WESG: Broadcasting Live from the Mark Twain Hotel

by Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

In recent years, there’s been a lot of talk about how the internet is killing print media. It’s stealing readers, people whine. Why would anyone buy a newspaper when they can just read it all online? Interestingly enough, newspaper companies during the 1920 and 30s were facing a similar challenge from what was then a new technological threat: radio.

On November 2, 1920, KDKA out of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania became the first American radio station to cover the news when it announced the results of that year’s presidential election. The station was owned by Westinghouse, a radio manufacturer, and the broadcast was basically a publicity stunt to get people to buy their radios. It actually worked. In preparation for the broadcast, the Elmira Star-Gazette purchased both a radio and set of speakers so they could play the broadcast to the crowds. 

The novelty of radio news quickly wore off, however, as newspaper owners realized that people who got their news from the airwaves didn’t need to buy a paper. The Gannett Corporation, owner of the Elmira Star-Gazette, became one of the many newspapers to experiment with establishing their own local radio station. By the mid-1920s, it had purchased a minority interest in WHEC out of Rochester. The experiment turned out to be profitable, and, in 1932, the Gannett Corporation established a new station out of Elmira.

WESG, owned by the Elmira Star-Gazette, had its inaugural broadcast on October 2, 1932. The tiny studio was a two-room suite in the Mark Twain Hotel stuffed with sound equipment, a piano, and the station manager’s desk. They paid their rent by name-dropping the hotel in all their station breaks. The station didn’t have its own transmitter, but had an arrangement to lease bandwidth and broadcasting time from the Cornell University radio station. It operated daily from 2pm until sundown. 

The Mark Twain Hotel, ca. 1930s. WESG studios are in there somewhere.

 

WESG studio inside the Mark Twain Hotel, ca. 1933

The station was an immediate success. George McCann, reporter from the Star-Gazette, did a daily news show, but it was the entertainment that drew in listeners and advertising dollars. The station drew heavily on local talent and had a wide variety of programs. There were musical programs performed by local talent including pianist Loretta Ryan, vocal trio Ernie, Al & Nate, and the Charlie Cuthbert band. Mrs. Clifford Ford did dramatic readings, while local comedians told jokes. Station manager Dale Taylor cut a deal to borrow new records from local music stores in exchange for free advertising. 

Ernest Palmer, Albert Wright and Nathan Blanchard, a.k.a Ernie, Nate & Al

 

Although WESG reported on the news, it filled a completely different niche than the newspaper. By the mid-1930s, however, radio stations were banding together to form networks with shared national programing. This not only included music and radio dramas, but also national news. Newspapers around the country lobbied heavily for laws banning the reporting of national news over the radio. Their efforts failed and instead these radio networks established their own news gathering and reporting systems.  Despite the competition, newspapers continued to thrive, mostly by either focusing on local news or by providing additional context for national stories.

WESG, however, did not survive the decade. The Federal Communication Commission declined to renew authorization for its lease of the Cornell transmitter in 1939. By that time, the equipment was cheap enough that the station’s parent company could afford to buy their own.  The new transmitter went live on November 26, 1939 operating under the new call letters WENY.

The Elmira Advertiser Fire of 1888

by Erin Doane, curator

Recently, I came across a box of metal type letters in the museum’s collection. A note on the box read: Type salvaged from the Advertiser fire of 1888. That made me think, “What was the Advertiser fire of 1888?”

Box of newspaper type letters

On the night of February 15, 1888, fire broke out in the basement of the Elmira Advertiser building on the corner of Lake and Market Streets. The resulting conflagration was the worst seen in Elmira in 15 years. The newspaper’s headquarters were destroyed as were several other neighboring buildings. The fire did nearly half a million dollars of property damage and two men lost their lives.

The Advertiser was first issued on November 3, 1853. At that time it was called the Fairman’s Daily Advertiser and served as a marketing vehicle for the printing business of Seymour and Charles Fairman. It was distributed free to farms along Water Street in Elmira. By 1855, the Elmira Daily Advertiser, as it was then named, was available by subscription for $1 a year.

February 26, 1855 issue of the Elmira Advertiser

By the late 1870s the Advertiser had moved into the building at the corner of Lake and Market Streets. Previously, the location had been the site of hotels operated by Silas Haight. Haight came to Elmira in 1836 and worked in the mercantile business. In 1839, he became landlord of the Mansion House on Lake Street. He enlarged the hotel in 1849 and it burned down a year later. Haight built a brick building on the site and named it Haight’s Hotel. In 1851, President Millard Fillmore and Secretary of State Daniel Webster were entertained there when their train stopped in Elmira overnight. That hotel ended up burning as well. Haight rebuilt again and called the new building the Hathaway House. The building changed hands around 1860 and continued to operate as a hotel through the decade. The Advertiser moved into the building around 1875.

Hathaway House menu, 1874

The fire at the Elmira Advertiser began around 7:30pm on February 15, 1888 in the jobbing room in the basement where the papers were printed. The building became engulfed in flames and the editorial staff had to escape by ladders out the windows. Winfield T. Foster, foreman of composing room, was badly burned as he fled the building. A schoolroom on the third floor of the building served as the theory department of N.A. Miller’s School of Commerce. Five students were doing some work there that evening when the fire began. Four of the students got to safety by dropping from a window onto a roof below but the fifth was not so fortunate. William F. Naylor tried to get to the stairs but died of suffocation and burning.

The fire quickly spread down the block. The building that housed the offices of the Sunday Tidings, the shop of a milliner named Mrs. Anderson, and several other offices caught fire. The flames continued to spread southward to F.A. Keeton’s retail grocery, which was one of the largest in the city, to Mr. Suess’ barber shop, and J.M. Robinson & Son’s furniture factory. D.A. Morgan’s liquor store and saloon, Kraum’s boarding house, Brown & Co. tobacco store, Dr. J.M. Hill’s drug store, and the law offices of E.P. Hart and Judge Thurston also caught fire. It is estimated that the blaze damaged or destroyed nearly $500,000 of property (over $10 million today).

Owego Daily Record, February 16, 1888

The Elmira fire department’s efforts to fight the blaze were hampered by the extreme cold and the fact that two of their engines were disabled at the time. Just after 10:00 pm, the Lake Street wall of the four-story Advertiser building collapsed. It struck Charles Bentley of Truck Company No. 1 and James Fisher, superintendent of the United Illuminating Company. Bentley died from his injuries. By 11:00pm, companies from Horseheads, Waverly, Owego, and Hornellsville were on the scene to help beat back the flames.

Advertiser building the morning after

Elmira reserve police were called in the night of the fire to stop looters.

The next day, with help from the Gazette and the Telegram, the Advertiser was able to produce and distribute its issue for February 16, 1888. The Advertiser was in a new home by June of 1889 and continued publishing until 1963.

Potato Fight: New York vs. Maine, An Early “Buy Local” Movement

By Kelli Huggins, Education Coordinator

When I ask you to think of a state known for potatoes, you probably think of Idaho, right? Well, in the 19^th and early-to-mid-20^th century, you probably would have said New York or Maine. New York was the United States’ early potato producing leader, but by the 20^th century, Maine farmers were starting to outpace New Yorkers. Chemung County, and the Southern Tier and central New York in general, was a significant potato producing region. When Maine potatoes began flooding both national and local markets, farmers from this region felt the pinch (importantly, some of this competition also happened during the Great Depression, increasing financial strains). One local grocery store chain, however, made it a key piece of their advertising to take on the Maine farmers and promote buying local potatoes.

By 1906, the local news was reporting on increased competition on the potato market from Maine growers, particularly from Aroostook County in the far northern part of the state. New rail lines made it possible to ship the potatoes down to the New York City markets, which until then were dominated by New York farmers. Maine potatoes weren’t the only competition; in 1912, potatoes were imported from Scotland and sold in this region, despite a bumper crop locally. Still, Maine emerged as the largest competition. This was troubling, because as one local report called them, potatoes were “a mortgage lifter for southern tier farmers.”  

On October 24, 1927, the A&P grocery store ran an advertisement in the Star-Gazette continuing their annual potato sale. The ad emphasized that they were selling “fancy Maine potatoes,” not to be confused with “local Potatoes which are being offered at a lower price. Remember A&P always sticks to quality.” The ad also noted that their sale had been such a giant success that they had to turn hundreds of potato customers away the week before, but that there would be plenty more “speeding” there from Maine.

This didn’t go over well with the local Serv-U Save-U grocery stores, owned by individual local businessmen. A couple days later, on Thursday, October 27, the full-page Serv-U Save-U advertisement in the Star-Gazette was headed by the following:

“Mr. Farmer:-
          Do you raise State of Maine Potatoes? That’s what is being handled by the Chain Stores. Is this doing you or the community any good?
          Think it over!”

An Elmira Serv-U Save-U store, with presumably local potatoes out front

Now, the A&P did sometimes sell local potatoes, and the Serv-U Save-U stores occasionally advertised southern or Jersey potatoes, but by the late 1920s, the local potato battle lines were drawn for Serv-U Save-U. Over the next few years, their ads featured more and more prominent pleas for people to shop locally. “Help the local farmer” became an advertising rallying cry. (Interestingly, though they carried other local produce, as well as imported, potatoes were the only ones that were the focus of their campaign, probably due to high local, state, and national tensions and pride about that particular crop.)

October 25, 1928

October 12, 1933

October 15, 1936

By the late 1930s and 1940s, Serv-U Save-U seemingly gave up their vocal fight. In 1939, they even advertised Maine potatoes. 

Serv-U Save-U ad for Maine potatoes, March 9, 1939.

Ironically, this might have been because Maine potatoes were suddenly being grown much closer to home. By the late 1930s, Maine potato farmers began buying up land in Steuben County to create large potato farms. They cited taxes as the primary reason (tax rates weren’t necessarily lower, but the land value here was, leading to tax savings for those who relocated). Proximity to large cities in which to sell the potatoes was another key factor. From 1938 to 1940, 32 farms, or 3,000 acres, were purchased by Maine potato farmers.

The potato feud wasn’t totally over, but by the 1940s, Maine emerged the winner, and the state was the top potato producer in the country. Local farms didn’t disappear, however, and there was still a lot of pride in the local yield. In 1943, in the midst of World War II, the War Food Administration proposed creating a storehouse for surplus Maine potatoes somewhere in central New York. The Star-Gazette mocked this plan, stating, “the idea of storing Maine potatoes in a potato section of New York seems illogical, if not impolite. It is bad enough to sell them here…New York State potato growers will have to see what they can do hereafter to overcome these Maine pressures on the home crop.” 

Maine’s potato dominance waned over the rest of the 20^th century, opening the vacuum that Idaho would eventually come to occupy. Still, this early example of fighting back against imported crops is a nice example of an organized movement to buy locally, something we associate more with today than the mid-20^th century.