LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - FEBRUARY 2, 2020 by Lynne Belluscio Mark the date on your calendar. The annual Dinner Auction that benefits the Historical Society is scheduled for Saturday night, March 28. We’ll be celebrating the “Roaring Twenties.” Although we have some jazz music planned for the evening, we do not plan to reenact Josephine Baker’s Paris debut in 1925, when she appeared on stage wearing only a pink flamingo feather. (Yes, you are reading this right - - a flamingo feather---but you’ll have to wait until April 1 for the rest of that story.) The Twenties truly “roared.” Charles Lindburgh roared across the Atlantic and made history on May 20, 1927. A year later, on May 25, 1928, Amelia Earhart was a passenger in the Tri-Motor Fokker, the “Friendship” in a flight over the Atlantic Ocean. She became known as “Lady Lindy.” The Friendship was purchased by Don Woodward, the youngest son of the Jell-O family and he had it flown to the Woodward Airport on Asbury Road in October 1928, in time for the opening of the airport. The decade of the 20s was filled with events that should be remembered. The Lincoln Monument was dedicated on May 20, 1922. In 1926, Carl Sandburg’s 2 volumes about the early life of Abraham Lincoln “The Prairie Years” was published. In 1921, the favorite song was “Look For the Silver Lining.” Yankee Stadium opened April 18, 1923, and was called the “House that Ruth Built.” In 1924, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame won all of their games under the famous coach Knute Rockne. In 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming discovered a mold growing in a petri dish that was soon to be called penicillin. The Readers’ Digest was first published in 1921 and Time Magazine was introduced in 1923. Walt Disney introduced Mickey Mouse. Dupont began the production of cellophane. Meanwhile in LeRoy, the Fire Department decided to buy a new Stutz firetruck. Two ladies, Miss Julia Conner and Bernice Doehler began their “walk” to Detroit. The Post Office, which had been located in the Muller Block for forty years, was moved to the Eagle Hotel. The American Legion Post was renamed the Botts-Fiorito Post after two men who died in World War I. There were 24 graduates from the high school in 1923. Jell-O was made in six different fruit flavors, which included chocolate. Don Woodward built his mansion, known today as Mercygrove, complete with indoor swimming pool, a vault for his wife’s fur coats, and a dining room with Burchfield wallpaper in the “Riviera” pattern. He never lived in the house because of his divorce from his first wife Florence Stobie, and built another house across the street. In the 1920s, Ernest Woodward negotiated the sale of Jell-O to the Postum Company in return for an exchange of stock in what was to become General Foods. It would garner the Woodward family in excess of $66 million. The 1920s roared into LeRoy and the town would never be the same. But with all the hoopla and prosperity, the 1920s also ushered in prohibition. On January 18, 1920, the Volstead Act became law and enforced the 18th Amendment which prohibited the manufacture, distribution and sale of liquor. For thirteen years, until the 21st Amendment was passed in 1933, prohibition prevailed. “Assistant Commissioner Gaylor of the Internal Revenue Department has stated that it would require six years to make the country completely dry, but to all intents and purposes the Government’s organization for the enforcement of national prohibition is already so well organized that there will be no alcoholic refreshment available for the ordinary wayfarer unless he wishes to dally with wood alcohol concoctions after January 16. . . . Liquor held in warehouses and elsewhere for private account must be moved to homes or other places of residence by the owners before midnight . . . Home brewing of beverages containing more than one-half of 1 percent of alcohol also will come under the ban. . . . The opening of the nation’s first saloonless year will be celebrated tomorrow night in Washington.” Speakeasies opened everywhere, in a back room of a restaurant or business. It had been argued that prohibition would save money from all the people who had to be treated for alcoholism. But the federal government wasn’t collecting revenue The federal government was no longer collecting liquor taxes and yet, was spending a lot of money fighting illegal activities. A lot of the bootleg liquor - - the bathtub gin and wood alcohol was dangerous - - even fatal. So, join us for a roaring party on March 28, but if you want to get in the front door, you’ll need to knock three times and give Sam Leadley the password. Tickets are $50 per person and may be reserved by calling 768-7433. Dinner at LeRoy House on March, 28 2020