Thu 5/12 @ 7PM
TV newsman/author Neil Zurcher is known for his “one tank trips” on-air segments at Channel 8 in which he finds intriguing things to check out within easy driving distance; he’s also compiled them into books.
His latest book, however, is different. Ten Ohio Disasters is an on-the-ground look at fires, tornados, bridge collapses, blizzards and other lethal disasters that rocked communities around the state.
What separates this book from other such books — disasters vie with books about mysterious “haunted” occurrences in popularity — is that the now-86-year-old Zurcher himself covered all but one of them in his 60 years as a newsman. Some of them will be within memory of some readers — he covers the Cincinnati Who concert stampede and the Blizzard of 78. Others came earlier in his career: a horrific 1963 nursing home fire in Huron County that killed five dozen people but barely made the news because it occurred the day after JFK was shot, a 1967 parachute jump gone wrong over Lake Erie in which 16 died. All except one involve death and tragedy: the one exception is Balloonfest 86 in which the United Way released more than a million balloons on Public Square, wreaking havoc with surrounding traffic.
Zurcher will talk about these disasters and his role in them at the Music Box Supper Club as part of its Cleveland Stories series. The room opens for dinner at 5pm; storytelling starts at 7. There’s no admission charge.