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July 24, 1908

POLICE PROHIBIT THE

POPULAR BARN DANCE.

As It's Presented in North End Halls

It Shocks Moral Guardians.

"Cut It Out," They Say.

Whew! The police object to the popular barn dance and have put the ban on it in Kansas City. They do not consider it up to the moral standard of what should take place in a well regulated ball room. The officers who tightened the lid on the barn dance refused to say what their private opinion of the dance was after having watched an exhibition given for their personal benefit.

Acting under orders from Captain Walter Whitsett, two plain clothes men, Ben Goode and John McCall, went to a hall in Campbell street last Wednesday evening and informed the members of a dancing party there that they would not be allowed to dance the barn dance. The merry young people strenuously objected to police interference, and the officers were the recipients of all kinds of dire threats.

A party of the young people pleaded that the dance was "perfectly" proper and "lovely," and went through one turn of the hall to show the officers really what the barn dance was. The hard-hearted officers, however, remembered that stern duty called to them and refused to allow the pleading of the pretty young misses to sidetrack them from their duty.

Not to be outdone by the big captain in regulating the social events and amusements of the city, Sergeant Patrick Clark, also commanding the North End social pink teas, sent Sergeant E. McNamara to the hall and had the lights turned out. The people residing in the vicinity of the hall complained to the police that they were unable to sleep whenever the hall was used for dances. The music was too loud for the sleepers and the shrill laughs and giggles of the young ladies got on the nerves of the men who were compelled to stay at home with their wives and take care of the fretful babies.

Whether the hall will be opened for dancing in the future the police refused to say, but they were confident that the barn dance would not be danced there again.

Labels: Campbell street, Captain Whitsett, dancing, North end

May 22, 1908

GAME LEG SPOILED HIS FUN.

Fireman Says He Can't Dance in

Time With It.

"I used to go to all the dances, but I can't hit a lick with my game leg. The last dance I attended was in Lamar in the winter of 1907. I was so awkward that I couldn't get a partner. So I quit for good."

J. B. McQuillen told this to a jury in Judge E. E. Porterfield's division of the circuit court yesterday afternoon. McQuillen was a locomotive fireman for the Kansas City Southern until February 24, 1906, when his hip was crushed while he was at work. He is suing for $10,000.

Labels: circuit court, dancing, Judge Porterfield, Kansas City Southern, Lawsuit, railroad

May 11, 1908

MARSHALS AT THE PARKS.

Will Report Their Observations to the

Grand Jury.

Names of employees connected with pay attractions at Forest and Fairmount parks were taken yesterday by the county marshal's men and will be given to the Wallace grand jury when it meets this week.

Al Heslip personally visited Fairmount park and saw men and women dancing and gliding on roller skates. Also he witnessed a man selling tickets to the Angora goat farm and the lake.

"If the jury thinks it is wicked to use roller skates and witness a dog show downtown on Sunday," the marshal argued, "it will believe it equally unlawful to skate, ride in a boat or watch the goats on a Sunday in the park." So the marshal put down all the keepers' names.

Deputies Joseph Stewart and Henry Miller made out a complete list of men they caught working and playing at Forest park.

The blue Sunday downtown was brightened a bit by the reopening of the Shubert theater.

Labels: amusement, animals, County Marshal Heslip, dancing, fairmount park, forest park, Judge Wallace, skating

February 21, 1908

IN HONOR OF NEW POTENTATE.

Ararat Temple Holds Reception for

Judge E. E. Porterfield.

A reception in honor of E. E. Porterfield, the newly elected illustrious potentate, and his divan was given at the Coates house last night by ararat Temple of the Mystic Shrine. There was dancing and music by a male quartette.

Labels: Coates house, dancing, Judges, organizations

January 25, 1908

HE STRUCK MANAGER WILSON.

Policeman Malloy Objected to Testi-

mony Before Judge Kyle.

James Malloy, a special policeman, yesterday attacked Clinton Wilson, manager of the Majestic theater, in the lobby of the playhouse, striking Wilson with his club. Maloy had complained about a dance given by some of the women in Wilson's theater. Wilson was in police court yesterday, but Malloy did not appear to prosecute and the case was dismissed.

Malloy objected to the testimony given by Wilson, as reported in an evening newspaper, and the assault on the manager followed. Charges have been preferred against Malloy and Manager Wilson will ask his dismissal from the force.

Labels: dancing, police, police court, theater

January 1, 1908

HE RAN COLISEUM

MANY YEARS AGO.

HENRY D. CLARK, THEATRICAL

MANAGER, IS DEAD.

Came Here a Penniless Song and

Dance Man With Eddie Foy,

and Made Half a Mil-

lion Dollars.

Henry D. Clark, famous as the creator of the old Coliseum which he conducted throughout Kansas City's frontier days, died last night at his residence, 3300 Broadway. He had been ill for three weeks and succumbed to acute gastritis and bronchial pneumonia following grip. The phenomenal will power of the man enabled him to rise from his bed against the advice of his physician and family as late as Sunday, when he shaved himself and went about as he wished.

Mr. Clark was one of the youngest soldiers in the civil war. He enlisted in the New York heavy artillery when only 13 years 6 months old, and served throughout the war. New York was his birthplace, but he went in childhood to Wisconsin. Starting in a theatrical career in Chicago after the war, he came to Kansas City to locate in 1877.

He was the most picturesque and amazingly progressive theater manager Kansas City ever had. He came here moneyless, "opened" in a cellar and amassed over a half million dollars. Then he retired. That was ten years ago, after he had discovered that the things he knew about running a frontier place of amusement did not suit the public when taken out of the original setting and sold to them at uptown prices in a regular theater.

But the most Kansas City ever knew of Clark was far back of his retirement. It was thirty years ago when he first appeared here. He was a young man then and had been doing a song and dance with Eddie Foy. His working partner called herself Zoe Clark. She was the more thrifty of the two and decided that Kansas City would be a good place to open a theater. Clark's father lived here then and drove a one-horse job wagon. The elder Clark was not up on theatricals, but he was willing to help his son get into business.

So the old gentleman rented a cellar in Fourth street for Henry and Zoe and bought them a keg of beer. Business was good in the cellar, and Clark built the Coliseum at the corner of Third and Walnut streets with the receipts. The only "legitimate" shows "making" Kansas City in those days played in a hall over the present site of Arnold's drug store at Fifth and Walnut streets.

The Coliseum was a money-making venture too, and Clark soon quit "doing a turn" himself. Zoe started a boarding house to take care of the actors and actresses who played the Coliseum. And then came to Kansas City the embryo of advanced vaudeville. The Coliseum attracted the best variety performers in the West and Eddie Foy. McIntyre and Heath, Murray and Mack and scores of others played long engagements there.

And the best of all these performers were then destined to be plunged into the legitimate sooner or later. Clark realized this and built the old Ninth street theater. It burned and he rebuilt it, but he could never make it a financial success and he leased the property and during the last ten years he called at the theater at 10 o'clock on the morning of the second day of each month, rain or shine, to get the rent. It was the only time he was ever seen about the place.

Surviving Mr. Clark are the widow and five children. They are: H. D. Clark, Jr., and Palmer Clark, druggist and dry goods merchant respectively at Genessee and Thirty-Ninth streets; Miss Hazel Clark, Willie Clark and Mrs. J. B. Shinn of Seattle, Wash.

Labels: Broadway, Chicago, Civil War, dancing, death, druggists, Fourth street, Genessee street, theater, Thirty-ninth street

December 25, 1907

HE WAS AU FAIT, BUT DE TROP.

So Somebody Stuck a Knife in Mc-

Donald at a Dance.

Machinists' apprentices were dancing downstairs and members of the Au Fait Club upstairs at Colonial hall, Eighth and Oak streets, last night. Some way the two crusts of society lapped over about midnight and a row resulted. In the noisy bustle which ensued the upper crust was about to be broken when someone came downstairs with a billiard cue.

Roy McGee, a member of the apprentice floor committee, wore a badge that looked like the banner of the horse shoer's union in a labor day parade. He was a fair mark and he got it, right on the top of the head.

Another apprentice, resenting this ungentlemanly breach of journeyman machinists' rules governing the settlement of personal differences at Christmas balls, jerked a knife from his small change receptacle and jabbed it into the shoulder of George McDonald, who was, and unquestionable is, au fait, but on this occasion, in spite of his accomplishments, de trop.

Interference of disengaged members of the two clubs prevented further hostilities, and the police came. McGee, Joseph Russell and McDonald were taken to Central police station, where McDonald's wound was dressed in the emergency hospital. His hurt is not serious. Russell and McGee were held for trial in police court.

Labels: dancing, Eighth street, emergency hospital, Oak street, violence

December 16, 1907

SHE'LL NOT WORK ON SUNDAY.

Variety Actress Refuses Out of Prin-

ciple, and Not Fear.

There is one performer at a local theater this week who will not be indicted by the Wallace grand jury. She is Miss Pudge Catto, of the team of Catto and Heath, at the Century. Miss Frankie Heath went on with her singing and dancing set yesterday afternoon and when Manager Donegan inquired why Mis Catto did not appear he was informed that that young woman never works on Sunday.

"My folks opposed a stage career," the performer told Manager Donegan, "and I had to promise before I left home that I would never appear at a Sunday performance."

Miss Catto, not being around the theater, did not know she would be indicted by the grand jury if she "worked." I was a matter of principle with her. Miss Catto's parents live in Bath, Me., and are old-school Presbyterians. She is 19 years of age, and handsome.

Labels: dancing, theater

August 5, 1907

CARBOLIC ACID KILLS.

DRANK IN THE DARK BY

BECKETT FOR WHISKEY.

Second Man Who Took Swallow of

the Poison Will Recover -- Dead

Man Leaves a Widow and

Seven Children.

Two pint bottles of the same shape, one containing whisky and the other carbolic acid, caused the death of James F. Beckett in Sheffield early yesterday morning. The bottle of whisky was put into a wagon bed which also contained a bottle formerly used for whisky filled with carbolic acid. John Eveland, another laborer, who put the whisky into the wagon bed, also drank of the acid, but he will recover.

John Thomas gave a dancing party Saturday night at his home in Sheffield. About forty men and women were present, and at midnight the dancers decided to continue the party indefinitely until morning.

Beckett had been invited, and after he arrived he was prevailed upon to furnish the music. He sat in the parlor, and from 8 o'clock until midnight played waltzes and two-steps, and occasionally a tune for the Virginia reel, with scarcely a rest, while the tireless dancers encored him again and again.

About 11 o'clock Eveland, who lives only two blocks from Thomas' house, heard the music and the laughter of the young men and women, and decided to see what was going on. I had been drinking a little," said Eveland yesterday, "and I had a pint bottle of whisky, about half full, in my hip pocket. Thomas invited me to come in and dance. I didn't want to take the liquor with me on account of the women. So I slipped out to the shed back of the house and put the bottle in the bed of a wagon. Then I went in and danced until about midnight.

"When the decided to keep on dancing for an hour or two more, Beckett, who was one of my friends, said he was tired. I told him about the whiskey I had put in the shed, and asked him to go have a drink to brace himself up. We took John Burris, one of the other men with us, and all went out to the shed.

"When we got out there it was dark, and I reached into the wagon bed and got out what I supposed to be the bottle I had put there. It was a regular pint whisky bottle, and seemed to be about half full. I had some trouble getting the cork out. While I was trying to draw it, the women were calling for Beckett to play for another dance.

" 'Hurry up,' cried Beckett. 'I've got to get back to the house. '

" 'Give me the bottle,' said Burris. 'I'll get the cork out with my knife.'

"Burris pulled the cork, and raised the bottle to his lips to take a drink, when they called Beckett from the house again, and Beckett grabbed the bottle quickly. He took two long swallows. Then he ran back to the house, and Burris went with him, without waiting for a drink. I then drank a little, and put the bottle back into the wagon."

Eveland says it was about twenty minutes later before the acid pained him, so that he knew he had been poisoned. Beckett, who continued playing for the dancers after taking the acid, began to feel ill about the same time Eveland did.

Dr. R. Callaghan was sent for, and treated both men. Beckett died about 1:30 o'clock. The whisky which Eveland had drunk before he came to the dance saved his life. The reason Beckett did not feel the effect of the aid sooner is believed also to be due to whisky before he went to the shed. The whisky is thought to have counteracted the effects of the acid to a certain extent.

Thomas said yesterday that he always keeps acid in the shed for use as a disinfectant. He keeps horses and hogs there. The bottle was plainly labeled. Had the men struck a match they could not have made the mistake.

James F. Beckett was 39 years old. He lived at 410 Denver avenue, and leaves a widow and seven little children, the youngest being only two months old. The body was taken to Blackman's undertaking rooms in Sheffield, and a coroner's inquest will be held this morning.

Labels: alcohol, amusement, dancing, death, Denver, doctors, laborer, sheffield, undertakers

June 20, 1907

BEER WAS TO EMPLOYES.

Otto Weber's License Is Restored

After a Warning.

The police board yesterday restored the saloon license of Otto Weber, who operates a beer garden at Twelfth and Oak streets. Two weeks ago Weber's license was taken away from him when policemen found him serving beer to fifteen men on Sunday.

Weber declared the men who got beer at his place on Sunday are his regular employes, and that they were working that Sunday afternoon cleaning up his dance hall on the second floor. The board advised Weber to discontinue the dance hall before restoring his beer garden and saloon license.

Labels: alcohol, dancing, employment, Oak street, police board, saloon, Twelfth street

May 8, 1907

IN QUARREL OVER GIRL.

Early Morning Murder on the Inde-

pendence Public Square.

As the result of a quarrel over Fannie May Hughes, to whom both at been attentive, Van Tappen shot Clyde St. Clair at the southwest corner of the public square in Independence at 1:20 o'clock this morning. The bullet went through the forehead and St. Clair died without a word. His body lay on the sidewalk where it had fallen for more than two hours, until the coroner could reach Independence.

Last night there was a dance at the home of the girl's father, J. Melvin Hughes, who lives on a farm four mile northeast of Independence. Both young went. They returned early in the morning and were discussing their differences when the shooting occurred.

Tappen, who lives at 134 South Pendleton, went to police headquarters in Independence and gave himself up to Sergeant W. W. Twyman.

In a statement he made there her said that St. Clair had drawn a pistol and that thereupon he, Tappen, had fired. After St. Clair, who was the son of George St. Clair, Independence street commissioner, fell dying, Tappen took his pistol. Both the3 weapons he laid on the sergeant's desk when he went to surrender. Tappen is 23. So is St. Clair. Tappen and St. Clair had been the best of friends, it is said, except on the subject of Miss Hughes.

Fannie May Hughes, although less than 19 years of age, is divorced. A year ago she received a decree freeing her from the Kansas City man with whom she had eloped. Their wedded life was brief. The gamut of domestic infelicity was run in six weeks. Then they separated.

Labels: dancing, Independence, murder, romance

April 29, 1907

FOR CHILDREN WHO DANCE.

Two Afternoons to Be Given Them at

Electric Park.

It has been decided to devote two afternoons of each week to children's parties to be given in the fine new ball room at Electric park. Miss Gertrude Wagner, a dancing teacher, has been engaged to oversee these parties, and there will be free dancing lessons for all children who come to them. Until school is out the childrens' parties will be given on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, but when the school year is over the parties may be more frequent. The instruction in dancing is to be entirely free to juvenile pupils. After the little people get to dancing, there will be more childrens' cotillions, and masquerade parties. Miss Wagner, will, of course, be the superintendent of these parties though the children's parents may come as spectators.

Labels: amusement, children, dancing, Electric park

March 14, 1907

New Armory to Be Opened Tomorrow Night

Third Regiment Armory Grand Opening

The new armory of the Third regiment at Fourteenth and Michigan will be thrown open to the public tomorrow night. There will be a concert from 8:30 to 10 o'clock, after which there will be dancing. Commercial and civic bodies have been invited to attend the opening ceremonies.

Although the armory has been in use for some time, it has never had a formal dedication. It is to acquaint the public generally with what the regiment has done, without outside assitance, that Colonel Cusil Lechtman has arranged for the reception. Incidentally it is hoped to attract young men, for whom the regiment is always on the lookout.

The armory embraces every convenience to be found in a building of its kind. There is a large drill hall, company rooms, quarters for the officers and ample provision for the storage of tents, equipment, rifles and the like. The building cost $24,000 and was designed by members of the regiment.

Labels: dancing, military

January 1, 1907
MASQUERADE BALL AT
CONVENTION HALL.
At Least 1,000 in Costume Welcome New Year

There were many spokes in Kansas City's New Year's wheel last night, but the hub was at Convention Hall, where there was held the first annual New Year's ball of the Convention Hall directors. In point of attendance it was not a great success, for there were more people in costumes on the floor than there were spectators in the balconies. There were at least a thousand on the floor in costume. There were
senoritas and Hottentots, princes and minstrels, cowboys and cowgirls, the Gold Dust Twins and Sunny Jim, ballet girls and a rooster. A dozen funny clowns played "crack the whip" and one of the real features was the young man who had himself
made up as a "Seeing Kansas City" trolley car with one passenger.
A new feature last night was the placing of the band in the center of the dancing floor and it was fully
satisfactory. The band was put on an elevated platform.
The spectacular effort of the evening was in the speeding of the old year and the welcoming of the new. At 1:30 o'clock high up at the north end of the hall suddenly appeared as the music stopped a dance, the
words:
"1906 Good Bye."
There was then nearly thirty minutes of intermission, towards the last of which the blue lights that traced this farewell grew gradually dim. Then the band played "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot," and just as the big dial in the south end of the hall showed 12 o'clock the dying lights in the big all went almost out, and the lettering at the north end of the auditorium suddenly changed to
"Welcome, 1907."
The maskers and the audience cheered and the lights went up again. Then came the unmasking.

Labels: Convention Hall, dancing, music, New Years, Seeing Kansas City