Thursday, July 15, 2021

7/12/1951

EAST FAREWELL NEWS


Thursday, July 12, 1951   Vol. C317


LOCAL NEWS


SUMMER CAMPS COMBINE TO PUT ON A SHOW


East Farewell – Lake Charles is a beautiful lake with wonderful woodland surrounding it. The area is rural and is the home of a variety of wildlife from fish, squirrels and chipmunks to wolves and bears. It wasn’t long after the town of East Farewell had become an established vacation area that an outdoorsman, Larry Zagrave and his wife, Maria bought 75 acres of lakefront land in two parcels that were separated by one of streams feeding the lake. The Zagraves bought the land in 1927 with the intent of setting two summer camps, one for boys and one for girls. Unfortunately, the depression put their plans on hold and they were not able to open the camps until 1937. The two camps, Camp Black Hawk for the boys and Camp Naomi for the girls opened in the summer of 1937 with 6 two week overnight sessions. The 1940 summer saw an additional day camp added in July for local children. The camps grew in popularity and the number of campers grew, too. In 1937 there were only 25 campers, 25 boys and 25 girls, per session but by 1940 the number had grown to 35 each per session. The total number per session was finally capped at 50 for both camps in 1947. The camps have gained quite a reputation in the big cities and the new growing suburbs and have enjoyed a full enrollment and great reviews for the last several years.

            The mission of both camps has always been to provide an active outdoor experience for all the campers. The Black Hawk campers focused more on athletics, baseball and football, while the Naomi campers were more focused on nature, outdoor artistic events and gardening. Both camps had large swim programs. Ever since the beginning the Zagraves felt the arts were just as important as the physical aspect of camp life and always had a theatrical aspect of each session. This usually meant putting on a play or a musical. From early on Larry would produce and direct a show that involved every camper either as actors or on the stage crew. This was the only event during the session where the boys and the girls would mingle. It is well known that Maria was a theater aficionado and she has a special love for Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. For the last five years the camps have put on different Gilbert & Sullivan shows to great reviews and more importantly lots of fun and smiles for the kids.

            The first July session ended last weekend and the show the kids put on was Gilbert & Sullivan’s first operetta, “HMS Pinafore” The kids had a grand time with the opera that satirized the rise of unqualified people to positions of authority and poking good-natured fun at the Royal Navy and the English obsession with social status even though they did not really understand the subject. A surprise twist that changed everything dramatically near the end of the story was made the amateur thespians even more energetic. The audience was mainly the actor’s families who came for the end of session pickup but some locals attended to. After the final curtain both the audience and the cast and crew all held an after-show party under a huge tent erected on the field in the middle of Camp Black Hawk.

The camps have become an important of the summer season in East Farewell. Every two week in the summer the town becomes very active with the pickups and drop offs. Many families have started to stay over for a couple of days at either the beginning or end of the sessions which makes for a very lively downtown and many happy shop owners.  

 

A rousing rendition of HMS Pinafore at summer camp


SPORTS


BEARS ROAR SILENCES TRAVELERS


Bedford – The Travelers four game winning streak came to halt last Saturday night when the Bedford Bears held off a strong comeback in the ninth inning to win a close game, 5-4. It was a beautiful night for baseball and Bedford Stadium was almost glowing with its newly installed lights. The Bears were on their own winning streak and the game was expected to be a hard hitting, high scoring event because both teams had been scoring runs. The Bears were the only ones that came out hitting as they grabbed an early lead in the second inning when Bears slugger, Brad Stanley, smacked a three run homer off Billy Green. The Travelers were held in check for the first six innings and it looked like Bears pitcher, Harry Handler, was on his way to a one hitter. Travelers 2nd basemen, Artie Archibald was able to squeeze a hit through the middle and move to second on a passed ball. Dale Dunham was able to bring him home with a long single into the right corner. The game went into the eighth with the score 3-1 and the Bears were able to smack a couple of hits off Green and score two more making it look like they were sealing the win but in the top of the ninth the Travelers made a strong comeback scoring 3 runs on a Johnny Cloos blast over the left field fence. It turned out to be a bit short as Handler was able to strike out Joey Brown to end the game.

            The Travelers will move on Corning next week. They won’t have to face their nemesis, Bill “Smoke” Black but they will have to start hitting again. The game begins on Saturday afternoon at 1:30PM on Corning Field.


 NATIONAL NEWS


AIRLINER CRASHES INTO CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN – U.S. DIPLOMATS EXPELLED FROM HUNGARY BY REDS – COLOR TV BROADCASTS BEGIN – SINATRA LEAVES CBS IN TALKS WITH NBC


A United Airlines Mainliner smashes into Crystal Mountain, killing a 50 aboard. Flight 610 was en-route to Chicago from San Francisco.

Two American diplomats are ordered expelled from Hungary by the Red government.

Color-TV broadcasts begin on a limited scale in the East. But the 5-year-old battle between the color systems of CBS and RCA is in a fury. Frank Stanton of CBS said his competitors had conspired to impede CBS color because they had failed to get government approval for their own color system. TV pioneer Allen B. Du Mont replied that the CBS method “is already obsolete” and the RCA color tube is the future of TV. 

Frank Sinatra’s option for his CBS-TV services lapses. He’s now in discussions with NBC-TV. Sinatra was the star of the Bulova-sponsored Saturday night show on CBS-TV during the past season.

At the movies –

Two of A Kind – Edmond O’Brien, Lizabeth Scott

Excuse My Dust – Red Skelton, Sally Forrest

Sirocco – Humphrey Bogart

Hollywood Murder Story – Richard Conte, Julia Adams

Apache Drums – Stephen McNally, Coleen Gray

Follow The Sun - Anne Baxter, Glenn Ford

Ace In The Hole – Kirk Douglas

Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train –Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Roger Walker 


Many, many thanks to www.mrpopculture.com for contributing to this section of the East Farewell News.


 


No comments:

Post a Comment