Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Sunday, May 04, 2008
Public TV documentary on history of La Crosse to debut here
It won’t involve searchlights sweeping the night sky or Hollywood movie stars arriving in limousines, but La Crosse is about to have its own movie premiere.
“Wisconsin Hometown Stories: La Crosse,” a one-hour documentary, will debut Wednesday at the Rivoli in downtown La Crosse.
The television broadcast premiere is set for May 12 on Wisconsin Public Television.
The film was produced by WPT and the Wisconsin Historical Society in cooperation with the La Crosse Public Library Archives, La Crosse County Historical Society and other local organizations.
The production on La Crosse, the third in WPT’s “Wisconsin Hometown Stories” series, follows the evolution of the city from its earliest days to the present.
The one-hour show offers a colorful mix of archival images and film footage accompanied by interviews with historians and local citizens who comment on La Crosse’s rich heritage — from the history of its native people to its longtime connection to area rivers, highlighted by its steamboat and lumbering days. Other segments covered in the production include the city’s ever-changing industries and its medical institutions and colleges.
The show’s film footage includes recent aerial views taken from a low-flying aircraft, offering a unique view of La Crosse and its surrounding area.
A total of 16 people are featured in interviews during the documentary, including Dr. Erik Gundersen of La Crosse; Chloris Lowe of the Ho-Chunk Nation; former La Crosse mayor John Medinger; and Ed Hill, retired special collections librarian from Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
“I’m very impressed by the diligence and expertise which Wisconsin Public Television put into the La Crosse production,” said Hill, who has seen a preview of the documentary. “The show is very well done, and I think viewers will be pleased with it.”
He added, “Given that they only had one hour to cover the long and varied history of La Crosse, I think they did a good job of covering the major aspects of the city.”
Hill said he was impressed as well by how much time and effort WPT put into research. “They did a three-hour background interview with me two years ago, followed by a 90-minute on-camera interview with me in my home last fall,” he said.
Principal funding for the La Crosse documentary was provided by Don and Roxanne Weber, the Gail K. Cleary/Cleary-Kumm Foundation, Kwik Trip, and Charles and Sue Anne Gelatt, according to a WPT press release.
If You Go
WHAT: Free public debut of “Wisconsin Hometown Stories:
La Crosse,” a one-hour Wisconsin Public Television documentary on the history of La Crosse
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
WHERE: Rivoli, 117 N. Fourth St.
WHO: The show’s producers will attend the preview and introduce the film
OTHER SHOWINGS: The documentary also will be shown at
6:30 p.m. May 12 in the La Crosse Public Library Auditorium,
800 Main St., with producers again in attendance along with many of the people interviewed for the project. The broadcast premiere on Wisconsin Public Television will be 8 p.m. May 12 on WHLA-TV, with a repeat showing at 10 p.m. May 13.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: A comprehensive resource for “Wisconsin Hometown Stories:
La Crosse” is available at WisconsinStories.org. A teacher resource guide also will be available after Monday at www.ecb.org/hometownstories.
Q & A with David Hestad
David Hestad, the producer of “Wisconsin Hometown Stories:
La Crosse,” is a former La Crosse resident. He recently took time to talk with the Tribune:
What is your background?
I’m 53 and live in Madison, but for six years of my youth I lived in La Crosse. I went to Emerson Elementary School and Lincoln Junior High School. I have a memory of riding my Schwinn Varsity bicycle past the old La Crosse County Courthouse and watching the wrecking ball tear it down (a movie clip of the courthouse razing appears in the program).
How long have you been employed at Wisconsin Public Television and what are some other films you have produced?
I’ve worked at WPT since 1985, and for many years I produced programs about the environment and natural resources. One I liked was called “Covering New Ground: Wisconsin’s Sustainable Agriculture.” I also did a program called “Manure!” In 1997, I was asked to prepare some programs about Wisconsin history for the state sesquicentennial, and have been making Wisconsin history programs ever since. We’ve now produced over 24 hours of Wisconsin history programs, which can be viewed online at www.wisconsinhistory.org.
When did the film crew visit
La Crosse and how long were they in the city for the project?
We started in the late spring of 2007, made several trips through the summer and finished with Oktoberfest 2007.
Where did most of the archival photos and archival film footage used in the production come from?
Most of the photos came from the La Crosse Public Library archives, which houses the La Crosse County Historical Society collection, and also Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin-
La Crosse. Other photos came from the Wisconsin Historical Society and various other places, like the Buffalo Bill Museum. Some film footage came from Murphy Library. I found a film of the Autolite plant online, and the Cleary family sent me a lot of Old Style beer commercials.
What was the most interesting or surprising thing you learned about La Crosse during the production?
Overall, it was very interesting to learn how a place I lived in — and knew very little about — came to be. It was fascinating to learn about the lumber industry and the big industries that came later, and also the history of the Mississippi River and the incredible efforts that went into making it safe for shipping. And it was amazing to me to find the nature of the city as both a center of education and, at the same time, a kind of wide open and wild place dating back to the days of the lumberjacks. And I had no idea the area was heavily populated for three centuries before any Europeans arrived.
Will a DVD of the La Crosse
feature be available and, if so, how soon?
We should have DVDs available for sale within a couple of weeks. But anyone can view the show online at wisconsinstories.org after May 12.
Doug Connell can be reached at dconnell@lacrossetribune.com or at (608) 791-8430.
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