Wiper Blades, Pantyhose and Another View of Judge New

Normally when I do a reader column, I have comments from several people, but David Sutton sent an email that was so full of interesting details, it easily filled an entire column by itself.

David began by referring to my recent stories of celebrity visits — and alleged visits — to Hamilton County.

He brought up a Nov. 29, 1956 Noblesville Daily Ledger article that claimed Elvis Presley had been in Noblesville that morning.

If that sounds familiar, it may be because I wrote about this incident in 2018.

The Ledger treated the story as if it were legitimate, but I seriously doubt that Elvis really popped into the local Phillips 66 gas station to get his windshield wiper blades replaced before he ate breakfast at the Uptown Café.

Back in 2018, I was unable to get an exact fix on Presley’s location on Nov. 29, 1956, but I found nothing that led me to believe “the King” was anywhere near here.

Perhaps the most significant argument against the visitor being the real McCoy is the fact that the used wiper blades, which were later displayed at the gas station, have quietly disappeared.

I doubt that would have happened had they belonged to the real Presley. 

(Nevertheless, I agree with David’s suggestion that it would be fun for the Uptown to commemorate the anniversary of this alleged visit by serving peanut butter and banana sandwiches.)

David also wondered about the whereabouts of another celebrity artifact, a L’eggs “eggshell.” (Remember L’eggs pantyhose? They originally came in plastic egg-shaped containers.)

According to David, Phil Donahue and his wife, Marlo Thomas, attended the 1992 wedding of Ryan White’s mother, Jeanne White, to Roy Ginder, Jr. (Donahue had become a close friend of the Whites during Ryan’s struggle with AIDS.)

On the way to the wedding, Marlo needed a new pair of pantyhose, so the couple stopped at Wheeler’s restaurant. (Today, it’s Mercantile 37.) Marlo bought a pair of L’eggs, and put them on in the ladies’ restroom.

After the celebrities left, an employee retrieved Marlo’s discarded L’eggs container from the wastebasket and the plastic eggshell was put on display in Wheeler’s front window as a memento of the visit.

David thought this story had appeared in the Ledger, but I couldn’t find it. I did, however, find an account of the wedding that tends to suggest there might be some truth to the tale.

An Aug. 4, 1992 Ledger article noted that the two celebrities were a half hour late arriving for the ceremony because they’d mistakenly gone to Elwood instead of Cicero. To get from Elwood to Cicero, they probably would have used State Road 37 and that would have taken them right past Wheeler’s.

David ended his email by disclosing that he’d worked for Judge Edward F. New Jr. as his Probation Officer for several months in 1976.

He noted that at that time the judge did all of his office work in the courtroom rather than his chambers because of “issues” with the Ledger. (Judge New and the Ledger had been at odds pretty much from the get-go and it only got worse after New cited Ledger editor Jim Neal for contempt.)

David said that on several occasions he watched the judge scare the living daylights out of some juvenile offender by telling the boy he was going to be sent to the Boys’ School. New would then instruct the youth to sit down on a courtroom bench and wait for a deputy to take him away.

The young offender was left to squirm until the entire docket was completed, then New would call him back up to the bench, read him the riot act and reverse his decision, sending him home with his parents.

Judge New clearly believed in the “scared straight” approach to juvenile justice.

Paula Dunn’s From Time to Thyme column appears on Wednesdays in The Times. Contact her at younggardenerfriend@gmail.com