I recently found, literally in a cigar box, some snapshots from my Kodak Brownie taken sometime, or times, in the '50s. Several of them are of a parade and show some of the long gone businesses on Main Street; Reynolds, Thompson's Rexall, Farm and Home Furniture, Renwick's, Liberty Theatre, O'Connors, etc. And in one of them there are two very curious young ladies checking out the camera. I have a strange feeling that one of them may be a frequent contributor to these forums who was my neighbor when I lived at the corner of Stower and Merriam.
Anyway, I tried several weeks ago to use the 'Contact Us' link to see if there was interest in having these posted in the Gallery but got no respones. If any of you have a direct line to the webmaster and are interested, please have him/her contact me, or send me a working e-mail address.
Ken Ziebarth
Boulder

Hi Ken, Sorry about the contact problem. The pics sound interesting! Send them to [email protected] and I'll get them posted. Thanks! Regards, Larry

Pictures sent off for posting. Enjoy!
Now that I think about it, these may even be from my trusty Roy Rogers camera, boy I wish I hadn't lost that in the creek at camp. But that's another story.
Ken Z

Did they post your snapshots?

I am interested in MC shots.

Fred South

Sorry, I didn't get them posted before. I'll do that now. Thanks for reminding me!

http://www.milescity.com/...id=4&pid=1

Pictures 13-17.

Cool pictures. Okay, I have to ask who are the two girls?
Also, what was the Custer Cafe all about? I remember when my grandpa moved Western Pharmacy into that location. I don't remember what was there before.

Did the Texas Club become Kelly's Gaslight or was there something in between?

These pictures make ME feel really young!

It wasn't the Custer Cafe - it was the Custer Club. It was down below street level, and when I was growing up in MC, it still had slot machines and live poker games. That was in those dear dead days when the Tongue River Clinic was still open. It was quite a wild place then, with waitresses wearing short (above the knee!) skirts and high heels.
Shortly thereafter, a reform-minded county attorney named Lucas was elected, and tourism dropped dramatically, especially during hunting season!

P.S. Amorette, IS that you in the photo?

Only because of the research she has done, I'm sure Amorette knows better than I, but I always understood that the Custer Club was a speakeasy during the prohibition era. I do remember that at one time it was run by Bill Grogan, as their daughter Karen was in grade school with me. The Grogan family left Miles City for Billings in the 1950's, but Bill's widow, Virginia, moved back here and is in our community today. A wonderful lady.
And I think the County Attorney Dona is referring to was named Carr, and not Lucas.

Tom Clarke

You could be right, Tom. I was very young at the time (6-7) and my mother worked at the Custer Club as a cocktail waitress. That would put it at 1953 or 1954, so it was still open. The name Grogan rings a faint bell. Does the name Jim Lucas make sense? I don't recall Carr.

My guess on the colored parade photographs is that they were taken at the parade during the diamond jubilee, which was in 1959, I think (pardon my senior moment!!!). I am basing that on the girl on the right in one photo who has on a long dress, and the cars parked on the street in front of Friend's Shoes. Lots of folks in town dressed up during that celebration to depict what MC might have looked like in early years. I will have to dig out some of my photos from that time period and share them. It is nice to look at early photos of MC to reminisce! Thanks to those who shared the photos. PY

Sorry to be so annul but I was looking at the sign in picture 14 just below the neon vertical Custer sign, and just to the upper right of the drugs sign over the door. I am pretty sure it says cafe. Is that talking about the lunch counter that was in the drug store?

So the the space downstairs went from being a night club to Junes Beauty College? What a transition.

[This message has been edited by Richard Bonine, Jr (edited 7/20/2005).]

Richard, it may well have been a cafe at one point - upstairs. The area where the Beauty School located was a lovely, old seedy dive, where the only edible items were stale olives and perhaps a pickled pigs foot or two, I venture to guess.You went down the stairs, turned left and entered either Sodom or Gomorrah, according to my grandmother. The upstairs area in my younger days was the Renwick-Torgeson Rexall Drug, which at some later point became only the Torgeson Drug Store. Kudos to Ken and his Brownie for the blasts from the past

Richard,
A few memories from an older than Miles City know it all.
I believe the Cafe sign is part of the Custer Club sign. If you look closely it looks attached, as I believe it was. I do know that good food was served at the club during the Bill Grogan era. It was quite a Miles City hangout at one time. Pretty much the local sports bar, among other things. I can remember Frank Tooke tending bar there and he had a big following wherever he was.
As I remember the original name of the Texas Club was the 716 Club for the 716 Main address. I believe the 716 owner was Tom Gilmore a Broadus and Tongue River rancher. A Texan by the name of Ben Plunkett, bought it and changed the name to the Texas Club. In the 60's it was taken over by a pair of "light in the loafers" bill collectors who were hanging around MC and became the Gaslight.Earl Kelly bought it and it became Kelly's Gaslight. After that the Drake and back to the Texas Club. I don't know how many names or owners I might have missed but that's what I remember. Betty O'Brien, help me out with this
Richard, why don't you update Dona with a little more history of Renwick Torgerson Drug?
Pete

The color parade photos were about 1959, which I deduce from the cars that are parked on the street. There is a 1958 Chev, a 1956 Mercury, and I believe a 1959 Oldsmobile. But I don't think it was the Diamond Jubilee because the businesses on Main Street all put wood fronts on their buildings for that event, and Miles & Ulmer, Friends Shoes, and the like aren't so covered.
I'm probably in the CCHS Band, as those were our uniforms, and Ralph Hartse would be somewhere among the sidewalk crowd walking with the band, watching them perform and making sure the lines were straight. What a great band director. Hat's off to you, Ralph.
And Pete Petro, one of the Texas Club owners was a Venable. I think it was Herm, Sr. who was the father of Mary Jean Venable Bertrand, and Herm Venable, Jr., who was a classmate of mine.

Tom Clarke

You're sure right,Tom, I'd forgotten all about him. Could he have been a partner of Tom Gilmore, or was he there on his own? Thanks for the update.

In 1959, I was a year old so those girls aren't me. I had a little dress to match my mother's--EVERYBODY in town had a costume. Mine had little lacy bloomers that went down to my little ankles. I even had a bonnet. My mother has a photo of me sitting on the front steps at her house looking less than impressed to be wearing the bloomers and bonnet. I was not a cute kid.

Great photos, though.

Hey, Richard, is it true the anti-car sickness drug was named after your family?

Amorette

What fun to finally see these posted and the response! I am sure that the parade shown was not the Diamond Jubilee. By that time I also was in the CCHS Band, with Tom C., and marching behind the horses. This is more likely before 1955. I probably would have been in a Washington Jr. Hi. band (director Lyle Babcock, Kelly's dad) any later than that.

The 'dive' under the Rexall drug store was definitely still there in the late 50s. I delivered the Great Falls newspaper all around town when in High School, and they got a stack every day. I think it was then The Texas Club, and the 'dive' descriptions are accurate.

I am still wondering if someone will admit to being one of the foreground girls in the first picture.

Ken

"Hey, Richard, is it true the anti-car sickness drug was named after your family?"

The story my grandpa told me was that a drug salesman walked into Western Pharmacy one day and was talking with my grandpa about a new drug they had developed and they were trying to come up with a name. My grandpa said "well, why don't you call it Bonine." The drug saleman said he would suggest that to "management". Supposedly, that is how the drug got it's name.

If you knew my grandpa, he was not above pulling your leg just a wee bit. He actually took some pink hand lotion and put in a bottle complete with a precription label for "Freckle Polish" and gave to one of my sisters when she was about six. She went around for about six months thinking that "Freckle Polish" was why she had so many freckles.


[This message has been edited by Richard Bonine, Jr (edited 7/22/2005).]

Ken: IMO, the photo with the two girls is practically Time-Life material... too bad you didn't tilt the camera down just a teeny bit for better composition, but it's a wonderful picture in any case. I'd blow it up, crop it, and stick it on the wall.

http://www.milescity.com/...d=4&id=413

Ken - the photos you sent in are obviously from different parades. I am judging by the vehicles on the sidelines and in the parades. The black and whites look late '40s EARLY '50s. The 3 color photos are later. Tom pointed out that the cars in the 3 COLOR photos were vintage '58 or thereabouts. I do remember now that the building fronts were covered to look like late 1800's during the Diamond Jubilee, so obviously it was not the DJ parade. One of the color photos is of a color guard from the 902nd Radar Sqdn. that was located near MC. That couldn't have been too early 1950's. Just trying to help identify photos! Appreciate your sharing them! py

Clarification:
Only the black and white snapshots are mine (so far, I'm still looking through old slides etc.). The color ones have a different attribution. So you are correct, they are from different parts of the 50s, early-mid and late. The gold band uniforms in the color pictures were replaced by blue after a fund drive selling Worlds Finest Chocolate during my time at CCHS (Class of 1960).
Ken

In the picture of the girls at the swimming lake, the one fourth from the left looks like a Rivenes girl.?? Does anyone know the others ? Neat pictures !

MR
Girls at the pool.
L to R
Julie Reinholz (now Etchemendy)
Merle Buck
Marilyn Pyle
Sigrid Rivenes
Betty White (on back end of rail)
Helen Frederickson or Deloris Rogers (I think it's Helen)
Evahlia Barnum
Shirley Leibinger (sitting on pier)
Beverly Gierke (sitting on board)
Carol Horn (on front of rail)

To what email address do I sent the pics of MC I have?

Fred south

Hi Fred,
You can send submissions to [email protected]. If possible, please include a short title and as much information as you know about each photo (who, where, when, etc).

Regards, Larry Antram
MilesCity.com Webmaster

I love these old photos. What a treat.......
Thank you so much for the trip down memory lane.

>>Shortly thereafter, a reform-minded county attorney named Lucas was elected, and tourism dropped dramatically, especially during hunting season!

Anyone remember Bob Woodahl?

I can remember the buzz when I was a kid and he led the state's crackdown on the vice-industry (including gambling and prostitution in Miles). As I remember it, there was enough lingering resentment on the part of some folks that it may have cost him the election when he ran against Tom Judge in 76.

Former AG Woodahl Dies"
By The Associated Press
BILLING GAZETTE
May 31, 2007
http://www.billingsgazett...oodahl.txt
HELENA - Robert Woodahl, who used his post as state attorney general to crack down on gambling and prostitution, died Friday at Missouri River Manor in Great Falls at the age of 75. . . .

"Horse Sense: Biggest Catch Eluded Woodahl As AG"
By Charles S. Johnson
[b]Lee State Bureau[b]
June 3, 2007
http://www.billingsgazett...oodahl.txt




[This message has been edited by Hal Neumann (edited 6/3/2007).]

Jack Carr was the County Atty who closed down gambling and prostitution, and I'm quite sure he and Jim Lucas are still alive and living in Miles City. The Custer Club which was in the basement with the entrance around the corner from Main Street was a first class cocktail lounge during the late forties and early fifties. A number of the Commercial Clubs would hold their luncheons there, and the food was good. Having been born and brought up in Miles City and living there until 1957, I get a great deal of enjoyment of reading the entries on this web-site. Keep up the good work and be nice to each other.

Both Jim Lucas and Jack Carr are not only alive, but both are still practicing law in Miles City. Wonderful guys, both of them.

Tom Clarke