Weekly Reader

When I was growing up my parents would receive both The Morning Call and The Evening Chronicle.* This was their main source of news. Television in the late 40's and early 50's had national and world news, but there was no local programing in Allentown. The antenna on our roof would receive the three network (ABC, NBC, and CBS) stations from Philadelphia, and that was it. The morning and evening papers provided the local news, in addition to national and world stories. Hess Brothers and Leh's would compete with multiple full page Ads. We children also had our own little paper, Weekly Reader, handed out in the classroom every Friday. I think of it when I get the thin Morning Call on Mondays.

* The Morning Call and Evening Chronicle were both published by same company, Call-Chronicle Newspapers.

reprinted from March, 2010

New Radio Molovinsky podcast, Snowbird In Paradise

The Radiation Mystery, Wetherhold & Metzger

The Shoe giant Wetherhold & Metzger started in 1908 on Hamilton street's south side. When business began to prosper, they moved across to the more prominent north side of Hamilton Street. Their store at 719 Hamilton was recently demolished, along with most of Allentown's mercantile history. It was a two story store, with the children's department on the lower level. This post originally was scheduled for sometime in the future, and was to include a Buster Brown poster. Today's Morning Call has a story on the mystery radium 226 found in the debris of the former buildings, and I thought perhaps the molovinsky on allentown historical division could help. Wetherhold & Metzer's downtown store was quite the adventure for a kid. In addition to your mother's money being transported away in a tube system like the bank drive-ups use today, you could look inside your shoes and see your feet.

Needless to say, eventually these shoe fluoroscopes were banned, but for many years one stood in the lower level of 719 Hamilton Street. Many a child, including myself, saw our foot bones in our new Buster Browns. Wetherhold & Metzger also had an uptown store in the 900 block of Hamilton Street.

reprinted from September of 2012

A Church Of Contention

Ripple Community Inc., a non-profit, wants to turn the church at 16th and Chew into very affordable apartments, and also have recovery rooms there, where essentially homeless people could recover from illness or injury.

While I'm not involved in the current zoning board dilemma concerning these proposals, I do have a lot of background in that neighborhood. I lived across the street from the church for many years.

Years ago, the then very strong West Park Civic Association would be out in force officially opposing this conversion. I remember when they even opposed another congregation selling the church at 15th and Turner to a less funded congregation.  They complained that the maintenance on the church might suffer.

I also remember many years ago when a wealthy member of the congregation at 16th & Chew left money in his will to have the church dressed out. Although the structure was in very good condition, they repointed all the stonework anyway, and remodeled the bell tower. In more recent times when the congregation felt financial strain and put the church up for sale, I thought that if only they hadn't done those superfluous upgrades, that money might have enabled them to keep the church going.

Even Alan Jennings, who drips liberalism, thinks that the 16th Street church is the wrong place for Ripple's new plans.

photocredit:Jason Addy/LehighValleyNews.com

King Levinsky

In 1964, a young Cassius Clay trained in south Miami Beach for his first fight against Sonny Liston. At that time, this section of the city was home to mostly retired Jews on fixed income. The hotels, decades after their prime, became pension rooming houses. Decades later, these same buildings would be restored to their art deco splendor, creating today's South Beach. As Clay trained, a middle aged punch drunk necktie peddler told him, "After Liston punches your head, you'll be selling ties with me." The street peddler was a fixture in Miami Beach. He didn't ask, he told people they were going to buy a tie. The future champ probably didn't realize that the heckler was none other than King Levinsky, legend of the 1930's, and veteran of over 118 heavyweight fights. Levinsky was born Harris Krakow in Chicago, and worked at his parent's fish market on Maxwell Street, the Jewish section during the roaring twenties. Although he never got a title shot, and weighed only 185, he fought all the leading heavyweights of his time, including the 265lb. giant, Primo Carnera. Managed by his sister Lena, he was known never to turn down a fight, including those against Max Baer.

reprinted from February of  2009

photo shows Levinsky with sister/manager Lena in 1932

Molovinsky Scales Back New Radio Division

Molovinsky Publishing, after just announcing a daily radio show last week,  has cancelled its studio buildout and subleased the space.  Michael Molovinsky, President and CFO, expressed fears that the studio would be shut down by the city. After J.B. Reilly's City Center RE declined to rent us space, we ended up in a older building. I saw what happen to the tenants in another non-Reilly older building,  

Although  Radio Molovinsky will not be a daily, Molovinsky himself will produce an occasional broadcast from a commercial studio in Radio City Music Hall. I don't relish traveling to NYC, and will be looking for a closer sound studio.

The initial episodes are archived, and remain accessible through the Radio Molovinsky link.

There will be a new episode today,  airing at 6:30AM, hopefully for your listening pleasure.

You Don't Have To Be Antisemitic To Be anti-Zionist, But It Helps

I have been a continuous subscriber to the Morning Call for over 50 years. Back in the day, anti-Israel letters to the editor were a common event, and this was long before conflicts with Hamas or other Palestinian factions. 

Gary Olson and Vincent Stravino of Bethlehem were regular writers of that persuasion. When I would occasionally send a reply to their pieces, my submissions were not given the automatic editor acceptance they received. 

I was surprised to see a recent piece by George Heitman who explained that Israel was responding to an entity dedicated to Israel's destruction. Mr. Heitman acknowledged that Israel was badly losing the public relations war, but that their enemy left them no alternative. 

Zionism is the appreciation of the Jewish homeland. Jews have lived continously in the Holy Land since biblical times. The two-state solution has been rejected by the Palestinians and the Arab world numerous times. Today, many people use the term Zionist as a derogatory term, meant as an insult and slur.

I have yet to meet an anti-Zionist who ever had much use for Jews.