“”my notes to the Sangamon Historical Society” “Copyright (c) 2015 by kerasotes””

Dear WordPress Google Facebook and All:

I decided you all might want to see the whole thing me and Mike Kienzler {{{The Editor of The Sangamon Historical Society website SangamonLink}}} wrote eachother about today {{June 25th 2015 at 5:16 P.M.}}.  So here it is:

Mike Kerasotes <michaelkerasotes@gmail.com>	4:30 PM (39 minutes ago)
to Mike, bcc: Mike, bcc: me

 

 

 

 

You are most welcome.  🙂

Oh and I put your note and my comment on my kerasotes.wordpress.com pages in my Kerasotes Building section. I know I may be wrong so I am going thru all my memories for dates facts and verifications sir.

Kindest regards,

Mike Kerasotes

 

On Jun 25, 2015 4:03 PM, “Mike Kienzler” <mkienzler@msn.com> wrote:

Mike: Thanks for your followup. It’s always great to hear from family members of somebody I’ve written about. 

 

Mike Kienzler

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Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2015 13:00:43 -0700
Subject: Fwd: RE: SangamonLink ATTN ELENA SALVATORE & ALL WIKI
From: michaelkerasotes@gmail.com
To: info-en@wikimedia.org; photosubmission@wikimedia.org; permissions@wikimedia.org; mkienzler@msn.com; kerasotes@outlook.com;michaelkerasotes@gmail.com; Laurel29@me.com; cmann67@hotmail.com

June 25, 2015

ATTN ELENA SALVATORE & ALL WIKI

Dear Elena & All Wiki & Springfield Illinois,

This is Mike Kerasotes.  I have been corresponding with Mike Kienzler of the Sangamon Historical Society.  He helped me with dates and seems to know quite a lot.  Today i re-edited the page Elena made for me about me my family and my father.  Mike said that our business started in 1909.  I wrote him that i think he is right for i remembered i had the first dollar bill my papou Gus Kerasotes made.  I thought i was from The Strand Theatre.  I told Mike to check with The Springfield Marine Bank as they bought that old theatre from us.  YOU ALL MAY WANT or WISH TO CHECK WITH HIM and THE SANGAMON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.  That is why i am writing all of you today. 

Kindest regards,

me

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: “Mike Kienzler” <mkienzler@msn.com>
Date: Jun 25, 2015 6:38 AM
Subject: RE: SangamonLink
To: “Mike Kerasotes” <michaelkerasotes@gmail.com>
Cc:

Mr. Kerasotes: All the information I can find says Gus came to the U.S. in 1899 or 1900 and until 1909 was a partner in the Coutrakon & Kerasotes confectionery until he converted the building into the Royal Theater in 1909. Among the places where that information is given are the 1960 Illinois State Journal obituaries for both Gus and Louis. I have to believe that was accurate or the family would have had the biographies corrected back then. (The Kerasotes chain also celebrated its “silver jubilee” — 25th anniversary — in 1934, which also confirms the 1909 date.) 

Old Journal and Register advertisements make it clear the Royal was operating in 1909, but apparently not earlier, and the Strand doesn’t seem to have been built until the early 1920s. The Senate building dates from 1907, but it was called the Gaiety originally. It was renamed the Senate after the Kerasotes family bought it in 1929. 

I haven’t been able to determine whether the Kerasotes Building has been landmarked, sorry.

Thanks for writing. 

Mike Kienzler

Editor 

SangamonLink

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Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2015 21:51:14 -0700
Subject: SangamonLink
From: michaelkerasotes@gmail.com
To: Laurel29@me.com; cmann67@hotmail.com; kerasotes@outlook.com; michaelkerasotes@gmail.com; mkienzler@msn.com

June 24, 2015

Dear People,

This Mike Kerasotes, I am the grandson of Gus & Flora Kerasotes, the son of George & Marjorie Kerasotes, brother of Robert Kerasotes {{now deceased}}, and I am writing to you about the errors about me my family our family business, etcetera, and, The Kerasotes Theatres Inclusion. 

My grandfather started his motion picture business in 1900 not 1909.  1909 is when our building was completed and The Strand was built.  The Senate was built in 1900.  The Royal was built in 1911 when my father George was born.  The photo of my grandfather and great uncle was taken by my grandmother Flora.  It was because we were the first to have a Simplex Hand Cranked Carbon Arced Motion Picture Projector installed in out Strand Theatre.  Mr Robert Sunshine of New York and The International Film Journal gave me that black and white photo you have on your page and it was for my wikipedia.org page – “George Kerasotes”.  He told me i could use it anywhere i wanted.  He also told that to Miss Elena Salvatore of Wiki London who was making a Wiki Page for me because she thought i was famous.  I insisted it be about my father because she wanted the Hollywood Reporter Article that Chuck Vionne of Buena Vista {President of BV and my friend} and i wrote.  Tony Geiske of the Hollywood Reporter published it after re-writing it.  Chuck’s obit of my dad was in the Springfield Journal and she wanted that too.  There was another obit of my dad in there and that Matthew Deitrich of the Springfield Journal wrote.  I had Mr Sunshine on my other line and because of that he was able to tell Miss Salvatore that she and all wiki could use any motion picture photograph in his magazines anywhere anytime and me too.  Then Miss Salvatore said she would make more entries about movie stars, directors, films etcetera on wiki and facebook because of me and my friend, Mr Sunshine.  Okay?  OK. 

I don’t think Tony and Dean Kerasotes {my cousins} know any of the history about our family.  They never visited my grandparents except at Christmas to give and receive gifts.  I wrote them yesterday but i have not heard from them.  I hope i do.  I went every saturday with my dad and brother to visit my papou and yiya {that’s Greek for grandfather and grandmother} for hours and hours and hours.  My dad took us there to escape home and the world.  We got our family history lessons there as well as our early schooling. We learned our family history; we learned our languages, we learned our alphabets, our number and our maths.  My grandparents spoke 18 languages other than English between them.  My great uncle Louis would come and help us with other things like cars, boats, trains, planes, and film.  He knew all that stuff.  Aunt Georgia {Great Uncle Louis’s wife} taught us how to cook.  So did yiya Flora.  So did papou Gus.  Okay?  Good.  None of our cousins cared for any of this stuff so me and Robbie were privileged to learn and acquire all this knowledge.  Robbie got interested in airplanes and then backed out of all the languages and histories.  He died tragically blowing his brains out because my mother and father and sister cut him out of the business and left him in debt.  He owed some $15,000,000 in fees to the Government and Florida.  His house was being repossessed, his cars impounded, and his boats seized.  awful for him.  i don’t think even my parents knew this nor my adopted sister Beth.  I spoked to him about a week before he killed himself and he told me his tragic tale.  I never told anyone else before but since my family is dead and Beth estranged, it now can be made public and you may put this in your papers and tell Matthew Deitrich i okayed for him and you Sirs. 
Please contact me by phone, email, real mail at the following:

Mike Kerasotes
3017 Lombard Avenue 603W
Everett, WA USA 98201
425-422-5339
kerasotes@outlook.com
michaelkerasotes@gmail.com

Thank you so very much for this sirs and maams.  I know someone is reading my entries on my kerasotes.wordpress.com pages and i have finally figured out how to approve his comments and such. 

ALSO PLEASE TELL ME IF OUR BUILDING THE KERASOTES BUILDING was LANDMARKED.  I believe I talked to Judith about this in 2009.  She was going to have my Uncle Johnny Kerasotes do all the legwork but i don’t know if he did.  I hope you all got it done.  If not could you have Tony or Dean Kerasotes do the necessary running around searching the blueprints for facts dates figures measurements etcetera or perhaps my cousin Dennis Kerasotes {Uncle Johnny Kerasotes’s son} do it for us?  He might still live in Springfield.  Thanks.

Kindest regards,

me

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