The KISS Monolith

I mentioned last time that I've gotten pretty good at figuring out the history of a small town by walking around it.  I thought I had Cadillac Michigan neatly categorized as I walked along its lake shore park system.  The basic elements were all there.  Band Shell. check.  Renovated train station.  Check.  Memorial cannon.  Check, and I could tell from quite a distance that it was American, 105mm caliber, WWII vintage.

So when I saw a black slab of stone adjacent to the high school/middle school complex I figured it was a memorial to some tragic event, perhaps a traffic accident?  Nope. Instead on closer examination I saw this:

If you are not inclined to squint at the small print, the story is as follows.  In 1974 the Cadillac High School football team was having a tough season.  In an attempt to get a bit more energy into the squad the coach started playing KISS - loudly - in the locker room.  For that reason, or maybe just because, they started winning and took the conference title.  Somebody told KISS about this and after some communication they agreed to come and perform at the school in the fall of 1975.  It was quite the event.

Homecoming Parade float....

Hanging out with cheerleaders......

And perhaps most surprisingly, Gene Simmons personally painted the face of the town's Mayor!   Ace Frehley was heard to muse "Is he going to get re-elected like that?"

Its a fun little story, one that I found mostly HERE   (Also the source for the photos above).  But it got me wondering.....did the Mayor get re-elected?  Did the head cheerleader run off with the band?

The answer to the second question, happily for all concerned, seems to be no.  I won't intrude on her privacy but the young lady seems to have gone on to a happy and conventional life.

But as to the Mayor....

He is not identified in the photo but his name was Raymond W. Wagner.  He was not re-elected, in fact he resigned in 1976.  His expression in the above photo is very hard to interpret.  Clearly he was having the most bizarre day of his political career.  But under the Kabuki makeup is there a hint of sadness?

He still had a long life ahead of him, but it had known tragedy.  He had two sons, one of whom - at age 33 - had died in October of 1974 just as the KISS story was getting started.  And his other son, although there was no way to know it in this picture, was going to die in 1979.

Perhaps my first instinct, that the black stone was a memorial of sorts, was not entirely wrong.