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Posted 09-09-2006 7 News-Bits of Reading-Berks historical interest.... ===================== ======================= ===================== ======================= 1- Sinking Spring Hist. Soc. chicken barbecue - Sat., Sept. 9 10 to 2 2- Centre Park 20th anni. Arts & Antiques Fair - Sun., Sept 10 10 to 5 3- MOVIE MADNESS Film Festival coming soon! 4- Wed., Sept. 20th - "Preserving rural areas in the face of development pressure" - a talk at K.A.H.S. - 7:30 p.m. 5- Passing Scene--Vol. 14 delves into new old territory 6- Another copy of the order form for Volume 14..... 7- Fascinating newspaper article about Berks in 1763. ======================= =============== =============== ======================= =============== =============== 1- Kauffman's Chicken Barbecue, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2006- 10AM to 2PM, located at Dairy Queen in Sinking Spring. Half Chicken---$4.25---also available: Baked potatoes, baked beans, applesauce, pepper cabbage, baked goods. Proceeds benefit Sinking Spring Area Historical Society and Heritage Park. Call 610-678-4219 for tickets, extras available. ====================== ======================== 2- Centre Park's 20th Anniversary ARTS & ANTIQUES FAIR Sunday, Sept. 10th - 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is always a special event of great interest. Berks historical memorabilia usually can be found at some of the stands. RAIN DATE - Sun., Sept. 17th - 10 to 5 ========================== ====================== 3- First Berks MOVIE MADNESS Film Festival First Berks MOVIE MADNESS Film Festival First Berks MOVIE MADNESS Film Festival Screening 50 Features, Independent Films... from Oct. 4 through Oct. 12, 2006 Reading, PA—The first Berks Movie Madness Film Festival (www.berksmoviemadness.com) --- from WEDNESDAY, Oct. 4 through THURSDAY, Oct. 12, 2006 presented by the Berks Arts Council--will screen more than 50 feature and independent films with a Reading connection, host numerous post-screening question and answer sessions, hold several workshops, help resurrect the Kutztown International Animated Film Festival, feature appearances by local actors and film personalities and include a short film/video competition. The theme of the downtown Reading festival is a celebration of actors, actresses and other cinema luminaries born or living in Greater Reading and Berks County. Among the highlights of this new initiative are showings of “Cutter’s Way,” starring Jeff Bridges, John Heard and Reading actress Lisa Eichhorn, who will appear at the festival; “My Life” starring veteran Reading actor Michael Constantine. Also scheduled to appear; and “Rabbit Run,” a film based on the novel by Shillington native John Updike. Tickets for 16-ticketed events are now available at www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/2713 or by calling 800-838-3006. “I think everyone will be amazed at the amount of talent we’ve uncovered in our own community,” said Connie Leinbach, executive director of the Berks Arts Council. “Plus, we’re excited to be able to offer the council’s first major event dedicated to the movies. We hope this will become a tradition like the Berks Jazz Fest.” F. Alan Shirk, festival chairman, said he anticipates an excellent turnout. “We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about the festival which has taken about a year to put together. "Venues and seating are limited, so we urge people to get their tickets early. “ Sponsors include the Pennsylvania Film Office, Leesport Bank, the Reading Musical Foundation, Comcast, Manderbach Ford, Bullfrog Films, HBO and Shirk Communications. More sponsors are being sought. Here are some of the highlights of the nine-day festival (Complete details, including the schedule, film plots and personalities, are on the website.): • John Updike Night, featuring “Rabbit Run,” the onl major studio feature film ever made in Reading and not available on VHS or DVD. This will screen Sat., Oct. 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the Woman’s Club of Reading, 140 N. 5th St., Reading, with other activities, including a panel discussion. • An 8-hour master acting class taught by Actress Lisa Eichhorn, born in Reading. This will be at the GoggleWorks on Sat., Oct. 7, and Sun., Oct. 8, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. both days. The cost is $50 and class size is limited to 20. Others may audit the class for $10. Her film, “Cutter’s Way,” screens Friday evening, Oct. 6 at the GoggleWorks. • An original score for the 1926 film “Don Juan,” created by Reading composer David Himes. This film, the first non-silent silent film shown in Reading will screen at the GoggleWorks on Thurs., Oct. 12, at 7 p.m. • An afternoon of children’s programming on Sat., Oct. 7, at Trinity Lutheran Church beginning at 1 p.m. featuring “The Black Stallion,” based on the book written by Walter Farley, who lived near Earlville. • An Afternoon with Ray Dennis Steckler, 1955 Reading High grad and Hollywood director, featuring his films, “Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters” and “Rat Phink A Boo Boo.” Steckler is planning to appear. • Resurrection of the Kutztown International Animated Film Festival, started in 1973 by the now retired Kutztown University Professor Dr. Thomas Schantz. The animated festival opens Berks Movie Madness on Oct. 4 at the Kutztown Strand, but actually runs from Oct. 1 through Oct. 8. It features works from the Academy Awards, the Ottawa International Animated Festival and by local animator Bob Cesca (Oct. 4 only for Cesca's work). • The Berks Movie Madness Short Film/Video Awards on Tues., Oct. 10, along with highlights of the first Haydenfilms Online Film Festival. This is at the GoggleWorks at 7 p.m. • Five free workshops at the Reading Area Community College (RACC) Schmidt Technology Center on Sat., Oct. 7, and Sun., Oct. 8, beginning at 9:30 a.m. and covering production, screenwriting, acting, making a movie and documentary making. A night with Berks Filmmakers on Wed., Oct. 11, with the work of James Harrar, Albert Kilchesty, Elizabeth Knipe, Jerry and Ida Orr, Caleb Smith, Jerry Tartaglia and Gary Adlestein. This is also at the GoggleWorks at 7 p.m. An appearance by celebrated comic and film artist Jim Steranko on Mon., Oct. 9, at 7 p.m. at the GoggleWorks. He’ll discuss his work on Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” which screens that evening. A lecture by Dr. Robert A. Metzger, retired director of the Reading Public Museum and Art Gallery and noted film historian. His free talk, “Jayne Mansfield, Ronald Reagan and Other Memories of A Devoted Film Historian,” is set for Sat., Oct. 8 at 10 a.m. at the GoggleWorks. • A free night of Reading 8mm historic movies and the JACK LUDEN Western, “Rolling Caravans” at the Historical Society of Berks County, 940 Centre Ave., Reading, on Thurs., Oct. 5 at 7 p.m., hosted by George M. Meiser IX. (This also runs at 9 a.m. on Oct. 5 as a society First Thursday Program.) Also scheduled to appear at the Berks Film Festival are Michael Constantine, Mayor Tom McMahon, Author Ed Taggert, John Zaring, Professor Richard Androne, Sister M. Pacelli, Victor Colicchio, Bob Cesca, Hayden Craddolph, Curt Crane, Paul Galan, David Grabias, George Hatza, Jim Hubbard, Letty Hummel, Conrad Karlson, David Kneeream, Costa Mantis, Neo-Pangea members, Zenta Thomas, Megan Ulrich, Jerry Walsh and Kate Williamson. Among the other films to be shown are “My Life,” “Pursuit of Happiness,” “Street Fight,” “The Black Stallion,” “Sons of the Desert,’ “Footlight Parade,” “Earth vs. The Spider,” “Sentenced home,” “Centralia,” “The Virgin President,” “The War Effort,” “Postcards from Paradise Park,” “Mattie Fresno and the Holoflux Universe,” “Time of Tears,” "Towards the Vanishing Point,” and the documentaries, “Reading 1974” and “The Corrupt City (1969).” Please visit the website for complete details: www.berksmoviemadness.com ====================== =========================== 4- On Wednesday, September 20th, the Kutztown Area Historical Society is sponsoring a talk by Domenic Vitiello, PhD about preserving rural areas in the face of development pressure. This talk focuses on one case study neighborhood in Philadelphia (Manatawna Farm - the last big rural patch of the county – photo attached) to explore the preservation, planning, and legal tools communities can use to re-value and re-use farmland and open space. Dr. Vitiello is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and has served as an urban planning and historic preservation consultant in Philadelphia and Boston. His talk begins at 7:30 pm in the Kutztown Area Historical Society’s 1892 Public School Building located at Normal Avenue and Whiteoak Streets in Kutztown, PA. Admission is free. ====================== ========================= 5- Up to this point, very little history has been gathered and published on the three 19th century villages that straddle Old Route 22 in Greenwich Township....Grimsville, Krumsville (originally named Smithville), and Klinesville (the oldest). The past two weeks have been devoted to research into those villages and gathering photos dating back to 1885. If you're unfamiliar with Grim(s)ville, you'll probably be surprised at what once was there---two general store buildings, tannery, hotel, farm buildings of all types---all erected and managed by Dan'l Grim who had one of the most impressive farmhouses anywhere in the county. It contains three FULL stories. It begs to be restored...... Yours truly didn't realize until today that the popular Krumsville Inn, built by Reuben Smith in 1856, is LOG! The extensively illustrated histories of Grimsville, Krumsville, and Klinesville will appear in The Passing Scene-- Volume 14......due out in November. ========================== ==================== 6- Within the last several days, we've been asked by numerous News-Bits receivers to again send the order form for Volume 14. Accordingly, here it is. NOTE: Those printing it out and sending my mail, kindly send the WHOLE SHEET rather than cutting it down. There's a bookkeeping reason for this. Thanks! -------------------------------- ----------------------- ------------------------------ ------------------------- ORDER form for PASSING SCENE—Volume 14: ORDER form for PASSING SCENE—Volume 14: (Print out and enclose with your order) Mail to: Historical Society of Berks County 940 Centre Avenue Reading, PA 19601 Our phone number is 610 – 375 - 4375 (Ask for Gloria) Our fax number is 610 – 375 - 4376 Name_________________________________________________ Address_______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Phone number (________) _______________________________ Email address __________________________________________ Passing Scenes picked up at the Society are $45, even money. Passing Scenes sent by mail are $49.50. They will be sent out in a well-padded envelope with “Delivery Confirmation.” We will see that you receive the books you order! Delivery of The Passing Scene—Vol. 14 is expected to be at the Society the first week in November. If it comes in earlier, we will mail the book(s) immediately--if you have remitted the $49.50 amount. Reserve ____ copies of Passing Scene—Vol. 14 (A limited number of Vol. 10’s and Vol. 13’s remain for sale at the same price-scale as Volume 14.) No orders can be accepted without payment due to bookkeeping considerations. Books are reserved in your name upon receipt of payment. VISA _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ Exp: ___/____ MASTERCARD _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ Exp: ___/____ Signature: _____________________________________________ Purchaser paid (by mail_____ ) (by phone_____) (in cash_____) ----------------------------------------- ---------------------------- ----------------------------- ================ ================= ================== 7- Vicky Heffner, the Society's Educational Curator, forwarded this fascinating article from 1763. We're generally informed in history books that most of "the problems" encountered in the French and Indian War (1756-1763) occurred between 1754 and 1756.....and that by 1761, things had pretty well returned to normal, or as normal as life was during that period. That noted, here is the article, given exactly as printed in that colonial newspaper: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - New York Mercury - November, 21, 1763 Headline: Philadelphia, November 15 The following account we have from Reading, in Berk’s County, viz: That on the 8th Init in the morning, the house of Frantz Baily, in Albany Township was attacked by a party of Indians, who fired several times through his windows upon which he got up and fired at the enemy, when he received a wound in his wrist and one of his children, a boy, was killed. That one Hagenbuch, and two of his sons, hearing the firing went to his assistance, which made the Indians go off, without destroying the house or barn. That they next went to the house of one Stapleton, but one of his sons seeing them, fired off a gun, which occasioned their passing by that house and going to George Schifler’s, where they tomahawked and scalped his wife, mangled her in a most cruel manner, and left her in a condition which a regard to decency forbids to mention; they likewise killed one of Schifler’s sons, whom they scalped, and half roasted; and burnt his dwelling house, barn, and all the other buildings; that from Schifler’s they went to Jacob Tree’s, killed one Shober, and destroyed the house and barn; that they then plundered Daniel Smith’s house and burnt it, with all his other buildings. And that after all this, they proceeded to Philip Enos’s, about 3 miles from Smith’s where they made prisoner a lad about 13 years of age who afterwards escaped from them. The number of Indians that did this mischief is said not to exceed 9, who spoke English and some Dutch. The quantity of grain destroyed is thought not less than 2000 bushels, and the condition of the inhabitants is most melancholy, there being in several houses not less than 30 or 40 children, besides men and women, and all obliged to fly for their lives without being able to bring off any thing for their support. ==================== ======== GMMIX ===========END

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