The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 29

They're back The Twilight soap opera returns in a A lighter, goof ier 'Mow Mnfin' THURSDAY, November 26, 2009 Your weekly guide to things to do, whether staying in or going out. The Pantagraph Page D3 ten Si. J. Dan Craft 15 iml 1 -4 ftfr rr 1 LJiTV" Pantagraph file photo Associated Press Among the East Peoria Festival of Lights' popular floats over the past 25 years have been the red dragon, above, and the blue whale. Glow turns silver as the Festival of Lights turns 25 By Dan Craft dcraftpantagraph.com EAST PEORIA Twenty-five years ago, Wally Jaquet retired after four decades of hard work and was promptly re -warded with a heart attack.

What did he summer centennial celebration a way to keep the good civic vibe going into the winter months. When the modest results opened in November 1985, inspired by an equally modest festival in Niagara Falls, it was initially sug TexMarty, far left. Happy trails to area's own Tex Marty ocal legend" was the way I the obituary read earlier JLi this week in The Pantagraph. "Entertained for more than 70 years." "Was a top disc jockey." "Made movies, records and had his own TV show." Any local legend with a Tex Ritter singing cowboy movie to his credit is all right by us. And Martin R.

Schopp, aka Marty Roberts, aka Tex Martin, has several, including 1941's "Riding the Cherokee Range," in which he's billed as "Happy Tex" Martin, probably because no singing cowboy movie was big enough for two plain Texes. As a member of the famed singing cowboy group, the Tennessee Ramblers, the Chenoa native also rode the dusty B-movie trails with Gene Autry in succulently titled roundups like 1937's "Yodelin' Kid From Pine Ridge." He later dosey- doe 'd with Dale Evans in 1943's "Swing Your Partner" (1943) and answered to Sheriff Roy Acuff in the same year's "0, My Darling Clementine." By our count, MartyTex may be the last of Hollywood's original singing cowboys to head for that big round-up on high. The singing cowboy part of his career is just a grace note in the Marty SchoppMarty RobertsTex Martin saga, begun 90 years ago in Chenoa on the 400-acre family farm "with a steam engine and loads of horses," but "no electric lights or inside toilet," he recalled in 1999. At 6-ish, his parents bought him a ukulele and the die was cast: In a few short years he was in a local high school country band, The Ranch Hands. From there, it was just a short trot northward, where Chicago's legendary "WLS Barn Dance" beckoned but didn't bite.

So it was back to Chenoa for a stint as a state trooper until a Mexican band passed through town. He traded in his brass badge for bass fiddle. Then came the career-defining moment when he joined singing cowboy favorites The Tennessee Ramblers at the height of the western swing era. Of his movie career, he recalled, "We were the guys in the band in the saloon scenes and around the camp-fire and we were the ones on the horses in the background." The trails were happy, if not Marty's memories of Autry: "He was ruthless." The Ramblers were signed by RCA, "who would ply us with 'mountain dew' to loosen us up" during recording sessions. "Sometimes we got so loose we couldn't play the songs Only the Sons of the Pioneers were bigger in the singing-cowboy realm, said Marty, who was soon summoned to serve his country in the war.

Postwar, there was a solo career stints at the Grand Ole Opry and (at last) the WLS Barn Dance then a stand as country DJ for Cincinnati's WCKY, so powerful it could be picked up back home in Chenoa. His billing mutated from Tex Martin to Marty Roberts, and he became ranked as one of the nation's top DJs for 20 years. Marty later returned closer to his roots via Decatur's WDZ, retiring with his wife Sally to the family homestead in Chenoa in 1982. He is survived by sons Allen R. Schopp and Martin B.

Schopp. With a sweet yodel and a tip of the Stetson, we bid you the happiest of trails, Happy Tex. Here are the main events for the 25th anniversary edition of the East Peoria Festival of Lights. In a new tradition begun a year ago, the festival proper doesn't begin until the weekend after the Festival of Lights Parade (it formerly opened the next day). I Festival of Lights Parade, 5:45 p.m.

Saturday: A 3- mile-long procession of 30 lighted floats along East Washington Street in downtown East Peoria. If the weather's nice, expect to be one of several tens of thousands of spectators. (If crowds aren't your cup o' holiday cheer, Pantagraph news partner WEEK-TV will air a taped account of the parade at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 5, then sell DVD copies at $15 a pop.) I Folepi's Winter Wonderland, 5-9 p.m.

511 p.m. Dec. 4-31: A two-mile drive-through display in VFW Park on Springfield Road featuring most of the parade floats (the no-shows will be positioned at various downtown locations), plus lighted stationary displays. Admission: $10 per carvan, $20 for limosRVs; $50 for party buses (more than 15 passengers); $150 for full-size buses. Folepi's Freedom Park, 5-9 p.m.

nightly, Dec. 4-31: Located in East Peoria's RiverFront Park on the Illinois River, this free illuminated display will feature a patriotic theme, including lighted displays of emblems for each military branch and memorials for each war. Narrated Nativity Scene, 5-9 p.m. nightly, Dec. 4-31: Located at Taylor Street and Springfield Road downtown, this privately funded Nativity display features a 2-minute narration via radio station 1610 AM.

Free admission. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4-5 and 9-12, 2 p.m. Dec.

6 and 13: The test's popular theater tradition continues via the annual Eastlight Theatre production of the rock opera in the East Peoria Community High School Auditorium, 1401 E. Washington St. Cost: $17 for adults, $6 for kids. Spirit of Peoria Festival of Lights Holiday Cruises: Cruise the lit-up Spirit of Peoria paddle-wheeler with entertainment from Prairie Folklore Theatre. Matinee cruises are noon Saturday, and 5 and 12 dinner cruises are 6 p.m.

Dec. 4, 5, 11 and 12 More information: www.cityofeastpeoria.com or 800-365-3743. do to recuperate? He volunteered to help build floats for the very first East Peoria Festival of Lights, of course. "We wondered how he was going to be able to help," recalled former East Peoria Chamber of Commerce director Dick Dodson some years and dozens of floats later. It turned out gested that a $5,000 budget might do the job.

"Now we have floats that cost that much," Dodson marveled on the occasion of the event's 10th anniversary. On the eve of the Festival of Lights' silver milestone, Jaquet, now 86, is still ticking. And he's still licking those tall design problems Dodson men- Associated Press Antenna masts decorated with animated lights created a unique effect at the 2005 festival. that Jaquet was more than just a newly minted retiree with a shaky medical pedigree. "He was, in fact, a creative genius," Dodson said, as well as one of the hugely popular event's key architects, able to lick tall design problems in a single bound.

The event began as an outgrowth of East Peoria's 1984 tioned. Though the event itself has grown considerably more complex since that first humble affair, the float -building "has actually gotten somewhat easier," says Jaquet (pronounced JAY-kwet). In the beginning, he recalls, the floats were modest plywood -and-Fiberglas affairs, SEE LIGHT PAGE D8 ing Places Christmas Splendor Tea," is at 2 p.m. Sunday. GO! burn 'em We're talking calories, baby.

Singe some off this morning via Bloomington annual 3- fnt H'l mile Miller Park Turkey Trot, at 9 a.m. -never GO! lit iiiiiiu ii id yuu ii ue jdCMNg em nym un several hours later. Though that biggie in East Peoria is getting most of the ink, there are colorful plugged-in parades elsewhere this weekend, including downtown Pontiac (6 p.m. Friday) and downtown Streator (dusk Saturday). GO! to pot As in, teapot.

The leaves will be brewing via the Tea Celebrate the holiday with a far-northern flavor via the annual Swedish Christmas Market (aka Julmarknmad) at Bishop Hill State Historic Site, Friday through Sunday and Dec. 5 and 6. GO! to the cirque It's not Cirque du Soleil, but close enough: Cirque Dreams, bringing its current production, "Illuminations," to the Peoria Civic Center at 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday. GO! scope it out "Visions of the Universe: Four Centuries of Discovery," a traveling exhibit on the telescope's 400th' anniversary, is on view through Dec.

11 at the Bloomington Public Library. Ladies annual holiday GO! wing it sessions at Bloomington's David Davis Mansion, The most dapper movie angel of all time, Cary Grant, is back on terra firma, not to mention ice skates, via the Normal Theater's screenings of the holiday classic, "The Bishop's Wife," at 7 tonight and Friday. the first of which, Victorian 7 1 1 it llknul til i i A i tin.