Pied Piper from Hamlin Led the Way to World's Fair of Music in 1962

I was recently pawing through a magazine while in the waiting room of a local agency and found an interesting story that originated from the Ludington area over 50 years ago. 

In the December 2014/January 2015 issue of Reminisce Magazine, a spinoff of Reader's Digest, a picture of a gaily dressed local radio celebrity being served a paper prior to his arrest by a Holland policeman ornaments a story that originates from the summer of 1962. 

One learns from the article that a much younger Bill Shoup, radio announcer at Ludington's own WKLA, rode from Hamlin Township to Chicago on his horse, donning the apparel of a pied piper as he fluted his way along the route, supposedly to bring the people he passed down to the first World's Fair of Music and Sound being held in downtown Chicago.  Here is the full story from Shoup published 53 years later.

This was a rather big deal at the time, it was published not only in newspapers and other media along the route, but also throughout the United States. 

The Owosso (Michigan) Argus was one of many Michigan papers outside of the route that heralded the event (pictured to the left).  Of course, it was featured in Grand Haven and Holland papers, with the Holland arrest being more of an extra publicity stunt than a case of false arrest.

Even Billboard Magazine featured the Lake Michigan ride of Shoup's as being a major reason to check out the event.  Jimmie Dean, Rosemary Clooney, Eddie Fisher, etc. received little more than a blurb.

He also stole the headlines from these singers and more in The Daily Iowan and a few other newspapers around the nation.  Shoup's stunt gets not only the headline in the article reprinted below, but also an extremely large portion of the coverage.  Despite any evidence of any sort of magical flute-playing ability of Bill Shoup.

When Mr. Shoup finally reached his destination, it looks as if his flamboyant garb did make a splash in the Windy City, as illustrated in the photo negatives to the left.

Let's thank Bill Shoup for being such a trouper in able to start and finish his route, and let's sincerely hope he can share even more of what actually happened in this historic trek made from Hamlin Township.  

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Very interesting. It makes you wonder how many things of significance  happened in Ludington and adjoining areas. I enjoy history but to often important happenings are forgotten when each subsequent generation takes control and forgets or doesn't care about the past. That's why it's important to support organizations like White Pine Village which, in my opinion, is one of the finest museums of it kind.

Good point, and I'd mention that tourist-friendly areas like Ludington seem to lose a lot of their identity, history, and culture more rapidly, when we allow people from downstate to come in and get put into positions of power by our own elected representatives. 

At next meeting, we will once again see a hearing for the application for state DNR Trust funds for the West End Project, an enterprise of dubious merit brought to us by out-of-towners, while the city mostly ignores the 100-year old water/sewer lines and the problems at the water and wastewater treatment plant.  Those are the historic restorations we need, along with our historical reenactments at White Pine Village.

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