Nov. 15 through time
100 Years ago – 1925
In these days when home radios just had been developed, C.P. Kearfott & Son advertised The Magnavox Radio Set – “Oh, Boy, What Joy with a Magnavox Radio. Right over the housetops and into the homes come the world’s best entertainment, the most interesting lectures of the day and the news of the hour as broadcast by the leading newspapers The Magnavox Radio Set is the last word in Radio – using five tubs with only one tuning dial. Ease of operation, clarity of tone and volume are the outstanding fatures. A Child Can Operate It. Price $75.00 ($1,378 in today’s money) to $185.00 ($3399 today) Complete. Columbia Graphophone with Magnavox set combined for $225.000 ($4,134 today). Complete line Burgess Batteries, Tubes and Radio Supplies. One Cent Sale December 3,4 and 5.”
75 years ago – 1950
The Patrick Henry Music Association announced that its three concerts of the year would be: by Marian Bell, a lyric soprano from New York; the Nettleton Twins, 23-year-old duo pianists; and Stephen Kennedy, radio and state baritone.
50 years ago – 1975
The Broadway musical hit “1776” by the Continental Theatre Company was presented by the Student Government Association of Patrick Henry Community College, at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, at the Martinsville High School auditorium.
25 years ago - 2000
Landlord William W. “Billy” Bennett, 51, of 190 Douglas Road, was facing a charge of involuntary manslaughter. He posted a $5,000 bond. The charges came from the death of one of his tenants, Henry Francis Wilson, who had died in a fire on Sept. 6, 2000. Wilson was in his bedroom when the house was on fire. He could not get through the bedroom door because of flames, and he could not get out through either of the two windows of his bedroom either. Neighbors tried to break through the windows, but they were blocked from both outside and inside by other materials nailed over them and could not be opened. Bennett died in October 2023.
— Information from museum records and the Henry Bulletin and the Martinsville Bulletin.