Early Americana

The Chicago Stags were charter members of the Basketball Association of America, forerunner of the NBA, which was founded on June 6, 1946. They played in the BAA Championship in 1947 but folded before the start of the 1950 season.

KCKN began broadcasting in 1925 (as WLBF) and was one of the oldest commercial radio stations in the United States. Heard on 1340 AM an FM signal at 94.1 was added in 1963. After several ownership changes, it is today known as KDTD.

Bill Knapp's was an American family restaurant chain founded by Clinton B. Knapp in 1948 in Batttlecreek, MI. At its peak it had 60 locations in Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Indiana, and Illinois. The last location closed in 2002.

The Havana Sugar Kings were a AAA minor league baseball team based in Cuba's capital from 1946 to 1960. They were members of the International League and their parent club was Cincinnati. Their home field was??El Gran Estadio del Cerro??(also known as Gran Stadium) in Havana....

The Ottawa Rough Riders were established in 1876 and were one of the longest running professional sports teams in North America. They adopted the Rough Riders nickname in 1931, they were charter members of the Canadian Football League (CFL) formed in 1958. The club...

Mother Goose Land was a theme park in Canton, Ohio that opened in 1954. It featured attractions based on storybook characters such as??characters as Humpty Dumpty and the Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe. In the 1980s, the park fell into disrepair and...

Before the Cincinnati??Swords,??Stingers, Cyclones, and??Mighty Ducks, Cincinnati had the Mohawks. They were a member of the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1949 to 1952, before moving to the International Hockey League (IHL), where they won 5 straight championships. Their home ice was the??Cincinnati Gardens.

Hilldale Club was a Negro league baseball team based in the Philadelphia suburb of Darby. They played in three different leagues as well as independently and won three league titles as well a step 1925 Negro League World Series. *Produce is officially licensed by...

The St. Louis Eagles played in the National Hockey League during the 1934-35 season. The team had moved from Ottawa where they were known as the Senators. OS3842

The Kansas City Monarchs are probably the best-known Negro league baseball team in history, as well as the longest running. In 1942, they finished their season 27-12-0, and finished 2nd in Negro American League and ended up winning the 1942. Negro World Series. CHECKOUT OUR...

The Bisons were Buffalo's American Hockey League (AHL) team from 1940 to 1970 and the formation of the city's major league club. The new squad placed it's farm team in Cincinnati.

The Pittsburgh Crawfords, also known as the Craws, were a professional Negro league baseball team that played from 1931-1940. They were named after the Crawford Bath House, a recreation center in the Crawford neighborhood of Pittsburgh's Hill District. After playing in several different leagues,...

Not to be confused with comic actor with the same name, Pat McCormick was a T.V. personality in San Francisco best known for hosting the Charley and Humphrey kids show. The program started in Fresno in 1959 and moved with McCormick to?? KGO-TV in...

Burger Chef was a fast-food hamburger chain that started in Indianapolis in 1958. At its peak in the mid 1970s, it was second only to McDonald's in the number of nationwide locations. The chain even made inroads into Canada. In 1982, the chain was...

League Park was a baseball stadium built in 1891, and rebuilt in 1910, at the corner of East 66th and Lexington in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland. Besides the Indians, it was home to the Cleveland Spiders, as well as the Negro American League...

The Buckeyes were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1942 to 1950, mostly in Cleveland with League Park as their home field. The team played its first season in Cincinnati, and one season, 1949, in Louisville, before heading back to Cleveland for...

The Cleveland Pipers were a pro basketball team founded in the early 1950s and were a company team that played in the Amateur Athletic Union before moving to the National Industrial Basketball League in 1959. In 1961, the team joined the professional American Basketball...

Hippo Hamburgers opened in 1950 at the corner of Van Ness and Pacific and served a variety of gourmet hamburgers before gourmet hamburgers were a thing. Their vast collection included, the French Connection, the Stroganoff, the Welsh, the Ole, and the Nude Burger. The...

Organized by legendary dis jockey Alan Freed and local record store owner Leo Mintz, the Moondog Coronation Ball was a concert held at the old Cleveland Arena on March 21, 1952. It is generally considered to be the first major rock & roll concert.

First appearing in 1926, Reddy Kilowatt??is a cartoon character that served as a mascot for??various??electric utilities across the United States, and a few other??countries for over,70 years.

Farmer Jack was a supermarket chain based in Detroit from 1924 until 2007. It's iconic radio commercials, heard on stations such as CKLW, announced the store's weekly deals as "Farmer Jack savings time." Popular throughout the second half of the 20th century, the chain...

A Des Moines institution for over 50 years, Wimpy's first opened its doors in 1931. After serving generations of Iowans, it closed in 1980.

Formed in Lincoln, NE in 1911, and later based in New York City, the Giants were a barnstorming, Negro baseball team. From 1923 to 1928, they were members of the Eastern Colored League. In 1929, they joined the American Negro League for one season,...

The Latin Casino was a Philadelphia-area nightclub that opened in 1948 at 1309 Walnut Street. Many top entertainers of the day performed there. In 1960, the club moved to Cherry Hill, NJ.

Florida's A1A highway runs from Fernandina Beach at the state's northern tip, all the way down the Atlantic Coast to Key West. The road was designated SR 1 in 1945 when many of Florida's state highways were renumbered. A year later, to avoid confusion...

The Chicago International Amphitheater opened in 1934. It was the home of the Chicago Gears of the National Basketball League from 1944 to 1948, as well as the Chicago Packers of the NBA from 1961 to 1962. The Chicago Cougars??of the World Hockey Association??played...

The Coral Court Motel began welcoming travelers along U.S. Route 66 in Marlborough, MO in 1942. However, when I-44 was completed in the 1960s, the motels fortunes declined. In 1993, after years of neglect, it closed. OS2013

Braves Field opened as the home of the city's National League team in 1915, three years after Fenway Park. Indeed, the city's American League team played select games at Braves field due to the greater seating capacity.  In 1953, the Braves moves to Milwaukee....

Before the Cincinnati Swords, Stingers, Cyclones, and Mighty Ducks, Cincinnati had the Mohawks. They were a member of the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1949 to 1952, before moving to the International Hockey League (IHL), where they won 5 straight championships. Their home ice was the??Cincinnati...

The??Pittsburgh Keystones??was the name of two historic professional??Negro league baseball??teams that operated in 1887 and again in 1921 and 1922. The first team was a member of the first black baseball league in 1887, the??League of Colored Baseball Clubs. In 1921 and 1922, the...