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New Chapel, where Jimmy “The Greek” is entombed, Union Cemetery, Steubenville, Ohio

SPOILER ALERT: There is no head stone to visit, no special directional signage like the “1812 Veteran” or the “Fighting McCooks” or the “Grandparents of Woodrow Wilson” get, and there’s not even a place to leave a tributary poker chip or tip sheet from the nearby Wheeling dog track. No, when you actually arrive at the final resting place for Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, it’s on the very top row, well above even this tall blogger’s head height, inside a sterile mausoleum called the New Chapel, marked with a simple brass nameplate that’s barely legible standing on the floor in full daylight. The photo I took inside was so uninteresting I decided we’d just go with the exterior shot.

The Greek died of some combination of diabetes and coronary failure in 1996, the year after New Chapel was built at Union Cemetery in Steubenville, Ohio–Jimmy’s home town and an easy jaunt from Pittsburgh. Jimmy’s loved ones may have thought that having the latest and greatest in resting places for the family was practical (his sister Marika Berris died in 2009 and is entombed right next to Jimmy), but I’d guess that he was secluded high out of sight, out of mind, and–perhaps, most advantageously–out of reach from any malice that may have been directed his way in the afterlife.

Jimmy The Greek in livelier times

Jimmy The Greek’s rise and (epic) fall is legend to a generation that was paying attention to such things in the 1980s. He was a career sports bettor, television prognosticator, and outsize personality that injected street smart grit and spilled cigar ash on the sterile CBS studio where most of us first encountered him. Jimmy brought sports betting out of the bar and into post-church middle class living rooms by way of his weekly picks on The NFL Today.

Snyder was fired by CBS in 1988 for “racially insensitive comments” he made on camera at a banquet dinner. Whether Jimmy was actually a racist or just put his foot in his mouth on a topic he really didn’t have any business speaking on seems up for debate. Both his longtime NFL Today co-host Irv Cross (who is black) and Jessie Jackson defended Snyder and Jimmy famously spent the rest of his life apologizing for the incident, humbled and disgraced. The world largely turned its back on him, which is perhaps how he ended up nearly un-locatable in Steubenville.

entrance gate, Union Cemetery, Steubenville, Ohio

Union Cemetery entrance gate

The Greek’s surroundings in the New Chapel are particularly sad considering the phenomenal beauty of the rest of the park. He’s going to spend eternity in a mausoleum that looks like a Denny’s while the rest of the of his neighbors are ensconced in the tree-filled, lush rolling hills of this gorgeous circa-1845 cemetery.

Union Cemetery has the characteristic design of others from this era: non-linear paths that work around the topography and ancient trees that grow between–and sometimes up and over–the graves. The markers are notably more humble than those in Pittsburgh’s Allegheny or Homewood cemeteries, and have suffered a greater natural decay (cheaper material? harsher climate? less maintenance?). But taken as a whole, it has a similar level of natural beauty, solace, history, and nature-without-man chaos.

Statuary, Union Cemetery

Union Cemetery takes extra pride in their veterans. The (many) Civil War graves each have a special iron shield, many still painted red, white, and blue, marking them as “Union Soldier”. Veterans from Cuba, World Wars I and II, and Korea each got similar, if less ornate, treatment. Vietnam veterans have an entire section to themselves, sharing space with large mortar cannons.

I don’t know that I can recommend a trip to Steubenville just to visit Jimmy The Greek, but we found some other interesting things while we were there (more about that in some future dispatch). However, if you’re in the area, and it’s as beautiful a day as we got, The Orbit has its own tip for you: do yourself a favor and stop by to say hello to The Greek.

Union soldier grave marker, Union Cemetery, Steubenville, Ohio

Union army grave markers, Union Cemetery

Every couple months I need a fix and I head to Bellevue to see my guy. No! Nothing like that, I’m talking about mysterious hums and dropping volume, waning vacuum tubes and blown capacitors. Maintaining old guitar amplifiers is like having teenagers (I hear), or driving a Peugeot (ditto); I love them, but they cause me so much suffering! Luckily, I know somebody who can hook me up.

Phil’s TV-Radio Service sits in an unassuming building on an otherwise residential side street in Bellevue. In the big front room, crowded by the incoming patients, oscilloscopes, tube testers, frequency analyzers, repair manuals, and spare parts works Mr. Fix-it: Don Polito.

Phil’s TV-Radio Service, Bellevue

Don’s father (the eponymous Phil) opened the shop in 1954 and Don has been repairing electric gadgets since 1964. Stepping inside the shop, one sees the breadth of his domain: old console radios, turntables, amplifiers, televisions, compact disc players, boomboxes, and, occasionally, Don’s favorite thing to fix, organs. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen toasters, blenders, and microwave ovens there too, but don’t quote me on that.

The shop is decorated with a treasure trove of old signed photographs, marketing materials for long-gone manufacturers, stray speakers and cables, and terrific hand-made signs for Don’s old engagements on “eminent organ”, solo and with The Velvetones.

Handmade posters advertising Don Polito's organ engagements

Posters from Don’s organ gigs, with and without The Velvetones

On my most recent visit, dropping off a sick Fender Twin Reverb, Don was fighting with a 1980s-era Zenith integrated stereo/turntable/tape deck whose spindle was failing and had developed an ugly buzz in the cartridge. He wasted no time putting this loitering blogger to work, me holding the turntable platter up to the light while he figured out how to reconnect the spindle to the retraction mechanism. The problem neatly solved, he moved on to the cartridge, tapping its housing with a screwdriver, searching for the cause of the noise, focused like a surgeon, listening for changes in the hiss for clues to the problem.

Uncle Sam Radio, crystal radio made by Don’s father

A couple years back, I had just seen Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie (a great documentary film on the early mechanical/tape-based sampling keyboard) and I brought up Mellotrons the next time I was in the shop. Don stopped what he was doing, his eyes lit up, and he reeled off some great stories about an array of pre-electronics: reverb units in open canisters of oil, keeping units at the right temperature, etc.

I would tell you to stop by and give Don your business if you had anything in need of repair, but when I suggested it Don explicitly told me “No–I don’t need any more business!” So don’t do that. But if you want to drop by and talk organs (human or musical), I’m sure Don would love to chat.

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A Visit with Jimmy The Greek

Mr. Fix-it: Don Polito