Although I didn't grow up in Milwaukee, I visited here numerous times as a kid and my grandparents took us to lots of places like the Domes, Usinger's, the Circus Parade and to the lakefront to see the fireworks.
Add to that that I moved here before a lot of historic Milwaukee fell to the wrecking ball and I've got a pretty good Milwaukee memory. So, when a friend lent me a copy of "Milwaukee at Mid-Century," a hardcover book collecting some of the many, many photographs Lyle Oberwise took of the city, I saw a lot of familiar, disappeared places.
The ones that struck me most were three of the Metropolitan Block fire of December 20, 1975. That's because despite being 9 years old at the time, I remember that fire and I remember the pictures in the afternoon paper.
I remember being captivated by the color newspaper photos because they so vividly captured the flames and the smoke and the red fire engines. Growing up in New York, none of the papers at the time had color photos, so that was unusual.
Also, I had no sense of geography when it came to Milwaukee but I could see that the fire was next door to Usinger's a place I knew. And if I recall correctly, we went to Usinger's the day after the fire, which likely solidified the memory.
What's also interesting to me about these photos taken, mostly, from the 1940s to the 1960s (Oberwise shot from the 1930s until the 1980s and the photos are now in the collection of the Milwaukee County Historical Society, which published this book), show that while a lot of Milwaukee has disappeared in the past 25 years (remember the Fruit Boat?!), in some of the pictures, it looks as if almost nothing has changed.
See, for example the photo of The Pfister on page 108 (and ignore the fact that Chapman's had been demolished to make way for 411 E. Wisconsin Ave.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
