Day in, day out, the Minneapolis Star of 1939 was packed with ads touting a variety of entertainment options, stretching from Lake Minnetonka to the St. Paul border. Which one catches your interest here? How about listening to Rudy Vallee at the Orpheum? Dancing till 1:45 a.m. at the Marigold Ballroom? Or watching Barbara Stanwyck in “Union Pacific” at the Avalon?

I’m partial to Excelsior Park. As kids, we got free rides there based on the number of A’s, B’s and C’s on our report cards. Yes, back in 1967, before grade inflation, a C actually meant something — about a third of a spin on the merry-go-round, as I recall.

Excelsior Park (1925-1969) had it all: Rides, speedboats, amusements, death-defying acts — and fresh walleyed pike at the Blue Line Cafe.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 11:17 pm and is filed under Main, Muscle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.