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It's a big year for
me. Grandma Novak gets pregnant and goes back to
Europe to have my Mom, also named Anna. Giving
your children dual citizenship was popular back then for
those who could afford it. Since a laborer in 1910
America made about $1,500 a year for a 50 or 60 hour week,
not everyone could afford a year's pay. Reasoning could have
been that the talk about town was that this refinery job
might not pan out and Grandma may have had thoughts of going
back to the Austo-Hungarian Empire, not seeing the great
tragedy that was about to happen in 1914.
People who did were my
Grandma and Grandpa and my eight-year old father, who
settled in a coal mining town in Pennsylvania this
year. The only thing my dad ever said about life in
Europe was that he always had holes in his shoes and his
feet always got wet, after coming to America he said he
never had holes in his shoes again. In fact, he would
grow up to be a rather dapper dresser, and win a new auto in
1928 at Fairmount Park.
In 1910 the population of
the US was 92,000,000, with 14 million being foreign
born. After a four year study the US Immigration
Commission recommended restrictions on immigration,
especially unskilled labor.
A new manager, Graham Reidy
from Chicago, was making a lot of changes at Fairmount
Park. Where once there were penny concessions now
there were flowers and walkways. The picnic grounds
were enlarged, the beach and bath house were also being
expanded. 30,000 fish from Arkansas and southern
Missouri were stocked in the lake of the Wall-eyed pike,
crappie, bass and perch species.
Balloon races and
vaudeville were again a part of Fairmount's free
attractions. Opening day was on May 22. Bales
again won the balloon race, and for his efforts won a gold
watch. The free vaudeville had four performances each
day, two in the afternoon and two per night. The
opening act was LePearl and Bogart, singers and dancers,
Curry and Reilly, funny people, then there was a short
intermission so some of the crowd could go out and spend
some money. Followed by Johnny Russell, and comedian,
and McGrath, he walked around on his hands a lot, and
juggled. The day turned out to be cloudy and drizzly
so most of the many patrons stayed under one of the many
shelters, like the dance hall which was elbow to elbow.
At Electric Park the big
attractions were Philippini's Band and five vaudeville
acts. The band played various types of music on
different nights, Wednesday was ragtime, Fridays Wagmarian
and Saturday, the popular stuff of the day, like "Come
Josephine in My Flying Machine", Mother Machree, Down
by the Old Mill Stream or Let Me Call You Sweetheart.
A 100-foot dive from the
roller coaster called, "The Scenic Railway", by
Professor O'Hearn, was the feature at Forest, which had an
earlier opening in April, getting a jump on the
competition. The park also featured a Dutch cafe and
free vaudeville.
Towards the end of May
while the Earth passed through the tail of Haley's Comet and
some predicted doom, my mother Anna was born in Europe.
Fairmount's balloon races
continued along with the free vaudeville. The First of
June brought the Paddle and Camp Club to the lake. The
paddle club had been around for a long time, their
headquarters was on the Big Blue River, but it seemed that
all the people with the new-fangled motor boats were pushing
them out. So they made a deal with park management to
use the lake for their regatta. Silver cups were given
for a 220-yard singles, 220-yard doubles, 100-yard mixed
doubles, and 440-yard war canoe race.
While this was going on the
great Libertari, his band and a few opera singers,
after that vaudeville returned. One novel act was a
guy who drew pictures while telling stories.
Vaudeville was strange, a
young comedian named Johnny Russell appeared early in that
capacity, but must have bombed. Because on June 29 he
reinvented himself as Reckless Russell and he must have been
hungry. Quoting from the Journal:
"After
a swift bicycle ride down a steep incline, Russell propels
himself about 50 feet straight in the air, while the
bicycle crashes 40 feet to the ground. Then Russell
drops, but his stopping point is a water tank filled to a
depth of four feet with water."
Forest's
daredevil was a guy from Belgium who slid down a 1,000 ft
cable starting from 185 feet in the air to the ground
without a net.
Since last
year airplanes had been trying to get off the ground in most
cities across America. Everywhere, it seems, but here
until the Fourth of July at the Elm Ridge Racetrack, used
for horse racing, located at the end of the Troost and
Wornall lines. Charles S. Willard had been attempting
to take off all weekend, on Friday he failed to get into the
machine before it took off. The box kite with a motor
hit a rock wall, it was the first time ever that an airplane
tried to take off without a pilot. Repairs were made
and by Sunday Curtiss built aeroplane was ready to
fly. Unfortunately it was windy and the thousand
people who paid 50 cents to come out and see it were not
disappointed because while repairs were being made there
were motorcycle races held on the one-mile oval track.
The machine on Sunday finally got off the ground. The
goal of the early aviators was to "make a circle"
or a 360 degree turn, landing where it took off. The
40 horsepower machine did it, making the circle to the
cheers of the crowd, rising to just 60 feet tops and
traveling at about 40 miles an hour. Next month
Overland Park had its own aviation field, without much luck.
On the Fourth,
Reckless Russell was still very popular and wrecking
bicycles well into July. Electric fans were added to
the Dancing Pavilion and round by round reports of the
Johnson-Jenkins fight in Reno were broadcast in all the
parks. Johnson won. With the same old dancers,
dog acts and comedians with the biggest fireworks display,
said to be the biggest in the history of the park. But
most of the action was just outside the park.
An unlicensed
beer garden was set up just west of the park on property
owned by Charles Lohes and administered by "Daddy
Thomas". The rent was being paid by former
inspector Pendergast. Neighbors had been
complaining all summer so finally constables Ray Dickinson
and Bert Hart busted them, confiscating three wagon loads of
beer, bottles of Champaign and whiskey. Included in
the trip to the pokey was a carload of women, everything
going to the Independence lock-up. At the time there
were 600 legal watering holes in Kansas City.
On July 10,
Cement City had a large fire, destroying the only wooden
building. Damage was estimated at $50,000. The
blaze was fought by 100 employees using two 3 1/2 inch hoses
with water being pumped by a steam engine. The plant
shut down for about a month.
Towards the
end of July tragedy struck when 17-year-old William Wilson
drowns. Just three weeks before, while swimming in the
Blue, he cramped up but was saved. He promised his
mother that he would not swim again. The moral of the
story is, "Never break a promise to your mother."
The remainder
of the summer was spent having fireworks two or three times
a week, swimming, and the usual vaudeville. What was
unique was the four-balloon balloon races. Four
balloons bumping into one another while they ascended into
the clouds, if any. In the area across from the
bathing beach where the fireworks were also employed was
called the bare spot. $500 for first place, $100 for
second, $50 for third. Most first place prizes went to
Mr. Bales.
The last of
dozens of picnics held this year was by S & H Green
Stamps. While Rockefeller was giving away millions of
dollars, the government was closing in.
Born this year
was Mayor Rudolph Joseph Roper, in Sugar Creek (Rudy, R.
J.). He
would grow up to be a real class act. I can still
remember him driving around town in his new Cadillac
convertible, wearing a Panama hat and smoking a big
cigar. He would be the first non-company mayor.
Elected for the first time in 1941, he served for 30
years. Any opposition was sorely handicapped; Rudy
sold beer.
Copyright © 2007 John M. Olinskey
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