“I tried to tell people, ‘Look, I don’t sing, I don’t dance. What am I gonna do? So I decided to reach some passages from the Bible,” he told a reporter in 1964.
That appearance helped launch his career and was part of a run in the 1950s and ‘60s for the local talent show.
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For this edition of Vintage Dayton, we went into the archives for the story of “The Rising Generation” and the impact it had on Dayton.
More on local TV shows
• 11 kids TV shows that entertained generations of Dayton children
• Phil Donahue’s origin story in Dayton: The iconic broadcaster started his show here in 1967
• The Uncle Orrie Show: Remembering a Dayton TV classic
Did you know?
Here are a few great Dayton history facts we’ve learned from our stories:
• Railroad hub: Xenia was a main railroad stop from about 1846 to the 1930s, a history the city is trying preserve. It acquired a red Chessie caboose that sits in the city’s Hub District from the Greene County Historical Society.
• Wilberforce’s origins include a health resort. The original Wilberforce University had its start on land located east of Xenia known for its natural springs and pastoral beauty. Elias Drake, a lawyer and former speaker of the Ohio General Assembly, purchased the land and built a health resort on the site in 1850. He called it Tawawa Springs. The university opened in 1856.
• Movie megastars from Dayton. Lillian and Dorothy Gish, sisters who came to fame in the early age of the silver screen, had origins in Springfield and Dayton.
• From sewing machines to bicycles. Huffy can trace its roots in Dayton to more than 130 years ago, when it produced its first bicycle in 1892. The company that became Huffy Corp. originally operated as the Davis Sewing Machine Company. By 1924, a part of the company became Huffman Manufacturing Co., which focused solely on producing bicycles.
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Let us know and we’ll include them in future newsletters.
After JD Vance left his position as U.S. senator from Ohio to become vice president, we received a question from a reader about how many senators from Ohio have come directly from the Dayton area.
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Thank you for reading.
