MARCH 18




MARCH 18 — 1837 Happy Birthday Grover Cleveland; 2006 Legend of the Colorado Coney Island hot dog stand; 1969 Operation: Breakfast






MARCH 18
1837-Happy birthday Uncle Jumbo!

Stephen Grover Cleveland was born today in 1837 in Caldwell, NJ. He was the only president to serve non-consecutive terms by being number 22 and 24. He had 8 brothers and sisters, was 16 when his father died. He quit school at that time so he could go to work, he studied law when he could and later served as country sheriff in upstate New York. In 1881 he became mayor of Buffalo, New York, worked to clean up corruption and was governor of New York.

After he became Democratic President, he grew a reputation for vetoing bills, and became otherwise known as veto-man. Those vetoes quite possibly cost him the next election to Benjamin Harrison. He was the first and only president to get married in the White House, and speaking of pretty ladies, he was the one in office when Lady Liberty was shipped to New York Harbor and dedicated the Statue of Liberty in October 1886.

Interesting fact about Grover, he had secret surgery to remove mouth cancer in 1893. He didn’t want the public to know, understandably, so he had it performed on his buddy’s yacht.

His first term in office was great; he got tough against high tariffs, Free Silver, inflation, imperialism, and subsidies to business, farmers or veterans. He was a conservative’s dream back then. The Mugwumps of the Republican Party loved him. His second term, on the other hand, didn’t go so well. There was the Panic of 1893, a huge national depression, which led to a Republican landslide victory in the 1894 election as well as the agrarian and silverite seizure of the Democratic Party in 1896, which led to the Third and Fourth Party System as well as the Progressive Era.

18 2006 – Colorado Coney Island hot dog stand moves yet again.

Normally I wouldn’t bring up a restaurant on an American history show, but at the risk of sounding like a tour guide, you got to check it out.  In 1966, Marcus Shannon from Lakewood had a hair brained scheme to build a giant hot dog and make a restaurant after it named for the great amusement park in New York that had been around since the 19th century. It was a 35 foot bun with painted relish and mustard!

How could you go wrong?

Unfortunately like many restaurant entrepreneurs, didn’t do the research and development very well or not at all, and the restaurant was financially upside down within four years. In 1970 the giant 18-ton hotdog/restaurant was moved to the tiny ski lodge town of Aspen. If you’ve ever driven up the US 285 to Aspen it’s challenging enough in a snow storm just to drive a standard sized car with a ski rack up the mountain.

That worked for about 35 years or so until on this day in 2006 John Wallace, the owner of Denver’s William Tavern, bought it and renovated it and moved it to Bailey opened it for business. Like I said, normally I wouldn’t bring up a restaurant on an American History show, especially since LA also boasts a giant hot dog restaurant called Tail of the Pup, but as Americana as this is, you just can’t find an elk-jalapeno bratwurst just anywhere.  Just sayin’.


1852-Another happy birthday to Wells Fargo!

On this day in history Henry Wells and William G. Fargo began their alliance with other investors to launch a shipping business. That’s right, they didn’t get into banking until later. At the time, the Gold Rush, Wells Fargo contracted with independent stagecoaches to furiously ship goods from the east coast to the scattered areas of northern cali. In 1857, they formed the Overland mail company, aka the Butterfield Line to deliver and pick up mail by horseback. In 1869, when the transcontinental railroad was finished, Wells Fargo took advantage of that and solidified their name as the undisputed champs of shipping. By 1905 Wells Fargo split from the freight business and used their banking branch to merge with the Nevada National Bank and established their new headquarters in San Francisco.

When WWI hit, the US government nationalized the company’s shipping routes and combined them with the railroads into the American Railway Express, which pretty much ended Wells, Fargo and Co as a transportation and delivery business. When the big earthquake hit san fransisco, the building was destroyed but the vaults were fine and business went on as usual. After a couple more mergers they became the Wells Fargo Bank American Trust Company, and shortened it to Wells Fargo in 1962. Today, or course, it’s one of America’s biggest banks.

Finally moving onto Vietnam War news…

1969-Very unpopular Operation Breakfast.

What’s on “The Menu” this morning, President Nixon? How about 110,000 tons of bombs delivered by our B-52s over the neutral Cambodia? Ssssh! The Pentagon said this was supposed to be a secret! And it was, until the NYTimes ran the story in May 1969. Interestingly enough, at that time not that many Americans cared. Why, because we’re bombing commies no matter where they are. Right? Or something…




MARCH 18

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