A new auditorium planned for downtown, 80 years ago

In the fall of 1938, La Crosse’s vocational and adult school, now known as Western Tech, was about to build an addition on 6th Street, to be finished in November of ’39. The centerpiece of that new building would be a 1400-seat auditorium, which could be used for community events. The vocational school auditorium was later overshadowed by the Mary E. Sawyer Auditorium, built right across the street in the mid-50’s.

The state of Wisconsin was declaring war on marijuana in 1938. Attorney General Orland Loomis warned that the “marijuana evil” was not yet a major problem in the state…but Loomis wanted prompt action, to prevent the weed from becoming a “serious menace.”

Radio was the popular stay-at-home entertainment in the late 30’s. A newspaper listing says WKBH in La Crosse carried “Jack Benny and Mary” at 6 p.m. Sundays. “Mary” was Mary Livingstone, Jack’s wife in real life and his girlfriend on radio.

And the Dionne quintuplets of Canada were back in the news…getting their tonsils out. Doctors decided that all five of the Dionne girls, at the age of four, needed emergency tonsillectomies…because they had a history of throat infections. The quints get medical care, 1938, yesterday in La Crosse.