predecessor of the modern generator. His arc light (1878), demonstrated in Cleveland's
Public Square in 1879, made Brush world-famous, and by 1882 "Brush
Lights" were used throughout the world. In 1880 Brush formed the Brush
Electric Co. which was bought by Thomson Houston Electric Co. in 1889, merging
with Edison General Electric Co. in 1891 to form General Electric Co. Brush
spent the rest of his life pursuing interests in gravitation and heat, writing
articles published by the American Philosophical Society and the Royal Society.
Brush maintain various business interests. He was founder and president of the
Linde Air Products Co., helped form the Sandusky Portland Cement Co. (later
Medusa). Brush received many honorary degrees; was made a chevalier of the
Legion of Honor of France (1881); and received medals from the American Academy
of Arts & Sciences (1899), the American Institute of Electrical Engineers
(1913), and the Franklin Institute (1928). An early arc lamp is shown here.
Drew CAREY, (23
May 1958 - ), born and raised right here in Cleveland, attended Rhodes High
School and Kent State University. A Marine reserve, Carey's military buzz cut
and black wide-rim glasses became part of his 
trademark look. He
began his successful career as a comedian in April of 1986 at the Cleveland
Comedy Club. One of his first big breaks was competing on Star Search
'88. In January 1991, Carey landed a spot on HBO's 14th Annual Young
Comedians Special, and moved to Los Angeles. That same year, he experienced a
dream come true during his first appearance on The Tonight Show With
Johnny Carson, when Johnny bestowed upon him the rare honor of having the comic
come over and sit on the couch after his set — and kept him there during the
whole show. With the success of The Drew Carey Show and Whose Line Is It
Anyway?, this comic-turned-actor/producer has the rare honor of having two
concurrent hit shows. Drew Carey continues to diversify his career, as
exemplified by recently starring in The Wonderful World Of Disney's live-action
television musical, Geppetto, in which he sang and danced as the title
character; and continuing with his cutting edge stand-up, various cable
television specials, and work as a writer.
Leonard
CASE Jr.. (27 Jan. 1820-6 Jan. 1880), a philanthropist who endowed Case
School of Applied Science, was born in Cleveland and educated in law at Yale.
Sickly all his life, he neither married nor practiced his profession, but
devoted himself to scholarly pursuits. Inheriting $15 million in 1864, Case
regarded his wealth as a trust to be used for good. In 1859, the Case brothers
constructed Case Hall, a civic and cultural center. Case anonymously gave $1
million to establish a technical school to teach pure science, an orientation that
attracted support from local businesses, permitting the institution to become
an important center for industrial research. To provide annual revenues, Case
bequeathed the rental income from his downtown properties to the school. The
Case School of Applied Science, as it became known, opened in 1881. Today
this is part of Case Western Reserve University.
Tim CONWAY (December 15, 1933 - ), Emmy Award winning comic actor, was born Thomas Daniel Conway in Willoughby, Ohio. He earned a degree in television and radio from Bowling Green State University. Comedienne Rose Marie discovered him and arranged an audition for The Steve Allen Show, on which he became a regular. He became notorious on the TV series "The Carol Burnett Show" for making the cast members crack up with laughter on stage and during taping while he remained in character. He was awarded Emmys in 1973, 1977, 1978 and 1996.
Hart CRANE(21 July 1899-27
Apr. 1932), a modern, lyrical poet of the 1920s, was born in Garretsville,
Ohio, to Grace Hart and C.A. Crane, millionaire candy manufacturer. In 1909,
after his mother and father separated, he and his mother moved to Cleveland.
Crane began writing verse at 13, publishing his first poem at 16 (1915) in
Bruno's Weekly while attending East High School. He attempted a college
education but was mainly self-taught. While writing and studying, he held jobs
with advertising companies in Cleveland and served a brief stint as a PLAIN
DEALER reporter. Moving to New York, Crane published poems in the small-press
literary magazines Dial, Seven Arts, Poetry, and others. His first collection,
White Buildings (1926), was well received. A wild life, including alcoholism
and homosexual behavior, established him as a legendary figure. He traveled
through California (1927-28) and Europe (1928-29). In 1930 he published The
Bridge, his most famous collection, using the Brooklyn Bridge as a metaphor for
American life and destiny, which won him critical acclaim and a Guggenheim
Fellowship in 1931. In 1931, Crane lived in an artists' colony outside of Mexico
City and worked on an epic poem about the conquest of Mexico, which he never
finished. In 1932, Crane's depression, alcoholism, and the feeling he had lost
his poetic powers led him to jump ship while sailing to America to settle his
father's estate. His body was never recovered. His collected poems were
published posthumously in 1933.
George
W. CRILE. (11 Nov. 1864-7 Jan. 1943), surgeon, researcher, and a founder of
the CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION, was born in 
Chili, Ohio, to Michael
and Margaret Deeds Crile. He received his A.B. from Ohio Northern University
(1885), his medical degree from Wooster Medical College (1887), and additional
training in Europe. Along with FRANK E. BUNTS†, he worked for Dr. Frank Weed
and served several Cleveland hospitals including Lakeside Hospital where he
served as Chief of Surgery. He is reputed to have performed the first
successful human blood transfusion at ST. ALEXIS HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER in
1906. During the SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, Crile worked in the U.S. Army Medical
Corps and studied military surgery, field sanitation, and tropical
diseases. During WORLD WAR I, he served in Army hospitals in France and
researched war neurasthenia, shell concussion, effects of poison gas, wound
infection, and shock. He received the French Legion of Honor (1922). Along with
Drs. WM. E. LOWER†, Frank E. Bunts, and JOHN PHILLIPS†, Crile founded the
Cleveland Clinic, a medical group practice modeled after Mayo Clinic. Crile was
president (1921-40) and trustee (1921-36) of the foundation. Crile perfected
operations for goiter and thyroid disease and also studied intelligence and
personality, theorizing that the human organism is an electrochemical
mechanism. Crile was a founding member and second president (1916-17) of the American
College of Surgeons, and taught at the University of Wooster (1890-1900) and
Western Reserve School of Medicine (1900-43).
Herbert H. DOW (26 Feb.
1866-15 Oct. 1930), developer of Dow Chemical Co., was born in Belleville, Ontario.
The son of Joseph H. and Sarah 
Bunneil Dow, he moved with his family to Cleveland,
and graduated with a B.S. from Case School in 1888. His senior thesis, which he
presented that summer at the Cleveland meeting of the American Assoc. for the
Advancement of Science, dealt with brines in Ohio. From 1888-89, when Dow
was professor of chemistry at the Huron St. Hospital College, he developed a
process for manufacturing bromine from brine, receiving a patent on 12 Apr.
1892. In 1889 he organized a company to work with brines in fields near Canton.
That venture failed, however in 1890 he started Dow Process Co. in Midland,
Mich. where the brines contained heavy concentrations of bromine. Dow organized
Midland Chemical Co. in 1892 and in 1895 began manufacturing chlorine and its
derivatives. He formed Dow Chemical Co. in 1897 to manufacture chlorine and
caustic soda; in 1900, Dow Chemical absorbed Midland Chemical Co. Dow was
president and general manager of Dow Chemical, responsible for developing new
chemical processes for which more than 100 patents were granted.
Hugh DOWNS (born in
Akron, Ohio on February 14 1921) is the Emmy Award-winning co-Anchor of the ABC
news TV show 20/20, a primetime newsmagazine program. In 1985 he was certified
by the Guinness Book of World Records as holding the record for the greatest
number of hours on network commercial television.
Edris ECKHARDT (28 Jan. 1905-27 April 1998), internationally known
sculptor, ceramist, and enamelist, won a Guggenheim fellowship in 1956 for her
rediscovery of the ancient Egyptian technique for making gold glass, which had
been forgotten for 1,500 years. She graduated from the Cleveland School
of Art in 1931, however she was not 
given the Herman N. Matzen Award, which
offered a year study abroad, because she was a woman. As a result, she changed
her name to Edris, a militant and genderless archangel. Eckhardt was named
supervisor of the Works Project Administration ceramic arts programs in Cleveland,
a post she held until 1941. She taught at her alma mater, which became
the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART, for twenty-eight years and received her
bachelors degree in 1963. Eckhardt also taught at CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY,
Cleveland College, University of California at Berkeley, Notre Dame College and
Oxford School in Cleveland Heights. Eckhardt made her own glass, rolled
it, laminated anywhere from three to seventeen layers with tiny scales of
colored glass between them, etched and fired it. She was known for inventing
new processes for glass, bronze and other media. Her artwork won many regional,
national and international awards and is in the collections of more than 50
museums around the world. She created sculpture for Eleanor Roosevelt, the U.S.
Congress and the British Monarchy. Winning another Guggenheim for her work in
ceramics, Eckhardt became the first Ohio artist to win the award twice. She
also received a Louis Comfort Tiffany fellowship for her work in glass design
and in 1990 was named a fellow of the American Crafts Council.
Effie ELLSLER
(4 Apr. 1854-8 Oct. 1942), a member of the famous Ellsler theatrical family and
known as "Cleveland's Sweetheart" from the 1870s to 1900s, learned to
perfect the art of emotional distress and extravagant gesture so popular during
the pre-Ibsen period of stage and screen. Ellsler was named for her mother,
Euphemia Emma Ellsler, who, with her husband, JOHN A. ELLSLER, performed on
stage as "Uncle John A. and Effie E." Little Effie's first stage
appearance was portraying Little Eva in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's
Cabin, and later playing Cricket in The Cricket on the Hearth. On 1 Dec.
1880, Effie performed as Hazel in Steele MacKaye's melodrama Hazel Kirke,
playing this, her best remembered role, when it opened in Madison Square
Theater on 4 Feb. 1880. The play made a record run on Broadway that was not
surpassed until 1906. Ellsler's last appearance in Cleveland occurred on 29 May
1919 at the Shubert-Colonial Theater in a play called Old Lady 31.
Bob
FELLER became a legend in his time. His rapid fastball was said
"to be faster than anyone else in the history of
baseball". Cleveland Indians' Manager Steve O'Neill
remembered," Rapid Robert's" first appearance in Cleveland's old League
Park. Playing in an exhibition game Vs the St. Louis Cardinals,
O'Neill, a former catcher, decided to catch Feller personally and have him
pitch the middle three innings. "The first batter was thrown out
trying to bunt, Feller's other eight (8) outs were all strikeouts.
"Cardinal hitter, Leo Durocher took two strikes and threw his bat on the
grounds". Durocher roared "this kid looks at third base and
stuffs the ball down your throat". In 
major league start in
1936, Feller struck out 15 St. Louis Browns. Later that same year he got
17 strikeouts Vs the Philadelphia Athletics, tying a major league record.
In 1940, Bob Feller was 27-11, ERA of 2.61, including 4 shutouts and racked up
four (4) saves. "Rapid Robert" Feller was rising to become one
of baseballs' greatest pitchers. In 1939, Feller went 24-9, while striking out
246 batters in 296 innings. "Rapid Bob" was 25-13 in 1941 and
then spent the next four years in the Navy. In 1941, "the Yankee
Clipper", hit safely in a record 56 consecutive games; Bob Feller was the
pitcher who broke Joe DiMaggio's batting streak that year. In 1946 after
his military service, Feller's fastball was clocked at 98.6 mph, "the
fastest pitcher alive". On April 30, 1946, Feller's fastball was
really humming, as he pitched a no-hitter in Yankee Stadium before 37,144
stunned fans as the Indians beat the Yankees, 1-0. This duplicated his
opening day feat of 1940 when he no-hit the Chicago White Sox by the same 1-0
score. Bob Feller was 26-15 in 1946, including an outstanding ERA of
2.18, with 348 strikeouts along with a league leading 10 shutouts. In 1948,
this great right-handed pitcher's 19 wins helped the Indians win the World
Championship. His 13-3 record in 1954, helped the Indians win the pennant.
Bob Feller's career highlights include 2581 strikeouts; at the time the 3rd
highest in baseball history. His record was 266 wins and only 162 loses,
pct of .621. Bob Feller had a career ERA of 3.25; while starting 484
games and completed 279.
Alan FREED (15 Dec. 1922-20
Jan. 1965) is credited with the invention and development of the musical fad of
ROCK 'N' ROLL. He was born to Charles and Maud Freed in Johnstown, Penn. The
family moved to Salem, Ohio, in 1924 where Alan graduated from Salem High
School. Freed attended Ohio State University for two quarters and then enlisted
in the army in 1941. Freed met LEO MINTZ in 1948 and saw how Mintz's
customers at Cleveland's Record Rendezvous enjoyed Rhythm & Blues records.
Mintz called it Rock'n'Roll. Soon after, Freed started playing a rock'n'roll
tune as a novelty record on his afternoon show at WAKR. He left WAKR in Dec.
1949 and started in the Cleveland market on WXEL-TV (Channel 9) in April as the
afternoon movie show host. With Mintz's sponsorship, Freed started in
July 1951, at WJW-AM (850) with a late night radio show called "The
Moondog Rock & Roll House Party." Later that year, Freed promoted
dances/concerts featuring the music he was playing on the radio. With Lew
Platt, of Akron, Freed promoted a large, five-act concert on 21 Mar. 1952
called the Moondog Coronation Ball which is considered to have been the first
rock'n'roll concert. After the Moondog Ball, Freed's radio program was
syndicated in 8 markets and on the Armed Forces Network in Europe. Freed moved
to WINS-AM in New York City in Aug. 1958. Freed's TV show on WNEW-TV, his
four movies, and his records on his label, End Records, made him a world-wide
personality. He promoted successful concerts and toured throughout the eastern
states.
Dorothy
FULDHEIM (26 June 1893--3 Nov. 1989) entered the field of television at an
age when most people begin to plan their retirement and lasted there long
enough to become a living legend. She was born Dorothy Violet Snell in Passaic,
N.J., and grew up in Milwaukee, Wisw., where she attended Milwaukee College and
entered teaching. Following her marriage to Milton H. Fuldheim, she moved to Cleveland
in the 1920s and pursued a career in lecturing. She also gained experience in
radio, including a local historical biographical series on WTAM and a weekly
editorial over the ABC network. Joining Cleveland's first television station,
WEWS, 2 months before it went on the air in Dec., 1947, Fuldheim became the
first woman in the country with her own news show. With nearly 37
unbroken years on the air, Fuldheim had interviewed Adolph Hitler; the Duke of
Windsor; the Shah of Iran; John, Robert and Ted Kennedy; James Hoffa; Barbara
Walters; Helen Keller; Albert Einstein; Muhammed Ali; Hubert Humphrey; Bob
Hope; Dr. Martin Luther King and Tennessee Williams, among many others.
WEWS also used her as a roving reporter on assignments ranging from the Mideast
to Northern Ireland. An interview she did in Hong Kong with 2 American
prisoners released by Communist China in 1955 brought her a National Overseas
Press Club award. Named one of America's Most Admired Women by a Gallup
Poll, Fuldheim was the only active journalist included among the charter
members of the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame, established by the PRESS CLUB
OF CLEVELAND. She wrote 2 autobiographical reminiscences, I Laughed, I Cried, I
Loved (1966) and A Thousand Friends (1974).
James
Abram GARFIELD (19 Nov. 1831-19 Sept. 1881), 20th president of the U.S.,
was born in Orange Twp., Cuyahoga County, Ohio, to Abram and Eliza Ballou
Garfield. He was the last president to be born in a log cabin. Fatherless
at age 4, Garfield worked as a farmer, carpenter, and canal boatman. He studied
at Geauga Seminary in Chester, Ohio, Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (now Hiram
College) from 1851-54, and graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in
1856. He returned to Hiram to teach classics and served as its president
(1857-61), while also being a lay minister in the DISCIPLES OF CHRIST church.
In 1859 he was admitted to the bar and elected to the Ohio senate. Garfield was
commissioned as lieutenant colonel in the 42d Ohio Regiment in 1861. After
defeating superior forces at Middle Creek, Ky., in 1862, he was promoted to
brigadier general, and after winning distinction at Chickamauga, becoming a
major general. Garfield resigned his commission in Dec. 1863 after being
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives where he served for 17 years. In
Jan. 1880, Garfield was elected to the U.S. Senate, 
but before
his term began, attended the Republican Convention in Chicago as campaign
manager for John Sherman of Ohio. Garfield, however, became the candidate for
president, nominated on the 36th ballot as a compromise between former
president Ulysses S. Grant and Sen. Jas. G. Blaine. Chester Alan Arthur of New
York was his running mate, opposing Democratic candidates Winfield Scott
Hancock and Wm. H. English. Headquarters for the campaign were in Cleveland,
but Garfield spent most of the time receiving delegations at his home,
"Lawnfield," in Mentor, Ohio. Garfield won the election by less than
a 10,000-vote plurality, but garnered 214 of the 369 electoral votes. On 2
July 1881, while on his way to a Williams College reunion, Garfield was shot at
the Washington, D.C. railroad station by Chas. Julius Guiteau, a disappointed
office seeker. Garfield suffered agonizing attempts by various physicians to
save his life before he died on 19 Sept. 1881 at Elberon, N.J. He was buried at
LAKE VIEW CEMETERY in Cleveland, and the GARFIELD MONUMENT was erected to his
memory in May 1890. Garfield married Lucretia Rudolph in 1858 and had seven
children: James R., Harry A., Irving M., Edward, Eliza A., Mary (Mollie), and
Abram. The Garfield Tomb and Monument, pictured here, is the only
presidential gravesite where one can actually view the caskets of the entombed.
Francis H. GLIDDEN, revolutionized the coatings world with
chemical research that had applications in food technology as well as paint.
The firm was founded as the Glidden Varnish Co., and with the addition of
partner Levi C. Brackett, it became Glidden & Brackett. The partnership
bought the newly organized Forest City Paint & Varnish Co. in 1875,
modifying the name to the Glidden & Joy Varnish Co., which became known for
its lacquer, Jap-a-lac. When the firm was purchased by Adrian Joyce in 1917, he
renamed it the Glidden Co. Within 2 years Joyce acquired 11 paint manufacturers
and distributors, which expanded the company's expertise in pigments, dry
colors, chemicals, and metals. Seeking to utilize both the edible and inedible
components of oil, the company acquired vegetable oil-processing plants and
food processors in the 1920s. By 1934 Glidden owned the E.R. Durkee Co. which
made condiments, spices, and sauces, and 6 other companies that produced over
half of its sales volume. The company also built a $1 million soya protein
plant in the 1930s, and by 1939 it was one of the largest soybean processors in
North America and also ranked as one of the largest margarine manufacturers in
the world. Glidden maintained its headquarters and much of its paint and
varnish manufacturing in Cleveland, as well as the research and development for
the paint and resins division. Glidden distributed paints and related products
under the Glidden and Spred Satin brands through company-owned outlets and
independent dealers and successfully marketed a line of industrial coatings.
The company merged with SCM (Smith Corona Merchant), manufacturer of office
machines, and data-processing equipment in the mid-1960s, and within a decade
the Glidden-Durkee Division of SCM accounted for two-thirds of its sales. The
division's aging paint plant in Cleveland was phased out in 1976, although the
headquarters for coatings and foods remained. When SCM itself was acquired by
Hansen Trust PLC in 1986, the new owner retained Durkee Foods but sold the
Glidden Coatings & Resins Division to Imperial Chemical Industries. At the
time of the sale in 1995, the Glidden name belonged to ICI, along with other
prominent names in the paint industry. In 1995 ICI Paints in the Americas had
sales of approx. $1.5 billion, with over 7,000 employees, a distribution
network of more than 10,000 independent retailers, and over 600 company-owned
stores, as well as 15 major 
manufacturing sites.
Caesar A. GRASSELLI (1850-28 July 1927), president and later board chairman of GRASSELLI CHEMICAL CO., was born in Cincinnati to Fredericka Eisenbarth and Eugene Ramiro Grasselli. THE GRASSELLI CHEMICAL COMPANY traces its lineage back to 15th century chemists in Italy. Eugene Grasselli, producer of nitric, sulfuric, muriatic and ammonia acids in Cincinnati, was well aware that John D. Rockefeller had a high demand for sulfuric acid. Due to the central location for both his raw materials and his market, Grasselli chose to move his headquarter form Cincinnati to Cleveland. In 1868, Grasselli began constructing his sulfuric acid plant at what is now 2981 Independence Road, a short distance from the Rockefeller facility. In 1873 Caesar became a partner in the family business. Grasselli helped develop high-explosives manufacturing; in 1885 he introduced American saltcake, or sodium sulfate, to the glass industry, which had used British supplies. After his father's death, Grasselli in 1885 became president of Grasselli Chemical Co., until 1916 when he became board chairman and his son, Thomas S., succeeded him as president. Company assets grew to $30 million, other companies were absorbed, and furnaces to manufacture zinc and plants for zinc smelting were erected. The Grasselli empire encompassed 14 plants when it merged with Du Pont in 1928. Grasselli was a long-time manufacturer of inorganic and organic insecticides and became the umbrella organization when DuPont consolidated its scattered biochemicals businesses during the late 1940s. Despite some early financial and technical setbacks Grasselli expanded its inorganic operations during the next decade to serve 20 percent of the U.S. herbicide market with its substituted urea products. In 1959 the Grasselli Chemicals Department was reorganized into the Industrial and Biochemicals Department at DuPont.
Joel GREY, born Joe Katz, April 11,
1932, in Cleveland, Ohio. Remembered for his spectacular role in Cabaret, both
the film and on Broadway. Born in Cleveland,
Ohio, Grey was the son of renowned nightclub performer and producer, Mickey
Katz, and grew up amid song, dance, and glitz. He performed in Catskills revues
and enjoyed small parts on television and stage before landing his signature
role. Joel Grey is one of only seven actors to receive both the Tony (1966) and
Academy Awards (1988) for portraying the same character on stage and screen.
Subsequently considered difficult to cast, he has since had few prominent
roles, though in 1996 he appeared in the revival of the Broadway musical Chicago.
Most recently, Grey has appeared in the smash Broadway musical, Wicked.
Margaret
HAMILTON (1902-15 May 1985), a Cleveland actress best remembered as the
"Wicked Witch of the West" in the film classic The Wizard of Oz,
graduated from HATHAWAY BROWN in 1921. Daughter of Walter J. and Jennie (Adams)
Hamilton, her family wanted her to become a teacher, so she went to Wheelock Kindergarten
Training School in Boston, where she acted in a production of Little Women.
Returning to Cleveland, Hamilton taught at Hough Elementary School, then 
operated
her own nursery for the Cleveland Hts. Presbyterian Church. She went to New
York in 1922 to teach day school, but became enamored with the theater. She
quit teaching, returned to Cleveland, and worked at the CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE
from 1927-30, meeting and marrying landscape architect Paul Meserve on 13 June
1931. After the Play House, Hamilton did summer work in Massachusetts. Arthur
Beckworth "discovered" Hamilton in a play entitled The Hallems. The
Broadway version, called Another Language, was the surprise hit of 1932 and was
made into a film with Hamilton and Helen Hayes, launching Hamilton's Hollywood
career. Because of her distinctive profile, however, her roles were never very
diverse; she usually played aunts and spinsters. Her role as the wicked witch
came in 1939 and further typecast Hamilton. She continued making films and
doing plays, appearing in more than 75 of each. She also did guest roles on
television and made commercials. In her later years, Hamilton appeared several
times at the Play House. She also continued to teach Sunday school and
volunteer in various causes.
Arsenio HALL (born February
12, 1955) is an American comedian, talk show host, and actor. Born in Cleveland,
Ohio to a Baptist minister, Arsenio was a magician as child. He went to Ohio University
before transferring to Kent State University. In 1987 he costarred in the
comedy film Coming to America with Eddie Murphy. Then in 1989 he began hosting
The Arsenio Hall Show, which lasted until 1994. His show was known for the
audience making animal-like "Whoop Whoop Whoop" noises. Since The
Arsenio Hall Show ended, Hall makes only infrequent appearances on television.
John
HAY (8 Oct. 1838-1 July 1905), diplomat, statesman, U.S. secretary of
state, and historian, was born in Salem, Ind., to Dr. Charley and Helen Leonard
Hay. He graduated from Brown University, Providence, R.I. (1858), and studied
law with his uncle, Milton Hay, whose offices adjoined those of Abraham
Lincoln. Hay was admitted to the bar in 1861, and accompanied Lincoln to Washington
as his private secretary. He was subsequently given the rank of colonel and
assigned to the White House officially as a military aide, serving Lincoln
until his assassination. Secretary of State Wm. H. Seward appointed Hay
secretary to the legations in Paris (1865-67), Vienna (1867-68), and Madrid
(1869-70). Returning to the U.S., Hay became an editorial writer for the New
York Tribune. In 1874, he married Clara Louise Stone, daughter of AMASA STONE†,
moving to Cleveland in 1875 and remaining until 1886, working for his
father-in-law and serving on various civic and cultural boards. Hay was a local
celebrity, but became bored with Cleveland society, expressing his views in his
anonymously authored The Bread Winners. Hay moved his family to Washington. In
1890 he and John Nicolay authored the 10-volume Abraham Lincoln: A History. In
1896 Hay campaigned for Wm. McKinley, and in 1897 was rewarded with appointment
as ambassador to Great Britain. Appointed secretary of state in 1898, Hay
participated in events attendant upon the Spanish-American War, enunciated the
"Open Door" policy concerning China, and, under Theodore Roosevelt,
aided treaty negotiations leading to construction of the Panama Canal. Hay had
4 children: Alice (Wadsworth), Helen (Whitney), Clarence, and Adelbert. He died
in Newbury, N.H., but was buried in Cleveland at LAKE VIEW CEMETERY.
John W. HEISMAN (23 Oct.
1869-3 Oct. 1936), innovative college football coach for whom the Heisman
Trophy is named, was born in Cleveland, to Michael and Sarah Heisman, but his
family moved to Titusville, Pa. during the 1870s. Heisman entered Brown University,
playing FOOTBALL in 1888; then transferred to Pennsylvania, playing football in
1890 and 1891 and receiving a law degree in 1892. Heisman began coaching as a
player and coach at Oberlin College in 1892, with a perfect 7-0 season, twice
shutting out Ohio State University (40-0 and 50-0). In 1893 he coached at
Buchtel College (later the University of Akron), encountering faculty
opposition toward his competitive approach to football. He coached at Oberlin
(1894), Alabama Polytechnic Institute (later Auburn) (1895-99), Clemson
(1900-03), Georgia Institute of Technology (1904-19), Pennsylvania (1920-22),
Washington & Jefferson (1923), and Rice Institute (1924-27). His
innovations changed football. He proposed legalizing the forward pass; used
guards to lead interference on sweeps; and introduced the direct snap from
center. In 1898 his teams began using audible signals to begin each offensive
play. He also introduced a special shift that was the forerunner of the T and I
formations. After his retirement, Heisman became an organizer and first
president of the New York Touchdown Club and director of athletics at the
Downtown Athletic Club of New York which, in 1935, began awarding an annual
trophy to the nation's best college football player, named in Heisman's honor
after his death.
Bob
HOPE ( 29 May 1903 - 29 Jul 2003 ) Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes
Hope, the son of stonemason William Henry Hope and Avis Townes Hope. The family
emigrated from England to Cleveland, Ohio in 1908, when Leslie, the fifth of
seven children, was not yet five years old. In Cleveland the family struggled
financially, as they had in England, and Avis took in boarders to supplement
William's erratic income. Avis, an amateur musician, taught singing to Leslie,
an outgoing boy who entertained his family with singing, impersonations, and
dancing. After dropping out of school at the age of sixteen, Leslie worked at a
number of part-time jobs. He boxed for a short time under the name of
"Packy East" but changed his name officially to Lester Hope. Lester's
interest in entertainment and show business, cultivated by his mother, led him
to take dancing lessons and seek employment as a variety stage entertainer. Not
until he had achieved considerable success on the stage did he begin using the
name, "Bob Hope."
Langston HUGHES (1 Feb. 1902-22
May 1967), black poet, playwright, novelist, and lecturer, was born in Joplin, Mo.
to James Nathaniel and Carrie M. (Langston) Hughes. He moved to Cleveland in 1916,
and began writing seriously while a student at CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL. His
first stories appeared in The Monthly literature journal published by Central High
School. Hughes attended Columbia University for a year, but dropped out to
travel, working his way through Spain, France, Italy, and Africa. Hughes's
first poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," was published in The
Crisis, the organ of the NAACP, in 1921. In 1922 he moved to Harlem, becoming a
member of the Harlem Renaissance. Following publication of The Weary Blues in
1926, Hughes wrote Fine Clothes to the Jew in 1927. Awarded a full scholarship
for his poetry by Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, Hughes received his B.A.
In 1930 he published his first novel, Not without Laughter, followed by Scottsboro
Limited (1932) and The Ways of White Folks (1934). He received a Guggenheim
Fellowship in 1935. In 1936-37, the Gilpin Players of Karamu House produced 6
of Hughes's plays. In 1939 he established the Negro Theater in Los Angeles and
wrote a filmscript, "Way Down South." Hughes produced 8 volumes of
poetry, 4 of fiction, 6 books for young people, 3 humorous works, 2
autobiographies, a number of plays and essays, and several volumes on black
history. He was a noted lecturer and a foremost figure in the movement for
black civil rights and the search for black identity.
George
HULETT (26 Sept. 1846-17 Jan. 1923), inventor of ore-unloading machinery,
was born in Conneaut, Ohio. Hulett came to Cleveland at age 12 and graduated
from HUMISTON INSTITUTE in 1864. He conducted a general store in Unionville, Ohio,
until 1881, returning to Cleveland in the produce and commission business until
1890 when he began manufacturing coal- and ore-handling machinery. Hulett
invented the Hulett car dumper machine and the Hulett unloader, a device with a
cantilevered arm and bucket for unloading iron ore and coal from lake vessels.
Whereas formerly 100 men worked 12 hours to unload 5,000 tons of ore, 4 Hulett
unloaders could unload 10,000 tons in less than 5 hours, requiring only 25 men.
The unloader became universally used. The car dumper unloaded entire cars of
materials at ports and blast furnaces. Hulett also invented the Hulett conveyor
bridge for handling coal, iron ore, and limestone.
Sammy KAYE
(March 13, 1910 - June 2, 1987 )''Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye'' is probably
the single most memorable tag line of the big band era. And millions of people
did just that, ''swing'' and ''sway'' to Sammy Kaye's orchestra. The son of
Czech immigrants, Kaye began playing clarinet in college bands while at Ohio University.
In the early 1930s he led his own orchestra at the Statler Hotel in Cleveland.
Later, he performed at many of the best hotels in New York and starred in his
own radio program. Kaye relied on several gimmicks to make his performances
more entertaining. His most famous gimmick was called ''So You Want to Lead a
Band.'' Kaye would bring a member of the audience up on stage to wave a baton
and act as bandleader. Kaye's radio program moved to television during the
1950s. He continued recording up until the 1960s. He eventually retired to Southern
California, though his orchestra carried on under the direction of trumpeter
Roger Thorpe. It still performs to this day.
William McKINLEY
(29 Jan 1843 - 14 Sept 1901) At the 1896 Republican Convention, in time
of depression, the wealthy Cleveland businessman Marcus Alonzo Hanna ensured
the nomination of his friend William McKinley as "the advance agent of
prosperity." The Democrats, advocating the "free and unlimited
coinage of both silver and gold"--which would have mildly inflated the
currency--nominated William Jennings Bryan. While Hanna used large
contributions from eastern Republicans frightened by Bryan's views on silver,
McKinley met delegations on his front porch in Canton, Ohio. He won by the
largest majority of popular votes since 1872. Born in Niles, Ohio, in 1843,
McKinley briefly attended Allegheny College, and was teaching in a country
school when the Civil War broke out. Enlisting as a private in the Union Army,
he was mustered out at the end of the war as a brevet major of volunteers. He
studied law, opened an office in Canton, Ohio, and married Ida Saxton, daughter
of a local banker. At 34, McKinley won a seat in Congress. His attractive
personality, exemplary character, and quick intelligence enabled him to rise
rapidly. He was appointed to the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Robert M.
La Follette, Sr., who served with him, recalled that he generally
"represented the newer view," and "on the great new questions ..
was generally on the side of the public and against private interests."
During his 14 years in the House, he became the leading Republican tariff
expert, giving his name to the measure enacted in 1890. The next year he was
elected Governor of Ohio, serving two terms. When McKinley became President,
the depression of 1893 had almost run its course and with it the extreme
agitation over silver. Deferring action on the money question, he called
Congress into special session to enact the highest tariff in history. In the
friendly atmosphere of the McKinley Administration, industrial combinations
developed at an unprecedented pace. Newspapers caricatured McKinley as a little
boy led around by "Nursie" Hanna, the representative of the trusts.
However, McKinley was not dominated by Hanna; he condemned the trusts as
"dangerous conspiracies against the public good." Not prosperity, but
foreign policy, dominated McKinley's Administration. Reporting the stalemate
between Spanish forces and revolutionaries in Cuba, newspapers screamed that a
quarter of the population was dead and the rest suffering acutely. Public
indignation brought pressure upon the President for war. Unable to restrain
Congress or the American people, McKinley delivered his message of neutral
intervention in April 1898. Congress thereupon voted three resolutions
tantamount to a declaration of war for the liberation and independence of Cuba.
In the 100-day war, the United States destroyed the Spanish fleet outside Santiago
harbor in Cuba, seized Manila in the Philippines, and occupied Puerto Rico.
"Uncle Joe" Cannon, later Speaker of the House, once said that
McKinley kept his ear so close to the ground that it was full of grasshoppers.
When McKinley was undecided what to do about Spanish possessions other than Cuba,
he toured the country and detected an imperialist sentiment. Thus the United
States annexed the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. In 1900, McKinley again
campaigned against Bryan. While Bryan inveighed against imperialism, McKinley
quietly stood for "the full dinner pail." His second term, which had
begun auspiciously, came to a tragic end in September 1901. He was standing in
a receiving line at the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition when a deranged
anarchist shot him twice. He died eight days later.
William McVEY (12
July 1905-31 May 1995) became Cleveland's most visible artist largely through
his numerous local commissions for public sculpture. He was born in Boston, Mass.,
the son of Silas and Cornelia Mozart McVey, who brought him to Cleveland in
1919. Graduating from Shaw High School in 1922, he studied architecture at Rice
Institute in Texas before returning to graduate from the Cleveland School of
Art (see CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART) in 1928. He furthered his studies during 2
years in Paris, where he was a pupil of Charles Despiau and attended the
Colarossi and Scaninave academies. In 1932 he returned to Cleveland and married
Leza Marie Sullivan. Working for the New Deal art 
projects, he sculpted
a grizzly bear now at the CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY and a bas-relief
of Paul Bunyan for the community center at LAKEVIEW TERRACE. His allegorical
statue of "Dawn" was a centerpiece of the horticultural gardens at
the GREAT LAKES EXPOSITION. During the late 1930s, while teaching in Texas, he
executed monuments to Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett and a stone frieze at the
base of the San Jacinto Monument near Houston. After service in the Army
Air Force during WORLD WAR II and postwar teaching in Michigan, McVey returned
to Cleveland as head of the sculpture department at CIA from 1953-67. He
subsequently worked as a full-time sculptor in his studio in PEPPER PIKE. Local
commissions in his later period included bronzes of George Washington at the
Anthony J. Celebreeze Federal Bldg., JESSIE OWENS at Huntington Park [shown
here are right], Archbishop John Carroll at JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY, HART CRANE
and TOM L. JOHNSON at CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY, and a 7'-high B clef at
Blossom Music Ctr. In Washington, D.C, he is represented by bronze doors in the
Federal Trade Commission Bldg., 5 stone statues in the National Cathedral, and,
possibly his masterpiece, the 9' heroic bronze of Winston Churchill standing
outside the British Embassy with one foot within British jurisdiction and the
other on American soil.
Albert
A. MICHELSON (19 Dec. 1852-9 May 1931), the first American to win a Nobel
prize in the sciences (physics, 1907), was born in Strelno, Prussia (Strzelno, Poland),
the son of Rosalie (Przylubska) and Samuel Michelson. He came to America with
his parents in 1855. Michelson was educated in San Francisco and Virginia City,
NV and attended the U.S. Naval Academy (1869-73) where he ranked first in his
class in optics. Michelson began measurements of the speed of light while an
instructor in Physics and Chemistry at the Academy. After a leave of absence in
1880 to study in Europe, he secured appointment as chair of the Dept. of
Physics at the Case School of Applied Science and resigned his naval
commission. He assumed his position in Cleveland in 1882 and resumed his
measurements of the speed of light, arriving at a figure of 186,320 miles per
second. This figure remained the accepted standard for 45 years until Michelson
further refined this determination while at Mt. Wilson in Calif. In 1886, with
Professor EDWARD E. MORLEY of Western Reserve University, he undertook the
MICHELSON-MORLEY EXPERIMENT to measure the motion of the earth through the
"luminiferous aether." In 1889 Michelson left Case for Clark University
where he remained briefly until accepting the chairmanship of the Department of
Physics at the University of Chicago. In the years which followed, he developed
various optical measuring methods and refined his measurements of the speed of
light. He published more than seventy scientific papers and books. Among his
awards were the Rumford Premium Medal of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London and the Royal
Astronomical Society medal.
Garrett A. MORGAN (4
Mar. 1877 [sometimes given as 1879]-27 July 1963), was an important inventor
and businessman active in the affairs of Cleveland's black community. Among his
inventions were the gas mask and the traffic light. Born in Paris, Ky., to
Sydney, a former slave and son of Confederate Col. John H. Morgan, and Eliza
Reed, also a former slave, Morgan received 6 years of education before leaving
home at age 14 for Cincinnati where he worked and hired a tutor to continue his
education. He came to Cleveland on 17 June 1895. After various positions as a
sewing-machine adjuster for clothing manufacturers, Morgan went into business
for himself in 1907, establishing a shop on W. 6th St. to repair and sell
sewing machines. In 1909 he opened a tailoring shop; with 32 employees, he
manufactured suits, dresses, and coats. In 1913 he organized the G. A. Morgan
Hair Refining Co. to market a hair-straightening solution he had discovered by
accident in 1905. This company soon offered a complete line of hair-care
products. Morgan invented a safety helmet to protect the wearer from
smoke and ammonia, introducing his "Breathing Device" in 1912,
patenting it in 1914, and using it to descend into the gas-filled tunnel
beneath Lake Erie to rescue workers and retrieve bodies after the Cleveland
Waterworks explosion on 25 July 1916. Morgan established the Natl. Safety
Device Co. in 1914. Morgan's other major invention, a traffic light (1923), was
unique in using a third, cautionary signal between "stop" and
"go." Morgan sold his traffic light to General Electric Co. for
$40,000 in 1923.
Edward
W. MORLEY (29 Jan. 1838-24 Feb. 1923), scientist and professor at Western
Reserve University whose work with ALBERT MICHELSON laid a foundation for
Albert Einstein's later work, was born in Newark, N.J., to Sardis Brewster and
Anna Clarissa Treat Morley. He graduated from Williams College (1860), received
his master's degree from Andover Theological Seminary (1863), and worked for
the Sanitary Commission during the CIVIL WAR. In 1868, Morley received 2 job
offers: first as clergyman in Twinsburg, and then as chair of natural history
and chemistry at Western Reserve College in Hudson, which he chose. From
1873-88, he was professor of toxicology in WRC's Medical Department in Cleveland.
From 1878-82, Morley studied the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere, and
from 1882-93 worked to determine the relative atomic weights of hydrogen and
oxygen. In 1884, Morley began work with Albert A. Michelson, first building an
accurate interferometer (1885), then conducting the experiment (1887) which
found that the supposed all-pervasive ether had no apparent effect on the speed
of light, contributing significantly to the upheaval in late-19th-century
physics that was essentially resolved by Einstein's Special Theory of
Relativity. Morley was president of the American Assoc. for the Advancement of
Science (1895) and the American Chemical Society (1899). In 1902 he finished
second in balloting for the Nobel Prize in chemistry. In 1907 he received the
Rumford Medal from the Royal Society (London).
Toni MORRISON (1931-)
- originally Chloe Anthony Wofford, author, was the first African-American
female awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. She attended Howard University
in Washington, D.C., majoring in English. She received a Master's degree from Cornell
University in Ithaca, New York. In her works Toni Morrison has explored the
experience of black women in a racist culture. She has been a member of both
the National Council on the Arts and the American Academy and Institute of Arts
and Letters. Morrison has actively used her influence to defend the role of the
artist and encouraged the publication of other black writers Morrison's literary genius has catapulted
her far beyond the realm of contemporary novelists, and her seven major novels,
The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon,
Tar Baby, Beloved, Jazz and
Paradise have garnered just about every literary prize in existence,
including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Toni Morrison currently resides in Princeton,
New Jersey and upstate New York. She is the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the
Council of Humanities at Princeton University.
Eliot
NESS (19 Apr. 1903-16 May 1957), nationally known for leading the Chicago
"Untouchables," was Cleveland's safety director. Born in Chicago, son
of Peter and Emma (King) Ness, he graduated from the University of Chicago
(1925) before joining the U.S. Prohibition Bureau in 1929, forming the
"Untouchables," who obtained the conviction of Al Capone. Following
Prohibition's repeal, Ness was transferred to the Treasury Dept.'s Alcohol Tax
Unit in Cincinnati, arriving in Cleveland in 1934 as the head of the alcohol
tax unit for the northern district of Ohio. His reputation as honest and capable
led Mayor HAROLD H. BURTON to appoint Ness city safety director in 1935 to
clean up the scandal-ridden police department. Ness formed his own Cleveland
"Untouchables," funded by an anonymous group of businessmen known as
the "Secret 6," and quickly reformed, reorganized, and upgraded the
department, motorizing the patrol and using car radios to enhance
communication. He established a separate traffic section, hired a traffic
engineer, and enabling Cleveland, which had the worst U.S. traffic-fatality
record, to twice win awards for reducing traffic deaths. Ness also modernized
the fire department, created the Police Academy and Welfare Bureau, and helped
found the local chapter of BOYSTOWNS. Ness crackdowned on labor-union
protection rackets, illegal liquor suppliers, and gambling. He closed down the
HARVARD CLUB, a notorious gambling house located just outside the city limits
in NEWBURGH Critics called for Ness's removal, citing his social drinking,
divorce, work with the federal government, and a traffic accident that looked
suspiciously like a hit-skip incident. Mayor Frank Lausche, however, retained Ness;
however Ness left Cleveland in 1942 to direct the Div. of Social Protection of
the Federal Security Agency. After the war Ness returned to Cleveland, ran
unsuccessfully as Republican candidate for mayor in 1947, then devoted himself
to business, finally leaving for Coudersport, Pa., in 1956. Shortly before his
death, suffering financial reverses, Ness collaborated with journalist Oscar
Fraley to produce the book The Untouchables. Ness, however, died before the
book was published.
Paul
NEWMAN was born on January 26th 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio. Newman grew up in
a suburb to Cleveland called Shaker Heights where he showed great interest in
acting already at high school, where he participated in the local high school
productions. He graduated in 1943 and immediately enlisted in the Navy. He
spent the remainder of the war in the South Pacific as a radio operator. He was
hoping to become a pilot, but was denied because he is color blind. In 1946 he
enrolled at Kenyon College and this time his goal was to pursue an acting
career. It was at the Actors Studio that Newman learned about method acting, a
modern type of acting used by Marlon Brando. Newman won his first television
part in 1951, it was the CBS production of "The Aldrich Family". Two
years later he made his first appearance on Brodway, in "Picnic". The
performance caught the attention of some 
Warner Bros. executives who
signed him up immediately. His first film was THE SILVER CHALICE, an epic
costumer that became a huge flop which halted Newman's career before it had
begun. He came back two years later, this time to stay, with SOMEBODY UP THERE
LIKES ME, where he played boxer Rocky Graziano. Newman became known as the new
Brando. His next appearence worth mentioning was in THE LONG HOT SUMMER, along
with veteran Orson Welles and up-and-coming actress Joanne Woodward, who soon
was to become Newman's second wife. Newman won an Oscar on his seventh attempt,
when he reprised his role as "Fast" Eddie Felson in THE COLOR OF
MONEY opposite young Tom Cruise. During the 80's Newman launched "Newman's
Own", a successful series of food products such as spaghetti sauce and
salad dressing, the earnings goes to charity. Newman remains outspoken in
important political issues that he labors for. Nowadays he just works in movies
when he finds a script that inspires him, such as in 1994 when he appeared in
the Coen-brothers' THE HUDSUCKER PROXY, and in 1995 when he scored his eighth
Academy Award nomination for NOBODY'S FOOL.
Don
NOVELLO was born in nearby Ashtabula, Ohio in 1943, but grew up in Lorain
and graduated from Lorain High School in 1961. Most people recognize him as a
"stand-up" comedian who often plays the character known as
"Father Guido Sarducci", a character that he developed in the early
1970's. He appeared as this character for NBC's "Saturday Night Live"
program over a five year period.
Jesse
OWENS (James Cleveland) (9 Sept. 1913-30 Mar. 1980), track-and-field
athlete, was born in northern Alabama to Henry and Emma Alexander Owens. He
moved to Cleveland as a child. His athletic talent was first noted at Fairmount
Jr. High School. His track coach, Chas. Riley, was amazed when he ran the
100-yd. dash in 10 seconds flat, a new junior high school record. As a high
school senior at E. Technical, he equaled the world's record of 9.4 in the
100-yd. dash. At Ohio State University, Owens, on 25 May 1935, equaled or
bettered 6 world records within 1 hour in Ann Arbor Mich., the only athlete to
establish new track and field world records on the same day. His long-jump
record of 26 ft 8 1/4 inches stood for 33 years. The Cleveland track star
gained his greatest fame at the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, where he won 4
gold medals. In the 100- and 200-meter sprints, he set records of 10.3 and 20.7
seconds respectively. In the long jump he set an Olympic record of 26 ft 5
& 5/16 inches. Owens then joined with Ralph Metcalfe, Floyd Draper, and
Frank Wycoff to set a new world record of 39.8 seconds in the 400-meter relay.
Bobby RAHAL (January 15, 1953 - ) Rahal was born in the suburbs of Cleveland,
Ohio, but grew up in Chicago. He spent his youth following his father around
the race tracks of the Mid West and began racing himself in SCCA sportscar
events in the early 1970s, driving his father's Lotus. While racing he also
took the time to get a degree in history from Denison University in Ohio. He
remained a successful amateur driver until 1976 before deciding to go professional
and entered Formula Atlantic. In 1982, thanks to the patronage of Jim Trueman
of the Red Roof Inns company, 
Rahal was able to move into Indycar racing
with Trueman's Truesports team. He won his first race for the team that year in
Cleveland and finished runner-up in the CART series and was Rookie of the Year.
It was enough to establish him as a topline CART driver although he continued
to compete in sportscar racing and in 1984 even drove a NASCAR in the Riverside
event. That year he was third in the CART series and he repeated the
performance the following year. The 1986 season was to be a bitter-sweet
year. He won the Indianapolis 500 just a few weeks before Trueman died of
cancer and Bobby then went on to win the CART title. He repeated the success
the following year while also adding the Sebring 12 Hours to his list of
victories. After a disappointing time in 1988 he took the decision to
move to Kraco after seven seasons with TrueSports and there then followed a
couple of tough years without any victories and in 1991 he took the battle for
the title down to the wire with Michael Andretti at Laguna Seca. Bobby
continued to race until the end of 1998 when he retired to concentrate on
running his team and developing a string of car dealerships in Pennsylvania and
Ohio. In the middle of 2000 he was named interim chief executive of the
CART organisation and was then whisked away to Europe by the Ford Motor Company
to be chief executive of Jaguar Racing, a role he took over in 2001. In the
mid-season however he was ousted by the new management of Jaguar Cars and
replaced by Niki Lauda. Rahal went back to the United States were he continues
to run a variety of racing teams and car dealerships while taking part in
historic races when he gets the chance.
Charles
RICHTER (April 26, 1900 - April 20, 1985) was born in Hamilton, Ohio. When
he was 16, he moved to Los Angeles, California, with his mother. At the age of
17, he entered the University of Southern California. He went on to study at Stanford
University and eventually earned a doctorate degree at the California Institute
of Technology. Richter wanted to develop a way to determine the strength of an
earthquake using objective rather than subjective measures. In the past, people
had measured the strength of an earthquake by the visible damage it had done.
That meant that if an earthquake happened in a desolate area, it might do
little noticeable damage, and so it wouldn't be considered as strong as it
would be if it had occurred in a city, with its damaged buildings and cracked
pavement. He developed the scale in 1935 in collaboration with Beno
Gutenberg; both worked at the California Institute of Technology.
John
D. ROCKEFELLER, Sr. (8 July 1839-23 May 1937), industrialist and
philanthropist, rose from his position as an assistant bookkeeper for a
Cleveland commission merchant to become one of the wealthiest men in the U.S.
through his efforts in developing the STANDARD OIL CO. (OHIO) Born on a farm
near Richfield, N.Y., Rockefeller was the son of Wm. A. and Eliza Davison
Rockefeller. He came to the Cleveland area with his family in 1853, settling in
STRONGSVILLE. Boarding in Cleveland, he attended CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL from
1853-55. After additional courses at a business college, he became assistant
bookkeeper for commission merchants Henry B. Tuttle and Isaac L. Hewitt in
Sept. 1855. In Mar. 1859, Rockefeller and Maurice B. Clark established their
own commission business, which prospered during the CIVIL WAR. In 1863,
Rockefeller entered the oil business, and in 1865 left the commission business
to work full-time in oil. He organized STANDARD OIL CO. (OHIO) as its largest
stockholder in 1870, directing the company until he retired in 1896, but
retaining the title of president until 1911. By 1880, Rockefeller was worth
about $18 million. He was also involved in other business ventures, holding
stock in the Cleveland Arcade Co., and in 1905 building the ROCKEFELLER BUILDING
Rockefeller's business dealings necessitated increasingly more time in New York;
he bought a home there in 1884 and eventually made that his legal residence.
Nevertheless he maintained 2 homes in Cleveland and until 1915 continued to
summer at Forest Hill. Rockefeller's charity, as well as business, began
in Cleveland. In 1856 he donated $19.31 to local charities; his donations grew
to $250,000 in 1887 and $1.35 million in 1892. He donated more than
$865,000 worth of land to the city for use as parks. Rockefeller established
several organizations to handle his giving: the Rockefeller Institute for
Medical Research (1901), the General Education Board (1902), the Rockefeller
Foundation (1913), and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial (1918).
Rockefeller married Laura Celestia Spelman in 1864. They had four children:
John D., Elizabeth, Edith, and Alta. Rockefeller died in Ormond Beach, Florida.
He is buried in LAKE VIEW CEMETERY.
Artur
RODZINSKI (2 Jan. 1892-27 Nov. 1958), second conductor of the CLEVELAND
ORCHESTRA, was born of Polish parents in Dalmatia, Yugoslavia, graduated from
the University of Vienna as a Doctor of Law to please his father, while
studying music at the Vienna Academy of Music. When WORLD WAR I started and his
father, a general, was separated from Rodzinski, he began to pursue his first
love, music. He continued at the Vienna Academy, studying piano with Saur and
Lalewicz. When the war ended, Rodzinski became conductor of the Lemberg Opera.
In 1925, he accepted a position as assistant conductor of the Philadelphia
Orchestra. He also directed the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra before
coming to Cleveland as conductor for the Cleveland Orchestra in 1933. Under his
direction, the orchestra flourished, impressing a national audience. Rodzinski
initiated opera productions; helped select and train the NBC Symphony
Orchestra, conducting it with Arturo Toscanini; and was the first American
conductor selected for the Salzburg Festival. He conducted the Cleveland
Orchestra from 1933-43, leaving because of strained relations with the
management. He conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra but spent the rest
of his life guest-conducting. He received an honorary Doctor of Music degree
from Oberlin College.
Henry
A. SHERWIN & Edward P. WILLIAMS, pioneers in the development of
the paint industry, established SHERWIN WILLIAMS in Cleveland in 1870. By the
early 1920s, the company was the largest manufacturer of coatings in the U.S.
Affiliates and subsidiaries included Lewis Berger, Martin-Senour, and Heminway.
Thirty-six manufacturing plants, 90 warehouses, and 36 retail stores were owned
and operated. In the 1940s the company turned to product development to create
growth. In the early 1940s, it introduced both Kem-Tone paint, a fast-drying,
water-based paint for interior home use, and the "Roller-Koater," a roll-on
painting tool to replace the brush. In 1979 new president and 
CEO John G. Breen assembled a management team
which effected 16 years of consecutive earnings improvement. Sales tripled and
after-tax profits increased 36 times since 1978. Approximately one-third of the
sales growth has come from acquisitions, which have included well-known names
such as Dutch Boy, Dupli-Color, Western Automotive Finishes, DeSoto
Architectural Paints, Krylon, Cuprinol, Cook Industrial Maintenance
Coatings, Old Quaker, and H&C Concrete Stains. By 1994 the company's
operations included 2,046 paint stores, 139 automotive paint branches, and
strong multi-brand paint franchises in architectural, industrial, and special
purpose coatings. Business outside of the U.S. and Canada consisted of
manufacturing operations in 4 countries and 59 licenses in 38 countries. Sales
of $3.1 billion ranked Sherwin-Williams 359th among the Fortune 500 largest U.S.
industrial and service companies.
Nikolai SOKOLOFF (28 May 1886-25
Sept. 1965), first conductor of the CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA, was born in Kiev, Russia
to Grigori and Marie Sokoloff. At 13 Sokoloff moved with his family to New
Haven, Conn., where he enrolled at Yale University's music school. After
graduation, he studied music with Chas. Martin Loeffler in Boston, later
studying with Vincent d'Indy in Paris. At 17 he became a violinist in the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. He left Boston and, after studying in Paris, became
the conductor of the Manchester Orchestra in England. In 1918 he returned to America,
where in Cincinnati he met ADELLA PRENTISS HUGHES and was persuaded to accept a
position from the MUSICAL ARTS ASSN. to make a survey in Cleveland's public
schools and outline an instrumental music program. He accepted the position on the
condition that he would be able to organize and conduct his own
orchestra. Sokoloff conducted the Cleveland Orchestra for 14 years
(1918-32), initiating highly acclaimed national and international tours. He
established a unique series of educational concerts for schoolchildren, and
introduced recording and broadcasting concerts. Upon leaving Cleveland,
Sokoloff became director of the Federal Music Project in 1935, through this
organization, channeling money into Cleveland for unemployed musicians, providing
the city with more opera and orchestral music than it had in many years. When
he left the Federal Music Project in 1937, he became the conductor for the
Seattle Orchestra. Later he organized an orchestra in LaJolla, Calif., where he
remained until his death.
Vernon
B. STOUFFER (22 Aug. 1901-26 July 1974), president of Stouffer Corp.,
a national chain of restaurants, motor inns, and food-service operations
[including Stouffer's Lasagna!], was born in Cleveland and graduated with a
B.S. in 1923 from Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. In
1922, Abraham Stouffer opened a dairy counter in the Arcade featuring
buttermilk, cheese sandwiches, and Lena Stouffer's Dutch apple pies. Vernon
joined his father in 1924, opening Stouffer's Lunch, a restaurant serving
quick, tasty meals at moderate prices, the first of a chain of restaurants. In
1929 the Stouffers went public, founding Stouffer Corp., which eventually
became part of Litton Industries. Stouffer personally tested new products, and
while traveling, secretly checked food and service quality at his restaurants
and inns. Stouffer Corp is now part of
Nestle.
Ambrose SWASEY (19 Dec.
1846-15 June 1937), mechanical engineer, 
manufacturer, and philanthropist,
was born in Exeter, N.H. He served as apprentice machinist (1865-69) and met Warner
WORCESTER, with whom he formed a partnership in 1880 to build and sell
machine tools. The business eventually became the WARNER & SWASEY CO. of
Cleveland. Swasey held several patents on gear-cutting machinery and,
influenced by his partner, became a designer of astronomical instruments, for
which their company became world-famous. He was a founding member of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1880 and served on several
government agencies, including the National Research Council during World War
I.
George SZELL (7 June
1897-30 July 1970), internationally renowned conductor and music director of
the CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA, was born in Budapest to George Charles and Margarite
Harmat Szell, and grew up in Vienna, studying with Mandyczewski (theory), J. B.
Foerster and Max Reger (composition), and Richard Robert (piano). He made his
debut as pianist at 10, playing his own music. His conducting debut came at 16
with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. Two years later, Szell was engaged by
Richard Strauss for the staff of the Berlin State Opera House. He subsequently
held other conducting posts, and was general musical director of the German
Opera and Philharmonic of Prague and director of the Scottish Natl. Orchestra.
He became music director of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1946, continuing in that
position until his death. With the orchestra, he toured the U.S. and Canada, Europe
(1957, 1959), and the Far East just before his death in 1970. He was known as a
stern taskmaster, bordering at times on the tyrannical, but was greatly
respected by fellow musicians. At the time of his death, the Cleveland
Orchestra had gained its stature as one of the finest in the world.
Oris Paxton VAN SWERINGEN
(24 Apr. 1879-22 Nov. 1936), pictured left, and Mantis James VAN
SWERINGEN (8 July 1881-12 Dec. 1935), pictured right, were real-estate
developers of SHAKER HEIGHTS, SHAKER SQUARE, the SHAKER HEIGHTS RAPID TRANSIT,
and the Terminal Tower complex. About 1890 the family moved to Cleveland, and
by 1897 both brothers were working for Bradley Fertilizer Co. They soon entered
real estate on their own; a LAKEWOOD venture failed, but by 1905 they were
buying the old Shaker property (once 
owned by the Utopian NORTH UNION SHAKER
COMMUNITY) and developing Shaker Hts. Needing transportation between the suburb
and downtown, in 1909 they began acquiring property along KINGSBURY RUN to
build their own line. The New York Central's Nickel Plate owned lands the
brothers needed, so in 1916 they bought the railroad. The Van Sweringens then
acquired other railroads; by 1929 they owned a $3 billion, 30,000-mi. railroad
empire and also had holdings in Midland Steel, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, and
WHITE MOTOR CORP.. On 1920 they began operating Shaker Rapid. To provide a new
central rail terminal downtown, the Van Sweringens won government and voter
approval for a massive development near PUBLIC SQUARE; construction began in
1923, and the Terminal Tower officially opened on 28 June 1930. In 1926 the
brothers received the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce's Medal for Public Service.
The brothers' finances were dependent upon stock values, and after the stock
market crash in 1929, they could not cover their debts. On 1 May 1935, the Van
Sweringens defaulted on $48 million in loans from J. P. Morgan & Co., which
ordered the collateral sold at auction in September. The brothers arranged
backing and bought back their holdings for just over $3 million, but neither
brother lived to rebuild the empire.
Jeptha
WADE I (11 Aug. 1811-9 Aug. 1890), financier and telegraph pioneer, was
born in Romulus, Seneca County, N.Y., the son of Jeptha and Sarah (Allen) Wade.
He operated a factory and worked as portrait painter before becoming interested
in the telegraph. He became interested in the telegraph, and in 1847, as a
subcontractor for J. J. Speedy, he began constructing a telegraph line from Detroit
to Jackson, Mich. Wade soon added lines from Detroit to Milwaukee and to
Buffalo by way of Cleveland. In 1849-50 he built lines from Cleveland to Cincinnati
and St. Louis. In 1854 he consolidated his lines with those of Royal E. House
to create a network of lines across the Old Northwest, and in Apr. 1856 their
network was part of the 13-company consolidation of telegraph lines that
created the Western Union Telegraph Co. Wade served as the general agent for
Western Union, and he continued to develop new lines and telegraph companies in
the West, forming the California State Telegraph Co. and the Pacific Telegraph
Co.; the latter was connected to St. Louis and San Francisco by wire in Aug.
1861. Wade became president of Western Union in 1866.
Archibald MacNeal WILLARD (22
Aug. 1836-11 Oct. 1918), artist best remembered for his SPIRIT OF `76, was 
born in nearby
Bedford, Ohio to Rev. Samuel R. and Catherine Willard. In 1855, he settled in Wellington,
Ohio and taught himself to draw. In the early 1860s he apprenticed himself a
local decorative artist and wagonmaker, where he painted vignettes on wagons
and carriages. He also painted portraits. In 1863, Willard enlisted in the 86th
Ohio Volunteer Infantry, serving until Feb. 1864. After serving briefly
again in the Army in 1865, Willard returned to Wellington. He sent a comical
painting he did of 3 of his children and the family dog, entitled Pluck, to
Ryder in Cleveland, who displayed it and a similar work, Pluck II, in his
display window. The paintings were so popular that Ryder made 10,000 chromolithograph
pairs, selling them for $10 a set. In 1873, Willard went to New York for a few
weeks of formal painting training with J. O. Eaton. In 1875 he began working on
a comical 4th of July painting for the country's centennial celebrations. But
the death of his father influenced a serious piece that became his famous The
Spirit of '76. While painting this famous depiction of the American
Revolutionary War, he settled in Cleveland, where he founded the Art Club,
later the Academy of Art. There are several original copies of his
painting, one of which hangs in Cleveland City Hall
Alexander WINTON (20
June 1860-21 June 1932), automobile developer and popularizer, was born in Grangemouth,
Scotland, to Alexander and Helen Fea Winton. He came to the U.S. at 19, and
worked in Delameter Iron Works and a marine engine shop before arriving in Cleveland
in 1884. In 1891 he organized Winton Bicycle Co., manufacturing a bicycle
design he patented that year. The business flourished, but within 10 years
Winton left it to manufacture automobiles, completing his first motor car in
1896, incorporating WINTON MOTOR CAR CO. in 1897, and on 28 July beginning
America's first reliability run, a 9-day drive to New York, stimulating
investment and permitting construction of 4 more cars. The sale of one of these
on 24 Mar. 1898 was the first of an American-made standard-model gasoline
automobile. In 1899 Winton made a better-publicized 5-day drive to New York,
boosting interest and expanding sales. Winton continued developing new
automobile models, including racing cars, but a decline in sales in the 1920s
prompted Winton to liquidate that company and concentrate on Winton Gas Engine
& Mfg. Co., formed in 1912 to produce marine engines (the CLEVELAND DIESEL
ENGINE DIVISION OF GENERAL MOTORS CORP.). In 1913 the company produced the
first American diesel engine. Winton retired after selling the firm to GM in
1930.
Denton True
"Cy" YOUNG, (29 Mar. 1867-4 Nov. 1955), Baseball pitcher
(1890-11) for the Natl. League CLEVELAND SPIDERS (1890-98) and for the
Cleveland Indians in the American League (1909-11), winning a major-league
record 511 games in his career, was born at Gilmore, Ohio, son of MacKenzie and
Nancy Mot Miller Young. He farmed full-time, playing baseball locally, until he
was 23. After pitching for Canton in the Tri-State League, his contract was
sold to the Cleveland Spiders. For 16 seasons he won 20 or more games,
averaging 8 innings a game for 22 years. In 1899, Young was switched from Cleveland
to St. Louis by Frank DeHaas Robison, who owned both franchises. After 2 years,
he signed with the Boston Red Sox in the new AL, receiving a $600 raise over
his $2,400 NL salary. Young pitched in the first World Series, winning 2 games
as Boston defeated Pittsburgh in 1903. After the 1908 season, his contract was
sold to Cleveland. Released by the Naps in Aug. 1911, he ended his career that
year with Boston. Young pitched 3 no-hit, no-run games during his career,
including a perfect game on 5 May 1904 against Philadelphia. He appeared in 906
games, a major-league record until 1968. Young was a farmer in Tuscarawas County
until well past 80. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown
in 1939, and further recognized when baseball commissioner Ford Frick established
the Cy Young Award in 1956 to honor the outstanding pitcher in both leagues.
And don't forget....
Kaye Ballard, actress, b.1926
Halle Berry, Oscar winning actress, b.1968
Eric Carmen, rock musician, b.1949
Wes Craven, film director, b.1939
Dorothy Dandridge, actress, b.1922
Lary Doby, baseball player
Anne Heche, actress, b.1969
Philip Johnson, architect, b.1906
Burgess Meredith, actor, b. 1907
Greg Morris, actor, b.1934
Jack Paar, b.1918
Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, developed the super hero "Superman"
Don Shula, football coach
Debra Winger, actress, b.1955
Tracy Chapman, singer, composer
Tom Wilson, creator of Ziggy comics
