The Italian Hall Tragedy

I was a guest of the Friends of the East Tawas Library this past FRI night and we had a full house!  Here are some pictures they were kind enough to pass along to me:

Steve 

There is an industry trade publication (the publishing industry) that gives out "Book of the Year" awards each year at the BEA (a big industry thing in NYC).  My book has been named a finalist in two categories: 

http://www.forewordmagazine.com/botya/search2k6.aspx?srchtype=author&srchval=lehto

I'll find out JUNE 1.

Steve 

As we've talked about here for some time now, the doors to the Italian Hall opened outward -- toward the street -- and they did not play a part in the tragedy.  The question then arises: "Who started the legend that they opened inwards?"

After all, the topic never came up during any of the hearings or news coverage of the time.  I was recently re-reading Red Metal by C. Harry Benedict and came across what I think may be the earliest reference to the issue of the doors.  Benedict wrote it in 1952. 

If Benedict invented the story (or at least was the first to put it into print, one wonders if he did it at the behest of C&H.  After all, Red Metal is nothing more than a propaganda piece for C&H. 

The investigation continues . . .

Steve

I've been asked a few times about posting upcoming events with the book.  The dates tend to fly at me so fast that by the time I think of it, there's not enough lead time to make them useful.  However, here are some dates that are approaching:

March 23 E. Tawas Library reading group 6:00 p.m.

March 27 Eastern Michigan University 6:00 p.m.   See: http://www.michiganfirehousemuseum.org/index.htm

March 30 Birmingham Borders 7:00 p.m.

April 17  Macomb Library 7:00 p.m.

April 18 Lansing Schuler's 7:30 p.m.

April 19 Marquette Peter White Library 7:00 p.m.

May 1 Friends of the Plymouth Canton Libraries 11:00 a.m.

May 12 Missaukee Library 11:00 a.m.

May 15 Sault St Marie public library 4:00 p.m.

May 19 Ann Arbor Book Festival 1:00 p.m.

May 23 Detour library 9:00 a.m.

May 24 Ironwood Historical Society 7:00 p.m.

How's that for a list?

Steve