Even if you’re new to the state, you’ve probably heard of Wallace and Ladmo, the beloved characters of the long-running TV show that bore their names. But long before Wallace Snead made his broadcast debut, Lew King was engaging and inspiring Arizona’s kids.
These days, a road trip from Los Angeles to Phoenix is routine, but in the infancy of car travel, driving that distance was an accomplishment. Thus, the Cactus Derby, which debuted in November 1908 and covered what then was a route of more than 500 miles. According to a June 1969 Arizona Highways story, the winner of that race was Colonel F.C. Fenner, who was driving a White steamer that averaged a blistering 17.6 miles per hour.
Arizona history is full of swindlers, but few were as brazen as Richard C. Flower, who advertised his con right in the name of the operation. As the story goes, in the late 1890s, Flower was seeking to incorporate his mining company and was asked what he wanted to name it. He replied, “Any name that will cause them to spend their mazuma” (a Yiddish-derived slang term for money). And Spenazuma was born.
On a bright afternoon in May 1972, Mrs. Molera led some of her Nogales third-grade students on a walk from A.J. Mitchell Elementary School up the hill to a new art gallery. The children were there to see their classroom artwork, posters in a “primavera” theme, displayed for the public. Alma Chavarria, age 7, was among the budding artists, and her experience that day was the start of a lifelong connection to Hilltop Gallery.
The Murphy family made many contributions to the development of Phoenix. Among other things, the family built part of the Arizona Canal, helped found the city of Glendale and planted some of the state’s first citrus trees. And, in 1909, they opened the Ingleside Club, a private club near Indian School Road and 60th Street in present-day Scottsdale.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP) dates to 1833, when French law student Frédéric Ozanam started the Conference of Charity to help impoverished communities in Paris. But the charitable organization’s history in the Valley of the Sun began more than a century later, when its Phoenix chapter opened in April 1946. Based inside what now is St. Mary’s Basilica, the local chapter was the work of five men who wanted to find a solution to increasing poverty in Arizona after World War II. With the help of donations, members started feeding those in need.
Between 1931 and 1936, Harry Jarrett turned up in Atlanta, in El Paso, in New Mexico and under a house. That was noteworthy because he was supposed to be doing time in a state prison. But Jarrett, perhaps the most prolific escapee in Arizona history, evidently had a case of wanderlust that neither cell bars nor prison walls could contain.
With roots that reach back to Prohibition, Charlie Clark’s Steakhouse is billed as the fifth-oldest steakhouse in Arizona. But it’s gone through a few changes on its way to becoming a staple in the White Mountains community of Pinetop-Lakeside. The original proprietor at the site of Charlie Clark’s operated it as a speakeasy in the late 1920s, serving up “corn squeezins,” a slang term for a type of moonshine, while the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawed the production and sale of alcoholic beverages. The watering hole later became Jake Renfro’s Log Cabin Cafe.
When Brothers Martin and Herman Fenster launched the Arizona Brewing Co. in a 34,000-square-foot warehouse in Phoenix in 1933, they hoped to ride a golden post- Prohibition wave. They hired a brewmaster trained in Czechoslovakia and invested $125,000 in a 30,000-barrel-per-year operation. On August 3, 1933, they advertised it in the Phoenix Gazette, calling the endeavor a New Deal brewery that would help pull the country out of the Great Depression.
THERE ARE AS MANY SUCCESS STORIES as there are successful people. But they’re often inspired by a great teacher. Wilson Riles knew that better than most. Born in 1917 at a sawmill camp in what he called “the backwoods of Louisiana,” Riles lost both parents by age 12. With help from his church, he attended high school in New Orleans. Moving to Flagstaff with his adopted family after graduation, he became the first Black student to attend what would later become Northern Arizona University — and has been honored as one of the university’s most distinguished alumni.
