Wild West Podcast
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Wild West Podcast
Raucous Revelry and Resilience in the Wild West: Unraveling the Enduring Influence of Dodge City's Vibrant Variety Shows
In this episode, we explore the history of the Wild West variety shows, including Dodge City in 1878 and beyond. The podcast is based on the work provided by the Kansas Historical Society and the research of Dr. James C. Malin, along with our producer and historical writer Mike King.
Step back in time with us as we explore the wild and vibrant history of 1800s American variety shows. As your guides, we promise you a fascinating journey, filled with colorful characters, groundbreaking performances, and the pulsating energy of a bygone era. Our esteemed guest, historian Doug Austin, helps us navigate the noisy saloons and makeshift theatres of Dodge City, sharing tales of exotic dances, rowdy crowds, and the law enforcement officers tasked with keeping the peace. As we unravel the threads of history, we shed light on the significant impact these variety shows had on the towns they visited, from nurturing local talent to triggering reform in the entertainment industry.
Our adventure doesn't stop there! We also take you behind the scenes of the historic Long Branch Saloon Variety Show, a beloved institution that's been entertaining audiences since the 1870s. With Doug Austin at the helm, we chart the evolution of its characters, from Dora Hand to Miss Kitty, a transformation sparked by the popularity of Gunsmoke in the 1950s. As we look to the future, we preview their 65th season in 2022, revealing how this resilient show has adapted and thrived over the decades. So, tune in and immerse yourself in the intriguing story of variety shows and their enduring influence on Dodge City's culture and society.
The following introduction of this podcast partially credits the Kansas Historical Society and the work of Dr James C Maylin, along with our producer and historical writer Mike King. The variety was a popular form of American stage entertainment in the mid-1800s, as conceived as saloon shows. These reviews were anything but refined. Circus acts, singers, dancers, chorus girls and body comics were presented in whatever proportion each bar owner preferred. Historian Luke Sunt claims that the variety was born in Manhattan, new York, bowery saloons during the 1840s. Douglas Gilbert states that temporary buildings such as an abandoned church, barn or warehouse were used to host interim variety shows. The resulting spaces were often shabby but almost always profitable. Owners called them palaces, museums, free and easy and wine halls, but performers referred to them as slabs, dumps and honky-tonks. By any name, they were still saloons. Every cow town had something that passed as a variety house, including the raunchiest settlements in the Wild West. Unfortunately, neither the shows nor their fans were known for their sophistication. The promoters of variety were not looking to attract a family audience. So long as respectable women would not be caught dead in such establishments, husbands and son could carouse without interference. Heckling fistfights, even gunfire, were not uncommon in these smoke-filled halls. Performers put up with rowdiness to get an average salary of $15 a week, an excellent income in the mid-19th century.
Speaker 1:Dodge City had its own varieties. The earliest announcement was made in the Dodge City Times on May 25th that the new variety theater was being erected by the lumber firm of Brinkman Brothers. The contract had called for completion in ten days, but the boast was made in the Times June 15th that the job had been done in eight. The Dodge City Times read Although scheduled to open June 10th, the variety is bettered that date by two days. The bills announced a grand array of talent and a variety of pleasure. We suppose everybody and the bald-headed men will go. The proprietors were listed as Seymour and Taylor. Harry L Seymour is manager, dick Brown is stage manager, cw Taylor is treasurer, professor Heidelberg as an orchestra leader, ht McCarty as a scenic artist and Harry Boyer as master of properties.
Speaker 1:Historian Betty Braddock said that Ham Bell was the first to introduce the can-can to Dodge City. Bell had read about the dance that was all the rage in Europe and had learned that a troupe performing the vigorous manipulation of skirts and petticoats, along with high kicks and splits, was touring the western half of the United States. He thought the citizens and visitors to Dodge City were ready for such exotic entertainment. So he booked the dance company. The first performance of the lovely high-kicking ladies was on July 4, 1878. Suddenly the frontier did not seem as far from the sophisticated east coast in New York City Through the Variety's saloon. Only lasted one season. The lively Parisian dance was the talk of the town, according to the Times.
Speaker 1:July 6, 1878, for two nights the Dodge City Variety's presented the extravagant can-can to large and appreciative audiences. Instead of dreamy, tireless spectators, the house was crowded with large, vigorous and wide-awake people. To reassure the newspaper reading portion of the Dodge City residents, the editor concluded by a suggestion of a particular mutual relationship between the moral standards of the performers and the audience. The can-can does not deprave the moral taste of the average Dodgeites or Rangers. The ordinary life is presented in a condensed form on the stage. We cannot particularize the performers, we can cannot do it. Everyone acted well, his or her part. The Variety's will be crowded tonight. Take a front seat baldly, or you can cannot see it so well. Of course the editor's efforts were not as hilariously funny as he intended them to be, but as a historical record they are quite revealing about his opinion on the can-can, including the editor's personal humor. The can-can story of July 6 indicated that all had not been well with the Variety's. That extravagant ahead opened July 4.
Speaker 1:On the same night a new show was launched Ben Springer's Theatre-Kameek in Lady Gay Hall. Ben Springer's Theatre, the cavernous Lady Gay Comique, at the corner of front and Bridge Street, was divided between a bar and a gambling parlor in front and a variety theatre in the back. In July of 1878, the Comique featured an entire vaudeville show, headlined by that unequaled and splendidly matched team of Eddie Foy and Jimmy Thompson. Springer had rented the hall, renovated it, providing for the first time in Dodge City an opera house with a stage and scenery. Associated with Springer as proprietors was Dick Brown, who had been announced as stage manager of the Varieties. At the end of July, announcement was made that the Varieties met with adverse luck and were compelled to suspend.
Speaker 1:No mistake should be made about a moral crusade being led by George Hoover, a leading liquor dealer and the proprietors of the Lady Gay Comique Theatre. Either the cattle season of 1878 was unusually violent or the sensibilities of the regular residents of Dodge City were more tangibly focused on the preservation of violence than earlier. A reform movement was taking place and the citizens of Dodge City had become tiresome of the varieties in which the city promoted due to the cattle trade. At any rate, a card appeared in the Times July 20th, signed Many citizens, appealing to both the county and the city officers to act. How long, the citizens asked, would crime be permitted to continue? The law officers were Earp and Masterson and they appeared either unwilling or incapable in the matter of stemming the crimes of violence. The residents were acting at this particular time, apparently because late summer was a relatively quiet interval between the arrival of the Southern Herds and the Cowboys exploiters and the return of the Cowboys from the range for the fall market.
Speaker 1:During the upcoming winter theatre season. The allegation went Dodge City had lost good theatrical talent because of the lack of a proper theatre. As a result, hoover Hall would be used only for entertainments and exhibitions of a first-class order. Hoover Hall was a more permanent structure than the eight-day wonder built originally for the varieties by the new lumber firm. At any rate, springer and Brown were serving one public with the theatre comique of the Lady Gay and another at Hoover Hall. That dual role was emphasized by the matinee story of the Times July 27th. Springer and Brown proposed giving matinees every Wednesday and Saturday at Hoover's Hall, commencing at 2 pm. It has been requested by a number of leading citizens of this city that we should do so. Ladies will please give us their aid as there will be nothing said or done that will in any way offend the most fastidious. The admission price was fifty cents and reservations could be made at James Connors store without extra charge. On the basis of the first week's experience, the Times August 3rd announced optimistically, probably at the inspiration of the interested parties, as a disguised advertisement the matinees bid fair to be successful and are highly enjoyed by those who attend. So it was only fitting that the historical variety's entertainment became a permanent offering in Dodge City, now at Boot Hill Museum, called the Long Branch Variety Show. These are the same activities in its present day reconstructed version as it was in 1878.
Speaker 1:My name is Brad Smalley and I'm the narrator for Wild West Podcast. Today we have Doug Austin, who is not new to our show. Doug is the director of Boot Hill Museum Long Branch Variety Show. As they say, doug show must go on. Welcome back, doug. As noted in our introduction, varieties have a history in Dodge City. Let's go back to 1958 when Mrs Rosemary and Dr Louis Mock approached the directors of Boot Hill Museum about developing some entertainment in the Long Branch Saloon. What can you tell us about Dr Louis Mock and Rosemary?
Speaker 2:Well, in 1958 is when the first buildings of the replica were built and the Mock saw an opportunity there in the space that was becoming the Long Branch Saloon and they thought that it might be a great place to do a saloon show. So they approached the board. The board said okay, we'll give it a go, and that started the Fourth of July weekend in 1958. The Mock's Mrs Mock especially spent a lot of time researching the history, the costumes and music. Now she got things that are more a little bit later than 1870s because there wasn't a lot of good music that people were familiar with. But between her and her husband, who was a great ragtime piano player, they created the little show and she portrayed the character of Dora Hand initially who sang and emceed the show, and then he was the piano accompaniment and they had their first group of Cancan dancers. There was even one in one national magazine that it was built as one of the most professional productions west of Broadway. So it was a hit to begin with.
Speaker 1:Sounds like it. You say that Rosemary first performed as Dora Hand. Why Dora Hand and how is her history related to the Dodge City varieties?
Speaker 2:Well, her story can be directly traced back to the saloons in the 1870s. She came west from St Louis after having divorced. Her husband performed under the stage name Fanny Keenan, and she also became friends with another performer named Fanny Garrison, and so they were pretty popular in the saloons. They also worked with Eddie Foy. Then tragedy struck in October of 1878. The two Fannies, Fanny Garrison and Fanny Keenan, were staying at Dog Kelly's house. He was gone to Fort Dodge to the hospital with a stomach ailment, but the girl stayed there at his house. Well, Dog Kelly had made an enemy of a cowboy named Spike Kennedy, and Spike got a little liquored up and decided he was gonna drive by and shoot into Dog Kelly's house. So it was kind of the first drive by shooting in Dodge City. But the two shots, one of them passed through the bedding and in through the wall. The second one also passed through the wall, but it hit Dora Hand and killed her instantly.
Speaker 1:So why today does the Long Branch Saloon Variety Show reinforce the name of Miss Kitty instead of Dora Hand?
Speaker 2:Well, that all traces back to Gunsmoke, which was becoming popular in the 1950s and television was fairly new out here in Southwest Kansas. But with Channel 6 KTVC the Gunsmoke show was on. So people saw that on TV. And when they showed up here and realized that we had a Long Branch Saloon, they suddenly began asking about those old characters Doc Adams, kitty Russell, matt Dillon. And since the show was going already, the people started asking where's Miss Kitty? Why isn't Miss Kitty in the show instead of Dora Hand? And so that's what prompted them in the second season in 1959 to change the character to Miss Kitty from the Dora Hand.
Speaker 1:So tell us then about how the Long Branch Variety Show has changed over the years, if any, and what would a viewer expect when attending a summer show at the new theater?
Speaker 2:Well, this is going to be our 65th season, so there's been a lot of different things that happened over the years, but we really have kind of gotten back in the groove of the original format that was created by the mocks back in 1958, which is the lady singer of the saloon kind of emcees the whole show and she brings in some Variety Acts sometimes, but she's got her troop of dancers and so it pretty much has always fell back into that. They've tried to do different things over the years. Different people have come along and thought, oh, I can remake this and make it even better, and it never. It always kind of seemed to fall on its face and we'd end up right back where we were. So this is my 13th summer as the director of the show, and so I've kind of taken the notion that this show has certain things that have to be in it and it's just like if you go to New York City to a Broadway show and you're gonna see Wicked or Music man or something like that, you're gonna expect to see certain songs in that show, and if you don't, you're gonna say what the heck's going on. So that's why we've harkened back.
Speaker 2:We've got songs in the show right now that go all the way back to Rosemary Mock and that's where we originally got them from. There's been some that Nellis Reiner added and then of course Connie Hudnut brought back in a lot of those rosy songs. So that's where we're at with the show. Last summer was kind of a test run, even though they said it was kind of for COVID. I kind of figured it was a test run for something. But they've now combined the dinner with the show, so the folks come in, have the Chuck Wagon dinner and then we do the show, all in one space which has been in the Mariah Gallery. They have started remodeling the Great Western Hotel, which is where the gift shop used to be, and we're gonna have a brand new space in there. It won't be ready for this summer but we'll start in there next summer, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:I hope that sounds pretty exciting. You said the first reenacted performance of the Varieties was in 1958, that which was about 80 years after the very first Varieties Theater was opened in Dodge City on July 4th 1878. Today, the Long Branch Variety Show is tradition that continues in Dodge City. In fact, the Varieties Theater will have its 65th season in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of Booth Hill, while celebrating 150 years as Dodge City. So do you have any unique plans for the upcoming 65th season in 2022?
Speaker 2:Well, for the last few summers we've tried to do something that ties in with Dodge City days with the theme. Last summer we did a song about the Code of the West and we won the year that the band was featured. We did strike up the band. This year we're gonna add a song back in. That is a Johnny Western song but it was used in the Centennial year in 1972 in a film that was called Dodge City West in Crisis and it's called Streets of Old Dodge City. So we're gonna that's gonna be a Beeson song this year to kind of tie in with the Dodge City days celebration.
Speaker 1:That all sounds very exciting. It looks like Dodge City is gonna have won a hell of a year in 2022. Very much looking forward to it. Thank you so much, Doug, for coming and all your information and your knowledge and for your continued efforts at doing the variety show and keeping that tradition alive.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for having me here. It's always a pleasure to come talk and we will look forward to. We'll have auditions for the show in March. We'll be needing new Kankan dancers and other things. I think we've got our Kitty and Beeson roles pretty much covered for this year, but we'll need those other ones to fill in, so be watching for that in March.
Speaker 1:One last question, then, doug, before we sign off when does the show start for the summer and what's the schedule looking like?
Speaker 2:We kick the schedule off on Memorial Day weekend. So Saturday night, may 28th, there'll be opening night for the show and we'll run nightly seven nights a week All the way up through Labor Day, and then in September we we play on Saturdays and Sundays.
Speaker 1:Awesome, all right, looking forward to it. Thanks, thank you, doug. Well, that's it for now. Remember to check out our Wild West podcast shows on iTunes podcast or at Wild West podcastbuzzsproutcom. You can also catch us on Facebook at wwwfacebookcom. Slash Wild West podcast or on our YouTube channel at whiskey and westerns on Wednesday. Thanks for listening to our podcast. Join us next time as we take you back to the bat masterson in tombstone. Part two the man who swallowed a wagon wheel. You can learn more about the legends of Dodge City by visiting our website at worldfamousgunfightersweeblycom. If you would like to purchase one of our books, you can go to worldfamousgunfightersweeblycom. Slash bookshtml.
