The I Hate Canton Film Festival: Giving Canton What It Wants!

Welcome to the I Hate Canton Film Festival!

We all know how Reppies love nothing more than an execution. Anything from pot smoking and keying to higher crimes and misdemeanors can only be assuaged by execution--preferably public and preferably outside the Stark County Courthouse. (But with all those muggers, won't everybody be afraid to come down and watch?)

Here is a reenactment of the execution of Leon Czolgosz, assassin of Canton's own William McKinley. Produced by Edison on November 9, 1901, 11 days after Czolgosz's real execution, it's still creepy. The version below, though, is snappied up by a nice Stephen Sondheim tune, Ode to Czolgocz from Assassins.

After his death, Czolgosz's brain was autopsied by learned medical men to see if there was anything wrong with it that would caused him to kill the president. It was found to be normal, unlike the brains of some of our current locals.

A Blast from the Past: The Voice of William McKinley

The April Fools are holding their convention on the pages of the Rep today. More about that later.

In the meantime I Hate Canton this morning offers you a short audio tape of William McKinley delivering a speech from his famous Canton front porch during his 1896 presidential campaign.

The front porch, was disappeared from town a long time ago by an earlier generation of local bullies and know nothings who couldn't be bothered to keep up the home of the city's most illustrious resident. (If you can let the president's house rot, you can certainly tear down the Case Mansion in the dead of night). It's too bad on a lot of counts. If nothing else, the front porch could serve as a inspiration to other politicians to stay home.

McKinley sounds nothing like I expected him to sound. Granted, his voice is pure 19th century declamation recorded by primative technology by today's standards, but he sounds like FDR to me.