Video Gallery
2017 Danville Stadium Fly-Over
One of the preliminary events of the 2017 Balloons Over Vermilion was a flyover at Danville Stadium on July 8, 2017. I had the opportunity to participate and ride along in one of the three balloons which took flight. This is the video I produced of the flight. I thank Betsy Kleiss the owner/pilot of her balloon "4EVER39."
2017 Balloons Over Vermilion
Here is a short video of events during the Saturday night, July 15th of the 2017 Balloons Over Vermilion at the Vermilion Regional Airport. It shows the fly-in and the balloon glow.
Taylorville Tour 2017
Another Taylorville drive around, with better video....and more of it. This one takes nearly an hour and includes all the major streets but this one also brings some history along with it. See Taylorville's landmarks along with a photo of what it used to look like. Thanks to the Facebook Group, Taylorville Now, Then and Forever, contributors have posted many historical photos which are included in the Tour. Each historical photo shows up near where it was taken. It may be from a different angle or direction but on screen, the photo will appear on the opposite side of the screen from where the original building once stood, or where it still is.
Taylorville Tour 1988 Part 1 and 2
The videos above were taken on November 5, 1988, as a drove and took video throughout my hometown of Taylorville, Illinois. It traces a path starting along Illinois Route 48 taking the old Route 48 path into Taylorville, along Park Street, Main Street, North Webster and past Taylorville High School. It then jumps to North Cheney Street, Spresser Street and back to Webster, then downtown to the former Frisina Hotel and studios of WTIM Radio. Part 2 picks up from downtown to Main Cross to Shumway, Second Street to Manner's Park. , then North Main to the Public Library. Audio had to be removed due to a copyright challenge to the video. It was taken from my '86 Chrysler LeBaron convertible I had at the time.
Taylorville Tour 1987
Here is the first of the Taylorville Tours I recorded going back to October of 1987. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day and includes video taken through a wet windshield. These Taylorville Tours were never taken for public viewing, as they were produced long before YouTube. It features many of the locations important to me growing up there, including my family's second home, where I worked in high school and early college.
Taylorville Area Flood 1957
This is from an 8mm film taken by my Dad and his brother Lawrence Quick of flooding just southwest of Taylorville along Illinois Route 48. This is the floodplain of the South Fork of the Sangamon River. The highway was reworked and raised in the 1980s, the overhead span bridge was removed and replaced by a single deck bridge, but the railroad bridge remains for the Norfolk and Southern Railroad.
Memories of Hewitt School
This was the grade school I attended in a community just to the southwest of Taylorville, called Hewittville. It was a railroad and mining community and contained the railyard of the C&IM Railroad. My Uncle Lawrence Quick took this film as he was picking me up after school, and after I did my patrol boy shift. Not only was there a street to cross but also 5 sets of railroad tracks to cross. I was in the 5th grade at the time.
Danville-Ford Tri-Motor Plane Ride-1989
In the Summer of 1989, I purchased a ride on a 1928 Ford Tri-Motor plain when it was barnstorming across the area. This is the video I took from the plane on the short flight over Danville, Lake Vermilion and Illinois Route 1-US 136. Enjoy the trip.
Memories of the Danville Balloon Classic Illinois
1991 Oldsmobile Balloon Classic Illinois
This features scenes from a flight, along with audio from WDNL radio coverage of the event. The video was taken by my wife Melissa from the control tower at the Vermilion Regional Airport.
1993 Splash and Dash Event-Oldsmobile Balloon Classic Illinois
This was my wife Melissa's first hot air balloon experience. Thanks to Rick Arrington, pilot and his family, wife Pat and son, Adam for this opportunity
The NewsChannel 15/WICD Balloon Classic Special-Part 2
1992 Splash and Dash Event- Oldsmobile Balloon Classic Illinois
I took this video along North Vermilion Street in Danville just east of Lake Vermilion. The audio is from radio coverage of the event by WDNL Radio.
The NewsChannel 15/WICD Balloon Classic Special-Part 1
from June of 2001
This was broadcast on the Thursday evening before the start of the 2001 Oldsmobile Balloon Classic Illinois. I hosted the show that was produced by the joint effort of the news department and creative services department of WICD.
The NewsChannel 15/WICD Balloon Classic Special-Part 3
TV Promos Over the Years
Current Promos
Dec 1, 2018 Taylorville Tornado
On December 1, 2018, my hometown of Taylorville suffered the greatest negative act of mother nature ever recorded. An F-3 tornado entered Taylorville after developing in Montgomery County, Illinois earlier in the afternoon, growing in severity and moving to the northeast into Christian County. It entered Taylorville from the southernmost point of Hewittville (a community adjacent to Taylorville) with the tornado moving to the north-northeast and then turned just slightly once it was in the area of England and Morton Streets to take a more northern path. It exited Taylorville between Taylorville High School and the Mt. Auburn Road.
Taylorville Tornado
One Year Later
(Below) January 7, 2020 a clip of me was shown on "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon. Watch the video below...
The Frisina
DRIVE IN THEATRE
This video features one of the largest outdoor movie theaters in central Illinois, based on the population of the town in which it was located. It was in the home town and home base of the Frisina Amusement Company owned by Taylorville's owns Dominic Frisina.
His story begins with the purchase of a small movie theater in Pawnee while he was working at one of the local coal mines. "The Joy" Theater would be joined later by another in West Frankfort and yet another in Charleston. He began in Taylorville with the purchase of the old Elks Club on East Main Cross just off the downtown square in Taylorville in 1918. Two years later he purchased the old Gem Theater, later rebuilding it and turning it into the "Capitol Theatre."
He continued to grow his company after 1928 when it became "The Frisina Amusement Company." By the late 1940s and early 1950s, he owned nearly 70 theaters across the mid-west.
In 1949, he proposed the building of an outdoor theater just to the northwest of Taylorville along Illinois Route 29. It was the first of the growing number of outdoor theaters at the time. It was proposed to park around 500 cars and as a service to moviegoers, it would also include a playground for the kids and even free babysitting services for the much younger set.
The proposed outdoor movie theater was to be called the "Capitol Drive-In Theatre" but that plan changed before it was built and instead a seemingly smaller and cheaper facility was built along what was Illinois Route 48, just north of the old "Y" intersection of Routes 48 and 29 on the east edge of Taylorville. This theater was re-named "The Frisina Theatre."
Sometime in the 1950s, the screen structure was rebuilt, apparently enlarged, and even included living quarters or an office area at the base of the screen.
So, in celebration of the Summer season when going to the drive-in was such a popular activity for families and young people, I present some on-screen memories of mine from the 1960s to the 70s visiting "The Frisina Drive-In Theatre" in my home town of Taylorville.