From Bootleggers to Famous Flyers

Happenings Around Town in 1928

Mathew (Matt) Spurzem was elected Constable (a public officer usually of a town or township responsible for keeping the peace and for minor judicial duties). The big task in these early days, besides serving legal papers, was stopping bootlegging. A couple of stills in Robbinsdale were knocked down and Chief Spurzem was nearly shot in 1931 by a famous bootlegger, Ed Jennings. Jennings was caught by Spurzem and sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Spurzem served 36 years with the Robbinsdale Police Department. He was appointed in 1930 and became Chief in 1945, a position he held until his retirement in 1966. His assistants in the early days were John (Jack) Bloberger and Fred Rosenow. Spurzem organized the School Patrol in Robbinsdale.

On May 1, 1928,  a group of civic minded women met at the home of Mrs. Rollin Dutton to form the Woman’s Club of Robbinsdale. Mrs. Dutton was the first president. Mrs. Bertha Smith Nelson recalls one family with a disabled husband (confined to bed); members spent several weeks cleaning, painting, wallpapering and helping to make the home more comfortable.

Fawcett Publications in Robbinsdale, already the publisher of several magazines, launched Modern Mechanics and Inventions in November 1928. Later renamed Mechanix Illustrated, began as a memo from Captain Billy directing that steps be taken to create an outstanding magazine in its field. The first man Fawcett Publications hired was naval architect and amateur flyer Weston Farmer. The cover of the first issue featured a striking color and the headline of the feature story: “How to Build and Fly Your Own Airplane.” Later issues featured a series of build-your-own-plane articles.

The magazine’s writers and editors were frequent visitors to the Robbinsdale Airport and Gene Shank’s flying school, just a mile up the road from the Fawcett Publishing office. The field was used used by many of Minnesota’s pioneer air-mail pilots. Shank sold flying lessons and joy rides and dabbled in aircraft construction. Behind one hangar he kept a Waco biplane and a World War I Jenny to demonstrate how far design had come. Shank was famous for aerial acrobatics. He made headlines and grabbed a  world’s record when he managed 569 consecutive loop-the-loops!

Robbinsdale’s famous flyer was one of Farmer’s first recruits to write for the new publication. Shank wrote a series of flying lessons that were later published as a flying manual at the low, low price of one dollar. The first issue of Modern Mechanics also included part one of the Edgar Rice Burroughs science-fiction story Conquest of the Moon.

This post is part of a series loosely based on the book Robbinsdale Then and Now by Helen Blodget. Gene Shank’s photo (Courtesy of Hennepin County Library) and the cover of the first issue of Modern Mechanics are featured in the image up top.