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The grand
opening for the tenth and final summer of fun at old
Fairmount Park was June 2, it got off to a rocky start
when six top vaudeville acts were scheduled for the
amphitheater which was not completed. Since it
wasn't done, the acts were transferred to the
bandstand. The lack of shade and seating made
the gig a bummer, and by the end of the first show
most everyone had left.
For the first time in
park history, summer cottages had some vacancies, and
the Kansas City Driving Club had moved to a new
location, 35K went south, as in a better part of town,
to Cleaver Boulevard, not far from the Plaza.
The new amphitheater
was shaped like an eggshell, located on the high
ground in the center of the park, facing the lake,
between Ralston and Hedges south of Lexington.
A quote from a
reporter from the Journal told in a footnote to the
opening day activities, "The
crowds at the park were not as large for an opening
day and the park is not so pretty as in past seasons
owing to a seemingly lack of attention. The
Vaudeville was the only special attraction."
Vaudeville seemed to
be going well, two shows a day seven days a week and
attendance was excellent, as was the talent, like
"Techows's Cats", fifteen in number, that
took their cues in German and performed like a bunch
of dogs, the kids loved it. Also on the bill was
the Four Flying Banvards, an aerial act made up of two
adult males and two young girls. Amiel, the
contortionist. Leonzo the famous juggler,
working with things like hammers, knives, and rolling
pins, he could juggle anything. The musical
Kleists singing, dancing, and the black arts, whatever
that was. Last on stage were Raymond & Clark
acrobatic comedians, backed up by Lenge's Concert
Orchestra.
On June 23 the last
vaudeville production for quite a while played
out. About ten o'clock that night John A. West
closed the show by playing a variety of musical
instruments and he was good. Back at Washington
Cemetery, fishing was no longer allowed at Swan
Lake. For the Fourth of July, Electric Park had
a big fireworks display. Troost Park had a
movie, "A Trip to the Pan American
Exposition", Fairmount went all out, the world
famous Bellstedt Band, conducted by Herman Bellstedt.
The New Orleans Picayune called it the best band in
the United States, and they would know. With 45
musicians and 8 soloists, the band was advertised as
"one of the crack bands of the East".
Crack, meaning a big difference than today.
The band gave a
concert in the amphitheater twice a day.
Originally booked for only a week, they stayed on for
most of the month. About this time a man by the
name of George Shultz of KC, formerly of Independence,
claimed to have, after 40 years of effort, invented a
flying machine and wanted to fly it at Fairmount Park
on August 10, the 80th anniversary of the admittance
of Missouri into the Union.
Starting on July 12,
the Salvation Army opened a camp amongst the trees
just north and west of the lake. Every week from
July to September, 100 different women and children
from the city's poor neighborhoods were transported
free to the park. Here a tent city was built
which included sleeping quarters for all, a huge
kitchen with 500 pounds of ice daily to keep things
fresh, a twelve-bed hospital tent was set up along
with a library. Although not mandatory, everyone
was encouraged to take a dip in the lake first thing
every morning. In the afternoon and evening, the
kids were marched to the amphitheater, military style,
to hear whoever happened to be there. There was
plenty of adult supervision to keep the little brats
from pulling up flowers and running amok. The
end of July brought a new and novel attraction to the
park, "The Mystic Fleet," described as a
"grand pyrotechnic and aquatic spectacle".
In reality it was a bunch of boats on the lake
illuminated by fireworks. In the afternoon,
Lenge's Military Band put on a concert along with Mile
Verne and the Nebraska Wesleyan Male
Quartet.
In the fall of 1844
some locals got drunk, hopped in a wagon, and tried to
spread cheer throughout the city. Next year they
did it again, it was the end of harvest and that was
something to celebrate. Slowly growing, similar
to the St. Patrick's day celebration, started in 1973
when Mike Murphy, 710 AM, and some friends walked from
one watering hole to another on St. Patty's day.
In 1877, some locals went to
the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. After seeing the
floats and balls, they came back to make a little bit
of New Orleans in KC. They formed the Kansas
City Karnival Krewe, the good old KKK. Nothing
racial, it was just all Caucasian. It was a big
deal from 1887 to 1924 when they merged with the
Shriners. In April of 1901 the end of the
festivities were predicted by the Journal. But
it was not to be. They would have their
party. But beginning on July 21, the KKK and the
POP, or Priests of Pallas, endeavored to auction off
the land around Fairmount Park. The occasion was
the first great MINITOKA festival, standing for
Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Indian Territory, Texas,
Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas. The plan was to
sell 500,000 chances, or half a million dollars cash
in silver certificates. Five hundred lots, with
50 of those lots having houses, were to be auctioned
off in October during carnival week at
Fairmount. Valued between $750 - $6000 each, a
house valued at $2,000 looked like a Hollywood mansion
and a $6,000 house looked like a castle. Suckers
were asked to pay $1 per chance, which also gave the
chump four passes to the fairgrounds. For $5,
they got 20 admissions to the park and a ticket for
two to the ball at Convention Hall. Backing this
project were some of KC's finest capitalists.
Getting wind of the
fall festivities, Mr. Shultz, local aeronaut, proposed
flying out of the fairgrounds. He claimed to be
100 years ahead of everyone else, claiming he could
fly to St. Louis in 2 hours or Chicago in 4, carrying
3 to 5 people. He didn't do it. For most
of August, THE BANDA ROSA filled the park with
patrons. Probably the greatest military band
ever, except for the U. S. Marine Band. 50
red-coated soloists, the most celebrated in all Italy,
broke attendance records, 13,000 to 15,000 attended
some of the weekend concerts. During the
weekday, as many as 3,500 came from the city to catch
the matinee. In the evening, hundreds parked
themselves on Fairmount Knoll, where now the city
garage is, south to 24 Highway.
On August 24, the
Karnival Krewe met to plan this year's parade.
Nothing was mentioned about using Fairmount Park for
as part of Karnivale this October, nor was anything
said about the great MINITOKA festivities, and
especially nothing was said about any money that was
given them for the 50 houses that were never built, the 500 lots,
or a return of the money.
Meanwhile, back at
the park, the KC Ladies Boat Club and the Missouri
Canoe Club held their annual races. The
following Thursday, September 5, all the grocery
stores in both KCs and St. Joe shut down for the
Seventh Annual Grocer's Picnic, all of which were at
Fairmount Park. From noon till seven,
sandwiches, pies, cakes, bananas, peaches, pickles,
and cups of coffee were served free. After the
feast baseball, races, etc, etc filled the afternoon
and was the last organized activities at old Fairmount
Park.
There were a lot of
losers due to the decision to close the park.
One of the biggest was the Kansas City Athletic Club,
founded by our friend
Arthur E. Stilwell, in
1894. The club was very exclusive, with a
membership of 200, they were the cream of KC's young
male yuppies. The club kept a clubhouse during
the summer. Some of the members would spend the
night there and after a dip in the lake, off to work
downtown. But no more. In 1902, Troost and
Electric were the only parks open to the public.
Electric built two new rides, the Loop the Loop, where
people go down a track and go upside down, and a ferris wheel.
An article in a 1903
paper informed people that Troost and Fairmount would
be closed permanently, but like so many things you
read in the paper, it was untrue. How could they
know that the richest man who ever lived would be
coming to this pristine little valley, well, at least
his money? Like four million dollars of
it. Mr. John David Rockefeller, America's
greatest capitalist.
Copyright © 2005 - 2009 John M. Olinskey
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