Surreal Georgia

Old - Photo Challenge

This is old, an old book. It's printed shortly after 1900 and it's title is "Christian and Jew". I never read it, it was among my granny's books. 

It was printed by "Pilger-Buchhandlung" in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Ooooops, I never noticed that it was printed in America, in Reading Pa, because it is completely in German and also the institution that printed the book has got a German name. - It must have been a present from our Eriete relatedness. I promise: I'm going to read it as soon as possible.

I wish I could once hear the Pennsylvanian German dialect, which was spoken in Reading well into the 1950s and later. 

Reading - it looks very nice!

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Regular participants are:

Ree

Lisa 

Taia

and me. Feel free to join us!

Patti In The Watson-Curtze Mansion, Erie

This picture is in the Watson-Curtze Mansion in Erie. It's a family picture and it shows part of my Eriete family. There is Louis Albracht with his family, Frederick and August Albracht and the Mertens family, who are descendants of Louis' elder sister Wilhelmine. I had no pictures of them before and I am so glad that Patti knew that I use to talk often about my Albracht-family when she visited the museum. She remembered the name when reading it on this photo.

Thank you so much, Patti!

The Family Violin

I you have got such a nice cousin like I have got, you can praise yourself lucky! He sent me the most valuable item I can think of, the family violin af my Albracht-family. Don't resent me the name, dear cousin, I used it in the originally German version.

Dr. Kenneth Albrecht from Erie

 

Kenneth and his sister Grace

Erie Highschool Orchestra

Kenneth plays the sax; picture taken in the Todd Studios, St. Louis

The violin is from Kenneth Albrecht (in the center with sax). Kenneth and his sister Grace were grandchildren of Louis Albracht about whom I just posted on my blog. His father was Frederick Albracht, who was a master plumber in Erie. The family went to St. Louis in the 1920ies, were the family owned a music studio. He later came back to Erie. Dr. Kenneth Albrecht, his son, played in several orchestras of the roaring St. Louis during the 20ies and 30ies. He also played on several records and made some film music for Hollywood. His sister Grace wa a singer in New York City.

 

 

These are early recordings of 1928, where Dr. Kenneth Albrecht plays the clarinette in Wylie's orchestra.

Ken Albrecht with band on a show boat, St. Louis

Kenneth died young at the age of 46. He had a car accident in Michigan, Ann Arbor. This was in 1950. The newspapers reported about this tragic accident.

His grave at Calvary Cemetery, Erie

He is not forgotten. I left a virtual bunch of flowers at his grave a few days ago, because I found a memorial of him in the internet. And once I will be able to lay real flowers down on his grave, I'm sure.

RIP, Kenneth.

 

Yesterday was the big day I held his violin in my  hands for the very first timeand couldn't believe this. After I fetched it from Kassel, where it arrived, I put it reverential on the drawer in our present living room and I was very, very touched. Here it is, a present of unmeasurable affection value. I am speechless about the fact that I was found worthy to own it. Thank you, dearest cousin, simply thank you, that you gave me such heirloom of your father.

Let me hug you, dear cousin. I don't know how I can ever thank you for a present like this.

New Old Desk and a Lot More

It  has been a stressful time since we moved. My job doens't let me any time for getting through that mess and if there weren't Anna, who fixes all when I'm at school, we would still live in a complete mess.

Every single day is filled with work from 5 o'clock in the morning until night. Because we can't move the furnishing of the rooms in Driburg (it doesn't look very attractive for a buyer if a house is completely empty) we at least try to move our personal things like our clothes, our books and computer we need for working/study, our computers, shoes, jackets, files and documents, family pictures and so on. Every day we move another part as far as it fits into my car.

We also officially moved: We are now citizen of Diemelstadt, where Wethen belongs to, Hesse. We are back to the place our ancestors lived for hundreds of years. It feels good!

In the meantime a lot of deliveries were made: Fittings for the bathrooms, a small scaffolding for the work on the high ceilings in the house, the bathtub, three sinks, a shower, four toilets, carpet tiles, floors for the bathrooms, wallpapers, drapes and so on.  It piles all up in the two garages and our personal things pile up in the first floor. Sigh! And no time to get all this work done. I even  haven't had time for ironing our laundry, which also piles up higher and higher.

Today actually Anna's car should have been ready for fetching it from Duisburg. But the vehicle registration office works as slow as a snail. So we still have no license plates. Hopefully we can fetch the car on Friday. We already bought tickets for the train to Duisburg. It is a journey of about 2,5 hours. We decided to travel first class, because we want to be left alone and have a comfortable trip. Then we have to drive the new car back to our home, another 2,5 hours!

Last week I bought an old desk for Anna's living room to be. She wanted to have a Chippendale coffee table, nothing else. So I bought one at Ebay. It's a nice dainty table with carvings and wooden network under the glass plate. It is about 60 years old. So it is just what Anna wanted. We drove to a small town in the Sauerland, Meschede, to fetch it. For heaven's sake! You don't guess how small and winding the roads are in the Sauerland. And you drive always up and down the steep hills. We were very glad being at home again after about 4 hours in the car. Several construction sites and closed roads forced us to go long ways round. But at least the table was in our old new house in Wethen. No, I wouldn't like to live in the Sauerland. There is nothing apart from hills and trees, nothing! OK, it's a wonderful landscape, but living there is not very comfortable on my opinion, above all not in winter.

Sauerland

Today I had a little time to clean Anna's table and to treat it with furniture polish. Here it is:

 

Last weekend it was my parents' birthday. My father would have turned 87 on Saturday and my mother 84 on Sunday. On this occasion we did a completely new planting on their grave and on my grandparents' grave. We planted heather and asters. Also the garden in Wethen had to be done. It is now prepared for winter. 

 

My parents' grave

And not to forget: There was an email of Mike Richwalsky, formerly of Erie, who asked me, if hecould reprint my story of Erie's sleeping beauty on his site "Erie Blogs". I feel very honored that he published it on his site despite my really bumpy English. I must admit that I'm really proud.

 

The Sad Story of Erie's Sleeping Beauty

From Time to time I use to search internet auctions after items that have to do something with the history of Erie. This time I found an old photo from a medical archive showing a baby girl. The pictures of the archive are currently for sale, because nobody needs them any more. Well, nothing of interest, just a normal baby - but I saw that the picture was taken in Erie. Also the little patient's name was remarked: Maxine Yarrington.

Maxine Yarrington in 1936 at St. Francis Hospital

For me this was enough to investigate the story behind the picture. And here it is, the sad story of Erie's sleeping beauty Maxine Yarrington, once very popular but now mostly forgotten I think.

Maxine was born on January 17, 1934, as a daughter of Mr. Lloyd William Yarrington, who was a WPA worker (can anybody tell me what WPA means?) of Platea near Vairview, and  his wife Myrtle. Lloyd was born in 1897, his wife was about seven years younger. In 1930 the couple had three daughters of 8,5 and 4 years (Lois, Jean and Betty) and two sons, Edward (2) and David (2 months). Maxine was born in 1934.

Until the 24th of September in 1935, when Maxine was about 1 1/2 years old, life was as usual for the family apart maybe from the death of two of the girls. There is no data about it, but later there was only reported about "one daughter and two sons all in good health" apart from Maxine.

On the evening of September 23, 1935, all seemed to be in best order. Maxine kissed her parents good-night, was tucked to her bed and fell asleep like she was used to. There was no trace of an illness, nothing unusual. So most of the newapapers. There is another newspaper article that tells us that Maxine had fever, that she felt sick, but fell quickly asleep, when her parents layed her in her bed. - The next morning Myrtle and Lloyd found their daughter in a deep coma and brought her to St. Vincent Hospital in Erie.

Dr. Robert Gannon examined her. Maxine was a victim of the so called sleeping sickness or better Encephalitis Lethargia. This is an infectious desease that affects the brain. Dr. H.B. Emerson, a child specialist, who treated Maxine daily since she fell ill, said: " She passed through all the symptoms of acute encephalitis lethargica including fever, fear, loss of power in arms and legs, rigidity of the neck, drowsiness and sleep (coma)." This statement proves the second version of the newspaper articles, that Maxine showed signs of an illness before she fell into coma.

1935, Maxine at St. Vincent's

First there was still hope that Maxine would awake of her coma. Her parents visited her three times a week in hospital, always hoping that she would awake of her slumber. But Maxine kept sleeping with her eyes wide open. On March 4th, 1936, the Daily Standard wrote that Maxine smiled at her mother the night before, when Myrtle leaned over the crib and said"Hello, Humdinger." This was the pet name for the child. But nothing changed. Maxine kept on sleeping staring with her big blue eyes. She went to sleep like a healthy child, she awoke in the morning, but she didn't recognize anything. Her eyes stared fixedly, but she couldn't see anything although she physically was not blind. She heard nothing, although she wasn't dumb. She didn't react to anything. First Maxine was fed by a hypodermic needle, later, since 1936, she ate in a normal manner. Whenever there was food placed in her mouth she started to chew and to swallow. So the nurses gave her liquid or soft food, sometimes from a bottle, and soups. Maxine was like a doll. The only sign of life was a restless tossing around as sleeping persons do. Maxine's mother still called every week prayerful for some sign of recognition even after more than two years of "sleep". Myrtle didn't want to give up hope. It must have been extremely hard for her not being able to visit Maxine any more, because Maxine moved from St. Vincent's to St. Francis in Buffalo, which was too far away.

1936 at St. Francis, a picure from the short film that was made of 

 

In the meantime Maxine became a celebrity all over the USA. Mostly around Christmas the newspapers wrote about her sad state of health and that she can't experience a normal Christmas like other children. They wrote the same, year after year. The hospital used to receive thousands of letters for the girl offering sympathy and suggesting cures. They also got hundreds of presents for Maxine, who couldn't notice them. For Maxine every day was just the same: Staring and not recognizing anything. She was a "prisoner of the sandman", as the newspapers titled.

 

Maxine in 1939

Maxine's state of health was hopeless. In her fourth year of "sleep" the St. Francis hospital near Buffalo, where she lived now, stated, that there is no mental change. Maxine had physically grown, but the develeopment of her body was subnormal. Even if she would awake she wouldn't reach the mental state of a one year old child. People called her now the "sleeping beauty of St. Francis".

Dr. Emerson said, that Maxine's brain no loger functions because it has been badly scarred by the desease. "She recovered from encephalitis, but now her brain is no longer capable of being awakened. She might as well have no brain at all. She is awake physically and practically dead mentally:" Modern doctors would call this Apallic Syndrome. This is a devastating diagnosis.

After six years of coma the eight year old Maxine died on September 13, 1941, at Polk State Hospital. When she moved there from St. Francis is unknown. Her moves from hospital to hospital have to do with the diagnosis of her doctors. Polk State Hospital is an institution for the mentally retarded. So Maxine's move is the result of the prognosis that there won't be any change in her mental state. She was no longer ill and so she did not longer need special medical treatment.

5th birthday, January 17, 1939; the only picture with her parents

 

In January 1939 Maxine had an attack of convulsions and after that her body started to waste away after the long siege. The last picture of her and the only one which shows her parents and not any nurse, was made at that time, on her 5th birthday January 17, 1939. Maxine became eight years old, she was exactely 5 years in a coma when death resolved her from her painful life.

Maxine's parents must have gone through hell. There were two boys born after Maxine fell ill. I think we can't imagine how hard it was to give the two boys a normal family life. It always must have been very hard for Maxine's parents everywhere to read about her daughter's fate in the newspapers and to cope with the medical interest of this case. Maxine was an item of medical investigation as a collection of pictures and a short film proves. Also her parents had to take part in this investigation programm, at least they were questioned a lot about their own state of health. Maxine's story is heartbreaking. But maybe her sad little life helped the doctors find out more about coma patients.

R.I.P.

Maxine's father Lloyd died at the age of 53 on June 5, 1950, and was buried at Lundys Lane, Hope. And Myrtle? Perhaps she married again after her husband's death or she moved away. There is no person any more with this name later. We all wish her a little luck in her life after these terrible times. She earned it.

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Sources and links:

(http://www.saintvincenthealth.com/About/History-of-Saint-Vincent/default.aspx)

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lon=-78.8347568&lat=42.9422799&datum=nad83

http://pennsylvania.hometownlocator.com/pa/venango/polk.cfm

http://northwesternpa.net/showmedia.php?mediaID=3518 (brother of Lloyd)

Census 1930

The Helen Independent, 3.4.1936 and 12.20.1936

Montana Standard, Butte, Montana, 9.24.1939

Indiana Evening Gazette, 11.24.1939

The Lethbridge Herald, Alberta, Canada, 9.15.1941

Mansfield News Journal, 1.16.1939

Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, 1.17.1939

Lima News, Ohio, 12.8.1937

Clearfield Progress, 12.24.1938

Oakland Tribune, California, 10.11.1939

The Vidette Messenger, Valparaiso, Indiana, 9.13.1941

Mason City Globe Gazette, Iowa, 12.18.1936

Brownsville Herald, Texas, 2.1.1939

Daily News Standard, PA, 3.4.1936

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,772260,00.html (story a little different from what is told in all the other newspapers)

http://northwesternpa.net/getperson.php?personID=I3174005&tree=NWPa (The only family "Lloyd Yar(r)ingon" which is near Fairfield/Erie; look at Vivian: her birth- and death-years are the same as Maxine's; I'm not quite sure if this is really the right family; but it matches the facts that the first daughters might have died in childhood)

 

Pictures:

Mansfield News Journal, 1.16.1939

Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, 1.17.1939

Lima News, Ohio, 12.8.1937

Mason City Globe Gazette, Iowa, 12.18.1936

Brownsville Herald, Texas, 2.1.1939

 

Film:

http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675067252_sleeping-sickness_nurse-feeds-child_Maxine-Yarrington_child-rubs-face

Spanish Literature Prize for an Erieite Story

The Cuban writer Antonio Orlando Rodriguez, who lives in the USA (as far as I know in Florida) has won the Spanish Alfaguara literary prize this year in Madrid for his novel “Chiquita”. I found out about the fact, because I wondered about such a high number of people who googled “Aspiridiona Cenda” and found my blog this way. So I wondered why suddenly all these people would google this name. The answer is simple:

The story Rodriguez wrote is about Aspiridiona Cenda, the “living doll” Chiquita. And therefore this is also an Erieite story. Chiquita married Erieite Tony Woeckener and the couple lived at 2230 State Street, Erie, for a lot of years.  I wrote a post about their story a few months ago: Here it is!

There you can find out more about the entire story. And this is why all these people found my site. You can imagine that I’m now very curious about the novel of Rodriguez and that I would like to read it. I can’t speak and understand Spanish, so I hope that there is also an English version available. I’m curious, because I want to know if the author has written something about Chiquita’s life in Erie, because I want to know if he described Erie in those years and if his novel is true in the facts about Chiquita’s life. I’m curious, because it’s also a story which is closely connected to Erie. I think I must have this book...because I love Erie!

This And That

Last Saturday I found the following short review of my blog on the “A Flyover Blog” from DK Raymer:

Aunt Sabine of Germany is an engrossing blog written by a wise old soul in a beautiful young body. Sabine covers a wide range of topics from news of her daily life to stories of wartime Germany. It's a fascinating stop and I'm glad I found her wonderful blog.

Well, this makes me pretty proud, more the “wise old soul” than the beautiful body, because the picture of me on my blog is from I time I was my daughter Anna’s age and beauty is transient. But it’s a nice compliment that makes me happy that she liked how I looked when I was young. Really proud however makes me the other part of the compliment, being an old wise soul. Thank you very much, DK. This is the nicest compliment I ever heard! I also like DK Raymer’s blog very much and I’m glad that I found it because of her little review. I’m sure I will come back and visit it from time to time and I also suggest my readers to have a look at “A Flyover Blog”. I’m sure, you will enjoy it! DK is a fascinating woman.

Last Thursday I got a book from the “Waldeckischer Geschichtsverein” (You can translate it as Historical Society of Waldeck). They use to publish the “Geschichtsblätter für Waldeck” (History Letters for Waldeck) every year. I’ve got them for the first time, because I’m a member of this society since this winter. Well, I was going to be active in this society and I hoped finding a lot of people with similar interests on history of Waldeck, but before I could become more active my beloved father died and my life changed completely. Because there is nothing like it was before I postponed a more active membership. - One article in the history letters was very interesting to me: The official speech, which was held on January 14, on the occasion of the 100. birthday of the famous Waldecker brothers Louis and Carl Curtze. Remember my posts about them and the Curtze family of Korbach in Waldeck and of Erie! The writer , Mr. Ruppel of the town archive of Korbach, mentioned an “American internet-site” which reports very detailed about the Erieite Curtze family. I was sort of thrilled, well at least a bit, because I thought that he perhaps could only have thought of my blog with these articles:

• http://sabineofgermany.typepad.com/aunt_sabine/2007/01/curtze_celebrat.html#comments
• http://sabineofgermany.typepad.com/aunt_sabine/2006/09/the_curtzefamil.html#comments

I've emailed him, because I want to know if he thought of my site. Let's see if he sends me an answer...

The history of the Erieite Curtze-family isn’t very well known here in Waldeck. I noticed this, because Dr. Ursula Wolkers, a famous journalist, whose lifework was writing about history of Waldeck and visiting people to hear their stories about history, didn’t know about this part of the family, although she has had written very often in the Waldecker newspaper about the Curtze family, the famous brothers Carl and Louis Curtze and other relatives like Clara Heitefuss, who also was a member of this family. I noticed that she didn’t know about this when I rang her up in January, because I wanted to tell her about these facts. She was very interested and was going to write a story for the Waldecker newspaper about the Erieite Curtzes. But then, you know, my father died, and I postponed all and I hadn’t time enough to visit Dr. Wolkers at her home in Paderborn, although I had collected a lot of material about the American Curtzes. And now I’m afraid that this article will never be written, because last Saturday I heard that Dr. Ursula Wolkers had died unexpectedly at the age of 68 on June 19, 2007, in Berlin, where she visited her children. Here is the newspaper article I accidentally found about her death. I’m sorry that it is in German, but it contains a picture of her. I was very ad when I heard about her death. I always admired her and her articles in the newspaper always were my favorite reading matter since I was a young girl. For a long period of time I collected many of her articles. I will miss her warm and living stories about Waldecker history. I admired her, because she did exactly what I would have loved to do myself: Exploring and writing about the history of Waldeck! And I admired her because of her down-to-earth attitude, her direct way telling things and her a bit pert manner. She was a wonderful and unique person and Waldeck is much poorer without her now. We will miss you badly, Dr. Wolkers!

Who will travel through Waldeck from now on and listen to all the old stories people have to tell and who will take them down from now on? I wish I could do....

Yesterday I visited my daughter again. What a joy in these dark times of despair and sorrow! Seeing her and hugging and kissing her is like seeing the bright and warm sunlight again. It was a wonderful day which let me forget about all the sadness in my heart. She is such a wonderful and thoughtful young woman! And she is my dear friend, too! We use to share everything. Sometimes I can’t believe that she is going to become an engineer! What a joy! I'm so proud! I keep my fingers crossed that she will manage all the next 3 ½ years. I won’t be easy, because she has to learn a lot of mathematics and physics, but she is a clever girl and she is doing extremely well at the moment. Let’s pray that this will stay like it is at the moment. We had so much to tell; the hours passed much too quickly. Needless to say that I cried the whole way back in my car... I miss her so badly. I was still crying when I was in my bed and I couldn't sleep. but she rang me up again and we had another hour of talking and telling stories. So I finally fell asleep happily. Some day there will perhaps be a time we will be a bit closer together again and perhaps there will be also a few adventures we have to go through together side by side. My soul is still as young as her soul and I’m still adventurous deep in my heart. But at the moment I’m a bird with broken wings.

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Sources and pictures:

• http://aflyoverblog.typepad.com/a_flyover_blog/2007/08/happy-blog-day-.html; snapshot of the site and quotes with permission of the author DK Raymer

• http://www.wlz-fz.de/schlagzeilen.asp?id=27027 about the death of Dr. Ursula Wolkers

• http://www.waldeckischer-geschichtsverein.de/waldeck.asp?startwert=1 from the Historical Society of Waldeck

• http://www.cdu-korbach.de/Aktuelles/Presseberichte/Presseberichte096.html about Mr. Ruppel of the town archive of Korbach

• Picture from my daughter's kitchen buffet taken by Georgia, all rights reserved

Erieite Tony Woeckener and the Living Doll

Yesterday the news reported about a 23 year old woman in South Africa, who has born a baby-girl with four legs in a hospital near the town Polokwane on last Tuesday. The mother is shocked. The normally developed girl has additional two legs which grow out of her pubic bone. In the news it is spoken about a deformity, but this is not quite true. In effect the woman has born twins, conjoined twins. But sometimes both twins aren’t developed in the same way, so one of them is fully developed and the other one is only very poorly developed. In this case you speak about a parasitic twin. Today such “deformities” are corrected by surgeries a soon as possible and so the surgeons have already planned to amputate these two additional legs or better the parasitic twin. Formerly these children or later grown ups were often shown in freak shows or human zoos. Popular actors in such shows have been conjoined twins in all forms and small people, called “dwarfs” at that time.

This made me think of Chiquita. Chiquita is Spanish and can be translated as “the little one”. But her real name was Alice Espiridiona or Alice Zenda or Cenda. I’ve found all these variants of her name. Other nicknames were “The Living Doll” or for example “The tiny Cuban atom of humanity”.

Alice at the age of 31 in the year of her marriage (1901)

She was born in Mexico in 1869, but later she claimed “Cuba”, because it was more exotic. The first time she came to the United States was in the 1890s with her menagerist Frank Bostock. She was a sensation then, when she worked as an entertainer at fairs and expositions because of her size. She only weighed 18.5 pounds and was 26” small. She acted and sang in 7 languages. She was as famous, that President Mc Kinley presented her with a miniature horse carriage which was drawn by miniature-sized horses. And later she got her own little electric automobile, also in miniature-seize. Her costumes were made in Paris to conform to the latest styles. And she had very expensive jewelry. For example on her right hand she wore a diamond ring, which was given to her by King Edward of England. And she earned a lot of money! Not too bad for a handicapped person!

Chiquita the Doll Lady

She was working for the Bostock-Ferari Carnival at the 19901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, when she met her husband to be: Anthony Woeckner of German origin was 17 (well, 15 would be more correct) years old (she was 31 at that time). He was a ticket-taker, who also worked at this exposition. Anthony Woeckner was from Erie, Pennsylvania. But Frank Bostock tried to forbid the romance between him and Chiquita and fired Woeckner. Woeckner got a job at the Indian Congress, which was a rival show, and carried on to court Chiquita. Anthony Woeckner and Chiquita eloped on November, 1901, although Bostock had nailed shut the windows of Chiquita’s caravan. But he forgot about how small she was, so she could escape by finding a gap. So the couple was married in Buffalo.

The Buffalo Evening News wrote about this marriage on November 5, 1901:

LITTLE CHIQUITA WAS MARRIED LAST NIGHT

Dainty Dwarf at the Exposition Becomes Wife of Young Spieler

CULMINATION OF A SWEET ROMANCE

Her Husband is a Mere Boy and Says Their Marriage is a Case of True Love

Chiquita, the dainty little Mexican dwarf, who has been a feature of the Midway, finished her season in Buffalo by getting married last night. She is now Mrs. Anthony Woeckener. The marriage took place last night at the home of Morning Justice Thomas H. Rochford. "Tony" Woeckener, the groom, says that he is 21, just the age of his bride, but his appearance indicates that he is not more than 17 years old (I found out in the 1900 census that he was only 15!). His home is in Erie, Pa. At the opening of the Exposition he came to Buffalo to secure work and landed in the Bostock show as an usher where he remained for some time and where he became acquainted with Chiquita. Chiquita was missed from her quarters on the Midway about 11 o'clock last night, and the rumor was spread that she had been kidnapped. About midnight Chiquita and her intended appeared at Judge Rochford's and were married. Meantime the detectives connected with the Exposition were looking for the little lady and when the newly wed pair appeared the groom was arrested. As soon as explanations were made he was released. Chiquita's husband, who is a mere boy in age and appearance, called at the NEWS office this morning and stated that one of Bostock's men made an attempt to separate them last night by pulling a revolver on him. "Tony" seems to have great confidence in himself. He said Chiquita and he fell in love in the Exposition season and resolved weeks ago they would become married. "Chiquita is 21 years old, and I am 18," said her husband. "Her folks live in Mexico and we are going there to visit just as soon as we get away from here. She has money enough to take good care of us. After a sojourn in Mexico we will go to Charleston and from there to the St. Louis Exposition."

With her Erieite husband Tony

The next day Anthony Woeckner’s family from Erie arrived for celebrating the marriage. After their marriage the couple settled down in Erie. Bostock continued to try to get back his star attraction. In 1903 Chiquita became pregnant and on October 12, 1903, after a terrible Caesarian surgery she was delivered by a stillborn child. It had been a little son. Chiquita carried on afterwards with singing and dancing, but free of Bostock and accompanied by her loving husband until 1909. After retirement from showbusiness she went back to her homeland Mexico. The Woeckner-couple moved to Guadalajara in the 1920s. Chiquita died on April 20, 1928, at the age of 59.

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Additional Information:

Sometimes the name is Woeckner and sometimes Woeckener. In the 1900-Census it is Woeckner, later Woeckener.

About Tony or Anthony Woeckner's age: This is from the 1900-Census, where he is 14 years old!

Name:	Anthony Woeckner
Home in 1900:	Erie Ward 1, Erie, Pennsylvania
Age:	14
Estimated birth year:	abt 1886
Birthplace:	Pennsylvania
Relationship to head-of-house:	Son
Father's name:	Emil A
Mother's name:	Elizabeth
Race:	White
Household Members: (124 East 6th Street)	Name Age Emil A Woeckner 43 Elizabeth Woeckner 47 Lillia C Woeckner 19 Edward Woeckner 18 Albert Woeckner 16 Anthony Woeckner 14 Lizzie Woeckner 12 Alma Woeckner 11 Alvira Woeckner 9 Amanda Woeckner 4 Joseph Woeckner 2

Anthony's correct date of birth is November 25, 1886. I know it because of a World War I Draft War Registration Card of 1917/18. There you learn also his full name: Anthony Charles Woeck(e)ner. His nearest relatives were at that time Edward Woeckner, his oldest brother, and Alice, his wife.

And two times more he left a trace in the official records:

On July 18, 1923, Anthony Woeckener and his wife Alicia are sailing from Cuba to Erie, where they arrive at July 21, 1923. Their Erieite address is: 2230 State Street. Their age was also mentioned: 37 and 42. Like in the first days of their wedding their strategy was making her 12 years younger and him some year older, so that the difference between their age didn't appear more than 3 or 4 years. Already in 1901, when they married, they told the media that she was 21 and he already 17.

And for the last time Anthony Woeck(e)ner appears on a journey from Aruba to New York from June 29  to July 6, 1931. He was alone. His wife had died about 3 years earlier. Maybe he wanted to go back to Erie? He was still a young man at that time, only 45 years old.

First I thought, that Anthony only had married her because of her money. Alice "Chiquita" was rich, when she met her husband to be. And at that time and today people might think that a relationship between a kid and a handicapped lady of 31 can't go well. But history showed us, that Anthony must have spoken the truth: This marriage must really have been an act of true love. This is why I like the story.

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Pictures: Public domain (copyright has expired after 70 years)

Sources, links:

• http://www.quasi-modo.net/Chiquita_Living_Doll.html
• http://www.omaha.lib.ne.us/transmiss/regions/northmid/chiquita.html
• http://phreeque.tripod.com/
• http://panam1901.bfn.org/thisday/1902newsaugust.htm
• http://www.metacafe.com/watch/351485/conjoined_twins/
• t-online.de
• Wikipedia
• www.ancestry.com
• Buffalo Evening News, November 5, 1901

August 3, 1915: Big Flood in Erie

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Pictures: Public domain

The Warner Theatre

The Warner theatre of Erie is designed by the architects Rapp and Rapp and it was built in 1931 as a movie palace. The costs for constructing it were 1.5 Million US-Dollars. The style in which it was decorated is Art Deco. The Rambusch Studios in New York City decorated the interior. They created an elegant interior that can hardly be beaten. Constructing this movie theatre today again in the same quality and design would be impossible, because the costs would be immeasurable apart from the fact that such excellent craftsmen wouldn’t be available any more, who could produce all the amazing stuff which decorates the theatre: The luxurious gold-gilded and draped tapestries and French gold backed mirrors, the bronze banisters that lead through an archway of marble, the Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers ....

The Warner Theatre was opened on April 10, 1931. Eight thousand colored lights illuminated the sign that announced the first film, which was played in the new theatre: "The Millionaire" with James Cagney. Since then a lot of famous artists performed on the stage of the Warner Theatre like Sammy Davis, Jr., The Righteous Brothers, Dudley Moore, BB King, Bob Hope, Bob Dylan, Nat King Cole and Johnny Cash to mention only a few of them.

In 1971, Cinemette Corporation of America bought the Warner Theatre. In 1974 the Erie Philharmonic played fort he first time and is still continuing to play there regularly. Cinimette ran the theatre until 1976. This was the year Mayor Louis J. Tullio bought the theatre saving it from a planned demolition. Since then it belongs to the City of Erie. Also since this time the Erie Civic Center complex has grown up around the old theatre. In 1981, a series of top Broadway musicals were performed at the Warner theatre. Also the Erie Civic Ballet Company began performing there. 1981 was also the year, in which the Warner Theatre was listed on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Inventory of Museums and Historical Places, and on April 13, 1982, the Warner Theatre was placed on the National Register for Historic Places.

At the present time the Warner theatre is restored and expanded. During these works the seats have been replaced for more sitting-comfort, there have been added a few restrooms and the curtains, tapestries and carpeting has been renewed after the pattern of the old ones. And there will be also a lot of changes according to the sound, lightning and rigging systems. The entire renovation will be about 13 Million US-Dollars and will perhaps be finished this year.

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sources:

http://www.erieevents.com/warner.html
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/57/
wikipedia

Picture:

Lobby of the Warner Theatre; copyright has expired, public domain