Yesterday in La Crosse

Making changes to Lang Drive, 60 years ago

Published

5 years ago

June 19, 2019

In May of 1959, the city of La Crosse was getting ready to complete the Lang Drive extension across the marsh, connecting George Street to West Avenue. City leaders proposed turning some busy streets into one-ways for the duration of the project…such as making State Street eastbound only, or King Street westbound.

In the late 50’s, some local Boy Scouts used to practice Indian dances. One newspaper photo showed Scouts rehearsing those dances for the annual Scout meeting at Logan High School.

Bob Hope had a new movie that spring, ‘Alias Jesse James,’ described as a ‘laugh panic.’ And La Crosse got its first look at ‘Some Like It Hot,’ starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. One newspaper ad used arrows to point out who was Tony and who was Jack, in case people didn’t recognize them in their female disguises as ‘Josephine’ and ‘Daphne’…60 years ago, yesterday in La Crosse.

Related Topics:Boy Scouts Lang Drive Some Like It Hot

Brad Williams

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.