Samples

The Buzzard: Inside the Glory Days of WMMS and Cleveland Rock Radio--A Memoir, a book by John Gorman and Tom Feran from Gray & Company, Publishers – front cover

Welcome to Cleveland

Fourth of July 1973. Welcome to Cleveland. There was a dead pigeon on the windowsill of my room overlooking Public Square in the Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel. Despite several calls to the front desk, the pigeon remained part of the decor for three long, hot, muggy days. It matched the desolate street scene below. Sure, this was a holiday, but still—at 10 a.m. there was not a single car or person on the street.

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Cleveland orchestra musicians and conductor on stage in front of large U.S. flag

Overtures (from The Cleveland Orchestra Story)

In 1842, two of the world’s great orchestras came to life. In Austria, the Vienna Philharmonic played its first notes at the city’s Imperial Palace on March 28. In Manhattan, nine months later, the New York Philharmonic gave its first perfomance at the Apollo Rooms. In Cleveland that year, cows still grazed peacefully on downtown’s Public Square …

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Newspaper headline: Woman Had "Mania for Collecting Insurance," Declares Ex-Husband

The Incredible Vanishing Killer – Cleveland’s “Black Widow” of 1922

Black Widow. The two words provoke several images, none of them cheery. Most people are aware, at least by repute, of the female black widow spider, notorious for occasionally dining on her male partner after mating. Some are familiar with the archetype of the female serial-killer spouse, memorably rendered in a number of films. Few Clevelanders realize, however, that almost four score years ago their city riveted the attention of the nation for almost a fortnight with sensational news of a serial husband murderess …

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A cat attacking a realistic cardboard cutout of a baby.

Amazing Stories! (from The Great Indoors by Eric Broder)

I suppose you think that because this column is called “The Great Indoors” its author never goes outside. Just a couch potato who watches TV and eats Smokehouse almonds all night. A shlub who shuffles around the apartment giving himself carpet shocks. A guy to whom nothing happens.

Most of that is right. I do give myself shocks because I don’t pick up my feet when I walk. I’m trying to conquer this. I do watch a lot of TV, but that’s my job. I cover the waterfront. I admit I lie around on my can quite a bit. However, lots of things happen to me—amazing and exciting things. And they happen indoors.

I’d like to begin with my most exciting indoor incident. It involves Irma La Douce and a roach.

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