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Story Subject Category: Bloomington
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A friendship during World War II helped George Kitterman of Bloomington survive fierce conditions during the Battle of the Bulge. In this Prairie Fire story, Kitterman describes being pinned down in a foxhole with his friend Joe Spencer, covered with snow with only a bazooka and one shell between them. They wondered what they would do if a German tank came over the ridge.
Producer Denise La Grassa begins with Kitterman learning about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when he and his pals were finishing a game of touch football and turned on a car radio to hear the Chicago Bears score. “We follow him through much of his war experience, but the centerpiece is this friendship that was so important to him,” La Grassa said.
Segment duration: 08:26
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Producer: Denise La Grassa
Editor: Eleanore Stasheff
This segment is filed in these categories: History • Illinois Culture/History • World War II • Bloomington
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Prairie Fire looks at Bloomington-Normal’s history as a winter training center for circus trapeze acts. Never-before-televised footage of the aerialists practicing and performing, obtained from rare personal collections and the circus collection at Illinois State University, brings the Prairie Fire story to life.
From the late 1800s to the 1960s, dozens of world-class circus aerialists trained in Bloomington-Normal during the off season. “It started out when several boys from the area ran off to join the circus,” said WILL-TV’s Ange Albsmeyer, producer of the story. In the winter, they’d come back to Illinois and train in ice houses, tying their trapezes to rafters and falling into sawdust on the floor beneath.
After a new YMCA was built in 1907, an increasing number of aerialists began practicing there. In return for being allowed to use the space, the trapeze artists would put on a circus each year in the facility and give the proceeds to the YMCA, said Steve Gossard, curator of ISU Circus Collections, who provided 8 millimeter film of the aerialists.
The story includes shots of Antoinette Concello, one of the first women to perfect the triple somersault, and her husband, Art, another key figure among aerialists. Others training in Bloomington-Normal included the Flying Wards. The Grand Hotel Restaurant now occupies the space where some of the Ward troupe once lived. A barn on Grove Street in Normal where the Flying Valentinos trained is also still standing.
The Flying Valentinos’ Cherie Valentine still lives in Bloomington and in an interview, gives a fascinating description of circus life. She became part of her family’s act at the age of 3 after her father had a heart attack.
“Sometimes circus performers are seen as just entertainers, but in reality, they were professionals who worked hard at exhausting and dangerous jobs. They were extremely proud of their craft,” said Albsmeyer.
Bloomington-Normal’s ties to the circus continue with ISU’s Gamma Phi Circus, one of the largest collegiate circuses in the country.
Segment duration: 12:30
Producer: Ange Albsmeyer
This segment is filed in these categories: Arts/Culture • Livestock/Animals/Zoology • Bloomington
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Host Alison Davis heads to Bloomington-Normal, where former slave the Rev. George Hoagland invented “Oil of Gladness” furniture polish, and turned it into a prosperous business. Hoagland came up with his concoction after working his way through Illinois State Normal University as a janitor. Jack Muirhead, who produced a video about African-American history in MacClean County, and his wife, Pamela, tell Hoagland’s story. Davis said there’s a mystery attached to the story.
“Historians have yet to find out why Hoagland and his family moved away from Bloomington in 1913,” said Davis. “They wonder why a man with such a successful business would close it down and all his family would move away in just a few months.”
Segment duration: 06:53
Producer: Alison Davis
This segment is filed in these categories: Ethnicity/Culture • Family history • History • Illinois Culture/History • Bloomington
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