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OTSEGO.life PAGE B-1
THURSDAY-FRIDAY, JULY 5, 2013
The ballplayer also turns out to have been a playwright.
BUD FOWLER, PLAYWRIGHT B
ud Fowler, raised in Cooperstown, was the first black professional baseball player, but – it turns out – he was an aspiring playwright in his retirement. “The Retired Black Planter� features love at home and adventures in Nicaragua, where the play’s hero discovers a rich gold mine and uses the fortune to recover the hand of his loved one.
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In Retirement, He Picked Up Pen By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN ud Fowler, player. BallThis fragment started MacDouplayer? No, player. It turns out Bud Fowl- gall on his search. er (1858-1913), who went Dougall, who did much of the from a Cooperstown boyhood to research that established Bud become the first black professional Fowler’s links to Cooperstown, baseball player, also aspired to the ran across his subject’s additional actual stage. skill by happenstance. Not as a performer, perhaps, but For Fowler (aka John Jackson), as a playwright. son of a Cooperstown barber who Cooperstown Village Historian Village Historian Hugh MacPlease See PLAY, B3 Hugh MacDougall reviews the
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new-found manuscript.
Ommegang Experiments With Growing Own Hops An expirimental hops crop is planted on a halfacre plot at Brewery Ommegang.
By LIBBY CUDMORE MIDDLEFIELD
A
century later, Brewery Ommegang will be a hops farm once more. “There’s been a huge resurgence of hops farming in Upstate New York,� said Mike McManus, the brewery’s innovation manager, as he untangled the vines from one of his 300 hops plants. The brewery, built a decade ago on a former 140acre hops farm five miles south of Cooperstown, has joined with Cornell Cooperative Extension to set up Please See HOPS, B3 OTSEGO.life
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Visitors...
Plan Your Week of
Summer Fun! Village Department Marks 200 Years of Fighting Fires
I
t’s been 200 years since the first fire engine was purchased in Cooperstown, and the Fire Department invites you all to celebrate with them! On Friday, July 5, the carnival, featuring games, food vendors and live music from the Scattered Flurries, is 3-11 p.m. at Lakefront Park. On Saturday, July 6, the carnival starts at 11 a.m., with spin art, a Chinese auction and a visit from the Dairy Princess. At 6 p.m., 42 units, including local fire companies, veterans, scouts and the CCS band, will march down Main Street, with fireworks over Otsego Lake at dusk. OPERA FEAST: Celebrate opening night of “The Flying Dutchman� with a pre-show dinner. $35. 6 p.m. dinner, 8 p.m. show. Saturday, July 6 at The Glimmerglass Festival, 7300 St. Rt. 80, Cooperstown. Info, tickets, (607) 5475704. TWO PLAYS: Enjoy a double bill of one-act romantic comedies, “Village Wooing� and “A Door Must Be Kept Open or Shut.� 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, July 3-7, and 2 p.m. Sunday, July 8. Reservations recommended. Franklin Stage Company, Institute Street, Franklin. Info, reservations, (607) 829-3700.
Jim Kevlin/
MUSIC FESTIVAL: “Birds of Paradise: Music for Winds & Piano,� opens the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, July 7, at The Otesaga, featuring the Francaix Quartet and works by Britten, Debussy, Mozart, Poulenc and the signature multi-media piece by Robert Sirota. Pre-concert talk, 7 p.m.
ARTISTS EVERYWHERE: Local artists open their studios, their homes and set up booths all throughout Treadwell at the annual Stagecoach Run Arts Festival. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday July 6-7, at various locations throughout Treadwell. LIVESTOCK SHOW: 300 youths ages 8-18 get the chance to show off their dairy cows, beef, soft sheep, goats and happy swine for prizes at the Annual Junior Livestock Show. Sunday-Tuesday, July 7-9. Iroquois Farm Showgrounds, 1659 Route 33, south of Cooperstown. Info, (607) 547-1452. ROMANTICS READING: The writings of Poe, Hawthorne and Thoreau as you’ve never heard them before, with readings and musical performances. $20. 5:30 p.m. Sunday, July 7, Hyde Hall, 267 Glimmerglass State Park, Cooperstown. Info, (607) 547-5098. ICE CREAM SOCIAL: Ice cream to beat the hot weather, with baked goods, crafts and more. 5-8 p.m. Friday, July 5 First Presbyterian Church, Corner of Pioneer and Church Sts., Cooperstown. Info, (607) 547-5315.
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Carmela Marner in “A Door Must Be Kept Open Or Shut� at The Franklin Stage Company