Happy 80th Birthday Today - Ken Berry - Moliner

Carol Burnett had the best variety show on TV,
and Ken Berry was a welcome guest.

Responses to “ACTOR KEN BERRY TURNED 78 TODAY”

http://pdxretro.com/2011/11/actor-ken-berry-turned-78-today/

1. Christopher Korman says:

   April 10, 2012 at 12:10 am

   I know Ken from his many years of his guest starring turns on Carol Burnett and Mama’s Family which my father Harvey Korman appeared on. Ken is a perfect example of an Artists getting type cast.Most people don’t know that Ken Started off as a dancer with the Billy Barnes revue along with Michelle Lee and Bert Convy.The fact is Ken Berry is one of the greatest song and dance men around and if he had been given the chance to prove that he would be mentioned with Astaire and Kelly Today.The only thing that supersedes his talents is his humility,grace,and integrity.Its been a privilege and honor to say I got to know the icon Ken Berry.

Video interviews with Ken Berry about the Carol Burnett Show, Mayberry RFD

When I read about Ken Berry on his website, many details about Moline echoed what others have said and I have thought:

"Ken Berry was already five-eighths of the way to Mayberry when he was born in Moline, Ill., on November 3, 1933. Kenneth Ronald Berry was the second child (joining sister Dona Rae) of Bernice and Eugene Darrell Berry, who at the time of Ken’s birth was an accountant for John Deere Company."

Early career:
"When I got the job and it took me away from home, that must have been very hard for my parents," Ken says. "But they were very supportive and it was really a thrilling experience for me. After the Horace Heidt show, I came back and finished high school in Moline. I used to drive up to Chicago once a week and take a voice lesson and a tap lesson in the same studio. But that didn’t last very long. After graduation, I went back out to California to look for work. And I didn’t get much at all."

Mayberry as Brigadoon
About Mayberry, Ken says, "It’s a wonderful place to visit and people would fantasize about living there. It’s a place like Brigadoon that shows up every hundred years. It’s a place you dream about living, but you know it’s fantasy and you don’t care."

Mayberry Like Moline
He adds, "I grew up among people very much like that -- a bigger town, but not much bigger -- and the neighborhood was very much like that and the people were very much like those characters. And it was fun for me to visit, too. It was one of my favorite half hours ever on television and that was long before I met Andy."

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GJ - My wife Chris and I talk about how much we enjoyed the 40th reunion of the MHS 66 class. She has always felt a part of my class, even though she met them after graduation, when we were at Augustana.

We have had a number of discussions with people on Facebook. The common theme is how pleasant people were to each other in Moline. It is no surprise that Ken Berry had the same experience earlier.

My father knew many people from work and from graduating from MHS. We had a lapboard where all his classmates inscribed their names with a woodburner. All his classmates seemed to be named Eric Johnson, John Ericson, Eric Ericson, John Johnson, Sven Svenson, Sven Ericson, Eric Svenson, John Svenson, etc.

Once we were discussing a local politician, and dad said, "I cannot believe he would be like that. His father was one of my teachers. His word was his bond."

With my mother in the Moline school system and my father in business, I was connected to everyone - one way or another. The kindly attitude was expressed in many different ways. When I went to Augustana College, a bike ride away, my mother's classmates were there.

The daughter of Dr. Andreen taught education at Augustana. "Are you going to be a teacher, too?" she asked. I said, "No, never."

Later I learned that Dr. Andreen left his position as a noted professor at Yale to become president of a threadbare college on the banks of the Mississippi. The little portable college, which barely survived, has become one of the best liberal arts colleges in America. Looking back, we can see how much people sacrificed to create a better life for future generations. I wonder if the same will be said about us Boomers.

I can imagine Ken Berry recognizing the fictional characters of Mayberry being so much like Moliners. I will have to write about them too.

Ken Berry had a hit show in Mayberry RFD in the late 1960s. He said Mayberry was just like the town he grew up in - Moline.
In Hollywood he is still known as the nicest guy in show business.

Andy Griffith launched the pilot of Mayberry RFD with Ken Berry.

Buy the John Deere Mansion on eBay

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Historic John Deere Mansion Moline, IL. Circa 1847. Item condition: -- Time left: 18h 41m 3s (Jun 17, 201013:19:37 PDT) Bid history:

John Deere Found a Better Site - Moline

Moline - Built for Manufacturing

This is the Moline factory in the 1880's.

Moline takes advantage of location

By Jonathan Turner, Dispatch/Argus Staff writer

MOLINE -- The Mississippi River and its location along it made Moline. Just over 150 years after its founding, the city works to pay homage to that past as a way to brighten its future.

"Transportation by river was something people were looking for," Barb Sandberg, chairman of the Moline Historic Preservation Commission, said of the city origins. "It was easier than hauling over dirt roads. It was not necessarily for the aesthetics, as we look at it today -- the entertainment, the beauty."

In 1838 -- 10 years before Moline officially incorporated as a town -- David B. Sears and others started building a brush dam near the present 15th Street.

The dam helped power a sawmill, flour mill, machine shop and foundry -- all built by Sears. It also furnished power for a small furniture factory and helped attract blacksmith John Deere, who established a plow factory on the banks of the Mississippi in 1847.

Sears then built a second dam from the current Arsenal Island to the small Benham's Island. On the north end of this dam, he built another sawmill, a planing mill, a shingle factory and furniture works.

"You had a cheap source of power and coal, and that's the essence for everything you need for manufacturing," local historian Kathleen Seusy said. "That's what built the place."

Augustana College professor Roald Tweet has said that Deere "could not have chosen a better location on the map of the United States" than Moline. The Vermont-born Deere moved here from Grand Detour, Ill.

In the 1840s, there were almost no roads or railroads, so the only way of transporting things was by water. The Mississippi River was the main artery for national water transportation, able to connect to 42 of the 48 contiguous states, Mr. Tweet said.

One reason the railroad came to Moline in 1854 was that this is the narrowest part of the Mississippi between Minneapolis and New Orleans. In 1856, the railroad crossed the river and headed West.

Moline was ideally situated on the river also because this east-west segment is the youngest of the entire river, Mr. Tweet said. With Arsenal Island, it created a small channel, Sylvan Slough, which was useful for power.

In 1852, Moline already had 172 structures -- in what today is the downtown area -- including residences, schools and churches.

After the Civil War, a 20-foot high, half-mile long lateral wall was built on the Moline shore, creating 56 sources of power. The Arsenal and city were run by what was called "The Great Wall of Moline."

In addition to raw materials like abundant coal, Moline benefited from a large supply of available workers, which attracted people like Deere, Mr. Tweet said.

"So the farm equipment manufacturers clustered together for power and ambience," he said. "Many of these immigrants were New Englanders. They were Yankees with a strong Protestant work ethic, which Deere shared with them."

Deere and other farm-implement manufacturers helped give Moline an international reputation as an agricultural center and the nickname "Plow City." Moline in the 19th century was also a bustling industrial center, with businesses such as Moline Wagon Company, Williams & White, and Dimock, Gould & Company.

However, as the years passed, the mighty river's role in the city's history was taken for granted until the 1980s, when Moline began capitalizing on that history and scenic location. First came the develpment of Ben Butterworth Parkway along the river.

Now the site on River Drive where Deere had his original factory, now called John Deere Commons, again is in the spotlight, this time as a recreation and tourist center.

Many Deere & Co. buildings were demolished to make room for The Mark of the Quad Cities, Radisson Hotel, John Deere Pavilion, Deere office/retail complex and Centre Station.

"We wanted to save the history and tell the history at the same time," Renew Moline executive director Jay Preszler said of the Commons. The thrust behind the recent development was to honor Moline's heritage and ensure the prosperity of The Mark, which opened in 1993.

The city's oldest remaining commercial buildings are in the 400 and 500 blocks of 12th and 13th streets. The Birdsell Chiropractic building at 1201 and 1209 5th Ave. dates from 1845 and was a grocery store until the 1920s.

Some of the historic buildings that have been restored include Model Printers (1872), Finney's Bar & Grill (1884), Renew Moline (1885), Killir Outdoor Sports (1889), Gatsby's (1896), Sydney's (1897), Moline Club (1912), LeClaire Apartments (1922), C'est Michele (1922), and Bent River Brewing Company (1922).

Perhaps the oldest continuously operated downtown business is Lagomarcino's, which has occupied a 1902 building on 5th Avenue since 1918.

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Tractor books.

John Deere Heritage

Throw snowballs at the deer with antlers on fire.