Dave Knows Portland

Archives for November 2011

Holiday Ale Festival 2011

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Holiday Ale FestivalThe 16th annual Holiday Ale Festival kicks off on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 and festively occupies Pioneer Courthouse Square through Sunday, December 4.

Sure, the weather will likely be crappy, but fest goers stay warm and dry (and claustrophobic) under a sprawling tent covering most of the square. And the beer list? It’s amazing!

The $25 tasting package includes a mug [bah humbug – previous years’ mugs not permitted], 8 beer tickets and a wristband that you can use to get in “free” for the whole 5 days of the festival [bah humbug – does anyone really do this? – the wristband must be left on “no exceptions”, so no removing it for sleeping or bathing]. Additional tasting tickets are a $1 each. No kids at this festival, must be over 21 to enter the tent. The $25 package can be purchased at the door or in advance.

Another option is the advance VIP ticket for $50, which includes the festival mug, 20 beer tickets, express entry to the fest all days, bottled water, and VIP beer line access. Whew! Buy your VIP ticket online.

Buy your tickets, download the festival program (pdf), and you’re set! Visit HolidayAle.com, the fest Facebook page, and follow @HolidayAle on twitter for more festival details.

November 27, 1962: Oregon State’s Terry Baker Wins Heisman

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The Oregonian sports page, 28 November 1962Oregon State quarterback Terry Baker received word he had won the Heisman Trophy, as the outstanding performer in the college game, on November 27, 1962 (The Oregonian, 28 November 1962).

The T – formation quarterback and mechanical engineering brain won in a close race with Louisiana State halfback Jerry Stovall.

The poll of 1,109 accredited sportswriters and broadcasters gave Baker 707 points to 618 for Stovall.

Baker is a remarkable southpaw passer and a deceptive runner with long, loping strides who has climed to second place in the all-time career total offence leaders. His 5,980 yards for three years of versity competition is topped only by Johnny Bright of Drake, a star of a dozen years ago, who gathered 5,903.

Bakers has sewed up the 1962 national total offense title with 2,276 yards and rates third among passers.

It was a basketball scholarship that brought Baker to Oregon State, who did not play football his freshman year. Baker was a three sport star at Portland’s Jefferson High School, winning state football titles with the Democrats as quarterback in 1958 and 1959. He pitched for the baseball team that won state in 1959, and as point guard he lead the Democrats to the state tournament in 1959 and 1960.

Further reading:

November 26, 2010: City Owned Portland Oregon Sign is Turned On

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Portland Oregon sign (photo by Wikipedia user Steve Morgan)The iconic sign perched atop the White Stag building at the west end of the Burnside Bridge was purchased by the City of Portland in September of 2010. The deal with Ramsay Signs and White Stag Block LLC saved the sign from an uncertain fate, and was pushed through quickly by Commissioner Randy Leonard in order that the sign would be ready for the 2010 holiday season.

The sign advertised White Satin Sugar when it was constructed in 1941, and over the years played host to several other brands, including White Stag and Made in Oregon. After the city’s purchase the sign, retaining the Oregon outline and the deer, was changed to read Portland, Oregon.

On November 26, 2010, the day after Thanksgiving, Mayor Sam Adams and Commissioner Leonard flipped the switch that lighted the sign, now city owned, that had been dark since October. And of course, the leaping deer’s nose was lit with red.

Photo credit: Portland Oregon sign by Wikipedia user Steve Morgan, used here under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

November 25, 1948: Ed Parsons Invents Cable Television in Astoria

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Leroy E. “Ed” Parsons‘ wife had witnessed television in all its glory at a 1947 broadcasters’ convention in Chicago. On the couple’s way back home to Astoria, Oregon she informed her engineer husband that she wanted a television. At that early date there were no television stations on the west coast, and in fact Portland, the large city closest to Astoria, wouldn’t see television until 1952.

In early 1948 a Seattle station, KRSK (now KING), however, announced broadcasting plans. The manager, Bob Priebe, was a friend of Parsons. Working together they determined that an antenna placed atop the eight story Astoria Hotel just might be able to pick up the signal, and with the use of an amplifier, and coaxial cable, Parsons figured he might be able to extend the range of that signal. With permission from the hotel Parsons constructed an antenna, and gave his idea a shot; in his own words:

Well, I strung a cable from the top of the hotel roof over to the three-story building where my penthouse was, and we had the television set in our living room. By the way, going back, after we heard Priebe was going to build a television station, I ordered a television set from Chicago. It was only a 9-inch, black and white set, and I bought it primarily because it was a hi-fi set AM/FM and a record player. I told the wife that we were wasting our money with the television addition, but at least I would try to get her television. It was a Howard set. I ordered it from Chicago and had it flown out to Astoria. Told her it would be a great waste of money, but if you want it, you can have it. Use it for furniture if nothing else.

On Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1948, KRSK went on the air, and the Parsons and his wife watched cable television. By the crowds his television drew, he knew he was onto something, and extended the cable network throughout Astoria.

November 24, 1860: Henry Pittock Takes Over The Oregonian

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A young Henry PittockUpon emigrating to Oregon from Pennsylvania in 1853, seventeen-year-old Henry Lewis Pittock got turned down for a job at the Oregon Spectator newspaper in Oregon City. In Portland he had better luck. Thomas Jefferson Dryer gave him a position at the Weekly Oregonian. A formidable editor, but not known for his business acumen, Dryer soon brought young Pittock on as a partner, in lieu of paying him regular wages. Within a few years Dryer mortgaged the paper to Pittock, and on November 24, 1860 he signed the paper over to the young man.

The following year 24-year-old Pittock launched the Morning Oregonian, published six days a week. By 1864 he had increased the paper’s daily circulation from 300 to 1000, and the paper continued to grow. By the 1890s The Oregonian was the biggest, and most powerful, newspaper in Oregon.

Though the newspaper business was volatile, leading to Pittock having to mortgage the paper several times himself, he had other business interests too, including in real estate, banks, and lumber. In 1909 he built the Pittock Mansion. When he died in 1919 his estate was worth nearly $8 million.