Gridiron Showdown: Packers-Bears and the Young Rockers (Hour 3)

Broadcasting live statewide from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Schwabba, your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now a guy who thinks chickens dream of one day being pot pies, Pete Schwabba.

Welcome to Night Light, folks.

Hey, you made it.

It's Friday.

Friday night in Wisconsin in December.

Got a little bit of snow coming down.

The trees are lit up.

It is festive and beautiful in our state tonight.

Welcome to Nightlight.

It is great to have you.

We've got a great show planned for you tonight, hoping to end your week off with a good note here.

And when I say good note, that does not mean Conrad is going to sing.

Conrad, how are you tonight?

You

don't want me to

sing?

Well, you can.

I mean, we do do comedy on the show, so I guess that would be okay.

But, you know, it would be great though if you had like this amazing, if you sang like an angel.

And I don't mean to be like cynical, but something tells me you're not a good singer, but please, by all means, if you can prove me wrong, you are welcome to do that.

You know, I was always, you know, the worst person in choir class, so.

I'm impressed that you took choir class, at least you tried.

Well, it was either band or choir, and I took choir.

See, that's gutsy.

Because you're you're putting yourself more out there when you sing than when you play an instrument

You know why I did it though because all my friends were in the inquire.

Okay, so I did it and then I didn't do any in high school But I did it and it's eighth grade and we had to do one of them.

Okay,

so

I

mean There's some nice pipes.

Yeah.

All right.

Sounds like you're kind of a follower though.

That surprises me I pegged you more as a leader.

Yeah, that's all right

I'm doing good though.

We had some nice drives today.

You had your, you parlayed your singing voice into a radio gig, which is good.

Exactly.

Hey, that was the first time, okay, Conrad and I have been working together for two years, folks.

But last night was a first in our friendship slash work relationship and Conrad was in my car.

I gave Conrad a ride.

back to our hotel, because he ubered it.

You ubered it.

It was like an hour uber.

It cost you $1,000.

But I got you back.

I saved you some money on the way back.

Yeah, I was just, you know, I don't know if you saw my foot.

I was on the break the whole time, you know?

What was it, like a driver's ed car or something?

We got a ride back to Civic Media from Jenna after the screening last night at the Godfather of Green Bay, which was lovely.

We'll share some details in just a moment.

But this is a Friday edition, folks.

And we are doing, we've got great guests tonight.

This is going to be fun.

We have packed, we got five guests, Conrad,

right?

Why do I have, okay.

So we've got five guests.

And this is, it's going to be insane.

I don't think we've ever, have we ever had five guests before?

I think this is a nightlight first.

Oh man, it's gonna be insane.

We'll figure out a way to get through it though.

I don't wanna tell you who the guests are in just a moment, but right now, before we do anything, we're gonna try to get that text line jumping, get some blood pumping here on a Friday night because we've got our text-to-win contest.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is our grown-up multi-state text-to-win contest here at Civic Media, and we could put $200 in your pocket today.

How do you feel about that, folks?

Who doesn't need 200 bucks?

I do.

Look, I'm loaded and I could still use 200 bucks, right?

What do you got?

What are you like a thousand here?

You probably got a thousand bucks to your name, right?

Dollar air.

Okay, so Conrad could use 200 bucks.

He can't play though, but you can.

All you need is the app folks and you just text in the keyword.

I'm about to give you in about two minutes and you can get the ball rolling.

Hopefully we can put a couple hundred bucks in your pocket and in doing so you'll be automatically enrolled.

for our three grand prizes of our adult, it's a grown-up contest.

It's a grown-up gift list.

These are not for kids.

So bear in mind and you'll know why when I tell you what these gifts are.

A brand new snowblower, which let's be honest, it looks like we're gonna need it this winter.

You always know we're in bad shape when snow starts coming down and it's not even forecast.

That's

bad.

Yeah, it's done that actually the last couple nights.

Exactly.

It's terrible.

I hate it.

All the more reason one of our grand prices is a brand new snowblower, a stainless steel cookware set, or a portable air conditioner.

So lots of fun there, folks.

And maybe you win 200 bucks in one of the grand prices.

It's fantastic.

All you need is the app to play and text in the keyword that I'm about to give you momentarily.

What is the date today, Conrad?

Well, it's Friday.

Friday the 5th.

This is a long week.

It's gonna be a long week.

Yes, it is.

All right, here we go, folks.

Tonight's hour one keyword here in the five o'clock hour is cheer, C-H-E-E-R.

Cheer, C-H-E-E-R.

Do you notice the theme to these words?

They're sort of seasonal, holiday related.

Festive?

Yeah.

So that's our hour one keyword, cheer.

C-H-E-E-R, folks.

Go to town, win yourself some money.

and an adult gift, a grown-up gift, if you will.

And good luck, everybody.

I hope it pans out.

So let's go over our guest list tonight.

I almost said our gift list.

Let's talk about our guests, because this is going to be fun.

We've got, right out of the gate, Susan Kaya Slooster.

She will be here at 535 from the Wisconsin Historical Society.

She is the director of the Southwest Region.

which includes Villa Louie.

A really cool event is happening at Villa Louie over the next couple weeks.

Susan will be here to discuss the event, a beautiful site, one of 12 that the Wisconsin Historical Society has, an outstanding organization.

Susan will be here at 535 to tell us how you can be a part of their really cool event coming up this weekend and next.

At 610, Ezekiel Drews will be here.

He's the founder.

of the Milwaukee Independent Film Awards, a very cool and brand new festival.

It's only their second year, and Ezekiel has built this thing from scratch.

He's had a lot of help, but he is a mover and a shaker, and he's also a very fine actor.

He'll be here at 6.10.

And then WGBW Afternoon Host, Eric Westfall will be here at 6.35.

Eric's gonna tell us about a play he is in that you can see.

Are you a live theater guy, Con?

Do you go to see live shows?

I don't often, but I don't mind it, you know?

It's a lot of fun to go to some of those shows.

It's so, to me, like I've said this before last year, we went to see Frank's Christmas show, Frank Hermans, and it just totally, I took my wife and two kids, or they took me, and it just put us in the mood.

Some great, the Meyer Theater is so beautiful this time of year.

The show was great.

Eric is going to tell us about a Christmas Carol.

He's in a Christmas Carol.

He plays Bob Cratchit.

And we'll get the lowdown on that as well.

Another Christmas classic.

But I encourage people to go see live theater this time of year.

It really does put you in the Christmas mood.

And then at 7 0 5, do we know if Mike's coming in or calling?

I'm not sure.

We will take Mike any way we can get him.

He is our Civic Media Sports Authority, but we're going to talk a little Bears Packers with Mike at 7.05.

And then it is also, if that weren't enough, it's a Barman Friday night.

Terry Barr will be here at 7.35 bringing the new tunes.

She is our Wisconsin music expert and one of the award-winning co-hosts of the award-winning Max Inc Radio on WMDX that airs every Saturday night from 6 to 9 in Madison.

And you can also catch those podcasts at civicmedia.us.

Outstanding show outstanding person Terry will be here.

There you go five guests That's like three nights worth of shows So there you go, but it's gonna be fun.

I'm excited to talk to everybody tonight It's gonna be a lot of a great conversation here.

So join the fun folks Text us what's on your mind if you have a question for a guest or an opinion, please feel free to chime in and We also have an excellent question of the night.

Let's all right, so

Last night, we had this, I thought it was done talking about this screening, but apparently I'm not, because last night I want to thank everybody who came out last night to the Atwood Music Hall in Madison.

We had a screening, it was the 20th anniversary screening of my film, The Godfather of Green Bay, sponsored by Civic Media, the WMDX morning show, John and Gordy, and Downdren's Distilling.

We packed over 100 people into the Atwood Music Hall, and what a great venue that is.

I don't know if you guys have been there, but check out shows at the Outwood Music Hall because it is so like quaint.

They can fit like 300 people, but the way they have the chair set up, it was just like the perfect venue because it looked packed and it was such a great crowd.

And I had a lot of old friends there.

Some of the listeners were there.

It was fun to meet you guys.

I really appreciate you coming out and the movie went over really well.

There were some big laughs and some great socializing afterwards.

And what a great venue that was.

Conrad was there taking pictures.

Did you get some good shots?

There are some great shots.

I wasn't the only one taking pictures, actually.

I'm not accusing you of anything.

One of

us took some good pictures, and I think it was a lot of fun.

And getting to see that movie on the big screen.

With an audience, which is how comedy should be viewed.

Exactly.

There

were some laughs, and it was just a lot of fun.

Because I ask you, and here's the difference an audience can make when it comes to comedy, folks.

When Conrad first watched that movie, I said, so you watched the movie and he said, yeah.

Yeah.

I did.

I watched it by myself.

And it's not the same.

It's like with a crowd last night and people packed in there on a very cold night.

So it was a extra special shout outs to everybody that was there because it was a tough night to leave the house.

I got to say just I told you this last night and Mike Siegel was on the show last week and it was just hilarious to see him.

Everybody was on this week.

He was played that character so well in the movie.

He did.

You know.

It's interesting because I had four of my good stand-up friends, Steve Sieger and Mike Siegel, Jimmy Pardo and Mike Toomey.

They've all been on the show.

A lot of you guys know them separate of this show too by their works, but Mike, you know, when you're working with a producer who doesn't know my friends and he's like, okay, what is this?

Just you're going to cast all your friends and this is the Pete Fest with all your buddies.

So I had to pick and choose and

Initially, Mike was going to play a different role.

He had a guy to play the driver character, Tony Goldman's driver, who broke his ankle playing basketball.

And he couldn't do it.

So I said, all right, let's move Mike to that.

I know Mike's going to do really well.

And he was twice as funny as the other guy.

It just was like a happy accident because you're right, he was so funny.

And when Tony Goldman walks into the hair, the towel dispenser and stares it down.

And then Mike gives it a, yeah, he was great.

So it was a really fun night.

Thank you again to everybody that came out.

Thank you to Doundren's Distilling.

And thank you to all the civic media people that were there.

Too many to name.

It was a nice show of camaraderie there.

And I'm deeply touched.

So thank you very much.

And I saved you a grand driving back to that hotel, buddy.

Yeah,

he

did.

And you never even chip in for gas.

You didn't even like offer.

Well, I told you I'm a dollar rear, so.

I'm not gonna shake it down for money.

All right, I think it's time we get to our night like question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Questions.

Here we go.

What is your favorite buddy movie?

Did I get that right?

I sent that last night.

That's the question, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, what is your favorite buddy movie?

I got one.

Mine's Midnight Run.

Charles Groten, Robert De Niro.

Very funny, touching, great story, a time suspenseful.

One of those movies that is damn near, in my opinion, flawless.

And I saw a texture, I haven't read the whole text yet, mentioned Dumb and Dumber, and that's a great one too.

But 8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

8-5-5-7-5 Civic.

Let us know what your favorite buddy movie is.

You can also text us on the app right after you send in the keyword.

Text us your favorite buddy movie.

Or if you're watching the radio on the stream at YouTube, Facebook, or X, you can drop us a stream comment and we'll read it on the radio.

You got one, Con?

Yeah, I said anything with Kevin Hart in

the rock.

Oh, God.

Everything with you is Kevin Hart in the rock.

No, that was just me joking.

See I can't tell me more cuz you know what that's your go-to joke, and I think you're joking But I think you owe the listeners an explanation.

No, it's well, you know I actually do like some of their films some of them are okay, but Jamaji them together and that is hilarious.

Yeah, my actual favorite Well, just you know, it's I'll tell you after the break.

Tell me after the break.

All right We got a nice little message to coming your way from sturgeon spirits to this is nightlight with peach waba on the civic media radio network

That's good.

We don't want to go crazy with the Christmas music already.

Because I love Christmas music, but I don't want to be sick of it by like December 9th.

Right?

I'm already sick of it.

Are you really?

Yeah.

I'll tell you what, I'm sick of the weather.

We've got weather outside and I, weather is starting to piss me off.

It's

only December 5th.

My God.

I don't think it's just, it's, it makes it worse that it's snowing, but it's just how cold it is right now.

Yeah, but it's not as bad like yesterday.

It was horrible.

Yeah.

Like in Madison, I could not believe how cold it was.

It was insane.

But I can do one or the other.

I could do snow or I could do cold.

But if it's going to be crazy cold, I don't want ice on the roads.

I want to be able to walk.

Yeah.

And if there's going to be snow, I want it to be at least in the 20s.

So you don't get the ice.

Yeah, I get that.

I can't

do both, right?

Well, yeah.

I don't know.

I don't know if you're going to get that.

You know some very confident your Conrad weather forecast We've got some bear packer talk the game is getting close dude.

Yeah, you

know was fun last night in my in the Godfather of Green Bay There's a whole bear packer thing happening.

Mm-hmm So we had a fun talk about that in the Q&A last night and a little bit before so that was fun Now we got the actual game Mike Clemens is coming in to discuss it Conrad and I will discuss a little bit.

It's nice to have we've got some see this wouldn't be fun if you were a bear fan

It wouldn't be as fun.

Or if

I was

a Packer fan, this is like a little bit of a tension here.

I

like it.

So this is exciting, folks.

You're listening to Nightlight, of course, with Peach Wabba.

And now, are you listening, Conrad?

Because I'm going to give

you a

recipe you can go home and make.

Oh,

yeah.

OK.

This is the perfect time to highlight our new addition.

I love this segment, our cocktail of the week.

And it's courtesy of Sturgeon Spirits.

This week, their featured cocktails are

Get ready for this.

You might want to write this down, folks.

A chocolate-covered cherry martini and Christmas orange.

Those just both sound amazing already.

Here's a recipe to make yourself a chocolate-covered cherry martini.

Now, I've had a chocolate martini.

I think I've had cherry juice in some form in a martini.

I've never had them together here.

So this sounds really cool.

And an ounce and a half of Oaks Chocolate Lecour, a collaboration between Oaks Chocolate and Sturgeon Spirits.

One and a half ounces of Dore County Cherry Vodka.

One half ounce of vanilla vodka, a splash of grenadine, and a splash of cream.

Shake well in a martini shaker, then serve with a cherry as a garnish.

Now...

There's two drinks here.

I think I would go with that one, but you tell me what you think Yeah,

the martini sounds so

martini sounds great, but here's another one This is the Christmas orange to make the Christmas orange at home Take one ounces take an ounce of blood orange gin one ounce of mocha liquor a half ounce of triple sec and a half ounce of orange juice serve in a six ounce rocks glass over ice or even better

Stop by their tasting room in Oshkosh and mention our show Nightlight to get a dollar off this month's featured cocktail or stop in Friday and grab a slice of pizza from Chef Gus.

I think a pizza too, I didn't know that.

That's Sturgeon Spirits, local flavor mixed with a little creativity.

Carl does an amazing job there.

What

would you go for?

I'm definitely going with that, Martini.

Well, I'm just not much of a gin fan, I'd say, but I've had a key lime, Martini.

when I was in Florida, like two years ago or something like that.

And that was the first martini I've ever had.

Really?

So you haven't had like a full-blown plain martini

yet?

Not a plain one, but you know those sugary ones, those ones that taste like dessert?

Yeah.

I have a dose and they're just dynamite.

Vodka, okay.

I don't, here's my problem, is I started with the dirty martini.

I do like half dirt.

I'll say a martini, a vodka martini.

Half

dirt.

Can you put dirt in there?

Yeah.

Also known as olive juice.

And I can't go back because I love olives so much.

I can't go back to like, like my dad when, when my parents were young, he would just drink vermouth and gin or vodka and I can't do that.

I need a little something, something savory in there, salted up

a bit.

Okay.

Okay.

But these are both great.

So I knock yourself out, folks, have some fun with those recipes from Sturgeon Spirit.

It's great stuff.

Our question of the night is, what is your favorite buddy movie?

And Rita in the 608 says planes trains and automobiles.

Great one.

Great one.

We just talked about that at Thanksgiving.

It's like the only Thanksgiving movie.

Yeah.

Most well

known

probably, but a great buddy movie on its own.

John Murray from Madison in the 608 says, so stupidly funny Ken Paxton and Kelly LeBrock.

Oh

my

God, fun and sexy.

I don't think I know that movie.

Oh, then he elaborates, weird science.

I know Kelly LeBrock was in Weird Science.

That's great, John.

Brett from the 920 says, a favorite buddy movie, Up in Smoke, Cheech and Chong Baby.

Well done, Brett.

Thank you, sir.

Brett also says, I saw your movie on 2B.

Oh, I think he's referring to the Godfather of Green Bay.

He says, I saw your movie on 2B and it was really good.

I love the characters in the bar.

When the skinny dude starts talking about deer hunting, I laugh so hard, I peed a little.

Oh, I'm sorry about that, Brett.

Brett says, but I'm 63.

I dribble.

Brett is frighteningly honest in his texts.

Thank you for watching it, Brett.

I'm glad you didn't have to pay.

It's even my movie, Brett.

I could have got a quarter of a penny if you went to Amazon.

Maybe I wouldn't even have gotten that much, but thank you.

I'm glad you got to see it.

Rita from the 608 says, oh, Rita was there last night.

She says, I went to see your movie last night.

It was so great.

It made us laugh.

I needed a good laugh.

Thank you, Pete.

You are very welcome, Rita.

Thank you for braving the elements and showing up.

You have no idea how much that was appreciated.

So thank you.

Rich Lucaccio says, smoking the bandit.

You ever see that?

It was before your time.

No, I actually, I've heard of it.

I've never seen it though.

Brent Reynolds, Dom DeLewis, Jackie Gleeson, Funcast.

Uh, I say Midnight Run.

Janet, who was there last night, too, in the 6.08, says, I love you, man.

I think she's talking about the movie Conrad.

Yeah, Paul Rudd.

That's such a good, that's such a funny film.

I've never seen it.

It's great.

Yeah, that's right here.

I gotta add that to the list.

Uh, Daniel Wheeler, Danny Wheels says, too many to name, but I'll throw The Heat with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy in the ring.

Oh yeah, that's a great one.

I don't know if I saw that either.

Sean Boyce, uh, gotta throw Tommy Boy in the mix.

Phenomenal.

And that's the most I've ever liked David Spade.

Isn't that movie?

I

have a love-hate thing

with

that.

But he's hilarious in that movie.

Alan Martin says, does some like it hot count?

It absolutely does.

Alan Martin from the Chicago area.

And Chuck Gennaro, our civic media pal, Chuck says, Dumb and Dumber.

Agreed, Chuck.

Awesome choice.

We'll get to more of your texts coming up.

We're going to do the news, and then we're coming back with Mike Clemens, right, huh?

We got 18,000 guests tonight.

No, it's

not Mike Clemens.

No, not yet.

It's Susan.

Susan will be here in the

Wisconsin Historical Society.

Coming right back, it's Pete Schwabba and Nightlight on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Time to light it up, folks.

We have our first guest here and our first guest of the night on this particular night.

It's brought to you by Chicken or the Egg Photography.

Chris specializes in food, event music, and product photography for businesses across Wisconsin and the Midwest.

See what he can do for you at chickenortheegphotography.com.

Chris does great work, folks.

Give him a chance.

All right, I'm excited to welcome my first of many guests tonight.

We're gonna jump into some really cool nostalgic holiday talk here compliments of the Wisconsin Historical Society the director of the Southwest regional sites and that includes a villa the we Joins me now over the stream Susan Kaya Schluster.

Hi Susan Peter.

How are you?

Oh, you're on the phone.

You're not on the stream my mistake It doesn't matter as long as we can hear you.

How are you doing tonight?

I'm good.

We actually just got done with our first day of teas, so we had a busy day.

You know, it's so funny you say that.

That sounds so old-fashioned, and I love it.

And I don't know that I like tea.

I don't know that I've ever been to a tea.

So can you describe what a tea is for those of us?

And I'm guessing there's a lot of people listening that have never been to a tea.

Sure.

So we, this will be our third year of doing these Christmas teas.

Um, it came out of a way, um, idea I had to re-engage people who had been to our Christmas programming in the past.

Um, because to me, the Dowson mansion and the home village, it's beautiful, but I was thinking like, how can we, you know, one up this?

And so we decided to host a tea and

While we can't host the tea itself in the mansion because of the documented restoration that we've been through in the collection,

we

host it in our 1851 Brisboy Stone Warehouse.

It's a beautiful building and we decorate it with fresh greenery for Christmas.

We are in period costume.

We are dressed as cooks, servants, as you may.

We have two different teas that we serve and we have a variety of

finger foods and delicious treats going off of different menus of the time period.

We don't know exactly what Mrs. Dowson would have served if she had folks over for tea.

And then this year, to change it up a little bit, since it is our third year, we decided to focus on some different ethnic ideas of the servants that worked for the Dowson family, large German or region Irish background.

So we have some rosettes.

that we're serving to honor the region.

We have some Swiss brazzelli cookies.

I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly.

And then we have, it's literally called this in the cookbook that we pulled it from.

It's called a prairie duchine fruit cake.

And it went over well today.

And the best thing about it is it's soaked in a cheesecloth or it's wrapped in a cheesecloth that's been soaked in brandy for a week.

Oh my gosh.

Can you drive home after eating a crust like

that?

Well, last year we served little snippets of the cake during tours, and when I first tried it, I was like, whoa, it actually has a punch.

It's very, very good.

That's great.

All right, so you serve all these great finger foods.

You've got cream and jam, ham finger sandwiches, and I love that you serve molasses cookies and sugar plums, very seasonal.

I have to say, you also have minced meat pie.

It says, what are mincemeat tarts?

What is mincemeat?

Well, we do basically consider like a mock.

Mincemeat is actually nuts.

You know, when people think of mincemeat, they're thinking of like, gosh, what kind of meat are they using when they're doing that?

And this is, you know, the mincemeat is different like nuts and figs.

So.

It's when you put it all together, it's where you get that minced meat.

And so ours are a mock

minced meat.

It's

not the actual.

And you know, quite honestly, I don't know what a real minced meat

would be.

You know what?

It sounds really good.

Like I like nuts.

I like figs.

I don't, I think it's the meat that throws me.

Like it seems like it shouldn't even be in the title, but I've always wondered what it was.

I've always wondered what it was.

So yes, I think it does throw people off a little bit when you have that term in there.

All right.

So that's what you're serving.

And it's a tea.

Tell us a little bit.

Susan about the the Douseman family.

How did they come into prominence?

I know that the the leader of the family or the patriarch was called Hercules Douseman, but can you tell us a little bit about them and their background?

Sure, he first arrived in Paris Sheen in the mid-1820s working as a clerk for the American Four Company and comes down from Mackinac, Michigan.

He's sent here by his father Michael Douseman and who's

a major player in the fur trade as well.

And coming as a clerk of working his way up, he comes to what's really a rural, the frontier of the United States at that time.

But he quickly seems to, he's good with numbers.

It seems he's highly educated.

We're not exactly sure where he receives his education out East, but a lot of prominent fur traders would send their children out to schools out East to become educated and then come back to work in such positions.

and works his way up quickly through ranks.

And when the company is organized in this part of the region, he becomes part owner of what's considered the Western outfit.

But it's not the fur trade that makes his family wealthy.

He just seems to have a good sense of business and timing.

And while a lot of folks in his same situation go bankrupt when the fur trade goes on decline in this area, which is

the late 1830s, early 1840s, he's pulling money made off of that and reinvesting on the main investment is land speculation.

He is with different gentlemen forms, the group that brings the railroad to preaching from Milwaukee arrives in 1857.

And so what do you do where you know the railroad tracks are going to be laid?

You start purchasing land.

And he owned a lot of indecent properties in producing different office blocks and business blocks.

And so he had a lot of tenants.

But then, you know, what's not talked about a lot is kind of one of those behind the scenes stories, but I'm very happy to say that it's going to come to light with a new book coming out this spring.

It's actually a lot of his wealth comes to his marriage to Jane Fisher-Rollett, who is the widow of his business partner in the fur trade.

And, you know, as women at this time period, they're married in 1844.

Um, she doesn't, you know, once you're married, the, the husband takes over the property rights.

And so she's very wealthy, um, coming from a fur trade family, brings lots of land into the marriage.

Well, that's how Hercules then is able to really jumpstart his wealth.

And then with the, um, you know, start this war, he doesn't serve.

He's too old to serve his one son, Louis.

Oseman is too young to serve, but they make money off of the shipment of truth.

He also is owner of different Great Lakes steam boats and own stock and steam traffic.

And also his brothers, George and Talbot Chambers, Nelson, Wisconsin is named after his brother, Talbot Chambers, Wisconsin.

So they are in the land speculation, they're into transportation, and that's where the wealth of the family comes from.

Wow, great.

That was excellent information.

So where does the term Susan Louis or Villa Louis come from?

Where does that derive from if the family were the Dowsems?

Is that one of the sons was named Louis?

Yes.

So Hercules Louis Dowsems in the second, that is the one son that Hercules and his wife Jane would have together.

And he is born on 1848 in April of 1848.

And he is named after his father, but I was always by Louis.

unless, you know, he's writing his name and signing a document, but affectionately referred to as Louis.

His mother was, you know, French-Canadian.

And what's interesting, I think, you know, I talked about this.

This is called Ville-Louis, but it's on Ville-Louis Road, which I've never understood that definition here in Paris-De-Chine, but always referred to as Louis.

And unfortunately, Louis dies at a very young age.

He is settled here in Prairie to Sheen.

He builds this new wonderful modern home, which is finished in January of 1871.

He marries his wife Nina Sturges in 1873.

They have five children together.

They really become a part of the elite St.

Louis society.

They moved there for a period of time.

But after his mother dies, they decide to really transform themselves and transform the estate here in Prairie to Sheen to a horse farm.

that during that transformation is when he dies in January of 1886 at the young age of 37.

And it's after the death when his widow renamed the estate the Villa Louis after her husband.

My guest is Susan Kayes Schlusser, who works for the Wisconsin Historical Society.

She's the director of the Southwest Regional Sites, which includes Villa Louie on the beautiful Mississippi River.

We're talking about an event they have coming up here this weekend and next.

It's the Villa Louie Christmas Tea.

And you're also doing guided tours.

Before the tea, what can people expect to see on the guided tour, Susan, if they show up?

So we've changed it this year a little bit.

In the past, we featured the lovely grand piano where they would hear Christmas music coming from it.

But we decided to change it up a little bit and highlight unique objects from the collection that often don't get seen or talked about.

And it's actually Christmas gifts that we know were given at Christmas time from various family members.

And so guests will come into the house and see the house decorated.

We do know that the family was buying fresh greenery, and actually we have the receipts and bills for a very big Christmas celebration in December of 1893.

And the greenery was shipped over from Milwaukee on train.

Fresh fruit was ordered from Milwaukee.

Some very special things were shipped over from New York.

So this is a really big Christmas celebration, not only because they celebrate Christmas because they were a Catholic family, but also Virginia Dowsman, the second oldest daughter, was turning 18.

And this is kind of their reintroduction into prairie dishing society, and they decided to really do Christmas up.

And so when we decorate it, going off of the bills and receipts, but then once you go into the home, we get the tour guide, you then go into the parlor and sit down and our curator, Mary Elise Antoine, will then highlight some of these different Christmas gifts that many people have never seen before.

Wow, that sounds fantastic.

The combination Christmas tea and tour is $60 per person and is open to guests ages 13 and older.

Where can people find out more information, Susan?

We have both a Facebook page and our website and our website.

It's pretty easy.

This is www.dallelui.org.

It sounds so fun.

Now, there are 12 Wisconsin Historical Society sites, and they're all amazing.

If you just take a few minutes and read about them, folks, they're really a treasure that we have here in this state.

Where does Villa Louis Susan rank in terms of popularity with the 12 sites, would you say?

So being located in the southwestern part of the state, in terms of attendance, I think we are number four.

behind Old World, of course, with their population center near Milwaukee.

And then Circus Road, because he doesn't love a circus.

And then

I moved back to Black Point because of their location in Lake Geneva, which also having the lake and the boat ride.

And I believe our attendance is right behind them.

So what's different with Villalui versus some of those other sites, though, is we are a national historic landmark.

So we have landmark status where I think Circus World has a building that has landmark status.

And we have three buildings that have national historic landmark status.

So we don't have the same attendance numbers, but we really wow them with our collection when people walk through.

About 90% of what folks are seeing is original to the Dawson family.

And then just the attention to detail with the restoration.

Um, and I should know when people do come to visit us, the house looks a little different today.

Um, because we are right in the middle of a $3 million restoration

of

exterior.

Um, and so we just buttoned up for the year.

Um, and there is some Tyvek on the veranda.

Um, the contractor we've been, they've been hand stripping paint off of the veranda.

We'll be receiving two new ropes.

Um,

Cup pointing work on windows Some foundation work and so it's an exciting project and an exciting investment from the Wisconsin Historical Society on the state of Wisconsin

Fantastic.

Oh, we'll have a couple more minutes with our guest our guest Susan K s looser that's coming up next on nightlight with peach wabba on the civic media radio network

Welcome back.

I'm

Pete Schwab, and this is Nightlight.

Great to have you with me on this Friday, closing down the week together here.

talking about some of the things that really get us excited in life.

And right now we are talking with Susan Kayesh-Lusser, who is the Southwest Regional Sites Director for the Wisconsin Historical Society.

And that includes Villa Louie.

And we're going to get back to Susan in just a moment right now, though, a reminder, folks, this hour's keyword, text this in on your phone, and you are eligible to win $200, our daily prize, and automatically be enrolled for our grand prizes in our multi-state text to win.

Grown up gift list, text to win contest here at Civic Media.

This hour's keyword reminder is cheer, C-H-E-E-R, C-H-E-E-R.

Text that in has to be on the app.

Good luck everybody.

If you notice Conrad, I did not ask you to spell cheer.

Thank you.

You know, it's

a little

stuff.

It's a

little

struggle when you're on the radio.

All right, let's get back to our guest.

Susan is with us.

We are talking about the guided tour in special Villa Louis Christmas tea.

And that takes place today.

They had their first one tomorrow and Sunday and then the 12th, 13th and 14th as well.

If you'd like more information, go to VillaLouis.org.

That's V-I-L-L-A-L-O-U-I-S dot O-R-G.

So Susan also a shout out to Rebecca Warner who works very hard for the Wisconsin Historical Society and provides us with guests here periodically Thank You Rebecca and you've been here before right Susan you were here last year, correct?

Yes,

okay.

Were we talking about Vila Lluido or a different site?

No, we were talking about

Vila.

Okay What do people it must be fun for the employees are they employees or actors that they get to dress up in these really cool nostalgic costumes?

Um, they're all of our, they're all employees.

Um, and I think we have one, um, it was fun today for me.

I was in the kitchen, um, working in the mansion in the kitchen and I had a new staffer who just started this summer.

She's 16 years old and she was working in the kitchen with me for the first time ever and we had a lot of fun working together.

And I said she could come back and work in the kitchen anytime.

Um, and so it's fun to have someone that is interested in doing that because working on a wood stove is not very easy.

Um, when you're, you know, first getting going and I'm sure it was probably a little imitating to be in there with me, um, her boss, but we had fun, um, even though someone could smile that we had burnt a couple cookies that we did have to throw quickly into the snow out back.

Um,

but it was a lesson learned and but we just have a lot of fun doing it and it's fun.

This is an outlet for us as well.

Like I said, it's a way for us to re-engage past visitors but it's also a way for us to engage our expertise on the family and the history of Wisconsin and it's just a lot of fun all around.

You know, it's very well said.

I think Wisconsin is a great

Christmas state.

We've got snow, we've got hills, we've got rivers and lakes, and it's just like over the river and through the woods kind of a vibe.

And what you guys do at the Wisconsin Historical Society with all these Christmas events, we're very fortunate for the work that you guys do.

So I appreciate you coming on and I wish you luck with the guided tour and the tea.

Don't drink too much tea or eat too much of that crust that's doused with

all

kinds of alcohol because that could be trouble.

Well, thank you so much.

I really appreciate it.

You're welcome, Susan.

Have a great night and happy holidays.

Thank you, you

too.

All right, thanks.

Check out Villaluwe folks, Villaluwe.org.

I think every time we got to do something, we should organize like a bus trip.

Yeah.

Maybe like a couple's bus trip, a mingle.

We'll get a mingle.

We'll connect people.

We'll set them up on dates and they can meet and find romance over one of the many

Wisconsin historians.

There we go.

There we go.

You're driving the

bus?

I'll drive the bus.

Okay.

Metaphorically and actually.

No, it's a great, they do such great work, the Wisconsin Historical Society.

So check out, we've got more guests from Rebecca coming up next week too.

That's so much fun to talk to these folks.

Well, prediction for the game this week, Con?

Well, I think you know what I'm gonna say.

Let me ask you this.

I know what you're gonna say and we have talked about this a little bit.

Do you think

you know, there's two games within three weeks Do you think they're gonna split?

Do you think the Packers are gonna take both games?

You know, I

I do believe the Packers will take both Wow, is this Conrad

fanboy

or is this sports

journalist Conrad talking I'd

say a little bit of bull We're just playing some really good football after

I think after one of our losses, you know, they kind of like, we shouldn't have lost that game.

They really turned.

Yeah.

I mean, you saw Jordan love against the Lions on Thanksgiving.

That was like, I haven't seen that Jordan love in a while.

And it was fantastic to see that our defense played well enough to, you know, I mean, they still scored, you know, some decent amount of points to Lions did.

So I expect the game to be high scoring.

If we can stop the run, because that's what the Bears have been doing really well is running the ball.

We could, if the Packers can stop them, you know, there's a chance that we could, that's how I think we win is, you know,

we- Stopping the

run.

I'll

stop the run.

Conrad of the Packers.

I keep doing that.

That's

funny.

It's weird because I don't think, here's my issue.

Jordan Love is very good when there's no pressure on him.

If you can't pressure Jordan Love, he's a great quarterback.

And the Bears do not bring much of a pass rush.

So I really think that's how the Packers win.

And yeah, you're right.

If the Bears can run the ball in the Packers, they have a chance.

But yeah, I don't know.

Here's where I keep going.

Last year, in the last game, the Bears beat the Packers.

And the Bears were a terrible team.

They had an

awful coach.

They didn't have the line they have this year.

And I still feel like the Packers should be favored.

And they added Michael Parsons.

So both teams got better.

I don't know.

It's gonna be very interesting.

I really have no idea what to expect to be

honest with you It's gonna be a really fun game to watch.

Yeah, that's that's what I know.

I hope so

So we've got Ezekiel Drews will be here folks after the news in the six o'clock hour during act two He's gonna tell us he's gonna tell us about this really cool film festival He found it in the Milwaukee area called the Milwaukee Independent Film Awards Ezekiel's been here before we don't know if he'll have the pink suit on or not But he's a great guy and a very talented actor.

We'll do we'll find out some information for those of you in the Milwaukee area Where you can check out some really cool films this weekend.

We've got WGBW

Afternoon host Eric Westfall will be here at 6.35, Mike Clemens at 7.05, and a bar band Friday night with our pal Terry Barr.

It's 7.35 tonight.

It is a jam-packed Friday.

Hope you're having a wonderful evening and glad you're here, folks.

It's Peach Wabba in Night Light.

We're coming right back on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Broadcasting live from the Civic Media Studios in Green Bay.

This is Night Light with Pete Chwaba.

Your inside source on everything entertainment from Wisconsin to Hollywood.

And now, a guy who writes checks his mouth can't cash.

Pete Chwaba.

Welcome back.

Welcome back to Act 2 of Nightlight, folks, on a Friday night at gorgeous Winter's Eve here in Wisconsin with Christmas fast approaching.

It is snowing in Green Bay.

I hope it's beautiful wherever you're listening from, whether it's snow or just a chill in the air or whatever.

Hope you're having a great night and glad you're with me.

Conrad is on the other side of the glass working the board and making his Weisenheimer remarks as he often does.

He thinks the Packers are going to win.

Sunday and I would imagine most people in Wisconsin probably agree

I would probably say

They are favored by almost a touchdown Yeah, so the pundits are with you.

I I'm surprised, you know, I thought it'd be a little closer, but You

know,

I just I I just hope for a shootout, you know a fun game that both sides even no matter what happens you're like

It was a good game.

Dude, I remember when I was a kid, there were games like six to three, and it was just like running the ball in defense.

And, you know, you didn't know any better.

There was no, I think then the run and shoot offense came, and then the West Coast offense, then football got a little more fun to watch.

But yeah, it'd be nice if they put up some points.

Folks, if you missed the first hour, we had a great chat with Susan Kaya Slusser, who is from the Wisconsin Historicles.

Wisconsin Historical Societies.

Willow the Weed.

They're having a great event this weekend.

Check it out.

We talked a little bit about our event last night at the Atwood Music Hall in the Atwood neighborhood of Madison and the screening of the Godfather of Green Bay.

It was so great to see people out there and meet so many of you.

Appreciate you guys braving the cold and coming out and supporting a good cause because they wrote a nice check today to the Dane County Humane Society, which was fun.

People came in.

We got to hear some Baudin's music while people were being seated.

And they, of course, Kurt Newman and the Baudin's did the music for the movie.

So it was a lot of fun.

It was just a great night.

A lot of civic media people out there, a lot of listeners, a lot of old friends.

It was magical.

It was beautiful.

And are there pictures anywhere people can go check out?

I assume Amanda will post

them.

I don't think they're posting yet, but they will be.

All right.

So if you have pictures, folks, send them in.

We'll post them and we'll share them.

And we'd love to know what it looked like to you guys through the lens of your own cameras.

We got a text last night from our buddy, John in Madison, who I don't think lives far from the venue.

And he said, hi, Peter in Conrad.

Question for you, how cool do you think it would be if whenever you took your favorite gal or guy out on a cold Thursday to see the newest screening of a hilarious cult classic Wisconsin based movie and walk into immediately be greeted by the star and director of the movie only to be interrupted by John?

The man who was key to making it all happen, he's talking about John Hofer in Marinette, a hospital executive at the time who housed a casting crew and helped us get the film made.

John continues saying, and then laugh your ass off until your face is tired and your gut is sore.

Damn, what do you think of this model?

Really works for me and Mama.

Mama is Melissa from Willy Street.

Correct.

Yeah.

And John, this is John Murray, who sent this text to John and Gordy earlier.

John, it was great to meet you in person.

And Melissa, you guys were a blast.

And I cannot thank you enough for coming out.

A great hour coming up here to hour number two has officially begun.

And it's going to be fun.

In just a couple of minutes, I'm going to bring on the founder of the Milwaukee Independent Film Awards, Ezekiel Drews.

He's going to tell us about their festival, which is taking place now.

It just started today and it's happening all through the weekend.

They've got some great films.

And then WGBW afternoon host Eric Westfall is here because he is also an actor.

And he is, I was talking in the first hour about how I think live theater and live shows are so fun around this time of year and they really kind of enrich your Christmas spirit.

And Eric is going to tell us about a show he's in.

That's at 6.35.

Later in the show, Frank Clemens... Frank Clemens.

I got Frank Hermans on my brain.

Mike Clemens and Terry Barre for Barbe and Friday Night are a question of the night.

Let's reset, Con.

What do you say?

Let's play the fun music.

It's the nightlight question of the night.

Let's talk about the question.

Okay, question.

Question.

Question.

Pregunta.

Question.

Question.

Okay, I have a question.

Questions.

This question.

Domanda.

Question.

Questions.

Here we go.

What is your favorite buddy movie?

This is a good one.

We got a ton of responses.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2-8-5-5-7-5-CIVIC.

Let me know.

Favorite buddy movie.

There's so many good ones.

I know my wife loves Thelma and Louise.

Great buddy movie.

Mine is Midnight Run.

Robert De Niro.

Charles Groden.

And I put Dumb and Dumber.

A close second.

Conrad says the Kevin Hart.

Rock I didn't say my actual

one.

It's

wedding crashers.

Oh, that's a good one It's one of my favorite movies.

Just when I was growing up.

I just I can't remember how many times I've actually seen that movie Yeah, just it still gets funnier every time

that made me think of us wingers.

Have you seen swingers?

Yeah, I did after actually you I didn't know that was a thing until this the show What do you mean?

Well, I didn't know about the movie until

Oh, until this show, until Nightlight.

Gotcha.

Yeah, that's a great buddy, one, two.

All right, yeah, wedding crashes is great.

So let us know what yours is.

855-752-4842.

You can text us on the app, or if you're watching the radio on the stream over YouTube, Facebook, or X, you can drop us a stream.

Comment, too, like Lil' Irv did.

We met Lil' Irv last night, Con.

Also known as Dave.

He has many different aliases, probably because he's trying to lay low and keep his life on the QT.

He says, stir crazy.

Awesome.

That's Gene.

Wilder and Richard Pryor, I'm so delirious, I can't think.

He also says it's still fall until December 22, silly.

I've never been called silly by another man.

No, I feel about that.

Kind of a weird feeling there.

Apparently, Al Roker here on the stream is correcting, but that is true.

Technically, the winter solstice kicks off the official winter season.

All right, so we are gonna, all right, this is exciting folks.

I love talking about film festivals.

I love film festivals.

The movies are great and they're movies oftentimes people are not gonna see.

And then oftentimes people will go watch movies at a film festival and go, those are awesome.

How come I never will see these on Prime or whatever?

And sometimes you do, sometimes they get distribution, but sometimes they're just great films.

And film festivals are the only way to see them.

So God bless everybody.

who starts a film festival, and I'm about to welcome one of them right now.

He's the founder of the Milwaukee Independent Film Awards.

He's also a very talented actor, and he joins us tonight, wow, in what looks to be an outstanding costume.

He's outdone himself again, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Ezekiel Drews.

Hey, buddy.

Hey, Pete, how you doing?

I'm doing well.

Now, please explain this outfit.

I love it.

All right, so...

So I'm the man in a pink suit, but this year I wanted to shake things up.

So since we're founding fathers of a film festival, we have the colonial pink suits.

That's fantastic.

Where did you get that?

Amazon

of all places.

In no way.

That's so fun.

And what about the hat?

You got like a little George Washington vibe working there.

Yeah, there was also on Amazon.

Actually, it's amazing when you can get on Amazon.

I also have a wig, except for the fact that my head's too big for it, apparently, to wear the hat with it.

So it is what it is.

That's

right.

You don't have an ego.

You're just confident.

And I like that.

I've always liked that about you, Ezekiel.

OK, so, boy, you're in it right now, right?

I think you told me when we booked you on here that you were kicking off the festival tonight.

This is your second annual one.

Tell us what just happened before you came on.

Yeah, so we actually just started the second annual festival tonight.

about 10 minutes ago, I gave the opening remarks and I told a story about a filmmaker that unfortunately couldn't make it.

But one of the things about running an independent film festival is one of the great things is that you get to meet a lot of different filmmakers.

And this guy, he reached out to me and said, Hey, I can't make it.

I'm so sorry.

And so I, in his email, it had his phone number.

So I called him up.

I said, Hey, Dale, what's going on?

I can't make it, huh?

And he goes, yeah, I'm so sorry.

I've got a big object that's coming up now that landed in my lap and I've got to do all these script rewrites and everything.

But it wasn't until after I clicked cancel on my Airbnb that I just like kind of broke inside a little bit.

And he told me, I just want to let you know that your festival is quite literally the reason that I am still making film.

And I said, what do you mean, Dale?

And he says, your festival, you wrote a review for me, your vote of confidence in my film, which is his film is called Lights.

It won best short film last year.

And apparently he had submitted this film to many different festivals, over 30 festivals.

and he'd gotten rejected from 90 to 95% of those festivals.

And he was this close to just being like, you know what, maybe I just can't make film.

And it was, you know, he was newer at making films, but he told me that our support for his film is quite literally the reason why he continued to make film.

We've got

another one of his films that's screening tomorrow called Tomorrow Undead.

And so I'm really excited for people to see that.

I'm sorry you can't make it, but I just wanted to let him know.

I'm so thankful that stories like that are the reason that all the work that gets put into a festival like this, I'm happy to keep doing it so that way we can keep supporting indie filmmakers.

Dude, it's great work.

And I've sang the praises of film festivals.

I just love them.

And I applaud you for.

And I remember talking to you last year, you know, in the inaugural, do you call it Mipha or Mipha?

M.I.F.A.

Maifa and it's just I just love it.