(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Jan. 13, 1995

CORINTH – Participants at the Japanese Cultural Festival witnessed a performance that only a few Japanese ever see or hear.

Elizabeth Reian Bennett of Somerville, Mass., performed at Central High School on the shakuhachi, a vertical, end-blown flute.

Bennet became a master shakuhachi flute player of the Kinko school and received her performing name, Reian, in 1982. She is a student of one of the most famous shakuhachi artists in Japan, and one of the few women certified as a master player.

25 years ago – Jan 6, 1980

“Yes,” ruminated Werner Torkanowsky, “I might be interested in being the conductor of the Bangor Symphony. Is there a challenge there?”

Torkanowsky, among those being considered as a successor to Miles Morgan, was artistic director of the New Orleans Philharmonic for many years and, for a time at least, was eyed as a possible replacement for Eugene Ormandy, conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Since his return to Maine, Torkanowsky, born in Berlin to a German mother and a Russian father, has been composing, practicing and doing some freelance conducting.

“I just love it here,” he said intensely. “I feel entirely at home. The atmosphere is conducive to my work.”

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BANGOR – It has been five months now since Tran Khuohi and his family of four daughters and his wife arrived here in Bangor. Christmas this year brought the family its first son, Quoc Hung Tran, born on Dec. 23, 1979, at Eastern Maine Medical Center.

Life for the family of seven is still confusing. Tran is taking English courses at Husson College, but five months of training is hardly enough to cope with the difficulties of the English language.

The family is sponsored by St. John’s Episcopal Church, so their existence is not so precarious as it might be if Tran were on his own trying to support the group.

50 years ago – Jan 6, 1955

BANGOR – The annual March of Dimes opened with a sober note of caution from Basil O’Connor, president of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Pointing out that “we still do not know if the trial polio vaccine has prevented one case of paralytic polio,” O’Connor stated that “this factor plus the large number of patients still needing help means that fighting polio is a bigger job now.

“I know that parents are anxiously waiting for the answer,” O’Connor said. “The scientific evaluation of the vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk is a time-consuming and precise job involving detailed records on 1,830,000 children who were either vaccinated or acting as controls.”

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BANGOR – Bangor residents have been gulping down fluorine with the breakfast coffee and their drinking water for two days now.

The Water Board, acting on the dictates of the people expressed in referendum vote last fall, began adding fluorine to the city’s water supply Tuesday afternoon.

Donald P. Johnston, superintendent of the board, said that one part fluorine was being added to a million parts of water automatically, and everything is “working out well.”

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BANGOR – Workers recently installed the new Walker Miracle Mirror screen at the Bijou Theater. The screen, which is seamless, will be shown to full advantage for the first time when a Cinemascope picture plays at the theater. Manager Alfred Sheehan pointed out that the screen will eliminate distractions previously caused by the lines in the old screen, and also will present a less glaring picture. Purchase and installing cost of the screen is $1,000.

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ORONO – Displaying two items which have spelled success for many a team – speed and excellent shooting – Orono High School under the very capable direction of Bill Folsom has come up with a top notch cage quintet for the second year in a row.

The Red Riots, blazing up and down the hardwoods with plenty of poise, have knocked off seven of eight of their medium school opponents and held Class L Old Town to a standstill before going down to a two-point defeat.

Although Folsom won’t admit it, most Orono fans will tell you that this is the year for the Riots come tourney time. In 1954, Orono reached the semifinals of the Eastern Maine classic only to be beaten by champion Greenville.

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ORRINGTON – Sidney Farr of South Orrington has been named to a committee in charge of the annual military ball at Colby College. The event is sponsored each winter by the Colby Air Force R.O.T.C. in which Farr is a cadet major.

Feb. 26 is the date of the affair, which is one of the highlights on the college’s social calendar. Farr prepared for Colby at Bangor High School. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Farr.

100 years ago – Jan. 13, 1905

BRADFORD – Edmund H, Ellingwood, 81 years of age, will celebrate today the 55th anniversary of his marriage to Priscilla Mitchell, who is 77. The two were married in 1850 in Frankfort where Mr. Ellingwood conducted an extensive carriage business which his father left him. Mr. Ellingwood Senior was a veteran of the War of 1812 and died at the age of 47.

Mr. Ellingwood is a man of strongly marked characteristics. He does not wear glasses and to the present day he writes principally with quill pens which he makes himself. Less than a week ago, he walked two and a half miles to the establishment of G.W. Davis, the jeweler, to have his watch repaired, having determined that nobody but himself shall ever carry this watch to the jeweler’s. He relates many interesting incidents of the War of 1812, which his father told him.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Ellingwood are popular in Bradford and have many friends.

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BANGOR – The following item will be of interest to those who are anticipating the concert of the Kneisel Quartet in this city. The quartet is composed as follows: Franz Kneisel, first violin; J. von Theodorwitz, second violin; Cocis Svecenski, violoa; and Alwin Schroeder, violoncello. The four instruments which they use are worth in aggregate $24,000.

The program the quartet played in Philadelphia consisted of Dvorak’s quartet in F major; Andante from quartet by Tschaikowsky; Hugo Wolf’s Itanienische Serenade; and Haydn’s quartet in D major.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin