La Crosse Marching Chiefs Rose Bowl booster button

By Robert Mullen

Catalog Number: 1992.100.14

Americans ring in the New Year with a variety of celebrations and traditions, including fireworks, making resolutions to better their lives, hosting New Year’s Eve parties, watching the Times Square countdown, and viewing college football bowl games. Tuning in to the Rose Bowl Parade on New Year’s morning is another time-honored tradition that most of us have done and continue to do.

The Rose Bowl Parade of 1970 was a special event for the La Crosse State University (now the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse) marching band. At that time they were known as the Marching Chiefs, and they had gained a national reputation for their fast-paced “swing and sway” marching style of presentation. The Marching Chiefs played at a variety of events in the 1960s and 1970s, including half-time shows for the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, and Chicago Bears football games. They were scheduled to play at the famed “Ice Bowl” NFL championship game of 1967, but the extreme cold made it impossible to perform.

The band of 1970 was invited to be one of twenty-one bands to march in the Rose Bowl Parade, an opportunity to perform to a million and a half spectators and many millions more nationally on CBS and NBC. The new band director John Alexander took on the challenge of raising the $75,000 needed to take the 225 marching band members to Pasadena. The energetic band members raised the money by holding chicken-cues and car washes, selling cookbooks, and collecting soda pop bottles. Another project was selling the booster button shown here for one dollar apiece. The maroon and white button, donated by Anna Thomas, features a stylized symbol in use when the university’s sports teams were called the Indians.

In preparation for the trip and the five and a half mile Rose Bowl Parade route, Alexander required the students to participate in many hours of practice so the performance would be as perfect as possible. The band marched around the streets of the campus endlessly. They performed for the dedication of the newly opened Intestate Highway 90, took a bus six miles up the road, and marched back the entire distance.

Led by Drum Major George Moore and Twirler Trish Joanis, the Marching Chiefs performed several pieces for the crowds and TV cameras in Pasadena, including “On, Wisconsin,” “Everything Is Turning Up Roses,” and, of course, “The Beer Barrel Polka.” It was an exhausting march, especially with the Marching Chiefs’ vigorous style, nearly forcing one band member to drop out early. Yet, for all of them, it was a New Year’s experience that they would never forget.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on December 31, 2016.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

Sonja Henie Pleasure Skates

By Peggy Derrick

Catalog Number: 1985.064.02

 I have never been on ice skates: I grew up in California and Hawaii, where I learned to swim and water ski. The first time I ever stepped onto frozen water was as a young bride, visiting her new in-laws in Minnesota. When the pond we was walking on began to boom and crack, I was terrified and fled to shore in a panic, abandoning my new husband to his fate.  Ice skating was the last thing on my mind.

La Crosse has a new public ice skating rink, in Riverside Park, this winter. With skating rinks in Pogue and Copeland Parks, that makes three free, outdoor places to skate under the stars. But years ago there were many more skating rinks in city parks, and skating was a very popular pastime.

Sonja Henie played a big role in popularizing the sport of ice skating. This Norwegian skating phenomenon won 10 world championships between 1927, at the age of 14, and 1936.  She won three successive gold medals in the Winter Olympics of 1928, 1932, and 1936. From there she went on to star in her own ice skating show, “Sonja Henie’s Hollywood Ice Review,” that travelled the world for many years, and starred in Hollywood movies. Henie was a superstar before the word was invented, and she had the business acumen to translate her popularity into a financial empire that included product endorsements like the one she made for these skates.

Called “Sonja Henie Pleasure Skates by Nestor Johnson,” the box cover shows a dimpled, smiling Sonja holding up a pair of these skates with a signed endorsement “The skates to ask for!”  Henie was actually responsible for popularizing the more feminine, white skating boots. She won her first world title, in 1927, in white boots worn with a svelte white velvet costume that came to just above her knees. Apparently the audience was both shocked and delighted, and female skaters have had the aura of ballerinas ever since.

When these skates were new, around 1938, the most popular skating place in La Crosse was the “Lagoon” at Pettibone Park. It’s very possible these skates, donated to LCHS in 1985 by Katherine Spence, saw action there or at one of the many other outdoor skating rinks in the city at that time. They show good use, but have been well cared for, and are still stored in their original box, making me think they were a treasured possession.

I hope that lots of kids find ice skates under the Christmas tree, so they can enjoy the rinks and the opportunity to learn a sport that will get them outside in the winter. For now, I’m sticking to my ugly snowshoes, and staying off the ice…just in case.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on December 23, 2016.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

Avon Perfume Bottle

By Peggy Derrick

Catalog Number: 1982.078.28

A large part of Christmas is exchanging gifts with family and friends. It can be a big deal for children when they first get to participate in the giving part of this ritual and buy or make presents for their parents.

I can remember standing in a Ben Franklin store when I was 7 years old with a sock filled with $5.00 worth of dimes that I had saved. That sock felt very heavy and full, and it must have been, because I succeeded in purchasing gifts for my mother, father, baby brother and teacher with that five bucks. Daddy got a key chain: I gave him key chains for years—I’m not really sure why I thought he had an endless need for key chains. I don’t remember what my 3 year old brother got, but my mom and teacher both got boxes of chocolate covered cherries.

But if I had known about perfume, and if I had had a connection with an Avon representative, I would certainly have lusted after a Christmas-themed perfume bottle like this one! It would have had the perfect alluring mix of gown-up exoticism and Holiday magic.

A quick and unscientific poll of LCHS interns has taught me that body care sets, such as from Bath and Body Works, are now very popular presents for mothers. Maybe that’s the contemporary version buying Mom perfume?

Avon was started in 1886 as the California Perfume Company, and began marketing under the Avon label in 1928. Right from the beginning their products were sold through sales representatives who sold directly to customers: the company founder, David McConnell, pioneered the business model that gives homemakers a way to run their own businesses from their homes. Many other businesses, such as Tupperware and Mary Kay Cosmetics went on to successfully use this business model. Being an Avon representative was a way for women to earn money from their homes, through their networks of friends and acquaintances, and Avon products are still sold this way.

They produced their first novelty containers in the 1960s, with bottles shaped like animals or objects. As best as we can tell, this Christmas tree bottle was made in the 1970s. They aren’t worth a lot of money, but are a fun collectible.

In any case, I just remembered I still need to go shopping for some important Moms in my life. And what about you: what are you getting your Mom for Christmas this year?

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on December 10, 2016.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.