A Trip To Old Milwaukee
Larry Widen's "Entertainment in Early Milwaukee" is a photographic journey through Milwaukee, Wisconsin from the mid-1880s through about 1950. The book focuses upon the opportunities for leisure and entertainment the city offered and upon how Milwaukeans made use of them. Widen is an amateur historian who owns a movie theater in Milwaukee.
Most readers will want to approac books in the "Images of America" series through reading about communities with meaning to them. Thus, I was raised in Milwaukee and lived in the city through college and my early twenties too many years ago. Although most the period covered by this book is before my time, it still brought back memories by connecting me to places I once knew well. In my late teens, I spent much time walking through the city.
Quite separately from the subject matter of this book, I enjoyed seeing places and scenes from Milwaukee. I particularly liked the many photographs which show the streetcars that served the city until they were displaced in full in 1958. The book brought me back to many places I knew such as downtown Milwaukee with its department stores and movie theaters, and the public library, where I spent a good many hours, together with the city museum and recently renovated city auditorium. I also enjoyed the photos of the State Fair grounds which, as Widen points out,looked much the same 100 years ago as they did when I visited the fair over 30 years ago and as they do today. There were also many photographs in the book of places close to my home, including Washington Park (unfortunately there are no photographs of the old Washington Park zoo), the Uptown movie theater, which I went to for many a Saturday matinee, and the Times theater, which is still in Milwaukee and owned by Widen. I went to the Times when I was in high school in the 1960s. During that time it showed art and foreign films. Besides these community landmarks, the book includes a photograph of the beginning stages of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, my alma mater, and photos of Marquette University near downtown.
Besides raising many memories, this book taught me a great deal about my former city. Widen's written introduction offers a good overview of the history of leisure activities in Milwaukee. He points out, for example, that Houdini got his start in Milwaukee and performed in the city several times after he became famous. I was pleased to read Widen's account of George Webb, who served inexpensive hamburgers in Milwaukee well before the advent of McDonalds, but there are no photos of Webb's hamburger parlors in the book.
The six chapters in Widen's book document the early nickolodeons and dime theaters from the turn of the century. There is also a rare photo of a cyclorama, "Grant and the Assault on Vicksburg". Many readers will be familiar with the Philipoteaux cyclorama of the battle of Gettysburg, on display at Gettysburg Park, and it was good to be reminded that these panoramas were a popular entertainment form at the close of the 19th Century. There are many old pictures of Milwaukee's lakefront on Lake Michigan and of the vessels which once carried passengers to Chicago and other lake destinations.
Widen describes the amusement parks that were a preeminent feature of the city long before my time. I never knew they had been in the city before reading this book. I also didn't know about the extensive high-class brothels in Milwaukee during the latter part of the Nineteenth Century, but they have their deserved place in the book. Widen emphasizes the role of the brewing companies in branching out into leisure activities in Milwaukee, such as amusement parks, beer gardens, hotels, and restaurants. Some of Widen's photographs capture quiet domestic scenes, such as families having dinner together, couples taking walks through the park, and children playing with the family dog. With the advent of the automobile, people took Sunday drives to many of the lakes within a short distance of the city. I recall this, of course, from my own childhood before the price of gas, perhaps, has affected these excursions.
Many famous people visited Milwaukee. Considerable space is given in this book to photographs of dignitaries such as President's Eisenhower and Truman and of the many movie actors who, I was unaware, passed through Milwaukee for promotional tours. More than these photographs, however, I enjoyed the pictures of the residents of the city carrying on with their daily lives: shopping, working, listening to music,dancing, and learning. It brought a feel to me of the city I knew.
Widen's book will bring pleasure to anyone who knows Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Broader than its subject of entertainment during Milwaukee's early years, the book captures a good deal of life in the city.
