Movie Nites

The Uptown opened as the Lagoon Theater in 1913.  After new sound equipment was installed, the theater’s name was  changed on  April 11, 1929. The Uptown was  rebuilt and redesigned by the architectural  firm of Liebenberg and  Kaplan after a fire tore through the building in 1939. The theater was closed briefly in 1975 but … Read more

Griggs & Cooper

Dear Green Jeans, While at the “Minnesota Stale Fair”,  Shaveless Hardjaw and I plan to visit the large factory illustrated on the other side. They tell me that here, under one roof are manufactured a larger variety of foods than are manufactured in any other similar organization in the United States. Shaveless is anxious to … Read more

CLark’s Super Gas

Emory T. Clark Founded Clark’s Super Gas in 1932. His first filling station sat on the corner of 60th St. and Greenfield Avenue in West Allis, Wisconsin, Clark Super Gas exclusively sold premium gas. In 1943, the company got into the oil refining business. By the middle of the 1950s, Clark’s operated almost 500 gas … Read more

Hotel Hastings

It was only a short walk along Hawthorne Avenue from the stage door of the Orpheum theater at 10th and Hennepin to the six story brown brick hotel a couple blocks away. The Hastings Hosted all the big names that brought Broadway and Vaudeville to the Mill City. Even after the variety bills started to … Read more

Something About Hilda Simms

Born in 1918, Hilda Moses grew up in Minneapolis. The eldest of 13 kids, she walked from her family home at 908 Emerson Avenue North to Sumner and Grant Elementary Schools. She was confirmed at the Basilica of Saint Mary and graduated from St. Margaret’s academy. She got her early dramatic experience at the University … Read more

The Red Fez Revue

El Salamnu Aleikum! Alelkum Es Salem! See? “Most soltenly” as Happy Hooligan would say. It’s only the Murat temple of Indianapolis, making the points of interest between that benighted country and Minneapolis. It’s the noise they make in transit. Murat temple decided to have a good time between times. Therefore, the members arranged a charming … Read more

So Long South

South High School. Minneapolis, Minnesota. One of six high schools, cost including new addition, but without equipment, $600,000, caring for about 2000 pupils; has auditorium seating 1860 manual training domestic science and commercial courses; gymnasium, shower, bath, penny lunch, conservatory, faculty of 80. Our Public School property is valued at $8,500,00. –Minneapolis Selling Co. Postcard-1920 … Read more

The Calhoun Theater Then and Now

The Calhoun theater, notable among neighborhood theaters of Minneapolis as the largest and best equipped reopened January 29th after being closed for a fortnight for enlargement. The enlarged house seats 1480 and is with a single exception the largest motion picture house in the city, the exception being the New Garrick, one of the downtown … Read more

The Parkway Motor Hotel

Some folks say the estimated number of motels in America tripled between 1940 and 1960. People on the move with money to spend found modern motels with well-appointed rooms out on the edges of just about every metropolitan area. Air conditioning, television, radios, tiled bathrooms, easy chairs, coin operated vibrating beds, swimming pools and movie … Read more