by Paul R. Spitzzeri
During this America250 year and in advance of this Sunday’s talk at the Homestead discussing how Los Angeles celebrated the 1876 centennial and the 1926 sesquicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and, amid a great deal of recent controversy over the interpretation of history by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of American History, we continue with our post looking at the latter commemoration.
With the arrival of June 1926 and a little over a month remaining until Independence Day and the nation’s commemoration of the sesquicentennial, there was definitely a much more concentrated focus in Angel City newspapers on the Pageant of Liberty, held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on 5 July because the country’s natal day fell on a Sunday.
At the end of May, it was announced that composer Arthur Farwell, who was the creator of piano accompaniments for the songbook, “Spanish Songs of Old California,” collected and translated by the noted Los Angeles figure, Charles F. Lummis, was chosen as the Pageant’s music director, and the 2 June edition of the Hollywood Citizen reported that he was busy “organizing a chorus of 1000 mixed voices with four rehearsals in each of three sections of the city.” These locales included the Arroyo Seco Clubhouse, where the Montecito Heights Community and Senior centers are today, and Hollywood High School. It was added that 200 members of various committees were at work, this was under the leadership of film director Frank Lloyd, on technical aspects of the event.
In its issue three days later, the Los Angeles Times updated readers on the pageant’s planning, with event chair Edwards Davis (1873-1936), a former pastor and a theater and film actor, as well as founder and president of the 233 Club, a key organizer, offering a “tentative outline” to the executive committee. In addition to presenting the thematic elements of the pageant, discussed earlier in this post relating to American history since 1776, it was remarked that up to 3,000 performers and 400 horses were to be involved.
Another bit of news was that “a nominal admission charge was agreed upon chiefly to insure selective interest throughout the community,” those it was added that it “could not begin to defray the cost” and that “one of the participating organizations,” left unnamed, was “underwriting the expenses.” Tickets were to be available through members of the Retail Drug Association, with no store accepting any commission charges, while Boy Scout troops would also sell them.
The Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News of the 12th clarified that the number of tickets available for sale was 50,000, as discussed by Davis at an executive committee meeting the prior evening, though it was stated that the admission fee “is to be charged with a view of meeting only the actual expense of the patriotic show.” The cost to produce the extravaganza was declared to be in the vicinity of $25,000, so it appeared the ticket price was 50 cents.
A major feature appeared in the Times of the 13th and it began with the relating of the recent naturalization of Lloyd, said to be English, but who was actually Scottish, at which came to him “an idea for a more impressive ceremony that would in itself more clearly present to the new citizen the historic and patriotic background of the country to which citizenship loomed.” Lloyd then considered “the value of such a ceremony on a day of great patriotic significance in the minds of American people,” that, of course, being the Fourth of July.
It was added that the director’s concept was broached with the 233 Club, comprising Masonic fraternal members in the movie industry, as well as to committees including members of the Sons of the American Revolution and the American Legion. The result, with the involvement of 92 community organizations and 254 committee members, would be
to make the affair the most pretentious patriotic program ever offered in Los Angeles—or for that matter in the entire West—and to rival from the standpoint of pageantry the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia.
Because of the abilities and experiences of members of the 233 Club, the paper commented that its “technical experts in theatrical lines [are] able to assemble quickly such technical assistance as may be necessary to meet any emergency in the staging of the program” and it would staff the pageant production in the Coliseum and from stations outside the venue, with a quartet of directors using field telephones.
As for the performers, the Times observed that “leading motion-picture stars will portray the several score of leading American historical characters so the Pageant of Liberty will present the heroes and heroines of the silent d[r]ama in a new light,” with about 100 “internationally famous artists offering to participate. Chosen as Paul Revere, famed for his midnight ride to warn of the coming of the British, was Western star Tom Mix, along with his well-known horse, Tony.
Richard Barthelmess, described as a new arrival in Hollywood even though he was a star for several years to date, was said to have been willing to play any role, this echoed by early film star Hobart Bosworth and the lesser-known character actor, Claude Gillingworth. It was hoped that George Billings, who recently portrayed Abraham Lincoln on-screen in a 1924 picture because of his striking resemblance to our 16th president, could make it to the city to reprise that role in person.
A notable aspect to the pageant was that
The men who will play the parts of colonial defenders in the Concord-Lexington sham battle [representing the 1775 engagements that inaugurated the Revolutionary War] will all be direct descendants of the stalwart soldiers of the Colonial armies. They will be recruited from the local Sons of the American Revolution and Sons of the Revolution, two distinct groups.
When actors playing Mollie Pitcher and Betsy Ross were to appear, their escorts were to be escorted by costumed members of the Daughters of the Revolution, Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Dames and Daughters of Mayflower Descendants. The Civil Era-portion of the event was to feature veterans of that conflict from both the Union and Confederate sides, while the representation of the Spanish-American War would include United Spanish War Veterans members, as well as those from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, film industry cowboys and participants from several organizations, including the American Legion, Disabled War Veterans, and many others in the “Evolutionary Years” concluding section.
The Times remarked that “nor will the religious history of the nation be overlooked—especially that portion of it closely aligned with the settling and development of California,” meaning the Mission era, as Catholic Actors’ Guild representatives would take part in a scene involving Father Junipero Serra “and his followers, California’s earliest white settlers.” As to indigenous people of that period, nothing was mentioned.
There was a plan for a featured speaker and it was earlier reported that Mayor George E. Cryer extended an invitation to World War I hero-general John J. Pershing, namesake of a downtown park and Secretary of the Navy Curtis D. Wilbur, who was previously a Los Angeles Superior Court judge and California Supreme Court justice and would return to the bench for a quarter century at the federal appellate court’s ninth circuit.
It was added that the sole speaker would be given ten minutes “to the alien citizens” and that “this step has been taken by the pageant sponsors as it is the intent of the Pageant of Liberty to present to the new citizens and spectators at the Coliseum a pictorial review of America’s history since the Declaration of Independence was signed.” Farwell’s work with “musical continuity” was “expected to be one of the most pleasing features of a program of many spectacular incidents.”
The feature concluded with the comment that,
Sponsors of the affaif [sic] expect the Pageant of Liberty to set a new mark of splendor for similar tableaux offerings. Their expectations seem due for realization as a result of the splendid spirit of co-operation met throughout the entire city and especially the willingness of nationally known theatrical stars to participate in the historical program.
The Los Angeles Express, in its number of the 14th, published a photo of Jeanette Marks, the grand prize winner of its George Washington Patriotic Essay Contest, as the 15-year-old received the $500 check from sponsor and banker Marco H. Hellman as she sat in a bed at the city’s General Hospital, where she’d been a patient for two years. Her illness was not stated, but, in October 1929, the young Jewish woman, a winter class graduate of Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, passed away just days after her 19th birthday and the cause was not provided in her death notice.
A Times report on the 20th on the final executive committee meeting commented that planners were “doubling their efforts” to get the pageant in operating shape, with Davis stating that “not only did the pageant appear assured of artistic success but that the task of disposing of 50,000 tickets in advance was not proving as difficult as anticipated,” while “a brisk demand for admissions” was cited.
As for the galaxy of stars slated to appear, a complete list was wanting, but those listed included an impressive roster of screen luminaries, among them Barthelmess, Wallace Beery, Monte Blue, Harry Carey, Jackie Coogan, Viola Dana, Corinne Griffith, Victor McLagen, Anna Q. Nilsson, Lewis Stone and the Talmadge sisters, Constance and Norma. After noting that Davis complimented those who worked on the event, it was remarked that he praised Frances Widney Workman, wife of City Council President and key event figure, Boyle Workman (great-nephew of Homestead founders William Workman and Nicolasa Urioste) for her work on the women’s ticket committee.
When the Express published the order of presentation of the pageant in its issue of the 28th, the “America United” portion, reflecting the end of the Civil War and the “happy reunion” of North and South,” Davis issued a statement that one wonders what any Black Angelenos who may have heard or read it would have thought:
There is to be no reference made to slavery in the pageant, neither will it be permitted for any flag to appear humbled in the fete. The Civil War representatives will merely show the armies of the Northern side in equal strength, proceeding to a peaceful and happy reunion. Inasmuch as America stands today united, and as the pageant deals with liberty, it will be important to show in every theme peace rather than conflict, that there will be no possibility of any theme being offensive of any company.
As June came to a close, the Times informed readers that “what is said to be the largest accurate reproduction of the famous Liberty Bell,” unlike the massive lighted example shown at the national expo in Philadelphia, “is being built this week at a local motion-picture studio for the Pageant of Liberty . . . as a civic commemoration of Independence Day.” At nearly 30 feet along the base and north of 40 feet high, it was remarked that “the giant pageant bell will serve as the base for a loudspeaker.”
Additional actor assignments were also announced, including Roy Stewart, a character actor with nearly two decades in film including four Westerns released in 1926 along with the Mary Pickford movie, Sparrows, as George Washington (Billings apparently not being able to appear); Francis X. Bushman, best known as a leading man in early pictures and for his role of Messala in 1925’s Ben-Hur, as the Marquis de Lafayette; and, appearing as Mollie Pitcher, Diana Miller, a Fox Film Company actor, whose last film was released early in 1926, but who soon suffered a mental breakdown and was a patient at the Pottenger Sanitarium in Monrovia, when she died, at just age 25, at the end of 1927. It was noted that ten tableaux designed and donated by studios were in the finishing stages.
With respect to music, the paper recorded that Farwell, having completed smaller group rehearsals at the two aforementioned locations, as well as at Belmont High School, Touchstone Theatre, University of Southern California and Pasadena Commercial Club, would hold a last session for 1,000 choral performers at the recently rebuilt Shrine Auditorium near U.S.C. to put the finishing touches on his portion of the program, which was to also include eight marching bands.
The Times added that there were then 112 community organizations involved, along with city government, in the mounting of the spectacle. The number of newly minted American citizens also increased, to about 1,000, as guests of honor, along with the Civil War veterans from the Grand Army of the Republic and the Confederate cohort. With none of the invitees available to attend, Mayor Cryer was selected to give the ten-minute oration, while tickets for the day of the event were to be handled by Boy Scouts placed at 50 locations on nearby streets approaching the Coliseum.
In a summation, the paper opined,
Five months in its preparation and staged by a group of technical experts under the direct supervision of internationally famous directors and producers, the pageant will represent the most pretentious open-air program of its kind ever staged in the West. One hundred motion-picture stars and players whose names are known around the world will portray celebrated characters of American history and 7500 people in costume will all take part in the program, which numbers thirty events—vital factors in our history.
We’ll return tomorrow to pick up the thread of the tale at the start of July and as the Pageant was ready for performance, so check back with us then.
The Philadelphia Exposition was an international world’s fair, whereas the Los Angeles Pageant of Liberty was primarily a regional patriotic celebration. The two differed greatly in both scale and purpose. Nevertheless, as noted in the 1926 newspaper account cited in this post, the Los Angeles Pageant organizers hoped to rival the Philadelphia Exposition. Their ambition and confidence were certainly admirable, and the eventual outcomes reflected the differences in planning, resources, and execution.
According to historical records, the 1926 Pageant of Liberty was successfully staged and warmly received by the public. The Philadelphia Exposition, on the other hand, was plagued by construction delays and inadequate funding. Its actual attendance amounted to only about 20% of the organizers’ projection of more than 30 million visitors, and the exposition ultimately ended with substantial financial losses.
In hindsight, the much smaller and more modestly planned Pageant of Liberty achieved its objectives far more successfully than the much grander Philadelphia Exposition.