Before Becoming a Hollywood Legend, Bette Davis Was Ogunquit, Maine’s First Female Lifeguard

Did you know that before she became a famous Hollywood actress, Bette Davis was the state of Maine’s first female lifeguard? In 1926, she completed Red Cross training and joined the Ogunquit Ocean Rescue team.

In her memoirs, Davis recounted that passing the grueling Red Cross test and earning her lifeguard emblem was a major confidence booster and a true turning point in her youth.

During the mid-1920s, Davis’s mother, Ruth, worked as a portrait photographer, and the family frequented the burgeoning art colony of Ogunquit, Maine. To earn money before fully pursuing her dream of acting, the future star took on two local jobs. By day, she worked the watch towers as a lifeguard on Ogunquit’s beautiful, but often treacherous, dynamic Atlantic shoreline. By night, she earned tips as a waitress at a local spot called The Crooked Pine.

Her training as a lifeguard actually came in handy much later in her career. While filming the classic 1942 melodrama Now, Voyager on location at Lake Arrowhead, her young co-star Janis Wilson got into serious trouble in the water. Drawing on her teenage training, Davis jumped in and rescued her from drowning.

Maine remained close to Davis’s heart throughout her entire life. In the 1950s, at the height of her fame, she returned to the state with her husband Gary Merrill, buying a historic estate on the coast of Cape Elizabeth where they raised their children.

Donn Fendler, 12-Year-Old Boy Scout Lost on Maine Mountain for 9 Days Survives in 1939

In July 1939, 12-year-old Donn Fendler of Rye, New York, became the subject of a massive national search after vanishing on Maine’s Mount Katahdin. His nine-day survival ordeal is one of the most famous stories in Maine’s history.

Donn Fendler, 12, of Rye, N.Y., is shown with the sack which he used as a sleeping bag while he wandered for eight days in the wilds of Maine. A Boy Scout, Donn used to good advantage, the wood-lore taught in the organization. Donn disappeared near the shrouded summit on Mount Katahdin.

On July 17, 1939, Donn was hiking to the 5,267-foot summit of Mount Katahdin with his father, two brothers, and two family friends. Eager to reach the top, Donn surged ahead of his father and brothers. When a sudden, thick mist enveloped the peak, he became disoriented. Ignoring advice to stay put, he attempted to find his way back to his family but instead wandered into the dense, trackless wilderness. 

For nine days, Donn wandered approximately 80 to 100 miles through the Maine woods. He survived by recalling his father’s advice and Boy Scout training, he followed small streams downhill, knowing they would eventually lead to a river and civilization. He subsisted on wild strawberries and checkerberries.

Donn lost his shoes, trousers, and shirt while attempting to cross a stream, eventually wandering barefoot. He slept in a large burlap sack he found to stay warm during freezing nights. He encountered black bears, deer, and relentless swarms of insects and leeches. 

On July 25, 1939, Donn spotted a telephone line and followed it to a remote hunting camp near Stacyville, Maine. He was dehydrated, covered in bug bites, and had lost 16 pounds, but was otherwise remarkably unharmed.

His survival was front-page news across the U.S.. President Franklin D. Roosevelt awarded him the Army & Navy Legion of Valor’s medal for outstanding youth hero of 1939. Donn co-authored the book Lost on a Mountain in Maine (1939), which became a staple of Maine school curriculums for generations. He served as a Green Beret in the U.S. Army during WWII and the Vietnam War, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He died in 2016 at the age of 90.

In 2024, his story was adapted into a feature film titled Lost on a Mountain in Maine, produced by Sylvester Stallone.

See more»

Camden, Maine in the Late 19th Century Through Fascinating Photos

Camden is a town on Penobscot Bay, in Maine’s MidCoast region. The High Street Historic District features 19th-century homes and Camden Public Library, with its landscaped amphitheater. The restored Camden Opera House stages music, film and dance.

Trails line the slopes at Camden Hills State Park, with views of Camden Harbor and the bay from Mount Battie. Curtis Island, with its 1830s lighthouse, is in the harbor.

These fascinating photos from Camden Public Library are from Theresa Babb that show life of Camden, Maine from 1898 to 1900. Theresa (1868-1948) was the wife of Camden’s Knox Mill treasurer Charles W. Babb (1863-1956). Their son Charles Jr. would become the mill’s longtime superintendent and president. Many of the descriptions are as Theresa wrote them on the negative envelopes.

Harbor Day, May 1898

Camden harbor viewed from the head of the harbor, May 17, 1898. The Holly M. Bean shipyard is visible on the left side and Negro Island (now Curtis Island) is in the background

Children at Lake City on Megunticook Lake in 1898

Construction of the 5-masted schooner John B. Prescott in 1898. The largest schooner in the world at that time, she was built to carry 4300 tons of coal

Construction of the 5-masted schooner John B. Prescott in 1898. The largest schooner in the world at that time, she was built to carry 4300 tons of coal

See more»

Picnic With the Babbs: 40 Fascinating Photographs Capture Everyday Life in Camden, Maine at the Turn of 20th Century

Theresa Butler Parker (Babb) was born in Camden on January 23, 1868, the daughter of Moses L. and Mary Cleveland Parker. In addition to taking many wonder photographs, she was active in Camden as a member of the St. Thomas Episcopal Church, helped establish the Camden Community Hospital (1926). She was on the Managers Board of the Home for Aged Women. She belonged to the Monday Club, Monday Evening Reading Club, Camden Garden Club and the Camden Outing Club.

Her husband, C. Wilkes Babb, was perhaps better known as he ran the Knox Woolen Company beginning in 1886 until 1956. The Babb family has been a prominent family in Camden for many years.

Perhaps she took up photography because her husband worked most of the time. On occasion, he would decided to take a little trip for a few days, as he owned one of the few automobiles in Camden. His wife knew their travel would be of short notice and always had a suitcase packed and ready to go.

Mrs. Babb died on July 11, 1948 at her home on 69 Elm Street. Her granddaughter, Mrs. Janaan Babb Vaughn, kindly donated her collection of photographs to the Walsh History Center at the Camden Public Library.

Picnic at Sherman's Point, 1900. Theresa is 2nd from the left holding a bottle.

Working bee at Lake City" circa 1899. Lake City was located at Megunticook Lake in Camden.

Friends and family of Theresa Babb perched on a ladder by the Summit House swing on August 17, 1898. Her sister Grace Parker is at the top of the ladder. The Summit House hotel was built in 1897 by Columbus Buswell. The property was purchased in 1899 by the Mt. Battie Association and renovated the same year. Property torn down in 1920.

Camping crowd at Ogier Point.

Woman walking along Turnpike Drive (now Rt. 52) in October 1899. She is carrying a camera and has a dog and bicycle with her.

See more»

This 1865 Ad of an 18-Year-Old Man Looking for a Wife Is Hilarious!

In 2017, Max Roser, a researcher for the University of Oxford, shared a snippet of a dating ad published in a newspaper in 1865. The ad, titled “CHANCE FOR A SPINSTER,” featured a young man touting his best traits in the hopes that he would find a wife.

And this young lad really had it all going for him. He’s patriotic (he believes in the Star Spangled Banner!), he’s well-off (he has nine sheep, a bull, and 2 heifers), he wants to buy you a hoop skirt, and he even has a good set of teeth! Your Tinder date could never.

Here is the endearing transcript in full:

“I am eighteen years old, have a good set of teeth, and believe in Andy Johnson, the star-spangled banner, and the 4th of July. I have taken up a State lot, cleared up eighteen acres last year, and seeded ten of it down.

My buckwheat looks first rate, and the oats and potatoes are bully. I have got nine sheep, a two-year-old bull, and two heifers, besides a house and a barn.

I want to get married. I want to buy bread-and-butter, hoop-skirts, and waterfalls for some person of the female persuasion during life. That’s what’s the matter with me. But I don’t know how to do it.”

We’ll never know if this young man found the love of his life, but we have to applaud his effort… and at the very least his buckwheat.

(via INSIDER)

Dirigible Airship Accident: Rare Snapshot of the Last Flight of Aeronaut Charles O. Jones in Waterville, ME, Sept. 1908

In full view of 25,000 spectators on the Maine fair grounds Charles Oliver Jones, the well known aeronaut, of Hammondsport, N. Y., fell a distance of 500 feet to his death. Among the witnesses of the frightful plunge were Mrs. Jones and her child. They were the first to reach the side of the dying man. The aeronaut expired about an hour and a half after the accident.

Jones had been at the fair grounds with his dirigible balloon, the Boomerang, known as a Strobel airship, since the opening day of the fair.

When the aeronaut reached a height of more than 500 feet the spectators saw small tongues of fire issuing from under the gas bag in front of the motor. At this time the balloon had passed out of the fair grounds. Many persons in the great crowd shouted to Jones of his danger, but several minutes elapsed before he noticed the fire. Then he grasped the rip cord and endeavored to reach the earth. The machine descended but a short distance when a sudden burst of flame enveloped the gas bag, the framework immediately separating from it.

Jones fell with the frame of his motor, and when his wife and child and the spectators reached him he was lying dying under the wrecked machinery a quarter of a mile from the grounds. The gas bag was completely destroyed. It is thought that the bag leaked again and that a spark from the motor caused the disaster.

Jones was forty years old.

(The Cranbury Press New Jersey ~ September 11, 1908)

Rare Vintage Photographs Show Women's Styles of Maine From the Late 19th Century

19th century fashions are highly romanticized in books and movies. Despite the prim and proper feminine ideal of the day, fashions in this period created an often exaggerated, ostentatious look. Tight corsets, gigantic hoop-skirts, and outrageous bustles make today's fashion trends look sedate by comparison.

These rare and interesting vintage photographs from Camden's Knox Mill treasurer Charles W. Babb (1863-1956) focus on his wife Theresa (1868-1948) and her family and friends from the late 19th century. Many of the descriptions are as Theresa wrote them on the negative envelopes.

Friends and family of Theresa Babb perched on a ladder by the Summit House swing on August 17, 1898. Her sister Grace Parker is at the top of the ladder. The Summit House hotel was built in 1897 by Columbus Buswell. The property was purchased in 1899 by the Mt. Battie Association and renovated the same year.

Camping crowd at Ogier Point.

Working bee at Lake City, circa 1899. Lake City was located at Megunticook Lake in Camden.

Woman walking along Turnpike Drive (now Rt. 52) in October 1899. She is carrying a camera and has a dog and bicycle with her.

Picnic at Sherman's Point, 1900. Theresa is 2nd from the left holding a bottle.

See more»

Dramatic Photos of Poverty And Life in Maine in the 1980s and 1990s

In 1982, Steven Rubin hitchhiked around Maine with very little money and a camera, making his way inland from the scenic coastline.

He discovered that the real Maine was not featured in tourist brochures but exists in perennial poverty just beyond the interstate.

Rubin kept going back to the area, befriending families whose lives were in deep contrast to the seaside resorts and picturesque villages with lobster shacks that Maine is known for.

Roger, 1982

Sanford eyes his cousin's deer, 1982

The Avery family, 1982

Tracy and her cat, 1991

Ann and her kids the day before Daddy left town for good, 1990

See more»