Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into Pennsylvania (31 page)

This town is always ahead of the curve
.

Town:
Altoona

Location:
Blair County

Founding:
1849

Population (2008):
49,500

Size:
9.8 square miles

County seat:
No

Local Cherokee Indians called the area
Allatoona
, meaning “high lands of great worth” because the city is situated high in the Allegheny Mountains. However, the name may also come from the German city of Altona. (Many Germans settled in the area.)

During the days of the American Revolution, the states often battled each other for territory. Case in point: the 18th-century fight between Pennsylvania and Connecticut for the Wyoming Valley, a conflict known as the Pennamite-Yankee War
.

The problems began in the 17th century, when King Charles II of England gave two groups the same plot of land. In 1662, he granted the founders of the Connecticut colony an area be-tween the 41st and 42nd parallels, going indefinitely west from the coast (since no one back then knew how far inland the new colonies would stretch). Nineteen years later, in 1681, he gave William Penn a plot that included the one he'd given to Connecticut. And within the borders of this doubly gifted plot was the Wyoming Valley, a fertile arch-shaped area about 20 miles long in what is now northeastern Pennsylvania.

Farmers from both colonies soon flocked to the region. The first Connecticut settlement was near modern-day Wilkes-Barre. Pennsylvania, however, felt that the land lay inside its borders. Neither colony was happy about the other moving in on its territory, but for about 70 years, there seemed to be enough land for everyone. And by 1754, the two states were distracted by other things: in particular, the French and Indian War.

In the meantime, rich deposits of coal were found in the
Wyoming Valley, making the place even more appealing to both sides. When a new group of Connecticut settlers arrived in 1769, the local Pennsylvania sheriff, determined to stake a claim for his colony, arrested them for trespassing. The newcomers left, but returned the following year with a militia and built a fort. So the sheriff assembled a larger group and drove them off again.

This just made the Connecticut settlers even more determined to occupy the Wyoming Valley. They contacted a group of ruthless frontiersmen who were promised land for their help and asked for their protection. With those men as bodyguards, the Connecticut “Yankees” (as New Englanders were called in those days) took over the Wyoming Valley, built forts, and dug in. They renamed the place Westmoreland and declared that it was part of Connecticut.

The battle continued, but dissipated a little when the American Revolution began. Some men continued fighting in the Wyoming Valley, but many others (both Yankees and Pennsylvanians, also known as Pennamites) joined General George Washington to fight the British. Pennsylvania's governor, John Penn, the grandson of William Penn, remained loyal to King George III, which only increased the animosity between Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

In 1778, Major John Butler, a British loyalist stationed at New York State's Fort Niagara, led a group of 400 British soldiers into the Wyoming Valley to clear the region of Connecticut settlers. He also added several hundred warriors from the Iroquois Confed eracy to strengthen his numbers.

On the other side, Colonel Zebulon Butler—no relation to John—of Washington's Continental Army happened to be at
home in the Wyoming Valley on furlough. He saw the approaching army and raised his own militia of 300 men to march on John Butler's force. On July 3, 1778, Zebulon Butler met his enemy on open ground, forming a thin line to defend the valley. But because the invading enemy was much larger than his group, this proved to be a fatal mistake.

Zebulon Butler's group fired just three volleys before they were flanked by John Butler's American Indian allies and overwhelmed. The battle lasted less than an hour and resulted in 200 of Zebulon Butler's men being taken captive. (The rest escaped.)

John Butler let the Indians take control of the prisoners. Whether he knew what would happen to them or not is debatable, but during the night, all but two of the prisoners were killed. The two who escaped spread the story that British and Indian troops had massacred the men of the Wyoming Valley.

This was unwelcome news for the American colonists, already angry at the British and distrustful of their Indian neighbors. American poets wrote memorials to the men, which made the feud and the valley famous. And after hearing of the massacre, George Washington sent soldiers to destroy Iroquois villages.

After the Revolutionary War ended, a 1782 Congressional commission ruled that the Wyoming Valley belonged to Penn-sylvania. (Because the commission met in secret and kept no notes, the reasons for choosing Pennsylvania over Connecticut remain a mystery.) Bolstered by Congress's decision, the State of Pennsylvania sent troops to evict the Connecticut settlers. In turn, the angry Yankees declared that neither Pennsylvania nor
Connecticut had any authority over Westmoreland—it was an independent state.

Of course, that didn't work, either, and the back-and-forth bickering lasted another few years. Both sides eventually came to an agreement in 1788: per the Congress's decision, Pennsylvania would keep the land but agreed to let the Connecticut farmers stay and to recognize their property rights. Pennsylvania separated the Wyoming Valley into a new county—Luzerne.

 

 

Before MTV and music videos, there was
American Bandstand.
In its 37 years on the air, the show racked up some fascinating numbers
.

Record played on the national show: “Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On” by Jerry Lee Lewis.

The number of new songs reviewed during each show's “Rate-a-Record” segment. Three teenagers from the studio's audience would rate the new tunes, and the kids also coined the oft-repeated “It's got a good beat and you can dance to it” if they liked it. This part of the show was vitally important to record producers: A good score on “Rate-a-Record” meant the viewing audience would rush out and buy the record, almost always sending it to the Top-10 charts. But a bad rating didn't always spell disaster—in 1963, the then-unknown Beatles got a low Rate-a-Record rating for their song “She Loves You.”

Hosts in
Bandstand
's history. Bob Horn was the first—he was the one who invited teenagers to come to the studio and dance with the music. In 1956, after Horn was arrested for drunk driving, the studio fired him and hired Tony Mammarella. Soon after, though, Dick Clark took his place. Then in 1989, for the show's final season, David Hirsch took over for Clark.

The Philadelphia TV channel (originally WFIL, now WPVI-TV) on which
American Bandstand
premiered in 1952. First called just
Bandstand
, it ran from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, when teenagers were getting home from school. The show went national in 1957 and changed its name to
American Bandstand
. It aired on ABC, and by the end of its first year, 64 stations around the country carried the show.

The minimum age for dancers on the show; 18 was the maximum. They were all local kids from around Philadelphia, and about 60 of them were part of the “Committee”—regulars who appeared on every show during the 1960s and became role models for American teenagers. Becoming a regular was fairly easy: anyone who appeared on the show and received fan mail could be one.

Number of songs featured on each program.

The average cost of a 45-rpm record in Philadelphia in the 1950s. The fact that records were so inexpensive was one reason for the show's success. In the 1950s, teenagers had more disposable income than ever before (a result of the economic prosperity that followed World War II), and by spending a lot of their money on 45s (which had one song on each side), they became the dominant consumers in the music industry.

The number of fan letters received by Arlene Sullivan and Kenny
Rossi, one of the show's most popular couples, during an average week. Sullivan was always surprised by her appeal. She said, “I danced on a TV show. Nothing I did was different than what kids were doing in their basements.”

The year Congress began investigating what became known as the “payola scandal.” Payola was an illegal practice whereby record companies paid disc jockeys to play their songs on the air.
American Bandstand
and Dick Clark were investigated because both were so prominent in the field. In the end, Clark had to give up his financial interests in the recording business and stop accepting gifts from record companies. (He'd once accepted a fur stole and expensive jewelry from a record company president.)

Year ABC moved production of the show from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. Dick Clark actually facilitated the move; he wanted more time to work on other projects and to be closer to the center of the entertainment industry in Hollywood. After-ward,
American Bandstand
began airing only one day a week.

Year
American Bandstand
went off the air.