100 Years Ago
In 1912, what was being heralded by the management of Horne's Stock Company as the biggest and most pretentious dramatic offering of the season would be given at The Samuels in Jamestown all the following week, when the Horne Company would present Channing Pollock's delightful dramatization of the novel, Raffles, made into play form by this well known playwright. Those who had enjoyed the novel would find that the dramatization was even more interesting than the novel and the dramatic situations were worked out with a master hand. Three of the greatest successes of the season had been thief plays, and it was said that Raffles was the best of them all.
It was very evident that all who were willing to help a worthy cause and wish to dance under most delightful circumstances would be found at the Easter Ball of the W.C.A. Creche in the armory on Monday, April 8, for the young ladies had already met with very generous response to their public invitation to buy tickets. As this would be the only dance of its kind in the Easter season, and with this encouraging advance sale of tickets, there could be no doubt of the success of the ball both socially and financially.
75 Years Ago
In 1937, George Ross, 19, was reported to have confessed to Chief of Police Dan F. Connell and Post office Inspector E. J. Gallagher, that he had been stealing letters from the mailing room of the Titusville, Pa., post office over a period of several weeks. He was reported to have said he took the letters when he assisted the mail carrier. Ross was taken into custody after a clerk in the post office saw young Ross place a package of letters inside his coat. He made a confession the previous afternoon. "I would like to have a Bible," said Ross to Chief Connell. "What do you want with a Bible?" asked the Chief. "I want to tell the truth," the prisoner said. He said that, in all he had secured only $7.50 in cash. The remainder of the letters had either checks or money orders in them.
Cookie chairmen of the Girl Scout troops, who would supervise the cookie sale to be conducted for two weeks, beginning April 12, were guests of the Jamestown Council of Girl Scouts at a tea at the home of Mrs. Frank E. Shearman, Jr., 543 Lake View Ave. The tea table was centered with a silver candelabra holding ivory candles and bouquets of spring flowers were placed throughout the home. Headquarters of the cookie sale would be at 123 East Second St.
50 Years Ago
In 1962, a spring snowstorm which started at about 7 a.m. had motorists skidding helplessly on many roads of the county and street and highway crews were pressed into service with sand and salt spreaders. Chautauqua County Highway Department's dispatcher reported late in the morning that conditions were "getting quite bad" and that sand and salt trucks were at work throughout the county. "We might have to do some plowing if it keeps up," the dispatcher said.
Operation Seat Belt, sponsored by the Jamestown and Lakewood Junior Chambers of Commerce, would go into high gear April 2, when cooperating auto dealers would begin installing the life saving devices in the cars of area motorists. The non-profit project was being directed by Robert Oltarzewski in Jamestown and Vincent Finnegan in Lakewood all the coming week. The drive was pointed up when the State Assembly passed a bill making two sets of seat belts in the front seats of all new automobiles sold in New York state mandatory beginning in 1964.
25 Years Ago
In 1987, March waited until its final day to give the area something to remember it by other than the clear, sunny days that marked most of the month. The stationary high-pressure system that dominated the weather pattern during much of March gave way to what meteorologist Tom Niziol at the Buffalo office of the National Weather Service described as a "very, very slow-moving cold front." The pattern resulted in a mix of rain and snow that led to closed schools, hazardous driving and generally deteriorating weather across Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania which contrasted with a high of 81 degrees on March 31 of the previous year.
Platoon, the grim saga of war without glory in Vietnam, was named 1986's best picture in a night of emotional triumph in which Paul Newman won his first Oscar and Marlee Matlin became the first deaf performer to win an Academy Award. Miss Matlin, who overcame her deafness to claim an Oscar as best actress for Children of a Lesser God, said she hoped it would open new doors. "The jinx is broken. He's in!" rejoiced Robert Wise, president of the academy, who accepted Newman's award for the reprise role of Hustler Eddie Felson in The Color of Money.