By Carol Fisher-Linn
It’s pretty difficult to be in Ellicottville on a regular basis without knowing “Topper,” from Ellicottville Brewing Company, who has been with EBC pretty much since its inception 20 years ago. Bartender turned brew-pub manager of all three EBC locations (Ellicottville, Bemus Point and Little Valley, NY), he and the EBC team have expanded beyond what one expects from a local brewery. Presently, he is firmly entrenched in the Ellicottville community. Topper Clemmons, was born in New Jersey and raised primarily in Olean, NY. His big love as a youth was always football, playing and excelling all through high school and college. In 1986 he was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys while at Wake University on a football scholarship and signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1987. Interesting fact: The odds of being drafted into the NFL are 1.6% … each year there might be 73,000 college football players; of those 16,000 are draft eligible, only 259 are called. This is a BIG DEAL! Yet Topper felt a call to do something else with his life and eventually landed in WNY to find his home and make his mark. Be sure to look him up when you land at Ellicottville Brewing Company either in Ellicottville, Little Valley, and, until October 31, in Bemus Point. Proud to call Topper our very own!
With the Buffalo theater season officially opening for the 2025-2026 season, we can all look forward to Shea’s presentation of “Wicked” on November 12-30. No, neither Galinda nor Elphaba were born in the Buffalo area (although the author of the original Wizard of Oz book, L. Frank Baum, lived for a time in Richburg NY (near Friendship) operating his father’s Baum’s Opera House. It has been said that the inspiration for The Wizard of Oz came from the boom and bust oil economy in Richburg with the yellow brick road inspired by the yellow and gold leaves on the sidewalks in fall. It is also said the current character Elhaba’s name was an amalgamation of some of the letters of his own. LFaBa = Elphaba. However, Harold Arlen, who wrote “Over the Rainbow” for Judy Garland in that movie is a native Buffalonian. He left home by 1921 (age 18) performed on the Crystal Beach lake boat “Canadiana” with his new band, eventually leaving for the Big Time in New York City. He began writing music for clubs, then Hollywood (“Let’s Fall in Love” and “Stormy Weather”) finally landing in California writing for movie musicals. Here is where Arlen wrote and earned an Oscar for his 1938 song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
Have you ever visited the Hotel Lafayette in Buffalo NY? You might find it interesting to discover that it was designed by Buffalo architect, Jennie Louise Blanchard (Bethune). Bethune (nee Blanchard) was born in Waterloo, NY in 1856 but as a child her family moved to Buffalo where she went to Bufalo Central School, graduating in 1874. Plans to go to Cornell School of Architecture were replaced by working as a draftsman for a well-known architecture firm in Buffalo. She then married fellow architect Robert Bethune and in 1881 she opened an office with her husband, in Buffalo, earning herself the title of the nation’s first professional woman architect, which she announced (being a feminist at heart) at the Ninth Congress of the Association for the Advancement of Women. Her best-known design and masterpiece is the neoclassical Hotel Lafayette, which was commissioned for $1 million and completed in 1904. It has since undergone a $35 million restoration, completed in 2012 by developer Rocco Termini. Always supporting those feminist leanings, Bethune is reported to have purchased the first woman’s bicycle to go on sale in Buffalo. Wonder if she was audacious and wore bicycle bloomers? Bethune designed mostly industrial buildings in Buffalo and New England, (over 150) especially important was the 1901 Witkop and Holmes Headquarters 145 Swan Street Buffalo, which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2014’s.
Who doesn’t love or hate Spam? The man behind the Hormel foods dynasty, was born in Buffalo in 1860. Just think, without George Hormel, the world would have never known Spam. Moving with his family to Chicago when he was just 12, he began working at that age in a Chicago packinghouse, contributing to his family’s welfare while learning the trade. In 1891 he founded Hormel Foods Corporation making him one of America’s wealthiest Americans at that time. Ever try Spam fried rice or Spam sushi?