Famous people or things from or invented in Omaha or NE

General discussion on all things Omaha.

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Finn
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Famous people or things from or invented in Omaha or NE

Post by Finn »

Add to the list:

Birthplace of TV dinners and general whiner, rabble rouser, devil's advocate, Finn.
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Post by jsheets »

What do you consider famous? There's the burning dung heap in Milford, and an idiot with a tatoo on his forehead in Omaha.

And if you count football players, then we could be here for a while.

What's the list for anyway? Just for the history buff in you?
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Post by OhioStreetKid »

How about 3 Heisman trophy winners (Kinnick, Crouch, Rodgers)?
How about NFL Hall of Famer Gale Sayers?
What about the JFK speechwriter who is credited with writing the 1960 inaugural address (probably the 2nd best inaugural address behind Lincoln's 1864 address.)?
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Post by OhioStreetKid »

Also former heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer, talk show host Dick Cavett, and Frank Leahy who coached Notre Dame to 4 national titles, and was arguably Notre Dame's most successful coach since Knute Rockne.
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Post by OhioStreetKid »

I am sorry more keep coming to me Chris Klein of American Pie fame, and Randy Meisner who was a member of the pre-Joe Walsh Eagles.
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Post by OhioStreetKid »

And no famous Nebraskans list would be complete without the Vice President of the United States of America Richard Cheney!
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Post by almighty_tuna »

I might've missed it in another list, but President Ford was born here also.
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Post by nebugeater »

Don't forget that the Vise Grip that everone with a little mechanical ability has used was invented by a farmer in Dewitt Nebraska

Quoted from web site listed below:

http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/jht ... tory.jhtml

About four decades later there was another blacksmith with an idea, this one in the small town of DeWitt, Nebraska. William Peterson was a Danish immigrant who invented the first locking pliers in his blacksmith shop, and began selling them from the trunk of his car to farmers and people in surrounding towns. He patented his new idea and called it Vise-Grip.


There used to be, and maybe still is, a nice desplay of early Vice Grips in Chase Hall at UNL with a note of the history of the tool.
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Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

Former baseball player Wade Boggs.
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Post by guy4omaha »

ConAgra is from here. And its predecessor, Nebraska Consolidated Mills has been headquartered in Omaha for a long long time after being started in several smaller towns in the Grand Island area.

It is fun to know that the TV dinner was started here.

It doesn't seem to be as well known, at least in my circles, that the Cake Mix was invented here. Duncan Heines cake mix was dreamt up and started here in Omaha by Nebraska Consolidated Mills, again ConAgra before the name change. It really was the birth of modern food processing in terms of mixes in a box rather than items made from scratch. It allowed mom to get a job outside of the home. You know by inventing the cake mix, Omaha has changed the world.

Omaha is so cool. :D
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Post by jcitta »

Columbus is home to Dorothy Lynch Salad Dressing.
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Post by projectman »

Don't forget the Runza sandwich. Famous around the world!
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Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

Cabella's is based out of Sydney.

The first ever Super Target is the one at 132nd and Maple. It was such a success here that they soon came back to establish Super Target # 3 in Papillion.

We're also home to the Strategic Air Command.

The trendy clothing boutique The Buckle began and is based out of Kearney.

And of course Omaha Steaks.
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Post by StreetsOfOmaha »

No way that Omaha got the first Super Target.

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We already mentioned the zoo, but even it has several "sub-categories" of "America's Largests" and "World's Largests"
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Swift
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Post by Swift »

StreetsOfOmaha wrote:No way that Omaha got the first Super Target.

Gabriel Union
Bemis Center for Contemporary Art - Largest urban artists colony in the country
We already mentioned the zoo, but even it has several "sub-categories" of "America's Largests" and "World's Largests"
Did Omaha get the first SuperTarget? Target is from Minneapolis, so it's not inconcieveable that they would do it in a midwest town.
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Post by StreetsOfOmaha »

True. I just would have thought Minnesota got the first one. Although Omaha, and to a greater extent, Lincoln have historically been "test markets" for various new retail concepts in the past. So I don't know. I guess that just surprises me if it's true.
"The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
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Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

Dude I work at Super Target, I get the inside scopes. 8) I am 100% positive that the first and third Super Targets are the ones I mentioned. The first one was indeed set up as a tester. The Omaha market, the test concluded, was so average at the time that it was a great tool for decifering if such retail establishments would be successful. This is all noted in a newspaper article we have hanging along our executive offices hallway telling about the opening of our store.

That said, the Omaha area district Super Targets are the only ones in the country to offer a drive-up parcel service, which is my department at the Super Target I work at 180th and Center.
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Post by DMRyan »

I just want to give a special thank you to Nebraska, and an ode to the TV Dinner:

Swanson, Banquet and Budget Gourmet? How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Your shirveled up slices of leathery dry turkey meat tantilize my very taste buds, your rubbery mashed potatoes-always cold in the middle when everything else is cooked tease my palette in ways it hasn't been teased before. Always craving more of your Mexican Style Fiesta meal with your savory pulverized beef chunks carefully wrapped in undersized tamales, dripping with some kind of red gravy...The yeasty desert brownie in the middle, an enigma of the unknown. How do you rise from a lowly pile of frozen sludge to become such a sweet, tasty treat at the end of my overcooked meal? You give me nourishment by providing me with only the finest cuts of veiny, grease smoothered fried chicken, smelling and tasting of burnt balsa wood shavings. Your oh so ingenious tray, manging to catch all but only the rowdiest pieces of corn kernals from jumping into my mashed potatoes and gravy.
You provide me with high calorie, high sodium fare, smoothered in preservatives but I still find you oh so tempting at that rock bottom price. TV dinners, you truly are a bachelor's savior. I think I'll have the Salisbury Steak Hungry Man Meal. Or perhaps the Chicken Nuggets with a side of Macaroni and Cheese and that gooey, yet delicious apple crisp all wrapped up in a box and served in a shiny, black plastic tray.


Slap a beret on me, give me some of those shoes that Aaron has, send me to the jazz bar and call me a liberal...I'm done being a poet today.
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Post by StreetsOfOmaha »

Haha, what shoes could these be?


Great "ode" Ryan. You truly have a way with words. Bravo.
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Post by j4nu »

The first land claim form the homestead act is just outside Beatrice. There is a National Park there now with a new multi million dollar visitors center about to start construction.

Nebraska State capital was/is rated as one of the man maid wonders of the world. Another significant architectural piece is the iapai designed bank building in downtown Lincoln. A look a the East side of the building shows it to look like a geometric state of Nebraska.
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Post by almighty_tuna »

j4nu wrote: Another significant architectural piece is the iapai designed bank building in downtown Lincoln. A look a the East side of the building shows it to look like a geometric state of Nebraska.
This is Wells Fargo center, formerly NBC Center (the bank, not the tv station) for those not familiar with the area.
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Post by Alt(Bayern)München »

OK...
This is funny I was going to ask about the celebrity part of this list as a post myself this weekend for another project I'm working on :!:
I've been keeping a list for awhile.
To add to the above :
Marg Helgenberger (spelling?) from Televisions Smash Hit: CSI
Jamie (aka James) King- Actress/Super Model/TV show host (straight outta Westside High)
THE FAINT
Fee Waybill - singer for the Rock Band THE TUBES
Larry "The Cable Guy" - Comedian - from some small town in SE Nebraska
That guy from Maroon 5 you guys were talking about on another post.
One of the guys from Flaming Lips is from Omaha...
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Post by Alt(Bayern)München »

Also....
Jolie Edwards - Country Singer
Swoozie Kurz - Actress
The charachter actress who played the housekeepper on TV show BENSON
(can't remember her name right now ? Swenson?)
There is also a internationaly known female Classical or Jazz singer from Omaha (again I don't have my list in front of me, & can't remember her name)
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Post by Swift »

Alt(Bayern)München wrote:OK...
This is funny I was going to ask about the celebrity part of this list as a post myself this weekend for another project I'm working on :!:
I've been keeping a list for awhile.
To add to the above :
Marg Helgenberger (spelling?) from Televisions Smash Hit: CSI
Jamie (aka James) King- Actress/Super Model/TV show host (straight outta Westside High)
THE FAINT
Fee Waybill - singer for the Rock Band THE TUBES
Larry "The Cable Guy" - Comedian - from some small town in SE Nebraska
That guy from Maroon 5 you guys were talking about on another post.
One of the guys from Flaming Lips is from Omaha...
ONE OF THE GUYS FROM THE FLAMING LIPS IS FROM OMAHA?!?!?! WOA!!!
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Post by projectman »

I want a TV dinner right now!
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Post by TitosBuritoBarn »

Actress Gabrielle Union. Looking at IMDB.com, it looks like she has quite a roster of good movies, but I know her best as Syd from Bad Boys

Marg Helgenberger who plays Cathrine on CSI is from Fremont.
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Post by edsas »

Trying to think of some who haven't been mentioned so far...

Darryl Zanuck (one of the godfather's of the early Hollywood studio system).
Harold Lloyd (one of the three great comedians of the silent screen era) (A side note to that, one of the other great silent era comedians, Buster Keaton, was born in Kansas, but he has a Nebraska connection in that his parents were married in Lincoln.)
Montgomery Clift

Delving into the more obscure:

The guy who starred in The Terminator, the one who travels through time to stop Schwarzenneger and then ends up impregnating Sara Conner. He's from Nebraska. He was also in Aliens and The Abyss.

Harley Jane Kozak is from Lincoln. She was in some soap operas and did some film work. She was in Paranthood and When Harry Met Sally.

A guitar player from the band Mr. Mister (they had some hits in the 80s) is from Fremont.

The name of that Maroon 5 guy is James Valentine, by the way.

And I'm forgeting his name... They have a whole museum devoted to him in Aurora. The guy who invented the strobe light and developed high-speed photography (some of his photographs include the famous milkdrop and the bullet through an apple) grew up in Aurora Nebraska, but he did all his inventing while on the faculty at MIT.
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Post by edsas »

A random tidbit. Charles Lindberg learned how to pilot at a flight school in Lincoln.
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Post by GaryFL »

IMDB allows you to browse actors by place of birth. Below is a link to those born in Nebraska. And since successful people in all fields can end up in films or TV shows, people like Warren Buffett, Dick Cheney, and Richie Ashburn are listed.

http://www.imdb.com/BornWhere?Nebraska,%20USA
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Post by edsas »

I love IMDB. You find out something new everytime you visit like this:

Hugh Hefner's parents were farmers from Nebraska. Hugh himself was born in Chicago, though.
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Post by DTO Luv »

I don't think I saw them mentioned yet but Malcolm X and Nick Nlte are from Omaha.
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Omaha's notable sons and daughters.

Post by ricko »

I've been an Omaha history geek for as long as I can remember, and I've always been curious about where Omaha's famous grew up (neighborhoods/schools/anecdotes---and addresses if they're known).  

I know where these folks grew up:  Fred Astaire, Gerald Ford, Warren Buffett, Montgomery Clift, Malcolm X.


Anyone have any info on the following?



Marlon Brando
Henry/Peter Fonda
Bob Gibson
Chris Klein
Swoosie Kurtz
Harold Lloyd
Dorothy McGuire
Nick Nolte
Gayle Sayers
Gabrielle Union
Paul Williams
Roger Williams

Any info/stories are appreciated, and feel free to include those I've forgotten.
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Re: Omaha's notable sons and daughters.

Post by Brad »

I added your to another thread with a bunch of names in it.
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Re: Omaha's notable sons and daughters.

Post by Omababe »

ricko wrote:Nick Nolte
Two people I know went to high school, Westside, with him. They say "he thought he was a real badass ..." or words to that effect.

I guess that would put him in the then-suburban Westside district.
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Re: Omaha's notable sons and daughters.

Post by Big E »

Omababe wrote:
ricko wrote:Nick Nolte
Two people I know went to high school, Westside, with him. They say "he thought he was a real badass ..." or words to that effect.

I guess that would put him in the then-suburban Westside district.
When did Westside become not suburban?   :;):

We're family friends with one of Nick's best friends in high school.

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Re: Omaha's notable sons and daughters.

Post by Omababe »

Big E wrote:When did Westside become not suburban?   :;):
Well, uh, I've never really thought of that area as suburbs. When I came here that area was in the western half of the populated area, but definitely not on the fringe. My guess is that the area was built mostly in the 1950s.

(Some of the homes along 90th by Pacific look like they date from the 1920s or 1930s, and these are definitely not just old farmhouses!)

Now, with "Omaha" extending to what was Elkhorn ... Westside ain't Westside any more. :)
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Post by annad »

I added your to another thread with a bunch of names in it.
Can someone please provide a link to this other thread?  Thanks!
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Post by Coyote »

I think what Brad meant to say is that he merged rickos original post to this thread since it had a similar discussion to this older thread.
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