Ray Allen, ‘Lost Milwaukee’ are focus of new Wisconsin books
From a Milwaukee Bucks Hall of Famer to tales of ice wars and steamship crashes, recently published nonfiction books explore the culture and history of Wisconsin and its largest city.
Here’s a quick look at three new titles:
“From the Outside: My Journey Through Life and the Game I Love” (Dey Street Books), by Ray Allen with Michael Arkush. As part of a big three that also included Glenn Robinson and Sam Cassell, Allen nearly led the Milwaukee Bucks to the NBA championship series in 2001. During his Milwaukee years, Allen also starred in Spike Lee’s film “He Got Game.”
That sounds as smooth and successful as a Ray Allen free throw. But the future Hall of Famer’s seven seasons in Milwaukee were a stormy comingof-age as a professional athlete, including a recurrent conflict with coach George Karl that Allen, in his memoir, admits he could never quite figure out.
In his memoir, Allen recalls how his own coach ripped him in a Sports Illustrated profile: “I call him Barbie Doll because he wants to be pretty,” Karl told the scribe, going on to accuse Allen of caring “too much about having style, making highlights, and being cool.” In his memoir, Allen refuses to apologize for “playing the game with joy,” a la Magic Johnson.
In Allen’s mind, the Bucks started sliding downhill when the teamed signed Anthony Mason before the 2001’02 season, ruining its chemistry. The next season, the Bucks sent Allen to Seattle in exchange for Gary Payton, a horrible trade for the Bucks. Allen went on to be part of championship teams in Boston and Miami, and to make more three-point shots than anyone in NBA history.
“Lost Milwaukee” (The History Press), by Carl Swanson. My favorite parts of Swanson’s new local-history collection might just as easily be called “Old Weird Milwaukee”: Alfred Lawson’s airliner! Ice war on the Milwaukee River! Fatal steamship crash downtown! Hatpin ordinance!
Drawing on articles he wrote for OnMilwaukee.com and Milwaukee Notebook.com, Swanson unfurls these curiosities gracefully, with a friendly voice.
Historical fiction writers could plumb his collection for germinal ideas for some moving stories. For example, in his chapter “Deaf Workers Aided War Effort,” Swanson recounts how a savvy colonel hired deaf women to work in the Milwaukee Ordinance Plant during World War II.
That Milwaukee hatpin ordinance Swanson writes about? The common council passed it in 1913, limiting the length of an exposed point of a hatpin. It came about because women, either deliberately to protect themselves from creeps, or inadvertently in crowded places, were sticking men with the point.
“Wisconsin Riffs: Jazz Profiles From the Heartland” (Wisconsin Historical Society Press), by Kurt Dietrich. A professor of music at Ripon College and a trombonist himself, Dietrich has written “a book of stories of jazz musicians” from our state. I’d compare this engaging volume to the narrative portions of better AllMusic.com entries.
Dietrich shares stories about international stars from our state, including Waukesha’s Les Paul, whose fame as a guitar-tech pioneer may obscure how fun his playing can be to listen to; and Milwaukee’s Al Jarreau, who moved gracefully between jazz and pop. But Dietrich also digs into mainstays of the local scene, such as guitarist Manty Ellis, important both as an educator and as a player; and Mrs. Fun, the dynamic duo of keyboardist Connie Grauer and drummer Kim Zick.
While browsing this book, I turned almost immediately to the entry on Buddy Montgomery, the pianist and vibraphonist who spent about a dozen years here beginning in 1969, the brother of guitarist Wes Montgomery and a national figure in his own right who played briefly with Miles Davis.