Hey! Michelle with a Mic: Smoke Justis, Riverfront Ballparks & Other Cincinnati Stories

What if some of the most fascinating stories in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky history were hiding just around the corner?

In this episode of Hey! Michelle with a Mic, Michelle sits down with filmmaker, historian, musician, and storyteller Cam Miller to explore the forgotten history of baseball, horse racing, and the communities that helped shape our region. From the legendary Covington Stars and Blue Sox teams that existed before the modern Reds, to riverfront ballparks, telegraphed game scores, and the origins of Smoke Justis, Cam shares the incredible stories he has uncovered through decades of research. 

The conversation also dives into Latonia Racetrack, once home to a horse race bigger than the Kentucky Derby, the legacy of the Roebling Bridge, and why preserving local history matters for future generations. Along the way, Cam reflects on his work with the Cincinnati Reds, his documentary filmmaking journey, and the passion that drives him to make local history accessible to everyone through his films and presentations. 

Whether you're a baseball fan, history buff, lifelong local, or simply love a great story, this episode will leave you seeing Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky through a whole new lens.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, everybody. It's Hey Michelle with a mic. Bringing to you good people with great stories. A little bit about myself. I'm Hey Michelle One on Instagram, and I started writing and promoting wonderful things in Cincinnati and travel from restaurants, bars to museums, sports, all the things. And now I'm bringing to you this podcast. So I'm so excited. Today, my guest is Cam Miller. And I met Cam because I had to go take photos of him talking on his topic. And I'm like, oh, I'll just shoot some photos and hit the road. But no, that did not happen because your stories were so great. So the history of baseball is what he was talking about, Litonia in Covington before the Reds were even a thing. And I was in awe. And I even was texting my boys, like, oh my God, I should, I should have brought you here. You need to hear this guy talk. And I texted, I told my brother about you, and I think he got you to go talk somewhere. I don't know if you've done that yet. But anyway, totally intriguing, fantastic. Even if you're not a sports fan, just this history is really super cool. So tell me, I know you're a filmmaker and artist and all these things. So tell me a little bit about yourself, and then we'll dive into all the fun stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Well, I'm born and raised in Covington, Kentucky, and I moved around a few times to South Carolina to Michigan, and then I ended up back here in Covington in 1993, and I was doing some family research for my mom, and I kept running into these stories about baseball teams and these little things that don't make the headlines necessarily, but they're they're interesting little factoids. And back in the you know the 1870s, all the way to the 20s, there was always these little briefs that each city would have their little section, and there was always something I'd I'd clip it. And when I say clip it, I actually would clip it. I'd go and print it out with scissors and everything. Exactly. It was so such primitive devices back then. But I remember I started getting intrigued. I was always a history buff, and I had studied film and I began to work for the Reds. Now, of course, you work for the Reds, you can do a lot of baseball things, but doing baseball things with the Reds, being the education manager there, um, also led me down a path to do other stories um not baseball related because I had access to all of this wonderful history through libraries, through historical societies, whatever. So when the Reds let me go because of how the business works, you know, money, money, money, I started K Miller Films. And for the last 20 years, I've been telling stories of local history. Of course, I have it's it helps that the Reds were your first client, and they keep and I keep working for them. So they've hired me to do all of them, which is great. Yeah. And it's great in the business card when you say I do work for the Reds, it gets you jobs. So I've been blessed and fortunate to be able to do other jobs, but um, my passion and keep the pay the bills, you got to do the jobs, right? Right. But there's something about researching northern Kentucky history, especially, and finding out things that nobody knew that we didn't learn in school when we were growing up here. Things that they just didn't teach.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

They had to do you had to do this history, World War I, World War II, and this is what you did. You followed the path, but you never really got a taste of what was just around your corner and what was going on. So I was I've been able to do that for 20 years, like I said, and it's just been so rewarding. And I've discovered so many things and I've made so many friends, and I and I keep doing it. And one of the great things is that I don't have a boss to answer to for this. It's always I just it's amazing. So I'm able to just do it when I want, how I want, and fund it how I want to. So it's been a great ride, and I've got many more to tell. I will, there's not enough time for me to tell the stories I have in the back burner. No, just no way.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

That's why I was like, you know, I'm just gonna let Cam talk because he has so much to tell, and I want to tiptoe into things that we are not gonna have time to talk about, you know, like the history of Johnny's Toy Store. Right. Which I, you know, I know you talk about that, but I grew up in Green Hills. So you know I had the other Johnny's Toy Story. Oh, so the two, and you know, you get the key to the castle of the things, but we're not gonna probably talk about that today. We're probably gonna stick with the the baseball stories, but we'll see. Um, so when I heard you talk, I mean a few things that just caught my attention that I give my little like it was so fun. He talked about the score person that would run to the river and yada yada. So you could tell us about that. And I love the name of a local bar in Covington that got their name because the owner heard you speak, and then he goes, I'm opening a bar and now I know the name. Right. So let's let's go into a little bit of those.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

That's yeah, the the you mentioned smoke justice is the bar. And I had just done a film on the Covington Blue Sox, which again was one of those things I yeah, I discovered it by accident. And the Covington Blue Sox was a team that lasted about three months professionally. Okay. And they were in a league called the Federal League, because at the time Major League Baseball kind of had a had a monopoly. It was the American League and the National League, kind of like today.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

And one of the things was and we'll get into this a little bit later about the Covington Stars and their role in all of this. Okay. But the Blue Sox, they couldn't you couldn't have a team within five miles of a professional team. So that was kind of one of the rules. So in order to get away with that, somebody founded a league out of Indianapolis and said, let's call it the Federal League. And we'll get all of these little towns that have a passionate baseball fan base, and we'll put a team there and we'll have this league. Well, Covington was one of those.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

And Chicago, Pittsburgh, um, Indianapolis.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

And this is before the Reds.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

This is well, this was the Reds were the Reds existed. Okay. But they um the the owner wasn't too keen on having competition across the river. So they decided Covington would be the spot. And it was one of the first riverfront ballparks, Ludlow being the first. But uh it was right on 2nd Street, right where the parking lot is today. And if you go over to parking spot 86, before they develop it, now I hear they're gonna develop it soon. So over there where the courthouse is, parking spot 86 is where home plate was. And you stand and look at the ascent, that's the view you would have had. Of course, the ascent was not there in 1913, but that the backdrop was the bridge. So you had the suspension bridge behind you, and then of course, downtown Covington there. One of the pitcher's names was Walter Smoke Justice. His nickname was Smoke because he threw very fast. And I gave this film premiere at the library. I always liked doing these film premieres in random places. I did my horse racing film was at an old folks' home because some of the people were in attendance at the Latonia. They knew it were there and they were pushed in wheelchairs down and they had their Sunday best on. It was the best. And that was the day that the mayor gave me the uh it was called Cam Miller Day, August the August the 5th, 2016. And I tell my family every August, I say, every August 5th. Don't we get this up? It says here it was just a one-time thing. No, no, no, no, no. They read the fine print.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Absolutely not. You need to mark that out with black.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

I do, I do, I do. I need to get on that. But they the the um the library held it. The owner of Dickman's, he was driving by, saw the sign today. Blue Sock stock, baseball. He's a baseball fan. He says, I'm gonna stop in. He stops in, he watches the film. After the film, he comes up to me and says, I'm doing a sports bar. I saw your film. I now know what I'm gonna call it. Can you help me with this? I said, Absolutely. So I was fortunate to work with a group of people that did some of the artwork inside and got the old newspaper clippings.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yeah, it's such a great spot.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

It's so fun. And the fact that it came to be because he happened to be driving by at that specific time. I was showing a film, and the rest is history. And now they've they've blown up. It's just such an incredible spot, like you said. And I was just I was so glad to be a part of that. And it kind of made me realize that there's some other things I can do for this community like this. Now, no other sports bars opened up yet, and I still joke with Mr. Dickman, Richard Dickman's his name. I still joke that I should get a cut of the beer setup. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Come on. We'll work on that. I'll plug that for you in the next time I'm there. That is so fun. Okay, so tell me about these teams.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

All right, so the Blue Sox were the 1913 team, which smoke justice is there. Before that, in 1875, you gotta remember, baseball was so different back then. Um, it's not like today. You didn't have giant crowds. In 1875, there was no Cincinnati Reds. It's hard to believe. I know. But 1869, the Reds, 1870, they play, and then 1871, they're like, well, that was a fun experiment. We're not making any money. Adios. So Harry Wright and his band of merry baseballers go to Boston. Okay. Cincinnati has no team. So you have these pockets of these little semi-pro teams pop up. There's one in Ludlow that's really good, and there's one in Covington that's really, really good. Okay. And these two teams start to get a following. They start in 1870 around there, and then as the years pass, you start to see that there's more and more and more support. They start signing players from other cities, like St. Louis was a big, big, you know, hotbed of baseball players that would come to play for Covington. Covington gets to be really good, as does Ludlow. So you start selling out these ballparks. Covington's was located between 16th and 17th Street. It's where the Dollar General is now. So if you went down Madison, you see it, that's where the ballpark was. Okay. And of course, um, Ludlow's was down right along the river. Um, there's a warehouse there now, and it's right along the river. Close. Yeah, really close.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Now, are players getting paid?

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Yes, they're getting paid. They're professional baseball players. So you have the little amateur teams and the semi-pro teams, but Ludlow and Covington were like the big head honchos of the respective cities. And Covington was the best in the state at the time. They were blowing out everybody. They were blowing out teams in Maysville and Louisville and Lexington. So they had had a following and they were considered. Well, 1875, the big boom year where it all comes together. Ludlow's great, Covington's great, but then the people in Cincinnati are like, well, wait a minute. Why should we let them have all the accolades? Apparently, baseball is not dead. Let's bring the Reds back. So what happens? Big brother across the river, they uh revive the Reds. And you were you mentioned a great story about that 1875 season when Ludlow's ballpark was like the home base for the Reds before they got their ballpark built out. So all of the Reds games in 1875, before they joined the National League in 1876, they didn't know where to play yet because they were building their stadium, their field. So Ludlow was the home base. So when the Chicago Cubs, not yet called the Cubs at this time, but they were called the White Stockings.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

They were the they became the Cubs. Right. Right. They all would depending on the color of your socks.

SPEAKER_03 10:57

How imaginative they were. Well, the blues, the blue socks too, right? So what socks are everybody wearing wearing?

SPEAKER_02 11:04

That's what your name is. Now today you couldn't really do that because rainbow socks and ring socks, there's so many. But it was so fun to discover a they don't write like this anymore, but it used to be the newspaper descriptions for baseball games would be you know half a page because you didn't have really photography, wasn't really able to be used because it was so expensive. You obviously didn't have cell phones where you're following on the app what the score was. So you had these writers that would absolutely just crush it with their description of the games. And in the first game that Cincinnati played as they came back as a professional team, they played against the Cubs in Ludlow. And they would ferry people back and forth, these fans. The ferry business was just booming during these times. Okay, they're bringing them back and forth. And one of the great things about Ludlow Spark was that you could literally step off the ferry and walk 10 feet, you'd be in the ballpark, which is right there. Wow. And teams would leave to go on their trips, they'd just get on the ferry and go down to Maysville and play or Louisville to play, whatever direction they were going. So one of the great things about it was is all of the fans in Cincinnati needed to know the score. And there was no radio. There's nothing. That's what I was just gonna ask. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

So no radio on this screen. No radio.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

When did that it was not until the 20s became popular? Okay. So you still had a little time. So there's nothing in 1875 except somebody yelling across the river, hey, it's one to nothing in the second inning. So they had this great idea where they would hold up a red flag if they scored and a white flag if they didn't score. So if a red flag went up, the telegraph operator across the river would send it up to the sports bar downtown, and they had this big bulletin board where they would put the scores up. That's amazing. So, real time, and we would take a little bit. You're you're probably in the third inning and you're still getting.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

But the score probably changed by the time the score came, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:55

You weren't, you didn't know the final score probably till half an hour, four or five minutes after the game because it took some time. But they would pack in downtown at these sports bars to just get the scores. If you weren't getting tickets to the game, you gotta remember 2,000, 3,000 seats, tops in that era. So that was just another fascinating little tidbit of information for that team. Now, Ludlow, of course, and Covington, of course, gets swallowed up because in 1876 the National League was born. The National League, which today is the home of the Reds. They play in the National League. So one of the first things that happened when they decided to go into this new National League was that they wanted to squash all of these little teams that were taking money. And Cincinnati knew that they couldn't compete with the stars and Ludlows for from my, they needed to just figure out a way. So somebody came up with a bright idea that said we're gonna institute a new clause in the bylaws of the National League called the Five Mile Clause. And in this clause, if you have a ballpark within five miles of the city, the stadium, you can't participate, which means no league teams could come into play. You you can play your amateur games, but you can't play any of the big name teams. So if let's say Boston comes into town, they're not allowed to play them. Covington Stars or Ludlow couldn't play them because it was against the rules, because five mile falls. So they shut down Covington and Ludlow.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Where they were borrowing the stadium.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Kind of like previously they then got their stadium and said, And by the way, you're not complaining. Exactly. Oh, that was not very nice.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Not very nice. So that ended the reign of baseball until the Federal League, like I mentioned before, came along. So you've got this window there where for a couple of years, baseball in northern Kentucky was the hotbed. I mean, it was they were thoroughly.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

That was the entertainment then. There wasn't we didn't have everything we have now. Right. Movies, TV, I mean, you know, TV and all that. Right. So baseball, you know, even was just what people invested their free time in enjoying.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

They'd go and they'd sit sit for a couple hours and watch a game, they'd get their beers, they had their lemonades or whatever, and they would take their horses and carriages and park them in the outfield because they didn't have seats in the outfield.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

And then you would just have a ball game. And it became so popular. And of course, the Reds today that we know and love are based upon those early teams. So, and then we don't hear about the Covington Stars when we turn on ESPN. No, we hear about the Cincinnati Reds. So it's just fun. Just that is an interesting little thing about Northern Kentucky.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

I love it. And you haven't been able to find out, I know you were talking about like the uniforms and things. Have you been able to find?

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Yeah, no, there's that's one of the crazy things, especially with the stars. I know, and I'm always holding out hope that one day somebody's gonna go up in their attic and say, Oh, great grandpa, what's this? Oh, I can't believe we have this. It's a Ludlow uniform because they would reuse those uniforms. It's not like today where every there's you at the Reds game, there's 50 million different uniforms. They use that and use that, and sometimes they take off the emblem and give it to another team so they could use it. So they were passed down. So it's hard to find an original. I'm hoping one day somebody goes in their attic.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Okay, everybody's hearing that, right? Everybody look around, look in your attics. Covington stars, Bubos, blue sucks. Do we think they were white with blue stars? I'm assuming that's a mind picture.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

That's the great, the great thing about it is when I was doing my documentary on the Covington Stars, which you can watch all of these for free on YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Uh, that it's so great that I was able to find a description, like I said before, they had to describe these things because there's not photos. Well, there was a description of exactly what the blue socks, the flannel pants, which and the hotel.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

And you think you you always hear those old uniforms. You wonder, who thought that was a great idea? The wool? Yeah, you know, I mean, I would hate it if I had a good one. I mean, just sitting as a as you know, and observing the game, you're in shorts and a tank top now because it's usually 100 degrees out. Yeah, let alone playing and running and this wool.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

And as soon as it gets wet, it adds 10 pounds. So I'm sure it smelled pleasant after that.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Oh, right, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

You've got these uniforms and they describe them wonderfully in these newspapers, The Inquire, The Post, the Cincinnati Commercial, all of these old 19th century papers had great sports writers because they were really, really good at describing it. So I was able to figure out based upon the descriptions, which is where my artwork for my film came, I had to do it all myself because there's no photos to go on. And it turns out that they had like a cockeyed star that was kind of like leaning to the to the left a little bit, and they had a star in their hat and they had blue belts and, of course, blue stockings. And the blue stockings that the stars wore, the blue socks were inspired by that. The reason the blue Covington Blue Sox in 1913 called themselves the Blue Socks was to honor their predecessor, you know, 30 years earlier, the Covington Stars. So I had worked with a guy that did this, it was about 10, 15 years ago. Um, he got in touch with the company called Ebbotts Field Flannels, and he made these special Covington Stars hats that he sold for a limited edition and sold them out. Oh, I so that was really cool to see that just again, based upon description, and then you see these guys out in public wearing these because they that's so fun. So again, it's one of those you never know what you're gonna find. And I wasn't looking for this story, it wasn't like I was hunting it down. Yeah, I found it, and then it wild goose chase and then you just you chase it.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

So what okay, like salary, you know, yeah now. Ellie makes how much? What is his contract?

SPEAKER_02 18:38

Oh, he's he's making what is he what 500 right now, a thousand, and he'll make a once he gets a couple years, he's gonna be making it. And he's not even at his peak.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Yeah, so what was the salary then or those times?

SPEAKER_02 18:53

The top players are making five hundred dollars a year, six hundred a year. They didn't have, and it's you gotta remember too, these guys, and that's a lot of money actually.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Well, that's it that was a lot of money then, but they probably had to have another job.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Second job. Yeah, a lot of these guys would work at the newspapers for sure, and they would work at the you know in the lumber yards and the steel mills in the off-season. And then as time went on and as automobiles got to be popular, especially in the 30s and 40s, you've seen a lot of these guys open up their own dealerships, okay, make money, and then they do that in the off-season. And then time in spring training, they'd you know that's the funny thing about baseball is back in the day, you think of these athletes today, how they're just, I mean, unbelievable specimens. These guys are so every every waking minute, they are 100% involved in how because it makes them money. The more that they are in shape. Back then, they're smoking 12 12 packs of cigarettes and drinking beer, and it's all time to go to spring training. I guess it's time. I better, you know, get ready. They didn't even know they were bad for them. No, didn't care, didn't matter. They just did their thing. It's just such a different time. But discovering these things has been such a fascinating thing and rewarding because I run into people all the time. It's I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

No idea. No idea. Sure, I didn't know until I saw you spoke. Speak. Um, so also during this time, did the Reds pick up any players from these teams if they kind of made this new rule?

SPEAKER_02 20:09

Did a couple ended up going to the Reds and then they didn't pan out. They would go, but they went on to play Major League Baseball. In fact, one of the players for the stars, his name was George Streef. And George Stref was he married a Covington gal when he lived here. He he came here to play, married a Covington lady, played for the Reds for a minute, got traded to Pittsburgh. And one of the fascinating things is that he hit the first home run I know of all the cities and of all the gin joints. He goes to the Pittsburgh Pirates and he hit the first home run in Pittsburgh Pirates history, and that was a Covington Stars guy. So that's a good bar trivia.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

I love that kind of stuff. Well, I've been using Smoke Justice as my trivial ever since I learned it from you.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

I'm like, I love that's a great tidbit. Yes, there's always these random things that I'll find. And it's funny because I some of them fit into a film and some of them don't because you're like, nobody's really gonna care about these things. But I love telling that story when I do my talk. I love that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

That's so fun. It's kind of like what I just read, you know, it was in the paper last week about the Tony Perez, right? This statue outside of the scene. Did you see? I didn't know. So, you know, they say he could hit a ball over the Green Monster, you know, right? So when you look over, and I did it last night, I took a video. Yep. And over above the apartments, above holy grail, yeah, there's the ball coming off the top of the building. Right. I love it. That is so cool. So amazing. Um I how many times have I walked by that and never looked up to think there would be the ball that's hitting?

SPEAKER_02 21:37

That's so fun. I love little things like that because that's what makes I mean, let's face it, when you know, when we're growing up in school, you know, especially back in the olden days when you know we were in school, you had these history teachers that were by the book.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Yeah, and they had that's not their fault. No, that's the curriculum they're given that they have to do.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Yeah, this is what you're taught. And I always was yearning for there's gotta be more to the story. Mm-hmm. And I still catch myself doing that today. If I'm working on a client's project, like I'm a mu okay, here's a great example. I'm a music composer too. Well, gee. So I'm doing it. So well, that's a curse sometimes because people know you can do this stuff. And then they And then you're out. Then you're now you're in. Well, because now they want to hire you for stuff, which that's part of my business. And I've recently I've been doing a lot of it. I'll score independent films and I'll score commercials or whatever if the needs are. And I was doing some work and I just wasn't inspired. I was uh client, what did me do something? I'm like, I just not finding the inspiration. I go to a newspaper and I read an old story about this guy in a saloon that, you know, found out that his wife was cheating on him, and he goes over and talks to the guy and he puts a gun up to his head. Turns out that they're they ended up being best friends because it turns out she was the one that was instigating all these things. It's one of those weird stories that you're like, what in a saloon in Covington? Like this is a great story. So then I'm thinking about getting this honky tonk piano. I was like, wait a minute, that sounds like it would be in a saloon. And the next thing you know, I'm writing a song. So you never know where inspiration's gonna come from, no matter what your medium is.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

That is fun. I love that history. Okay, so you also dabble into the horse art or the horse track track.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

That was um Latonia, right? Yeah, Letonia racetrack. That was that was the first film I did where I realized that this, and I'm I'll be showing that actually this summer. We'll talk about that at the end here. But I am I I discovered I I grew up in Latonia, so I knew the racetrack's history because it used to be value city furniture and I love how the high-end apartment stores come in to tell you the dollar store value on top of historic areas. Oh man. I remember as a kid going in there and they had this mural up there, and you're like, What is this racetrack in my mom? They were like, Well, it used to be a racetrack where you're standing right now. I'm like, What?

SPEAKER_01 23:51

And until when was that?

SPEAKER_02 23:52

Because it wasn't like 1883 to 1939.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

Yeah, I was gonna say it wasn't like yes, okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

Yeah, it was a while ago. It was a while ago, but well, one of the great things about it was is that it was known as the it the Derby Letonia Derby was bigger than the Kentucky Derby. It was a big deal. And the reason this can be debated, but uh the research I've done, the reason why we call 3L Highway, you know, over there between Covington and Fort Wright, 3L, we say, hey, where you're going to 3L, Louisville, Lexington, and Latonia. Uh the three racetracks right behind that was where the track was. Okay. And I mapped it out where it was. McDonald's was in the American Legion, and then the video store, and then there's the there's the track, you it's obviously a parking lot now mostly, but you can kind of see, you know, you can imagine, and and I made sure in my film to tell this tale of, you know, when you're coming around, you can almost hear the the thundering, you know, horses if you stand there because it's such a such a unique spot. I did the film not in a sense as if telling the story by the book, like 1983. This I was really trying to take a different route. And what falls into my lap, this guy from Mississippi had a diary, his great-great-grandfather uh worked at Latonia and grew up around the Latonia area, and he kept it just an unbelievably detailed diary. And I said, Can I borrow that? He was very reserved, he didn't want it. He's I don't really know if I should do this to family. I said, You don't have just scan it and send it to me. So he would scan me page after page, and my entire film is me telling the story through his diary. I don't I don't fear from it. I keep it word for word, okay, and I don't inject myself into it at all, other than narrating it, and then I compose the music for it. And I but the great thing about that was was that we got to premiere at the Rosedale Green nursing home, and the place was packed. I mean, you had you standing room only, right? And they did such a wonderful job. Everybody dressed up in old and the people were handing out the programs. There was like an old ticket from Latonia, so they were handing out the programs for the event. They went all out. Letonia, the Latonia Um Agricultural Association and the Latonia Business Association, they all came together and made this great event. And then when they weep like brought the ladies down in elevators and they had their bonnets and hats on and their front row, and some of them knew the track personally because they were there and they were just weeping as it's showing it. It was one of the most emotional films because again, you're thinking you're just you find this luck of this guy's diary, you get to tell the story through his eyes of what it was like to work there, what it was like when President Roosevelt came to give a speech, all of those things. That's cool, and you do that hoping that somebody's going to be able to say, I'll be darned. I did not know that. I'm gonna tell my mom about that, I'm gonna tell my dad about that, my brother, my sister, my neighbor, and you pass that down, and I always put them on YouTube for free. I'm very adamant about my personal projects.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Okay, and how can people find this?

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Just go to Camler Films, Cameler Films on YouTube, you'll see all of my films The Flood, the Baseball. Um, I'm working on a few now. I'm working on Lloyd's Roller Rink and Latonia, which closed down, and I'm trying to revive that history. Um, I've got a lot of uh films in the pipeline, a lot of musical. I'm actually working on an album now of music that's going to be about the um Latonia neighborhood. I did one already called Old Latonia, and I'm this is kind of the sequel to that called Milldale, which is what Latonia was called in the 1890s. All right. And again, it goes back to finding stories, and I find all of these cool stories about the sheriff and the judge and the lady that ran the hotel. It's this little community, and there's all these little tidbits because they put everything in the paper back then.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Yeah, well, yeah, well, that was it.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Yeah, that was everything.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

Every time somebody went out of town, you got the they went to visit somebody. Every time somebody came in, if there was somebody that robbed somebody, if there was a happening, there's these fantastic stories. It's a Netflix series just on one page. It's so cool. I love doing it.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

So is I wonder if that's the racehorse, uh, because the story of Hotel Cummington and the restaurant Coppins. Yeah. Okay, when they say that he was building the department store, which was what Coppins was. Right. And he was running out of money, and he went over and bet on a horse, and that horse won. Yep. And he got the money to continue the building, and that horse was named Knowledge. Right. Which is why knowledge bar is called Knowledge Bar, and their drink is called Knowledge. Isn't that crazy? So that Latonia, the racetrack, I'm assuming was that that's the one.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

He was he he would go there quite often. He was always spotted. You'll see.

SPEAKER_01 28:31

I don't think he was there one day and got really lucky to finish his project. Well, think about it.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

If he right, right, if he doesn't, the horse doesn't win and there's no coppins, is there a hotel Covenington? I mean, it's just the the way that all works out. I love that stuff. That's just so it's such a fun thing to to discover. And when I I remember looking in the paper at the Coppins, um, every time he was there, you can get his picture taken, yeah. Whatever. But always knowing, well, man, isn't it crazy that knowledge it all came together?

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Um, so why do you think that the Derby that we kind of you kind of lost that here and it went more to well uh the guy that owned Latonia Racetrack also earned uh owned Churchill Downs.

SPEAKER_02 29:11

Okay. And he had a decision to make a decision to make.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

Oh, geez, okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

Was he gonna and the depression was setting in in the late 30s? You're talking right before the war. He had to make a choice. I can't keep them both open. Pick one, and he decided to go with Louisville. Now, there's many reasons probably that we'll never know that he decided Louisville. I can understand it's closer to the horse country. Lexington and Cincinnati is a little further. But we were this close. We were this close to having the Kentucky Derby at Latonia.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

Because if you maybe if he picked up, like if he would have done it, it would have ended up being exactly so the neighborhood changes.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

The I I mean, Cincinnati's the south of Cincinnati and this northern Kentucky, you know, where we call home here, it would have been such a different and unique place if we would have had Cincinnati as I call it. Cincinnati, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

I think we're kind of one when you can walk across a bridge in five minutes and be in the other place. I feel like you're right.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

Well, even when they were building that's one of the films I did on rolling, and one of the quotes I I'm not finished with that film yet. Uh, history is just amazing. Oh, it's gonna be and it's so much work, which is why it's taking me 10 years. Because every little detail I'm trying to find out. People's names have worked on it and trying to find their families for any pictures. So I have had this in the pipeline for years. But one of the great quotes I found that's probably gonna lead off the film is that John Robling himself said Covington and Cincinnati are gonna be like New Jersey and New York. That's what I want for this. That's what I am envisioning. Right. But he was so right. Like, oh yeah, this is exactly what he had had hoped. It would be this, you know, commute. And that's exactly what it was.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

So whenever I see people on a walk and they're taking their picture with the backdrop, which is nonstop. Right, non-stop. Yeah. I was like, Do you know the history? Yeah, like, no, it's just a pretty bridge. I was like, no, we had it, hey Brooklyn, we had it first.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

Right. If it wasn't, and if it wasn't for the success of that bridge, they would never have built it.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

It's just so cool. Didn't they bring like horses and I mean elephants and they say all these things over the bridge to test it to see if it would see if it would hold the weight. Can you imagine being the who's a tester on that?

SPEAKER_02 31:16

It's like when they used to do the the old dummy trains, and they would say, Okay, I need you to take this train across this bridge, and it's one of those giant over a gorge. Uh that's your job. Literally. No.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Yep, but I'll watch this.

SPEAKER_02 31:29

Right. You know when he got to the other side that it worked.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

There you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 31:32

Survives. That first time.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

I mean, you know, I don't know how many times you're gonna try that.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

But funny. All right. Any other bar tips we need to know about? Any other tricks or uh little things we can fly out when we're trying to give some information? I know my boys are gonna be so into this one because they love the history. And I think this is just fun history that a lot of people have no idea exists.

SPEAKER_02 31:51

Right. And I and I really, really try. I mean, it it can be difficult when you're trying to do your day job. I know, and you get lost in this. You get lost. And the and that's the problem, is that I've learned how to work 14, 16 hour days and manage things and being able to do what I have to do to pay bills, but also being able to get an idea for a story, tell that story, and then um putting it on YouTube, having a premiere. I try to always have a premiere where people can come out. I love that engagement, and then let it go on YouTube and then do my talks like the Hotel Covington Knowledge Bar when we did the Covington uh stars story and where we met. And I have so many in the pipeline. I cannot wait to share some of the things I've got. Yeah. They're so they're so interesting. And I and I really firmly am a believer that we have to uh keep telling these stories because if we don't get lost. Who will? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

If we don't, if it takes this much for you to dig around to find all this, yeah, somebody needs to get it into a more accessible way to pass down this. Right.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

And that's why a hundred percent, and that's why I put them on YouTube because I've had offers so many offers to you know, to put them other places for money. And I just I have a hard time with that because I know there's gonna be some kid that's scrolling around, you know, on a device and he doesn't have the money to have Netflix, he doesn't have the money to have Apple TV. They don't have, but he's got his little device there, and he can go to YouTube and he can discover something.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Anything.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

And that that might inspire him to, you know, be a historian and a filmmaker. Absolutely. And I want to keep that it's so important to me. And I and I always try to make sure that I I talk to schools when I do these, and I share that with the teachers, and I share it with you know the administrations. Hey, there's I know your curriculum's tight these days, and you have to get these standardized tests and everything that's today's education is so different. If you can just throw in these little nuggets here and there and pepper them and let them know on YouTube, on your own time, just watch this. And it's been a success. A lot of the kids, I'm always getting kids that are that are writing me or on oh, that's so fun. It's so great to hear from them. That's that's more rewarding than anything else. Yes, it's better than any red. Sure, I've got to hang out with Ken Griffey Jr. and Johnny Bench and Pete Rose. Oh my god, sure. Love it. I've had some great experiences that I'll never forget. But give me little John and Susie who write me a letter and say, I did not know that. That's just down the street from my house. Uh-huh. And they are forever gonna know that and pass that down.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Well, I think another myth that people don't really take advantage of is the Hall of Fame and the museum at the Red Stadium. So many people have never been in there, even though they walk by it every time they go to a game. And that museum is so great and so fun and interactive. Yep. You can make your own baseball cards, you can act like you're on the uh on ESPN or whatever, or the you know, radio and the news. Yep. It's so fun.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

It's really cool. It is the coolest. And it's really the there's the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and then there's the rest.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

And I've been there too.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

It's amazing. And I am really, really, really lucky that I worked there when it first opened. That's awesome. So I tell the story all the time. Um, my first day on the job, I go to this, it's November of 2004, and I got hired, and it's orientation. So I'm thinking, okay, I'll go in, read some paperwork. There'll be a slideshow, it'll be boring. I didn't understand that it was a gala for the opening.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

Open the front doors. Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Johnny Bench, Ken Grippy Jr., Ken Grippy Sr. Sparky Anderson's having a drink. So fun. It was like, is this what coming to work is like every day?

SPEAKER_01 35:23

It's the best first day I've ever had in my life. Greatest.

SPEAKER_02 35:26

It was so fun. And I realized that this place is incredible, and I'm so lucky. So, of course, back then they had a strike zone where you throw three pitches, and and I used to, that was my job was to pick up the baseball. So I called myself a carney because that's where we were. Those early days were you were a carney because they hired like 30 people, yeah, whatever they needed to do. And then I moved up and I got to be the education manager, and that was my wheelhouse because of you know being able to teach things and teach the kids and they'd come in for school groups. And then when they kind of restructured things, and I was really distraught, like, how what am I gonna do now? I knew I had my film company up and running, and the Reds giving me that shot. So by giving me that shot, I was able to do all of their induction videos and I still do their videos, I still do the soundtracks when you walk in to hear the music. I compose all that stuff and the exhibit films, and there's just so it's so much fun. It's a lot of work, yeah, but it's so much fun to do. I love it. And that's again, if you find something that you can do that you love, it's not a job. No, it's not a job at all. I wake up every day and I tell I tell this to people. I wake up every day to create something. When I get up in the morning, I know that that day I'm gonna be creating something, whether that's for my personal historical projects or for a client. I get to create like what that's what I've been doing since I was five years old with Play-Doh in the backyard, right? I love it. And I'm still doing the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

That is so fun. Okay, so I always kind of end with a Cincinnati-ish question or a question of the town. So what's your what's your go-to at the ballpark? What what's your what's your food? What's your drink? What do you do?

SPEAKER_02 36:59

I you're gonna be so disappointed in me. I'm not, I'm not such a basic blue. I want a cold beer, yep, and I want a hot dog. All right. I mean, that's it. That's it. That's all I need. It's a gig.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

You should do that three, two, one of the other day, you know, three, two, one. What is that?

SPEAKER_02 37:14

Yeah, three, two, yeah. Yep. I do that all the time. Trust me. When I worked it there, you got a voucher to go over there. It's oh, you want this? I want a beer, a beer, and a hot dog. And I will sit and I'll watch the game or talk to my sons or whatever, and we have a blast. I don't think that's true. That is that's classic. The the epitome of my experience at the ballpark.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

I think that's the way it should be done. I think that's perfect.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

Well, I appreciate you so much coming on and telling us all this fun stuff. And then we all know to find you on YouTube and your podcast and all the things you do for more fun history. I love it. And good luck with all your projects you've got stirring around in there.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

I'll get them done one day. I'll be 95. That's fine.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Hey, it's all right. You have things to look forward to. Yes. Well, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Thank you, Michelle. I appreciate it.