Portland, Ind., is a community of 6,437 residents, according to the latest census information.
In Step With the Internet
Mention Twyla Tharp and images of New York City stages and avant-garde dance moves leap to mind. Mention the internet and visions of major international metropolises fill your imagination. Both Twyla Tharp and the internet have the small town of Portland, Indiana, in common.
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The dancer and choreographer Ms. Tharp grew up in small towns in Indiana and California. Little Twyla Tharp was born July 1, 1941, in the small city of Portland, Indiana, near the Ohio border. Some of the early settlers in the area were Quaker. Among the Quakers, was Twyla Tharp’s own grandparents.
Like children in small towns across the country, and probably around the globe, Twyla took music and dance classes in her home town. When she was only seven years old, she won the National Federation of Music Clubs’ piano competition.
The NFMC is a century-old organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. The NFMC is the sole music organization belonging to the United Nations. NFMC’s are found in most of the 50 United States and mostly in smaller cities, towns, and villages.
Her mother made sure Twyla’s accomplishment appeared in a local newspaper, the Dunkirk Star. Today Mrs. Tharp would probably have submitted her daughter’s big news to The Commercial Review.
By the time Twyla was eight years old, her family relocated to another small town. Her parents moved to Rialto, California, to open a drive-in theatre. At the time, Rialto barely had a population over more than 3,000.
Foothill Boulevard is preserved in history as part of Route 66. This street was home to the Wigwam Motel and, in August 1949, the Tharp family became the new owners of the Foothill Drive-In.
Twyla lived in small towns until she graduated high school and entered Pomona College in Claremont, California. At that time, Claremont was hardly more than a small town with a population of 12,633.
In 2007, Claremont was named one of the Top Five Best Places to Live in 2007 by Money magazine. This list, generated by CNN/Money.com, identified smaller communities as four of the top five. Claremont, at a current population of 35,900, is about twice the size of the largest of the first four top places.
About the time Tharp started college, Mary G. Meeker was born in rural Portland, Indiana. Meeker was dubbed “Queen of the Net” by Barron’s Magazine in 1998. She envisioned the internet as a communication tool and published reports for Morgan Stanley about internet advertising and e-commerce. She encouraged investment in the early internet startups such as Microsoft, AOL, Amazon.com, Yahoo! And eBay.
If you are reading this, thank Meeker for her investment research and advice that has helped make this medium grow and remain accessible. Go to Amazon and buy a copy of Twyla Tharp’s autobiography. Visit Twyla Tharp’s website or attend one of her lectures. Buy the movies Amadeus, White Nights, Hair, or Ragtime to see Tharp’s movie work.
These two women from small town America continue to impact our lives. Thank a small town. Thank a community of Less Than 10K.
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