Evalyn Scatena, successful "What's My Line" contestant. Photo from 1965.
The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society. Admission is always free at the museum, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
100 years ago – March 4, 1920
LOCAL MAN FORMS EVAPORATOR COMPANY
John T. Wann, the inventor of the most successful fruit evaporator on the market, has associated himself with Robert C. Newell and William C. Murdoch Jr. of San Francisco in the formation of the Pacific Evaporator Company for the promotion and sale of the evaporator. Wann built the first evaporator at Healdsburg, and afterward sold the plant to J. F. Miller & Sons. The success that Miller had with the Wann plant was so convincing that Newell and Murdoch, who had prune acreage in the vicinity, were encouraged to place the evaporator on the market in a large commercial way. Wann, Newell and Murdoch subsequently formed the Pacific Evaporator Company, and the Wann invention was officially named the Pacific Evaporator.
50 years ago – March 5, 1970
Local TV star pushes prunes
‘‘lt was quite a birthday present,” said Mrs. Nick Scatena after she returned from New York and videotaping a segment of ‘‘What’s My Line.” Mrs. Scatena reported she not only stumped the panel and won $50 along with a dress, jewelry and some cosmetics, but the date the show was taped (two weeks ago) was her birthday … just what birthday she didn’t say. She stumped the panel with her occupation of prune grower and got a chance to do a little promoting for prunes in general and Healdsburg and Sunsweet in particular. Panel members included Arlene Francis, Soupy Sales, Joanne Barnes and Bert Conley.
25 years ago – March 1, 1995
Students walk out over loss of study time
More than 200 Healdsburg students walked off campus last Thursday to protest the cancellation of a twice-a-week “tutorial” period, designed to allow students to make up work and retake tests. School administrators said the tutorial period was cancelled because nearly half the students in the school weren’t using it as it was intended. The throng of mostly orderly students left campus at 11:25 a.m. and marched to the district offices on University Street. Traffic as blocked temporarily as the students poured into the street. School officials also received numerous complaints from neighbors, who wonder why so many students were wandering off campus. Principal Carolyn Kieser arranged to meet with student leaders this week to come up with a list of alternatives for tutorial, and devise a system to make students accountable for attendance during
