What was making news in our area during this week in years past? The History Museum offers these South Bend Tribune newspaper excerpts to give you an idea.
July 27, 1907: “A novelty that will please the children will be presented at Springbrook park next Saturday afternoon after the matinee of the Cook Stock company. The management has called it “The Toy Hunt” and has arranged for a large number of tags to be hidden in the grass and shrubbery about the park. These tags will be numbered and will entitle the children who find them toys.”
July 28, 1915: “The Gentry Brothers dog and pony show is in South Bend to-day and is giving two performances at the corner of West Washington avenue and Maple street. The only monkey barbers in the world are with the Gentry brothers shows. These monkeys are trained to enact scenes common in a barber shop.”
July 29, 1926: “Rectangular sections spacious enough to accommodate a large automobile are being outlined parallel with curbs on the pavement in some parts of the business district in the hope of obtaining better parking and preventing automobiles being tied up by thoughtless drivers who have no regard for the convenience of others.”
July 30, 1935: “The Wilcox bill, which may be the means of establishing an army air base in or near South Bend, was ready today for the signature of President Roosevelt. Passed Monday by the senate, the house bill calls for the establishment of six army air defense bases in the United States and Alaska. Efforts have been made for several months to win the favor of the war department for South Bend as one of the sites for such a base.”
July 31, 1949: “Wartime “heroes” are dying amid piles of junk. They are the prewar cars that carried American drivers through the long auto famine during the war years. The mortality rate on 1939 and earlier model cars is rising steadily. Local scrap and salvage dealers report that the supply of the faithful wartime autos is greater than the demand. The 1940-42 models are being salvaged for parts but the older veterans are gasping their last in the junk yards.”
Aug. 1, 1952: “The country’s biggest organized search for mysterious flying objects will be launched in the South Bend area Saturday night when at least 100,000 eyes will be turned skyward between nine and 11 o’clock in hope of establishing or disproving the existence of “flying saucers.””
Aug. 2, 1961: “Mrs. Robert L. Miller, 1609 E. Colfax Ave., whose family has the only underground concrete bomb shelter in the city, said to-day she would be glad to hold an open house to demonstrate the shelter to the public.”
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Headlines in History 1949: War ‘Heroes’ Dying Amid Junk Piles
Reporting by Cheryl Morey, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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