WHAT: Brown Bag Lecture Series
HOSTED BY: UNK Department of History and Buffalo County Historical Society
TITLE: “From Memorial Field to Hollywood: London, Kearney’s First Movie Star”
TOPIC: Kearney Hub sportswriter and Kearney Yankees pitcher Chuck Eisenmann catapulted to national fame alongside his German shepherd, London. A feature in LIFE magazine took London to Hollywood where he received top-billing in the 1958 children’s film “The Littlest Hobo.” This spun off into two Canadian television series of the same name that delighted children from the 1960s through the 1980s. To this day, Canadians of all ages recall its iconic theme song. Once they became international stars, London and Eisenmann never forgot Kearney, returning through the years to perform and share their newest productions.
PRESENTER: Nathan Tye is the associate professor of Nebraska and American West history at UNK, where he’s taught since 2019. He received his doctorate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and his research focuses on the lives of migrant laborers, better known as hobos, and their efforts to survive on society’s margins. Tye serves on the boards of several local community museums and cultural organizations, and his research is published in Nebraska History, Annals of Iowa and Willa Cather Review. He also appeared on NBC’s celebrity genealogy program “Who Do You Think You Are?”
TIME: Noon
DATE: Wednesday, July 9
PLACE: Kearney Public Library, 2020 First Ave.
VIDEO: Available on the Kearney Public Library YouTube channel
CONTACT: Nathan Tye, associate history professor, 308.865.8860, tyen@unk.edu
