BEMENT WAS A thriving little community that had played a role in the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates and was now proudly celebrating its centennial. Located between Decatur and Champaign, it was the hometown of Carleton Smith, director of the National Arts Foundation, who no doubt was the reason that such luminaries as ADLAI STEVENSON and CARL SANDBURG turned up for the small-town festivities. But MARILYN MONROE upstaged them all when she made an appearance to judge a beard-growing contest. The Tribune wrote that throngs of fans “swarmed over [her host] Smith’s roof, tore the lock off his back door and generally made fools of themselves.” An exception was William Porter, 70, who won the beard contest on the strength of his dignified white whiskers.
– Average number of whiskers on the typical male face: 15,000.
– Inches by which Monroe’s bust size according to her publicists exceeded her bust size according to her dressmaker: 2.
– Architecture award created by Carleton Smith: THE PRITZKER PRIZE.
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“A magnificent view, limited only by the powers of visions, was before us.”
-L.B. WING, A FOUNDING FATHER OF BEMENT, ILL., DESCRIBING HIS ARRIVAL AT THE FUTURE SITE OF THE TOWN IN 1853
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nwatkins@tribune.com
