Sat 1/23 @ 6:30PM
What was Cleveland like in 1936? A full 80 years ago, our grandparents and great-grandparents were raising children in a time of scarcity after a time of plenty. The Western Reserve Historical Society will show how our pioneering spirit helped us focus during its annual Somewhere in Time: All Eyes on Cleveland benefit on Sat 1/23. The spotlight will be on 1936.
Why 1936? A lot happened that year. The society will take partiers back to the year when Cleveland was the host of the Great Lakes Exposition, the Republican National Convention and the National Air Show starring Amelia Earhart. The Torso Murders made national news and Jesse Owens won four medals at the Olympics in Berlin. The Great Depression raged (about one-third of Cleveland’s workers were unemployed), yet many put on fine clothes and found fun diversions.
How is it possible to bring the past to life? The Western Reserve Historical Society is good at it. Years ago, when I saw a Euclid Avenue mansions exhibit at the Western Reserve Historical Society with maps showing locations of wealthy industrialists homes and photos of how Euclid Avenue changed over the years, I was struck by the impermanence of humankind and the empires it builds. Historical societies help us to understand past ages and the direction in which we’re going. We are somewhere in the flow of time, temporary as human beings but permanent as a society.
A year of contrasts, 1936 was the year of the violent Remington Rand labor strike, the release of Gone with the Wind, the Olympic Games in Germany while the Nazi party was planning to take over the Rhineland, the completion of the Hoover Dam, Stalin beginning his purging in the Soviet Union, and Roosevelt’s re-election.
In Cleveland, the Great Lakes Exposition was held on a reclaimed refuse dump on our lakeshore with a midway “streets of the world,” and the Exposition kept our local economy and our community enthralled for two years. Public Hall was the site of the Republican presidential nominating convention. Amelia Earhart’s plane landed at Cleveland Municipal Airport on August 30. The 1936 Cleveland Rams season was the team’s only year with the American Football League and the first season in Cleveland. The dismembered body of Florence Polillo was found in a basket and several burlap sacks in Cleveland. Eliot Ness was Cleveland’s safety director.
Icons like the Cleveland Skating Club and the Cleveland Athletic Club were thriving. The Cleveland Orchestra was playing at Severance Hall. Public Square, Terminal Tower, the Union Trust/Huntington Building, Municipal Stadium and the Detroit-Superior Bridge were right where they are now. Millionaire’s Row, the “Showcase of America” with its mansions of the wealthy, was completing its decline and had succumbed to commercialism and the exodus of the wealthy to the Heights.
Immerse yourself in Cleveland in 1936. You’ll wax nostalgic while enjoying a French Casino with burlesque performances and games, midway games, a nostalgic candy shop, the Euclid Beach Grand Carousel, Radio Land and recaptured Streets of the World. Dine on international food and great drinks. Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Eliot Ness and the May Company fashion models are special guests.
Doors open at 6:30 PM. VIP Tickets are $125, Party Tickets provide fun for $75, and Late Night cost-saving tickets (10PM to midnight) are $35. The event supports education programming initiatives at the Western Reserve Historical Society which serves over 35,000 students in Northeast Ohio annually. Find out more at wrhs.org/.
In addition to a couple books about local wineries, Cool Cleveland Contributor Claudia Taller takes readers all along the North Coast, from Vermilion and the Lake Erie Islands to Conneaut, along the Towpath and on walks around downtown Cleveland, in her novel Daffodils and Fireflies. Learn more at http://claudiajtaller.com.
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106