North Dakota
Why did ‘The Music Man’ blame a North Dakotan for corrupting River City youth?
![Why did ‘The Music Man’ blame a North Dakotan for corrupting River City youth? Why did ‘The Music Man’ blame a North Dakotan for corrupting River City youth?](https://cdn.forumcomm.com/dims4/default/d7d38ba/2147483647/strip/true/crop/540x417%200%200/resize/1380x1066!/quality/90/?url=https://forum-communications-production-web.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/brightspot/7a/23/841ae0f642cdafa624cc19e0f967/captain-billy-and-coogan.jpg)
You know the story of “The Music Man.” Con man Harold Hill makes his way into River City, Iowa, and tries to convince the townspeople they’re in trouble (with a capital “T” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for pool!).
Hill makes a pitch, in song, that if the town would start a band their sons would stop hanging out at the pool hall where they were being corrupted.
Mothers of River City, heed that warning before it’s too late
Watch for the the tell-tale signs of corruption…
Is he starting to memorize jokes from Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang?
Great song. But one thing. What exactly is Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang?
It turns out Captain Billy, and subsequently his “whiz bang” have roots in North Dakota and Minnesota.
Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang was a bawdy humor magazine started by a North Dakota boy from a good family. Wilford Hamilton Fawcett became one of this region’s most colorful characters – a veteran of two wars, an Olympic athlete, a world traveler, a big-game hunter, and the guy who built Breezy Point Resort on Pelican Lake.
Wilford Hamilton Fawcett was born on April 27, 1885, in Canada, to John and Hannah Maria (Bird) Fawcett. He was the third of eight children.
According to a 2009 story by Curt Eriksmoen (with information provided by Bruce Gjovig, entrepreneur coach and founding director of the Center for Innovation at the University of North Dakota), “at the time of Wilford’s birth, John was superintendent of the Winnipeg school system. While serving as superintendent, John was also working on his medical degree at the University of Manitoba.”
Contributed photo/Minnesota Historical Society/Hennepin Public Library
John Fawcett earned his degree and when Wilford was just 3 years old the family moved to Cando, North Dakota, and later Grand Forks. Dr. Fawcett specialized in “women’s diseases” and gained a reputation for his work with abdominal surgeries.
Their life was comfortable, but young Wilford craved adventure. He dropped out of Central High in Grand Forks when he was just 16. He somehow fooled the U.S. Army into believing he was 18 and was sent to the Philippines in 1902 to help subdue an insurrection there. But he got shot in the leg and eventually went back to Central where, no doubt, he told the best stories in homeroom.
When he was 20, the Fawcett family moved to Minneapolis where Wilford married Viva Meyers, a woman from rural Iowa. He soon found work as a reporter at the Minneapolis Tribune and later the Winnipeg Free Press.
When World War I broke out, he enlisted and was stationed in Virginia where he wrote for Stars and Stripes, the U.S. Army magazine. He earned the rank of Captain, and his forever nickname was born – Captain Billy.
Newspapers.com
When the war was over, he returned to Robbinsdale, Minnesota, having learned a valuable lesson about his time in the army: soldiers like risque humor. And now that they were off base, away from their buddies, they might be missing it.
So Fawcett figured the time was right to launch a new magazine that appealed to the bawdy interests of returning doughboys.
He called it Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang. (“Whiz bang” was the name Allied forces gave to German artillery shells in World War I.) According to the Minnesota Historical Society, the first issue came out in October 1919. By 1923, the magazine was selling 425,000 copies a month.
Contributed / Minnesota Historical Society
Hot off the Presses to Breezy Point
In 1920, Fawcett’s two brothers Roscoe and Harvey moved to Minneapolis to help run Fawcett Publications. Two years later, they introduced another successful magazine, True Confessions, and later Modern Mechanics, Inventions and Triple-X Western.
The magazines made Fawcett a rich man. He purchased land at Breezy Point on Pelican Lake near Pequot Lakes, Minnesota, which he built into a popular resort.
Contributed photo/ Minnesota Historical Society
Fawcett was now divorced from his first wife, Viva, and married to his second wife, Antoinette. The couple became the ultimate hosts at Breezy Point – hobknobbing with all of the beautiful people – from politicians like Harry Truman to movie stars, including Clark Gable and Carol Lombard. While at Breezy Point guests of the Fawcetts would hunt, fish, swim and drink illegal liquor.
Minnesota, even Breezy Point, wasn’t immune from the criminal underworld during the prohibition era.
Antoinette was believed to have introduced muckraking journalist Walter Liggett to Isadore “Kid Cann” Blumenfield, who was eventually tried for Liggett’s murder.
By 1924, Fawcett craved more action and Captain Billy took on new roles that had him traveling the world.
According to the Minnesota Historical Society, “he competed in trap shooting (shotgun shooting at clay targets) in the 1924 Paris Olympics, hunted in Africa, took a round-the-world vacation, and purchased the St. Paul and the Minneapolis Boxing Clubs.”
Contributed photo/Minnesota Historical Society/Hennepin Public Library
Perhaps the world travels created trouble on the home front. He got divorced again and married again in 1935, this time to his secretary Marie Frances Robinson. A year later, he stopped publishing the magazine that had made him his fortune, Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang.
Ballantine Books, a division of Random House publishing, eventually acquired Fawcett Publications.
Fawcett died of a heart attack Feb. 7, 1940, in Hollywood after what was obviously a whiz-bang of a life.
STEP BACK IN TIME WITH TRACY BRIGGS
The Forum
Hi, I’m Tracy Briggs. Thanks for reading my column! I love going “Back Then” every week with stories about interesting people, places and things from our past. Check out a few below. If you have an idea for a story, email me at tracy.briggs@forumcomm.com.
Tracy Briggs is an Emmy-nominated News, Lifestyle and History reporter with Forum Communications with more than 35 years of experience, in broadcast, print and digital journalism.
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North Dakota
Huskers add top recruit in North Dakota to 2025 class
![Huskers add top recruit in North Dakota to 2025 class Huskers add top recruit in North Dakota to 2025 class](https://www.klkntv.com/content/uploads/2023/04/n/i/vlcsnap-2023-04-20-22h34m35s341.png)
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Matt Rhule and the Nebraska football staff got commitment No. 17 in the 2025 class on Sunday, adding four-star defensive lineman Kade Pietrzak.
The highly sought-after recruit from West Fargo, North Dakota, is the No. 1 recruit in his state and chose Nebraska over Oklahoma, Kansas State and Wisconsin.
Pietrzak checks in at 6-foot-5, 240 pounds and has been on Rhule’s radar since he was hired at Nebraska.
He will join two other defensive linemen in the class of 2025: Omaha North’s Tyson Terry and Malcolm Simpson from Texas.
Pietrzak is the second-highest rated recruit for Nebraska in this year’s class so far behind Simpson.
COMMITED‼️@HuskerFootball @CoachMattRhule @Coach_Knighton @HuskerCoachTW
#GBR pic.twitter.com/SAXF1FOQ2J— Kade Pietrzak (@KadePietrzak) July 21, 2024
North Dakota
North Dakota Superintendent Helping Schools Develop AI Guidelines
![North Dakota Superintendent Helping Schools Develop AI Guidelines North Dakota Superintendent Helping Schools Develop AI Guidelines](https://townsquare.media/site/1140/files/2024/07/attachment-Untitled-design-2024-07-08T115534.336.jpg?w=1200&q=75&format=natural)
North Dakota School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler announced new state guidance on artificial intelligence (AI) designed to assist local schools in developing their own AI policies and to help teachers and administrators work more efficiently.
A group of educators from North Dakota schools, the NDDPI, the Department of Career and Technical Education, and state information technology agencies created this guidance, which is available on the Department of Public Instruction’s website.
Baesler emphasized that implementing AI, like any instructional tool, requires careful planning and alignment with educational priorities, goals, and values.
She stressed that humans should always control AI usage and review its output for errors, following a Human-Technology-Human process. “We must emphasize keeping the main thing the main thing, and that is to prepare our young learners for their next challenges and goals,” Baesler said.
Steve Snow and Kelsie Seiler from the NDDPI Office of School Approval and Opportunity highlighted that the guidance was drawn from various state education agencies and technology websites, such as Code.org and TeachAI.org, with the process taking about eight months.
“We had a team that looked at guidance from other states, and we pulled pieces from different places and actually built guidance tailored for North Dakota students,” Snow said.
Seiler explained that AI excels at data analysis, predictive analytics, and automating repetitive tasks but lacks emotional intelligence, interdisciplinary research, and problem-solving abilities.
Snow added that AI can help teachers design lesson plans aligned with North Dakota’s academic content standards quickly and adjust them for students who need more support. AI can also simplify the development of personalized learning plans for students.
“You have so many resources (teachers) can use that are going to make your life so much easier,” Snow said. “I want the teachers, administration, and staff to get comfortable with using (AI), so they’re a little more comfortable when they talk to kids about it.”
Seiler noted that the NDDPI guidance is not a “how-to” manual for using AI but offers general suggestions on developing local policies to leverage AI effectively.
“Our guidance is meant to provide some tools to the school administration and say, ‘Here are some things to think about when you implement your own AI guidance,’” Snow said.
“For instance, do you have the infrastructure to support (AI)? Do you have a professional development plan so your teachers can understand it? Do you have governance in place that says what AI can and can’t be used for?”
8 Everyday Foods That Are Legal in Montana, Forbidden Elsewhere
These foods are easy to find on store shelves wherever you buy your groceries in Montana. However in other states they’re banned from the shelves!
Gallery Credit: Michelle Heart
Big List Of The Best French Fries In Montana
Gallery Credit: mwolfe
North Dakota
The most deadly time to drive is between Memorial Day and Labor Day
![The most deadly time to drive is between Memorial Day and Labor Day The most deadly time to drive is between Memorial Day and Labor Day](https://www.kxnet.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2024/07/Cars-on-Road5-1.png?w=1280)
NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — The hundred-day span between Memorial Day and Labor Day is marked as the most deadly period on the road here in North Dakota.
According to the North Dakota Department of Transportation’s 2022 crash summary report, fatal crashes are twice as likely during this time.
That’s why North Dakota leaders are urging drivers to not fall into a “false sense of security” during the bright and cheery days of summer.
According to Travel and Leisure, North Dakota has been marked as the state with the most reckless drivers.
There’s a range of reasons for this from drunk driving to speeding. But another reason is that when the snow clears, North Dakota drivers are eager to get out more and drive faster than they would in the snow, according to the North Dakota Department of Transportation’s Highway Safety Division director.
And because North Dakota has some of the lowest citation fees in the nation, ranging from $5 to $100, the Highway Patrol’s safety and education officer says that drivers aren’t given enough deterrents to drive safely.
However, with growing concerns about safety, there could be talk of increasing citation amounts in coming legislative sessions.
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