You've Got Mail! Weathervane Community Newsletters

Katie's Mission

My project explores the evolution of the Weathervane Newsletter and explores the information presented to the community of Akron. The newsletter was meant to inform and advertise and I sought to understand what the Weathervane Theater felt was most important to share and try to understand their use of the newsletter to establish a brand within the city of Akron and neighboring areas.

Newsletters: A Brief History

The first newsletter ever was the Acta diurna, carved onto stone and published in 131 BC
The first newsletter in the U.S. was from the Boston area in 1704 and evolved into modern day newspaper
By the 1940s, the monopoly on newspapers made people distrust them, hence the popularity of a newsletter
Newsletters have evolved from stone tablet, to paper, to a virtual form, but remain ever present as a way to quickly and concisely convey information to communities

References

Young, B. (2021, March 17). The origin of the newsletter. Nudge. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from https://giveitanudge.com/the-origin-of-the-newsletter/

YOU'VE GOT MAIL!

When I began my research on the Weathervane Newsletters, I was fascinated by their distribution. Later newsletters from the 50s include mail addresses on the newsletter itself, alluding to the fact that they were mailed to members homes. Earlier newsletters do not include addresses, however, based on the nature of newsletters in general, it is safe to assume they were also mailed to members of the Weathervane and surrounding community.

Establishing a Brand:

The newsletters were a means of advertising the Weathervane and its productions to the community of Akron. During their time at the Marshall Ave. location, the Weathervane name was synonymous with the image of their barn that they put at the top of every newsletter. While the use of the logo disappeared by the time they began business at the Copley Rd. location, the brand and the image of the Weathervane was already well established. Even though they were no longer putting on shows at a barn, it did not matter because the Weathervane was now associated with community theater in Akron as opposed to just a rooster atop of a barn.

The Evolution of the Weathervane Newsletter

Good Morning, Bill (December, 1939)

Country Girl (January 1954)

Marshall Ave. Content

tends to lack date of newsletter, only includes production date(s)
- early newsletters typically only include opening night date
spends the entire newsletter explaining the content of the play and cast
includes brief mentions of the Barn on Marshall Ave.
- either to provide updates on renovations or address community feedback

Copley Rd. Content

includes more information overall
newsletter itself is dated
includes a calendar to visualize show dates including opening night
spends only first four paragraphs explaining content of play and cast
includes additional information regarding:
- "Green Room" exhibit
- Membership Meetings
- Auditions for upcoming productions
- Upcoming workshops
- Renovations/Improvements to the theater
provides phone number for reservations

Marshall Ave. Style

lacks visual organization or reliniation between different information
includes iconic Weathervane barn sketch at the top

Copley Rd. Style

includes dotted lines to delineate different kinds of information
removal of weathervane barn sketch, has no logo to replace it

What Makes Comparing Weathervane Newsletters so Hard?

Inconsistency! The Weathervane Newsletters lack consistent organization, style, voice, and information.

Looking at early versions of the newsletters there is a similarity between lack of information provided about anything other than the show and cast versus the later newsletters that include loads of information about the show, cast, meetings, and more. However, this is likely attributed to the Weathervane's growth regarding community outreach, funds, and more. Wartime also likely affected the consistency because the "red room" exhibit and post-show coffee often did not occur so they were not worth mentioning.

While newsletters written earlier in the theater's history have no name attached to them, by the late 40's early 50's authors names were occasionally signed at the bottom. This lead to incontinency in voice.

Stylistic inconsistency also occurs in later seasons.

One can confidently identify the evolution from the Marshall Ave. newsletters to the Copley Rd. newsletters, but the consistency when comparing within locations is not there. This is likely because the move to Copley Rd. brought about many changes and I imagine there was a struggle trying to establish the atmosphere of the new theater.

Information Found Exclusively in Weathervane Newsletters:

Despite their inconsistency there are few tidbits of information that tend to only appear in newsletters. While a lot of the information featured in the newsletters can be found duplicated in playbills the phone number for reservations and ticket prices reside only in the newsletters. This makes sense as the newsletters were meant to advertise to the community of Akron and entice people to see shows. There would be no need for that information in playbills for people who are already attending productions as the Weathervane.

Final Thoughts and Future Research Endeavors:

If I had more time this semester I likely would have looked into scanning and uploading every Weathervane Newsletter, so they could all be accessible online. As far as further research with the Weathervane in general, I think scanning, uploading, and identifying the whos, whats, and wheres of the photographs down in Polsky would have been another interesting project.

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