February 21, 2025
Sayre students wait for train, 1954
Sayre School kindergarteners waited on a train at Lexington’s Union Station on March 22, 1954. After completing a study project on trains, 19 students in Mrs. Howard Covington’s kindergarten class went by rail to Winchester, along with their teacher and several parents, and they returned to school by car. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Actor Desi Arnaz at Keeneland sales, 1963
Actor Desi Arnaz and his wife, Edith Eyre Hirsch, during the Keeneland fall breeding sale, Nov. 11, 1963. Arnaz, best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the TV series sitcom “I Love Lucy,” paid $66,000 (about $525,000 adjusted for inflation) for a broodmare, the highest price paid during the five-day sale. He owned the 45-acre Corona Breeding Farm in Corona, Calif., and he raced Thoroughbreds. Two weeks later, the actor paid the top price, $32,000, for a two-year-old filly at a Thoroughbred sale at Belmont Park. Hirsch was Arnaz’s second wife. He previously had been married to “I Love Lucy” co-star Lucille Ball for 20 years. His breeding business was dissolved and the farm sold in the 1970s. The 20th annual Keeneland fall breeding stock sale closed with 842 offerings being auctioned for nearly $3.9 million (nearly $31 million adjusted for inflation). Last year’s November breeding stock sale at Keeneland had gross sales of $215 million. The 2017 breeding sale begins Nov. 7. Published Nov. 17, 1963, in the Sunday Herald-Leader. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Sold-out show by The Police at Rupp Arena, 1983
Jonathan Palmer was one of hundreds of people waiting in line to buy T-shirts during a Nov. 6, 1983, concert by The Police at Rupp Arena. The shirts sold for as much as $14 to the more than 23,400 music lovers at the show by the English rock group led by the singer Sting. The band was riding the wave of their most recent album, “Synchronicity,” which included a No. 1 single, “Every Breath You Take.” Tickets were $12.50 and $13.50. The concert marked the fifth sold-out show in the seven-year history of the downtown arena. The others were concerts by Alabama, the Who, and two shows by The Rolling Stones. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Lexington detective investigates coed murder, 1961
Lexington detective Don Duckworth looked inside the 1959 Simca, a French-built car, in which Transylvania College student Betty Gail Brown was found dead on Oct. 27, 1961. The car was parked in front of Old Morrison Hall. See a story about this unsolved murder in Saturday’s Herald-Leader and on Kentucky.com. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Jared Lorenzen and Eli Manning; college opponents and NFL teammates, 2001 and 2008
The University of Kentucky’s Jared Lorenzen, left, shook hands with Mississippi’s Eli Manning after the Rebels’ 42-31 win on Sept. 29, 2001, at Commonwealth Stadium. The two quarterbacks were both sophomores. Led by Manning’s 268 yards and two touchdowns, the Rebels piled up nearly 500 yards. Lorenzen reclaimed his starting role from Shane Boyd when first-year UK coach Guy Morriss, looking for a spark in the third quarter, made a switch at QB. Lorenzen led the Cats’ offense the rest of the season, including to a near-upset of sixth-ranked Tennessee. Both Manning and Lorenzen hold many records for their schools, including career passing yards. Photo by David Perry | Staff
Almost seven years after that college game in Lexington, Manning led the NFL’s New York Giants to a Super Bowl title, with Lorenzen as his backup. The pair, shown here taking the field Feb. 3, 2008, at Super Bowl XLII at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., had both been with the Giants since 2004. Photo by Mark Cornelison | Staff
Burley tobacco for auction, 1948
Levi Willison, left, Bellmount Farm, Fayette County and Earl Elliott, Lexington, inspected burley tobacco on the floor at Clay Number 1 warehouse November 15, 1948. Warehouses officially opened on the 15th to receive leaf for the 1948-49 auctions which were to begin November 29. It was reported that the crop was equally as good as the fine 1947 smoker, although a little heavier. Contract buying by tobacco companies virtually halted the tradition of burley auctions a few years ago. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Toys for Tots program, 1989
Lexington firefighters Arch Sebastian, left, and Charles Watts sorted through toys at Station 1 on Dec. 1, 1989. The toys were donated for the Toys for Tots drive. The Lexington Fraternal Order of Firefighters will hold a news conference Thursday morning to announce the kick-off of the 2017 Firefighter Toy Program. Photo by Clay Owen | Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Playing in the leaves, 1978
Playing in a freshly raked leaf pile are Mark Yates, 7, Mark Dandle, 11, Peter Dandle, 9, Robert Cammack, 9 and Troy Yates, 11. The boys were playing in the Yates’ yard on Desha Road on Oct. 25, 1978. Photo by Ron Garrison | Staff
Horror film actor Vincent Price in Lexington, 1959
Actor Vincent Price, center, during the Lexington Symphony Orchestra’s Parisian Ball, on Oct. 23, 1959, at the Phoenix Hotel. Price, who died in 1993, was known for his distinctive voice and performances in horror films. He appeared on stage, television, radio and in more than 100 films. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures and one for television. At left are Mr. and Mrs. John Winn. At right are Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Jenkins. While in town, Price spoke to the Woman’s Club of Central Kentucky. Published in the Herald-Leader on Oct. 25, 1959. Herald-Leader Archive photo.
Ben Ali Theater, 1964
The Ben Ali Theater in June 1964, after it was announced that the downtown Lexington landmark was sold for $200,000 and would be torn down to make way for a parking lot. The razing of the 50-year-old theater reduced the number of downtown first-run movie houses to three: the Strand, the Kentucky and the Cinema. Opened in 1913 at 121 East Main Street, across the street from the Phoenix Hotel, the theater was four stories tall. It had a main auditorium, a balcony and a gallery, and 12 private boxes on each side, for a total seating capacity of 1,507. The floors had peacock-blue carpets with gold trim, and the walls were finished in ornamental plaster, with mosaic title floors and marble wainscoting. The stage was equipped with an asbestos curtain, to prevent the spread of a fire. Built to house the top traveling play companies and grand opera, it was a vaudeville house in that medium’s heyday and again in the revival of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Ben Ali closed Sept. 9, 1964. Its last films were the James Bond movie “From Russia with Love” and “The Pink Panther.” It was torn town in 1965. Today it is the site of the Robert F. Stephens Courthouse Plaza. Published on June 16, 1964, in the Lexington Leader. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
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