On this episode of Historically Hip were talking with Times-Tribune columnist and editor Chris Kelly about the soon-to-be published book – ‘Lackawanna Memories – A Photographic History of the Early Years’.
Marbles
As mentioned Lackawanna County was a marbles powerhouse in the 1930s.
TIMES-TRIBUNE ARCHIVES Marble competition participants in Scranton in 1935.
In the mid 1930s, Andrew “Kuchy” Tanana of Throop, and Eugene Niconovich of Scranton represented our area in the National Marbles Championship in Ocean City, New Jersey.
During the course of the championship, representatives from Southern states weren’t happy that Leonard Tyner, a black boy from Chicago, may have to play a Frank Hawkins, a white boy from Birmingham, Alabama. So they convinced the tournament officials to change the rules of play from a round robin style to a drawing.
The draw placed Tanana against Hawkins and Niconovich against Tyner.
The Times representative at the championship, George Martin, saw what was going on and told the tournament committee “We do not propose for one minute to allow any southern representatives or southern delegation to come to this tournament and dictate, to satisfy their racial prejudices, how, when and where our boys from Scranton and Throop are going to play.”
Martin pulled Tanana and Niconovich from the tournament.
The Times gave both boys several prizes including new bicycles.
Old Forge Teachers Strike
In 1934, a dispute over 7 months of back pay owed to the teachers in the Old Forge School District lead to strikes that lasted for months.
TIMES-TRIBUNE ARCHIVES Children parading in support of striking teachers in Old Forge in September 1934.
Finally in late September, the state education department offered additional funds to Old Forge School District to end the dispute.
After months of striking, teachers and students headed back to classroom on October 22.
The Book
You can order the book online at Lackawanna.pictorialbook.com or in person at the Scranton Times Building during normal business hours (Monday – Friday 9am to 4pm).
Currently the book is priced at $29.95 (plus shipping and handling). If you pre-order the book, the book will be on Nov. 29, 2019.
The book is expected to be available for purchase at the annual Times-Tribune Tower Lighting Celebration on Nov. 27.
We also have a limited number of our first book, “Scranton, The First 150 Years”, available for purchase. You can pick up a copy at the Times Building and the cost is $44.95.
We have partnered with Newspapers.com to provide you access to the archives of The Times-Tribune. The papers included are the Scranton Republican, The Tribune, The Scrantonian (the Sunday paper of the Tribune), the Scranton Times and The Times-Tribune. Access to the Times-Tribune is priced at $4.95 a month or $19.95 for 6 months. If you are real history junkie you can subscribe to Newspapers.com Publisher Extra feature that gives you access to 14,900 newspapers (that includes the The Times-Tribune Archives) for $19.90 a month or $74.90 for 6 months.
Previous Episodes of Historically Hip
- Episode 3 – Ancient Cities and the Wild West
- Episode 2 – The Lions of Scranton
- Episode 1 – To The Moon and Chappaquiddick
Historically Hip is available on iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts.
Brian Fulton has been the librarian at The Times-Tribune for the past 15 years. On his blog, Historically Hip, he writes about the great concerts, plays/musicals and celebrity happenings that have taken place throughout NEPA. He is also the co-host of the local history podcast, Historically Hip. He competed and was crowned grand champion on an episode of NPR quiz show “Ask Me Another.” Contact: bfulton@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9140; or @TTPagesPast
