by Paul R. Spitzzeri
William Ashley Sunday, Jr. (1862-1935) had the perfect surname for his second major vocation, his first being a professional baseball player, as he was an evangelist, but not only was he a minister, but he was a popular phenomenon unmatched for much of his career of nearly four decades. In his many revivals, Sunday was said to have preached to some 85 million persons, while he also made good advantage of the new technology of the radio.
For eight weeks in September and October 1917, Sunday held on of his massive revivals, conducted in a huge wooden purpose-built “tabernacle” identical to those constructed for others he’d conducted throughout the country over the years. A recent acquisition for the Homestead’s collection is a real photo postcard of a portion of the nearly block-long edifice, showing persons walking outside the structure and near a lunch stand operated along with it. On the reverse is an inscription “Sunday Tabernacle, 12th and Grand Ave.” with the image taken in the midst of Grand at that intersection.
Before we delve into some of the history of the two-month revival, it is worth noting that the location, for some two decades prior, was known as Fiesta Park, though it was not one that had lawns, plants, trees, benches, walkways and other park-like features. Instead, it was more of a venue and was established for, as the name indicates, the popular La Fiesta de Los Angeles, or La Fiesta de Los Flores, that operated intermittently for about twenty years from 1894 to 1914.
It was the new location for aspects of the 1897 edition of that festival, which purported to capture some of the spirit of pre-American Los Angeles, but which was a showcase put on by the business community of the Angel City during an economic downturn, following a national depression in 1893. It was also something of a competitor to the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, while also something of a descendant of an earlier Flower Festival.
The city block comprising Fiesta Park was long the property of Victor Ponet, a prominent figure for much of 19th century and some of 20th century Los Angeles. In April 1897, announcements were made in the Angel City press about its creation, with the Los Angeles Herald reporting,
The lot at the junction of Grand avenue, Pico, Twelfth and Hope streets, upon which the Fiesta tribunes are erected, is to be enclosed after the event and converted into a public resort under the name of Fiesta park. The managers of the enterprise intend to give a spectacular production of “Faust” as their first offering. Two hundred and fifty people are to be employed in the company, and as everything else is on the same large scale, the event will be one of considerable importance in the amusement line.
The paper also published a rendering of the facility, operated by the Merchants’ Ad Sign Company, which had an arena in the midst of an oval bicycle track (this sport a fad of the day) and seats along Hope Street, denoted as a “main driving st.,” this meaning for horses-and-buggies, not automobiles (though the first “horseless carriage” in town made a brief appearance that year) and curving along portions of 12th and Pico. Corner entrances were situated at the intersections of Hope with these latter two thoroughfares, as well as a pair off Grand. With a streetcar line on Grand, a spur on 12th would deposit and pick up guests in front of a gate.
Next to Grand was the stage for the “Faust” production, in front of which was a lake and with scenery behind it. Along the street were the dressing rooms, office and powerhouse, while, on three sides of the park, were locations for concessions, presumably comprising food and drink of a wide variety.
The Los Angeles Times of the same day amplified its rival’s statements by noting that “all the plans have been consummated for a first-class amusement park . . . with not only productions of an outdoor spectacular nature, but baseball, athletic sports, carnivals, and similar attractions for which there has long been a need in this city.” The site was also praised because it was amidst “the best transportation facilities of any similar tract of land in the city of Los Angeles.”
As to the “Fiesta tribunes,” the paper explained that this was to be where “the Queen’s receptions to all the features of La Fiesta” were to take place. After the festival and led by architect Sumner P. Hunt, contractors were to build a 10-foot high board fence around the grounds “with appropriate entrances, dressing rooms, office buildings, and such other structures as are necessary to make it an amusement park in every sense of the word.
In an advertisement for “Faust,”, the Merchants’ Ad Sign Company informed readers of the papers that the park “can be rented on sharing terms or straight rental” for the activities mentioned by the Times and, given the firm’s purpose, there was also the matter of “18,000 square feet of splendid fence surface, making [the] best style of advertising; [and] can be had by wide-awake firms on reasonable terms” by visiting its offices at Broadway and 7th.
There was actually another offering presented sooner than “Faust,” this being a “Grand Complimentary Entertainment . . . In Honor of the National Order of Railway Conductors,” which was having its national convention (the Angel City increasingly becoming a destination for such large-scale gatherings) in town, on 12 May.
It was claimed that this was to be “A Historic and Correct Portrayal of Spanish Life,” likely seen as a way to extend a bit of the life of La Fiesta, with offerings of “Dancing the Spanish Fandango, La Paloma, etc.,” horse riding, lassoing and tying of livestock, singing and sports. Moreover, the event was to feature “Illustrated Pictures, Electrical Fountains, Fireworks, and [a] Spectacular Carnival,” in what was asserted to be “the Greatest Spectacle ever offered in this city” at a cost of $1,200.
When “Faust” was held on 12 June, the next day’s Herald proclaimed it “A Blazing Success” with some 4,000 persons attending what was stated to be the first open-air performance of the type mounted in the Angel City, presaging what would follow at such venues as the Greek Theatre, Hollywood Bowl, John Anson Ford Theatre and others in our region.
The paper added that the extravaganza “was not attempted to be followed with any approach to accuracy” of the Faust story, as ballet dancing, chariot races, fireworks, high-wire acts, pantomimes, the hellish scene involving Faust selling his soul to Mephistopheles (the Devil) and the burning of buildings and the collapse of a church were calculated to make tangible impressions rather than convey the tale of Faust and his beloved Marguerite.
While it has been stated that Fiesta Park was a venue for La Fiesta de Los Angeles from 1894 to 1916, nothing was located that showed it had a role after it contained the “tribunes” in 1897. There were no references to the park being utilized for the 1898 edition, after which the event ceased, though the La Fiesta de las Flores arose in 1901 when President William McKinley visited Los Angeles and was occasionally mounted through the World War I period. Even then, however, there were no media accounts noted that mentioned the park’s involvement.
Instead, Fiesta Park, as indicated by its founders, hosted all manner of activities over the next two decades before Billy Sunday’s revival and the construction of the “tabernacle.” Some examples here will demonstrate the range of events over those twenty years, including the mounting of baseball and football games there in the fall of 1897. The 11 October edition of the Times reported that,
Fiesta Park was opened as a baseball grounds yesterday, with a game between the Trilbys and Los Angeles teams. The grounds were not in good shape, owing to the fact that the contractor who got the job of putting them in order failed to fulfill his pledges. As a result the men who have leased the park worked all of Saturday night on the ball field, and got it in some kind of condition for the game.
Despite the rough start and the soft field being problematic for base-running and fielding, the Los Angeles team triumphed 10-3 in front of a crowd of some 500, and it was asserted that the grandstand was to have a roof and “the ball field as smooth as a floor” by the next contest. Christmas Day was when football debuted at Fiesta as the Pasadena High School squad took on the second team of Angel City’s secondary school. Given that the visitors previously defeated L.A.’s main eleven, it was no surprise that it romped to a 32-0 drubbing.
By early 1899, a new athletic feature comprised horse racing as a show was mounted at the park and there were entries from outside Los Angeles and throughout the Golden State, as well. As the 19th century came to a close and the 20th arose, Fiesta Park became the site of baseball leagues, while it also became involved in a contest with Washington Gardens, several blocks south and soon known as Chutes Park, for hosting contests among local organizations.
It also was the site of college football contests, with one early instance concerning the match between the University of Southern California, which remained a Methodist institution until 1909, and Pomona College, which was established by Congregationalists but was non-sectarian, on 15 November 1902.
The preceding day’s Los Angeles Express informed readers that “tomorrow afternoon the ‘big game’ of Southern California will be played at Fiesta park” and added “this battle will be for blood for the rivalry between the two institutions is something fierce.” The Trojans prevailed 16-5, including a 107-yard punt return by Elwin Caley that, because the fields were then 110 yards, remains the longest in school history, though his eligibility was questioned by the visitors, who canceled the 1903 contest in protest, while Caley and his team captain brother, Don, were evidently paid to play in USC games. Alas, college football controversies go at least that far back!
Another notable element of Fiesta Park’s gridiron history was the occasional playing of games there by the Sherman Indian High School, including a notable one in late October 1905 against Stanford University, in which the visitors managed to squeak by with a 6-4 win, scoring a touchdown without an extra point, while Sherman’s unusual point total was because field goals counted for four at the time. The original plans, however, were for Sherman to take on the Carlisle Indian Industrial School eleven, though the latter, famed for having Olympic champion Jim Thorpe as an alumnus, ended up playing the University of Pennsylvania and losing 6-0.
In October 1907, St. Vincent’s College, which was established as a Catholic institution more than four decades prior and is now Loyola Marymount University, hosted the University of Denver at Fiesta, and the host team came out on top, 10-0. Notably, Saints’ coach formerly helmed the Sherman high school team and one of his stars was John Galt, described as an “Indian fullback” and who made big gains all game, while also tossing the contest’s sole touchdown.
The end of May 1912 included the site being the terminus of a modified marathon of 12 1/2 miles from Pasadena to Los Angeles, this predating the Los Angeles Marathon by about three-quarters of a century. The top two finishers hailed from the Sherman Indian High School, with Albert Ray, who’d never run a long-distance race, easily prevailing, while Philip Zeyouma, a favorite to win, came in second.
Non-athletic events abounded at Fiesta Park, as well, though it is worth pointing out that, in 1905, a group of city elites petitioned the City to buy the property for a City Hall and other public buildings, though the idea soon dissipated. In 1902, the fraternal society, the Woodmen of the World held a Grand Carnival there following a parade through portions of downtown Los Angeles. The Express of 21 October remarked that,
Along twelfth street numerous booths are to be filled with merchants’ exhibits and other interesting displays, including an exhibition by the Chamber of Commerce, a jail, a telegraph office, a postoffice, the [carnival] queen’s throne and other features. By sundown tonight myriads of electric lights will be in place all over the grounds at Fiesta park, while over Twelfth street, at the corner of Pico [it had to be Grand or Hope as Pico was parallel with 12th] there will be a brilliant electric arch.
In May 1904, a labor carnival was held at the park, with a parade through downtown ending there and “Queen Tessie [Fitzgerald] the First . . . crowned amid applause and fireworks.” Among the activities was a bicycle rider on a live electrical wire “from which he is carefully insulated by the rubber ties” and a pole climbing contest among the electrical workers union. The event was free between the dinner (lunch) and supper hours with days set aside specifically for the Eagles and Elks fraternal societies.
Speaking of the Elks, the local order organized an unusual event in late May 1909, in which it presented “the entire production of [James] Pain’s celebrated eruption of Vesuvius, fete of Naples and fireworks” to raise funds for its decoration of the Angel City’s downtown street in advance of the national society’s convention to take place in Los Angeles later in the year. The offering was a stripped-down version of one given five years prior and the spectacle, including a panel of the southern Italian metropolis with the volcano looming ominously behind it, was to involve more than 500 persons.
The first Los Angeles Auto Show was held in January 1907 at a skating rink and then was held in the basement of Hamburger’s Department Store before it relocated to Fiesta Park for the 1910 and 1911 editions. Massive tents were pitched on the grounds for the events and a site plan for the latter show reveals how the oval field location was organized with about two dozen major manufacturers in central and outlying configurations, accessory companies in an area, a bandstand at the middle, restaurant space at one end with the entrance at the opposite side and a smaller section linked by a walk for commercial car displays, meaning trucks. In all, there were nearly 70,000 square feet of space for the show.
On the first day of May 1912, the Los Angeles Police Department held its annual public inspection, led by Chief and future Mayor Charles E. Sebastian, at the park. As with other events mentioned above, a parade was held, but this was after the drills and inspection at Fiesta, which began at 2 p.m., with the procession heading from there to First and Broadway. As a reflection of the growing importance of the film industry, which began in the city three years prior, it was reported by the Express that “motion pictures of the drilling, the inspection by the city officials and of the crowd at Fiesta park will be taken by the Selig Polyscope company” and “these films will be sent to all parts of the world.” There is an IMDB listing for the production.
Five months later, Fiesta was the location for a speech given by William Jennings Bryan, the so-called “Great Commoner” whose oratorical skills were renowned and who was a three-time Democratic Party presidential nominee, though he lost each time, in 1896, 1900 and 1908. A lawyer, Bryan was also the prosecuting attorney in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. Though it was reported that Bryan hoped to be the nominee again in 1912 in case of a deadlock at the convention, he ended up supporting Woodrow Wilson, who won the campaign, which included former president Theodore Roosevelt as a third-party candidate. The Times, a Republican sheet, informed readers that, as he campaigned for the Democrats,
Col. William Jennings Bryan, in the greatest outdoor political meeting that Los Angeles has ever known, yesterday afternoon held an audience of 25,000 persons (estimated) under the spell of his wonderful voice, magnetic eloquence and dominant personality for more than two hours at Fiesta Park. And he did it with little apparent effort.
There were also occasional religious-themed events at Fiesta Park prior to Sunday’s revival, including one held by the Young People’s Society for Christian Endeavor, which still exists after over 130 years, for six days in July 1913. An existing massive tent was enhanced with a platform with a capacity of 1,000 for choirs and speakers and tiered benches for 10,000 participants, while lighting and banners for decoration were also installed.
After the convention concluded, however, a letter writer to the Los Angeles Tribune of the 16th offered “a protest in regard to Fiesta Park as an unsuitable place to bring an international convention of any kind” because, after 14 years residence in the Angel City, “A Citizen and Taxpayer” asserted that the “heat and foul air . . . in that dirty Fiesta park” was a travesty as the site was “only fit for a bicycle race or a dog show in winter” but was “a poor way to boom our beautiful city.”
Notably, a late October 1911 gathering of Socialists, including Job Harriman, a candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, drew some 5,000 persons. The conservative Times focused on talks that addressed religion and labor, with one speaker telling the crowd that, as paraphrased by the paper, “Fiesta Park is surrounded by church spires, but that in none of those edifices is the cause of labor espoused.”
By the time Harriman took the stage, it was reported, to speak on “The Church and the Strikes,” time was at a premium because of the previous speakers and “he relieved a restless audience” by calling on everyone present to vote, including women who were granted the privilege in California that year. We’ll look to cover Harriman’s campaign in a future post, featuring a pin in the Homestead’s collection from that contest.
Lastly, the Times, though it chose not to offer a summary, as it did the others speaking under the theme of “Humanitarian and Ethical Elements of the [Mayoral] Campaign,” commented that “no speaker was better received than James Gordon McPherson, a colored preacher, whose subject was ‘Why the Negro is a Socialist.” What was also not mentioned, if known to the paper, was that McPherson, a former Buffalo Soldier in the United States Army who served in the same regiment, though it is not known if at the same time, as Colonel Allen Allensworth, was also known as the “Black Billy Sunday” because of his renowned preaching skills among the African-American community.
Returning to sports, the 1916 U.S.C. football team played its six home games at Fiesta Park in a season in which it finished 5-3 under third-year Coach Dean Cromwell, who was much better known for his coaching track and field there for most of 40 years, including while helming the gridiron squad.
The team split those Fiesta contests, though its wins were against Sherman Indian High, the Los Angeles Athletic Club and Pomona College by combined scores of 76-3. while the defeats were against the major college schools, Utah, California and Oregon Agricultural (State), in which the Trojans were outscored 70-19.
With downtown Los Angeles rapidly expanding and growing and the land at Fiesta Park becoming more valuable for future development, as well as U.S.C. returning to campus and Bovard Field for football, this brings us to part two and Billy Sunday’s “tabernacle” and 1917 revival, so join us tomorrow for that.