Greg Hand has always been looking for stories.
The former reporter, who many may remember as the voice of the University of Cincinnati during his 36-year tenure culminating in the role vice president of public relations, has written three books on Cincinnati lore.
A lot of people have written books about Cincinnati, but Hand’s aren’t what you might expect; they cover everything from a treasured 19th century bezoar to the collected histories of the Bearcats basketball teams. Following his retirement in 2014, Hand has continued to collect and share stories from the Queen City’s past on his “Cincinnati Curiosities” blog.
Hand describes the blog as “working overtime to keep alive the weird soul of the Queen City,” which is why CityBeat knew we needed to learn more.
“When I say this was a weird city, I mean, you could get away with an awful lot of stuff,” he told CityBeat. Using old books and newspapers, Hand meticulously digs into the history of the city to find odd-ball curios in discarded annals. That digging more often than not leads him down countless rabbit holes along the way to his weekly features.
One such rabbit hole (and one of particular interest to Hand) are the stories of Cincinnati’s sex workers, who — from 1890 until the late 1910s — had a de facto red light district on the city’s West Side.
“The people there are just absolutely fascinating,” Hand said. One such red-light resident was Belle Curry; a wealthy madam who collected the names of her well-to-do clients to use as social and political leverage. Curry was also something of an activist, it seems, as after sex workers were banned by local police from riding carriages or bicycles in 1896, she repeatedly flouted the discriminatory law.
Hand sees Curry and her cohort of fellow madams through a social lens of Cincinnati’s by-gone sex economy, where they took on roles as employers in an almost proto-feminist financial system that was vital to some of the city’s working class women.
“This was a time period when women, essentially, could not work,” he said, “so, prostitution provided a job that was relatively safe.”
Hand doesn’t spend all of his time in the past, though. Nowadays, you’re just as likely to find him on social media sites like Tumblr, where he hosts his blog. Tumblr, which has been kicking since 2007, is as famous for its fandom-focused community as it is for its often faulty user interface.
“I apologize for using Tumblr a lot,” Hand said. He makes light of the UI issues on other social media sites with a simple “If Tumblr sux,” tagline. Despite the technical shortfalls, he thinks being on social media is vital to his work as a local historian.
Hand praised his social media followers for asking thought-provoking questions, and added that they occasionally point him in the direction of his next feature.
“Most of my best stories come from my readers asking me questions,” he said.
Hand’s blog isn’t the only way he engages with the wider Cincinnati community. As a member of the Mixchevious Jounglers, he’s brought the troupe’s Stand-Up History series to numerous venues throughout the Queen City since 2017 — blending comedy performance and historical education in a uniquely engaging way. The Jounglers themselves came together in a uniquely Cincinnatian way.
“Stand-Up History grew out of Bockfest,” Hand said, referring to the city’s annual two-day festival celebrating bock-style German beer. In addition to consuming copious amounts of the dark lager, festival-goers can also enjoy a parade and a 5K run. At the conclusion of this run, the festival often holds its Beer Heritage presentations, which cover the long and storied histories of beer in Cincinnati.
“You’re trying to talk to a room full of people who just ran five kilometers and are quenching their thirst,” Hand said, “So I noticed there were two or three of us that made it a contest: What do you need to do to get these people’s attention.”
He recounted stories of an exploding barroom and the multitude of fatal possibilities in a turn-of-the-century brewery as being particularly popular. According to Hand, the story-tellers may have stayed in friendly competition had it not been Cincinnati mixologist, historian, and Joungler founder and trouper Molly Wellman, who invited them all to perform at her bar.
Hand believes Stand-Up Comedy allows him to connect with a different audience than the one confined to his blog; a usually older, less online group. He also uses the performances to perfect his story-telling and delivery of historical materials.
“On the blog, I have no idea whether it gets a laugh or not; but if I’m standing on stage and throw something out there, and it doesn’t get a laugh, I’ve got to go back and rewrite it,” Hand said. “The immediate feedback is a lot of fun.”
When asked for his goal for the blog and its audience, Hand said, “I would like to see people begin to embrace the strange history in our city.”
“The things we are dealing with today, we used to deal with in a very different way back in the past. In many ways, the city was a lot freer,” he mused.
Ultimately, Hand concluded, “That’s my hope for the future: that people appreciate the weird history of Cincinnati, and have a weird day themselves.”
If you’re looking to start having a weird day, Greg Hand’s blog can be found at Cincinnati Curiosities on Tumblr. Stand-Up Comedy is set to perform on Tuesday, July 7, at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Tickets are on sale now.
