Lucca Grill stands the test of time in downtown Bloomington Karen Hansen
khansen@pantagraph.com
The venerable Lucca Grill always extends a warm welcome to friends, whether gone a day or a decade. The downtown Bloomington landmark, 116 E. Market St., is long on comfort and short on pretense; hang around long enough and you’ll join an extended family. The eatery is nearly an octogenarian now, begun in 1936 by immigrant brothers Fred and John Baldini near the end of the Great Depression. Over time, many superlatives have described its special ambiance: painted tin ceilings, a working dumbwaiter and Lilliputian-sized bathrooms. “A delightful old-time saloon” gushed The New York Times; “one of the most congenial bars ever founded,” fawned The Washington Post. Its long love affair with Democrats was trumpeted by John Baldini No. 2, revered leader of McLean County’s liberal wing until his 1994 death. The grill dispenses Kennedy half-dollars in change and one manager – John Fitzgerald Koch – is even named for the 35th president. Oodles of celebrities have walked through the doors but it’s regulars like 91-year-old Priscilla Blakney and her late husband Karl, or 43-year employee Lois Durbin who have been vetted with a picture on the wall or a plaque on a barstool or a menu item named in their honor.
B-N in 50 objects: Memory game CARLOS T. MIRANDA, The Pantagraph
Lucca Grill has been a landmark in downtown Bloomington since 1936. That menu’s most-favored meal is the “A La Baldini,” the dime-thin Italian pie with sausage, pepperoni, ham, onions, mushrooms, green peppers and pepperocini. Slide into a stool along the timeworn mahogany bar and savor some. It’s a family rite of passage.
Test your memory and relive recent “B-N in 50 objects” articles with Pantagraph.com’s photo memory game. Match photos of objects that scream Twin Cities. Photos are chosen randomly — always two of each — and more will be added as the series continues. There are easy, medium and expert levels, all of which you can play on any device, but levels below expert will appear better on phones and tablets. Play it at www.pantagraph.com/game
Watterson Towers is a sight that stands out for miles and miles Lenore Sobota
lsobota@pantagraph.com
You can see Watterson Towers for miles. It’s among the tallest residence halls in the world. Pretty much everyone in Central Illinois knows the Illinois State University’s scion is the tallest building in Bloomington-Normal and among the tallest buildings outside of Chicago. It’s also among the most populous, called home each year by about 2,200 students. Arthur W. Watterson was not a major financial donor to the university, the primary way people and corporations get their names on buildings these days. Instead, Watterson was a geography professor who died in 1966, a year before construction began on the 28-story building. He had joined the ISU faculty in 1946, after serving in the Office of War Information in Washington and later with the Office of Strategic Services, mostly in Europe, during World War II. He led the geography department for 15 years, from 1951 to 1966. Selected in 1961 for the Outstanding Citizen Award by the Normal Chamber of Commerce, he was described as a “tireless worker on the ISU campus, in his church and in his community.” His name - rescued from relative obscurity - isn’t the
B-N in 50 objects: Memory game DAVID PROEBER, The Pantagraph
Illinois State University’s gigantic Watterson Towers is seen in Normal. only one attached to the residence complex. The 10 “houses” within the towers are named for the first 10 secretaries of state, some of whom later became president: Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Randolph, Timothy Pickering, John Marshall, James Madison, Robert Smith, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and Martin Van Buren.
Test your memory and relive recent “B-N in 50 objects” articles with Pantagraph.com’s photo memory game. Match photos of objects that scream Twin Cities. Photos are chosen randomly — always two of each — and more will be added as the series continues. There are easy, medium and expert levels, all of which you can play on any device, but levels below expert will appear better on phones and tablets. Play it at www.pantagraph.com/game
What makes Central Illinois unique can be found in the ground Randy Kindred
rkindred@pantagraph.com
The stores have plenty of it in bags … top soil, garden soil, potting soil. Any will do in a pinch. Yet, at our house we want the best for our plants, and we know what that is. How? Husband and wife both came from dirt … that is, we grew up on family farms. So each spring, a plea is sent out to a brother and/or brother in-law for dirt. Not just any dirt. Central Illinois farm dirt. It is transported in buckets and transferred to pots large and small. The plants take off like crazy, even when mixed with that city-bought soil. The brother and brother-inlaw grow corn and soybeans, just as our dads did. They plant seeds in the darkest, richest, most fertile ground you’ll find … the brother in Logan, McLean and Tazewell counties, the brother in-law in Hancock and Henderson to the west. They worry about rain or the lack of it. They fret about wind or hail or droughts. They take out their pocket knives and dig in the dirt. All the while, they know there is no better place to raise a crop. Why? “I would say it’s the fact we have a deeper top soil than a lot of other parts of the country that grow crops,”
DAVID PROEBER, The Pantagraph
The soil in Central Illinois helps make it some of the best farmland. the brother said. “That probably helps us as much as anything. The top soil is really rich and productive. “We’re flat here, we have a lot of top soil and our soil drains fairly well, but it also retains water very well. Moisture seems to be readily available to the crop most of the time because it’s not draining away real quickly, yet it is draining.” So give our dirt a thumb’s up … with a little under the nail, of course.
B-N in 50 objects: Memory game Test your memory and relive recent “B-N in 50 objects” articles with Pantagraph.com’s photo memory game. Match photos of objects that scream Twin Cities. Photos are chosen randomly — always two of each — and more will be added as the series continues. There are easy, medium and expert levels, all of which you can play on any device, but levels below expert will appear better on phones and tablets. Play it at www.pantagraph.com/game
Normal Theater is still lighting up Uptown with movie nostalgia Dan Craft
dcraft@pantagraph.com
There’s nothing remotely normal about the 77-yearold Normal Theater: the sleek Art Deco/Art Moderne building at 209 North St. remains among Illinois’ handful of surviving, still-functioning single-screen bijous. It was designed by famed Bloomington architect Arthur F. Moratz and financed to the tune of $100,000 by local lawyer Sylvan Kupfer, who leased the theater to Great States Corp. The first of Hollywood’s movie legends to visit the Normal’s silver screen: Bing Crosby, whose new musical comedy, “Double or Nothing,” graced the marquee on opening night in 1937. Crosby remains a Normal fixture thanks to the annual showings of his seasonal classics “White Christmas” and “Holiday Inn.” Among the Normal’s distinctions: It was the first B-N cinema designed for sound movies and it was equipped with air conditioning, a rarity for 1937. There was rough sledding ahead as the movie business changed, reaching a nadir in 1985, when its thenowner shoved a wall between the balcony and the main floor to create a cramped twin-screen theater. The ploy failed and the theater closed in 1991, reduced to seedy second-run, bargain house status. Salvation and rebirth came via the Town of Normal,
CARLOS T. MIRANDA, The Pantagraph
Normal Theater’s marquee has been advertising movies since 1937. which purchased the theater and committed to a meticulous three-year restoration that included a return to its single-screen origins. The grand re-opening occurred Oct. 7, 1994, with “Singin’ in the Rain.” In the two decades since, the theater has remained an iconic symbol and focal point of uptown renaissance.
B-N in 50 objects: Memory game Test your memory and relive recent “B-N in 50 objects” articles with Pantagraph.com’s photo memory game. Match photos of objects that scream Twin Cities. Photos are chosen randomly — always two of each — and more will be added as the series continues. There are easy, medium and expert levels, all of which you can play on any device, but levels below expert will appear better on phones and tablets. Play it at www.pantagraph.com/game
ISU, IWU alumni know where to eat when they return to town Jim Benson
jbenson@pantagraph.com
When Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan celebrate homecomings in the fall, alumni taste buds immediately start salivating down memory lane. Time to get a gondola or some thin-crust pizza, that comfort food they loved – and devoured – during their college days at two special places burnt into the brain forever. Thus, the packed parking lots at Avanti’s in Normal and Tobin’s Pizza in Bloomington when former ISU and IWU students roll into town. The Avanti’s on Main Street near the ISU campus may have changed some inside since it was opened by Guido and Albert Zeller in 1971. What hasn’t changed is Avanti’s fresh Italian bread, which is prepared and baked in the restaurant’s kitchen and, of course, the trademark “Avanti’s famous gondola” of ham, salami, American cheese and lettuce. You can get a half gondola, but a whole gondola is usually the way to go for hearty eaters. There are plenty of other options on the menu, but the gondola always is the first remembered. South from Avanti’s, on Main Street near the IWU campus, sits Tobin’s Pizza, a community staple since 1963 when Jim Tobin opened the doors. It looks almost the same inside as 1963, too, which just adds to its
B-N in 50 objects: Memory game CARLOS T. MIRANDA, The Pantagraph
Ben Wirtz, kitchen staff, slices a pizza at Tobin’s Pizza in Bloomington. unique charm. The thin (but not paper thin) crust pizza has remained the same even after Moe and Karen Davis bought the business in 1998. “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it,” said Moe Davis on the 50th anniversary in 2013. Good thinking - regardless if your college colors are red and white or green and white.
Test your memory and relive recent “B-N in 50 objects” articles with Pantagraph.com’s photo memory game. Match photos of objects that scream Twin Cities. Photos are chosen randomly — always two of each — and more will be added as the series continues. There are easy, medium and expert levels, all of which you can play on any device, but levels below expert will appear better on phones and tablets. Play it at www.pantagraph.com/game
Adlais, Abe & David lead the Twin Cities’ political list Edith Brady-Lunny eblunny@pantagraph.com
Mention the names Stevenson, Lincoln and Davis and three common themes come to mind: politics, lawyers and Bloomington. Maryland-born David Davis settled in Bloomington in the 1830s, presiding over a judicial circuit where Abraham Lincoln, an up-and-coming lawyer, was building his career. That’s where Lincoln also crossed paths with Adlai Stevenson I, the first in a succession of Democrat office-holders with the same last name. So impressed with Lincoln were Davis and several other prominent local leaders that they provided the support Lincoln needed in May 1860 to secure the Republican presidential nomination. After Lincoln was elected, Davis was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he remained until he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1877. Stevenson, who had moved to Bloomington with his family when he was 16, later served as vice president under Grover Cleveland and in the U.S. Congress. The second Stevenson named Adlai (grandson of Adlai I) was governor of Illinois, a presidential candidate and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. His son, Adlai III, was a U.S. senator and candidate for governor. The Bloomington home of Adlai II still stands. The
BiLL GaLLaGhEr, For The Pantagraph
Bill Gallagher’s photo of the hole in Adlai Stevenson II’s shoe during the 1952 campaign at a Flint, Mich., amusement park became a trademark for his campaign. The photo won Gallagher the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. David Davis Mansion is a popular state historic site that includes Sarah’s Garden. A statue of Stevenson II is in the lobby of Central Illinois Regional Airport. A statue of Lincoln, Davis and Pantagraph founder Jesse Fell is in Lincoln Park, directly in front of the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.
B-N in 50 objects: Memory game Test your memory and relive recent “B-N in 50 objects” articles with Pantagraph.com’s photo memory game. Match photos of objects that scream Twin Cities. Photos are chosen randomly — always two of each — and more will be added as the series continues. There are easy, medium and expert levels, all of which you can play on any device, but levels below expert will appear better on phones and tablets. Play it at www.pantagraph.com/game
Nutty little Bloomington sideshow is now world famous CD Special Pantagraph 50 Objects Aug4.pdf
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Bill Flick flick@pantagraph.com
In a town known for its insurance, higher education and specific brand of cars, only one name lives in the same famed-name stratosphere of Kleenex, Xerox, Band-aid or Play-Doh. That’d be Beer Nuts, of course. They are so famous, people around the world automatically call any nut glazed in a salty sugary mix a Beer Nut. There’s an irony there, too. In the beginning, back in 1953 when Russell and Betty Shirk ran a downtown Bloomington restaurant, their claim to fame was their homemade orange juice. People came from all over to drink it. That’s when, as an added attraction to make people thirstier, Shirk went into a back room at his restaurant and poured a special glaze onto a baking platter of unskinned Virginia-grown peanuts. A star was born. You never heard Norm on “Cheers” clamor for another orange drink. You don’t see comedienne Sarah Silverman (she’s a Beer Nuts fanatic) jogging in Manhattan and onto the cover of People magazine wearing a Shirk’s Orange cap. Instead, Beer Nuts – while still low-profile in Bloomington-Normal (when have you EVER seen a Beer Nuts semitrailer truck?) – have catapulted “Shirk” into inexorably
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STEVE SMEDLEY, The Pantagraph
Beer Nuts are low-profile in Bloomington-Normal and world famous at the same time. lasting Twin City fame. That was ensured into perpetuity when the harvests of that red-skinned partner to a glass of orange juice led to development of the Russell O. & Betty Shirk Foundation and, in 1994, opening of the $15 million Shirk Center Athletic Complex on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University.
B-N in 50 objects: Memory game Test your memory and relive recent “B-N in 50 objects” articles with Pantagraph.com’s photo memory game. Match photos of objects that scream Twin Cities. Photos are chosen randomly — always two of each — and more will be added as the series continues. There are easy, medium and expert levels, all of which you can play on any device, but levels below expert will appear better on phones and tablets. Play it at www.pantagraph.com/game
Steak ’n Shake has been right and in sight since 1934 Julie Gerke jgerke@pantagraph.com
That second apostrophe is about the only thing missing from Steak ’n Shake, the black, white and red restaurant famous for sizzling steakburgers and handdipped shakes. The chain restaurant, which includes a sit-down dining room and drive-through lanes, was founded in 1934 in the Twin Cities. Gus Belt opened the first Steak ’n Shake at Main Street and Virginia Avenue (now home to Monical’s Pizza), after he added food to a Shell service station line-up of gasoline, tires and turtleburgers. A finicky Belt ground the steak by hand, in front of his customers, charging 20 cents and a penny tax for a burger and shake. He didn’t like either item, yet mandated a pickle with every bite — which is why you still get two long slices on each steakburger. Along the way, he also coined (and trademarked) the term “cheeseburger” and determined the secret to good chili is a hint of cocoa. He and his wife Edith bought the former Maplewood
LORI ANN COOK-NEISLER, The Pantagraph
Steak ’n Shake has been serving up hamburgers since it was first opened at Main Street and Virginia Avenue in 1934. Country Club property in 1940 and used the land to pasture cows. In 1953, the acreage was platted into Maplewood subdivision, which fronts Jersey Avenue. Belt Avenue is named in his honor. Belt died in 1954, and Edith ran the chain until 1969. Current owner Biglari Holdings Inc., San Antonio, Texas, has more than 500 Steak ’n Shake restaurants in 27 states. Steak ’n Shake is memorialized in a collection at McLean County Museum of History, 200 N. Main St., Bloomington, and in an exhibit at the Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame and Museum, 110 W Howard St., Pontiac.
1030 W. Reynolds • Pontiac 815-842-1143 • Click Here to Visit Our Website
B-N in 50 objects: Memory game Test your memory and relive recent “B-N in 50 objects” articles with Pantagraph.com’s photo memory game. Match photos of objects that scream Twin Cities. Photos are chosen randomly — always two of each — and more will be added as the series continues. There are easy, medium and expert levels, all of which you can play on any device, but levels below expert will appear better on phones and tablets. Play it at www.pantagraph.com/game
Festival has been bringing Shakespeare to B-N for 37 years Joe Deacon jdeacon@pantagraph.com
One Bloomington-Normal location has been the site of murders, mayhem and mischief, notorious deeds occurring out in the open among plenty of witnesses. Yet that same spot has seen romances blossom, hosted fantastic celebrations and filled the air with laughter every summer for more than 35 years. Where — not wherefore — might this location be? Although “all the world’s a stage,” these acts have taken place on stage at Ewing Manor (Ewing Cultural Center), where the Illinois Shakespeare Festival has become a Twin City summer staple since its debut in 1978. The first performances took place on a temporary wooden stage built over a tennis court, with about 250 spectators sitting in folding chairs. Now, the plays are held in a 438seat open-air theater that debuted in 2000. The festival, which features at least three plays in a rotation each year, has become nationally recognized among professional Shakespearean actors as a top venue. The attraction has grown as well, with patrons able to
Steve SmeDley, The Pantagraph
Illinois Shakespeare Festival performer David Fisch acts during The Magical Mind of Billy Shakespeare, performed on the lawn of the Bloomington Center of the Performing Arts. picnic on the grounds and occasionally take in bonus acts performed in the courtyards. All but three of William Shakespeare’s plays have been produced in the festival’s 37 years, along with other Shakespeare-related works. This year’s showings included “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Antony and Cleopatra.” If you wish to witness a little murder and mayhem, or perhaps some bard-style romance and laughter, “get thee to” the Illinois Shakespeare Festival.
1030 W. Reynolds • Pontiac 815-842-1143 • Click Here to Visit Our Website
B-N in 50 objects: Memory game Test your memory and relive recent “B-N in 50 objects” articles with Pantagraph.com’s photo memory game. Match photos of objects that scream Twin Cities. Photos are chosen randomly — always two of each — and more will be added as the series continues. There are easy, medium and expert levels, all of which you can play on any device, but levels below expert will appear better on phones and tablets. Play it at www.pantagraph.com/game
Miller Park Zoo offers a roaring good time to visitors Bruce Yentes
byentes@pantagraph.com
“Worldly” and “exotic” are not terms that immediately come rolling off the tongue when most Bloomington-Normal residents describe their neighbors. However, there’s an enclave on the west side of Bloomington where those attributes are more the norm than the exception among those who call it home. Since 1891, when the city of Bloomington began allocating funds for the care of animals at Miller Park, the zoo established there has been home to a wide variety of critters from all corners of the globe. “We’ve had animals from from every continent on earth except for Antarctica,” said Miller Park Zoo Superintendent Jay Tetzloff. Many of the zoo’s earliest denizens were housed at the Koetthoefer Animal Building, a structure that opened to the public 100 years ago and was designed by renowned Bloomington architect A.L. Pillsbury. The building is still in use today and is a site for daily feedings, a popular attraction of the venerable facility.
DaviD ProeBer, The Pantagraph
Bald eagles walk at Miller Park Zoo The zoo was expanded in 1960 and grew exponentially in the 1990s after the Entrance Building/Education Center opened in 1992. Culminating with the Tropical Rainforest Exhibit that debuted in 2004, the zoo more than doubled in size in a little over a decade. The zoo and its foundation currently are working with the city on a long-term expansion plan. Miller Park Zoo is located at 1020 S. Morris Ave. and is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except for Christmas and Thanksgiving.
1030 W W.. Reynolds • Pontiac 815-842-1143 • driscollmotors.com
B-N in 50 objects: Memory game
Test your memory and relive recent“B-N in 50 objects”articles with Pantagraph.com’s photo memory game. Match photos of objects that scream Twin Cities. Photos are chosen randomly — always two of each — and more will be added as the series continues. There are easy, medium and expert levels, all of which you can play on any device, but levels below expert will appear better on phones and tablets. Play it at www.pantagraph.com/game
Actors’ passion helps bring record-setting play to life Kevin Barlow
kbarlow@pantagraph.com
The longest-running “continuously performed” passion play in America is right here in Bloomington. The American Passion Play, unlike others, dramatizes Jesus’ entire ministry, rather than just events from Passion Week onward. The play is historically accurate, with settings and costumes recreating first-century Galilee. Text is taken from the King James version of the Bible. “My theory is that we can do more and tell a story better in four hours than churches can in several months,” said Wally Crouch of Normal, who has been business manager for the play for the past 10 years and associated with the play for more than 35. The play, staged every spring at Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, presents the story of Jesus in 11 performances that begin with the beheading of John the Baptist and end with Christ’s ascension. About 230 characters participate in 56 scenes. The play is directed by J. Garrie Burr and codirected by John Capasso. The actors are non-profes-
LORI ANN COOK-NEISLER, The Pantagraph
The American Passion Play is staged at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. sionals with a spiritual dedication to their parts. “It’s the people that make the play special,” Crouch said. “Some have been acting in it for 60 years and we have had several generations of the same families as actors.” Next season will be the 92nd consecutive season the play has been presented in Bloomington. “I’ve seen it every year for the past 40 years,” said Heyworth resident Patricia Benson. “Every year, you see something different. But one thing never changes and that is the fact that it is simply amazing.”
1030 W W.. Reynolds • Pontiac 815-842-1143 • driscollmotors.com
B-N in 50 objects: Memory game
Test your memory and relive recent“B-N in 50 objects”articles with Pantagraph.com’s photo memory game. Match photos of objects that scream Twin Cities. Photos are chosen randomly — always two of each — and more will be added as the series continues. There are easy, medium and expert levels, all of which you can play on any device, but levels below expert will appear better on phones and tablets. Play it at www.pantagraph.com/game