Watching Opening Day from WLW's Remote Vehicle

If you were a WLW-TV engineer back in 1949, you would have watched the game on the small monitor at the upper-left in the photo. In black-and-white, of course. The monitor is a Crosley TV with twin speakers.

And here's an exterior shot of the remote unit itself, a GM bus.

--Mike http://www.michaelabanks.com/
Cropyright © Michael A. Banks 2008

Ruth Lyons and Opening Day

When I was very young, and on through my early teen years, Ruth Lyons was always a part of Cincinnati Reds Opening Day. She was a lifelong fan; in researching my upcoming bio of Ruth Lyons (Orange Frazer Press, May, 2009) I learned that she used to talk about the Reds on her WKRC radio program as far back as 1929, back when women weren't supposed to be interested in baseball.

Ruth always turned out for Opening Day. And some will remember her singing "Rally 'Round the Reds" on the 50/50 Club.

Dayton Daily News columnist Chick Ludwig has collected memories of Ruth Lyons and Opening Day at his blog Chick at Large. Click here to see Chick's tribute to Ruth Lyons.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/chickludwig/

Crossley's Crosley!

Richard Crossley continues his Crosley Flying Flea project. As you can see in the accompanying photo from Richard, he's added a scale pilot. Looks a bit like Eddie Niermaier. (Click image to enlarge.)

--Mike

For Whom Would Powel Crosley, Jr. Vote?

Even though Powel Crosley, Jr. was friends with James Middleton Cox (Democratic Presidential candidate in 1920, Governor of Ohio, etc.) and other prominent Democrats, I believe he would vote for John McCain today.

Crosley was a lifelong Republican supporter who donated thousands and thousands of dollars to Republican candidates. His father was a founder of the Republican Club. I believe he always voted the party line. And I think all this is why FDR allowed the FRC to force WLW to throttle down to 50,000 watts in 1939. (That alone would have been enough to dissuade him from supporting any Democrat.)

However, if he voted Democratic, he would vote for Obama before Clinton. Because he was a product of his times, and because of certain comments and attitudes on record, he would be incapable of believing a woman could handle the job of President of the United States.

--Mike http://www.michaelabanks.com/

Richard Crossley's Crosley-Mignet Flying Flea!

What is it? The beginnings of a scratch-built scale model of the Mignet-Crosley Flying Flea, being built by Richard Crossley in the UK.

Richard builds small-scale free-flight models for indoor flying (a wonderful hobby--you don't have to chase them far!) I've shared some photos of the original Flying Flea with him, and I think I may try building it in a few months. (A switch from model rockets.)

Click on the photo to see a larger version of the fuselage. There will be more photos of the Crossley-Crosley Flying Flea here as the work progresses.
--Mike http://www.michaelabanks.com