The old joke was that Milwaukee lost its only celebrity when Bo Black moved to Arizona. Milwaukee has always been VIP-challenged. But in searching our 25-year archive, we came up with a pretty varied list of Who’s Who – or was once a Who – in Milwaukee. Here are just the highlights of the headliners.
Hound Dog
When Elvis died in 1977, some 175 impersonators were plying their gyrating trade nationwide. The popularity wore off and the numbers dwindled, but Tom Green kept right on greasing his pompadour. “Tom Green is still Presley at 40, and packing them in like never before,” reported a July 1983 profile. When Green died in March of 2007 – 30 years after The King’s death – he still had bookings.
Broadcast News
TV anchor Melodie Wilson graced the magazine’s cover twice – for a November 1983 profile when she was just 33, and again in December 1991 for her essay “I’ll be Home for Christmas” after she was fired from WTMJ-TV for “skewing old” in the ratings. A breast cancer survivor, Wilson told the Journal Sentinel in August 2007 that the cancer had metastasized in her lungs. “I actually feel great,” an upbeat Wilson said.
Like a Rolling Stone
A February 1985 cover story charted the course of Bob Reitman , from underground DJ to top 40 talk-jock at WKTI. “I usually have more in common with people 15 years old,” said Reitman at 43. Now retired, he hosts a music show once a week on WUWM-FM, where he started his radio career.
The Gold Digger
Lynnette Harris was a 26-year-old sometime actress and model whose credits included a Playboy spread with her twin sister. Then octogenarian millionaire David Kritzik fell in love with her. “First of all, he didn’t look 80,” she told our magazine. “He kind of reminded me of George Burns.” As reported in July 1990 and in February 1992 , Harris and her twin, Leigh Ann Conley (who also befriended Kritzik), were convicted of failing to pay taxes on millions of dollars they received from the old man, who died at age 89. A federal appeals court, however, overturned the conviction. A year later, while writing a book on the case called For Love or Money,Pittsburgh author Dennis M. Casey claimed Harris had demanded profits from the book and intimidated him. Harris, who denied it, has since disappeared from the news.
Billionaire’s Son
New-age composer, son of a gazillionaire, philanthropist and the man who bought the first million-dollar home in Milwaukee, Peter Buffett gladly chose Milwaukee over L.A. as his home. “In Los Angeles, you’re there to outdo everybody else,” he said in a May 1991 feature. Buffett and his wife Jennifer moved to New York City in 2005 after his charitable foundation received more than $1 billion from his father, legendary investor Warren Buffett.
Lit Major
Jackie Mitchard was a Milwaukee Journal columnist long before she became the first writer chosen for Oprah’s book list. Milwaukee Magazine profiled her in July 1985 and again in July 1996, when her novel The Deep End of the Ocean(which became a movie starting Michelle Pfeiffer) hit the bookstores. She was paid a half-million dollars to write two books of fiction, an unheard of offer for a first-time novelist. “They bought the hell out of it,” said Mitchard. Her latest novel, Still Summer,was released in August 2007.
Hollywood, Wisconsin
Of the American Film Institute’s top 100 movies of all time, 27 films have some Wisconsin tie, a September 1997 feature noted. “Boy, that’s amazing,” marveled Shorewood native Jerry Zucker , who’d made such zany comedies as Airplane and Naked Gun. “Now I feel bad that I’m the only Wisconsin filmmaker not on the list.”
Man About Town
The subject of the 1999 documentary American Movie,Menomonee Falls’ sometime filmmaker Mark Borchardt became an unlikely celebrity, talking trash with David Lettermanand working the crowd at the Toronto Film Festival. A day in the life of Borchardt, in a June 2000 profile, took us to a number of taverns and Holy Hill, of all places. Remarked the B-movie idol: “What about going here with a chick that you just met, man, a neat place like this?” In Scare Me,a soon-to-be-released movie that Borchardt wrote and directed, he plays “an alcoholic writer [who] has to write a book to get out of debt, when evil forces intervene.”
All that Glitters
Eric Benét, the 1984 Milwaukee Tech graduate, was paparazzi famous by the late 1990s, with a new CD, new movie and new wife – superstar Halle Berry. But as he revealed in a September 2001 profile, life hadn’t always been good. In the span of one year, his father died and a seven-figure record deal fell through. “Eric was unemployed when his daughter India was born. Six months later … his 26-year-old girlfriend was killed in an auto accident.” In 2005, after rumors of Benét’s infidelity, Berry filed for divorce.
Resident Artist
It wasn’t until well past middle age that artist Mary Nohl gained recognition as an outsider artist. But as an October 1997 profile noted, the reclusive Nohl was known around town as “The Witch of Fox Point,” owing to the whimsical sculptures in the yard of her lakefront home. Nohl died in 2001 at age 87, leaving an $11.3 million endowment for Wisconsin artists.
Queen Bo
“Bo is Bo is Bo. No need to mention a last name,” we wrote. “She is … the closest thing we’ve got to a Star.” The October 1998 cover story called her “Summerfest’s Iron-Fisted Monarch.” The festival’s longtime head now lives in Arizona and suffered a stroke in February 2007. Last summer, as a tribute, her image was etched in stone at Summerfest’s children’s fountain.
Mr. Bubbles
A true free spirit, Ralph Bronner is the son of soapmaker Dr. Emanuel Bronner. In a February 2002 profile, he gave this testimonial of his family’s famous liquid soap: “I once talked to a dairy farmer who told me it was the best thing for getting the smell of cow shit off his hands.” Ralph and his late father are subjects of last year’s documentary, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox.
Daughter of the Don
She was a rock ’n’ roll impresario, wife of a singer in Sha Na Na and daughter of Milwaukee mobster Frank Balistrieri. Like an episode from “The Sopranos,” Benedetta Balistrieri sued her three siblings for a cut of the family loot, generating a rat-a-tat blast of media attention and opening deep family wounds. “This is like taking my clothes off and walking bare-assed down Wisconsin Avenue,” she said in a May 2002 feature. Balistrieri today lives in the shadow of Hollywood Hills, writing a book about her life.
Power of the Pen
Novelist, Hollywood scriptwriter, NPR radio commentator – by age 36, Mequon native John Ridley was absolutely golden. “I’ve made enough money where I don’t have to worry about money,” he said in an October 2002 profile. In August 2007, Ridley was hired by filmmaker George Lucas to write Red Tails, a World War II story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American fighter pilots in U.S. military history.
Artful Dodger
Michael Lord once ran the most prestigious art gallery in town. Until greed caught up with him. “If you’re going to sell expensive stuff to rich people, you have to look rich yourself,” said the urbane Mr. Lord in May 2004. “And to do it, you spend, spend, spend.” Sentenced to 14 months in prison for defrauding at least a dozen customers of more than $634,000, Lord has now served his time, but his gallery is gone.
Four Frat Boys
Each made a name in different fields, but Bud Selig, Herb Kohl, Steve Marcus and Frank Gimbel were brothers at UW-Madison’s Jewish fraternity 50 years ago. In an April 2006 freewheeling Q&A, the friends reminisced: “I don’t think any of the four of us in our wildest dreams would have believed it would all turn out the way it did,” Selig marveled.
You Can’t Take It With You
The city’s wealthy have ranged from greatly generous to terribly tightfisted.
“There’s a lot of old money here,” Michael Cudahytold the magazine in a March 1997 feature. “And it’s tightly held.” Some of Milwaukee’s most penurious personalities, the story noted, included Capt. Frederick Pabst, who left a theater and little else when he died;Alexander Mitchell, who donated just a few thousand dollars to charity from his fortune; and August Uihlein Sr., who gave a mere $11,000 for an auditorium, though his company was worth $12 million.
Jane Bradley Pettit was perhaps Milwaukee’s most selfless giver. “In 1999, Worth magazine ranked her 27th among America’s most generous philanthropists, with $165 million in gifts,” our November 2001 story reported shortly after her death. “But that didn’t count the donations she made anonymously and through two smaller foundations.”
Perhaps the city’s most unorthodox philanthropist has been Cudahy. Now 83, Cudahy made a bundle – $153 million – when he sold Marquette Electronics to GE in 1998. “Since then, he’s been giving it away, donating $60 million personally and another $30 million through a foundation he created in 2000,” we reported in a March 2007 profile. Lately, the self-described “crabby old man” has been pressing local politicians to build a transit system – and offering to help pay for it.
Good Sports
Beloved – and not so beloved – athletic stars.
Mr. Obnoxious
In Bruce Pearl’s four-year tenure as UW-Milwaukee’s basketball coach, he rebuilt the program, guiding the team to its first-ever NCAA tournament berth in 2003 and a Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2005. Three months after our December 2004 profile ran, Pearl jumped ship to the University of Tennessee. Last fall, a Sports Illustrated profile called him “the purposely annoying Bruce Pearl [who] made Tennessee basketball relevant again.”
Net Worth
“It all goes back to that game,” Tom Crean recalled in our December 2003 profile. “That game” was the 1977 NCAA Championship, when Crean’s hero, Al McGuire, took his Warriors to the national title. Nearly three decades later, as Marquette’s head coach, Crean has won about 66 percent of his games and has a long-term contract worth $1.65 million a year. But no championship yet.
A Woman’s Place
In April 1999 , a year after taking over for her famous father as CEO of the Milwaukee Brewers, we profiled Wendy Selig-Prieb. “The margin for error in small-market teams is nil,” she told us. The constant excuse-making by Wendy and her father Bud wore out their welcome with fans, and they sold the team in 2004. But the groundwork she laid was credited by some with helping new owner Mark Attanasio build a winning team.
Third and Goal
In a September 2002 profile on Packers coach Mike Sherman, he said, “We get paid to win football games. … But if you think that’s all there is to this thing … then you’ve missed the boat.” Wrong, the Packers decided, dumping him in 2005.
Curious George
In his first year as Milwaukee Bucks coach, George Karl chalked up the team’s first winning season in almost a decade. A November 1999 profile paints him as brash and short-fused. His contract with the Bucks had a clause prohibiting him from drinking during the basketball season. Fired in 2003, Karl now coaches the Denver Nuggets and is still searching for that elusive championship.
The Wild One
Brett Favre was “untamed and unpredictable,” said our September 1994 cover story. “If you’re seen out drinking a beer,” Favre complained, “people are going to … say that you’re an alcoholic … it’s not fair.” Two years later, Favre admitted he was addicted to Vicodin, and in 1999, he quit drinking.
The Tough Guy
“Garner is certain to become either the most praised and admired or most ridiculed and second-guessed public figure in the entire state,” predicted our April 1992 profile of new Brewers manager Phil Garner. Actually, he did a pretty good job with limited resources, but still got dumped. In August 2007, Garner was fired as manager of the Houston Astros, less than two years after leading them to the NL pennant.
The Philosopher Coach
Brewers pitcher Don Sutton said of manager Tom Trebelhorn in this July 1987 feature, “Trebelhorn is not just interested in winning, but making people better. This may not translate into winning now, but it will later.” It didn’t translate quickly enough, and Treb was fired. He went on to serve 12 years as bench coach with the Baltimore Orioles (where he was also let go) and now lives in Arizona with his wife, Bo Black.
Back from Nowhere
Green Bay Packer legend Lionel Aldridge spent 12 years in the clutches of schizophrenia, hearing voices, hallucinating and living on the streets. In a June 1987 profile, the former defensive end and NBC sportscaster told how he overcame his demons. “Coach Lombardi rarely talked to us about football. He talked about life. He once said that the greatest success was not in never falling, but in rising every time you fell.” Aldridge was inducted into the Packers’ Hall of Fame in 1987. He died of natural causes in 1998, just days before his 57th birthday.
Nellie’s Favorite Year
Our December 1985 profile of Milwaukee Bucks’ coach Don Nelson came after he led the Bucks to a 59-23 record and first place in the Central Division, and he took home the Coach of the Year award. He’d also recovered physically from two years earlier, when the pressure had left him overweight, puffy-eyed and haggard. “Nellie looked like he had gone to a blood bank and had all the blood drained from his body,” recalled Pat Williams, then general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers. After tussles with new Bucks owner Herb Kohl, and after declaring, “I am the Milwaukee Bucks,” Nelson resigned in 1987. Today, he has rediscovered his swagger as head coach of the Golden State Warriors.
Life in the Strike Zone
The September 1986 profile of MLB umpire Bruce Froemming is a classic local-boy-makes-good story, detailing his rise from bat boy and gopher for the Milwaukee Brewers to one of the most respected umpires in history. Froemming became the longest-tenured umpire in major league history at 37 years (that’s more than 5,000 games called). Game 4 of the 2007 AL divisional playoffs, the Yankees against the Indians, was his last.
Reverend Reggie
“Reggie, this is God. Come to Green Bay.” That joking phone message from Packers coach Mike Holmgren helped lead the way to landing one of the three best-paid players in pro football. Reggie White was “searching for a championship, a solution to spiritual decay in the inner city and a place to call home,” our September 1996 feature noted. Four months later, White would lead the Packers to a Super Bowl victory. White died in 2004.
Irrepressible Al
A December 1984 cover story on Al McGuire contained dozens of head-scratching McGuire-isms, like this one: “I may not know who I am, but I do know that I’ve been very happy being Al McGuire.” The legendary ex-coach and sports broadcaster died of leukemia in 2001 at age 72.
