Did you know?
Throughout the 2014 baseball season, the Pittsburgh Pirates are paying tribute to Ralph Kiner, the six-time All-Star slugger who played in Pittsburgh from 1946 until 1953.
Kiner, who died last February at the age of 91, was also a legend in the broadcast booth. While he was the voice of two teams (the Chicago White Sox and then the New York Mets) from 1961 until last season, his broadcasting career actually started in 1951 – while he was still playing with the Pirates.
And his first broadcasts had a definite Fayette County connection.
“Ex-C’ville Boy on Video,” said the headline on the sports page in the June 27, 1951 edition of the Uniontown Evening Standard.
“The Ralph Kiner Show” was about to air for the first time on WDTV-TV in Pittsburgh.
Ray Scott, who had been working at WJAC in Johnstown, was set to be Kiner’s master-of-ceremonies.
Scott, who’d graduated from Connellsville High School in 1936, would be joined by another future local legend, Bob Prince, on that show.
On the same day, it was reported that the Pennsylvania Turnpike was about to be expanded the following month.
“A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission said today that the Pittsburgh-Irwin section of the western extension to the Turnpike may be ready in late July.”
The turnpike had originally opened on Oct. 1, 1940 between Irwin and Carlisle.
There was expected to be an additional expansion by October. That would complete the 67-mile stretch between Irwin and the Ohio-Pennsylvania line near Youngstown.
“Pershing Outshines The Nation’s Chief Executive,” said one headline on the front page of the Uniontown Daily News Standard on July 3, 1922.
Gen. John J. Pershing had been in the entourage that accompanied President Warren Harding and his wife on their stop at the Summit Hotel for the night.
The Hardings were heading to Warren, Ohio, for a weeklong vacation, but it was quite clear that it was Pershing who won the most friends at the Summit.
“General Pershing was quite the idol of the Summit crowd last night. Despite the long and tiring drive in wind and rain, the commander looked as fresh as a daisy and every inch the world war leader he had been pictured. After dinner he strolled out into the lobby and within a few minutes was chatting congenially with some of the guests…,” it was reported.
The following week, Mr. and Mrs. Harding returned to Fayette County. The presidential vacation had ended in Marion, Ohio, and the entourage stopped on the way back to Washington.
In June of 1942, it was clear that the attack on Pearl Harbor ignited a great deal of paranoia across the country.
“Air spotters man observation post,” read the headline above two pictures of a Uniontown man in the June 30, 1942 edition of the Uniontown Evening Standard.
Dr. William Blake Hindman was the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Uniontown.
But he also was part of a group of volunteer workers who served as air raid spotters atop the Second National Bank building.
Dr. Hindman was shown with binoculars in hand, and also making a simulated call to an Army control center.
The 24 hour surveillance was being conducted in the event that an unknown airplane would have been spotted over Uniontown, “which will determine the plane’s course and, if it is hostile, (the Army control center) will send up interceptors to bring it down.”
I’m fairly certain none were brought down.
In mid-June of 1960, there was a “$10 Million Test” that might have changed the entire television industry.
“Pay-TV Cost to Viewers Spelled Out First Time,” read the headline for an Associated Press wire story on June 23, 1960.
While most television was of the over-the-air variety across the country, RKO General and the Zenith Radio Corp. were joining forces to start the first pay-per-view service.
Hartford, Conn., was chosen as the first test market for the new technology.
A “Zenith Phonevision Decoder” would be used at an installation cost of between $7.50 and $10.
After that, customers would pay between 75 cents and $1.50 per viewing.
The plan was only being proposed, and was subjected to approval by the FCC.
While that specific model doesn’t seem to have been implemented, cable-TV (in a variety of forms) has been around since it was first introduced in Mahanoy City, Pa., in 1940.