Finding Aids about Entertainment
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Angler’s Lake
The citizen effort to preserve Angler’s Lake, located in southeast Bloomington, began in 1979. Bloomington residents recognized the val...
Annette, Mme
Perhaps the best local newspaper reporter at the turn of the century wrote for the Bulletin and published a column as simply “Mme. Anne...
Arthur Drake School Band of America Collection
The School Band of America – School Chorus of America was founded July 1, 1959 and established itself as an integral part of the Americ...
Barbershoppers
The Bloomington Chapter of the SPEBSQSA was originally named the Bloomington Harmony Club. The Bloomington Chapter held its first meet...
Baseball
A column in the October 20, 1857, issue of the Pantagraph suggested that it would be a good idea for some of the young men of Bloomingt...
Behr, Lincoln A. Theater Program
Lincoln A. Behr was born in Bloomington June 18, 1896. Behr enjoyed going to the theater as a form of entertainment. Behr and Lyle Ba...
Bent, Horatio C.
Horatio C. Bent was born June 24, 1881 to Horatio G. and Adah Crist Bent. Bent Elementary school in Bloomington was named for his fathe...
Beyond Normal Films
The collection includes some newspaper clippings from 1996 through 2018 about the organization, and letters to the membership. The work...
Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts (BCPA)
The Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts (BCPA) occupies a site built in 1921 to house The American Passion Plan and other arts a...
Bloomington Gold (Corvette Show)
In 1973, the first Bloomington Corvette Corral event took place. By 1977, the Bloomington Corvette Corral had grown to be the biggest ...
Bloomington Sesquicentennial
Bloomington celebrated its 150th birthday with a free, family-friendly downtown festival on Saturday & Sunday, July 1-2, 2000. Acti...
Calendar Collection
This collection includes calendars from 1888 to present, most with connections to McLean County. Most calendars are promotional from l...
Castle Theater
The Castle Theater opened on Nov. 21st, 1904 in Bloomington, Illinois. During its initial run, the Castle featured Vaudeville shows and...
Central Illinois Art Exposition, Scottish Rite Temple, March 19 – April 8, 1939
The Central Illinois Art Exposition was possibly the most successful diversion in McLean County during the Great Depression. The drive ...
Century of Progress Collection
A Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as The Chicago World's Fair, was a held in the Chicago from 1933 to 193...
Children’s Theater Association of Bloomington-Normal
The Children’s Theatre was the brainchild of Martha Mary Vybiral to promote children’s theatre productions with child participants to e...
Circus
Circuses had been visiting the area for many years when around 1875 a small wagon circus came to Bloomington and inspired two local bro...
Community Players
In 1923 a women's club met in Bloomington and discussed creating a group to perform some amateur theatricals. The first production...
Corn Bowl
A true “Middle West” tradition: college football on Thanksgiving Day. The Corn Bowl was sponsored by the Louis E. Davis Post No. 56 of ...
Corn on the Curb 2000
Corn-on-the-Curb, inspired by Chicago’s “Cows on Parade” in 1999, was conceived by Mayor Judy Markowitz to showcase Bloomington’s upcom...
Crothers, Rachel
Rachel Crothers (1870/78 - 1958) was born in Bloomington to Drs. Eli Kirk Crothers and Marie Louise (DePew) Crothers. Rachel Crothers&#...
Dance Card
Dance cards usually listed the specific dances to be performed and provided lines for ladies to fill in the names of their dance partne...
Dowell, Joe
Joseph Harry Dowell (1940-2016) was born January 23, 1940 in Bloomington, Indiana. Joe began writing songs at the age of thirteen and ...
Euleo Puppets
Sisters Eunice Speer and Leona S. Pitzer organized a puppet theatre in the late 1960s and named it “Euleo” from their own first names. ...
Folsom, Elizabeth Irons
Elizabeth Irons Folsom was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1876. She moved to Bloomington as a young girl and graduated from Bloomington ...
Game Designers' Workshop
The Game Designers' Workshop Collection contains material about the war-games and science fiction games industry, with particular ...
Hart, James
Born in Lawndale, Illinois, in 1882, James “Jimmie” Michael Hart was initially reared in Atlanta, Illinois. His Irish-born father work...
Hitch, Fred
Frederick A. Hitch (1882-1947) resided in Bloomington his entire life. After graduating from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1905, he e...
Hoppe, Jim
Jim Hoppe is an avid lover of history and McLean County. He has written manuscripts about various aspects of WWI, and has discussed and...
Illinois Shakespeare Festival
In 1978 the Illinois Shakespeare Festival was established. The Festival is held each summer on the grounds of Ewing Manor by the Illino...
Irvin, Clarence E.
Clarence Edgar Irvin owned and operated several Bloomington theaters. He was the founder of Irvin Amusement Inc. In 1914 he built the...
Jones, Ethel Pearle Smith
This collection contains the prose, poetry and plays written by Ethel Pearle Smith Jones, and some biographical information. The prose ...
Kickapoo Creek Rock Festival
On Memorial Day weekend in 1970 an estimated 60,000 people, mostly hippies and college-age students, descended on the village of Heywor...
Lincolns in Town
The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission of McLean County was formed jointly by Bloomington, Normal and McLean County to celebrate t...
McLean County Basketball Tournament
One of the longest-running tournaments in the state, the McLean County Basketball Tournament is a considered one of the area’s premier ...
McLean County Ethnographies
Illinois State University anthropology professor Dr. Rob Dirks collected essays from his students on an array of ethnographic topics....
McLean County Sesquicentennial Committee
The McLean County Sesquicentennial Celebration commemorated the founding of McLean County 150 years before in 1831. It was held on Apri...
Miller Park
This collection contains various newspaper articles associated with Miller Park, programs from the outdoor summer theater performances,...
Morgan, Charles
Charles Morgan, a carpenter by trade, started his diaries in 1896. In his earliest days he was an itinerant farm worker and wanderer. ...
Myers, John F.
Born in 1834 in Kentucky, John Frances Myers came to McLean County as an infant and grew up on a farm. He attended Illinois Wesleyan U...
Pantagraph Comics
The Pantagraph added a locally developed "Wilson and Phyllis" cartoon to their Sunday comics section in 1984. These child-ori...
Phonograph and Audio
The history of McLean County has been recorded and captured on vinyl covering a variety of subjects in a variety of ways. From the spee...
Reis, Evelyn
Evelyn Reis, also known as Evy, was born on September 17, 1918 in Chenoa, Illinois. She is a writer and poet. She is also known for w...
Rhymer, Paul
Vic and Sade was a radio show (1932 – 1945) and short lived television show (1957) created by Paul Rhymer (1905 – 1964) in 1932 while w...
Sanders, Josephine ("Irene Delroy") / Pike-Sanders
This collection includes scrapbooks, posters, and photographs from Irene Delroy’s career. It also includes correspondence, genealogica...
Sharp, Dorothy
This small collection contains photos, a scrapbook, programs, newspaper clippings and an ID card, mostly relating to plays that Dorothy...
Sheet Music
This collection includes approximately 750 individual pieces of sheet music, booklets and books copyrighted from 1870 through 1968. A f...
Sinclair, Harold
During his life, Sinclair published a trilogy—American Years (1938), Years of Growth (1940), and Years of Illusion (1941)—which is a pa...
Smith, Sidney
Robert Sidney "Sid" Smith (1873-1935) was born in Bloomington, Illinois, on February 13, 1873. His father Thomas H. Smith was...
Sohl, Jerry
This collection contains biographical material, newspaper articles, bibliographies, examples of Sohl fiction. Gerald Allan “Jerry” Sohl...
Sports Cards
The collection holds commercially printed sports (or trading) cards featuring individuals associated with McLean County, either having ...
State Farm Classic
One of the largest co-ed holiday basketball tournaments in the nation, the State Farm Classic began in 1975 as a boys’ high school comp...
Steele, Nelle Theater
Nelle Hefner Steele (1902-1985) was born in Lexington and began teaching in 1933 in rural schools with 8-15 students. Later she taught ...
Tate, H. Clay
“Building a Better Home Town,” by H. Clay Tate was published in 1954. He wrote from his experiences as editor of The Daily Pantagraph a...
Tucker, Wilson
This collection contains biographical material, newspaper articles, bibliographies, several science fiction periodicals featuring Tucke...
Vera Pearl Kemp Scrapbooks Collection
Vera Pearl Kemp was born December 19, 1895 at London, Kentucky, daughter of James and Cora Pearl. She attended Nazareth Music College i...
Webb, Sidney
Sidney Webb was born on December 28, 1899 in Leicester, England. He came to America with his parents in 1904. He served in World War I ...
WIHN
This collection spans from 1970 to 1977. The collection contains balance sheets, newspaper clippings, correspondence, FCC applications...
Williamson, Doug WJBC Forum
Doug Williamson, born in Bloomington 8-8-1943, lived in Bloomington-Normal most of his life and taught in District 87 for 30 years. Hi...
WJBC Radio
The WJBC Radio Collection consists of eight boxes and 41 folders containing materials ranging from 1924 to 2000. Items in the collectio...
WLS Barn Dance
WLS Radio’s National Barn Dance was one of the most popular and longest running programs on radio. The show blended music, comedy, and ...
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher...