Many celebrities who died in 2017 were household names in 1964

They were stars in 1964, and left us in 2017…
 
Mary Tyler Moore and Don Rickles were among the comedy legends who died this year.  In November of 1964, Mary was playing Laura Petrie on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” and Don made a guest appearance on the sitcom as a guy who tried to rob Laura…and Rob Petrie.  Around that same time, comedian Shelley Berman turned up in an episode of “Bewitched.”  Jim Nabors had one of the new hit TV series that fall, with “Gomer Pyle, USMC.”  Bill Dana had his own weekly comedy show, in which his popular character Jose Jimenez worked as a hotel bellhop.  Jerry Lewis played a bellhop who became a comedian in “The Patsy,” one of two Lewis movies released in 1964.  The other was “The Disorderly Orderly.”
 
Around La Crosse, 1964 marked the fourth year of Oktoberfest.  The new Festmaster was Roy Kumm, the head man at the Heileman Brewery.  That year, the festgrounds were at 6th and Vine…now part of the Post Office property.  
 
IGA grocery stores in the area offered a series of cookbooks published by Good Housekeeping…a new book each month for less than a dollar.  And for under $2, you could order a copy of the Warren Commission report on the Kennedy assassination from the La Crosse Tribune.  
 
Wisconsin’s top news story of 1964, as chosen by the Associated Press, was Republican Warren Knowles ending a six-year run by Democrats in the governor’s office.  Number 2 was the announcement that the Milwaukee Braves would move to Atlanta after the ’65 baseball season.  Tough news for area sports fans 53 years ago, 1964, yesterday in La Crosse.