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Currently viewing the category: "David Ouse: Forgotten Duluthians"

Forgotten Duluthian Gar Wood, powerboat racing legend

On April 18, 2013 By David Ouse
Gar Woods, native Duluthian, inventor, and power boat racking legend.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Garfield Wood—known as “Gar” or the “Silver Fox of Algonac”—was probably the most famous powerboat racer in the world. Growing up in Duluth, he learned many of the skills that made him both a millionaire in business and a fierce and fearless competitor on the water. Garfield Arthur Wood was born on December 4, 1880, in Mapleton, Iowa. He was named after James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, America’s [...]
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Forgotten Duluthian Jack O’Brien

On March 18, 2013 By David Ouse
Duluth native, antarctic explorer, and author Jack O'Brien. (Image: Duluth Public Library)
Jack O’Brien grew up in Duluth in the early 1900s with a reputation as a natural leader and an athlete who was considered to be reckless and adventurous. His teachers said his Irish blood seemed to make him afraid of nothing. So people who knew him in Duluth weren’t surprised when he was selected to the group of men who accompanied Admiral Richard E. Byrd Jr. on his first expedition to Antarctica in 1928. O’Brien [...]
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Forgotten Duluthian Alexander Miles

On February 18, 2013 By David Ouse
Alexander Miles, who lived in Duluth in the 1880s and 1890s, was considered the wealthiest black man in the "northwest" around the turn of the 20th century. (Image: Duluth Public Library.)
Users of early elevators were responsible for opening and closing the doors manually, sometimes neglecting to close the doors and creating a hazardous situation with the shaft exposed. Duluthian Alexander Miles solved this problem by inventing an improved mechanism to open and close elevator doors automatically when the elevator arrives or departs the floor. This is just one of the accomplishments of this successful and creative businessman who lived in Duluth in the late 1800s [...]
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Forgotten Duluthian Russell Mayberry

On January 21, 2013 By David Ouse
Russel Mayberry.
As a kid growing up in Morgan Park in the 1930s, Duluth-native Russell Mayberry dreamed of working in radio. Later dreams of becoming an actor didn’t come true, but Mayberry did find work in television in the early days of that industry in the late 1940s; he worked his way up to become one of the most prolific television directors in Hollywood. The Mayberry family came to Duluth from Pennsylvania around 1915 to work in [...]
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Forgotten Duluthian: James E. McDonald, UFO Researcher

On December 6, 2012 By David Ouse
UFO researcher and native Duluthian James E. McDonald. (Image: University of Arizona)
Atmospheric physicist and Duluth-native James E. McDonald was by all accounts brilliant, idealistic, and outspoken. When he began researching and speaking publicly on UFOs, he became controversial as well. James Edward McDonald was born in Duluth on May 7, 1920. His parents were James P. McDonald and Hilve C. (Linn) McDonald. James P. was born in Wisconsin and moved to Iowa as a young man where he met Hilve Linn and married her. They moved [...]
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Don LaFontaine, Duluth’s ‘Voice of God’

On November 5, 2012 By David Ouse
Duluth native and voice-over actor Don LaFontaine. (Image: Duluth Public Library.)
In a world where…a few top voice-over actors have successful careers making movie trailers, Duluth-native Don LaFontaine was known as “The King, “Thunder Throat,” and “The Voice of God.” When he died in 2008, he had recorded over 5,000 movie trailers and as many as 350,000 television and radio spots, and he was recognized as probably the best voice-over actor ever. LaFontaine was born in Duluth on August 26, 1940. His parents, Alfred and Ruby, [...]
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Forgotten Duluthian: Songwriter Sammy Gallop

On October 3, 2012 By David Ouse
Sammy Gallop in his 1932 photograph for Duluth Central's "Zenith" yearbook. (Image: Duluth Public Library.)
Americans growing up in the 1940s and 1950s are probably familiar with some of the popular songs written by composer/lyricist—and Duluth native—Sammy Gallop. He wrote the lyrics for the songs “Maybe You’ll Be There” (1947),  which was recorded by Gordon Jenkins and was on the Billboard Best Selling Retail Records chart for 30 weeks in 1948 and 1949; “Outside of Heaven” (1952), recorded by Eddie Fisher; and “Somewhere Along [...]
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Forgotten Duluthian Townsend W. Hoopes II

On September 6, 2012 By David Ouse
Townsend Hoopes II. Image: X-Comm.)
In March of 1968, the United States was mired in the war in Vietnam. General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces in Vietnam, asked President Johnson for an additional 206,000 troops. Several Johnson Administration insiders led by Duluth-native Townsend Hoopes, then Under Secretary of the U.S. Air Force, convinced Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford that the war was unwinnable and that the U.S. should reverse its Vietnam policy. Clifford convinced Johnson, who refused the general’s [...]
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Lost Duluthian Albert Faille

On August 5, 2012 By David Ouse
ZCA_Bio_Faille,A_nkagen
Albert Faille was a quiet man, a trapper and prospector in Canada’s vast, unexplored north, but by the end of his life he had achieved relative fame as one of the most steadfast explorers of the South Nahanni River region in the Northwest Territories. Albert lived in Duluth for only a short time, but according to his stepson Harry, he always claimed Duluth as his home. Albert’s early life is something of a mystery. [...]
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Lost Duluthian Dave Kahn

On July 5, 2012 By David Ouse
David Kahn. (Image: Duluth Public Library.)
Nearly every baby boomer is familiar with the theme song to Leave it to Beaver, the still-popular television sitcom from the 1950s and 1960s, but few people know that the song was written by a Duluth native. Dave Kahn wrote that and other television theme music and probably hundreds of pieces of music used on television and in the movies. Dave was born David Kohn in Duluth on October 14, 1910. His parents were Frank [...]
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Lost Duluthian Elinor Harriot

On June 7, 2012 By David Ouse
ZCA_Bio_Harriot,Eilnor_001_PD
In February of 1932, actress Dorothy Gish was starring on Broadway in a George M. Cohan production of The Bride the Sun Shines On. On Saturday, February 6, she became ill with influenza and couldn’t perform. Elinor Harriot, a 22-year-old actress from Duluth who had a small role in the play, went on in Dorothy’s place for the matinee and evening performances. She had just an hour’s notice to prepare. It is said that the [...]
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Forgotten Duluthian: Sadik Hakim

On May 7, 2012 By Administrator
Sadik Hakim
 In 1982, the music world lost a legend with the death of Thelonious Monk. At Monk’s funeral, thousands gathered to pay their respects. One of Monk’s former colleagues sat at the piano and played, according to legendary jazz writer Ted Joans, “a sad but soulful” version of Monk’s own “’Round Midnight.” That pianist was Duluth-native Sadik Hakim, who played and recorded with jazz icons from the 1940s to the 1980s. Down Beat magazine described him [...]
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