Finding aid updated January 2024.
Collection is open to the public.
Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room.
Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time.
Permanent University Archive public records are available for research, and are subject to state, and in some cases federal freedom of information laws. In compliance with applicable state and federal laws, including, but not limited to, FERPA and HIPAA, specific records that are legally protected, sensitive, private, or confidential are exempt (not subject to disclosure) and closed to protect individual privacy.
Access to paper records will be granted after a professional review of the records occurs based on regulations in state and federal laws. Contact Special Collections and University Archives well in advance in order to access these records.
George Washington Korn (1898-1995) was born February 22, 1898 in Iowa to Harry Henry Korn and Annie Leegen. In the early 1900's, George and his family moved to Portland, Oregon where his father operated a bakery. Around 1910, the family moved again, this time to Eugene, where Harry again set up shop as a baker. When it first opened, his bakery was called the University Bakery, and was located halfway between the university campus and downtown Eugene. As a young man, George worked as a clerk at the bakery's front counter. George eventually became a partner in his father's baking company, and his wife Trilla B. Korn (nee Hempy), who he married in 1922, managed the accounting. After their retirement, George and Trilla worked as managers and operators of the Willamette Pass Ski area. George Korn died June 17, 1995.
During the late 1930's, Mel Le Mon hosted an all-night record show on Los Angeles, California radio station KFAC-1300, and worked as an occasional announcer for UCLA sporting events.
This collection consists of correspondence and telegraphs between George Korn of the Korn Baking Company and Mel Le Mon, a broadcaster at radio station KFAC in Los Angeles. Most of the telegraphs are from George Korn to Mel Le Mon, and detail the whereabouts of Joe Duck, or discuss upcoming or recent Oregon sporting events. The letters are primarily from Mel to George, and discuss personal events in additions to University of Oregon athletics.
The collection also includes scrapbook pages of photographs and newsclippings which document the travels of Joe Duck, and the activities of the Monday Morning Quarterbacks. Of note is a letter from Bing Crosby, claiming to be unaware of Joe Duck's present location. Loose photographs of a vacation to Cedar Pines Park in 1941 are also included.