New Crosley Auto and Truck (and Tractor) Videos

YouTube has accumulated several new Crosley automobile videos. Here are links to the latest:

1940 Crosley Liberty Sedan

1953 CROSLEY SUPER STATION WAGON

1948 Crosley at the American Truck Historical Society Truck Show

Crosley cars and a Crosley-powered tractor at a tractor show in Connecticuit

The Secret of the Spiral Chimneys

What with writing four more books and some magazine articles, it's been a while since I've had time to post the new Crosley material I've been turning up. This latest has to do with Crosley's mansion, Pinecroft.

You may remember that the chimneys for the working fireplaces of the 1928 structure are spiral in construction (color photo, right). They are a beautiful sight, but I believe it turns out that they are more than that, if the caption accompanying the other photo from a 1934 issue of Popular Mechanics is no exaggeration. Pinecroft's chimneys may be fire hazard nowadays, but it appears that they were designed to blow trails and streamers of smoke--and even smoke rings.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

Crosley Bio Corrections Addendum

In several places, the National Air Tour organized by Edsel Ford is referred wrongly to "the National Air show." It was officially known to the press and participants as the "National Air Tour."

Recreating a Crosley Broadcasting Program

In an earlier note, I talked about recreating "The 50-50 Club," which Crosley Broadcasting transmitted from its television stations in Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Indianapolis in the 1950s and 1960s. That was for the April 29 launch of Before Oprah: Ruth Lyons, the Woman Who Created Talk TV. There were two events that day, one at 11:00 AM, the other at 6:00 PM. You can see a portion of the morning event (which included WLWT announcer Bill Myers, singer Colleen Sharp, Ruth's former secretary Mickey Fisher, and producer Dick Murgatroyd) here:
http://www.wlwt.com/video/19335128/index.html

There's a partial interview with me in that segment, too. A lengthier video of the reenactment of "The 50-50 Club" that we did for the evening signing is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh2qiLKpYG4

The actress who portrays Ruth Lyons is Shelley Bamberger Bailey. Her performance was outstanding!
--Mike

The Station that Crosley Built: Final Analog Broadcast

WLWT (or, as many of us grew up knowing it, WLW-T) is among the television broadcasters wrapping up their analog activities tonight--Friday, June 12, 2009--at Midnight.

Bill Myers (shown in in WLWT's studio in the picture) kindly sent along the URL for the final broadcast, already archived ahead of time. Click here to view the program. There's a commerical, of course; just wait patiently. Bill is the announcer, and the video includes a whirlwind overview of Cincinnati TV, with shots of Paul Dixon, Bob Braun, Ruth Lyons, the Cincinnati Reds and Pete Rose, Jerry Springer, and more.

"What fun we had!" Bill wrote in the note that accompanied the above photo. "We were lucky to be a part of it. As Pete Grant would say, 'Goodnight. Time's up! Goodnight, all.' "
--Mike

Crosley Broadcasting's "The 50-50 Club" is Back!

Remember Ruth Lyons and Crosley/AVCO Broadcasting's "The 50-50 Club?" Broadcast daily on Crosley television stations in Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Indianapolis from Noon to 1:30 PM, the live show was a mainstay of Midwest television beginning in 1949. It reached an audience of 7 million.

In conjunction with the launch of the biography of Ruth, titled Before Oprah: Ruth Lyons, the Woman Who Created Talk TV, publisher Orange Frazer, actress Shelley Bamberger Bailey, and I did a reenactment of "The 50-50 Club" to kick off the book's launch. This was on April 29, at Joseph-Beth Bookstore in Cincinnati. We repeated the show at a number of other signings. You can watch part of the show by clicking here (it's on Youtube and Orange Frazer's Web site). Or, click on the image above.

Crosley Broadcasting Network's Biggest Star in New Book!

John Kiesewetter penned an excellent article about Ruth Lyons for the Cincinnati Enquirer's Sunday, April 12, issue. Lyons' 50-50 Club was the top-rated show on the Crosley Broadcasting Newtork in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky during the 1950s and 1960s. Not incidentally, it talks about my biography of Miss Lyons, Before Oprah: Ruth Lyons, the Woman Who Created Talk TV (Orange Frazer Press, April 15, 2009).

The story (and the book) includes several previously unpublished photos.

The book is now available from Orange Frazer and Amazon.