Article Archives: Bumps in the Night

Houdini in Indianapolis

March 31, 2016 | by Al Hunter

Ninety-one years ago this weekend, Harry Houdini performed his last suspended straitjacket escape. And he did it upside down while dangling high above Washington Street in Indianapolis. One of Houdini’s most popular publicity stunts, it called for Harry to be strapped into a regulation straitjacket and suspended by his ankles … Read More

Angels of Community North

March 24, 2016 | by Al Hunter

This past October while leading a ghost tour through historic Irvington, I met a pair of lovely young women who posed an interesting question to me. The query came after I concluded my version of the Lincoln funeral train story, a tale fraught with emotional imagery and historical fancy that … Read More

The Great One, Part 2

March 17, 2016 | by Al Hunter

Jackie Gleason, alongside Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, and Hoosier Red Skelton, dominated, and to some degree invented, early television. An accomplished actor, writer, composer, orchestra leader and comedian, Gleason was truly the last of the big spenders. Always meticulously dressed with a flower in his lapel, Gleason was a consummate … Read More

The Great One, Part 1

March 10, 2016 | by Al Hunter

How do you define cool? Luckily, when it comes to people, we Hoosiers have a strong list to choose from: James Dean, Steve McQueen, Kurt Vonnegut. Other answers would vary: Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart, Thelonius Monk, Marlon Brando, Duke Ellington, Jimi Hendrix, Rosa Parks, Paul Newman, … Read More

Plunk Your Magic Twanger, Froggy!

March 3, 2016 | by Al Hunter

To say that my dad’s sense of humor was dry would be like saying water is wet. Every Saturday morning for a half dozen years or so, I met my dad at Pleasant Run Golf Course for 18 holes of golf. Robert Eugene Hunter was an Arsenal Technical graduate and … Read More