(lighthearted music) - Will you consider this?

You come to this place, this Peoria, Central Illinois area, and you become a long-timer.

And Charles Bobbit is not only a long-timer, but you're a local historian as well.

Welcome.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

- [Christine] And you came from Memphis, Tennessee.

- 1981, I arrived here and I was never so shocked.

I got off the plane, drove down to our plant, which was right over here.

Signs, "If you're the last person to leave Peoria, turn out the lights."

- [Christine] Okay, so that was what year?

- 1981.

- 1981.

- And I was just flabbergasted.

And I thought, "What does all this mean?

Have we gone to the wrong place?"

Nope, we hadn't.

- So you came here specifically to work.

- SealTest brought me here, which is Kraft Dairy Group.

- [Christine] Okay.

- And...

I was a credit manager between Chicago and New Orleans.

- Oh, so you, so- - I got to travel a lot.

- [Christine] I guess, yeah, that's a big area to cover.

- And we went West for Breyers' ice cream and we were so excited about it.

(indistinct) We would know that we didn't have many.

Maybe five years left, that plant's old.

I think it's a, what did they call that thing up there now?

- [Christine] On North University or right next door.

It's a restaurant.

- Right behind you.

- Right, Italian restaurant.

Yeah, it's awesome.

But you're awesome, too.

So you grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and you worked there for SealTest?

- Mm.

- All right.

And I was President of the Historical Society when I left.

- [Christine] There.

- Now Tennessee has three grand divisions, East, West, and Middle.

- Okay.

- Well, we were West Tennessee (coughs) Historical Society.

I was president 10 years.

I was president, at 26, of the Historical Society.

- [Christine] At age 26, yeah.

- And I was 36, I resigned and I said, "I'm going to Peoria."

And they said, "Why do you wanna go to Peoria for?"

I said, "There's a job up there."

I'd had an aunt that worked here during the war years, had Block & Kuhl, and she often spoke about Peoria.

And I never dreamed the day would come when I would be having the opportunity to come here.

But then I saw those signs, I thought, "Uh-oh."

And it wasn't the case, 'cause I was right in the middle of this area right here, post office.

The plant gave me a chance to walk to the PNC Bank, which is now- - It's now the PNC Bank.

- And I was able to walk to that.

I was able to walk around the neighborhood.

I really just, the charm of it.

- Mm.

- It's just really a lot of charm, but it's Downtown.

- And so you were sold on it.

Now, your wife LaDonna wasn't exactly thrilled with the weather here, she did not like cold.

- [Charles] No, she did not.

- She was a Southern gal.

- She's a Kentuckian.

- Okay.

- We have a retirement home in Mayfield, Kentucky.

And the plan was to move down there, then we moved back.

- Okay, that's good.

- We miss it.

- So one thing that you have done well in your life, you were the President of the Everly Brothers Fan Club, is that right?

- I was the Vice President.

- Vice president, and you had quite a collection.

- Oh, I gave 400 albums.

- [Christine] They had that many?

- No, I had duplicates and duplicates.

- [Christine] (chuckles) Okay, I was gonna say.

- When I went with the company business, I said, "I'm gonna make them take me by the record shop."

I bought all the albums so, and then, of course, people would contact me, "Well, you know about this album?"

Yes, I do.

And then I gave 400 albums, I gave 178 45s and seven 78s, had it all.

- [Christine] All right.

- And I had a lot of it autographed.

- And so had you met them?

I mean, being Vice President of the Fan Club?

- [Charles] Well, I gave my picture, I brought my picture with 'em.

- Okay.

- I had taken in 1987.

There's two things I fell in love with when I was 12.

I went Downtown Memphis.

My dad took me and said, "Now, son, Danny Thomas is coming."

- Well, who's he?

Well, you go Downtown, we want you to meet him.

There was spaded dirt.

And I walked up to him, I said, "Mr. Thomas, what you do with these buildings around here?

We'll tear 'em down.

I was born in these buildings."

He tore 'em down, and the... - [Christine] But look what they built.

(chuckles) - Just that they're just, it's just a monument to what men can do with medicine.

- Yeah, so then, you met the Everly Brothers in Downtown Memphis also, or where?

- Oh, they're Kentucky boys.

- Oh, they're Kentucky, okay, I see.

- I was never so disappointed in my life when I met 'em.

- Why is that?

- Short guys.

- [Christine] Oh.

(laughs) - I was thinking that'd be John Wayne.

- [Christine] Well, okay.

(chuckles) - And no, they're five-foot-seven.

- Wow.

- I thought, "Good gosh, All these years you've been my heroes, five-foot-seven."

- [Christine] They made great music, though.

"Wake up, little, Susie."

All Right, so let's get to you and then your wife LaDonna.

You were sold on Peoria and its charm.

So you started buying some old properties.

- Well, the reason that came about, there was no histories, old stuff, nothing new.

For some reason, people just didn't pursue it.

I came here, the Historical Society, maintains two beautiful houses.

Well, they emphasized the birth date, and Tennessee, we emphasized the history.

I had no way to get any history.

So I collected the postcards.

- All right, that's where you started.

- This one right there.

- Okay, this is the first one.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- I got that postcard.

- All right.

- I thought, "Well, this is nice."

So I started collecting postcards.

Next thing you know, I had a whole pile of postcards, but I got another whole pile of them.

Today, I think I have about 1,500.

- And how did they tell the story?

- Everyone, because when I was writing those books, I asked people help and they would say, "Well, I don't really remember," except when I put it in print, then it all comes out of 'em.

- (laughs) Well, so you started collecting 'em.

And where were you finding these postcards, at garage sales?

- Just in people's- - eBay.

- Oh, on eBay.

- Oh, yes.

- Specifically you put in Peoria history, historical postcards.

- And it's, you know, there was always, then there was, I bought a lot of 'em on eBay, and then I bought, and I went to different shows and things like that.

But it got to the point that I had so many, I had to stop and think, "Well, do I have this one already?"

- So how did you catalog 'em so that you knew if you had doubles?

- I put 'em under names, Glen Oak, and I put under Downtown, that kind of, I got 'em separated because then there's the disasters on the river, flooding and things like that.

I put that under another one.

I still mix 'em up.

I forget about it, I wonder where I put that postcards.

- Okay, and then LaDonna, she begrudgingly helped you write the books.

But very begrudgingly, because you were spending a lot of money on these old postcards.

- She let me know it.

- Okay.

- I was telling you earlier, she...

I think it was this postcard here.

- This one?

- That's in front of the PNC Bank.

- All right.

- Elephants on their way to Emmanuel High School.

Because how do you get elephants to the fairground?

You walk 'em.

- Oh, wow, so- - I agreed.

- And that's a lot of elephants.

- That particular card I just fell in love with.

So I bought it and I came home and she said, "I could have my hair done three times, what that postcard cost."

- (chuckles) She was a very practical woman.

Well, she was an accountant, wasn't she?

- Yes, she was.

- Uh-huh.

- She was.

(coughs) She started out with... She got here in '81 and she went, got a job immediately with Berger.

The old, what was that.

- [Christine] Carson Pirie Scott or Bergner's.

- This was the old department store we had here?

- [Christine] Yeah, Bergner's.

- Bergner's, that's right.

- Right?

- And she's a unique lady.

She's a Southern Baptist, worked for a Jewish firm, went to a Catholic school.

- You know what, well-rounded, very ecumenical.

- (chuckles) So she went to work there, then went to Hopedale Medical Complex.

She got tired of driving out there.

She went to work for Bard Optical.

- [Christine] Kind of a full-circle life, all right.

So, okay, so tell me what was one of the most interesting, other than the Elephant Parade, which is great, now, when the circus came to town, years and years and years ago, I got to ride on an elephant.

That little hair on their back is not very soft, it's kind of wiry.

So that was a very interesting story.

But how about some of the other postcards?

What interesting stories did you cover?

- [Charles] I borrowed some postcards.

(coughs) Excuse me.

I borrowed some postcards to go in there.

- Okay.

You borrowed em from whom?

From the Historical Society or?

- No, a gentleman got it, wouldn't loan it.

He'd only loan it to me.

- Oh, okay.

- I said, "Is this really the man?"

Charles Manson.

- Okay, all right, now tell me about that because you've owned several properties and he lived in one of the properties that you had bought years later.

- Charles Manson.

He talked about being his first arrest.

And he was not born here.

- Mm-hmm.

- He was raised here.

And when he was down there at that innovation center on Main Street, and they caught him breaking in.

And then when he escaped, get in the wrong car, squad car.

- [Christine] (chuckles) Not very bright, but it's one of those things, okay.

- And he just, that's one that I got a lot of criticism about putting him in there.

They said, "Why'd you do that for?"

I said, "Cause nobody's ever, nobody knows that-" - [Christine] It's part of the history, yeah, that they can't escape- - If they don't know these things, and for instance, the AgLab.

- Mm-hmm.

- The mass production of penicillin... - [Christine] Was here, mm-hmm.

- People don't know that.

- Well, it's kind of been lost in history over the years.

You know, they don't, they just see that building when they pass by and have no idea what goes on there or what has gone on there.

So you wrote those two with the postcards and then you were featured in another book, you and LaDonna both, the "Legendary Locals."

- This is a Bobbit here.

- That's, yeah.

(laughs) - He thinks he's (indistinct) - And that?

- Were a legendary local in there.

- Yes, I know that.

And that kind of tells your story of why you came here and sort of why you stayed.

But you've also done some other books too, very interesting.

The "It Didn't Play in Peoria" is a good one.

And you have Charles Lindbergh on the front of it.

Why?

- Because he's the one that came here and pleaded for the money to build his airplane.

And we said no.

- Hmm.

- And the banker said no.

Well, the reason they said no is because he crashed three times.

You crashed three times in Peoria and you didn't, and you wanna fly across the Atlantic?

So he went to St. Louis and became the Spirit of St. Louis.

So the Paris, could have been the other way around.

- [Christine] Could have been the Spirit of Peoria.

- And he, one time, now people don't realize another fact.

Out on '91, that movie house, what do they call it now?

- Oh, the theaters at Grand Prairie, mm-hmm?

- [Charles] That's on the site of the second airport.

That's where Charles Lindbergh landed.

- He landed there to deliver the mail there.

- So every time you drive by there you can, because I got a picture showing the hangers that today is, DICK'S?

- Oh, Sporting Goods?

- That's the old hangers.

- Okay, they even kind of is shaped like a old- - No.

- They tore it down and then, but the second airport closed pretty quickly, they moved out to Martinville.

- All Right.

Okay.

- And Peoria had three airports.

And, but the most interesting one of all is if you go out, again, Trivia on the side, if you go out Knoxville, you get to that real estate company.

Maloof.

- Mm-hmm.

It has a, that's the... That was an airplane production company producing planes in Peoria.

The Depression killed it.

- Okay, oh, so that was even post-World War I.

- That's right.

- Okay, hmm.

- And that building is very old.

It's been used for a lot of things but this kind of stuff is just- - It's lost.

- All over town.

- Yeah, it's lost, so what else didn't play in Peoria?

Let's see here.

What else was interesting?

Oh, well, we used to have a baseball team here, yeah.

And then- - This postcard's the Charles Manson.

- Oh, okay, Charles Manson postcard mentions the serial killer's disdain for Peoria jail food.

I guess we weren't feeding the jailbirds well back in the day.

- What I found to be so interesting, and if I do another book, which I won't, but if I'll do another book, I'll put it in there.

The next time you go down World Drive, and you see the stadium, the first airplane in Peoria landed there.

- In that big flat area where the stadium- - It was a race track, horse race track.

And they switched to dogs.

And then they had the women's baseball team here.

- [Christine] Okay, during World War II.

- Mm, they came, they were there and it was prospering, and then the Depression killed it.

So the Board of Education bought it.

And that hangar there, I meant that.

- The stadium itself?

- That's the original ones.

- Huh.

- So it's just a lot of history there, - Mm-hmm.

- Lots of history.

- So the track itself was where the- - Oh yes.

- Dogs were racing.

- And I don't think people realize how much history.

- No, no idea.

- And history's everywhere.

(coughs) - Yeah, it is.

- Example.

Sheridan Road was named for the road in Chicago.

- Right, because originally, and when I ran into you at- - It was called- - Elizabeth.

- Elizabeth.

- Right.

- And the man was building those houses, he said, "I live on a street called Sheridan Road in Chicago, let's change this to Sheridan Road.

Let's make it swanky."

They did.

- Hmm.

- And then the...

But now, the old entrance to the mall, the original entrance was shared, was a... - [Christine] To Northwoods Mall?

- What's that school?

- [Christine] Which mall are you talking about?

- The highway that took you to the original mall, that's where 150 came through.

- Oh, okay.

74?

So there was a school there.

See, I'm not from here, so.

I said, that Main Street going up the hill?

- Oh, Main Street going up the hill.

- That main street going up.

- There was a school?

- Sits there today.

- A grade school?

Not Franklin School.

Well, Franklin's off of Main Street.

I'm confused, but- - You come off of Farmington Road and go up there.

- Oh, okay, well, Manual High School is down there.

- What's that?

- Manual, no, not manual.

- No, it's right off Sheridan Road.

- Right off of Sheridan.

- Oh, I'm sorry, Farmington Road.

You go up the hill there, what is that street name?

That was the main road to take you to the mall.

- Oh, oh, Sterling.

- Sterling, Sterling.

- Okay, all right.

- And- - Whew.

(chuckles) - Because the mall was put there and the other side was the... We don't have the main stroke that we have today.

It was just a little-bitty thing going through there.

And the people never dreamed that Sterling would be... - [Christine] Four lanes or five lanes?

- Pushed aside.

- Yeah, huh.

- For that.

And a lot of that's gone on in this city.

- Right, so that's your next book is, you're writing about how the streets got their names.

- Oh yes.

- All right.

So what other?

So, somebody had told me years ago, and you were the President of the Peoria Preservation.

- [Charles] Historic Preservation Board.

- Right, so you know all those stories, too.

But how did War Memorial get its name?

- What's that?

- How did War Memorial Drive get its name?

- Well, (coughs) it was a memorial to the war, but there's no memorial.

- Mm-hmm.

- I couldn't understand that.

- Yeah.

- Get a memorial, but you don't have a memorial.

(Christine laughs) The street's the memorial.

- Okay.

- And there's several streets put together there.

And then they cut it right through Main.

A lot of that stuff in Peoria, you just got, the most interesting street of all is down on Jefferson and MacArthur.

There's this place called Vachon Brake Service right behind this little street called the New Street, N-E-W. - [Christine] Okay.

- I thought, "Where in the world did you get that?"

- How original, it was a new street, right?

- It was, the farmer gave the land for the street he set down, "When you name it, I wanna name it."

- Okay.

- And he, time came, he couldn't think of a name.

"Let's call it New Street."

- Well that's pretty easy to remember.

(laughs) - And I said, "It's just all over this city like that and... - A lot different than Memphis.

Did Memphis have meanings to their neighborhoods and the naming of the streets or what?

- I did that same thing in Memphis.

- All right, okay.

- Because there was a street called Union.

It was the Union of Memphis and South Memphis.

Well, Union, it became the name of a bank, Union Planters Bank.

- All Right.

- Which came to Peoria one time and then its regions.

And it all ties together.

(coughs) - So you and LaDonna, so you've written books, you're doing all this historical stuff.

How many properties did you two buy and restore, renovate in your time?

- Well, I used to tell you, Abraham (indistinct) is my neighbor.

- Pretty much.

I lived on one end, moved to the other end, moved in the middle, then I moved to High Street, moved to Sheridan Road, then I moved way out on Knoxville, right there at War Drive.

It set, I think the city council lady.

- [Christine] Gale Thetford.

- Gale Thetford owns that then.

And we didn't like it.

- You're too far away from all the real history.

- It just wasn't the feel.

- So tell me about Greenhut Mansion.

Now you bought that, its apartments and everything, but it has some interesting history like the very first dryer in the city or elevator or.

- [Charles] Oldest operating elevator in Memphis.

- In Peoria.

(chuckles) - Peoria.

- Now keep in mind that that building didn't look like that when it was built.

They changed it drastically.

And the Wolfners on the side of the buildings had a W. - I saw that.

- Like the people's whiskey.

- Mm-hmm.

- It's Wolfner.

- Okay.

Big difference.

- Because I don't sell the steak, I sell the sizzle.

- Ah, (laughs) I like that.

- President of the United States was in there, President McKinley, he's got a ballroom in the basement that turned into an apartment and... - Well that was rare, unusual, 'cause usually, they had the ballrooms in the attic floor.

- That is very true, like the one on the corner of Main and High Street, there's an attic.

- Mm-hmm.

- It's in the basement.

And then you have.

- And then the dryer that had, it had a rack or something by the heater in the building.

- That dryer, I only found one more like it in the entire country, it was at Biltmore.

- [Christine] Oh.

- It's a dryer that was put there in 19, the building was converted in 1916.

That's during the war when you couldn't get I Beams.

But the Wolfners got I Beams.

- Uh-huh.

- I Beams running through that building, holding it together.

- Mm-hmm.

- And their maids, each floor had its own maids.

They didn't have any cooking on the floors.

All done in the basement, sent up through the (indistinct) And that was done away with.

And then when, so the one time, there was an article I found on eBay about Peoria.

- [Christine] Okay.

(laughs) - I thought, "What is this?

Movies in the ballroom?"

802 movies, 1915.

- So they had a projector and they had movies in the basement.

- They sold movies, and then one of the provisions was if you have children, you cannot bring children there and not banging your hands.

So the Wolfners put on this little movie house there and I didn't know that.

- And they were probably the...

They weren't even the talkies yet, they were just silent movies.

- So they permitted the maids and porters to lease out that dryers.

They took in laundry for the people.

Nobody had a... Queen had (coughs) everything.

- Right.

- Everything.

So he got that dryer and he permit his people to make some money on the side by drying their clothes.

- That's awesome.

Okay.

Well, our time is up just about.

So, you know, when you're in the drugstore or wherever, you can see these on a rack.

There's a lot of local authors that have contributed to the history of Peoria and you're doing a lot of it.

- Well, see, there's a lot of 'em down there at the corner of that Sheridan.

Sheridan shops - Okay, so let's- - And they send 'em down to me to autograph.

- Okay, all Right, well- - Used to send down there for both of us to autograph.

- Okay.

All Right.

Well, thanks very much for sharing all this stuff.

I learned a little bit extra today and I'm sure I'll run into you some more and learn a lot more.

Good, thanks, so thanks for being with us, Charles, thanks.

(coughs) Excuse me, now I'm now you're contagious, now I'm coughing.

Thanks for being here.

I hope that you all stay well and healthy.

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