Century-old Ti — Professor Smowdell’s Novelty Orchestra

This is the latest in a series of posts about news reported a century ago in the Ticonderoga Sentinel.

Professor Smowdell’s Novelty Orchestra brought out a packed house to The Playhouse on April 5, 1920, the day after Easter, for the annual Defiance Hose Company concert and ball.

“Their music is of that peppy, snappy sort that the dancers of today require and which the dancers demand,” the Ticonderoga Sentinel reported on April 8, 1920. “Add to the music the gay spirit that prevailed and the cordiality of the firemen and you have the reason for the prominent success of the event.”

The event turned an estimated $150 profit — the equivalent of about $1,900 in 2020 dollars — to benefit the fire company.

“To say that the big crowds who had looked to it for relaxation after the quiet Lenten season thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment if afforded is putting it mildly.”

The Graphite correspondent celebrated the spring re-opening of the road from Hague.

“George Frasier went to Hague about two months ago and just got home late last week. He said he came just as soon as the roads were open and said there were some awful drafts down there.”

The South Ti correspondent celebrated keeping a neighbor.

“We are pleased to write that Mr. and Mrs. Fisher Blakely, who contemplated moving to Glens Falls, have decided to remain with us a while longer.”

Sentinel editors celebrated the stitchery of a quit with 6,016 pieces.

“We don’t profess to know much about pieced bed quilts, but it seems to us that a quilt just finished by Mrs. Adelbert Ward of Hague must come pretty near to being a record breaker.”

J.T. Helms of Port Henry was hired as the new Ticonderoga Congregational Church organist, replacing Mrs. Clarence Boardman.

C.F. Warner resigned as manager of the Graphite Hotel and returned to his home in Ticonderoga.

Gordon Russell, set to open a ping-pong photo studio at Factoryville in Crown Point on April 12, was offering free photos to the first 10 callers.

A ping-pong camera was an early 20th century technology with bouncing shutter feature that enabled a photographer to take multiple images in one frame, producing a strip of one-inch photos of shoulders and head.

“It is my intention to continue taking these photos for about two months, or until demand for the same is exhausted,” Russell advertised.

Click here to read the most recent previous post in the series.