ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries D ecem ber 1988 / 781 Trivial m atte rs, Cincinnati style By Mary Ellen Rutledge Elsbernd Collection Development Librarian Northern Kentucky University Amaze the natives with the depth of your Cincinnati knowledge at A C R L ’s Fifth National Conference in April. K nowing esoteric facts or trivia has become the consummate pastime of many Americans and li­ brarians. As A C R L ’s fifth National Conference is only a few short months away, the following tidbits will whet your appetite for a taste of Cincinnati tri­ via. A .K .A .’s “Losantiville”— The first name given to Cincin­ nati in 1788 by John Filson. “Porkopolis”— Renowned for its pork packing, by 1845 C in c in n a ti had sausaged m ore th a n 250,000 hogs. “Queen City of the W est”— Ry 1830 Cincinnati had become a significant western river town with great industrial promise. Wealth Cincinnati’s first millionaire and patron of the arts, Nicholas Longworth (1782-1863), “paid the second highest property taxes in the U.S. while only in his forties.” Captured in poetry “And this song of the Vine, This greeting of mine, The winds and the birds shall deliver To the Queen of the West In her garlands dressed, By the banks of the Beautiful R iver.” — “C ataw ba W in e,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Birthplace Theda Bara Johnny Bench Ted Turner Stephen Spielberg Tyrone Power Pete Rose 782 / C&RL News Hometown musicians Marty Balin, of Jefferson Starship (“Ride the Ti- ger”) Mel Carter (“Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me”) The Casinos (“Then You Can Tell Me Good­ bye”) Rosemary Clooney (“Come on-a My House”) Doris Day (“Secret Love”) Carl Dobkins Jr. (“My Heart Is an Open Book”) Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods (“Billy, Don’t Be a Hero”) The Isley Brothers (“Twist and Shout”) Freddy King (“Hide Away”) The Lemon Pipers (“Green Tambourine”) Kenny Price (“Sheriff of Boone County”) Pure Prairie League (“Let Me Love You To- night”) Roy Rogers (“Hoppy, Gene and Me”) Otis Williams and the Charms (“Ivory Tower”) Firsts Air mail:. Where mail first took to the sky via bal­ loon, July 4, 1835. Am erican b e e r : The first American beer to pass the German quality control Reinheitsgebat was Christian Moerlein, introduced by Hudepohl in 1984. Concrete skyscraper: Ingalls Building, 4th and Vine, 1902. Educational television station: The first licensed educational TV station in the U.S. was W C E T , 1954. Fire fighting: First fireman’s pole and the first city to establish a municipal fire department. Music: The first municipal songfest, Saenger- fest, 1849. Professional baseball club: The Cincinnati Red Stockings, 1869. Train robbery: America’s first, on May 5, 1865, near North Bend, Ohio, when an Ohio and Missis­ sippi passenger train was derailed by armed rob­ bers who swarmed through the cars demanding valuables. U.S. Jewish theological college: Hebrew Union College, 1875. W eather report: First U.S. weather bureau es­ tablished in 1869. Yeast: F irst U .S. production of compressed yeast, Charles Fleischmann, 1868. Chili capital of the U.S.A You can have your chili five different ways in Cincinnati, which boasts the best in the East at least. One-way is plain old (Texas) chili; two-way is spaghetti topped with chili; three-way is spa­ ghetti topped with chili and mild cheddar cheese; four-way is spaghetti topped with chili, cheese, and chopped onions. In full blossom, five-way is all of the above, plus a layer of kidney beans. Jeff Smith, “the Frugal Gourm et,” professes that au­ thentic Cincinnati chili contains cinnamon, all­ spice, and cocoa. Pardon me, boys The actual route of the Chattanooga Choo Choo ran from Cincinnati. Clothes horse By 1860 Cincinnati was manufacturing one-half of all the ready-to-wear garments available in the western market. Women’s work Maria Longworth Nichols Storer (1849-1932) was the first woman in the U.S. to own and operate a major industry, the Rookwood Pottery. Margaret “Marge” Schott was the first woman to buy a major league baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds, in 1984. Inspired by the anti-slavery movement, Harriet B eech er Stow e based her book, U ncle T o m ’s C abin, on her experiences while residing in Cincin­ nati. At the tender age of 24, Josephine Johnson won a Pulitzer Prize for her first novel, Now in N ovem ­ ber. Fruit of the vine The popularity of Cataw ba wine made Ohio the number one wine-producing state in the 1860s. Meier’s W ine Cellars are one of the oldest pre­ mium wineries in the U.S. December 1988 / 783 Population By 1860, Cincinnati was the sixth largest city in the U.S. with 115,535 citizens. In common What do Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney, Rod Serling, Andy W illiams, the McGuire Sisters, and Fats Waller have in common? W L W , the local ra­ dio station, gave all their careers a boost. From 1934 to 1939 W L W had the most powerful broad­ casting system in the world. Miss Manners is watching Cincinnatians learned to eat pie with a fork, thanks to Sir Alfred T . Goshorn, a leading light during the 1860s and 1870s. Sir Alfred was better known for organizing the original Cincinnati In ­ dustrial Expositions and serving as mayor of C lif­ ton. It’s in the cards The first greeting card was produced by Gibson Greeting Cards in 1850. Hey, dummy! The Vent Haven Museum, home for more than 600 ventriloquists’ dummies, is found in nearby Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. German heritage More than 600,000 of the one million residents in Greater Cincinnati are of German descent. Highest, fastest, longest, haddest Definitely “The Beast,” a roller coaster ride at King's Island. Long overdue In 1823 a book on febrile disease was checked out from the University of Cincinnati Medical Library and returned in 1968. Dry bones Referred to as “one of the greatest graveyards of prehistoric animals ever discovered,” Rig Bone Lick State Park (located south of Florence, Ken­ tucky) is the site of the ancient salt sulphur spring frequented by mammoths, mastodons, and the like. Brought to you by Proctor and Gamble Floating soap: Ivory, 1879. The first all-vegetable shortening: Crisco, 1911. Disposable diapers: Pampers, 1962. The most trivial Ivory soap got its name from a passage in the fifth Psalm: “Thy garments smell of myrrh and al­ oes, and cassia out of ivory places.” Squeaky clean Thanks to the Drackett Company, you and your household can remain squeaky clean due to such products as Drano, Vanish, Windex, Behold, E n ­ dust, Mr. Muscle, Twinkle, Renuzit, and Miracle W hite. Proctor and Gamble is the soap king (but more about that later). Well read The oldest library west of the Alleghenies is the Young Men’s Mercantile Library, located on W al­ nut Street in downtown Cincinnati. Cincinnati College president William McGuffey compiled the First and Second McGuffey’s Readers in 1836. They were used to educate generations of Americans in the virtues of frugality, industry, and sobriety. On the other hand, the first national convention of the Know-Nothing Party was held in Cincinnati in 1854. Bridge to the south Designed by John A. Roebling in 1866, the Sus­ pension Bridge that spans the Mason-Dixon Line, is the world’s longest and first suspension bridge. 784 / C&RL News The city skeleton A defunct subway system lies beneath the streets. In 1916 city fathers designated $600,000 to establish a major subway system. Unfortunately the money evaporated before the project was half finished. The boys of summer The first night baseball game was held in Cin­ cinnati on May 24, 1935—just catching up, Cubs? Guzzlin’ down the brew By the 1890s, on the average, every m an, woman and child in Cincinnati consumed 40 gal­ lons of beer a year—24 times the national average. On an ax-grinding temperance visit to Cincin­ nati in 1901, Carrie Nation was heard to exclaim: “I would have dropped from exhaustion before I had gone a block.” In 1919 Prohibition laws closed over 2,000 sa­ loons, breweries and distilleries. The Germans and the Irish were not amused. Sex in cages A leader in breeding wild animals, the Cincin­ nati Zoo birthed fourteen baby black rhinos, 1959-1985. Largest, cleanest, brightest Coney Island’s Sunlight Pool is allegedly the world’s largest re-circulating pool. Cavernous The w orld’s largest m an-m ade cav ern — complete with a 32-foot waterfall— can be found at the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Planetarium. Large William Howard Taft was fondly referred to as “Big Lub” by his Cincinnati boyhood chums. He was the 27th President of the United States and the only President to serve as Chief Justice of the Su­ preme Court. What they did first Stephen Foster worked in his brother’s steam­ boat office by the river in Cincinnati. While here he composed many such favorites as “Oh Sus­ anna!” John Twachtman decorated window shades in some of Cincinnati’s finest homes. John James Audubon started out as a taxidermist in the Western Museum, now the Cincinnati Mu­ seum of Natural History. Henry Farny designed circus posters in Cincin­ nati. Medical firsts Dr. Albert Sabin, inventor of the oral polio vac­ cine, conducted his initial mass test of the vaccine with Cincinnati school children in 1959. Dr. Henry Heimlich discovered his “Heimlich maneuver” that saves choking victims. The first heart-lung machine was developed at Children’s Hospital Medical Center in 1952. Of historic import Four residents of Cincinnati became Presidents of the U.S.: William Henry Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, and William Ho­ ward Taft. Leopold Stokowski conducted the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra from 1909-1912. Service to the mentally ill I am interested in contacting librarians who would like to develop a discussion group or membership activity group on library services to persons who are or have been mentally ill, and who are not institutionalized. There is much discussion about this service, but appar­ ently no group within ALA has it as a focus. If you are interested, contact: Linda Lucas, Pro­ fessor, University of South Carolina, Colum­ bia, SC 29208; (803) 777-3858. I hope to ar­ range a planning meeting for the 1989 Annual Conference in Dallas. — Linda Lucas.