[Music] travel the smaller roads of louisiana you'll witness the landmarks disappearing feelings of loss when an old store closes are rooted in more than the physical in peeling paint and crumbling brick we see the possibility that no one will remember the small details that made a town and perhaps influenced our character that's why we thought it might be valuable to recall in this program some intangible remnants not just the buildings but some of the building blocks of who we are because there is also a lost louisiana in the way we were [Music] dusk in baton rouge and the uss kid stands above the low waters of the mississippi river this lean destroyer was once hit by a japanese fighter plane in a kamikaze attack now it's a tourist attraction the men walking through the cramped crew quarters this evening though are no ordinary tourists like a lot of veterans who visit these old ships retired rear admiral frank collins could find his way down her steel decks and through her low portals in the dark it brings back wonderful memories to me to tell you the truth you know one of the advantages that i had over so many sailors and officers was the fact that i'm short the lord built me short and as a result i could get around ships of this size without much problem my head many times but it was a fantastic experience really for admiral collins and friends it's no ordinary weekend these former seamen along with their air force and army buddies have come home to the old war school at a uso style dance kicking it all off the men find they may have served thousands of miles and even wars apart but their common bond is lsu the school decided veterans day had for too long been celebrated without the most important part so this year all sorts of ranks and all the flag officers who were once ranked cadets at lsu were invited back for a grand veterans day ceremony on the parade grounds where they once stood in rigid formation air force brigadier general wilbur joffrion can speak for any of these men and a few women this feels like home and they're having a ball i mean you know they i think it carries them back to the old days it's the professional cradle of so many veterans and currently serving military men and women because of an old tradition here the sheer numbers of graduates lsu has sent to war is phenomenal as many officers as west point are annapolis gather that extraordinary number of decorated heroes together and you'll get quite an ear full of stories more than that the spirit a nearly ancient spirit of deeply rooted military tradition is in the autumn air as gulf war veterans like lieutenant general thomas raine casually chats with robert badon raim led the first attack to penetrate iraqi positions in desert storm badal served in world war you don't imagine how green i was it was uh unbelievable everything was so new so big for instance there are more phds on the faculty now than there were students at that time and uh in the very small schools on the old campus are where the state capitol is now robert badon is one of only five surviving cadets of the old war school spelled s-k-u-l-l-t began so long ago he remembers when lsu dorm rooms were in the old pentagon barracks well it's kind of slow it was strict military we were as strict as west point and we were punished by giving demerits and each demerit had to be worked out around the flagpole and it was strict very strict military you had to march around around the flagpole we're bushing around and if you for each demerit you walked 45 minutes around the flight pole with your uh uh rifle but if you didn't want to carry a rifle you had to walk for another 15 minutes what a collection of living history this day became history beginning in what seems to us another world entirely the louisiana seminary of learning and military academy opened in 1860 near pineville at the time colonel william tecumseh sherman was superintendent baton rouge historian billy spidell after the firing on fort sumter when louisiana seceded from the union sherman wasted no time in resigning from the college and resuming his uh his military career in the united states army the civil war emptied the school as cadets left to join the confederate army the building did not survive a fire but the school did its traditions weathered several relocations from the earliest days the school was obviously a military academy and not exactly of the first order the seminary had opened just months before the outbreak of the civil war and life in those times were not very easy and sherman being a military man was a strict and rigid disciplinarian and at first she was not very popular with most of the students but the parents loved him especially those who had unruly quarrelsome sons sherman had no qualms and didn't hesitate to expel cadets for infractions he said he refused to be governed by cast off boys of affluent planners but sherman wasn't all work and no play he soon learned to love the young people and gave frequent dances and parties for the cadets there wasn't a dry eye among the faculty and cadets when sherman departed for the war by october 1865 when the war had ended david french boyd succeeded in reopening the seminary which was still in pineville and he acted as the second superintendent and for a while the campus was utilized by federal troops as a hospital following the disastrous red river campaign and boyd found the place in deplorable condition nearly everything destroyed or stolen but due to the courage and determination of boyd and a small group of dedicated educators who not only kept the institution alive during those dark days of reconstruction but also play the foundation for future lsu as we know it today cadets who made the most of their training went on to command men in every conflict since lsu trained colonels commanded the volunteer regiments this state raised for duty in cuba in 1898 a future governor rough and pleasant led a battalion there in world war one john archer lejeune who served under general john pershing was the first marine officer to command a combat division look through the old gumbo yearbook sometime and you'll get just a taste of how steep this school had become in military style for their first two years men had to be cadets to fight in world war ii lsu produced as many officers as the official training schools at west point and the u.s naval academy 15 alums reached the rank of general including lightning joe lawton collins commander of the seventh army corps in europe and later president harry truman's chief of staff claire chennault the fightingist flying tiger and commander of the 14th air force in china graves erskine headed one of the three main marine divisions to capture iwo jima the war school's president troy middleton was a pivotal tactician at the battle of the bulge life for the cadets even during war time included the usual hijinks of that era joe dale was a cadet here before the second world war the hazing of course in 1938 was uh one that i'll not forget because every freshman that came in in rotc in particular his head was shaved immediately then you had to buy a cap there's a purple cap with a little visor on it and every freshman was called a dog and you inscribed on the visor of the cap your name dog dale as an example and you wore that cap to class and everywhere else you went except when you're in military uniforms the hazing that existed within the rotc elements that may have existed elsewhere on the campus and fraternities and sororities i don't know but the hazing we went through was recognized by the officials of the university but it was pretty tough some of them i can't describe to you right now but but for example i remember one upperclassman of mine slim dixon we call him from denim springs and we had to learn certain rules of the cadet core and he tested me and i missed one he said lean over dog dale and i leaned over and he took a broom and swatted me on my derriere and i ended up in the hallway in the in the barracks in the stadium so but i still remember that whack today do you remember the rule that you didn't remember then no okay that was pretty well did it that was 100 years ago jeff through the many years cadets have endured many unofficial rites of passage brigadier general arthur abercrombie as soon as you walked on campus you had to go to the rotc parade ground they put you in a formation if you didn't have your head shaved they did it for you and then you couldn't get a date for about six months and they made you wear pajamas to the first football game and none of the girls would go with you that way either so what it did is it allowed the upperclassmen to get all the girls our culture and our times helped pick our heroes and by the 1960s the times led some of us to believe these men were not heroes mandatory rotc at lsu was repealed randy gary was student body president in those times you have a company of 100 men and only 90 of them i mean only 10 of them want to be out there and you've got 90 you don't want to be 90 who are not polishing their shoes they're not polishing their brass they're not getting a haircut they're not worried about their gig line they don't care about their m16 they don't care about anything else they don't want to be there and so consequently the 90 that do not want to be there were making it very difficult for the ten who did want to be there just after mandatory rotc fell colonel joe dale came back to lsu as commander of cadets the number of cadets had plummeted actually it had been falling for years but dale says there was and is something special about the program here the discipline that is instilled in the individual not necessarily pure military discipline but the discipline of living being able to apply your basic principles of study you say i can pass it off and go watch the tv tonight we didn't have tvs then we had radios but we were all disciplined to turn the radio off and go to our study halls or do our studying so i think discipline is was there then and it still exists the vets and today's cadets were recognized on that saturday evening in this coliseum of lsu's better known heroes they stood on the 50-yard line for a crowd that may remember billy cannon better than blackjack hershey but that is our culture yet for a special moment they were recognized as the eldest the bravest the strategists the commanders the original fighting tigers who helped change a whole lot more than a digit on a scoreboard they helped america change the world from this school some 12 000 young men just like these served in world war ii some 500 died in combat there are few physical reminders of the old war school but there are plenty of stories and still a few story tellers the tiny military academy established in 1860 is long gone and time has eroded even some deep traditions but that military foundation remains a part of our state's culture and should be remembered as more than just a part of our collective past [Music] 9 30 on a tuesday night and dan hill is still tinkling smooth show tunes on an upright piano for late diners at the hotel bentley this is a haven every night civility that's how it is and that's how it has always been at a grand hotel like the bentley 90 years old and still the heart of downtown alexandria when the morning comes guests may stroll to the streets but if they don't have pressing business they'll probably return to sit in the lobby there's not much left here but the bentley like every american city alexandria's downtown is a shell of its former bustle the old family shops moved to the mall the bentley thank heavens is still here alvin michoff had a downtown shoe store across the street now he fits kids feet guess where i honestly never believed that all of that traffic interest business would ever leave third street i just never thought so it was just too much i said believe me if enough stores stay downtown it'll stay the hotel was still open in the 70s and it would never i think it was and it would never i didn't see i didn't see it's possible for that much business to leave that's how busy it was then came the four-letter word maul joe d smith is publisher of the alexandria daily town talk banking retail the hotel bentley there were other hotels too the rapids hotel the evangeline hotel but the bentley hotel was the place around which all downtown evolved i heard the story of why it was built uh mr bentley mr joe bentley took his dog into the rapids hotel which was the hotel at the time and they wouldn't let him in and his boots were dirty because he had been out in his farmland and his uh his uh you know his big timber man and they insulted him he said i'll build a hotel to put you out of business.

and he built the showplace of the south there was nothing like this hotel in the south if it's true the founder was turned away from muddy boots joe bentley would be proud today unlike overprotective modern hotels you can still open the windows of your room at the bentley since 1908 it has been a downtown anchor picture alexandria then a railroad a few stores lots of horse carts and clouds of red dust kicked up by all the hooves a farm town a frontier town no past that already a brawny town with hotels and fine homes timber money and trade the steam train pulled in on time the newspaper carried ads for a soft drink just beginning to sweep the country joe bentley and his partners built a hotel all right one to rival even the fanciest in new orleans the bentley was it or a man could get a shave and a haircut at the hotel barbershop where the town fathers could meet in their peculiar manly luncheon fraternities it had its own factory for making ice its own wine cellar and of course its own huge kitchen the bentley had a private printing office to compose menus for patrons who frequented the fancy dining rooms when the bentley opened it even had its own artesian well for water pat rabelais collects stories about those 19th grand years i understand at one time mr bentley entertained his very very good friends and yet to be a very good friend or business associate of joe bentley to be invited to one of his food functions so whoever was invited considered a high honor to have dined with mr bentley fancy it was for alexandria and fancy it still is the ladies posted cards from a genteel writing room when they pulled up even if they were traveling alone the bentley extended the appropriate courtesies even when [Music] society sort of frowned on a lady being alone in the evening there was there was always safety and a warm welcome in in this kind of a hotel where management looked after people and where there were there were there were courtesies and social rules that made for a far more pleasant life than some of that which we experienced today a social aesthetic that we've probably forgotten yes and and people dressed uh because if you were if you were going to be seen in this kind of a surrounding it seemed to be appropriate to be dressed and retired properly just before world war ii central louisiana became the troop training area for a nine state region half a million men add to that number all the families visiting them alexander at that time i believe was 12 000 or 14 000 people so it was a it was a madhouse but they had the maneuvers as a youngster we used to go up on the levee and talk to all the soldiers and watch them do all the their deal they have the red army and the blue army fighting each other maneuvers it was the most vital bustling place you you would ever want to be it must have looked like bourbon street oh it did it did indeed my first memory directly of the hotel uh was when people would come from out of town this was a favorite meeting place where you'd meet relatives or meet friends uh and and you there were always groups gathered throughout the lobby and this lobby which has been so painstakingly restored was really magnificent for a town this size some people say it was patterned a little after the old saint charles hotel in new orleans and the lobbies were very very similar of course the old saint charles was torn down but this one is is still here deco renovations from the 1930s dominate the lounge so prior to that it was known as the rathskeller and i think that's indicative of the stained glass windows that we have here which depict native costumes with the gentleman using their their language to say cheers during the war years when the louisiana maneuvers were on dr humphrey hardy who was a local retired doctor had the occasion to visit with several of the prominent captains and lieutenants then eisenhower and bradley to name a couple of them they were never all here at one time and he tells me that he is almost convinced that a lot of the strategy of world war ii was done behind this column on old napkins and what a prize that would be if someone still had those napkins the bentley had closed twice for lack of business in 1985 it was a mess silver had been sold off marble removed but most of it is refurbished now and most of its warmth survives every so often maybe just enough to fan some hope you come across a bentley not only still standing but still waiting to embrace you and grant joyce and pete scallon still come to the lobby of the bentley from time to time during those days you come to the hotel bentley where you he was flying high i mean it was a nice place and anytime ladies went anywhere it was hats and gloves you know you weren't dressed unless you had a nice hat and wore gloves did people act differently yes i think they were um they were a little bit more subdued [Laughter] than today's crowd when it snowed in alexandria in 1923 guest woke to a white courthouse lawn that courthouse across the street was once a lovely sight what happened loveliness alexandria concrete blocks someone thought would be lovelier than a cupola salute to the still living bentley an oasis of enduring charm in one of too many barren downtowns they're building a new civic center across the street now it's sure to help business and that's good because the endurance of the hotel bentley is a rare reminder that we haven't entirely abandoned our senses [Music] lost louisiana will continue [Music] fading old landmarks represent something intangible the forgotten energy of other decades of other lives the big bands used to play in the venetian room of alexandria's hotel bentley in the 40s and 50s anyone old enough to remember are lucky enough to have heard them must regret there are no more big bands crisscrossing the country surprise we found one they've driven across several state lines to be here they're ready to unload the bus it's a late saturday afternoon in mid-december and band leader jack morgan is about to encounter an inconvenience oops locked oh well that's the par for the course we have that quite a bit hurry up and wait it's the name of the game this is the bus and this is the story of an extraordinary band that travels the nation as no one else does anymore i'm 54 years old and i've been doing this since 1958 myself i know i don't look it drummer eddie julian been doing it with jack for 23 years december 21st i'll start my 24th year well sometimes you feel like a 70 mile an hour starting but generally we have a great bunch of guys and that helps things a bit this is harold meeker he lives in las vegas nevada but back how many years ago did you join what year was that 78.

78. give me a typical day give me a tell me a typical day we might get up at uh all seven eight o'clock uh it just depends on how far we have to go but mostly we do one-nighters across the country the latest and every engagement for the jack morgan orchestra includes unloading their own equipment every bit of it carrying their own instruments and setting up their own stage and i was going to say it beat loading box cars tonight it's the american legion hall in baton rouge louisiana for one of the last big bands still traveling the road and stopping in towns conveniently close to their fans these are their fans the thousands of music lovers who remember a golden age of swing and wawa and as another band leader put it that sweet music for dancing and dreaming like his daddy's wah-wah yeah when you hear a shubert serenade oh it brings back wonderful memories of russ morgan's orchestra and jack is so much like him he looks like you guys he has the same library that all the repertoire that he plays yes it's a big thrill to get to come to hear him if you're a dancer you don't need any description it has a great a lot of feeling it makes you want to enjoy the dancing to it because of the feeling of the music every person here tonight knows the first note from jack morgan's trombone will be the lead into a song his father wrote it's called does your heart beat for me this is the music of romance for any age the cavernous veterans hall melts away and a star-lit ballroom and treats pairs of shuffling feet to the light fantastic the band of course is marvelous it's full it's a large van i love the trombone something we don't get here anymore with all these little combos around so dance to a full orchestra is a big thrill the quality of the music and the dancing with the partner you don't throw the beautiful lady out and draw her back or you don't go dancing off in the other direction with the lady and meet once in a while we prefer this type of music this type of things and the type of people we live they live for it you know and it's great to know that you're out here giving people a great deal of pleasure and you're making them happy that does make a difference the playing is what is what makes it all worthwhile oh it's nostalgic to me yes but had i never even heard russ or his music this is wonderful they are fans of more than the music they are devoted to a gentle camaraderie we in the colder world may call old-fashioned even corny in an age of anything goes the big timers club meeting here tonight requires formal attire in an era of hurried living they make the time for this one whole night of nearly bygone gentility all right we're about to enter the morgan room among the many fans one stands out vo mitchell has devoted a room in his house to the morgan band this is the room in my home that's devoted to the russ morgan orchestra russ morgan himself and son jack who now heads the orchestra you have posters and tapes hundreds of tapes obviously albums pictures how long have you been collecting all this it'll go back to 1941 42 in that range but jack morgan the trombonist and bandleader just isn't that old theo mitchell has been following the band since it was the russ morgan orchestra begun in 1935 by jack's father and russ was the leader and believe it or not it was financed by rudy valley most people won't believe that because valley was noted as being kind of close with the money talent unbelievable the guy was an arranger composer he played at least five instruments including the piano and the organ and the trombone naturally and had been an arranger for example for john philip souza what is special about the way that russ and jack both play the trombone well i've heard jack say something that is the best way to describe it he said dad could do things with a trombone that can't be done on a trombone and he said i've tried to copy that and he has he's a clone really of rust he's identical on the trombone and even his vocals i find many times hard to distinguish between the two voices another night another stop for the morgan band the small town of clinton is on their agenda every year just despite a hectic schedule i went home back at the quad cities in illinois for a week and that's the only week from january 4th to january 12th was the only week that i have even been home since last september and i don't get home now until april 10th the band plays clinton every year because it's like coming home to family a network of friends keeps their spirits up legions of fans appear again and again renee and nell gay could think of no better way to spend their 43rd wedding anniversary than in this warm lodge with this warm music when we go to a dance uh she wears me out i'm getting kind of old for this you know but we managed to get through it most of the time break out of sweat not for spine just sweat especially when i have good music and we dance every day every day every day she wears me out happy anniversary renee and nell and happy anniversary to the morgan band tonight it is 60 years old still touring still swinging still bringing a beautiful sound to dance halls across the land [Music] [Applause] it's been a long time since the swing bands were in full swing along came television and we began staying at home yet even in that we in louisiana should cherish some legends who helped nurture our collective character feel like a story this morning okay let's see oh i remember one i've been wanting to tell you once upon a time there were some pioneers not the kind who settled the west they were the kind who settled little children down after breakfast they came to visit all of us lucky enough to have a television and played games and sang songs that taught us about manners and starting each day with a smile there used to be a lot of kindly grown-ups on tv who thought it was important kids had a friend some of them even became famous for being so very nice won't you please won't you please please won't you be my neighbor across america fred rogers and captain kangaroo were childhood friends but across louisiana our tv friends were different they lived in our hometowns now we have once again this year the biggest thing in town in these parts ms iris reed that's enough iris captain tall tower did anyone notice he was the same guy as papa john well papa john is more or less better known today as henry clements the first character would have been 1959 and that's when i did commodore clem i had gone to work at uh kalb and ellick and uh if this gets the air hello to all you folks down in ellick and mr bushytail and all those folks they said that i should be an old sea captain and they i should be called commodore clem and i adapted a character that i had done in summer stock at max and cocky indiana i was the eddie mayhoff character and visit to a small planet so it was a simple matter of doing the voice and feeling a little characterization and putting on the costume and i was commodore klim and you were crouching nobody would recognize me when i went to the grocery store yeah that's a good idea that's one of the most important things do you remember him now alexandria do you remember he once took us on a wild ride in a fast sports car do we remember him for tall tales or do we remember him in hindsight as firecrackers of fun in the ancient days of louisiana tv we got to thinking that maybe we'd like to show you that even youngsters can really play musical instruments and they can play them well for you shreveport kids had bob and his buddies an innocent romp into silliness that lasted for years bob griffin i went out and bought a rabbit went out and bought a hamster with a hamster cage and then we needed somebody for me to talk to and since they were just me we didn't know what so we decided to wear a straw hat and under the straw hat we'd put orville the alligator five and seven eighths inches long orville is the smartest most sarcastic guy that you've ever met in the world he knows everything anything if there's a question orville knows the answer griffin is a dummy orville runs the show so we needed the order we needed the alligator to talk to us and we had an engineer jim walma smart guy and he said i'll tell you what let's do let me play with it so i used to do commercials and i did a pakistani commercial and so they took one of my pakistac commercials reversed it and speeded it up like that and then jim would sit in the control room and he would talk with me with that voice coming out from under my hat and i'd say original how are you doing this morning you're doing pretty good and he'll change the volume and rise the volume up and somewhere rather even change the speed on it to where i could talk to the alligator and we talked every morning they were silly weren't they kids and contrived but who cared they were as real as any friend and sometimes a lot more dependable they were on every day they were on live children's shows were not all games romper room began long before sesame street baton rouge grown-ups remember miss pat pat evans we gave both children and their parents the kind of information that they needed to do when we made it accessible to any child who was watching and also to try to involve them so it was participatory we paid a lot of attention to that so they weren't just passive watchers of a television screen but the activities were so that they could participate and we were blessed with some very very gifted people even the person who played the music for romper was an accomplished musician an accomplished pianist and could just pick up on any nuance of what was happening which showed respect for the children we didn't know it of course but sitting there probably too close to the set we learned a lot more than we might realize today combining gentle education in manners and wonderment with a good dose of adventure the guy with the fringe is frankly better known as buckskin bill than bill black hello again welcome to part two of the storyland cabin right here my name is buckskin bill well you know what we're going to do in the first part of the second half of storyland today well i told you can you remember what it was going to be where are we going to sing a song where are we going to draw a picture are we going to play with a modeling doe that's right come on let's move our indian blanket off and away we go with a modeling dough buckskin came to visit kids for 30 years 30 years of live television and being so gosh darn chipper ask anyone from baton rouge over the age of 15 if they know this song [Music] what is the piece of music it is called the spirit of freedom march it was written by a beautiful man i'm glad you asked his name was kent cooper kent cooper was head of a united press international office and as an avocation he wrote banned music and there was a man named paul lavalle who had a weekly radio show on one of the networks called paul laval's city service band of america city service sponsored him and kent cooper wrote pieces of music and paul laval played him bob griffin still does tv every day as sports director at ksla henry clements has his own high quality tv production company bill black never stopped educating kids he retired the buckskin just a few years ago and is now on the school board pat evans went on to produce documentaries on television and today is a public policy consultant we want to thank them all even 30 years later it was a time when kids shows were done for the kids sure some of the hokey hosts pitched bread or cereal and sure a lot of parents back then must have wondered why their kids threw such fits for carbonated fun whatever that was but our rosie hindsight can't be entirely nostalgic there was something different about louisiana kids host in person this is buckskin bill saying you're never completely dressed until you put on a smile these folks were after all our heroes and our friends keep the good memories close there may not be many physical reminders of our fading culture left but knowledge of ourselves and the faith in who we are in louisiana can never crumble [Music] you