Governor Jeff Landry isn’t the first governor to try to influence LSU football.
Louisiana governor Huey P. Long chats with referees prior to an LSU football game, 1932
Louisiana governors and LSU football
Louisiana State University is parting ways with its football coach, Brian Kelly. The team is, for all intents and purposes, out of the running for a playoff spot this season. That’s enough to enrage the team’s fan base. It’s also an opportunity for Governor Jeff Landry to yet again insert himself into the world of LSU sports.
The playoffs are the thing. A solid overall winning record means little to the world of college football. From ESPN:
Kelly, 64, compiled a 34-14 record over four seasons at LSU, winning just under 71% of his games. But the Tigers have lost three of their past four games, all in the SEC, and Saturday’s loss to the Aggies was one in which the road team scored 35 straight points to open the second half, as “Fire Kelly” chants reverberated inside Tiger Stadium.
It’s all about those three losses.
Enter the govnah
Governor Jeff Landry doesn’t think the (now-fired) Athletic Director at LSU should pick the next football head coach. He wants a committee to do it.
To be fair, I’m not a fan of LSU football, either. I went to the University of New Orleans. While my son earned both his BS and master’s from LSU (Accountancy), and was in the Golden Band from Tiger Land for four years, I’m kind of meh about the whole thing. What amuses me is that Jeff Landry, graduate of the University of Southwest Louisiana (Now University of Louisiana – Lafayette), views LSU football as a potential fundraising subject. It’s arguably a good strategy for a full-on Trump supporting politician to take, given how difficult it is to actually defend Trump.
Not the first
It’s important to note that Landry isn’t the first governor to insert himself into LSU athletics. LSU Professor Emeritus of Journalism Robert Mann details how Huey P. Long influenced LSU football during his tenure as governor and US Senator. From the blurb for Kingfish U – Huey Long and LSU:
Along with improving LSU’s academic reputation, Long believed the school’s football program and band were crucial to its success. Taking an intense interest in the team, Long delivered pregame and halftime pep talks, devised plays, stalked the sidelines during games, and fired two coaches. He poured money into a larger, flashier band, supervised the hiring of two directors, and, with the second one, wrote a new fight song, “Touchdown for LSU.”
Bob’s history of Long and LSU illustrates the difference between a strong, popular governor and a guy that I like to call, “Jindal 2.0.” It’s a good read if you like Louisiana politics.
Podcast version of our Third Thursday Sicilian talk.
Podcast 61 – When the French Quarter was Sicilian
Thanks to everyone who came out last Thursday night for our fourth talk in our “Third Thursday Lecture Series.” This talk is essentially a lecture, now podcast, version of part of my “down-river” French Quarter Walking Tour. We explore the part of the Quarter known as “Little Palermo” in the early part of the 1900s. From the riverfront to the French Market, up into the neighborhood, we talk about produce farmers, market vendors, grocers, bakers, organized crime, and a well-known ice cream guy.
As mentioned in the presentation, I am a volunteer tour guide for the Friends of the Cabildo (FOC). The FOC offers one of the best French Quarter Walking Tours, and I’m proud they let me do them! This presentation is more-or-less a verbal/image “walk” like my tour. When going “down-river” from Jackson Square, you just can’t avoid talking about the Sicilian influence in the French Quarter, beginning in the 1880s. You’re most welcome to join us on the tour–click the link for more information.
Creole Italian by Justin A. Nystrom (link to bookshop.org)
While there are several good books on the Sicilian influences and history in New Orleans, I really enjoy Dr. Nystrom’s. The book goes well beyond just Da Quarters, but his thoughts on “Little Palermo” are excellent.
Scenes
Sicilian Lemons, which became part of the tariff issues in 1897.
Produce stall at the French Market, 1920s (colorized by NOLA History Guy)
While Progress Grocery ain’t there no more, Central Grocery is still selling muffulettas at 923 Decatur Street. The Peronne family closed their grocery at 1003 Decatur, but still operate as a wholesale business. You can buy Progress Grocery brand olive salad and other products at local supermarkets.
The more Canal Street 1935 evolved, the more it remained iconic.
Canal Street 1935
Franck Studios of Canal Street at St. Charles Avenue, 1935. The photographer stands in the neutral ground, on the river side of the outside streetcar track. The fiw on the left is of the 700 block of Canal, the Uptown side of the street.
700 Canal Street is the Pickwick Club building. At this time, it’s still the Crescent City Billiard Hall. The corner shop is Loft’s Candy. Here’s a comment from our friend Derby Gisclair on the corner:
This 1935 photograph by Charles Franck shows the corner of Canal Street and St. Charles Avenue. The Crescent City Billiard Hall on the corner looks rather dingy and dark compared to past images. A large sign directing drivers to the St. Charles Hotel juts out over the second floor on the corner above the Loft’s Candy Store. Loft’s at one time was owned by City Stores Company, parent company of Maison Blanche, and became the largest candy manufacturer in the world in the 1920s.
I remember when Derby said this, thinking, this explains why the Candy Department at MB was always so good.
The corner got a facelift when it was sold to the Pickwick Club. The sign for the St. Charles Hotel is typical for Canal Street throughout the Twentieth century. The big hotels were all off-Canal. So, to get you to the St. Charles, or the Monteleone, or even to the Holiday Inn on Royal Street, drivers could follow signs for where to turn.
Up the street. Next to the billiard hall is Steven’s, a store for men. You can see the secondary signs advertising Hart, Schaffner and Marx clothing. Additionally, there’s a wall sign saying “Steven’s” on the side.
Continuing down the block, these buildings remain today. The clock at Adler’s is visible towards the end of the 700 block.
Up to the 800 block, the onion spire on the edge of 800 Canal, the original Pickwick Hotel, is visible. In 1935, this was Stein’s Department Store. Leon Fellman’s/Feibleman’s moved up to Baronne and Common in 1931. Gus Mayer purchased 800 Canal after WWII. They demolished the building in 1947 and built a new store there.
Streetcars
The city completed their most recent street improvement program on Canal in 1930. That’s when the Union Sheet Metal light poles, with their fleur-de-lis lighting, appeared. So, this is just five years into their life. There are several arch roof streetcars up Canal. Our venerable 800- and 900-series streetcars dominated the routes at this time.
Radio
Not much of the French Quarter side of the street is visible in this photo. The Maison Blanche building towers over the Audubon Building in the 901 block. The large antenna on top of the MB building is the transmitter for WSMB Radio. WSMB broadcasted from the 13th floor of Maison Blanche’s office wing.
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New Orleans French Market 1925 underwent a significant re-design.
French Market 1925
Architectural rendering of the “new” French Market 1925. While the market buildings had undergone minor, quick-fix, repairs since the 1880s, the market required a major facelift by this time. Sam Stone’s firm won the bid for the design. Among many Stone designs in the Central Business District (CBD), the 13-story Maison Blanche Building remains the most-visible.
Public Market
The French Market anchored the city’s Public Market system. The location pre-dates the French colony as a trading post. The indigenous gathered here long before Jean-Baptiste LeMoyne chose the site for his city. Unlike many towns, the market extended along the riverbank. The French and Spanish didn’t change this. So, the locals accessed the market via streets (and later, street railways) as well as boats.
Stone’s design
Sam Stone’s design suggested a major change to the French Market. He proposed building a new structure directly across the street from Jackson Square. The left side of the rendering shows the square’s iron fence and main gate. Across the street stands a “new” Butchers’ Market. The proposal never materialized. The city maintained a clear line of sight from St. Louis Cathedral to the river since 1728.
So, with that exception, the new plan moved forward. The Butchers’ Market remaind in the first building, behind the Cafe’ du Monde Coffee Stand.
Public Market to Retail
Stone’s incarnation of the market stands to this day. The French Market endured several changes in the last century. While this design continued the functionality of the post-Civil War market, commercial air conditioning changed how New Orleanians made groceries in that next decade. A/C allowed the butchers and fishmongers to operate longer each day. Neighborhood groceries installed coolers and their own butcher counters. Locals didn’t have to go to the public markets early in the morning to get fresh meat and poultry. The “truck farmers” designed their own distribution systems to provide those local stores with fresh produce, but that wasn’t as critical. The Vegetable Market continued into mid-century.
The 1920s buildings required renovations and upgrades by the 1980s. Mayor Dutch Morial’s administration supervised that work, which is why part of the back path through the market bears his name, “Dutch Alley.”
Four Ways to Support NOLA History Guy
Buy my books! Edward Branley is the author of six books on New Orleans history. They’re available from local booksellers and all the usual online suspects.
Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi dot com. I just love this concept as a way to say thank you/tip creators you enjoy. Our idea of monetization is buying books and having us come to speak. If you see me at a coffee shop, stop and say hi. Otherwise, I’ll raise coffee cup to you if you treat me.
Become a patron. Yes, we’re on Patreon. A lot of creators use the platform for direct monetization, and that’s great for them. We don’t have “exclusive content” for patrons. Still, if you think our history stuff is worth a dollar a month, go join!
Sicilian companies like Federico Macaroni created home-grown pasta products.
Federico Macaroni on Chartres Street
Franck Studios photo of the Federico Macaroni manufacturing plant, 1000 Chartres Street, corner St. Philip. The Federicos were one of several Sicilian families operating pasta factories in the Vieux Carré, beginning in the 1890s. The photo is undated, but likely from the early 1920s.
Original Building
This 1917 photo of 1000 Chartres shows the three-story building originally used by the Federicos. Their business grew so much, they demolished this structure in favor of the four-story building still standing.
Unintended Consequences
Sicilian grocers in New Orleans found it easy to import various products from back home in the 1880s and 1890s. Lemons from Sicily were in great demand throughout the latter half of the 19th Century. Simply put, as Professor Nystrom explains, cooks found Sicilian lemons to be of much better quality than those from California.
So, merchant shipping between Sicily and New Orleans increased dramatically. That enabled grocers to ship pasta, meats, cheese, and other products over. While Americans lacked interest in pasta sales, the lemons presented a major problem. Growers like the co-operative that later became SunKist lobbied Congress for relief. The government agreed. The US imposed import tariffs on Italy in the late 1897s. The government worded the tariff language broadly. This raised the price of lemons, but also on pasta. Local Sicilians took this as an opportunity. There really was no particular value to Sicilian-made pasta. New Orleanians in “Little Palermo” duplicated the products from the old country, with great success.
1000 Chartres
The Vieux Carré in the early 1900s was not the “magic” neighborhood it is now. We recognize and respect its importance in the city’s story. The Sicilians had little interest in preserving Colonial New Orleans buildings. The real estate was cheap. Nobody stopped them from tearing down older houses. Up went factories, like the first three-story plant at Chartres and St. Philip. By 1920, the Federicos outgrew that plant. They demolished the building, replacing it with the existing four-story structure.
Fire and re-purposing
Federico Macaroni suffered a major fire at the 1000 Chartres plant in 1927. Fights with insurance companies went to court. The company eventually closed. United Paper Company occupied the building in the wake of the pasta company. Now, the Louisiana State Museum owns the building. It houses artifacts for the various museum properties such as the Cabildo and the Presbytere.
Four Ways to Support NOLA History Guy
Buy my books! Edward Branley is the author of six books on New Orleans history. They’re available from local booksellers and all the usual online suspects.
Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi dot com. I just love this concept as a way to say thank you/tip creators you enjoy. Our idea of monetization is buying books and having us come to speak. If you see me at a coffee shop, stop and say hi. Otherwise, I’ll raise coffee cup to you if you treat me.
Become a patron. Yes, we’re on Patreon. A lot of creators use the platform for direct monetization, and that’s great for them. We don’t have “exclusive content” for patrons. Still, if you think our history stuff is worth a dollar a month, go join!
Harmony Ice Cream was popular before World War II.
They screamed for Harmony Ice Cream!
Ice Cream! Harmony Ice Cream truck, parked on S. Carrollton Avenue, in the 1940s. Located in Central City, Harmony competed with Cloverland Dairy, which was located on S. Carrollton Avenue. Cloverland eventually merged into Sealtest. The plant was demolished, but the front facade was reserved for the US Post Office on that site now.
Ice Cream trucks weren’t new, but their range was limited. Older incarnations operated with ice rather than electric refrigeration. Commercial refrigeration had been around since the 1920s. Still, a/c didn’t come to retail stores until 1931. Krauss Department Store became the first department store on Canal Street to air-condition their customers. Naturally, Maison Blanche and D. H. Holmes followed suit quickly. It took a few more years for electric a/c to make it to motor vehicles, though. Naturally the dairies jumped on the opportunity to compete with restaurants and drugstore soda fountains. The products already existed. Polar Bars, Fudgesicles, Dreamsicles, Popsicles, and ice cream cups were available in the iceboxes of groceries and drugstores. Now, once Detroit started selling refrigerated trucks, dairies like Harmony traveled the streets, enticing kids playing in the neighborhoods during the summer. The trucks had sound systems that played simple jingles, announcing their arrival to the kids.
After World War II, Harmony merged with Russell’s Ice Cream. That merger expanded Russell’s reach. The post-war housing boom offered new neighborhoods for these ice cream trucks to patrol Additionally, Russell’s became well-known for their tricycles. They were essentially freezer chests on wheels. The rider pedaled the tricycle into areas like around Jackson Square. Fortunately for the dairy, these treats were popular. The riders usually sold out before the ice in their mobile freezer chest ran down.
What’s your favorite ice cream on a stick treat?
Four Ways to Support NOLA History Guy
Buy my books! Edward Branley is the author of six books on New Orleans history. They’re available from local booksellers and all the usual online suspects.
Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi dot com. I just love this concept as a way to say thank you/tip creators you enjoy. Our idea of monetization is buying books and having us come to speak. If you see me at a coffee shop, stop and say hi. Otherwise, I’ll raise coffee cup to you if you treat me.
Become a patron. Yes, we’re on Patreon. A lot of creators use the platform for direct monetization, and that’s great for them. We don’t have “exclusive content” for patrons. Still, if you think our history stuff is worth a dollar a month, go join!
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