

# Event Details

- **Event Name**: Wisconsin Idols- a presentation by Dean Robbins
- **Event Start and End Date**: Thu, 19 Mar, 2026 at 06:00 pm
- **Event Description**: Wisconsin Idols: 100 Heroes Who Changed the State, the World, and Me is an essay collection that offers a unique perspective on legendary figures with often surprising connections to Wisconsin. Author Dean Robbins puts a personal spin on these stories, based on interviews, intensive research, and lifelong obsessions. Readers tag along to every corner of Wisconsin as Robbins relates astonishing examples of courage and integrity, providing inspiration for an age desperately in need of heroic role models.

With revelatory anecdotes, humorous details, and poignant storytelling, the book establishes Wisconsin as a notably influential place: a crossroads for people who changed the world.

The subjects range from certified state icons such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Chris Farley, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to unexpected choices such as the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Harrison Ford, and Joni Mitchell. An ailing Elvis Presley stops a late-night fight on the streets of Madison, in the last miracle of his miraculous life; Oprah Winfrey learns a life-changing lesson about empathy during her impoverished Milwaukee childhood; Jackie Robinson defies racial barriers to form a friendship with a young white fan in Sheboygan; and twin-sister advice columnists Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren sharpen their listening skills during a momentous decade in Eau Claire.  

Wisconsin Idols also introduces lesser-known heroes such as Viola Smith, renowned as “the fastest girl drummer in the world”; Jeffrey Erlanger, the boy in the electric wheelchair who touched millions of people in a famous episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood; Caroline Quarlls and Joshua Glover, enslaved people who escaped to freedom on a harrowing journey through the state’s Underground Railroad; and Meinhardt Raabe, who achieved lasting fame as the Munchkin coroner in The Wizard of Oz.

Wisconsin Idols was picked as the Book of the Month by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Madison Magazine and praised by the Wisconsin State Journal, Wisconsin Public Radio, Milwaukee Magazine, Capital Times, and other media outlets. NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar says, “Dean Robbins’s collection of brief essays is a passionate and poetic homage to one-hundred musicians, artists, thinkers, entertainers, and athletes (including me) whose presence, however brief or long, in his beloved Wisconsin impacted the state and him. It’s both insightful and entertaining.”


Dean Robbins is a nationally acclaimed author of nonfiction children’s books about his personal heroes. With Wisconsin Idols, he publishes his first book about heroic figures for adults, drawing on his career as an award-winning journalist and arts critic. 

Robbins has contributed to USA Today, The New York Daily News, The Village Voice, GRAMMY magazine, Space.com, Wisconsin Public Radio, and dozens of other media outlets, along with serving as editor of Isthmus newspaper and On Wisconsin magazine. His children’s books have been praised in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal; chosen for best-of-the-year honors by the American Library Association, New York Public Library, and others; adapted for audiobooks and film; and featured at NASA and in a Smithsonian exhibition.
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/blanchardville/wisconsin-idols-a-presentation-by-dean-robbins/200029677927029
- **Event Categories**: art, entertainment, music, literary-art, sports, exhibitions, fine-arts, storytelling
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 3

## Ticket Details

- **Ticket URL**: http://facebook.com/200029677927029?utm_source=AllEvents.in&utm_medium=event-discovery-platform&utm_campaign=blanchardville-events

## Event venue details

- **city**: Blanchardville
- **state**: WI
- **country**: United States
- **location**: 208 Mason St., Blanchardville, WI, United States, Wisconsin 53506
- **lat**: 42.81018
- **long**: -89.86086
- **full address**: 208 Mason St., Blanchardville, WI, United States, Wisconsin 53506

## Event Organizer details

- **affiliate_id**: 2
- **organizer**: Blanchardville Public Library (https://allevents.in/org/blanchardville-public-library/18848315)

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: banner
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events10/banners/373406a249567accb3d3677ae0532ebfa3bd963fcf9e65ae0f418ea471945dfa-rimg-w970-h1500-dc20437b-gmir?v=1773525419
- **Alt text**: thumbnail
  - **Image URL**: https://dyn-image.allevents.in/generate-image?v=4&title=Wisconsin+Idols-+a+presentation+by+Dean+Robbins&date=19+Mar

## FAQs

- **Q**: When is the event happening?
  - **A:** Thu, 19 Mar, 2026 at 06:00 pm
- **Q**: Where is the event happening?
  - **A:** 208 Mason St., Blanchardville, WI, United States, Wisconsin 53506
- **Q**: Who is organizing the event?
  - **A:** Blanchardville Public Library
- **Q**: What type of event is this?
  - **A:** art, entertainment, music, literary-art, sports, exhibitions, fine-arts, storytelling
- **Q**: Where can I find ticket details about Wisconsin Idols- a presentation by Dean Robbins ?
  - **A:** You can find ticket details about this event on AllEvents.

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