Wisconsin Stories is a partnership
of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin
and Wisconsin Public Television.
- I started at Marquette University
and it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it
and I realized that it was an American Indian game.
- This gathering place was more of a community center
than simply a church.
- When Ringling Brothers Circus came to town
the tent was so damn big
that it could seat 12,000 people believe it or not.
- Circus!
- History is like the dark side of the moon.
It is often the overlooked half of who we are.
But history is the equal weight
influencing the tides of change in these cycles of heritage.
History provides the spark of memory
when we take time to enjoy what we have and who we are.
When the people of Wisconsin take "Time to Play"
it signals the start of an identity
which ranges from endurance to indulgence.
- Go, Packers!
- Green Bay weather!
- Each of us has embraced pieces of a badger identity
which is marked by the habits of our ancestors,
shaped by the natural resources of our state
and refined by the custom mix of communities.
These stories mark the passage of time well spent,
time for our families.
- We went dancing every night of the week.
- Every night you went dancing? - Except Monday.
- Time for our individual communities
and time to enjoy together this place we call Wisconsin.
Major funding for Wisconsin Stories was provided by:
AT&T, providing business and residential
long distance service throughout Wisconsin;
S.C. Johnson Wax, a Wisconsin manufacturer
of home cleaning and home storage products;
the Credit Unions of Wisconsin, serving the financial needs
of two million Wisconsinites and their families;
and the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Commission,
celebrating 150 years of Wisconsin statehood.
Funding also provided by:
Firstar Corporation;
Harley-Davidson, Incorporated;
Marshall and Illsley Corporation;
the Outdoor Advertising Association;
the Philip Morris Companies;
W.H. Brady Company;
Weber Stephen Products Company;
and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.
And now, Wisconsin Stories.
- Some of my ancestors have come through...
- For over 200 years, the different American Nations
which populated the land of Wisconsin
had been in constant contact
with European missionaries and traders.
- This is a very old game, very simple game,
because most of us needed something quite simple to learn.
- With the exchange of goods services and entertainment
both groups began to change.
- A long time ago, there's a lot of trading.
There's a lot of gambling going on, and such.
Mostly, a lot of people
with the casinos and such and the tribes
say that, "Well, tribes didn't gamble."
"Why do they have these casinos?"
What a lot of people aren't aware of
is the fact that tribes were notorious gamblers.
Most of the adult games that tribes played
were gambling games, everything from moccasin games,
to stick games, even, even gambling in lacrosse.
When the French came in the 1600s,
they had seen a game, a stick game,
just like this, and they call it lacrosse,
because it looked like what
one of their Catholic bishops would carry.
And the reason why we're here is
for this Hilary Walkam memorial game.
It was 1932, 1932, the last time
that this game had been played in this area.
- Lacrosse was a game that was played in one form or another
by just about every tribe in North America.
Sometimes some people have referred to lacrosse
as the game of war.
Rule number one was you couldn't touch the ball with your hands.
Rule number two, the winner was the team
that got the ball through their opponent's goal first.
Rule number three, and kids especially really liked this rule,
because rule number three was that you could not
intentionally seriously harm or kill anyone
playing lacrosse.
- In early 1800s, every tribe had this in the area.
La Crosse, Wisconsin, I heard a professor
from the Smithsonian say that they had found a field
that was 13 miles long by 1 mile wide.
Only the boundaries of that field is the cliffs
of the Mississippi River.
- As the Yankees and new waves of immigrants built over
communities of Nations
now regulated to reservation life,
Wisconsin would change in such ways
until the debate of not only who Americans were
but how they should play,
created a new American identity.
- But there were some rules within the school
that our people were sent to
and it was considered, I guess, a heathen game,
which is interesting because they played it on the East Coast
and it was okay for Anglo Americans to play it
but I wasn't okay for us to play.
Lacrosse is a game played on a large field
where you run and pass with a ball and try to score points
with the help of your teammates.
The game is played primarily for three reasons:
to enjoy as a sport,
as part of a spiritual renewal within the community,
and to honor those who played the game
in places just like this.
- One of the efforts we tried to do as a tribe
is to revitalize the traditions
that had belonged to us.
And we had lost of those things during the early 1800s.
And in the late 1800s, a lot of those things
were taken away from us.
It was to Americanize us and civilize us.
Essentially, they were taking away the spirituality
of who we are.
- Like most of the European immigrants
who were drawn to the advertised cheap land of Wisconsin,
the Norwegians is attempting to settle near Wind Lake
were more interested in survival than national policy.
- This church was organized in 1843.
It was a time of hardship for the Norwegian immigrants
who came here and settled.
There was an epidemic of malaria that occurred.
They called it the fever or the ague.
There were just scores of people who succumbed to that.
- Malaria killed one-third of the settlement that year,
but because land was something not offered
within their native countries, this opportunity
was an opportunity of unquestioned paperwork
and unlimited potential.
- Five for Jerry Anderson.
- You gather together people of a common ethnic background
and you try to find your way, you know, in this new world.
You try to make sense of it, together.
And I think that's, you know, a pretty common thread
in a story of not only this community
but lots of other places around the state.
[Melvin Johnson leading a Norwegian prayer]
Amen.
Enjoy your meal, have a good dinner,
and we have plenty food for you.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- This is an absolute joy.
- I grew up on this from my mother.
My mother was um-- My grandmother was Olyanna Olson,
and Louisa Larson,
so they taught my mother how to make fruit soup.
- How many Lutefisks have you been to?
- Oh, every one of them.
I don't think I missed any of them all my life.
- It was basically men who ran the church,
but the way that the women worked their influence
on decisions and on how things got done
was really interesting.
They would wield their influence kind of behind the scenes.
They held the purse strings for some special projects,
for example, when that basement was dug out,
they asked the men to do it, and said we have the money,
you guys do it, you know, let's do it.
They said, "Oh, it can't be done,
and they actually lifted up the church
and dug out a basement
so that they could have church dinners there.
- It would be the first
Norwegian Lutheran Church in the United States.
And in typical American fashion, the Norwegians chose a Dane,
Pastor Claus Clausen, to lead them.
- The church really was the hub of this community.
It is the place where people came together, not only for worship,
but to connect with one another socially.
So you would, you know,
be isolated on your farm during the week
and then come together on Sunday at the church
and have worship and then probably hang out, you know.
They would have talent shows
and they would get together and do a violin solo.
One woman would give a speech
about the history of Norway church
or the history of this community.
Another would give a speech about
why I'm proud to be an American,
or you know, any number of things.
- A lutefisk, a symbol of Norwegian heritage,
was not on the menu those early years.
You just couldn't get it back then.
- You come once a year and I just hope and pray
that I can live 'til the next year to come back, you know.
I love it.
? My wild Irish rose The sweetest flower that grows ?
- There are fewer people who are actually members here
who would claim Norwegian
as part of their ethnic background.
- More potatoes.
- And yet it's transcended ethnicity.
It's a community thing.
It's people coming together before the dinner
to learn how to make lefse and to pass on traditions.
It's part of our identity as a congregation...
- They will eat this with--
- ... whether or not we're actually Norwegian.
- As the towns and cities of Wisconsin grew
communities within communities began their efforts
to carve out a place to come together
and play as an equal part of our social landscape.
- My family originates from Virginia.
Through a slave trade and there's some land ownership,
we wound up in Mississippi.
In the early '60s, Milwaukee was one of the better places
to get a job up north, so then we came here.
I knew this was the only black-owned YMCA
for, oh, almost 50 years.
So that's one the reason why I chose this place.
This is my home away from home.
- Like Tony's family, other new migrant and immigrant groups
arrived during a time in Wisconsin
when the land was no longer as cheap as the labor.
One such family included a young Lincoln Gaines.
During Lincoln Gaines youth,
he was primarily raised by his grandmother
while his mother worked for a hotel chain
and his father worked for a horse breeding ranch
in his home in Midland, Kentucky.
- Before you could say hi or goodbye,
you out of the little town, but it was the racehorse town.
When my father was working with horses,
we didn't have any black jockeys.
They had black jockeys, but they were pulled down.
Discriminations said no more blacks.
- With a move to Milwaukee,
Lincoln became part of a community within a community,
looking for work, and a place to relax and enjoy oneself.
- You can tell going into a group,
if you're being accepted.
It's like going into a restaurant.
Today, you're the last one,
your waitresses will move all around.
Or you go to the bar
and you don't get the immediate attention.
Today it's a little bit different,
because you wouldn't go in there
if you didn't have a couple of dollars.
- During the Depression,
Lincoln Gaines found work at a clothing store.
It was a time when African Americans
were not invited to work directly with customers.
But when one of the store managers,
a Mr. A.P. Rosenberg, learned Lincoln
was volunteering his time to help build a YMCA
for the children of his community,
Rosenberg visited Gaines in the shipping room
to give him the option of leaving at 3:00 p.m.
without a loss in pay.
- A parent has to work, either the mother or the father.
Sometimes, both.
Their complaint was we have to do something for our kids.
There was a need. The kids had nowhere to go.
They felt they weren't wanted,
so they were welcomed when they had a place to go.
- After Rosenberg saw Gaines work even harder at the store,
he asked his young employee
to leave at noon without a loss in pay.
It was time well spent raising money for this young YMCA.
- The most successful fundraiser in Wisconsin
were selling trees
and that turned out to be our major project.
After a year or two, we'd go Up North
and cut trees of our own.
It was very, very cold, that was one of the problems
we didn't dress correctly for.
- Lincoln went on to serve the YMCA for 50 years,
measuring the improvements for the kids one step at a time.
- We had excellent kids. Always wanted boxing.
We didn't know what to do,
so we built this in a one little bitty room
and these are the ropes, one that was--
You see one fellow standing over there.
He had to hold a post to keep the ropes tight
and the kids would bounce up against the rope
and down go the ropes.
So then, we had to put two people on each, four corners
to take care of good boxers.
- Pick a date, a place, a community
and the repeated Gaines and Rosenberg relationship
would likely reappear.
But these stories told in communities throughout Wisconsin
have a history of not coming naturally.
- I made the kids feel comfortable.
Talk about it, rather than to argue about it.
- For so many ethnicities to not only work together,
but play together as a community,
is an ongoing learning process.
- And this was this was, "Oh, this is education
"that the schools can't give you."
And that's why I love the YMCA as long as I live.
- Not far down the road
from the variety of spiritual centers in Wisconsin,
another social center was building roots.
It served a multitude of purposes
and was an outgrowth of a growing beer brewing industry
primarily built by German immigrants of the 19th century.
- One of the funniest stories is about when Grandpa came over
from Germany and they landed at Baltimore. - Oh, yeah.
- And they-- somebody sold him a banana and he didn't know
how to eat it, because he had never seen a banana before.
- He ate with the peeling and all. - Yeah. Ha, ha.
- Family-owned taverns would dot the land
as growing communities began to make the most
of Wisconsin's natural resources.
? Oh, the sea was hard and the pays were bad ?
? Leave her, Johnny, leave her! ?
? And now ashore at last we'll go ?
? It's time for us to leave her! ?
? Leave her Johnny, leave her! ?
? Oh, oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her! ?
- Wisconsin had shoreline.
In Door County, there are 250 miles of shoreline,
which is more than any other county in the country.
? Leave her Johnny, leave her! ?
? You can go ashore and spend your pay ?
? An it's time for us to leave her ?
- There are thousands of lakes
and over 7400 rivers and streams.
? Leave her, Johnny, leave her! ?
? For the voyage is done an' the winds don't blow ?
? An' it's time for us to leave her! ?
Flowing or frozen, these waters have been the ideal welcome mat
for all who have come to Wisconsin
and all who have returned.
It is also an environment
suited for the creation of engines for play,
such as in 1902,
when Harley-Davidson built their first production engine
with a carburetor designed by Ole Evinrude.
Seven years later, about the time it takes to catch a muskie,
Evinrude pioneered the first outboard motor
and made ship captains out of us all.
By 1924, in Sayner, Carl Eliason's motorized sled
would create a buzz on the lakes and woods of Wisconsin
and claim itself the first useable snowmobile.
- But before the engines, during the days of logging camps,
land speculation and commercial fishing,
Wisconsin's flowing waters also blended well
with the talents of nineteenth-century brewmasters
and entrepreneurs who found a growing clientele
among the waves of migrant and immigrant workers.
? There's a dance tonight... ?
- My uncle, he worked in the lumber camps.
28 nationalities in the camp and they danced.
Some night there was a guy in there with a fiddle.
They tie a rag around one guy's arm.
And he was-- what do you call it-- the woman.
And they danced and had a hell of a time.
? ...Every dance with me ?
? A cotton dress you'd wear ?
? That match the flowers in your hair ?
- After the season, many of the workers took their earnings
and returned to budding communities
throughout the state.
- The real German immigrants started to come in in the 1840s
and of course that went on for a goodly number of years,
but what happened was really really interesting
because the Yankees owned everything,
because they bought all the land.
And of course when the Germans came in
they sold the land to the Germans in land speculation
which was how Wisconsin started in the beginning.
Well, the Yankees tended to be temperance folks
and of course the Germans believed that a glass of beer
is a is a good thing every day and often.
- This lifestyle, of course, differed
from Protestant to Catholic and family to family,
but there is no doubt the sheer number of taverns
changed our social landscape.
- A tavern was a home on Sunday like their little club
for all the German people to come in there
with their families in the afternoon.
They'd sing and dance and had a good time there.
- And of course the saloon was the social point
for probably an area maybe about four miles square
and it fulfilled all of their needs.
- First the church on Sunday morning, all spick-and-span.
After church was over, everybody went down
about a mile down the road, there was a tavern,
in the country I'm talking about.
And they all went in there, got the news of the land,
how the crops are coming, and it was interesting.
And the women got together with their needs too.
So everybody was-- It was nice to get to meet the neighbors.
At least if you didn't see them all week,
you saw somebody on Sunday.
- Neighborhood taverns were job centers
dance halls, rest stops and more.
- People in those days,
they didn't have the communications we did,
so you could go in and leave a message on a board.
You'd write a little message and pin it on the board.
And it would be just-- And some other German
would come along, like if you were looking for a relative.
It happened so often, you know,
the Germans would come to this country
and looking for a relative and the relative moved on
and they never knew where they went.
- The time for ourselves in Wisconsin,
whether it be as a newcomer, a life member,
or a returning soul,
is forever shadowed by those like the brewmasters
who built over 400 breweries nearly everywhere in the state.
Though nearly all are gone their legacy is well preserved,
not unlike a natural resource,
similar to the lake ice which they used to cut and store
to preserve their beer.
- So basically Wisconsin was ideally-suited
for becoming a brewing state
because we had the pure water, we had the hops growing,
and we had the ice.
- We had barley nearby, and above all, we had Germans.
- While Milwaukee once boasted over 100 breweries,
one must look elsewhere to find
the first European-style brewery in Wisconsin territory.
- The natural thought is that,
that Milwaukee really was the beginning of the state.
Well interesting enough, it wasn't.
Mineral Point, 1835, a Welsh, a Welshman
started a brewery in Mineral Point.
- But the giant breweries found their home in Milwaukee
and after the 1871 Chicago fire
one brewery seized an opportunity and found a slogan.
- Schlitz loaded up a bunch of beer on a lake steamer--
Oops, wait a minute, I'm getting a bite.
And they took, they took a load of beer down to Chicago
and the Chicago people were so impressed with that
that they very soon were saying,
"Schlitz, the beer that made Milwaukee famous."
Schlitz continued doing well, had a setback
as all breweries did during Prohibition.
But after Prohibition, Schlitz came on really strong.
- Within a lifetime of Schlitz boasting
being the largest brewery in the world,
nearly all of the locally-owned giant breweries of Wisconsin
have completely disappeared,
but their memory of being part of our recreation world
still lingers through the continued practice
of creative advertising.
- In the advertising, to help people appreciate
that beer was a healthful thing. It was not a--
- It was a food, not simply a recreational drink.
- Yeah, and in fact it talks about,
"Schlitz beer, the healthful food."
And it goes into some detail, a bit overblown,
but mostly accurate about the good things
that the beer drinking can do for you.
- Every little town had a dance hall.
We swung those girls right off of their feet.
Once in a while, they come too close to each other
from the next guy swinging, they knock the heels off.
So, we all had nails and hammers in the car.
We've got there and take the shoe along
and nail to damn heel on, back again
and we were back in business.
- Loggers and fishermen,
moving from camp to camp and port to port,
helped bring a new lodge and hotel business to the state.
It wasn't long before those rest stops
converted even further to resort destinations
and meeting places for the local working population
who played as hard as they worked.
- We went dancing every night in the week.
- Every night you went dancing?
- Except Monday. - Why not Monday?
- Well, my mama says you guys are gonna kill yourself
you keep on going like that.
So we get dressed, with Depression days,
and all didn't even have a suit
so we had a pair of pants, I used to iron that every night.
And, I would wash my shirt,
then we go to the dance, and she looked us over
to say, "Yep, don't come home drunk." "No, ma."
"Don't start no fight." "No, ma."
But if they were in a fight, "You give it to them."
"We will, ma." Ha, ha, ha.
- Got any bourbon back there?
Them choruses, in there. Isn't that a nice one?
- By 1965, Wisconsin introduced the nation
to the idea of utilizing abandoned railroad beds
for hiking snowmobiling and cross-country skiing,
creating a wider network of convenient playgrounds.
This coupled with the already developing weekend vacation
and the faster transportation of automobiles
and a growing network of roads
further cut into nature's insulated world.
15,000 miles of logging trails and railroad beds
would be the foundation of a new industry.
The Americans Birkebeiner started on February 24, 1973,
with roughly 57 skiers and one dog
who ran alongside its master, Jacqui Lindskoog,
who ignored race officials
and finished the men's-only, 50-kilometer marathon event.
- Ooh! - Not much farther.
- 19th here. Way to go!
- Go, go, go!
- What a great day.
- ...doing his 9th Birkebeiner, from Cable.
All right... from Belford, Michigan.
- Way to go!
- Almost there. Hang on.
- Come on! Almost there!
- The race grew quickly
to be the biggest cross-country ski event in the U.S.
and a major part of the International World
Wofford Cup competition.
Each year thousands of skiers from all over the world
descend on the northwestern part of Wisconsin
to race against others and challenge themselves
in an event which is a unique blend
of Scandinavian and Native American traditions...
...mixed with the Northwoods entrepreneurial spirit
of Tony Weiss [or Wise].
- Tony was a visionary.
He knew what he wanted this race to become
and if there was any way that he was gonna make that happen
it was through his own energy.
- Everything was research; he had to know everything
historically in this area,
and if you'll notice some of the walls upstairs
their murals that were done
because of his historical background.
- He was [Red Cliff Ojibwe name] because he could do everything.
[Red Cliff Ojibwe name] is like a folk hero in our culture.
And I thought I was meeting
someone like [Red Cliff Ojibwe name] or Paul Bunyan.
He didn't go and tell somebody what to do.
He always says, "What should I do?"
- Tony Weiss began his skiing legacy in 1947
when he settled in Hayward to build an alpine ski resort,
he would call Telemark.
- Okay, let's race. The race after the race.
- He was bargaining with this farmer up on the hill here.
He wanted to buy this place.
Of course, farmers thought he was crazy
and they were starting to negotiate a price.
And they-- Tony wouldn't say what's the price
and farmer wouldn't say what's the price.
They both kind of had their ideas
of what they wanted to pay for it.
And so Tony said to the farmer,
"You go on that side of the birch tree
"and write your price and I'll write my price
"on this side of the birch tree."
And so they wrote their prices.
They each walked around and looked at it
and they shook hands and he owned Telemark.
- Wooo!
- With a string of such dealings Tony Weiss and Telemark
would ride financial ups and downs for decades.
- But today, on this perfect day for skiing,
it is the Birkebeiner
which reigns as a national symbol of a winter event
which is part endurance test, part history and part spectacle.
- I own a little cappuccino shop up in Two Harbors.
Business has been a little bit slow,
so I'll go to where the people are.
- The inevitable combination of business and natural resources
is a continuous story found
in communities throughout Wisconsin.
The coming together of those communities
to meet, greet, and show off
has had one home since 1851.
It was and still is a showcase of state identity.
- My first trip is a fair interestingly enough
was that was about six years old.
My dad was working at Allis-Chalmers
in the West Allis area here
and wanted my sister and I to see
a good old-fashioned Midwestern State Fair, so he brought us here.
And I still a very vivid memory of that
and what the cream puff would look like at that time
and of course what cream puffs tasted like
were still wonderful, wonderful back then,
and they still are.
- We're trying to go for the record this year
and we'd like to sell 250,000 cream puffs.
During the 1940s, whipping cream was pretty scarce
and the only place in Wisconsin that they could find whipping cream
was here at the bakery.
We had cream puffs
and there was whipping cream in the cream puffs.
All of a sudden, our sales for cream puffs just skyrocketed.
- The Wisconsin Bakers Association
began selling cream puffs in 1924.
It was that same year
a few vendors were fined for selling moonshine
and the woman's department created a milk campaign.
- They are chocolate chip or polka dots.
Candy dots in them.
- Are they delicious?
- Pretty much spice and hickory-smoked.
This is the beef, and this is the jerky.
- Wisconsin's eclectic communities began gathering
together in celebration of an agricultural identity in 1851.
With $55 appropriated from the state legislature,
the two-day event was held on the banks of the Rock River
in Janesville.
Roughly 16,000 people paid 10 cents apiece
to attend the first state fair
which featured a 200-pound squash.
- I can't hear you.
Five, four, three, two, one!
And they're off!
- You have to have fun things at fairs
and kids will learn-- maybe by accident--
but they will learn something.
And we thought one of a unique way would be doing it
is by putting wooden wheels on them
and racing them down a 16-foot track.
Number three! Who had three!
Okay, you get the red, white and blue ribbon.
- For the first 35 years,
the fair was held in several different locations,
until finally settling in the West Allis area in 1892.
Many people may not realize that the famous Milwaukee Mile,
our racetrack, is actually the oldest continuously operating
track in the country; we had auto races here before
the track in Indianapolis was even built.
We actually had the first official auto race in 1903.
The fair has always served the purpose.
I think of being a showcase for special things like that.
Just because it is the state's largest event
and that it's the coming together of people
from so many different cultures and different interests
and different geographic areas.
It's a good place to showcase anything.
- Over the years, the fair became a playground
of cream puffs, livestock, crafts, invention and promotion,
such as in 1897,
when all children under 5 feet 5 inches tall
were admitted free on Tuesdays.
- The Women's Christian Temperance Union,
on the other hand, begged the state fair board
not to sell beer here anymore--
an unthinkable thought, right now--
and actually paid the Fair Board $500
which was the money they would have made
on beer sales that year.
? Prost! ?
- Throughout our state history,
the fair has been a constant in reflecting who we are,
what we do, and what we enjoy.
- Swiss and rye: four ounces of Swiss cheese
dipped in a dark rye batter and deep-fried.
If you like Swiss, if you like and rye, it's excellent!
- Hot. Hot.
- A few years ago, we left a real open-ended question
on our visitor study asking, "Was there one reason you came to the fair?"
And "girls" ranked pretty high up on that,
so I think there is an aspect of: yes, people coming together,
meeting, and that kind of stuff.
- Hold still.
- It was where urban and rural met.
It was where children met other children
outside their own communities.
- Selling Wisconsin's dairy state image
has taken on many forms over the years.
It has turned into a playful image
filled with good-natured claims
from towns and cities everywhere in the state.
- Well, Two Rivers-- The original settlement
goes back to about 1836,
settled by the Yankees from New England
as many of these areas were.
Later on, there was an influx of Germans and Czech and Polish.
One of these was Ed Burners, who had an ice cream parlor.
One day, a salesman came in.
He was a local man and he wanted some ice cream.
They had been making phosphates out of ice cream and chocolate,
but they never had made a sundae.
He said, "Why don't you put some of that sauce on my ice cream
and that started the sundae.
One day on Thursday, a little girl came in
and asked for one of those concoctions.
They said, "Why, we only sell that on Sunday."
She said, "Well, let's make believe today is Sunday."
And he served her, and from that time
it was sold throughout the week.
It became very, very famous.
- The sweet reminders of who we are
can also take shape in a favorite toy.
It is often our first memory of play.
- This doll was made to be played with.
It was designed to be a toy
that a child could really get their hands on.
- During the Depression, there were some special toys
being made in Wisconsin.
They were not tied to any promotions
or mass-produced to fill store shelves
or made for any reason
other than being a vessel for happiness.
- Those were very sad times.
These dolls were loved by children in orphanages
and children who were very, very poor.
And then to have a whole doll
with its own clothes and its own wardrobe
was just the most wonderful thing in the world.
- And so, as men and women were put back to work
building roads, parks and buildings through WPA programs,
a group of recently-graduated art teachers
and a group of unskilled women were joined together.
Everybody was so excited about having work
and going to be getting a paycheck that they--
It was just an aura of happiness.
They really were anxious to do their best.
The artists then taught them,
and they didn't accept any work
until they were able to do it well.
- The job lasted for about six years,
but the experience still endures,
because the dolls met the most basic need to play.
- This is what the project called their counterpane toys.
They were lightweight, little toys
that children and hospitals are--
who were bedridden at home, could play with.
Mostly children who had rheumatic fever
and had to spend month after month in bed.
- It was a quality program, which spread through the nation
and was described by such people as Eleanor Roosevelt
as being the cream of the crop.
- For me, it really meant a college education
because if my mother hadn't had this job
and when she was supporting my younger sister and myself
and I don't think I would have been able to go on to school
if it hadn't been for the work that she was able to get.
- As the Depression era neared its end,
a new chapter in Wisconsin leisure identity
was already growing roots throughout the state.
In 1939 a small-town football team
was on its way to winning its 5th national championship
in ten years.
They were the last of four teams from Wisconsin
who were attempting to take a college game
and make a leisure business out of it.
- Teams were coming in and going out of business
a lot in the early NFL.
The Packers were able to manage to make their payroll.
I mean a lot of stories are told about the Packers,
being shorted on certain games
because there just wasn't money left.
They were really playing for the love of it.
Quite frankly, the support for the Green Bay Packers
was more support than any of the other teams
here in Milwaukee or Racine or Kenosha.
- But because of hard financial times,
the Green Bay Packers found it necessary
to play their championship game
within the state's biggest venue:
the state fairgrounds,
in hopes of attracting the most fans.
Curley was known for charging four dollars and 40 cents
for a ticket, for the best tickets for that game.
They talked about 6,000 people
actually sitting on the infield racetrack,
beside the people sitting in the stands.
So, they made it a huge event
and they sold the tickets out in two days.
- Asking $175 now.
- Cheese be with you, Packer faithful.
- Let's go, Packers!
["Cheesehead Baby" by Cheeseheads With Attitude]
? On the way to the game The traffic's kind of heavy ?
? Bratwurst on the brain Tailgate with my Chevy ?
? The freeway's frozen hard Covered by a blizzard ?
? Corn cobs cooking And cows in the barnyard ?
? Pass the 12-gauge Heat up a chili dog ?
? Broken down John Deere ? Just call me boss hog ?
? The tundra sits on a field Just west of Green Bay ?
? Handful of No-Doz We never sleep on Sundays ?
? Reading all the signs The Pack is really back ?
? And everyone is proud Down at The Burger Shack ?
- You got to love Wisconsin, don't ya.
- Like all sports played professionally,
football and its fans were not created in Wisconsin.
Neither is the promotion and marketing
of the hometown team.
The genesis of the fan
identifying him or herself closely with the team
was also not created
with the publicly-owned Green Bay Packers.
It just seems that way.
- You know, when you look around here
it feels like a big family.
It feels like there's a real sense of tradition,
a real sense of togetherness.
And that's kind of what I really value.
- Well, I'm a Packer fan; that's different than just being a fan. It is!
- He has been a diehard Packer fan since he was born.
- We haven't had any trouble at all.
You are the best fans in the United States,
but Dallas will win tomorrow.
(Loud laughing)
- We've waited for 364 days of the year, you know.
I mean, this is what it's all about,
right here, for the Cowboys.
- It's the best. It's a showdown in Titletown.
We're gonna ride the Cowboys on out of Dodge.
- The only cold game ever was at was the 49er game,
because when you get wet and it's cold, then it's cold,
but you just acclimate.
- For many being a Packer fan
has evolved into a state identity.
- Packer fan all the way from Miami, Florida, baby!
Go, Packers!
- We are not Bears, Vikings, 49ers or Cowboys,
we are Packers.
We will financially support the team
and travel long distances in a flash
to be part of a community experience
one way or another.
? Oh gosh darn it don't you know I'm a Cheesehead, baby ?
? The pride of Wisconsin ?
- Go, Packers! Yeah!
- Being a fan is a social identity
with a matching wardrobe, unique food requirements,
and the desire to pass on historical knowledge
to anyone who will listen.
- How 'bout that, how 'bout that tackle:
Santana on Emmitt.
- Oh, yeah. On third down! - Boom!
- It's something to do
when you get together with friends on Sunday.
- What are the games you remember the most?
- Well, the "Ice Bowl."
This one today.
Dallas Cowboys, we've been waiting for them for years.
- Go, Pack, go!
- The idea of entertainment coming to our communities
and putting on a show
has always had a special place in Wisconsin,
so it is only natural that tourism
that time planned for play
has grown into a leading industry in our state
and that our sports teams have become, in part,
a measure of our state's identity.
In the 19th century, the circus
was often the only glimpse professional entertainment
and the outside world, many Wisconsinites enjoy.
And it still survives today
on the promise of giving us something to remember.
- Ha, ha, ha.
- You know, what about Aunt Frances, now.
- Oh, around the waist, she was about 18.
In North Dakota, you know how it is up there.
How bleak, so that country town wasn't for her.
So she ran off with Ringling Brothers, come to town,
... and it was gone.
And they didn't see her for a long time.
She married a guy in the circus.
He was a barker and they lived together good,
'til they died.
It was a rambling life.
- She was a snake charmer snake, though.
- Snake charmer. She was a horseback rider.
All kinds of stuff like that.
- In Wisconsin history, one never had to travel far
to run away and join the circus.
- All aboard!
- The circus was a special mix of Wisconsin play identity
which still survives today along a winding railroad track
that guides the mile- and-a-half-long train
from Baraboo to its big day in Milwaukee.
And like in the 19th century this train is filled with
Circus World Museum work crews, performers, animals,
wagon makers and menders,
who recreate the parade and circus
to all who want to see what the Greatest Show on Earth
was all about.
- I come to work the Circus World Museum,
and I knew I was gonna stay there.
I did everything I could just so I can stay there and work.
It got in my blood instantly.
I just don't know what it was about the place.
But, I've been there ever since.
- Since its recreation in 1963
the Great Circus Parade, not unlike a lutefisk dinner,
a lacrosse game or a favorite toy
has created a living history
giving communities and families
the ability to touch the past and enjoy the day.
- Are we having fun, yet!
- I hear a lot of people on the train talking about
going to the Ringling show coming through town as a kid.
That's kind of stuff that interests me,
because a lot of these wagons on the train
where on some of those trains.
A lot of people talk, like to be in my shoes.
- For numerous reasons
including climate and central location in the country,
livestock and talented families,
more circuses were created and housed
in Wisconsin than anywhere else in the country.
- In a period from 1847 up through the 1960s
about 100 circuses were founded or wintered here in Wisconsin.
The railroad tent circus becomes a very large enterprise
with huge tents that can accommodate
up to 15,000 people at a single sitting or performance.
Within these larger shows
you see the full variety of high aerial acts.
You not only have all the ground tumbling, and acrobatics,
the clowns, the bareback riding,
you get into the flying trapeze, the cannon acts,
other mechanical thrill acts, things that really kind of
capture the imagination of people,
especially around the turn of the century
when speed's kind of a very popular phenomenon.
- Three two one, blast off!
- The biggest business around in show business was the circus.
It was the premier form of popular entertainment.
Circus day, the day when the circus came to town,
was as important as national holiday,
like the Fourth of July or Christmas.
It was a way where you were exposed to cultures
beyond what you might find the confines
of your own town or city.
- Over time, the circus became lost
somewhere between generations
as competition for our entertainment dollar
squeezed out all but a few circuses.
The Greatest Show on Earth was forced to change.
- And it came to rely more on its nostalgic
and traditional value.
Parents would still continue
to take their children to the circus
because they had been taken as children.
And grandparents will take grandchildren.
Nostalgia becomes a very important selling element.
And because it's able to change that's why it's survived.
- Did you try the foam?
- That kind of helps it from sliding around, too, the foam.
- That's a lot better.
- Every year as long as I can remember,
I've come with my family.
Throughout the week I help out usually selling tickets,
or ushering in the shows, things like that,
and this year I'm gonna be riding
an elephant in the parade.
It's fun, it's just-- It's not like a job.
It's something-- It's like a hobby.
It's just a great thing to do.
- Unlike today where The Great Circus Parade
is the conclusion to a week-long event,
the everyday circus parade of the past
was a call to the community
which the circus invaded that day.
It was one big, living, breathing, noisy advertisement,
saying, "It's time to play!"
(Bells chiming)
- The original purpose of the bell wagon
was to offer another different type of musical song
within the circus parade.
All these types of music
made the circus parade very exotic,
just like the parade itself, winding its way through a town,
with wagons, horses, animals, people in wardrobe.
It was really an intrusion on the metropolitan community
and it was a means to advertise the show
and say, "We are here."
- One person who vividly remembers
the circus coming to town was Chappie Fox,
who after years of photographing and writing about the circus,
decided that the only way to save the history he saw,
not only in the wagons, but in the horses
and the organization of the circus,
was to bring the parade back to Wisconsin,
which he did in 1963.
- Very small tribute to a wonderful man.
- With the help of Schlitz Brewing Company
and countless others,
Chappie went hunting for our history.
These wagons have paraded
in every major city in the United States
at some time or another.
We just found them rotting away in the fields.
Everybody forgot about 'em
and nobody gave a damn about them.
So I just absolutely decided we'd go after these wagons.
And sure enough, we've got them all.
They're here right now, today, all restored.
- We are who we are because of the past,
but history is also where you look for it
and how you remember it.
Our playful, individual and community habits and memories
are an equal weight influencing our cycles of heritage
and our time well spent
in this place we call Wisconsin.
Major funding for Wisconsin Stories was provided by:
AT&T, providing business and residential
long distance service throughout Wisconsin;
S.C. Johnson Wax, a Wisconsin manufacturer
of home cleaning and home storage products;
the Credit Unions of Wisconsin, serving the financial needs
of two million Wisconsinites and their families;
and the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial Commission,
celebrating 150 years of Wisconsin statehood.
Funding also provided by:
Firstar Corporation,
Harley-Davidson, Incorporated,
Marshall and Illsley Corporation,
the Outdoor Advertising Association,
the Philip Morris Companies,
W.H. Brady Company,
Weber Stephen Products Company,
and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.