Once upon a time Milwaukee had a vibrant newspaper culture. And you don't even have to travel back to the days of the German-language newspapers, nor even to the era of the Evening News and Leader, to find it.
Even as recently as the early 1990s, the city had two daily newspapers – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Despite the fact that they were owned by the same folks, the Sentinel and the Journal newsroom staff viewed their opposite number as competition.
And the papers weren't just packed with wire stories generated elsewhere; they had a local bent.
It would've made many cities green with envy.
One of the most beloved and mysteriously discontinued Milwaukee features was the afternoon paper's Green Sheet, with comics, columns, feature stories and more, printed on green paper.
My favorite feature was the "Remember When" column which had an old-time Milwaukee photo with an explanatory caption. Created by the staff at the Milwaukee Public Library, "Remember When" dished up great local history nuggets. I remember my mom had a copy of a book that collected many of the photos. Alas, I don't know where it's gotten to now.
A much-celebrated institution, the Green Sheet was ditched in 1994 in favor of who knows what.
The year the Journal canned the Green Sheet, its circulation decrease was four times higher than the annual decline the two preceding years.
You can get the inside scoop when Milwaukee Public Library hosts the Green Sheet's final editor, Dan Chabot, who held that post from 1981 to 1984, when he takes part in "Remember When … Everyone Read the Green Sheet?," Saturday, May 10 at 2 p.m., at Centennial Hall, 733 N. 8th St., in the Central Library.
There's also a display of Green Sheets inside the Central Library, on the main floor, right outside the entrance to the children's library, on view until May 31.
You can register for the "Remember When" event online or by calling (414) 286-3011.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
