Is the beginning of a
golden age for KC's commercial parks and a lot of
competition for Fairmount. Two new parks opened this
year. Carnival Park and the new Electric Park.
Forest was popular, too, and Troost was struggling.
Electric Park, Kansas City,
Mo.
The new Electric Park at
46th and the Paseo had everything, band concerts,
vaudeville, Electric Fountain, ballroom, natatorium (an
indoor swimming pool), German village, alligator farm,
chutes, Dips Coaster, Norton slide, penny parlors, novelty
stand, Japanese rolling ball, scenic railway, pool room, a
Hale's Tour of the World, Electric Studio, boat tours, old
mill, a Temple of Mirth, Flying Lady, Double Whirl, Circle
Swing, soda fountain and ice cream shops, knife rack, doll
rack, shooting gallery, air gun gallery, giant teeter,
boating, outdoor swimming, carousel, clubhouse cafe, Casino
5c theater, fortune telling and palmistry, covered promenade
and horseless buggy garage.
New Electric's grand
opening was Sunday, May 19. Admission to the park was
ten cents. The Ellery band played at 2 and at 8
pm. Seven days a week "Rain or Shine".
The vaudeville in the German Village was free, but the beer
wasn't yet allowed. There was a legal hassle about the
transfer of the liquor license from the old park location to
the new park location.
The prohibitionists were
trying to curb the devil rum. A law had been passed in
KC that until the population of the city reached 400,000 no
more liquor licenses would be granted, and then only 1 for
every 1,000 population of increase. But on May 16, a
liquor license for Fairmount was proposed by park
management. In front of the county court many people,
mostly women with babies, protested and gave to the court a
petition with 905 signatures. The signatures weren't
valid because the women could not vote. The license
for a saloon was granted. Fairmount for the first time
in a long time was wet.
Opening day at Fairmount
Park was electric. 100,000 light bulbs, one every few
inches, lit up the sky. One thing Fairmount Park had
going for it was its trees; Electric had few.
Directions to the Electric Park were as follows:
"Take Rockhill and
Troost cars direct to park. Passengers brought to
main entrance of the Promenade. Vine Street car
entrance at 45th and Woodland Ave. Carriage,
automobile, and pedestrian entrance at 46th and
Lydia."
The new park was packed and
declared a success by the public.
Meanwhile, Carnival Park
had its grand opening at 7:00 pm on Saturday, May
25th. Located at 14th and Minnesota Avenue in Kansas
City, Kansas. To get to the park from KCMO the new
Intercity Viaduct served as the artery. Attractions
featured a scenic railway, Chute the Chutes, dancing and
roller skating. Vaudeville four times a day and a dog
and pony show. Only 15 minutes from downtown Kansas
City, Missouri.
Carnival Park, Kansas City, Kas.
Forest Park opened in 1903
while Fairmount was in a coma. Located in the
Northeast park of KC, south of Independence Avenue and
Hardesty, where the old Quartermaster building still
stands. Built by Col. Hopkins for $195,000 on farm and
orchard land owned by the Michael, Ancel & Mattie
Collins family for decades. Distorted mirrors greeted
the guests where they entered, a $15,000 English Carousel,
Vaudeville, swimming, etc. It was the only park, maybe
in the whole world, that had a dress code. But neither
Carnival nor Forest lasted long. Carnival closed in
1911 and Forest in 1912, due mainly to 1) Electric and
Fairmount Parks' popularity and 2) in 1909 the city doubled
in size to 50 or so square miles and land was growing in
value.
New attractions like the
Saloon delayed the opening a few days so Fairmount was the
last park to open. Balloon races between two and
sometimes three professional aeronauts was the opening free
draw. Car fare to the park was still five cents each
way.
On Sunday, June 9, at 1400
hrs. "B" Battery MO National Guard put on an exhibition
just north of the park to Kentucky, which was now used as
the picnic area. The old picnic area was now the
hill which was now a zoo and other attractions. The
artillery exhibition led by Captain George R. Collins.
The 7 75mm field pieces were manned by 45 men. Both
days they marched to the park in the morning and set up
camp, then made a lot of noise.
The success of last year's
Fourth of July extravaganza encouraged park management to
try and top it. A crew of 10 men was brought to
construct this year's volcano from New Orleans, where that
sort of thing happens all the time.
A reporter from the Journal
took a trip out to Fairmount Park on the Fourth. The
cars were running as quickly as they could be loaded, about
one minute apart, starting in the morning and running that
way until late at night, first crowded one way, then crowded
the other. His first stop was at the zoo. Two
hundred different animals, including a male lion named
Moses. His claim to fame was that he attacked his
trainer, Dolly Castle, last winter in Wichita where she thus
spent 17 weeks in the hospital ... why would she give him a
second chance. One of the main interests besides the
cute little bunny rabbits was a groundhog that had been
captured on the park ground. There were also pony, dog
and monkey shows going on constantly.
Next he touted the
refreshments, all made at the park. The ice cream was
fresh and costs $1.25 a gallon and were delivered anywhere
in the park for free. The same cream used for the ice
cream is used to make butter for the popcorn, bought locally
and daily from nearby farmers. A Japanese tea room
encouraged ladies' card clubs, parties, receptions, etc.,
free. All supervised by Mr. N. E. Newman, phone 713.
The rides came next, the
longest lines were for the Circle Swing. Next came the
figure-eight roller coaster, then the merry-go-round.
Next he visited the Mystic Caves where the main attraction
of the new attractions was called, "Chinatown
Charlie". In April of last year, the city of San
Francisco had a devastating earthquake and fire.
Exposed in a part of the city known as Chinatown, sections
of buildings were exposed to the outside world. Found
were opium dens, so Fairmount built a replica of Chinamen
taking part in the highly addictive poison. There were
many other attractions in the Mystic Cave like Lovers' Lane,
and a big surprise at the end, 10 cents. Also on
"The Hill" was Doreen the Snake Charmer, also ten
cents. He also checked out the Fairmount Hotel,
claiming the dinner was superb.
One thing he didn't
mention, but the Jackson Examiner did, was a homicide.
The Poindexter brothers from Kansas City broke the neck of a
22-year old Teamster, also from KC, James Wilson. The
two were arrested by Capt. Rice of park security and taken
to the Independence Jail for safekeeping. It was said
that this was the end of a long feud. The disposition
of the case is unknown.
After the Fourth the Kansas
City Chautauqua would dominate the park for twenty
days. Several VIPs like senators and congressmen from
the state of Kansas spoke and gave slideshows of things like
the progress of the Panama Canal. Many Christian
Indians from various tribes were in attendance. The
rest of the season was given to picnics, the Kansas City
druggists picked the hottest day of the year (August 7) to
have their day of frolic. The heat caused the baseball
game to be cancelled. So many went swimming. The
grocers had theirs the next day. Both went off without
any heat-related casualties.
Later in the month the 8th
annual reunion of the Army of the Philippines, General
Arthur McArthur, father of you-know-who, General Irving
Hale, Col. W. F. Metcalf, Maj. L. B. Laughton, and
Congressman E. C. Ellis. Next
the "Modern Brotherhood of America" passed
through. Both brought not just people to the park but
to Kansas City. Fairmount was good for the growing
city.
They were not going good
for Standard Oil of the World. In May, a federal
investigation headed by Herbert Knox Smith gave to President
Teddy Roosevelt a report spelling out the alleged atrocities
conducted by Standard in 1904, same year as the birth of the
Sugar Creek facility. The report titled "How It
Controls" states:
"It is apparent that
the dominating position of the Standard Oil Company in the
oil industry has largely been secured by the abuse of
transportation facilities 1) By flagrant
discriminations obtained from railroads 2)By a refusal to
operate its pipeline system so as to extend to independent
intrinstics the benefits to which they were both morally
and legally entitled, at the same time the Standard has
prevented such independent interests from constructing
their own.
Owning 20% of the oil
output, Standard's refineries produced 86% of the
country's total output of illuminating oil (kerosene) and
transportal through its pipeline 90% of all crude oil in
the oil fields and 93% in the new fields in the Midwest,
Kansas, Texas, and the Indian Territories (Oklahoma).
In June the state of Kansas
was also hot because Prairie Oil i.e. Standard, was not
paying its fair share of taxes. In response in July,
the Boss of Bosses and at that time not yet as rich as he
was going to be, spoke out calling Standard "A
blessing". In Chicago Rockefeller stated:
"Since the enactment
of the Interstate Commerce Law in 1887 the Standard
Oil Company has carefully observed its provision and in no
case has willfully violated the law. I welcome the
passage of the law and the principle of equality which was
embodied in it. The old system of special rates or
rebates was obnoxious and was never a source of profits
for the company." etc, etc
The Bull continued for
about a half an hour.
Also in Chicago about this
time a judge was studying the 1,462 count indictments of
Standard Oil. Each carried a fine from $1000 to
$20,000. The maximum could be as much as
$29,240,000. The subject of this probe was Standard of
Indiana which on paper was only worth $1,000,000 while
Standard of New Jersey was valued at $100,000,000. For
Uncle Sam it was like squeezing blood from a turnip.
Copyright © 2006 John M. Olinskey
