After an alert from former Enterprise editor Peter Crowley, we rushed to Madden’s Transfer & Storage, as it used to be called, where Mike and Sheryl had retrieved a trunk full of treasurers in the form of old newspapers from New York City to Troy, to Rochester, to Philly, to AuSable Forks and of course, to The Enterprise and the Lake Placid News. I still have ink in my veins, and the Madden’s gave me free range to dive into that trunk.

Again, that surreal feeling when I walked into the huge Madden warehouse, the former Curling Club, where I had skated with friends more than 80 years ago. It cost 10 cents for the evening. The front of the building, which became Maddens office, had a huge stone fireplace (still in place) and always a blazing fire.

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‘PERFECT WEATHER GREETS WINTER SEASON’

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‘Crowd of 5000 Jams Village Over Weekend’

“With perfect weather and snow conditions over the New Year’s weekend, this popular winter resort played host to well over 5,000 winter sports devotees. More than 1,400 Lake Placid Club members and their friends spent the weekend at the Club for the Annual College Men’s and Women’s Ski tournaments. (Frank Trudeau, later Dr. Trudeau, of Saranac Lake, competing for Yale, placed sixth out of 20 in the Cross-Country Race; Trudeau placed third out of 20 in the Ski Jumping. He was seventh out of 10 in the Ski Meister and third out of 10 in the Combined.)

Just imagine the number of people who visited just for this event. There were 12 colleges competing and here is how they placed:

1. Middlebury

2. Harvard

3. Yale

4. Williams

5. Princeton

6. Colgate

7. Cornell

8. Syracuse

9. Hamilton

10. Penn State

11. Queens

12. Toronto

“A record-breaking crowd witnessed the crowning of King and Queen Kay Kyser and Ginny Simms, the ‘professor’ and his songbird from NBC ‘College of Musical Knowledge’ during programs at the Olympic Arena on Saturday evening. Miss Gretchen Merrill, National Junior Champion, gave a splendid exhibition of championship figure skating.”

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A SAMPLE OF PAGE ONE STORIES

The Ice Vanities

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“The ‘Ice Vanities of 1940,’ top-ranking professional ice show, scheduled to appear in more than 36 cities before closing in April, has been booked at the Olympic Arena tomorrow and Sunday. The show will include a galaxy of international stars featuring such well-known artists as Vivi-Anne Hulton, Lois Dworshak, Vera Hruba, Guy Owen, Rosemarie Stewart, Robert Dench, Douglass Trenkler and Fritz Dietl, supported by a precision chorus of twenty-four beautiful girls.”

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HARVARD-PRINCETON IN DEADLOCK

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“The hockey forces of Princeton and Harvard fought to a draw here over the New Year weekend in their annual three-game series, which was part of the college activities of the Lake Placid Club. The Bengals took the opener 6-3, dropped the second to the Crimson 6-3, and in the finals Saturday night, after a 10-minute overtime, the score read 6-6.”

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LINNEY-MOORE WIN BOBSLED RACES

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“William C. Linney of Lyon Mountain and Tyler Moore of Troy captured the two opening events at the Mt. Van Hoevenberg bobsled run on Sunday and Monday. Linney piloted his crew to victory in the four-man one-half mile novice race, and Moore paired with R. J. Monoco, also of Troy, to win the two-man event.

“With Bob Brickard, J. Blanch and E. Welch as crew members, Linney set a new four-heat mark for novice competition of 2 minutes, 42.38 seconds and had the fastest single run yet recorded in that type race, 39.60 seconds. The old marks set last year were 2:43.93 for four heats and 40.45 for a single run over the half-mile course.”

Others competing from Saranac Lake were Jim Bickford and Monroe Flagg; I’ll never forget when Bill McLaughlin wrote Mr. Flagg’s obit — “he’s through Shady and gone” — one having to understand how the announcer at the Bobrun would describe the progress of the sled as it went down the run, approaching zig-zag, through zig-zag, etc.

Also from Saranac Lake were Bob LaBeau and R. Tierney; In the 4-man with Bickford and Flagg were Buster Pratt and Don Dupree and with LeBeau were Ed Mahoney, Mrs. E. Bingham (?) and E. Sharlan, brake.

There were also competitors from Tupper Lake: Gene Jacques, S. Hazard, G. Lovett and James Brown and in the two-man, Isabell Mayatt (sp?) and Steve Hazard.

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SARANAC LAKE HOCKEY MOVES INDOORS

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“Definite arrangements have been completed between the Saranac Lake hockey team and Miss Catherine Schneefer, owner of the Curling Club on River Street, for the use of the rink in the building as a skating rink and for the hockey team during this winter.

“Roger Lancaster, manager of the hockey team, said that in addition to the games, the team will manage a rink in the building. The rink, he said, will be open mornings, afternoons and evenings every day of the week except Monday.

“Hockey games will be played in the evening, Lancaster said. Seven games will be played on the home rink and five away. Among the teams already scheduled are Massena, Potsdam, Mount Assumption Institute of Plattsburg and Northwood School of Lake Placid.”

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THIS IS FOR L.P. FIRE CHIEF MIKE ST. LOUIS

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“George Anson, Chief of the local fire department, has made out his report of the 67 blazes to which the local firemen have answered during the year 1939. 57 of those were within the village and 10 were outside of the corporation.

“There was only one major loss during the year, that of the Devlin business and apartment block on Main Street, all other being controlled without great damage. One was in a garage, seven were flare-ups of oil burners or gas heaters; six were believed to be on incendiary origin; two were in business blocks, four were in automobiles or tractors, two in brooder houses; one in rubbish, three false alarms; 7 brush and grass fires; one in lumber piles, one set by children with matches, one caused by a cigarette and two of unknown origin.

“There was a total attendance of 930 firemen answering to the alarms of the year.”

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BOMBERS BASKETBALL POSTPONED

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“The basketball game scheduled by Lake Placid High School with Elizabethtown for Friday night has been postponed until the end of the season by Mountain and Valley League officials. Glenn T. Manning, coach at the local high school, is absent from his duties this week due to an infection. (I don’t know if this is correct, but I was told his Assistant Coach was Jay Strack who was absent with a flat tire.)

“The Bombers’ next game on the schedule will be next Friday on the local court with AuSable Forks furnishing the opposition.”

In last week’s column about Mt. Pisgah, I asked if anyone could identify others in a photo with Mayor Anderson. Thanks to Jim Clark, who sent me an e-mail … he identified Carlton LaMoy on the right, then Ray LaRose next to the Mayor. I hope someone can ID the two women on the left. They must be someone’s Grandmother or Great Aunt that they can remember from a mere 75 years ago.