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Around & About Lake George: June 1, 2012

Well, that was as about a perfect Memorial Day weekend as we could hope for. On the east side, neighbors who hadn’t seen each other since Labor Day greeted one another with “Happy New Year!” And Memorial Day is truly the beginning of another year on Lake George. Hope everyone got out on the water, did some grilling and enjoyed the parades.

After we put the paper to bed Tuesday night, we all headed down to Cate’s where we saw Cate, Buddy and Jesse, Diamond Point Grille owners Peg and Mark Turner, Sothebys realtor Rachael Zuckerman and Happy Jacks owner Jeff Strief. Jeff hosted a cocktail party on Wednesday for Jay Jordan, visiting from Florida, where we saw David from Trees, David and Chad from George’s and Megan from the library. We wanted to see the changes Jim and Sally Rypkema have made to the Hague Market, so on our way down the lake on Thursday we stopped in, meeting Amy and John Macionis and Bob DuBuys on the way in. Later in the day we attended a ribbon cutting ceremony in an unexpected place, the Fun World Arcade. Owner Doug Coon was debuting his new lazer maze for the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce. Bob Gunther and Dan Molella, who worked at the arcade when Mayor Bob Blais owned it, stayed on when Doug took over, and they were there, along with Village clerk Darlene Gunther, Kim Winchell from the Lake George branch of the Glens Falls National Bank, and, of course, Mayor Blais, who helped cut the ribbon. One thing about the Mayor, he’s game. He even tried the maze. After the event, they said he was heading to a function at the Georgian; we had to head toward North Creek to see Reuben Smith’s new wood boat shop. On our way back to Bolton Landing, we stopped at “the meat store of the north” – Jack Toney’s, in Warrensburg, to pick up some steaks for the weekend. On Friday evening, we attended the benefit for the Lake George Music Festival, where we met some of the young musicians who will be performing in the Village in August. Lake George chamber of commerce director Michael Consuelo was there, as well as the Reverend Julie McPartlin from St. James, Betsy Birchenough from Cleverdale and Frank and Linda Cappabianca from Glens Falls. Villa Napoli, the Italian restaurant in Bolton Landing, opened for the season that very day, so we stopped there for dinner. Joining Rose and Damian at the restaurant this summer is their daughter Elena, who just graduated from Villanova. She’ll work in Bolton for a couple of months before pursuing a career or graduate work in public policy. Among those dining were Victor and Yvette Hershaft and their family and Ashley Sweeney with hers. A slow (but far too quick) cruise on the lake on Saturday and then on to Sweet Pea Farm for the annual reception for Chrissy’s Chairs, which raises funds for local charities by auctioning off artist-modified Adirondack chairs. Hosted by Mark and Linda Perry and their daughter Megan Diehl, the event was attended by Jane Gabriels, Ike Wolgin, Michelle Pollock, Buzz and Cheryl Lamb and Jennifer and Ed Scheiber, among many others. Sunday we attended a Memorial Day ceremony at the Welcome Park in Lake George, (where we saw Town Councilmen Vinnie Crocitto and Dan Hurley and Town Judge Mike Stafford and his wife Nancy) before celebrating the holiday in a very old-fashioned way with friends. That put us in the mood for Bolton Landing’s old-fashioned Memorial Day parade, which passes our office before it concludes at Veterans Beach.

Our first stop this week will be Shepard Park, where the annual Elvis Festival kicks off on Thursday at 7 pm. Dozens of Elvis look-alikes in one place still strikes me as richly, deliciously weird. Our favorite event of the festival is the Opening Night Party held at John Carr’s Adirondack Pub and Brewery, which starts at 9 pm. Get crazy with the Elvises!

On Saturday and Sunday, St James Episcopal Church will host its annual “Spring Fair” from 9am to 5 pm. A variety of handmade crafts, antiques and collectibles and annual and perennial plants will be sold at the fair. Food and beverages will be available. St James Episcopal Church is located at 172 Ottawa Street, at the intersection of Montcalm Street.

Vintage Raceboat Regatta

The Lake George Association will host vendors, landscapers, plant nursery owners and contractors  at a Lake Friendly Living Open House on Saturday, June 2 from 10 am to 2 pm at the LGA headquarters in Lake George. Call 668-3558 for more information.

On Sunday, Eliot Cohen, the author of Conquered into Liberty: Two Centuries of Battles Along the Great Warpath that Made the American Way of War, will  speak at Fort Ticonderoga at 2 pm.

In Conquered into Liberty, Cohen assesses the influence that warfare along the 200-mile corridor between Albany and Montreal had on how Americans wage war as well as why they, and when, they go to war. (Our editor took a class with Cohen in graduate school; he said he wrote a paper on Civil-Military Relations in the Byzantine Empire. Sure would have loved to read that.)

The big event of the weekend is the Vintage Raceboat Regatta in Lake George Village, sponsored by the Adirondack Chapter of the Antique & Classic Boat Society and the Vintage Division of the American Power Boat Association and organized by ACBS chapter members Teri Hoffman and Peter Johnson. The regatta hits the water Saturday morning with crane launchings and a driver’s meeting at 8:30 am at the Village docks on Beach Road in Lake George Village. Boats will be out on the course by 9:30; some 30 to 35 boats are registered for the event. For the public, Saturday will be awash with plenty of opportunities for ogling, strolling, photographing and talking with the boat owners. Maybe we’ll see you there!

American Academy of Arts Honors Rebecca Smith

Green Insect, 2009 Acrylic on steel. Photos courtesy of the artist.

The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced that Rebecca Smith is one of ten artists to receive a 2012 award in art. The awards, which were established in 1941,  are given annually  “to artists, architects, composers, and writers, to honor and encourage them in their creative work,” and  honor both established and emerging artists.

The members of this year’s award selection committee were Lois Dodd, Wolf Kahn, Alex Katz, Malcolm Morley, Thomas Nozkowski, Judy Pfaff, Dorothea Rockburne, Peter Saul, and Joel Shapiro (Chairman).

Smith’s award includes a monetary prize of $7,500.  A resident of New York and Bolton Landing,  Smith was born in 1954, in Glens Falls, the daughter of the writer Jean Freas and the artist David Smith.   She grew up in Washington, D.C. and Bolton Landing, and attended Sarah Lawrence College and The New York Studio School.

First exhibiting in 1977,  Smith has been making art since the late 1970s, in various media including painting, performance, sculpture and tape drawing installations.

Smith is known today for two distinct but related bodies of work: sculpture and color tape drawings.

One installation of color tape applied directly to the wall  titled “Between Two Things” was exhibited at the Lake George Arts Project’s  Courthouse Gallery in 2001.

Her  Cage sculptures, which are welded steel grid forms, built out from the wall and constructed of interwoven bars of steel, have been exhibited widely.

Her work can be found in many private and public collections, including the Albright-Knox Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Microsoft Collection and the TarraWarra Museum, Australia.

Editor’s Notes: Lake George in Decline? It’s Relative

The Adirondack Explorer magazine has a well-researched and reported article in its current issue about the politics of the Lake George Park Commission. Unfortunately, the title given to the piece – Decline of Lake George – was predictable, and predictably misleading.

We’ll wait for the release later this summer of a study by the Darrin Fresh Water Institute and The Fund for Lake George analyzing trends in water quality over the past thirty years before making such glib pronouncements ourselves. “Without that kind of information we are subject to supposition, accusation and hearsay,” says Dr. Charles Boylen of DFWI, who has directed the studies. What the studies will probably show, says Peter Bauer, the executive director of The Fund for Lake George, is that “While Lake George continues to have some of the highest water quality in New York and in the eastern US, large parts of the lake have shown trends of changing, most notably at the south end.” No doubt. But not all downward trends are irreversible. If that were the case, state and local governments, conservation organizations and private individuals would not have committed millions of dollars to restoring the wetlands at the mouth of West Brook. When completed, the project is expected to treat most of the urban runoff polluting the south basin.

The development that the article faults for “large deltas and algal blooms” took place over the course of a century, not over night, and remediation will not take place over night. (And by the way, are we the only ones who never saw “the entire southern basin of the lake blanketed in algae (that was) prevalent all over the lake,” as a source for the article claimed?) We are in complete agreement that poorly regulated development is the greatest threat to Lake George’s water quality. (Northern Lake George, where development is limited, was declared the clearest water body in New York State last summer by the New York State Federation of Lakes.) Lake George, however, is in a better position than any other lake in New York State to meet those threats. That’s not only due to the authority of the Lake George Park Commission, whose penchant for moderate rather than radical progress may be due to a lack of resources, and not to a lack of political will, as its critics claim. It’s also due to the commitment to the protection of Lake George shared by local governments, businesses and not-for-profit organizations – a coalition whose like is not seen anywhere else in the Adirondack Park. Lake George, like every oligotrophic lake, will ultimately decline and morph into a eutrophic lake. But thanks to actions taken today, it will not happen in our lifetimes or for generations to come. Compared with other lakes, the decline of Lake George is relative indeed.

Around & About Lake George: May 25, 2012

Last weekend’s weather was so good, we’re afraid Memorial Day weekend will be jinxed, but we’ve been told to fear not. Predictions are favorable.

After last week’s issue was safely in the hands of our delivery crew, we dropped by the Adirondack Pub to help celebrate the opening of  the expanded brewery (where we saw John Root, Michael Consuelo, Fred Vogel, Dennis Quirk, Drew the Ski Shop Guru, Nancy and Paul Nichols and their daughter Heather and her husband Ben, and, of course, Brew Pub owners John and Cindy Carr.) Then over to East Cove for dinner and to pick up the latest news from our best anonymous source, Pete. Thursday, a late dinner with a friend at Fredericks. Friday, we went to the Dome to  check in with Jeff Fraser, who was in the process of opening his annual Adirondack Living Show. And we checked out the new portable boat washing station which was undergoing trials at the Beach Road parking lot, then on to dinner at the house of some friends back from Florida for the season. Most of Bolton was at Pub on Nine at a party for Rich Kober, who retired from the NYS Police earlier this spring. Congratulations, Rich! Saturday, Buzz Lamb was in Lake George early to watch the rowing teams get their boats in the water and cover the offshore speedboat demonstrations. Two friends joined us as we tried Bolton Landing’s newest restaurant, Caffe Vero. Highly recommended. We heard that Bob Blais was at Cate’s to welcome Cate and Buddy back to the lake and got a message that Bob Regan and Amy Bartlett were heading up to  Bolton Landing as well. Sorry we missed them. On Sunday, the Stony Creek Band was playing at the Barnsider for the Lake George Arts Project benefit, where Ed and Melissa Pagnotta put on a generous spread of their world-renowned barbecue. Good to see them as well as Ed and Melanie Ostberg, Eric Weber, Bruno LaVerdiere and others. Stopped at Cate’s on the way home, where we saw Sean and Melissa Quirk.

We’ll start our weekend on Friday at the Benefit Gala for the Lake George Music Festival at the Fort William Henry’s White Lion room from 4 to 6 pm. The event will feature a casual happy hour with wine and cocktails, a silent auction with items donated by local businesses, and a preview by musicians who will be performing at this year’s festival. The Festival, which will return to Lake George Village for its second season in August, is in the process of raising $1,000 through Kickstarter by May 25 and $5,000 by August 1. Tickets will cost $25, though additional donations will be welcomed. Tickets can be purchased at the door or in advance by calling 518-791-5089.

Throughout the weekend, communities along the lake will honor their veterans. On Saturday, May 26, Lake George and  Hague will hold commemorative ceremonies and parades. Ticonderoga will celebrate the holiday on May 27 and Bolton Landing will hold a parade and service on Monday, May 28.

Buzz will be taking photos of the parades in Lake George and Bolton Landing, and we’ll try to get to Hague, where Tom James will be a featured speaker and, we hear, the parade will include the new boat washing machine and Kayla Navitsky in a kayak, pulled by her father, Waterkeeper Chris Navitsky. We also hope to get to  Canada Street to catch sight of  Steve Tomb’s new pedal cabs.

The Bolton Historical Museum re-opens for the season on May 26 with an appearance by local historian Bill Gates, who  will sign copies of his tenth book, ‘The 1830 Gates Homestead,’ from 11am to 1 pm.  The book, about the Gates family’s home in the Huddle section of Bolton, is now available in local shops and bookstores.

Chrissy's Chairs will kick off this year on May 26 at Sweet Pea Farm in Bolton Landing

Chrissy’s Chairs the Bolton Landing project that invites local artists to transform Adirondack chairs which are displayed throughout the community and then sold at auction to benefit charities, will kick off this year on May 26 with reception at Sweet Pea Farm.The farm, which is located at 121 Federal Hill Road, Bolton Landing, will host the reception from 5 to 7 pm. Refreshments will be served.

Toulouse-Lautrec & Company: Prints from the Belle Époque, an exhibition featuring ten lithographs by Toulouse-Lautrec and approximately twenty prints by contemporaries such as Pierre Bonnard, Jules Chéret, Maurice Denis, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen and Édouard Vuillard, will be on view in The Hyde Collection’s Hoopes Gallery through May 27.

A fundraiser will be held for Bolton portrait artist Ron Peer on Sunday, May 27 at the Bolton Conservation Park. Peer is currently undergoing post-operative chemotherapy and radiation for tongue cancer at the St. Clare’s Hospital Cancer Center in Denville, New Jersey.  The event, from 3 to 7pm, will feature food, entertainment, children’s games and a bouncy house and a silent auction.

Also in Bolton, an arts and crafts fair will be held May 26 and 27.

“Unwanted:  Invasive Species of the Adirondacks,” will be presented  at the Chapman Historical Museum in Glens Falls on May 30 at 7 pm.

Hilary Smith, the director of the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program, will present  “Unwanted” in conjunction with “Stoddard’s Natural Views,” the museum’s current exhibition of 19^th century photographs by Seneca Ray Stoddard.

“This significant but overlooked group of Stoddard photographs gives visitors the opportunity to discover and reflect on the changing environment – a topic of urgent concern in the region -  and to gain greater understanding not only of Stoddard’s photographic vision but of the natural world of the Adirondacks as well,” says Chapman director Tim Weidner.

We wish everyone a fun-filled Memorial Day Weekend!

Speedboats Return to Lake George This Weekend

When Jason Saris, Rick Gage and Norm Dascher realized they needed to change the perception of performance boating on Lake George they approached Lake George Village Mayor Bob Blais with an idea.

They decided a different tactic was necessary to re-charge the enthusiasm for Lake George among the go-fast crowd.  That was three years ago and on May 18 – 20 the hot boats will be back at the lake.

The concept was to provide a venue where off-shore and high-performance boats could come to Lake George for a weekend of fun and be able to demonstrate the capabilities of their boats without being stressed by speed and noise limitations. If you like performance boating, this is the event to attend.

“Last year’s crowd was a testament to how much the Performance Weekend (formerly known as the Queen’s Great Boating Weekend) has grown in just two short years,” Gage said.  An idea that was conceived by three friends has created an event that has become an economic force in the community and a must-attend event for performance-boating fans.

“I am very excited to see the performance boats return to the Village again this year,” said Mayor Blais.  “Our part of the lake is a great location for this event and I’m glad that it has turned into an annual occurrence,” Blais said.

The event’s sponsor is Performance Marine of Bolton Landing.  Saris and Gage have been partners in the high-performance boat company since 1987.  “The driving force is to more effectively reach out to recreational boaters,” Gage said.

The Saris racing team. Photo by Sharkey Images.

“It amazes me how this event has evolved,” said Saris.  “They’re not vying for a purse or huge trophies.  The only thing I can think of (why it’s grown) is that we’ve kept it simple and fun.  Everybody loves Lake George and this is a way for them to get out on the lake and unleash the power that these boats have,” he said.

“This is not a formal competition,” Saris explained.  “The driver’s enjoy this event because it is simply a demonstration.  They can get out on the lake, show what their boats can do and not have to go through all of the rigorous safety inspections required during sanctioned races,” Saris said.

The Lake George Performance Weekend is also a key economic boost for the local economy.  It is held the weekend before Memorial Day, which would typically be a slow weekend at the lake, but that’s no longer the case.  “Some people will attend the Performance Weekend and stay the following week for the holiday.  The result last year was packed hotels and motels and bustling restaurants,” Gage said.

The tentative schedule calls for a boat parade down Canada Street on Friday evening followed by a reception at a local restaurant, which will be open to the public.

According to Gage, there will be a driver’s meeting at 11 am on Saturday.  The main Offshore Demonstration Races will take place from noon to 4 pm followed by a reception/party at King Neptune’s Pub in Lake George Village.  The awards ceremony is open to the public and includes live entertainment and a spectacular fireworks display over the lake.

Spectators will be able to walk along the Village docks to gawk at the fancy paint jobs or to ooh and aah at the huge engines with the big blowers and gleaming exhaust pipes. The powerboat demonstrations may be easily viewed from any vantage point along Beach Road.

This year organizers have added a two-day custom car and motorcycle show in the Beach Road parking lot and there will be a sailboat race at noon on Sunday. All of the weekend events are free and open to the public.  For more information call Rick Gage at 518-644-3080.

What a Spectacle was Paris: 19th Century French Prints at The Hyde

Toulouse-Lautrec & Company: Prints from the Belle Époque, an exhibition featuring ten lithographs by Toulouse-Lautrec and approximately twenty prints by contemporaries such as Pierre Bonnard, Jules Chéret, Maurice Denis, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen and Édouard Vuillard, will be on view in The Hyde Collection’s Hoopes Gallery through May 27.

This intimate exhibition of etchings, woodcuts and lithography from the Jan Balet and the Sparling Family collections demonstrates the varied printmaking techniques and styles of the “Belle Epoque”.

The “Belle Epoque”(the beautiful era, 1880-1914) was the period in French history that experienced the formation of the Third French Republic(1870-1940), the French Industrial Revolution, and the modernization of France. An exciting new way of life and opportunity for some, unemployment, poverty, and injustice for others(The Dreyfus Affair). The arts flourished. Impressionism, Post- Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism, all had their origins and fruition during this time. Literature, Music, Dance and Architecture also experienced exciting new forms of expression.

Paris night life was infamous and a new group of entrepreneurs embraced the advant-garde, employing them as entertainers and performers, as well as program, poster and set designers.  The goal was to achieve a total spectacle. The Theatre de L’Oeuvre and the Moulin Rouge were just some of these famous theaters.

To promote and support the “Spectacle”, lithography emerged as the reproduction method of choice. The continually changing venues demanded new designs and material. Lithography, unlike woodcuts and etching(which were labor intensive), was a perfect medium for the artist and the style that reflected the exciting new form of entertainment.

Toulouse-Lautrec, Bust of Mademoiselle Marcelle Lender, 1895

Toulouse-Lautrec, a collector and student of Japanese Art, integrated the Japanese approach into his paintings and his graphic art. Bold, flat primary and secondary color, black contour, simplified shapes, and unique perspectives, drawn with an ink stick on a stone surface produced immediate and fresh images. He was an accomplished draftsman and a natural for the medium. His line gesture and compositions were sophisticated and elegant, as well as entertaining and provocative. Toulouse- Lautrec created a style and standard that future artists and craftsmen would emulate.

Jules Cheret developed the technique of printing with 3 separate stones. Black, warm and cool colors printed independently, overlaying each to create a spectrum of color with just three “runs”. He is credited with over 1,000 graphic designs.

Pierre Bonnard,  realizing he had to simplify his shapes and compositions, introduced abstract patterns into his work.

Modern artists loved lithography, and those who appreciated the work and the artist began employing them in advertisements (Toulouse- Lautrec’s “Confetti” and “La Chaine Simpson”). They also collaborated on portfolios and catalogs chronicling famous celebrities, entertainers, Parisian night life and even prostitutes.                                                                                      The 1890′s were the golden age of lithography and the prints are as popular (and as collectable) as ever. They would also influence the artist of future styles from Art Nouveau to Pop Art.

The Hyde is located at  161 Warren Street, Glens Falls, and is open Wednesday through Saturday from  10am to 5pm and Sunday from noon to 5pm. Call 792-1761 for information.

Richard Stout is an artist living and working in Hague

Fort Ticonderoga Opens for 2012 Season

Fort Ticonderoga opens for its 103^rd season on May 18 with new exhibitions, events and programs.

“Fort Ticonderoga is a family destination and a center of learning. A visit is an interactive, multi-disciplined experience,” said Beth Hill, Executive Director. “It’s about exploring the beautiful gardens, finding adventure in our events, marching with the Fife and Drum Corps, and learning about a historic trade. It’s a walk through the restored Fort, a stroll overlooking Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains of Vermont, and an afternoon in our exhibit galleries exploring our premier collections.”

Highlights of the 2012 season include Fort Ticonderoga’s newest exhibit,  “Bullets & Blades: The Weapons of America’s Colonial Wars and Revolution.” The exhibition will showcase nearly 100 weapons from Fort Ticonderoga’s internationally significant weapons collection including many never-before-seen recent acquisitions exhibited together to illustrate the remarkable beauty and broad diversity of muskets, pistols, swords, and related weaponry used in America and at Ticonderoga through the American Revolution.

Last year’s exhibit,  “Art of War:  Ticonderoga as Experienced through the Eyes of America’s Great Artists,” continues for a second season and brings together for the first time fifty of the museum’s most important artworks. Fort Ticonderoga helped give birth to the Hudson River School of American Art with Thomas Cole’s pivotal 1826 work, Gelyna, or a View Near Ticonderoga, the museum’s most important 19^th-century masterpiece to be featured in the exhibit.

The King’s Garden, one of North America’s oldest gardens and the largest public garden in the Adirondack-Lake Champlain region, will open on June 1 and offer daily tours and garden-related programs.

Kicking off the 2012 season is a weekend-long celebration of Ethan Allen’s capture of Fort Ticonderoga from the British in 1775.

Throughout the weekend, visitors will explore this dramatic story from the perspectives of both the British garrison and the Green Mountain Boys and meet such historical characters as Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, and Captain Noah Phelps, Connecticut Militia Captain and patriot spy.

On Saturday, re-enactors based in Vermont will cross Lake Champlain by bateaux to begin the assault on Fort Ticonderoga. As the Americans advance toward the Fort, the British garrison under Captain William Delaplace will go about their daily routines.  In a special evening program, visitors can take a front row seat inside the walls of the Fort at 9 pm to watch the re-staging of “America’s First Victory.”

Saturday’s events will include a book signing at the Museum Store by authors participating in the Fort’s annual War College of the Seven Years’ War. The signings will take place from 1 pm to 1:30 pm.

Fort Ticonderoga is open daily through October 18 from 9:30 am until 5 pm. General admission is $17.50 for adults, with discounts for senior citizens and children.

European Cars on Display at Saratoga Auto Museum

“The British are coming!” says Jean Hoffman, a trustee at the Saratoga Automobile Museum (SAM).

Ms. Hoffman says the nationally renowned museum will host its 4^th Annual “Invitational at Saratoga” May 18 – 20 on the grounds of the Saratoga Spa State Park.  According to Hoffman, the gathering of exquisite automobiles from around the world is quickly becoming a premier East Coast automobile event.

First held in 2009 as a supplement to SAM’s longstanding Spring Auto Show, the “Invitational” immediately became a popular kick-off event for the Spa City’s summer season.

Just like the thoroughbred horses which come to the city in July, horsepower and speed are the buzzwords of the “Invitational.”

The three-day weekend begins with a $45 per person cocktail reception at 6 pm on Friday at SAM.  Members of the public are invited to meet special guest Wayne Carini of Chasing Classic Cars fame.  Carini will get the weekend underway as Friday’s featured speaker.            According to a recent article written by Don Weberg, Carini is one of those guys that pretty much any car guy or gal can relate to. He’s constantly on the quest for the rarest, most sought after, most unique cars ever built, cars that he personally loves, and more to the point, cars that his clients are looking for.

Saturday’s line-up of Euro cars has historically attracted over 200 widely recognized examples of British, French, German, Italian and other European makes and models.  According to Hoffman, anyone who owns or drives a European made automobile is invited to enter their vehicle in the show.  “Saturday is not by invitation only…only Sunday,” she explained.

The “Euro Experience on the Field” will be followed by a fund-raising dinner and auction at the Gideon Putnam Resort in Saratoga Springs.

The auction will feature items such as one-day of driving with the Sports Car Drivers Association School at Lime Rock Park or your chance to bid on a package which includes two tickets to the Tonight Show, a photograph in the Green Room with Jay Leno and a tour of Jay’s car collection in Burbank, California.

Featured guest speaker will be noted actor Ed Herrmann, best known for his Emmy-nominated portrayals of Franklin D. Roosevelt on television, and to younger generations for his role as Richard Gilmore in Gilmore Girls and as a ubiquitous narrator for historical programs on the History Channel.  Tickets are available for the 6 pm Saturday event at a cost of $150 per person.  Contact Becky Earls at 518-587-1932 ext. 16.

Rounding out the weekend’s activities, the Sunday “Invitational” should provide attendees with an up-close-and-personal look at cars from around the US and beyond.  The “Invitational”, as the name implies, is open only to select collectors with rare classic and historic automobiles.

Over 100 extraordinary vehicles and vintage motorcycles will be on display Sunday.  The featured marque for 2012 is Cadillac, one of America’s most highly respected names in automobile manufacturing.  Reportedly at least 20 vintage Caddies will be featured during the “Invitational”.

Saturday’s and Sunday’s events are open from 10 am to 3 pm each day and the cost of admission to the grounds is $15 and children under 12 are admitted free.  No pets are allowed.

As an added bonus, the Museum itself will welcome visitors without charge with paid admission to either the Euro Show on Saturday or the “Invitational” on Sunday.

According to Hoffman, all proceeds from the weekend events will benefit the Museum’s Educational programs and the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Northeast New York.

Remembering Lake George Racer, Boat Builder Bill Morgan

Bill Morgan, the individual most responsible for reviving wooden speedboat building in North America, died in Glens Falls on February 21. He was 84.

Best known for re-animating the Hacker-Craft brand, whose boats he manufactured in Silver Bay, Morgan also restored or built replicas of more than twenty Gold Cup racers of the 1930s, including “Happy Times,” a replica of George Reis’s El Lagarto.

“Those beautiful, slender race boats were in my background long enough to make an impression,” Morgan once told the Mirror.

Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Morgan spent his summers on Lake George,  where he was  able to view the Gold Cup races of the 1930s from his front yard.

“He was always interested in engines; that’s all he ever talked about,” recalled Jane Kiernan Gabriels, a friend of Morgan’s since their summers as children on Lake George.

(Apparently, Bill had no interest in joining the family business, Morgan Lithograph Co., which was founded in 1864. By the 1920s, the company was the nation’s foremost printer of movie posters.)

George Reis, whose El Lagarto had brought the races to Lake George in 1934, was a friend of Morgan’s family, and “his stories furthered my interest,” Morgan said in 2000.

After attending Williams College (where, according to Gabriels, he was a champion swimmer) and serving in the Navy, Morgan himself became a racer, competing in Gold Cup, President’s and National Sweepstakes races, as well as in the Silver Cup, Canadian National and in a World Championship, compiling an impressive record of victories.

After building his own inboard racing boats, Morgan said in 2000,  “I got to the point where I wanted to build replicas of boats that were no longer around.”

El Lagarto was donated to the Adirondack Museum in 1969, and after several trips to the museum to take measurements, Morgan completed Happy Times in 1971.

“El Lagarto was the best Gold Cup boat in its time, and Happy Times is its duplicate,” Morgan told the Mirror in 1971. “Like El Lagarto, my boat with the five steps has the same distinctive leap which enabled the original to clear itself from the water and run a little faster than its competition.”

Asked by the Mirror if he intended to enter Happy Times in races, Morgan replied, “No, but I’ll let her out and just see who we pass.”

Morgan went on to build “ten or twelve replicas – one each of the nicest boats,” he said.

That number includes Delphine IV, a replica of the 1932 Gold Cup winner designed by George Crouch for Horace Dodge, and Hotsy Totsy, a replica of the Purdy-built two-time Gold Cup.

Morgan also bought and restored the Californian, which competed in the Gold Cup races of 1930, 31 and 32; Miss Detroit VII, a Gar Wood boat which won the 150 mile Sweepstakes in 1924 and 1925; Miss Los Angeles, which competed in the 1929 Gold Cup races; and Miss Canada III, which competed in the 1939 Gold Cup Race.

“It would have been a crime to let them go,” Morgan said. “They are a part of our history… the Californian was in rough shape. Canada III-we rescued her days before she was about to be bulldozed. She was stripped of her deck for use as a fishing boat. Detroit VII was a basket case.”

Morgan’s replicas and restorations took first place awards in nearly every antique and classic boat show in the Northeast.

He donated his personal collection of Gold Cup raceboats – as well as a rare 1923 Gold Cup Packard engine and volumes of archival material about the boats – to the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York.

In the 1980s, Morgan assisted the Wolgin family, which had recently acquired the Sagamore hotel, with the construction of an excursion boat.

“Bill was a friend, so we went to him for advice, and he became the project’s shepard,” said Ike Wolgin.

The 70-ft boat, which was built on Green Island, was launched in 1985. At the suggestion of Marian Wolgin, the boat was named “The Morgan,” in honor of Bill.

Bill Morgan

In 2004, Morgan made arrangements to sell Hacker-craft and his Silver Bay boat yard to another former speedboat racer, Lynn Wagemann.

The company was purchased in 2011 by investor George Badcock, who became the company’s president.

“We at the Hacker Boat Company would not have the honor today of building Hacker-Craft without Bill,” said Badcock. “Everyone at the Hacker Boat Company has a responsibility to keep the Hacker-Craft brand vibrant as a testament and memorial to Bill’s life’s work.”

Morgan was married to Jean Eckert of Albany, New York and later to the late Patricia Robinson of Marblehead, Massachusetts.  There were no children from either marriage.

He is survived by his sister, Mary Burry of Cleveland, and two nieces, Marilyn Hitchcock of Chagrin Falls, Ohio and Susan Phillips of Williamsburg, Virginia.

Morgan was a member of the Lake George Club, the Fort Orange Club and a Director of the Antique and Classic Boat Society (International).

“With his passing, Bill Morgan leaves behind a multitude of friends and fans who honor and revere his many and diverse lasting contributions to boating, especially wooden boating and racing, on a level of excellence which may never again be equaled, much less surpassed,” attorney David Morris said in a statement announcing Morgan’s death.

Memorial services are scheduled for late May or early June.

Make Way for Pedal Cabs: Green Rides Coming to Lake George

Increasingly common from Vancouver to Manhattan, pedal cabs are making their way to Lake George.

Two area teachers, Steve Tomb and Mike Smith, have launched the Adirondack Pedal Cab Company, which will manage a fleet of 22 pedal cabs, also known as rickshaws, bicycle taxis, and pedicabs, in Lake George and North Creek.

Tomb and Smith hope to have the cabs on the streets of the two communities by Memorial Day.

If all goes according to plan, they told the Lake George Chamber of Commerce in March, the company will expand into Bolton Landing and Lake Placid.

“The timing is right,” Tomb and Smith told the Lake George Chamber. “These three-wheeled vehicles are changing the face of transportation and provide an exciting opportunity for customers and tourist communities.”

According to Tomb, who teaches English at Johnsburg High School, the idea of introducing pedal cabs to resort communities came to him while traveling in India on a Fulbright fellowship.

“I saw all these rickshaws and I thought we should have something similar in the Adirondacks: the cabs are emission-free, they engage you in the community you’re visiting, and it’s the type of small business that communities support,” said Tomb.

Tomb said that he, Smith and their partner, Ken Murray, are in the process of securing whatever permits may be needed to operate a livery in Lake George Village.

The business will be supported in part by solar-powered electronic ads mounted on the rear of the cab.

“Our orientation is hyper-local; we want to support local businesses,” said Tomb. “We’ve already been approached by a national brand, and we turned them down.”

Drivers, who must be at least 18, possess a drivers’ license and able to pass a background check and survive rigorous training sessions, will lease the cabs in four-hour shifts and work for tips. No set rate, no minimum fee, will be charged for any ride.

Tomb expects to recruit college students and vacationing teachers as Adirondack Pedal Company drivers.

“The tipping model works for the drivers,” said Tomb. “Personality will be the key. The ride should be a Lake George experience, not just a convenient way to get from one place to another. The driver will function as a guide. He or she will have to know Lake George, the businesses, the places of interest, the stories. The best driver will be someone who not only knows Lake George, but loves it.”

Tomb said he and his partners began coming to Lake George when they were growing up in Saratoga County.

A graduate of LeMoyne College and SUNY Cortland, Tomb and his wife Suzanne (who’s a social worker at Hudson Headwaters Health Network) moved to North Creek to be near her family.

Prior to settling in North Creek, Tomb said he “traveled a lot, teaching Outward Bound programs, guiding, teaching people to be guides, developing curriculum for Adventure Sports programs.”

The Tombs have three sons, triplets, who will be twelve years old in April.

“They’re amazing. One of them designed the logo for the company. They have their own egg business; they have 40 hens and have local businesses as customers, including Bar Vino. I’ve tried to instill in them the entrepreneurial spirit – that’s what’s uniquely American, as I discovered in my travels. It’s what’s driving us to make our Adirondack Pedal Cab Company a success.”

For more information, visit adirondackpedalcab.com