Ohio V. The World Evergreen Podcasts

FyreFest, Altamont, Woodstock '99, Astroworld are some of the biggest festival disasters in American history, today we'll look at some of the most flawed festivals in Ohio history in our Season 7 Finale.
We start with BalloonFest '86 a fatally flawed world record setting balloon release festival in Downtown Cleveland. We relive the ecological disaster and dangerous consequences of the City of Cleveland's releasing of 1.5 million balloons in September 1986. We're joined by Cleveland sports personality and Twitter legend Chris McNeill, better known as Reflog_18 on Twitter to discuss 1980s Cleveland and the ill-fated BalloonFest '86. We'll also talk about Chris McNeill's leading role in the "Perfect Season Parade" to protest the Cleveland Browns winless 2017 NFL season. Follow Reflog_18 on Twitter and check out his Ohio-based weekly sports show, the BIGPLAY Reflog Show here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjqGMjGtAUKxlthtZ7hXt7Q
Next we revisit the economic disaster that was AmeriFlora '92 in Columbus, Ohio. This horticultural exhibition was everything and nothing. Part theme park, part flower show, part mixed message branding nightmare. This $95 million boondoggle projected some 5+ million visitors but fell way short of those numbers. Tim Trad, the creator of onlyincbus, details the big swing and miss that was AmeriFlora '92. Follow @onlyincbus on Instagram and check out Tim's incredibly interesting content here www.onlyincbus.com
We go all the way back to the 1950s for one of the first failed music festivals in American history. We replay an interview from a previous episode with Jerry DePizzo of the famous Ohio rock band O.A.R. about 1952's Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland. The rock n' roll concert was hosted by the famous radio DJ Alan Freed, the man credited with popularizing the phrase rock n' roll. We follow Alan Freed's career and his disastrous event at the Cleveland Arena in March 1952, regarded by many as the first rock festival in the United States.
Lastly, we sit down with friend of the show Vince Tornero to discuss the wildly successful concert series the World Series of Rock in Cleveland during the 1970s. We hear clips from his great new podcast season for the Evergreen Podcast Network show PrOHfiles called The Wrath of the Buzzard. His show documents the meteoric rise and fall of 100.7 WMMS - the iconic Cleveland FM rock station that proved to be one of the most influential radio stations of all time. We also discuss the disasterous 1979 World Series of Rock that resulted in violence and even the breakup of the famous band Aerosmith following their headlining performance at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Check out The Wrath of the Buzzard here https://evergreenpodcasts.com/prohfiles
We're proud to be part of the Evergreen Podcast Network. Go to www.evergreenpodcasts.com for our show and dozens of other great podcasts. Thanks for listening to Season 7, we'll see you all again in 2023 for Season 8.
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In the penultimate episode of Season 7, Alex travels back to the Gilded Age to uncover the forgotten story of the greatest con woman of the era, Cleveland's Cassie Chadwick. In the second part of a two-part con artist series, Alex tells the story of how Cassie defrauded some $60 million from banks using her alleged connection to America's richest man, Andrew Carnegie.
We're joined by two great guests to tell us the immigrant stories of Cassie Chadwick and Andrew Carnegie in the Gilded Age. Author William Hazelwood joins the program to discuss his new book Greed in the Gilded Age: The Brilliant Con of Cassie Chadwick (2022). Hazelwood brings Cassie's story back to life from her humble petty criminal days in Canada to her many scams in her new home in Cleveland, Ohio. Buy William's book here. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/greed-in-the-gilded-age-william-elliott-hazelgrove/1139927521
Our second guest and our favorite recurring guest is Bruce Carlson from the podcast My History Can Beat Up Your Politics rejoins the show to discuss the rise of Andrew Carnegie from Scottish immigrant child laborer to steel magnate to the richest man in America. It's Cassie's claim that she's Carnegie's illegitimate daughter that sparks her greatest con that would lead to her con story captivating the entire country in 1905 and landed her behind bars. Check out Bruce's amazing podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts. https://myhistorycanbeatupyourpolitics.wordpress.com
We're proud to be part of the Evergreen Podcast Network. Go to www.evergreenpodcasts.com for our show and dozens of other great podcasts. Rate and Review the show on iTunes and we'll read your review on the air.
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Alex tells the story of John Spano, the con man who managed to buy a National Hockey League team despite having almost no money. Spano's ill-fated purchase of the New York Islanders in 1997 is examined with the journalist who lead the investigation that exposed one of the biggest scams in American sports history. Alex is joined by John Valenti of Newsday on the 25th Anniversary of the the con man who nearly brought down an NHL franchise and the league's commissioner.
Spano, an Ohio native, had lied about nearly everything and still managed to purchase and control the storied Islanders franchise for more than 3 months. We look at his youth near Ashtabula, Ohio, where he played football with Urban Meyer. Spano was only 32 when he duped the Islanders and the NHL into selling him the team. John Valenti walks us through the fraud and the staggering lack of due diligence done on Spano's finances.
As his many and unbelievable excuses for his non-payment build, our guest, John Valenti, begins to investigate John Spano and quickly exposes Spano as a con artist. When the NHL finally removes him and federal investigators close in it takes Valenti to track down Spano when he skips town to the Caribbean. Valenti recalls the Newsday team's investigation, that he led, and its role in bringing down Spano and ultimately sending him to federal prison for fraud.
We're proud to be part of the Evergreen Podcast Network. Go to www.evergreenpodcasts.com for our show and dozens of other great podcasts. Rate and Review the show on iTunes and we'll read your review on the air.
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Alex finally gets around to telling the story of the most famous Ohioan, Thomas Alva Edison. We sit down with the leading Edison scholars to discuss his amazing life of invention and innovation. And to spice it up we tell the story of "the Wizard of Menlo Park" in reverse, from death to birth. Alex details his most important inventions from electric light to motion pictures to the phonograph and sound recordings.
We're joined by Dr. Paul Israel from Rutgers University, the Director of the Thomas A. Edison Papers and author of Edison: A Life of Invention (2000). Dr. Israel describes the modern world we live in being built by Edison. The telephone, the music business, television and movies were all invented or innovated by Edison and his team's work at their Menlo Park in New Jersey. Dr. Israel manages over 5 million papers in the Edison collection and buy his book Edison: A Life of Invention https://www.amazon.com/Edison-Life-Invention-Paul-Israel/dp/0471362700
Ernest Freeberg, author and professor of history at the University of Tennessee also joins the program to discuss Edison's most famous invention: electric light. The history of electric light, the impact on the world and the innovation involved it bringing to the entire world are discussed. His great book, The Age of Edison (2013) analyzes the invention of Edison's incandescent light bulb from every angle and gives incredible insight in the inventor himself. Such a great read. Buy it here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/307057/the-age-of-edison-by-ernest-freeberg/
Lastly, we're joined by Robert Wheeler, the president of the Board at the Edison Birthplace Museum in Milan, OH. Robert, a relative of Edison, discusses Edison's family life and his youth in the small town of Milan up by Lake Erie. Go check out the excellent museum at www.tomedison.org
We're proud to be part of the Evergreen Podcast Network. Go to www.evergreenpodcasts.com for our show and dozens of other great podcasts. Rate and Review the show on iTunes and we'll read your review on the air.
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Mary Church Terrell was born in 1863 the year of the Emancipation Proclamation and died months after the landmark Brown v. the Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954. Over four generations, she was involved in fighting for African American rights on the front lines. A truly remarkable life. Her story is too little told but there's so much to get to.
We're joined by four guests to discuss her 90 years of struggle against injustice, including her formative years in the Buckeye State. Joan Quigley, author and attorney, discusses Mary's battles from suffrage, founding the NACW and the NAACP, anti-lynching legislation and her victory in the US Supreme Court to desegregate Washington DC. Joan's book about MCT, Just Another Southern City (2016) is a fantastic read and you can buy it here. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/just-another-southern-town-joan-quigley/1121877528
Alison Parker, professor of history at the University of Delaware and author of Unceasing Militant (2020), a new biography of Mary Church Terrell joins the show. We discuss Molly Church's life: born into slavery, her lifelong love of education and the many social justice issues she addressed in her incredible life. Give Alison's book, Unceasing Militant, a read by clicking link here https://www.amazon.com/Unceasing-Militant-Terrell-Franklin-American/dp/1469659387/
We also head to historic Oberlin College, Mary's alma mater and meet with Ken Grossi, archivist and Eboni Johnson from the Mary Church Terrell Library. Ken and Eboni discuss her years in Ohio from her early childhood through her graduation at Oberlin in 1884. We analyze her time in Ohio and the influence of Oberlin, one of the first co-educational and mutli-racial, colleges in America at its founding in 1833. Check out the excellent digital exhibit from Oberlin on their famous alum, Mary Church Terrell here https://terrell.oberlincollegelibrary.org/scalar/mct/index
We're proud to be part of the Evergreen Podcast Network. Go to www.evergreenpodcasts.com for our show and dozens of other great podcasts. Rate and Review the show on iTunes and we'll read your review on the air.
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We're back from summer break for the 2nd half of Season 7! We're locked and loaded over the skies of Midway Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for the biggest and most consequential battle in US Naval history: the Battle of Midway. Fought by air and sea on June 4, 1942, the United States defeated Imperial Japan and turned the tide of World War II forever. We explore the key contribution by US Navy code breaker, Joe Rochefort, from Dayton, Ohio that lead to the American's successful ambush of the Japanese fleet.
We're joined by two excellent military historians: Trent Hone and Dr. Peter Mansoor, Colonel, US Army (Ret.). to discuss all things Midway. From Pearl Harbor to Doolittle's Raid, Col. Mansoor takes us through the US military's string of losses in the first six months of the Pacific War. Trent Hone, author of the upcoming book Mastering the Art of Command, about Admiral Chester Nimitz, explains the most analyzed naval battle in US history with aplomb and clarity. Buy Trent's new book here when it's released on September 15 by the US Naval Institute. https://www.usni.org/press/books/mastering-art-command
Both guests help us discovery the unsung hero of WWII, Joe Rochefort, naval officer and cryptanalyst that cracked the Japanese code and set up the American surprise attack at the Battle of Midway. We go through the intelligence and how Rochefort tricked the Japanese into giving away the time and place of their big attack. Rochefort, born in Dayton, Ohio, sadly did not receive the credit he deserved for decades following Midway.
Dr. Peter Mansoor, the General Raymond E.Mason Jr. Chair of Military History at the Ohio State University joins the show for the first time and discusses the battle in real time as the US sinks 4 Japanese aircraft carriers to turn the tide of the Pacific War. Trent Hone discusses the most consequential 15 minutes in American military history to that time. We also are joined by a previous guest, Beth Weinhardt, retired historian of the Westerville Public Library, from an interview about Rochefort's mentor, Agnes Mayer Driscoll. Driscoll, of Westerville, broke the early Japanese codes and taught Rochefort everything she knew about cryptography and played a role in the victory at Midway. Listen to our episode from 2017 about Aggie's groundbreaking career here...https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ohio-v-the-world/id1210853919?i=1000395313820
We're proud to be part of the Evergreen Podcast Network. Go to www.evergreenpodcasts.com for our show and dozens of other great podcasts. Rate and Review the show on iTunes and we'll read your review on the air.
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