A Good American Family

A Good American Family, by David Maraniss

(book review)

David Maraniss wrote about more than Vince Lombardi. This year he wrote about another Wisconsin writer who was involved with communism in Detroit. He did it well.

Many of us who lived in the last century can relate to this book because Wisconsin once had Senator Joe McCarthy. It’s a book called A Good American Family, and it’s a lot more than that. David Maraniss wrote a history of the communist “red” scare of the 1940s and 1950s and its impact on his father, Elliott Maraniss, who called himself a newspaperman. Elliott Maraniss worked for newspapers in Detroit and other cities, and later spent much of his life in Wisconsin after the red scare died down, where he worked for the liberal Capital times in Madison.

The first half of the book is about paranoia involving suspected communism. It gives names of people (including Elliott Maraniss) who were believed to be communists and pursued by the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. It isn’t about McCarthy himself but is about the anti-communist fervor that he unleashed on the American population. Much of it was about presumed communist activity in Detroit.

The second half focuses mostly on the Maraniss family, including David. They moved a lot after Elliott was blacklisted and had difficulty keeping newspaper work. After McCarthyism died down, the family came to Madison where they stayed for a long time. The children didn’t know much about what was happening. David says he was three years old when his father was subpoenaed to testify in the investigation. Much later, he did research about his father and uncle and uncovered a fascinating story that became this book.

I remember the red scare.  I was a child and teenager when it was happening in the United States. The Army-McCarthy hearings about communists were broadcast in local media, including WDOR in Sturgeon Bay where I grew up.  Wisconsin’s Senator Joe McCarthy was in Wisconsin news a lot.

A book about the paranoia of the last century reminds me that people in government can incite fear, and it can speak to some of the political unrest that is happening today.

Eddy Allen, the Voice of Door County

The Voice of Door County: Eddy Allen

By Melissa Ripp, Door County Living – July 1st, 2007

(This article is about my brother, Eddy Allen. It tells the truth mostly.)

 

Door County boasts many natives, but it takes a special breed to be recognized as a Door County “personality” – that person who sets the tone for the peninsula, an icon that embodies everything great about life in our small communities. These are the people who know everyone and everything, not because they like to memorize facts or gossip about people, but because they’re sincerely interested in people.

Perhaps the best quality of a Door County personality is that even if you’ve never met that person before, it feels like you’ve known them forever. That’s exactly what it feels like to talk to Eddy Allen, WDOR owner, operator, and radio celebrity.

For some Door County residents, forever might not be a complete exaggeration. This fall, Allen will celebrate a record 50 years on the air. Many people (even the ones who have never met him) call Allen “The Official Voice of Door County.” From a personal standpoint, I’ve been listening to Eddy Allen on WDOR’s Noon Report ever since I was old enough to comprehend what a radio was. Still, the day that I’m interviewing him will mark only the second time I’ve talked to the man, and yet a lifetime of knowing who he is.

It is impossible to talk about Allen and his ties to the radio business without mentioning his family ties. When asked how he got started in radio, Allen laughs and says, “There was no business to start ‘in’ – this goofy business is all I’ve ever known!” Allen’s father, Eddy Allen Jr., was a radio man in Chicago, and his family lived on the north side, across the street from Lincoln Park. When he was eleven, Allen’s family moved from Chicago to Sturgeon Bay, and his father started the WDOR radio station with a group of local businessmen. Their first day on the air was September 8, 1951.

In seventh grade, Allen’s family moved to another Sturgeon Bay home on Iowa Street, which was very close to the WDOR studio. “I hung around the studio all the time,” Allen says. “It beat staying at home and cleaning my room, so I was over here every chance I got.” His own radio career began in 1957, when he was seventeen. “My father figured that if I was going to continue to hang around, he might as well put me to work. I started by doing the morning news on Saturdays.”

Allen did not plan on staying at the radio station after high school graduation. He wanted to be an engineer, and in the fall of 1958 he went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to pursue an engineering degree. But the fit wasn’t quite right, and so he came back to Sturgeon Bay after a year, working at the station until he figured out what he really wanted to do with his life. History and political science proved to be more interesting, and he graduated with a double degree in 1964. Not much time passed before the “draft board got him” and he was sent to Korea in April 1965.

WDOR’s Eddy Allen calls a Door County League Baseball game, one of the best parts of his job.

After spending three years in Korea, Allen came back to Door County in 1968 and went back to working at WDOR. Little did he know that one of his life’s biggest passions would now become his job. “I always loved baseball – I think it stems from living next to Lincoln Park when I was a kid. Jocko Rader called my father up and said, ‘WDOR should broadcast the Door County League baseball games every Sunday. Can you think of anyone there that might want to do that?’ Of course, my dad told him that I would do it – before he told me. But I’m glad those broadcasts were given to me – it had turned out to be one of the best parts of working here.”

In the nearly 40 years that Eddy Allen has been broadcasting the league games, he estimates that he’s missed about fifteen Sundays. “There have been the occasional missed games, much to my chagrin. I’ve had a few graduations, birthdays, my own wedding.” I asked him how his wife felt about Allen being away every Sunday afternoon during the summer, and he says, “The Door County League is part of what Mary Lou [his wife] married into when she married me – I made sure she knew that from the very beginning!” Allen laughs. “I do try to make sure I get the yard work done at the beginning of the weekend, though.”

When asked why he continues to work in the radio business for so many years, he shrugs and says, “It’s better than actually working! In all seriousness, though, it’s all of the people I have met over the years. All the different groups and causes – that’s what keeps my job interesting.” His favorite part of WDOR is getting to do the daily talk show, where he interviews everyone from the Department of Natural Resources to the United Way to the various historical societies and museums around the county. “I’m a history buff, so I love having the historical groups on the show. I actually save some of those shows,” Allen says, motioning to the vast amount of tapes piled up in his office.

I’m at the end of my interview with Allen when the telephone rings. He reaches to answer it, as the WDOR office is a small enterprise, and he is in charge of receptionist duties for the evening. The phone call is from a woman who had called a few hours earlier to notify the radio station that her dog was missing. She is now calling to tell Allen that the dog has been found. Allen talks with her for a moment, and in a matter of minutes he has engaged in a conversation with such ease and sincere interest that one would think he was on the phone with a relative or a good friend. They talk for a few more minutes, and then Allen hangs up the phone and smiles.

“It’s funny, after all the years I’ve been here, you’d think I’d understand it – the way people thank us so profusely for just doing our jobs,” Allen says. “We get calls everyday from an organization or person thanking us for putting their information on the air. And I always think, ‘Why wouldn’t we do that for you? We’re a community entity – that’s what we’re here for.’”

One would think after nearly 50 years in the radio business, Allen would have plenty of interesting stories. “There are simply too many to count,” says Allen. But his job in radio has taught him a few lessons. “As silly as this sounds, one of the biggest things radio has taught me is to ‘look for the obvious.’ Things are so technical here that it’s easy to think the problem is bigger than it really is. I’m the ‘first responder’ to anything whenever there’s trouble, so experience has taught me that before I scare myself for no reason, I always make sure that ‘it,’ whatever ‘it’ is, is plugged in,” he laughs. “I’m serious! That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned.”

My interview with Allen wraps up, and we chat about my family for a bit. Inevitably, he remembers my father as a star basketball player at Sevastopol High School and knows my relatives who own a supper club in Sturgeon Bay. The conversation is easy and comfortable, and it is only then that I truly realize how essential people like Allen are to Door County. More than linking family names together, speaking with Eddy Allen has shown me how important it is that we in Door County never lose that sense of community – or personality.

Door County Recipes: It's Our Cookbook

Wow! It’s still with us after thirty years. Do you want to know how to do a Door County fish boil? Make desserts with Door County cherries? Read some Door County history? Look at drawings of Door County points of interest? It’s all in one little book.

This year is the thirtieth anniversary of Door County Recipes Old and New and a Little Local Lore. Dolores Allen, my mother, wrote it and I illustrated it. It was self published in 1989, with a second printing in 1994. It is still available on Amazon today but has been out of print for a long time.

My mother and I worked long and hard on it, but as author she assembled many recipes from her program, Five Minutes With Dolores Allen, that ran on radio station WDOR of Sturgeon Bay. Her program lasted more than fifty years and was about recipes from listeners and other sources. She put them and some local history into 131 pages with illustrations from my pen.

Here is an example. The chapter called Traditional Door County Recipes says, “The famous Door County Fish Boil originated with the early lumberjacks who found it a convenient way to cook the abundance of trout and whitefish found here. Today it has become a tradition and is served as a specialty in many of the Door County restaurants.” On the same page is my drawing of a person photographing the boil-over that makes fish boils unique and attention-getting. The next page tells how it is done.

The book is ours in that it includes plenty of good cooking recommendations and includes names of people who gave her their recipes. It has Mrs. Bassford’s Strawberry Pie, Corrine’s Pioneer Bread Pudding, Bobbi’s Sauce for Ham, Ruthie’s Ministrone Soup, and more. This makes a personal experience out of cooking as well as a family one. My lentil soup and potato soup are there. Mary Lou Allen (my brother Eddy’s wife) gave her hash brown casserole and Mother offered plenty of her own creations.

It is ours also as one of many ongoing creative projects of my parents, Ed and Dolores Allen, who started several businesses, one of which continues today, Radio Station WDOR. Our family was WDOR starting in 1951. My mother worked in the office, did billing, broadcast her daily Five Minute With Dolores Allen. My brothers worked on the air as soon as their voices changed. (Brother Eddy is still managing it.) I wrote commercials and news and did office work as a teenager. The cookbook is part of this shared responsibility as another Allen business. They had a publishing company and printing business in Sturgeon Bay, which my mother operated with a staff assistant. The cookbook was part of it and she drew me into it with drawing.  She did the setup and had a Wisconsin company print it.

Door County Recipes is thirty years old and still good. Mother went to the great kitchen in the sky in 2005 at age 92.

Year End 2018

Old age has crept up and I have survived it for another year, with plenty of good activities and events. Once again this year, Pete is at the top of the list. We have been, as they say, in a relationship for more than two years, with much laughter and plenty of plays and movies. But that’s not all that occurred. A wedding, some honors and awards for me, trips, and volunteer activities filled my life.

What a wedding! On April 7, Dori married her sweetheart Steve. In addition to a new son-in-law, I acquired a new grandson. This marriage is a package deal, and eight-year-old Robby is a wonderful addition to the family. The wedding was unlike anything most people experience. It was medieval, part of an event done by the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). We all wore medieval garb and took part in a medieval feast after the wedding. Dori and Steve are active in the SCA. Their many friends were at the wedding along with our family. The two lovebirds still like each other, so being married to each other turned out to be a good thing. They still live in suburban Chicago.

Much to my surprise, I received some honors and an award during the year. (1) Throughout February I exhibited thirty-three of my paintings at the Madison Senior Center, which was an honor. (2) When May came, the Madison Senior Center nominated me for an award given by United Way, for community volunteering at the senior center and other places. Since I was one of several hundred nominees, I didn’t get an award at that event, but I was happy to be honored. (3) Also in May the senior center had its annual art exhibit for seniors age fifty-five and older. The judges gave me a Round of Applause award for one of my paintings of Washington Island. Some of their awards have unusual names. (4) The Friends of the Madison Public Library honored me for ten years of service as a volunteer. (5) In November, Madison channel 27 gave me a Jefferson Award for volunteering. We recorded my activity at the senior center, so I appeared on television several times in a two minute blurb. The station gives this award to a person or group each month.

Trips filled the calendar for Pete and me. We went to Philadelphia in May and the Apostle Islands in September, and we took numerous day trips by car or tour bus.

We enjoyed Philadelphia’s historic sites, along with visits to three art museums and a symphony performance. Our tour guide dressed up as Benjamin Franklin. I was impressed with the art in an impressionist gallery as well as the sculptures in the Rodin gallery. The Liberty Bell? Not so fascinating. We were at the Philadelphia airport when it made national news. We and everyone else couldn’t find any running water, and no one seemed to know what it was about. A big sink hole had appeared in the parking lot of the airport, which caused all airport water to cease to flow (yes, including toilets), and caused the airport to close for a while after we departed for home. Television news showed us what had happened after we arrived back in Madison.

Later in the year Pete and I went to the Apostle Islands on a Road Scholar tour. We took a boat trip around the islands, spent the better part of a day on Madeline Island, and had time on our own to see the sights of Bayfield. While Pete was napping, I visited local fishing boats, two museums, and a combination bar and art gallery. I took in the public library, which is a small old Carnegie building that retains its character but appears to be out of compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Very crowded. We listened to several local people give talks about life up there in Lake Superior country, including the mayor of Bayfield.

Pete and I took a delightful two day trip to Milwaukee in January, where we visited the Pabst mansion, the Mitchell Park Domes, the public museum, and Mader’s German restaurant.

Pete and I had many day trips during the year to art fairs, art galleries, historical sites like Old World Wisconsin, Potosi Brewery, Starved Rock State Park, and theater shows in Milwaukee. Without Pete I went to Washington Island with Sarah and my granddaughters several times during the summer.

I spend time during the week with volunteer activities, mostly at the public library branch in my neighborhood and the Madison Senior Center. I croak in the choir at church. The family gathered during the year for birthdays and holidays. Life is good when one is not considering politics, water in the basement and home repairs I love my family. Another year is on the horizon.

Philadelphia

I took a vacation trip to Philadelphia with Pete Weiler last weekend Friday through Monday. Here is his account of the trip.

Last Saturday Kathy & I went to The Gates of Hell, which are in Philadelphia. However, we did not pass through them and returned to Madison safe and sound Monday evening.

I should explain that The Gates of Hell are two large, bronze doors sculpted by Auguste Rodin. The doors and many other Rodin sculptures are at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia. (www.rodinmuseum.org) That was only the first of three art museums we visited on our trip. At the Philadelphia Museum of Art (www.philamuseum.org) we were given a tour of American art exhibits by an expert docent.

  

The best art museum was the Barnes Foundation.(www.barnesfoundation.org) It started as a school for artist founded by a rich collector. He collected art from around the world, but mostly from French Impressionists. His collection was initially shown only to the art students, but now is public. The collection includes dozens of Renoirs and Cezannes. I was wowed by the huge collection, which filled over 20 rooms.

Art was only half the focus of our Road Scholar tour. The history of the founding of our nation was the other half. We visited the new Museum of the American Revolution (www.amrevmuseum.org), which tells the story of our 8 year war of independence with films and historic exhibits. We went to the National Constitution Center (constitutioncenter.org) to view exhibit explaining the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the other 17 Amendments. Of course, we visited the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, where the Continental Congress met to declare independence and where later the Constitution was created.

Our Road Scholar tour guide, Mitchell Kramer, was an actor who resembled Benjamin Franklin and often portrayed him. He was an excellent storyteller, with a sense of humor and a wealth of knowledge about Philadelphia and the history of the founding of our country.  At the site of George Washington's Philadelphia home, he told us how that president would receive petitioners and visitors in a way that avoid being treated as a king, but had a formal dignity he considered appropriate for the highest office of the land. At the site of Benjamin Franklin's home, I particularly enjoyed hearing him tell us that Franklin had contributed to the understanding of electricity by performing over 130 experiments on it and sharing his research with Europeans studying the phenomenon.

In addition to all this art and history, we attended an evening concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra and had tasty dinners at two excellent restaurants. And we met some interesting people in our tour group. It was a very good trip and Kathy and I both enjoyed it. If you think you might be interested in taking this tour, you can find out about it at www.roadscholar.org/9068.

by Peter R. Weiler