Letter to Bob Hand

Friday, September 11, 1970

On this date, Rock Springs Park Carousel fan, Dick Bowker, pens a letter to park owner Bob Hand thanking him for allowing himself and a few friends to tape-record their favorite march rolls on the park’s 153 Wurlitzer Band Organ. Mr. Hand passed away a month later in October from complications following a heart attack. Read Dick's letter at http://rockspringspark.blogspot.com/2011/06/dick-bowker-letter.html.

Dick Bowker Letter

Dick Bowker (right) and Larry Podwoski (left) in Rock Springs Park 1970

In the Summer of 1970 my friend, Dick Bowker, spent nearly every weekend at Rock Springs Park. During that time he and a few friends tape-recorded their favorite march rolls which they played on the park’s 153 Wurlitzer Band Organ housed in the octagonal Carousel Pavilion. At summer’s end, Dick sent the following letter to park owner Bob Hand.

Dear Mr. Hand,
September 11, 1970

Sorry that I did not get to see you again before the park closed. Hope that you are better now. I wanted to express my thanks to the fine courtesies extended by you to me and my friends at Rock Springs Park this past summer!

Never have I known the management of an amusement park to be so friendly and accommodating. Especially I wish to express my appreciation for allowing my friends and me to tape your Wurlitzer Band Organ. I am very anxious to hear what the record that my friends are making for me sounds like. They taped your band organ eight times, so the record should sound pretty good by incorporating the best "takes" of each march.

Just talked with my friend from Cleveland on the telephone and he mailed me two records today which I should receive by next week sometime. One of these was ordered by young Bill Thorn for he wanted to give it to your fine manager, Dick McGurren. I will try to mail this to Bill next Saturday, September 19, 1970.

Had some chats with your son on Labor Day. He too wants a record of the band organ, so I ordered it from my friend on the telephone tonight. It will take awhile for them to make it and send it to me but I will send it on to Bob.

Again, I want to say I enjoyed my many visits to your park this past summer and I hope you will open next year also. Your staff, although quite young, are fine workers and I can't say enough for the great personality of Bill Thorn. Your manager, Dick McGurren too is certainly outstanding in handling all situations. Please extend my gratitude to Dick and Bill for all they did when my friends and I taped the band organ.

Thanks again for everything and I hope to see you next year. Tell your son I will be writing him when I mail the record. Never did I think I would be able to hear my favorite marches on a record!

Very truly yours,

Dick Bowker

Dick did not know it when he wrote this letter, but his trip to Rock Springs Park on Labor Day 1970 would be his last. He claims to have taken the last known ride on the Cyclone that evening as the lights were being turned off forever.

Bob Hand died in October 1970 from complications from a heart attack.

In August 2009, I took Mr. Bowker back to the site of Rock Springs and to the Lou Holtz Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame in East Liverpool where he heard the Wurlitzer Organ play again after nearly 40 years. His visit was featured in The Review’s Riverstyle Magazine.

Without Dick’s love and appreciation for Rock Springs Park, one which led to an amazing collection of 8 albums of photograph’s and postcards, my book, Images of America: Rock Springs Park would not have been published.

Rock Springs Park: My Field of Dreams (Part IV)

In this installment, I digress to tell the story of my visit to the Lou Holtz Hall of Fame in East Liverpool, Ohio, in the fall of 2009. [Spoiler Alert – In the first paragraph I give away the ending to the movie Field of Dreams.]

The Wurlitzer 153 Band Organ in the front window of The Lou Holtz Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame Museum (Courtesy of Christian Comm)

Since I started this series of blog posts about my experiences with the book Images of America: Rock Springs Park, and how they remind me of my favorite movie, Field of Dreams, I sat down and watched the famous “guy-cry” flick for the hundredth time and, yes, I cried, again. It is the perfect storm of heart-tugging emotions for a guy like me: In the final 10-minutes of the film, the protagonist's daughter nearly chokes to death on a good-old American hot dog, a deceased small-town doctor gets a second chance to fulfill his dream of facing a major league baseball pitcher but then gives it all up to save said daughter, at which point we realize that he can’t play ball in "heaven" anymore because of some weird rule involving the first base line. To top it all off; Ghost Dad returns and has a last “catch” with his son, asking, “Is this heaven?” To which the son replies, “No, it’s Iowa." (dramatic pause) "Is there a heaven?” “Oh yeah,” Ghost Dad says with a smile, “It’s the place where dreams come true.” Son then looks to wife and daughter on their farmhouse porch swing and says, “Then I guess this is heaven.” AND THE WATERWORKS FLOW!!!

Like most guys, I used to be able to hold back all kinds of tears. It is an unwritten part of the "bro-code" that guys are only allowed to get a lump in their throat and maybe the slightest hint of watery eyes, but that’s it! "THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL!" Then, I majored in theater and was trained to release all those pent-up emotions, allowing them to surface and flow like the bubbling spring waters of Rock Springs Park. I probably saved thousands of dollars in therapy bills. But now I live life on the edge; trying to avoid embarrassing situations like the time I cried sitting beside my 9-year old daughter and her friends while watching Because of Winn Dixie, and don't even get me started with Toy Story 3!

In the fall of 2009, I was hoping to get such an emotional response from the elderly gentleman who provided me with most of the images for my Images of America book. His name is Richard Bowker, and after many “scanning parties” at his home in Forest Hills near Pittsburgh, I discovered that not only was Rock Springs Park his favorite amusement park, but he was also one of the last fun-seekers to ride the Cyclone on Labor Day night 1970. And, to top it all off, he is a huge fan of Wurlitzer 153 Band Organs, especially the one that was once housed in the carousel pavilion at Rock Springs Park. In fact, during that same summer of 1970, the last season the park was open, Mr. Bowker tried desperately to get a reel-to-reel audio recording of the band organ playing one of his favorite march rolls. He explained that the year before, owner Bob Hand had paid to have the organ totally refurbished, but then, that winter, the antique instrument was ruined by an ice melt and a leaky roof. Like Kevin Costner’s character in Field of Dreams, who offers the aging Doc Graham a chance to fulfill his baseball dream, I saw an opportunity to make a similar offer to Mr. Bowker. “I know a place where that Wurlitzer Band Organ plays again and, if you’d like, I could take you there.”

So in August of 2009, with my book only halfway completed, I took Mr. Bowker to East Liverpool, Ohio, to the Lou Holtz Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame Museum. In the window of the old bank building, rests the Wurlitzer Band Organ from Rock Springs Park, on loan from the East Liverpool High School Alumni Association, donated by Dr. James Smith from his 3.3 million dollar collection of amusement park devices . For 25 cents a visitor to the Lou Holtz Museum can see the old organ light up and play a gay melody from a time gone by.

We were met by museum director, Robin Webster, and a reporter from The Review, Mike McElwain, and his photographer. All were very generous and gracious. As the quarter was dropped in the slot, Mike’s photographer snapped a couple of pictures of Mr. Bowker standing before the Wurlitzer window listening to that beautiful old machine crank out a tune with bells, drums, whistles, and eighty-year old pipes.

This is it! I thought. Mr. Bowker is going to turn to me speechless with wet eyes and nod like Doc Graham after he gets that base hit at the end of the movie. Instead, Mr. Bowker turned to us all and said, “That doesn’t sound very good! I know a guy who could fix that for you.”

That story got the second biggest laugh of the night when I spoke to the Women’s Art Club in Wellsville, Ohio, over a week ago. But it was at that same meeting when Phyllis, who I wrote about in my last blog post, amazed us all with her own Field of Dreams story, one that begins in Rock Springs Park and ends in a television studio in New York in the 1950’s.

Look for the final installment - Coming soon!