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The College of Wooster
TITLE
by
Gregory James Van Horn
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of theRequirements of Senior Independent Study
Supervised byDr. David Gedalecia
Department of History
Spring 2012
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INTRODUCTION
Sports historians have long recognized the pivotal role that sport has played in
creation a citys civic image. Whether this was a desire to be a champion or simply to be
considered among Americas elite cities, the perception existed that professional sports
conveyed the dreams and values of the community. Richard Grumau and David Whitson
argued how sport could reinforce a communitys image and served as a vehicle for
spreading a towns reputation. Further, the presence of a professional team for a larger
metropolitan area helped to constitute a modern urban culture while also serving as an
asset for attracting media attention and advertising the local economy. As Grumau and
Whitson assert, A winning sports franchise could diminish the passing of the industrial
age and turn a Cleveland into an oasis of pleasure. 1 This argument has been made over
and over again for numerous cities by their politicians, the booster press, and
entrepreneurs themselves in hopes of bringing in an expansion or relocated franchise, or
pushing for public funding of new facilities. In Cleveland, athletic success in the postwar
years drove the transformation in a city that was searching for identity to one that could
proudly call itself the Best Location in the Nation during the postwar years.
Sports in America had a significantly different place in American culture both before
and after World War II. Prior to the war, people watched sports as a way to escape the
troubles of their own lives and of those in American society- wars, unemployment, social
conflict, political instability, and economic depression, among others. But the nature of
sports spectatorship changed at the onset of the war, and sports in America and around
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the world suffered for next several years primarily due to the stoppage of routine life
during World War II. After the war, sports began to assume a largely different role in
American culture and took on a whole new meaning in peoples lives. Sports historians
Randy Roberts and James Olson wrote that in the postwar years, sports became not only a
reflection of the changes occurring in the United States, but a lens through which millions
of Americans interpreted the significance of their country, their communities, their
families, and themselves. Consequently, they became a national obsession, a new
cultural currency, [and] a kind of social cement binding a diverse society together. 2
Of all the professional sports, baseball emerged as the most popular sport in America
by the end of the 1940s. Baseball historian Jules Tygiel believed that postwar baseball,
like America, seemed poised on the brink of change in many areas, largely reflected in
the dramatically different relationship that unfolded between baseball and its fans after
America emerged victorious from World War II. 3 During the postwar era, attendance at
baseball games reached an all-time high, easily surpassing the previously established
records from the popular 1920s. In 1945, as the war drew to a close, a record 10.8
million fans attended baseball games. By 1946, as many of baseballs stars were
returning to the game after serving duty, baseball attendance nearly doubled to 18.5
million. The number rose to 19.8 million in 1947 and 20.8 million in 1948. Overall,
average attendance between 1946 and 1949 jumped an unprecedented 16,027 people per
game. 4
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2 Randy Roberts and James Olsen, Winning Is the Only Thing: Sports in America Since 1945 (Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), 9; hereafter cited as Winning.3 Jules Tygiel, Past Time: Baseball as History (Oxford [England]: Oxford University Press, 2000), 162;hereafter cited as Tygiel.4 Tygiel, 149.
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No city exemplified baseballs growing role in postwar American society better than
Cleveland, Ohio. Immediately after World War II, winning teams coincided with urban
growth to produce what some people might consider the greatest period in the citys
history. Cleveland had entered the war as a former industrial giant just beginning to
shake off the effects of the Depression. Its population had dropped during the 1930s, and
despite New Deal reforms, many of its factories were still not working to capacity. The
war changed all of that as plants were reopened, work forces expanded, and people
flooded to the city. By 1946 the value of goods produced in Cuyahoga County amounted
to $2,673,300,000, more than 2.5 times the value of production in 1939. The labor force
had increased by a factor of 1.6 during this time, and the industrial payroll had grown to
2.8 times its 1939 level. In 1950, the city would achieve its highest-ever population
figure, 914,808. 5
When servicemen and women returned to Cleveland, they came back to a newly
prosperous city as victors in the greatest conflict in history. The success of their
professional sports teams would only serve to add to the general civic euphoria, and
baseball provided the greatest thrill. In 1946, Bill Veeck, a thirty-two year old ex-Marine
from Chicago, headed a syndicate that bought the Cleveland Indians franchise. Veeck
was a showman who thought the game should be an entertaining experience for the fans.
His unique promotional gimmicks provided a sideshow that certainly attracted fans, but
more important, the strong Indians teams, led by player-manager Lou Boudreau and
supported by a stellar pitching staff featuring Bob Feller, played exciting and winning
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5 CITE- Sports in Cleveland , 84.
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baseball. By 1947, the Indians were drawing so much attendance that all games had to be
moved to Municipal Stadium, and the teams use of League Park ended. Attendance
records continued to be shattered in 1948 as the Indians set major-league records for the
largest crowds for a single game, doubleheader, night game, opening day game, and the
season; a total of 2,620,627 saw them play that year, a record that would stand for the
next thirteen years. 6 The team went on to beat the Boston Braves four games to two in
the Worl d Series, and for the first time in more than a quarter century Cleveland had a
world championship baseball team.
From 1946 to 1954, Cleveland sports fans were in a state of euphoria, having never
before experienced so much success in professional sports. By capturing this
championship, Clevelands image rose above other elite cities, and professional sports in
Cleveland grew into a special role for years to come. Through winning, the Indians
signified the health and success of the community. The local press eagerly adopted The
City of Champions as a proud, new claim on Clevelands place among other American
cities, and proudly proclaimed the city of Cleveland to be The Best Location in the
Nation. 7 Following the 1948 World Series, the Cleveland News Ed Bang wrote, Not
only is Cleveland t he home of champions... but [it] is also the town that forces the five
more heavily populated cities in general, and especially Greater New York, to bow low
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6 CITE- Sports in Cleveland, 85. The single-season attendance record was broken in 1962 by the LosAngeles Dodgers7 CITE- The City of Champions also referred to the Cleveland Barons of the National Hockey Leagueand the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League, who also won their respective leaguechampionships in 1948.
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when it comes to establishing attendance records. 8 Any chance a civic booster had to
use numbers or slogans to positively measure Clevelands national value was taken. 9
This study examines the creation of Clevelands civic image through the presence of
the Cleveland Indians in the immediate postwar years. In his 1899 volume The Theory of
the Leisure Class , Thorstein Veblen noted, The addiction to sports, therefore, in a
peculiar degree marks an arrested development of mans moral nature. 10 Had Veblen
visited Cleveland some ninety-one years later after writing these lines, he would have
believed he had stumbled upon a completely amoral society. Sports seemed both a local
and national addiction, and the leisure class had expanded b eyond any limits Veblen
could have imagined in the 1890s. In Cleveland he would have found a daily newspaper
devoting at least one-fifth of its column space to sports, new electronic media devoting
equal if not greater amounts of time to sports, and a chamber of commerce that no longer
viewed sports as a civically valuable consequence of normal business enterprise but
considered it a main supportive member of the local economy.11
More important, had he
looked at the previous forty-five years of civic history in Cleveland, he would have noted
a remarkable parallel between sports and civic progress. No longer an activity that
seemed to take place independently of the citys development, sports be came linked to
the social, political, and economic fortunes of post-World War II Cleveland.
The first chapter examines Clevelands history from its beginning through the
immediate postwar years. The chapter presents postwar Cleveland as a city determined
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to return to the national prominence it held prior to the Great Depression, and concludes
by suggesting that the Cleveland Indians were helpful in that endeavor. Chapter Two
provides a thorough history of baseball in Cleveland, but most importantly examines how
the Cleveland Indians became important element in reviving a positive civic image after
World War II. The third chapter analyzes Bill Veecks three and a half years as owner of
the Cleveland Indians, from 1946 to 1949. While his time in charge of the club was brief,
his impact was immeasurable. Through gutsy personnel decisions and whacky
promotional gimmicks, Veeck created an environment at the ballpark that attracted fans
in record numbers. At the same time, he put together the most successful teams in the
history of the franchise, culminating in a World Series Championship in 1948. This
chapter will examine the effect that Veeck had not only on his team, but on the entire city
of Cleveland. Finally, Chapter Four discusses the role that the media played in
galvanizing postwar Americas mass consumerism. More specifically, the chapter
focuses on how sports media in postwar Cleveland helped attract attention to the
Cleveland Indians.
All in all, each chapter suggests that the Cleveland Indians played an important
role in Clevelands transition to an era of postwar prosperity. The postwar years were a
turning point in the history of both baseball and of the United States as a whole. The
sport sought to revive its fortunes in conjunction with the relative stability of the citys
economy and culture scene. The following chapters will show how the Cleveland Indians
became a symbol of Clevelands perceived return to glory as it developed into a
championship contender.
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Cleveland looked to return to the national prominence it held prior to the Great
Depression, and the Cleveland Indians were an important element in reviving a positive
civic image.
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CHAPTER 1
A HISTORY OF CLEVELAND:EXAMINING CLEVELANDS PLACE IN POSTWAR AMERICA
Cleveland was born on July 22, 1796, when General Moses Cleaveland arrived
with a surveying party at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. It remained a rather quiet
canal town until a century later, when Cleveland had grown into the economic and
cultural center of Ohio. The quiet canal town was a growing industrial and commercial
power that epitomized the urban growth of the Industrial Revolution. Clevelands
population had also grown dramatically by this time. Census figures showed that it
doubled from 1850 to 1860, and then again in 1870. At that time Cleveland was the
fifteenth largest city in the United States with 92,829 residents. 12
Cleveland continued its growth into the twentieth century. The early decades
showed a dramatically rising population that propelled the city to the fifth largest city in
America with just under 800,000 residents in 1920, over double the 381,768 Clevelanders
recorded in the 1900 census. Over one third of Clevelanders were foreign born, with
large numbers of Italians, Poles, and Hungarians arriving in the city during this time and
adding to the multi-ethnic flavor that included large populations of Czechs, Germans,
Russians, and Jews. The search for employment and better living conditions in
accordance with the ideals of the American Dream held by so many immigrants was
realized instead in hard labor and the residential limitations of cramped apartments and
tenements. Although some found a tremendous disassociation between the Old and New
Worlds, many found hints of home in established or growing ethnic neighborhoods. Dirk
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Hoerder, in Identity, Conflict, and Cooperation: Central Europeans in Cleveland,
1850-1930, surmises that immigrants found, th e old world existing in the new yet
different, the new world to be understood with the emotions, values, and experiences of
the old. 13
Clevelands suburbs benefited to some extent from the central citys increasingly
overcrowded living conditions. Bordering cities picked up some of the immigrant
overflow, but more distant suburbs attracted established families looking to escape from
the chaos of the industrial city. The aftermath of World War I revealed the first signs of
rapid suburban growth and a decelerated rate for Cleveland. Advancements in
transportation, namely the automobile, and communication in the twentieth century also
encouraged the process along. Between 1910 and 193 0 Cuyahoga Countys population
grew to 1,201,455, essentially doubling in the process. 14
Clevelands black population also grew during this period. A large migration of
blacks left the South to escape both poverty and prejudice, and made their way north to
the industrial hotbeds of the Midwest. For much of the nineteenth century, Clevelands
black population remained small; never exceeding two percent of the citys total
population from 1850 to 1910, yet the actual number of residents grew from 224 to 8,488.
The slow growth of the late-nineteenth/early-twentieth centuries exploded between 1910
and 192 0, when the black population increased 308% to 34,451; the vast majority settled
on Clevelands east side. By 1930 there were 71,889 blacks residing in Cleveland,
making up eight percent of the total population. 15
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The twentieth century also saw the continued growth of Clevelands importance
as a national power and Progressive urban model. Iron and steel continued to be the
primary industries, followed by foundries and machine shops. Cleveland also moved to
the forefront of national transportation technology with both aviation and the automobile
industry. The diversified nature of the local economy was strong and increased the
prospects of prosperity, despite keeping Cleveland from rising to the foreground of
national attention in one field like Detroit (automobiles), Pittsburgh (steel), or even Akron
(rubber). The wealth accrued through these industries enabled the city to give itself a
needed facelift in various stages.
The Group Plan of 1903 16 infused Progressive Era ideology into the
redevelopment of Clevelands downtown. By the mid-1920s, construction in accordance
with that plan had produced a new city hall, court house, board of education
headquarters, public library, pos t office, and public hall. Additional construction projects
produced the Union Terminal (better known as the Terminal Tower), which remains the
most recognizable icon of Cleveland architecture, and the Ohio Bell Telephone Building.
The transition from dilapidated buildings and slums in the heart of downtown to shiny,
new skyscrapers symbolized and era of prosperity and vision, and gave Cleveland
confidence that it was moving forward with no foreseeable end in sight. Yet one needed
only look at Euclid Avenue, stretching east from Public Square in the heart of downtown
to E. 105th Street, to be made aware of negative possibilities. Through the industrial
boom of the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth, Euclid Avenue was considered
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16 Explain what this plan is
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to be one of the most beautiful streets in the world, let alone America. Mansions housing
some of the wealthiest industrialists and entrepreneurs, including John D. Rockefeller,
added to the picturesque visions of the tree-lined street. But following World War I many
of these illustrious homes were abandoned as families moved to wealthy suburbs or to
new cities altogether. Still, Cleveland was immersed in a new euphoria by the 1920s as it
grew into a major American metropolis and saw no limit to its prospects. For many, the
rising population and ever-present wealth were social givens that would pass from
generation to generation. 17
The Terminal Tower opened on October 23, 1929, and conveyed visions of a
prosperous future for Cleveland. Six days later, the stock market crashed and with it fell
Clevelands hopes. Former Plain Dealer editor Philip Porter argued that the Great
Depression hit Cleveland harder than most cities. The bottom dropped out, he said,
and there seemed to be no bottom to the bottom. Recalling bank failures, business
closures, and lost jobs, he called the downward spin sickening and believed Cleveland,
on a collective level, ente r ed into a state of depression that was as low as the highs had
been high a decade earlier. Almost 100,000 Cleveland workers were unemployed by
January 1931 and relief efforts only slowed the downward spiral. County work relief,
amounting to nearly $200,000,000 between 1928 and 1937, was only one-sixth of the
normal wages lost during that time. Cuyahoga County residents in need of aid or work
relief escalated from 3,499 in 1928 to 77,565 in 1936.
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The economic hardships of the 1930s, while impacting those living throughout the
county, were felt in different ways inside and outside of Cleveland. Those living in the
suburbs tended to be affected much less than those in the central city, where poorer
economic ar eas felt the worst hardships. Subsequently, the appeal of suburban life drew
more residents from Cleveland into the surrounding communities. The 1930 census
showed the population at 900,429, but also indicated that residents moved away from the
center of the city to the outskirts, if not to a new city completely. By 1940 Cleveland
would experience its first recorded loss in population, and the stage was being set for
Clevelands apparent demise. 18 But civic leaders and city planners took note of these
issues and knew they must be addressed in the postwar years. 19
World War II provided a temporary relief from the hardships the industrial city
first encountered during the Depression. Many in cities like Cleveland felt that postwar
revival was inevitable. However, the conditions of local econ omies in respect to the
modern needs of the nation le ft these cities in dire need of change. The age of heavy
industry would no longer sustain the heart of a local economy, thus making it necessary
that new industry was attracted to the city. Many city leaders recognized that dreams of
growth needed to be replaced with plans for stability for the industrial city to survive.
Put simply, in the aftermath of World War II, cities like Cleveland were looking for a new
beginning. 20
In the early 1940s, with America on the verge of entering the war, civic leaders in
Cleveland began to ponder questions about the citys future. The Regional Association of
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Cleveland put together a report in 1941 addressing the next stage of city growth. The
report, looking back upon the rapid growth of the 1920s, commented:
One of the results [of the growth] was the setting up of scores of independent
municipalities, each with its own complete government, complicating theadministration of governmental functions, duplicating services, and thus wastingtax money. This may have seemed expedient at the time, but in the long run it isan inefficient type of governmental organization for a community as much asocial and economic unit as Greater Cleveland. 21
It considered Cleveland to be an unorganized city that wa s inconvenient for the people
who lived and worked there. It especially noted that the city was in great need of better
adapting its street systems to accommodate automobiles. The report concluded that by
1960 Cleveland would no longer experience population growth, and therefore needed to
concentrate on renewal of its land to meet the needs and the living conditions of its
citizenry. 22
As a result, attempts to plan Clevelands future accordingly began in 1943, when
the Postwar Planning Commission laid out specific areas of need. Mayor Frank Lausche
set up the commission ...not only to build the bridge from war to peacetime production
but also to lay plans for making Clevelands industrial advantages so patent that we can
keep all of the industries we have and attract new ones... 23 Politicians, business leaders,
and other civic promoters realized that the days of rapid growth were over and had been
replaced by a time of direct competition between all industrial cities. Lausches
commission listed five areas that deserved individual panels for evaluation:
transportation, public works, interracial relations, the needs of returning servicemen, and
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public finance. These steps towards addressing Clevelands urban planning needs were a
positive first step and coincided with the hopes of a Plain Dealer writer who in 1940
proclaimed that Cleveland, if it could not be a bigger city, could become a far better
one.24
Postwar Cleveland did indeed act on the recommendations of the panels formed
through Lausches commission. The urban renewal movement was laced with elements
of social reform. New Mayor Thomas A. Burke addressed some of the citys
transportation needs through the construction of a downtown airport and also pushed for
the development of a rapid-transit system. Old transit lines were replaced by busses with
routes that included some of the surrounding suburbs. The need to connect Clevelands
residents to the central city went beyond the rapid-transit system and beyond the city
limits. Major freeway development connected the outlying suburbs to the central city,
although it consequently fragmented some existing communities.
Clevelands neighborhoods remained an issue with the panels recommendations
for interracial relations. The panel focused on key issues impacting the quality of life for
Clevelands black residents and the interaction with the white population, which included
housing, health, recreation, and working conditions (including hiring practices). This
culminated in the 1954 formation of the Cleveland Community Relations Board.
Clev elands overall racial acceptance, although perceived as being rather liberal, was not
all-encompassing and was most evident in the citys housing patterns. Black residents
were often limited to certain areas on Clevelands east side. Few new homes were being
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is a widespread fear of doing anything for the community on a big scale. If it isnot quickly dissipated, this fear is going to block the best efforts of those whohave faith in the future of Cleveland and who have been doing their part to helpCleveland realize that future. 26
At the heart of this statement were concerns that Cleveland faced the immense challenge
of not being lulled into a false sense of security and satisfaction through its prosperity and
overall appearance. Signs of decay were present, and heroic action was needed by
civic leaders if Cleveland was to avoid the doom of the city, with all of the economic
loss and the human suffering involved in the virtual abandonment of institutions which
men have labored for years to build. Cleveland needed positive actions to replace
booster rhetoric and boasts if the perception of the citys bright future was to become a
reality. 27 The next chapter will show how such positive actions came from the
unprecedented level of success achieved by the Cleveland Indians during these postwar
years.
Overall, postwar industrial city faced multiple challenges as the nation braced for
a return to a peaceful existence. The threat of fascism that had unified Americans
through the overall war effort was symbolically replaced, to some extent, in aging central
cities such as Cleveland by threats regionally from growing suburbs and nationally from
other emerging markets. In the face of these challenges, Cleveland looked towards urban
revival as it transitioned to a peacetime economy and a new America. The transition for
the postwar city faced decisions regarding not only shifts in the economy, but also those
on issues of the suburbs and race relations.
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Professional baseball in 1945 was faced with a similar transition into a new era in
American history. In Cleveland, the Indians welcomed back Bob Feller from his naval
service, and also welcomed a new owner, Bill Veeck, who would elevate the franchise
and the sport to never before seen heights. Both city and sport embraced the postwar
period with anticipated prosperity, and indeed the early years offered hope for the future.
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