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Museum Staff. "Lost Cokato: Movie Rental Stores." In The Midst Of Blog. Cokato Historical Society. (March 25, 2023) www.cokatomuseum.org.  Dana Buttenhoff at "Dana's Movies Unlimited, 1984. Photograph is property of the Dassel-Cokato Enterprise Dispatch, used with permission. In the late 1970s, movies were transferred from theatres to homes in Cokato with the invention of a device called the Video Home System (VHS). A black plastic rectangle encasing two white reels wound with magnetic tape, the VHS was projected onto people's televisions using device called a Videocassette Recorder (VCR). The VCR was an innovative system, which allowed a VHS tape to be physically played, rewound, or fast forwarded. There was no jumping from scene to scene like streaming devises allow today. VHS tapes were affected by dust and humidity, and when watched would produce thin lines that would dart across the screen. VHS tapes also had poor audio and fuzzy resolution (at least compared to today's standards). Content on VHS tapes could even be recorded over. In fact, to prevent the risk of someone recording over something important, like your wedding video, there was a special tab on the VHS that had to be removed. As the popularity of VHS tapes and VCRs began to grow in the early 1980s, businesses like Blockbuster emerged in the U.S., providing the public with a variety of movie selections through rental. In Cokato, one of the first movie rental stores was "Dana's Movies Unlimited."1
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Museum Staff. "Earl Tracy: Healer or Con Artist?" In The Midst Of, Cokato Historical Society (February, 2023) vol. 43 no. 1.  Earl Tracy with his mother Emma. In the 1930s, people from all across the nation flocked to Cokato to be healed by a man named Earl Tracy. Although many would claim he was a good man and a talented healer, others saw him a womanizer and a con artist.
Mike Worcester. "Dispatches from Texas: Earl Tracy--The Musical," In The Midst Of, Cokato Historical Society (December, 2000) vol. 20 no. 4.  As the house lights slowly dimmed in the Richard Slocumb Theatre on the campus of San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas, the crowd quickly hushed. A feeling of anticipation crackled in the humid October air—that something magical was about to happen.
A lone spotlight illuminated a stone archway. After what seemed like an eternity—though in reality was only a couple seconds—a solitary figure strode in to the light. Dressed in a black suit coat and pants, crisply starched white shirt, and fedora, he lingered for a moment, drawing the audience’s attention to his presence. Then he began to speak. “My name’s Earl Tracy,” he said. “Maybe you’ve heard of me.” And so for the next 2½ hours, we watched and listened as a group of Texans—a cast that ranged in age from preteens to senior citizens—told the story of a man whose activities created a myriad of emotions amongst the people of his hometown. The words, the songs, the dance sequences, the visuals, and the evocative monologues of the man who portrayed Earl, made all of us realize that his life was a journey few of us could have imagined. |
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