Topic starter
09/04/2008 1:55 am
1. TWILIGHT CRUISE..ran into Mary Bill Bauer this evening and she will be going on the cruise in August. That makes 7 from Louisville that I know of so far. Mary Bill will be fun to have along. So all you middle Upper Miss .orgers be prepared for the Louisvlle troops arrival.
2. HOWARD MUSEUM...Last week Kenny Howe, Alan Bates, and myself rehabed the pilotwheel display that was installed on the back porch last year. A year of school kids and hard use had taken their toll, but now everything is back to pristine working order in time for the April 19th offical dedication.
3. HOWARD PHOTOS AT UofL...As part of my volunteer work at the photo achives I will begin to digitize the Howard collection. Today I found that the photo archives have the 4x5 glass plate negatives which I thought had been lost in the fire. When we reomoved the negatives from the mansion the day after the fire, the 4x5's were not there and I assumed that they had been lost. Someone must have removed them sometime prior to the fire and they ended up in the hands of local photographer Linn Caufield who deposited the complete collection in the University of Louisville library. The 8x10 plates are mostly pictures of the shipyard and boats, the 4x5 plates are mostly of the mansion and Howard family. I'm sure there are some never before seen treasures in the almost 3,000 negatives which make up the Howard collection.
4. RUMOR DEPARTMENT.....rumor has it that Peter Uberoth himself will be at the "They're Off" luncheon this Friday where they will show the video recently made about the DELTA QUEEN and the Howard Museum.
09/04/2008 6:45 pm
Mary Bill was on the first trip I ever made on the DQ. How I went those 3 days without being aware of her existence is beyond me. I didn't find out til years later that she was on that trip. It is beyond belief. Definitely, be prepared!
09/04/2008 11:42 pm
Oh, boy, are we going to start relating Mary Bill stories?!?
10/04/2008 12:32 pm
Why not, Bob?
God will never duplicate Mary Bill - it's just too much trouble.
Her husband, Billy Bauer, was her equal as an individualist. That guy memorized the names, locations and mile markers of each and every Ohio River light from Pittsburgh to Cairo - and back again! He was an electronics technician, a total enthusiast of everything that interested him. Theater and church organs, railroads, photography, electronics, sound, the river and much more captured him.
Mary Bill is unique, even beyond poor Billy's range. Every thought is spoken, like reading James Joyce. We who will not go to the UMR will miss a lot.
10/04/2008 2:43 pm
Amen. What you might not know is that MB had a close call recently. She and a 90+ year old friend were heading our way. They hit some ice and ended up in a hospital, instead. Her car was wrecked, but she is obviously ok. They were headed for Arizona.
10/04/2008 5:36 pm
A few years ago, as Mary Bill was climbing down the rocks escorting us to the bed of the Falls of the Ohio, she told us, "Gina Lolobrigida said 'never act like an old lady' and I think that's good advice!"
13/04/2008 8:56 pm
Bill As DQ Watchman
Captain Wagner and the rest of us thought the world of Bill and Mary Bill; and why not? They'd go the go the whole world over for you if need be.
Big Cap signed Bill on as a volunteer Watchman on the DELTA QUEEN's 1970 "Last Trip", and here's a pic of Bill on the head of the boat-- probably taken at the foot of Jackson Street in St. Paul.
14/04/2008 3:35 am
Mary Bill has brought Bill Bauer's extensive recordings to me and I've been transferring them to digital tape (DAT), beginning with his railroad sounds. Included with this are his DQ recordings, Belle of Louisville, Steam ferry St. Genevieve (whoosh-whoosh-whoosh) and the famous Tell City whistle blow. Also, there are untold reels of pipe organs. I've done most of the railroads first because I use them as sound effects for my videos but will get to the DQ soon. When I get them done, I'll let you know as there might be some gems in these sounds.
Several years ago, I asked Bill if he could produce a record or cassette tapes of the L&N Centennial train in 1959. He told me the tapes had suffered some damage but now, after hearing all 12+ hours of that one trip, most of it is very good and I'll probably make 2 CD's of that one trip. So, I expect some great sounds from the others. It's just that there are so many hours of recordings to go through that it's going to take a lot of time.
Did you know that Bill dug a tunnel from the basement of his house under his back yard into his garage and that he installed most of a pipe organ in the tunnel? I'll bet his neighbors felt vibrations in their houses when he played it! Mary Bill says it's still down there and she's got some organ items available if anyone's interested.
-Jim Herron
14/04/2008 10:34 am
Wasn't there a bomb shelter involved, too? And yeah, Jim, I'm sure it took a while to hear that story.
Catty-cornered from Capt. Roddy Hammett's last home on Dreaux Ave. in NOLA was the WILLIAM BAUER MEMORIAL V.F.W. HALL. No kidding!
14/04/2008 1:03 pm
Jim, I was there when Bill recorded the Ste. Genevieve sounds. I made photographs and some poor-quality movies that are still extant. It was a miserable, rainy day and light was not good.
I was the instigator of the Tell City whistle blow and I recorded the dimensions of many of the whistles. Jim Reising was also there and may have pictures of the event. As far as I know that was the first big whistle concert and predated the ones at Long Reach by several years. I also have magnetic tapes of the sounds and copies of the Tell City newspaper "program".
The first whistle blow I know of was one Billy Bauer and I organized here at Louisville. We used steam from Nugent's derrick boat. I believe all of the whistles were from locomotives. There was no publicity or celebration of that session. Those sounds may be in the collection that you have.
14/04/2008 1:13 pm
My most-remembered incident about the Nugent whistle blow occurred when I removed the whistle from L&N No. 152. I was carrying it to the forward ladder when the wasps inside made their presence known. I hurled it to the ground almost instantly but still got stung twice. The whistle landed in the grass and was not hurt, but I certainly was!
14/04/2008 2:30 pm
Jim,
Organ items??? I am currently working on two organ projects, one at our church, and one at the theater (theater project just starting). So what have ye??
S'
David Dewey
[email protected]
Hmm, organ in a tunnel, would that be an "Underground Organ-ization??"
Topic starter
14/04/2008 5:24 pm
Alan.....that first whistle blow on Nugent's derrick was in 1958 I believe because I was in the 8th grade at Barret Jr. High and took the bus downtown for the big blow. I remember that you brought along all the whistles from Howards and Mrs. Howard was very much in attendance on the derrick boat roof. In a dusty box I still have a newspaper clipping that was in the CJ the next morning.
14/04/2008 6:18 pm
Tell City Whistle Blow
Alan, Tell City is celebrating their Sesquicentennial this summer. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could repeat the whistle blow. They would have to bring in a portable boiler this time since they tore down the Chair Company building that housed the boiler. They are just going to have to do with an organ grinder blowing wooden pipes. Me. You should contact them. Maybe you could work something out.
14/04/2008 8:04 pm
RE: BILL & MARY BILL BAUER:
Hi, steamboating colleagues:
Thanks for the thread with update on Bill and Mary Bill Bauer. Spooky, as I was just thinking about them here the other week. I'd lost track of them in recent years but well recall many fine times in their company. Bill was, as you all say, a real Renaissance man with both sharing in interests and hobbies that would exhaust most people. Bill's 'pipe organ' connection is new to me.
RE: The 'whistle blow.' Years back, as many remember, Dan Heekin, CEO of big HEEKIN CAN CO. in Cincinnati and friend of Capts. Fred Way and Tom Greene, had a number of vintage steamboat whistles. Periodically Dan would rotate the whistles on the roof of the big Heekin building to blow morning, noon and night that could be heard all through the streets of downtown Cincinnati. Those whistles were haunting.
Cheers,
R. Dale Flick
15/04/2008 9:48 am
David, I'm not an organ afficianado per se, so I don't really know. I saw at least two pipe organ consoles in MB's garage but have not ventured (or been invited to) into the tunnel, which I guess is also the "bomb shelter". Who knows what all lurks in that darkness?
I would say the best bet is for you contact Mary Bill and ask her. I know she's interested in selling some things but I have no idea just what. Perhaps someone who lives in Louisville can make contact with her for an updated list. It's been over a year since I was there.