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JCHS Journal — Winter 2014
A Century of Progress
Blevins Davis: Creating a Cultural Impresario By Brent Schondelmeyer
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he town really turned out the hot September weekend in 1933. Four years into the Great Depression the community was a festive mood. Two years earlier, voters had approved a $4.2 million bond issue which included construction of a modern art-deco courthouse in downtown Kansas City and remodeling the historic Independence courthouse – now similar in style, if not name, to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Apparently everyone turned out to participate in the Sept. 7, 1933 dedication of what would be the fifth courthouse constructed on the Independence Square site. The following day’s newspaper headline boldly announced: “Estimate More Than 40,000 at Celebration.” The influx of out-oftown guests – estimated at 25,000 – created havoc as “cars were like flies” looking for parking and “celebrants made merry.” Independence’s official 1930 population was only 15,300.
test and yet another concert by the Independence Band.
from the University of MissouriColumbia.
The evening events – “the last big splurge” – included a movie projected on a large sheet hanging from the courthouse, a street dance, a carnival on Salisbury Lot, a horse show, and a ladies riding contest.
He was ambitious, energetic and an aspiring dramatist.
The capstone event was a much anticipated pageant play ominously titled A Century of Progress. The author, producer and guiding light was Blevins Davis – public school principal, English teacher and something of a bon vivant. Born in Osceola, Mo. in 1903, his family moved to Independence where he received his public school education. A circuitous collegiate path followed including attending Kansas City Junior College, Princeton and graduating
It was a day long celebration that began with a tennis championship, a mile-long parade, a band concert and a luncheon. The formal courthouse dedication took place at 2 p.m. Later that afternoon another bevy of activities ensued: swimming and diving contest (natatorium), horseshoes (the Campus), bathing beauty contest at Doutt’s Lake. The Square hosted contests for old A formal portrait of Blevins Davis by fiddlers and Negro dancing. Later Strauss-Peyton. Jackson County Historical came a two-hour drum corps con- Society archives PHL 66100.
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n 1932, Davis wrote and directed The Clouds of Times in honor of the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s birth. The production had 19 dramatic episodes each depicting a facet of the founding father’s life. “It was very original and very much ahead of the times as we look back,” Mary Pearl (Salisbury) Hare later recalled. It seems only natural that Davis – a respected cultural figure in the community – would undertake a bigger production the next year in conjunction with the dedication of the new Independence courthouse. The result was A Century of Progress – a pageant play about Jackson County which played twice at the Memorial Building, a new Independence building constructed in 1925 to honor those who lost their lives in World War I. It was a grand production with a cast of 350 players including many of the community’s leading citizens. There are no formal reviews of the play though the newspaper described the production as “gay and glamorously costumed pageantry.” Pageants had become a popular way to mark major historic anniversaries, a way to make history real and good entertainment. Radios were around, but still limited. In 1933, only 20,000 households nationally owned a radio – perhaps fewer than the popular
JCHS Journal — Winter 2014 image of every family gathered around to listen to radio plays or Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats – the first of which the president gave in March of that year.
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n prior years, there had been several major pageants in other Missouri towns. The St. Louis and Sedalia pageants, in particular, were huge productions. The St. Louis pageant, in May 1914, marked the 150th anniversary of the city’s founding by Pierre Laclede. The Pageant and Masque of St. Louis was performed in Forest Park – site of the 1904 World’s Fair. There reportedly were 7,500 in the cast aided by artists and musicians “versed in the new art form of openair drama.” To mark the state’s centennial, a major pageant was staged in Sedalia at Missouri State Fair in August 1921. The Pageant of Missouri and Masque was “a spectacle not equaled in magnitude or in splendor by any other centennial.” The pageant involved music, poetry and dance. Over 300 performers were seen by an audience of 20,000 nightly for the two state fair performances. The production toured in other Missouri communities in 1920 and 1921. Staging pageants was an ambitious undertaking. To help would-be producers an entire chapter – How to Produce a Pageant – was included in an 80-page booklet How to Celebrate Missouri's Centennial, A Handbook of Suggestions. “It is a pleasure in these complicated days to reverse our vision and see things pass before us in large outline, simpler and more striking because of the dramatic method in which they are presented through pageantry,” the chapter
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opined. “We revel in watching it – we delight in taking part.”
joined by the spirits of Progress, Wilderness and Missouri.
The how-to guide advised: “Again, the telling of the story is done chiefly through an appeal to the eye, rather than to the ear. The spectacle is of vastly more importance than the dialogue.”
Each section is introduced with a long prologue. The speaking parts are short and uncomplicated. (The full script is available on the Jackson County Historical Society website.)
The community pageants would help performers and audience members “become better citizens because of their deeper understanding of Missouri’s great past.”
he pageant concludes with a dramatic touch. The character Justice offers this benedictory proclamation:
The pageants generally followed a similar format. There were chronological episodes (acts) starting with the Native American Indians presence, European discovery and settlement, the Civil War and ending with optimistic assessments of the current day – a literal march through history. The pamphlet advised that a professional director was not necessary for the “average community pageant” but if one is available “so much the better.” Jackson County had the talented Blevins Davis. He enjoyed strong connections. Davis was friends with the Trumans (Harry Truman was the county chief executive), he was involved in summer productions and he had ready access to talent available in the public school systems where he had taught literature. The Jackson County pageant had eight parts. The prose is dramatic and unabashedly patriotic. Davis’s elaborate production opened with the “spirits of the foundation of our great country” – Liberty, History, Adventure, Home, Fame, and has the spirit of the Missouri River talking with Time. They are subsequently
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“My friends, we shall find no peace until Bolshevism, Strike and Crime have been dealt with. Oh, Liberty, what crimes have been committed in your name. They shall be under the tutelage of Education and Democracy, until Democracy thinks that they are able to be worthy citizens of this great county and state. “As for Greed and Monopoly, let them die. Men and Women of the nation, banish from your hearts this Greed if you would have the vision of the Peace for which you long. “The master said: ‘A little child will shall lead.’ Give them their rights to know, to be the men and women you would see succeed your broken hope, your lost ideals, and then wise Time will be when: Industry shall see a larger goal, and Capital possess a living soul.” As this stirring oration concludes, Margaret Truman and Roger T. Sermon Jr. – then the young children of prominent community leaders – entered to unveil a marble tablet carved with text the ever -diligent Davis also had written. The text begins: “A century of progress makes the development of Jackson County,” recounts dates for each courthouse remodeling and concludes:
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JCHS Journal — Winter 2014
“Before this structure time has unfolded a panorama of historical significance. Indians have camped in its vicinity; pioneers have left its doorway and set forth to conquer the perils of the Oregon, California and Santa Fe Trails; soldiers have marched from its protecting shadow to defend the cause of justice in every martial conflict. “The courthouse stands today in new dignity, ready to meet the challenge of another century of progress with the assurance born of a history of faithful service to a mighty people.” The entablature is really a synopsis of his pageant play – which has been long forgotten to time. But this marble summary can still be seen next to the south side courthouse doors.
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he festivities put the town in a good mood.
The endless events that weekend went well. At the bathing beauty contest folks “craned their necks” to see the “pulchritudinous parties” parade through the crowd of 2,000 at the Doutt’s Lake event. The Independence police chief noted that despite all the festivities few partook of the “cup that cheers” and that it “was a sober, good natured, perspiring crowd.” Temperatures that weekend were unusually hot, climbing into the lower 90s. On the day of the dedication, the newspaper carried a front-page item about some nearby trouble. Fairmount Lake, west of Independence, was “being subjected to an invasion of nudists” even though the
lake was closed for the season, according to the owner. The “night bathers” included women who have been using “this lake entirely in the nude.” Officers were dispatched to check in on the “games and frolicking of a group of advocates of nudism and stampeded the party by turning a bright spotlight on it.” Indeed the spotlight, in so many ways, shined ever so brightly that September weekend.
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avis achieved a distinguished career as an impresa- Copy of the first page “A Century of Progress” which was rio and theatrical pro- included in the 32-page official program for the Sept. 7, ducer. His big break 1933, courthouse dedication. Jackson County Historical was becoming an his- Society Archives. torical consultant for NBC radio on the 1937 coronation Union. Davis was not on the trip, of George VI and a radio comwhich is recounted in Truman Camentator for the 1953 coronation pote’s The Muses Are Heard. of Elizabeth II. His Truman connections helped. And he came into The musical generated as much public interest and diplomatic considerable wealth after his margoodwill as the U.S. ping pong riage to a widow of a railroad forplayers trip to Communist China tune. Davis was gay. in 1971 during Richard Nixon’s In 1951, Davis mounted a produc- presidency. tion of George Gershwin’s Porgy Davis lived several years in Indeand Bess using AfricanAmericans such as Leontyne Price pendence where he held lavish parties and entertained at his and Cab Calloway instead of home, Glendale Mansion located white actors in black face. on Lee’s Summit Rd. and known The musical played in London, for its beautiful rose gardens. Berlin and Broadway and eventuHe died in London in 1971 and is ally traveled to the Soviet Union buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in at the height of the Cold War in Independence. 1955 – the first American theater company admitted to the Soviet