Cleveland Curiosities by Ted Schwartz
Hidden History of Cleveland by Christopher Busta-Peck
Reviewed by Isaac Mell
The Clevelanders that precede us also had careers, families, homes, hopes and dreams. The authors of two recent histories clarify and vivify our forgotten past.
Ted Schwartz’s Cleveland Curiosities combines Cleveland’s seedy history of murder, prostitution, and crime with our more honorable legacy of philanthropy, musicality, and equality. In examining the flaws and accomplishments of notable eccentrics, we discover that their actions are encrusted in our city’s strata.
Meet Schwartz’s diverse cast of characters:
– Eliot Ness, of the U.S. Treasury Department, whose exaggerated connection to the capture of Al Capone eventually could not save him from self-destruction.
– Burlesque legend Carrie Finnell, whose talent was her ambidexterity with two complementary appendages (not her hands).
– Leon Czolgosz, a young, mentally ill farmer whose misinterpretation of a lecture by anarchist Emma Goldman led him to assassinate President McKinley.
– Con artist Elizabeth Bigley, who played on bankers’ deference to wealthy clients by impersonating a nonexistant heiress (Andrew Carnegie’s daughter, complete with paper trail).
– Dyslexic saxophonist Maurice Reedus Jr., whose street-based musical innovations incorporate themes from the cartoons of his youth.
– “Fast” Eddie Watkins, self-promoting bank robber, who trusted banks enough to deposit his stolen money in them.
– Social activist Effa Manley, who effectively dissolved the Negro Leagues she had helped to create by trading Larry Doby to the Cleveland Indians, thus integrating baseball.
– Laura Corrigan, perceived social climber, who during the Nazi Occupation of France liquidated jewels, clothing, and other assets of her multimillion dollar fortune to aid its citizens and refugees.
Cleveland Area History editor Christopher Busta-Peck believes that “history isn’t something that happens elsewhere, on grand avenues and in great buildings. History is something that happens right here, in our neighborhoods, on the streets we walk every day.” His illustrated guide book to these inconspicuous yet significant places is called Hidden History of Cleveland.
When Langston Hughes was in his middle two years of high school, he roomed at 2266 East 86th Street. He lived by himself in the attic and read himself to sleep. Some of his first writings were published during this period, in the high school literary journal. The house has been foreclosed and is thus at risk of being demolished.
Between 1934 and 1936, at the height of his powers, Jesse Owens lived at 2178 East 100th Street. These were the years of three world records and four Olympic gold medals. The house is currently a rental property, and could be razed.
Hidden History of Cleveland covers these two houses, as well as:
– The birthplace of football coach John Heisman, namesake of the annual Heisman Trophy for best college football player.
– The invention of lightfast Day-Glo pigment in a farmhouse laboratory on Crawford Street.
– League Park, the professional baseball stadium where Cleveland’s teams played until 1947 and where Babe Ruth hit his 500th home run.
– The Dunham Tavern, which contains the oldest original foundation of a building in Cleveland.
Between tales of outlandish characters and details of noteworthy buildings, you will gain a greater understanding of our city’s heritage. Cleveland Curiosities and Hidden History of Cleveland celebrate the uniqueness of previous eras, and, in so doing, lend power to our present.
Isaac Mell grew up in South Euclid, OH and attended American Jewish University in Los Angeles. He welcomes conversations with potential employers, collaborators and friends.