Tommy Rowan

1 week ago | inquirer.com | Tommy Rowan

NFL team owners gathered at a gilded Chicago hotel in April 1943, and under a cloud of cigar smoke, lamented the rippling effects of confronting monstrous tyranny. Except for Alexis Thompson. The millionaire playboy, and owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, was more than 900 miles away at a U.S. Army training ground for officer candidates in rural North Carolina. The major topic at the owners’ meetings concerned manpower. Many of the league’s best players were overseas fighting in World War II.

2 weeks ago | inquirer.com | Tommy Rowan

At the turn of the 20th century, Philadelphia opened Pandora’s lunchbox. A young and ambitious Philly native, and his older and more-experienced partner, lead the United States into the fast food era from a storefront at 818 Chestnut St.Their approach appealed to this new, faster-paced society, and looked toward the future. Joe Horn, all of 27 and flush with money from his widowed mama, realized his dream and started his own restaurant.

3 weeks ago | inquirer.com | Tommy Rowan

When the Pennsylvania Inquirer was born, there were no electric lights or typewriters. There were no telephones or telegraph instruments or trucks. Yet on June 1, 1829, the first edition of the newspaper rolled off the flatbed press at No. 5 Bank Alley, now Moravian Street. John Norvell and John R. Walker established the four-page, six-column daily, and did virtually all the work, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer: The Story of the Inquirer 1829 to the Present, published in 1956.

4 weeks ago | inquirer.com | Tommy Rowan

The 1876 Centennial Exhibition — the first world’s fair that Philadelphia hosted — was lauded at the time as the single greatest international exposition ever assembled. In 1876, nearly 10 million visitors flocked from around the world to the west bank of the Schuylkill in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park between May and November. That crowd was an incredible draw, considering the limited transportation options of the time: The automobile, airplane, and electric trolley had not yet been invented.

1 month ago | inquirer.com | Tommy Rowan

Granny Hamner spotted the tail. While driving his two-tone Cadillac in the early morning of May 19, 1954, hours after the Phillies lost to the Milwaukee Brewers at home, 6-2, the car trailing behind him seemed suspicious. Hamner figured that the car had followed him from Connie Mack Stadium to hishome in Mayfair. The Phillies second baseman arrived home, watched the vehicle circle the block several times, andcalled the police. Around 1 a.m., the driver was arrested.