Gertie the Duck, Black Bill, and the Muffled Memorial Day Parade
Gertie the duck and her son Black Bill, turned 5,000 city dwellers into doting duck lovers and caused the 1945 Milwaukee Memorial Day Parade to tiptoe.
Gertie the duck , a wild mallard, set up housekeeping on top of a piling in the Milwaukee River, a few feet from the Wisconsin Avenue bridge. Milwaukeeans loved it. It was April 1945, and the soldiers were coming home from the war ready to build homes and families.
Gertie Builds Her Nest on the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge
Gertie was ready too. Gertie was smart. She made the right friends, starting at the top with Fourth Ward Alderman, John Koerner. She built her nest on his bridge. The Alderman passed a resolution telling the superintendent of bridges to make Gertie’s home safe, “and if necessary, to build a ramp for easy access to water by the offspring.”
Bridge Operator Fred Schultz spotted the first offspring egg in the rotted hollow of the piling that Gertie called home. After that, Gertie enjoyed more publicity than the Milwaukee Braves. She was the subject of reams of newspaper copy, letters to the editor, poetry, department store advertisements, Mother’s Day cards and telegrams, and newsreels. Organizations like the Wisconsin Humane Society, the Boy Scouts, the Milwaukee City Council, and the police department worked to protect her.
Gertie Challenges Milwaukee May Weather
Gertie took to this fame like a duck takes to water – naturally! She laid more eggs, naturally. Around 100,000 people crossed the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge every day and watched Gertie. She didn’t rustle a pin feather. Streetcars clanged over the bridge, buses roared and cars rattled back and forth. Tugs and steamers chugged up the river and the bridge creaked open almost every day. Gertie responded by increasing her family to nine eggs.
It was cold for May and the rain poured down like water from Niagara Falls. People made jokes about it being “Fine weather for ducks.” The weather wasn’t fine for Gertie. The cold crept everywhere and she had to constantly keep the eggs warm. Gertie kept plucking the down from her breast and tucking it around her eggs. The wind blew strong. As soon as Gertie left the nest for a few minutes to visit the feeding tray that the bridge tenders had built for her beneath the bridge, the down would blow away.Gertie solved that problem quickly. She carried chunks of rotted wood from the piling and used them to weigh down the down.
Gertie People Watches and People Watch Gertie
Eventually Gertie got nervous. By now, so many people were peering over the bridge at Gertie that there was talk about renaming the bridge for her. Traffic was confined to her side of the bridge. People stood around and argued about her. Was she shoving her eggs together because the wind was so cold or because the nest was too small?
Milwaukee Public Museum taxidermist Warren P. Dettman settled the argument. “Barnyard mallards will sit contentedly on chilled eggs or even glass eggs. In the wild, hen mallards nest on a flat in dense cover. They conceal themselves so well that you almost have to step on them to discover them,” he said. “Gertie is just beginning to appreciate her exposed position. If people would only let her alone.”
People wouldn’t leave Gertie alone. Small boys pelted her with rubber bands and spit balls. Adults tossed peanuts, popcorn and orange peels at her. The bridge tenders estimated that there were at least $10.00 worth of pennies on the river bottom near Gertie’s nest.
People Protect Gertie
Police Chief Joseph Kluchesky came up with the idea of building a protective screen around Gertie. August Utke, vice president of the Wisconsin Humane Society, sent a detective to the bridge. This plainclothes detective had the power to arrest anyone wanting to hurt Gertie. The bridge tenders patrolled the bridge like fathers watching their sons play baseball. On Saturdays the Boy Scouts came to help out. Gertie and her family were well guarded.
Parade Marchers Tiptoe as Gertie Hatches Her Eggs
Gertie timed her egg hatching to happen the same time as Milwaukee’s 1945 Memorial Day parade. The 5,000 marchers in the parade were under official orders to be as quiet as possible. They had just tiptoed across the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge when Gertie broke open an egg and the first duckling appeared. The thousands of people lining the rail cheered. Gertie sat on the duckling. The people groaned, but the duckling peered out from under Gertie and everyone sighed with relief.
The crowds stayed at the railing for the rest of the hatching. First there were three, four, and finally six ducklings in the nest on the piling. Occasionally, one of the ducklings teetered too close to the edge and gasps of alarm arose from the spectators. Gertie managed to keep all of the ducklings safe in the nest.
Gertie and her Ducklings Settle in Juneau Park Lagoon
Then Mother Nature fooled mother duck. The night after the hatching, a severe rain and wind storm swept over the piling. One by one the ducklings toppled into the water, ten feet below. The duckling that the bridge tenders called Black Bill was almost swept away by the current. Quickly the bridge tenders manned the rowboat and snatched the ducklings out of the water.
The bridge tenders took Gertie and her five ducklings to the warmth and safety of the bridge tender’s house. After a few days of resting in nearby Gimbel’s Department Store, the duck family was taken by car to the Juneau Park lagoon. They settled with splashes into their new home. After a time and after the ducklings were grown, Gertie and her ducklings flew away to greener waters, as is the way of ducks.
Milwaukeeans went about their daily lives, a little richer for knowing Gertie and watching the tiptoeing Memorial Day Parade.
References
Nicholas P.Georgiady, Dagmar Wilson, Louis Romano, Gertie the Duck, Follett Publishing Company, 1959.
Milwaukee Journal, various dates
Gertie the duck , a wild mallard, set up housekeeping on top of a piling in the Milwaukee River, a few feet from the Wisconsin Avenue bridge. Milwaukeeans loved it. It was April 1945, and the soldiers were coming home from the war ready to build homes and families.
Gertie Builds Her Nest on the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge
Gertie was ready too. Gertie was smart. She made the right friends, starting at the top with Fourth Ward Alderman, John Koerner. She built her nest on his bridge. The Alderman passed a resolution telling the superintendent of bridges to make Gertie’s home safe, “and if necessary, to build a ramp for easy access to water by the offspring.”
Bridge Operator Fred Schultz spotted the first offspring egg in the rotted hollow of the piling that Gertie called home. After that, Gertie enjoyed more publicity than the Milwaukee Braves. She was the subject of reams of newspaper copy, letters to the editor, poetry, department store advertisements, Mother’s Day cards and telegrams, and newsreels. Organizations like the Wisconsin Humane Society, the Boy Scouts, the Milwaukee City Council, and the police department worked to protect her.
Gertie Challenges Milwaukee May Weather
Gertie took to this fame like a duck takes to water – naturally! She laid more eggs, naturally. Around 100,000 people crossed the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge every day and watched Gertie. She didn’t rustle a pin feather. Streetcars clanged over the bridge, buses roared and cars rattled back and forth. Tugs and steamers chugged up the river and the bridge creaked open almost every day. Gertie responded by increasing her family to nine eggs.
It was cold for May and the rain poured down like water from Niagara Falls. People made jokes about it being “Fine weather for ducks.” The weather wasn’t fine for Gertie. The cold crept everywhere and she had to constantly keep the eggs warm. Gertie kept plucking the down from her breast and tucking it around her eggs. The wind blew strong. As soon as Gertie left the nest for a few minutes to visit the feeding tray that the bridge tenders had built for her beneath the bridge, the down would blow away.Gertie solved that problem quickly. She carried chunks of rotted wood from the piling and used them to weigh down the down.
Gertie People Watches and People Watch Gertie
Eventually Gertie got nervous. By now, so many people were peering over the bridge at Gertie that there was talk about renaming the bridge for her. Traffic was confined to her side of the bridge. People stood around and argued about her. Was she shoving her eggs together because the wind was so cold or because the nest was too small?
Milwaukee Public Museum taxidermist Warren P. Dettman settled the argument. “Barnyard mallards will sit contentedly on chilled eggs or even glass eggs. In the wild, hen mallards nest on a flat in dense cover. They conceal themselves so well that you almost have to step on them to discover them,” he said. “Gertie is just beginning to appreciate her exposed position. If people would only let her alone.”
People wouldn’t leave Gertie alone. Small boys pelted her with rubber bands and spit balls. Adults tossed peanuts, popcorn and orange peels at her. The bridge tenders estimated that there were at least $10.00 worth of pennies on the river bottom near Gertie’s nest.
People Protect Gertie
Police Chief Joseph Kluchesky came up with the idea of building a protective screen around Gertie. August Utke, vice president of the Wisconsin Humane Society, sent a detective to the bridge. This plainclothes detective had the power to arrest anyone wanting to hurt Gertie. The bridge tenders patrolled the bridge like fathers watching their sons play baseball. On Saturdays the Boy Scouts came to help out. Gertie and her family were well guarded.
Parade Marchers Tiptoe as Gertie Hatches Her Eggs
Gertie timed her egg hatching to happen the same time as Milwaukee’s 1945 Memorial Day parade. The 5,000 marchers in the parade were under official orders to be as quiet as possible. They had just tiptoed across the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge when Gertie broke open an egg and the first duckling appeared. The thousands of people lining the rail cheered. Gertie sat on the duckling. The people groaned, but the duckling peered out from under Gertie and everyone sighed with relief.
The crowds stayed at the railing for the rest of the hatching. First there were three, four, and finally six ducklings in the nest on the piling. Occasionally, one of the ducklings teetered too close to the edge and gasps of alarm arose from the spectators. Gertie managed to keep all of the ducklings safe in the nest.
Gertie and her Ducklings Settle in Juneau Park Lagoon
Then Mother Nature fooled mother duck. The night after the hatching, a severe rain and wind storm swept over the piling. One by one the ducklings toppled into the water, ten feet below. The duckling that the bridge tenders called Black Bill was almost swept away by the current. Quickly the bridge tenders manned the rowboat and snatched the ducklings out of the water.
The bridge tenders took Gertie and her five ducklings to the warmth and safety of the bridge tender’s house. After a few days of resting in nearby Gimbel’s Department Store, the duck family was taken by car to the Juneau Park lagoon. They settled with splashes into their new home. After a time and after the ducklings were grown, Gertie and her ducklings flew away to greener waters, as is the way of ducks.
Milwaukeeans went about their daily lives, a little richer for knowing Gertie and watching the tiptoeing Memorial Day Parade.
References
Nicholas P.Georgiady, Dagmar Wilson, Louis Romano, Gertie the Duck, Follett Publishing Company, 1959.
Milwaukee Journal, various dates
