Little Known things that happened in Greater Cleveland

  Indoor baseball

Around 1890 an indoor baseball league was founded in Cleveland.The team was founded after indoor baseball was seen in Chicago 

Indoor baseball was just like regular baseball but indoors with dimensions based on size of the venue.The games were played at the Red Cross Rink and the Forest city Armory

The first four teams were from Lodges which were forms of social and religious clubs of the early 1900’s

These teams were the Criterion Lodge and Forest City’s of the East Side.The other two teams were 

From the west side were the Damon’s and Stars.The Damon’s were from the Red Cross Lodge.

Cy Young the Hall of Fame pitcher played  part of the indoor season.

This league lasted off and on until the 1920’s

The 1920 World Series Scoreboard

In 1920 the Cleveland Indians played the Brooklyn Robins for the Championship in baseball.

This was a few years before radio started in Cleveland.Also not every fan could  afford to go the game

On East 6th street where the Plain Dealer  was located set up a big scoreboard that fans could watch on game day.

Using a telegraph the count with the  position of each runner.Also inning and  the score were placed manually on the scoreboard.7000 fans came to East 6th to watch.At that point it was a best 5 out of 9 series.

Cleveland won the series 5-2.

Cleveland was on Central  Standard Time

Cleveland was on Central Standard time from about 1905 to 1916.

After 1916 Cleveland added Daylight Saving Time and then went to Eastern time which added an hour

When Cleveland was on Central Standard time year round.It got light very early in the summer and dark around 4 p.m in the winter.

Daylight saving time was optional after WW2

In the the 1950’s there was no national daylight saving.Ohio gave the option of each city to have it or reject it

In 1953 Akron,Alliance and Cleveland were on Eastern Daylight Saving time on April 26.Niles went to Eastern Daylight Saving time but decided to wait to May.

This also set up odd situations when Standard time would come back in the fall.New York City changed back to Standard time in late September.Cleveland decided to wait until late October.This meant that Cleveland saw network tv shows and hour earlier for one month.The network tv started at 6:30 p.m instead of 7:30 

Browns regular season home games blacked out

The Browns regular season and playoff  home games were blacked out from 1949-1972.According to NFL rules no home games could ever be shown within a 75 mile radius.This was changed in 1973 when Congress passed a law that if the games were  sold out within 72 hours prior to the game the blackout would be lifted.

In contrast  Home Indians games were broadcast on WEWS beginning in 1948.Due to technical limits back then it was easier to broadcast home games rather then away games.From about 1949 to 1953 all home games were broadcast with limited away games shown.

Margaret Hamilton was from Cleveland

Margaret Hamilton was raised in Cleveland and taught Kindergarten in a few Cleveland schools

Margaret Hamilton best known for being the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz.She was an  stage actress and performed at Playhouse square.In the 1930’s she moved to New York City.

She happen to teach one class with Jim Backus when he was a little kid.Backus grew up in Bratenhal. Backus was best known  in Gilligan’s island and cartoon voices.

Tv shows were delayed or not shown in Cleveland

In late September 1963 an episode of Outer limits was cut short by Don Perris General manager of station WEWS

Outer Limits was a tv show similar to Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone.It was a fantasy show about futuristic events or space travel.Outer limits on many occasions would use monsters as part of the tv episode

On this evening the last two minutes of the Outer limits was not shown in Cleveland.Don Perris believed that this would be too scary for younger viewers.Instead the last two minutes were shown before the 11p.m news including the monster.This then caused hundreds of irate viewers to complain about censorship.

A few years before that Don Perris had refused to show the Untouchables on WEWS  of what he considered too much violence.

On February 5 1969.A show called Turn On was supposed to be a show that would be similar to NBC’s Laugh In.The show was strange for the time.The switchboard had many complaints.This then caused Don Perris to send a telegram to ABC half way through the show that they not show it again.A few other stations complained which led ABC to cancel the show after just one episode.

The Brady Bunch was delayed a day on WEWS from 1970 to 1971.The Brady Bunch was to be shown at 7:30 on Friday Nights.Instead a show called untamed world was shown in place of the Brady Bunch.

The Brady Bunch was moved at 6:30P.M on Saturday nights after the news.

The Wide World  of Sports was taped delayed by one week on WJW from 1961 to 1971