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901 South National Avenue WATCH OZARKS Springfeld, MO 65897 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED OZARKSWATCH Series 2, Volume VI, № 2 Fall/Winter 2017 the magazine of the Ozarks SERIES 2,SERIES VOLUME VI, № 2FALL WINTER 2017
OzarksWatchMagazine.com a publication of Ozarks Studies Institute OZARKSWATCH SERIES 2 The Ozarks the magazine of the Ozarks VOLUME VI, № 2 MISSOURI
FALL/WINTER 2017 Kansas City Columbia OzarksWatch (ISSN 1044-8500) is published by Missouri State University’s Ozarks Studies MISSOURI R St. Louis Institute and Library Services. Additional funding Jefferson City for this issue is provided by the Ofce of the Marais des Cygnes R. Lake of the Ozarks Gasconade R. Provost. Eldon MISSISSIPPI R. Osage R. ILLINOIS CONTENTS EXECUTIVE EDITOR Meramec R. Tom Peters Rolla Pomme Farmington KANSAS Stockton de Lake Terre St. Francis R. Neosha R. Salem 2 Author Page EDITOR Lake Lebanon Rachel Besara Black R. Cape Girardeau
3 From the Editor Sac R. Springfield James R. Lake by SUSAN CROCE KELLY Jacks Fork Wappapello MANAGING EDITOR Joplin Eminence Susan Croce Kelly Marionville Ava 4 Picturing the Ozarks Crane Ozark Eleven Point R. OKLAHOMA Current R. introduction by SUSAN CROCE KELLY Table Rock Lake Branson West Plains DESIGN EDITOR Lake of the Cherokees Cassville Bull Shoals Lake Nathan Neuschwander Noel KY 6 Ma and Pa—and Fields Photo Shop Lake Grove Hudson Eureka Springs Bentonville Norfork Lake in the words of their son MAX FIELDS Spring R. BILLING/SUBSCRIPTIONS Beaver Lake Harrison Mountain Home Vicki Evans 10 Pictures in the Mist: Photographs by J.H. Field Tulsa Fayetteville TN Fort White R. Illinois R. Buffalo R. adapted by SUSAN CROCE KELLY Gibson Mountain View Black R. SUBSCRIPTION Lake 14 Mary St. John, Photo Hobbyist Annual subscription rate is $16. ARKANSAS Emilie Burke ARKANSA by SHANNON MAWHINEY S R. CONTACT INFORMATION Maps & GIS Fort Smith Student Assistant 20 Commerical Photographer Harry Morgan Dardanelle OzarksWatch Robert S. Kerr L. Reservoir Missouri State University by SUSAN CROCE KELLY 901 South National Avenue Duane G. Meyer Library 24 Picture This: Photography of Domino Danzero Springfeld, MO 65897 by LESLIE JAMES (417) 836-4525 [email protected] Subscribe to OzarksWatch Magazine via mail or online at OzarksWatchMagazine.com 28 Oscar Carter, Moving Picture Man ozarkswatchmagazine.com by SHANNON MAWHINEY facebook.com/OzarksWatch NAME: 36 Kate Wright’s Grandma FRONT COVER in the words of photographer KATE WRIGHT Accident on Missouri Superhighway 1925 by ADDRESS: Domino Danzero. From the Domino Danzero 42 Betty Love, One-of-a-Kind Photojournalist Family Photograph Collection at Missouri State STATE: ZIP: by MIKE O’BRIEN University Libraries Special Collections and CITY: Archives. 50 Art Song in the Ozarks, Part II EMAIL: by JAMES S. BAUMLIN BACK COVER 59 Sherman the Plowman Photo by FH Field. PHONE: by DEWAYNE KEIRN © OzarksWatch All rights reserved Subscribers will receive two issues of OzarksWatch. Magazines are published in the spring and fall. Cost for a subscription is $16.00 per year. Missouri State University is an equal opportunity/ afrmative action/minority/female/veterans/ Make checks payable to Missouri State University. disability/sexual orientation/gender identity employer and institution. We encourage applications Mail to from all interested minorities, females, veterans, OzarksWatch Magazine individuals with disabilities, and sexual orientation/ gender identity. Missouri State University 901 S National Ave. Springfeld, MO 65897 CONTENTS CONTINUED
60 OzarkWatch, the Video Magazine by SUSAN CROCE KELLY
64 Ozarks Then and Now by KAITLYN MCCONNELL
65 Home in the Hills by RENEE RAMSEY
66 Book Reviews 66 Blood River Rising by VICTORIA POPE HUBBELL reviewed by EVAN HENNINGSEN 67 James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River by LELAND AND CRYSTAL PAYTON reviewed by THOMAS A. PETERS 68 Hillbilly Hellraisers: Federal Power and Populist Defance in the Ozarks by J. BLAKE PERKINS reviewed by THOMAS A. PETERS 70 The First Beverly Hillbilly: The Untold Story of the Creator of Rural TV Comedy by RUTH HENNING reviewed by THOMAS A. PETERS 72 LANFORD WILSON: Early Stories, Sketches, and Poems edited by DAVID A. CRESPY reviewed by SUSAN CROCE KELLY 74 Ozarks Studies Institute by RACHEL BESARA
76 Upcoming Issues
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 1 Author Page
James S. Baumlin, Ph.D., “Art Song in the Ozarks: An Inventory of Sheet Music,” is distinguished professor of English at Missouri State University and editor of Moon City Press, which is sponsored by Missouri State University. Rachel Besara, “Te Ozarks Studies Institute,” is Associate Dean of Libraries at Missouri State University, Director of the Ozarks Studies Institute, and editor of OzarksWatch Magazine. Max Fields, “Ma and Pa Fields,” was the son of photographers Ma and Pa Fields of Cassville, Missouri, and eventually their successor. Tis oral history interview, made in the winter of 2008-2009, is from “Lifetimes of Memories, a Collection of Oral Histories of Men and Woman who Made their Homes in Barry County, Missouri.” It is available in Voices Of Barry County, Vol. 10. Evan Henningsen, Book Review: Blood River Rising, works as a freelance writer and photographer focusing on history, food, and the outdoors. Leslie James, CA, “Domino Danzero,” is a feld archivist in the Local Records Preservation Program of the Missouri State Archives in Jeferson City, Missouri. Shannon Mawhiney, “Oscar Carter,” “Mary St. John,” is a digital archivist for the Special Collections and Archives Department of the Duane G. Meyer Library at Missouri State University, Springfeld. Kaitlyn McConnell, “Ozarks Ten and Now,” is the brains behind Ozarks Alive!, an online magazine dedicated to preserving the area’s history and stories. She also serves on Springfeld’s Landmarks Board, and on the Missouri State University Ozarks Studies Institute Advisory Council. Mike O’Brien, “Betty Love,” is a retired journalism instructor at Missouri State University and Drury University, and a former reporter, editor, and columnist at Springfeld Newspapers, Inc. Tomas A. Peters, Book Reviews: Hillbilly Hellraisers, Te First Beverly Hillbilly, James Fork of the White: Transformation of an Ozark River, is Executive Editor of OzarksWatch Magazine, and Dean of Library Services for Missouri State University Libraries. He is the author of John T. Woodruf of Springfeld Missouri in the Ozarks: An Encyclopedic Biography (2016). Renee Ramsey, “Home in the Hills,” is a poet and painter living in the Ozark foothills. Kate Wright, “Kate Wright’s Grandmother,” is a professional photographer in Eldon, Missouri. She opened Wright Studio, Tird Generation in 2007.
2 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 From the Editor
A person doesn’t have to look any further than Facebook to see how much Ozarkers like to take pictures of our breathtaking natural surroundings, never mind our friends, families, dogs, and cats.
Capitalizing on that passion, this issue of OzarksWatch Magazine is about some of the picture-taking that has gone on over the past 100 years – from hobby pictures, to commercial photography, to art, to photojournalism. We have zeroed in on eight photographers who lef their mark on the region, and lef us records of our own past. Ten, as a bonus, we’ve added a time-lapse picture of the Noel clifs from our favorite Ozarks sleuth.
As a former newspaper reporter, I learned early that the public – and my editors – tended to value an article with pictures more than one without, and as a sometimes photographer myself I learned just how hard it is to take a really memorable picture. So I hope you enjoy, and share my admiration for the work of the men and women on the next pages.
Although this issue’s theme is visual pictures of the Ozarks, there are other kinds of things that also paint “pictures” of a time or place. James Baumlin’s piece on Sheet Music in the Ozarks gives good evidence of that, as do the two short poems.
You may have noticed that we are making some additions to OzarksWatch Magazine. Because we are all about the history and culture of the Ozarks, and because we have only so many pages, we have added a Book Review section to highlight others who are writing about our favorite subject. Where we can, and when we get items that are good fts, we will also include a poem or perhaps a piece of short fction.
Finally, do write and tell us what you think about OzarksWatch Magazine – what you like, don’t like, or would like to see in the future. I am the magazine’s new managing editor, and I would really appreciate your feedback.
Now, turn the page and meet the eight photographers whose work helps us understand who we are and where we’ve been.
And don’t forget to write!
Susan Croce Kelly Managing Editor [email protected]
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 3 PICTURING THE OZARKS Introduction By Susan Croce Kelly, Managing Editor
y Victorian times, photography had become common enough that many small Ozark towns boasted a local photo studio where residents would go and pose to memorialize Bweddings, anniversaries, births, family gatherings, and other milestones of daily life. Photography, of course had been around for a long time by then. The frst pinhole camera was invented by an Iraqi scientist in the Middle Ages, and the frst photographic prints were made by a Frenchman in 1827. Wet plate negatives on glass enabled Matthew Brady to cover the Civil War, and dry plate negatives made hand-held cameras possible. In 1889, George Eastman invented flm that could be rolled up, and made the box camera, and that changed everything.
Nonetheless, it was still a pretty big deal to have your picture taken.
Through the years of the early 20th century, as photography became more accessible, thousands of men and women picked up cameras, built their own darkrooms, and went to work recording the lives of ordinary Americans. They took pictures of ordinary things – people, buildings, nature, animals – but in the course of doing that, they left us a map of our own past. We have the news media to remind us about the big things that happened – elections, wars, foods, famines – but it took those independent small town photographers to document grandfather’s new car, a town’s new supermarket, a second-grader’s birthday party, or the ribbon-cutting for a new beauty salon. If you look at those pictures today, you see not only the picture, but the kind of shoes people wore, the type of automobiles in the background, the fact that men wore hats. Now that’s magic, and a great gift to us. Turn the page and meet our eight Ozarks photographers:
4 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 Ha Ha Tonka photo by Domino Danzero
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 5 Ma and Pa—and Fields Photo Shop CASSVILLE, MISSOURI
By Max Fields in His Own Words
a (Fred Otis Fields) and Ma (Cleo Lillian Sample) were married on March 23, 1928, Pand came to Cassville fve years later. For 62 years, Ma, Pa, and later their son Max, photographed the local people and their surroundings. Today, more than one million negatives from Fields Photo Shop are preserved in Fields Photo Archives in the Barry County Museum in Cassville. Below are excerpts from an oral history interview with their son, partner, and successor in the business, Max Fields.
“Te folks never wanted to be called by their frst names. Tey were even called Pa and Ma when they were in college, and people who knew them still ask about Pa and Ma. While in college in Alva, Oklahoma, Pa worked for Ellis Studio doing photography work. Afer he and Ma were married they moved to Dodge City, where he got employment at Stovall Studio. Te Stovalls were not only Pa’s employer and friends, but they also prepared him for his future occupation as a photographer. Te Stovalls also spoiled me rotten.
My parents came to Cassville in 1933. We lef Dodge City in a 1929 Model A Ford pulling a 4-wheel trailer built on an old Model T frame. He pursued photography on what I would call sort of a gypsy or nomad basis. Tey had a 35-millimeter camera with 100-foot rolls. Tey could take lots of pictures on one roll. Tey would Pa and Ma Fields travel to a town, rent a building, and set up business and make pictures—what they called stamp pictures, which were about an inch by an inch and a half in size.
6 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 As running water was scarce and necessary were still going along fairly good I suppose, to wash the chemicals from the photos to and they were still making pictures. keep them from fading, and the only water available was quite ofen an old hand pump About this time they also got acquainted in the middle of the street, Pa would pump with Roaring River and the Civilian the water and Ma would turn the pictures Conservation Corps’ boys. Fields Photo in a tray under the spout. Tey sold three Shop became a hangout for a lot of the boys pictures for a dime, and I haven’t yet and Pa and Ma sort of kept up with them fgured out how we ate on that, but anyway, over the years as to what they were doing. that’s what they started doing. Te CCC used to have a reunion every year down in the old CCC Camp at Roaring Tey had toured all over western Oklahoma River, and the folks would always attend and came up through Arkansas. Whenever that if they could…As I grew up, I made business would slack of in a town and several pictures down in Roaring River people got all the pictures made that it State Park that we sold postcards from… looked like they wanted, Pa and Ma just packed everything in the trailer and headed Photography of kids was always a primary on to the next town to set up business there thing with Pa and Ma Fields. People and repeat the whole thing over again. brought their children to the studio. Pa and Ma also went to all the rural schools Coming to Cassville, they needed a place in Barry County to make individual and to park the trailer, which was an old Model group pictures. Te folks continued on with T chassis on which they had built a body the studio here in town, and working in all made out of car siding. It had canvas covers the schools in the area all the way from over over the windows to be able to shut the at Rocky Comfort, Stella, Midway, Purdy, light out or keep the bugs out or whatever, Washburn, Wheaton, and Seligman, when and a tarpaper roof. It was just like any they had a high school…Tey covered all other old four-wheel wagon. Tey needed of Barry County, did some in Stone County a place to park it, so they parked it down and the edge of Arkansas, and a few over where Rocky Edmondson Memorial Park in Newton County. My parents loved the is, as it’s known now, on the ground on kids. One of the most remembered things 13th street…Tey found a place to put their was that Ma had a yardstick that she would business – upstairs over what was then the poke them in the belly with and make them Red Front Grocery Store, and proceeded laugh.” to do business there. Ten a better location was found upstairs over the Sanitary Turn the page for Ma and Pa’s photos. Market, which was a grocery store and Excerpted from Voices of Barry County, Vol. 10. meat market…Tey saw no need to leave Interview conducted in winter, 2008-2009. Lifetimes Cassville, but they needed a better location of Memories, a Collection of Oral Histories of Men and found some better quarters over what and Woman who Made their Homes in Barry County, Missouri. Barry County Museum, Cassville, Missouri. was then the Hatfeld Drug Store…Tey Fields Photo Archives are available to the public. were there for quite some time, and things For more information contact Fields' Photo Archives at 417-847-1640 or [email protected]
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 7 8 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 Ma and Pa Fields took pictures of local happenings, from the famous Red Heads professional women’s basketball team, at left, to people fshing at Roaring River State Park on a nice day. Photos courtesy of Fields Photo Archives, Barry County Museum, Cassville, Missouri.
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 9 Pictures in the Mist: Photographs by J.H. Field FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS
Adapted By Susan Croce Kelly
“ y favorite time to be out snapping with my camera is in the early morning, Mwhen the mists soften the harsh outlines and give allure and mystery to even the most ordinary subjects.” —J.H. Field1
On many mornings during the 1910s and 1920s, a frail, middle-aged man would strap a camera on his back, climb onto his bicycle and pedal through the countryside around Fayetteville, Arkansas, in search of just the right light and just the right spot to set up his camera. Te man was J.H. Field, a local portrait photographer who gained national recognition with his sof-focus pictures of everything from pretty girls to gasoline stations.
A native of Wisconsin, Field started out working with his father as a carpenter, but in his early 20s, photography became his life’s work when he began to win photo contests and to sell his photos to magazines. With money from his magazine sales, he hired a local photographer for lessons and eventually opened his own studio.
Small, sickly, and increasingly deaf, Field lef Wisconsin and came south at the age of 44 hoping to fnd better health in a more temperate climate. In Fayetteville, he set up shop just of the square, and supported Self-portrait of the photographer. himself and his family primarily with
10 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 portrait photography. Te portrait business, attacks. For a number of years aferward, however, was always more a way to make his wife, Minnie, who had been his studio a living than his passion. He poured his assistant and lab technician, continued to passion into his sofer, more artistic photos. print and sell his photographs.
In 1915 his photographs were shown at the Today, Field’s photos are part of the Special San Francisco Panama-Pacifc International Collections Department at the University of Exposition. In all, he won hundreds of Arkansas. Most of the photographs in the prizes in his life, and his photos were collection are landscapes and nature scenes. featured in shows in London, Budapest, Te collection includes prints made by Field, Dresden, Italy, and South Africa. contact prints made from Field’s negatives by the Special Collections Department, “When I won my frst prize,” he said, glass plate negatives, publications, and “I knew practically nothing about other papers pertaining to Field. photography; but I did know that I wanted to get away from the microscopic sharpness Turn the page for more of J.H. Field’s photos of the ordinary photograph.”2
“Sofness, mystery, the intrigue of light and J.H. Field Photographs, Negatives, and Papers (1899- shade—these were the elusive qualities that 1931). University of Arkansas Libraries Special I sought,” he told a magazine interviewer Collections, Manuscript Collection 539. goo.gl/XKGni1 in 1928, “and I worked in my own crude Material from this article was adapted from fashion until I obtained them.”3 “Te Gentle Eye: Te Photography of J. H. Field,” a brochure that accompanied the 2008 exhibit of Field’s photographs at the Mullins Library. It was published Sometimes he went back to the same by the Arkansas Commemorative Commission, Old place over and over until the light was State House, an agency of the Department of Arkansas just right for the picture he wanted. Other Heritage. “Approved biography for J.H. Field,” (Courtesy of times he would open the camera lens to Christian Peterson), that appears on Luminous Lint, a create a shallow, fuzzy focus, or jiggle website devoted to the history of photography. his tripod during long exposures. Many goo.gl/kKiRHy other of his sof images came out of the darkroom. A 2008 University of Arkansas Library brochure quoted Fields as saying, Notes “Sometimes I placed a piece of celluloid, or 1 American Magazine, December 1928 quoted in “Te two or three, between the print paper and Gentle Eye: the Photography of J.H. Field,” Arkansas Commemorative Commission, 2008. the negative. Occasionally I substituted a 2 Ibid. piece of tissue paper, or chifon, or bolting 3 Ibid. cloth, maybe a combination of all three, in 4 Ibid. order to get the efect I was afer.”4
Te little photographer was a fxture in Northwest Arkansas until 1936 when he died at age 67, following a series of heart
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 11 Above, “Log House in the Snow.” Opposite page: “The Bridge, circa 1923.”J.H. Field photos courtesy of Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
12 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 OzarksWatchMagazine.com 13 Mary St. John, Photo Hobbyist OZARK, MISSOURI
By Shannon Mawhiney
hotographer Mary Jane (Garrison) St. John was born in 1880 in Ozark, Missouri, Pto John B. and Martha Jane (Roark) Garrison. She was one of many siblings and half-siblings, some of whom were more than thirty years older. Her father died when she was fve years old,1 and her mother continued the family farm and sold spring water from Garrison Spring to many in the area, including to the Frisco Railroad for $100 a year.2
Mary became a photographer in the frst aimed towards women and photography decade of the 20th century, and was likely instruction for hobbyists.8 a photography hobbyist rather than a professional photographer. Mary’s sister, Te most prolifc example of advertisements Ida May (Garrison) Hunter, may have is Kodak’s “Kodak Girl” ads, featuring also been a photographer.3 Being part of independent and caring women both the large Garrison family, the sisters were photographing their exciting vacations relatives of local Ozark artist Howard around the world and taking loving Garrison (who was their half-brother’s photographs of their children at home.9 grandson and the bootlegging owner of the infamous Riverside Inn in Ozark4) Photography was becoming more popular and more distantly related to artist Lyman in general during the 1890s and later, Herston (Howard Garrison’s third cousin).5 due to the portability of newer cameras and improved photograph development While there were few female photographers processes.10 Te camera in Mary’s portrait in the United States in the 1890s, appears to be a Rochester Optical Company photography as both a hobby and a “Premo” model glass plate camera, which profession for women signifcantly was manufactured around the year 1900 expanded by 1920,6 putting Mary’s and would have cost somewhere near photography right in the middle of this $15.00.11 12 Tis model of camera advertised popularity increase. During the Progressive that “the value of photography is now Era (ca. 1890s-1920s), when many women recognized by … men and women of nearly were taking on social issues such as every walk of life” and that “lovers of the women’s sufrage and opposition to child beautiful tried to garner up the choice bits labor7, photography magazines began to of nature with the aid of brush or pencil; include both advertisements specifcally but now, how easy to save not only outline but detail as well with the Camera.”13
14 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 as well as Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and many individuals in the photos appear to be family members and friends. Others, however, have not yet been identifed. If Mary continued her hobby of photography afer leaving the Ozarks, that evidence lies outside of this collection.
Turn page for Mary St. John’s photos
Te original glass plate negatives from this collection come from the Christian County Museum & Historical Society. Te images were digitized by Missouri State University Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives and can be viewed online at goo.gl/8gVWKq
Notes
1 Family Association, Isaac Garrison, 64.Hunter/Roper Mary Jane Garrison St. John album, 16. 2 Mabel Phillips, e-mail from local historian, September 26, 2017. Mary married James D. St. John of Sparta 3 Cox, “Riverside,” 19. 4 Mabel Phillips, e-mail from local historian, in 1909 (the same year she was named the September 26, 2017. “Goddess of Liberty” in the Ozark Fourth 5 Linssen, “Photographers.” 14 of July parade ), and the two moved to 6 Mintz, “Progressive.” 15 Corvallis, Montana, possibly lured by the 7 Mintz, “Progressive.” Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909, which 8 Linssen, “Photographers.” allowed homesteaders in several Western 9 Skyrme, “Kodak Girl.” 16 states up to 320 acres of land. Per the 10 Linssen, “Photographers.” April 1910 census, Mary was working in 11 Illustrated Catalogue, 36. Corvallis as a bookkeeper and John as a 12 Premo Camera, 18-27. 17 drug store clerk. Te St. Johns had two 13 Ibid. children: Warren Garrison St. John in 1910 14 Hunter/Roper album, 6. 18 and James Daniel St. John in 1913. Mary’s 15 Wayne Glenn, Facebook post by local historian, April sister, Ida, came to visit her in Corvallis 4, 2017. in 1930 and passed away while she was 16 Bradsher, “West.,” 35. there.19Mary later died there as well in 17 1910 Census. 1963.20 18 Family Association, Isaac Garrison, 64. 19 Ida Hunter obituary. Many of the photos in this collection 20 Family Association, Isaac Garrison, 64. depict locations around Ozark, Missouri,
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 15 Bibliography
Album of photographs from Ida May (Garrison) Hunter given to her daughter, Gertrude (Hunter) Roper. Christian County Historical Society, Ozark, Missouri. Bradsher, Greg. “How the West Was Settled: Te 150-Year-Old Homestead Act Lured Americans Looking for a New Life and New Opportunities.” Prologue (Winter 2012): 26-35. Accessed October 4, 2017. https://www.archives.gov/fles/publications/ prologue/2012/winter/homestead.pdf Cox, Jamie. “Down by the Riverside.” OzarksWatch Magazine, 9, no. 4 (1996): 17-20. Illustrated Catalogue of Photographic Equipments and Materials for Amateurs. New York: E. & H.T. Anthony & Co., 1901. http://piercevaubel.com/cam/ catalogs/1901anthonylp410.htm “Hunter, Ida May (Garrison).” Christian County Republican (August 21, 1930). Christian County, Missouri, Genealogy Obituaries. Accessed September 27, 2017. http://christiancomogenealogy.org/index. php/obituaries/item/1231-hunt-charlie-sr-d-2010- hurd-mamie-p-d-1983 Isaac Garrison Family Association. Te Family of Isaac Garrison, 1732-1836: Frontiersman and Soldier of the American Revolution. Baltimore: Gateway Press, 2009. Linssen, Dalia. “American Women Photographers, c. 1900-1940.” Oxford Art Online. Accessed September 27, 2017. http://www.oxfordartonline.com/public/ page/benz/themes/AmericanWomenPhotographers Mary Garrison St. John Photograph Collection, M 99. Missouri State University Special Collections and Archives, Springfeld, Missouri. Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. “Overview of the Progressive Era.” Digital History. Accessed October 4, 2017. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu Te Premo Camera, the Poco Camera Catalogue. Rochester, N.Y.: Rochester Optical & Camera Co., 1901. http://www.piercevaubel.com/cam/ catalogs/1901premopocolp514.htm Skyrme, Alison. “Te Kodak Girl: Women in Kodak Advertising.” Ryerson Archives & Special Collections. Accessed October 4, 2017. https://library.ryerson. ca/asc/2013/10/the-kodak-girl-women-in-kodak- advertising/ United States Census, 1910, Ravalli County Enumeration District 79. Database with images. FamilySearch. Accessed October 5, 2017. https://www.familysearch. org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RVR-NWX?cc=1727033
16 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 OzarksWatchMagazine.com 17 18 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 Previous page, the woman in the photo seems no more anxious to move on than her horse. Opposite page, a boy proud of his vehicle. Above the woman’s movement tells the story, as the mighty hunter pursues his quarry. Mary Jane Garrison St. Johns photographs courtesy of Christian County Museum and Historical Society and the Missouri State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives.
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 19 Commercial Photographer Harry Morgan SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI
By Susan Croce Kelly
hroughout his long career as a commercial photographer in Springfeld, THarry Morgan documented the town’s business community, photographing everything from new grocery stores, to Drury College students, to updates at the Springfeld Wagon and Trailer Company and Heers Department Store.
A native of Indiana, Morgan arrived taken at the end of the 19th century when in Springfeld in 1898 with his wife, he frst arrived in town. Minnie, and went to work for professional photographer G.W. Ferguson. Within “He seems to have been a commercial two years, he opened an ofce out of his photographer who recorded images for home on north Benton Avenue. Four businesses and social service agencies like years later, he moved both home and the Salvation Army,” writes music collector ofce to Commercial Street in the north and Ozarks historian Wayne Glenn in his side business district and from there took popular Facebook page “Wayne Glenn (Te pictures anywhere he could get on foot, by Old Record Collector)”. trolley, train, or as a passenger in someone else’s automobile. He never drove a car “He photographed himself. He was the go-to commercial anyone who would pay photographer for businesses throughout the him money,” Crabtree area and was still taking pictures until his says. “If a business had death in 1945. something new to show of, or a new business Probably because he never owned a was coming to town car, and had a photo studios on or near Harry seemed to be the Commercial Street, Morgan is best known guy they called.” for his pictures of the Frisco Railroad Shops. According to Springfeld historian Richard Minnie Morgan died Crabtree, Morgan would walk over to the in 1943; Harry died rail yard with his camera and shoot photos November 24, 1945. of the men who worked there. Afer work, Teir two sons, Harold they’d congregate in Morgan’s studio and and Edgar, who purchase the pictures he had taken. One of were both born in his photos is a rare shot of the town’s frst Springfeld, died in the Frisco station on Benton Street, probably 1960s.
20 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 Harry Morgan,at left, memorialized everything from shoe stores above, to apothocary shops (next page) during his carreer as a photographer. Morgan’s pictures are courtesy of Bob Piland from his private collection. For more Harry Morgan photos check out Richard Crabtree and “Wayne Glenn (the Old Record Collector)” on Facebook.
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 21 22 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 OzarksWatchMagazine.com 23 Picture This: Photography of Domino Danzero SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI
By Leslie James
omino Danzero epitomized what many consider typical of an immigrant’s Dambition when he came to the United States. He was an entrepreneur and a self- motivated man, determined to make a good life for himself.
Domino was born January 13, 1871, near the birth of daughter Angelina, followed Turin, Italy. By the time he immigrated four years later by a second daughter, Leola. to the U.S. at age nineteen, he had lost Te Danzeros lived in Rogers, Arkansas, for his mother and his only brother. He a few years in the early 1900s before settling held jobs at a coal mine in Illinois, as in Springfeld, Missouri, in 1907. a cook for restaurants in Chicago, and worked for a bakery in St. Louis before Afer a decade of service to Harvey House, becoming a chef for the Harvey House Danzero decided to embark on his own restaurant chain associated with the St. entrepreneurial path. He started Domino’s Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company Café in 1908, Domino’s Bakery in 1910, (Frisco). As a chef, and later a supervisor and Domino’s Macaroni in 1918. Domino’s with Harvey House, Danzero used his Bakery produced Butter-Krust Bread and amateur photography skills to document Honey-Nut Bread. Danzero promoted the the landscape and communities along the bread with the slogan, “Eat Domino’s Bread Frisco (c. 1900-1908) between St. Louis and and Be Happy.” He later modifed this Galveston, Texas. Remarkably, railroad slogan to promote homemade products he management gave special permission to manufactured in the basement of his house. him to stop any train that he was on for the purpose of photographing the local area. In 1923, Danzero received news from his doctor that he sufered from a terminal Danzero met his future wife during his case of diabetes and would not likely live travels for Harvey House and Frisco another year. Domino and Bridget decided Railroad. He married Bridget Roetto of to liquidate their assets in the bakery Monett, Missouri, in August 1902. Bridget and macaroni factory. Te unexpected became his business associate during their retirement gave Danzero and his family ffy years of marriage, helping with the time to travel, and the energetic Domino various businesses Domino founded. Te focused on smaller entrepreneurial projects Danzeros began their family in 1903 with and photography. Te family took two
24 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 extended trips west in 1923 and 1925, some of the earliest photographs within both of which are well documented in his the collection date between 1891 and photograph collection. Domino and Bridget 1895. Danzero used an Al-Vista Camera also made a trip to Europe in 1931. Little #4-B produced by Multiscope and Film did they know that Domino would actually Company for many of his early panoramic live to be eighty-one. photographs. He was able to manipulate the camera to allow himself to pose multiple Despite relinquishing his assets, Danzero times in one panoramic image, selling still had a desire to produce consumable patent rights to Kodak. products. In 1935, he set up shop in his basement and manufactured the Domino His photography documents the Food Products line. His output included communities he lived in, the careers he hot tamales, ravioli, chop suey, mayonnaise, pursued, his travels, and his family life. Te soups, spaghetti sauce, chili, salad dressings, images highlight the Italian immigrant and custom canned food products. in the Midwest ranging from Tontitown, Arkansas, to Kansas City, St. Louis, and It is not known exactly when Danzero Springfeld, Missouri. Domino died on took up the hobby of photography, but December 18, 1952. Family members recall that in his later years, when his eyesight was poor, he longed to be able to look at his photograph collection again.
Afer Domino Danzero’s death, his photographs stayed within his family – with his daughters, grandchildren, and great- grandchildren – who took an avid interest in the photographs.
Turn page for a Domino Danzero photo
Te collection is now part of a collaborative efort between the Missouri State Archives, which has digitized Missouri and Ozarks images for Missouri Digital Heritage Initiative, and the Missouri State University’s Special Collections and Archives Department. Te originals, including images of places outside of Missouri and around the world, are held by Meyer Library. Te digitized portion of the collection can be accessed on the Missouri Digital Heritage website. goo.gl/JYTW8D Reprinted with permission from the Missouri Secretary of State’s Ofcial Manual.
Domino Danzero
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 25 Members of the Acacia Club on the White River near Hollister in 1928. Domino Danzero photographs courtesy of Missouri State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives.
26 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 OzarksWatchMagazine.com 27 Oscar Carter, Moving Picture Man MARIONVILLE, MISSOURI
By Shannon Mawhiney
scar W. Carter (1884-1979) was an Ozarks photographer of the early 20th century, Omainly in Missouri’s Barry, Stone, and Lawrence counties.1 His photographs, correspondence, camera, and other items are now part of the research collections at Missouri State University Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives, donated by his grandchildren, Thomas Allen and Sue Wyrsch. The photographs, many of which were made for hire, depict individuals and groups in various locations around the Ozarks.
Oscar’s family came to Marionville, modern flm negatives of various types and Missouri, when he was four years old. Tey sizes. originated in Bedford City, Virginia, and stopped in Little Rock, Arkansas, before In 1909, not long afer Harold Bell Wright’s traveling by train to the Ozarks. Here Shepherd of the Hills was published and they paid $900 in gold for an eighty-acre helped to kickstart Branson as a tourist plot just east of Marionville and used the destination,4 Oscar rented a room from land to grow fruit, including forty acres of John and Anna Ross (on whom “Old Matt” strawberries. Farm laborers would come and “Aunt Molly” from the book were from Arkansas to pick the fruit and would based) for about a week and photographed camp on their land.2 the individuals and locations that were the inspirations for the novel. Sammy Lane, Oscar’s camera, possibly his frst, is in the however, had recently moved to California, MSU archives. It is a Seneca Rogers glass so Oscar could not photograph her. Anna plate camera manufactured sometime had a portrait of her hanging on a wall, and between 1895 and 19243 and includes Oscar asked to make a copy; but Anna was several glass plate holders. Some of the glass concerned this would damage the photo plate negatives in the collection are larger and refused. While Anna and John were than what this camera could hold, however, doing chores outside, Oscar photographed so this was not his only camera during the image in secret without causing any his early years as a photographer. It also damage. He later printed a copy and hand- certainly was not his last camera, as many colored it based on Anna’s descriptions of the images in the collection are on more of Sammy and presented it to Anna as a gif, which she was very happy to receive.
28 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 as he drove there regularly in the 1950s and 1960s to purchase Kodak developing paper.8
As evidenced by the grass under his subjects’ feet in many photographs, and per family recollections, Oscar always did his photography outdoors, even when using a backdrop. He used a cellar at his home in Crane as his darkroom for flm developing.9
Around 1911, Oscar began using his car to travel the area with his “Moving Picture Show,” renting out school buildings for a night in locations like Scholten, Seligman, Self-portrait of Oscar Carter with his Model T and his horse Granby, Mars Hill, Osa, Hurley, and others “Bell” circa 1910s. near Marionville. He also used the upstairs part of the Jenkins Merchandise Store in the town of Jenkins and Woodson Hall in Oscar also hand-colored copies of other Crane, or he would set up a tent when no images from his trip and turned them building was available. To erect the tent, into a slide show. In 1911, Oscar drove his he ofered free passes to locals who would newly purchased 1910 Model T Ford (the help. Tickets cost ten cents apiece for adults third automobile owned in Stone County, and fve cents for children, and later on purchased in Marionville) on a return trip his wife, Grace, helped with sales. With to Branson to also photograph the visiting his car’s rear wheels raised of the ground author.5 He would later use these images and attached to a generator by pulleys, he in a slideshow presentation for which he could run his movie projector and lights charged admission.6 virtually anywhere. He paid a boy 25 cents each night to sit in the car and make sure Oscar’s Model T is featured in many of his no hooligans came to turn of the engine. If photographs, with himself or others posed it was turned of, the movie had to be reset, in or around it. A few prints are labeled which was a time-consuming process.10 with the pun “You auto be with us.” While we know he traveled quite a bit in the areas Oscar showed silent movies of several types of Marionville and Crane, as well as down mainly comedies, westerns, and dramas.11 to Branson, we also know that he drove at He also used glass lantern slides for at least least as far north as Springfeld during this one slide show (“Te Shepherd of the Hills,” time period: in 1915 he incurred a trafc using the photos he took in Branson along violation for allegedly passing a stopped with a handwritten script) and to display streetcar near the public square (and made notices such as “Loud talking, whistling or the Springfeld newspaper for doing so).7 He boisterous conduct not allowed” along with may have been in Springfeld on business, local advertisements, including those for
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 29 his photography and flm developing. Some of the images Oscar drew himself.12
Examples of movies played, as listed on advertisements in the collection (most likely played a few years afer their initial release dates) included:13 * Uncle Tom’s Cabin (released in 1903) * Te Man in the Moon (1909) * True to His Master (1909) * A True Indian Heart (probably Te True Heart of an Indian, 1909) * Teir Child (1910) * Where the Sun Sets (1910) * Jolly Bill of the Rollicking ‘R’ (1911) * White Clouds Secret (1912) * Why the Ranger Resigned (1913) * Te New Typist (1913) Oscar Carter’s hand-colored photo of a portrait of Some of his advertisements list his movie Shepherd of the Hills heroine Sammy Lane. company as “O.W. Carter Moving Picture Co., Marionville, Mo.,” but others say “Barris & Carter,” with the names “Oscar W. him letters. Some simply requested copies Carter” and “W. Lon Barris.”14 Tis partner of photos or inquired about costs, but was probably William Alonzo “Lon” Barris others mixed talk of his photography and who later became mayor of Marionville.15 movie businesses with coy interest in when he might return to the young women’s While involved with photography and hometowns. Several letters also reference motion pictures, Oscar listed on his 1918 drawings Oscar had sent to them. Te draf registration card that he was self- earliest letter of this sort in the collection employed as a farmer while living either is dated 1912, while the latest is dated with or near his parents in Marionville.16 1919, shortly before his marriage to Grace Tis may indicate that his main source Elizabeth Skaggs of Boaz. Te couple had of income at that time was still farming, three children: Agnes May (Carter) Allen which was a common occupation in the in 1920; Eugene Harold Carter in 1924; and area. Ruby Maxine (Carter) Lasiter in 1932.17
With his photography and movie In 1921, Oscar opened18 a theater in Crane, businesses, traveling to the small towns of a town with a population of just over 1,100 this area, Oscar collected several friends at the time, with the help of J. Hugh Cook.19 and female admirers who began writing Oscar named it the Electric Teatre. Tis
30 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 theater may have previously been the Barris Examples of movies played at the theater:28 Teatre in Crane, which was likely owned 29 by his one-time partner, Lon Barris. Oscar played silent flms here and rented the * Te Runaway Horse (released in 1908) building out for Vaudeville acts. Te Crane * Jack and the Beanstalk (possibly the High School had no auditorium until 1930,20 1917 version) so even though his own children were not * Te Toll Gate (1920) yet in high school, he allowed their school * Under the Lash (1921) plays to be held at the theater.21 * Te Sheik (1921) * Our Gang (1922) Because area farmers usually came to town * Western movies starring Tom Mix to shop on Saturdays, Saturday nights were ofen the most popular movie nights.22 With business going well, Oscar added J.W. Cox sold popcorn out of a cart near electric fans and stationary folding the entrance, and Eugene Moody assisted seats to the theater30 and purchased in the fre-proof projection room during equipment to play “talkies”31 like nearby movies, operating the hand-cranked Springfeld theaters had recently installed.32 “Power’s No. 6 Cameragraph” projector. Unfortunately these purchases were A player piano entertained when a flm made just before the 1929 stock market reel broke and had to be repaired, and an crash, and shortly aferwards many local orchestra composed of Jeanette (Anderson) residents could no longer aford the luxury Hufines and Crane High School students of attending a show. Oscar was forced to played during intermission.23 Occasionally sell the theater to his parents, James and Oscar’s very young daughter, Agnes, would Laura Carter of Marionville, who rented try to go out on stage between shows to the building to other theater managers.33 entertain the audience, but she was not According to the April 1930 census, Oscar allowed.24 was by then already working for the Empire Electric Company34, and he would Agnes later recalled moviegoers wanting eventually retire from there35; but he to get up out of their seats to help an did continue to take photographs and to actor in trouble on the screen: “One will process flm.36 have to realize the silent picture was very new to people and difcult for them to More photos by Oscar on the next pages. understand how action could be shown on a large screen in front of them.”25 Crane native Syd Carr similarly recalled hearing Oscar Carter’s photographs and other materials were audience members shout warnings at movie preserved and cared for by his daughter, Agnes May actors (“’Look out, Buck, he’s behind the (Carter) Allen, and by her children before being donated 26 to the Missouri State University Libraries’ Special tree!’”) at the Crane theater. Agnes also Collections and Archives. Te collection is currently remembered during silent flms that some being processed and digitized, particularly the fragile in the audience would read the text aloud, glass plate negatives, and several of the digitized images and letters are already available online: goo.gl/eE8moJ “which was annoying to some people and helpful to others.”27
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 31 Notes Bibliography
1 Carter Collection. “5th Annual Paramount Week.” Springfeld Missouri 2 Mahnken, “Ozarks’ heritage,” 1B. Republican, September 3, 1922. 3 “Seneca.” Te Acorn, 1930 Crane school yearbook. Robert S. Wiley Collection, R 521. State Historical Society of Missouri, 4 Tompson, “Saga,” 27. Rolla, Missouri. 5 Wyrsch, “Shepherd.” Allen, Agnes (Carter). “Oscar W. Carter.” Springfeld! 6 Carter Collection. Magazine, 10, no. 2 (July 1988): 42-43. 7 “Chased,” 5. ---. “Oscar W. Carter’s Show Business.” In History of Stone County Missouri, 247-248. Marionville, Mo.: 8 Tomas Allen, e-mail from donor, September 26, Stone County Historical Society, 1989. 2017. Carr, Syd. “Living in the Ozarks.” Crane fle. Stone 9 Sue Wyrsch, interview with donor, October 2, 2017. County Historical Society, Crane, Missouri. 10 Allen, “Oscar,” 42. “Carter Teater to Open Fifeenth,” Crane Chronicle, 11 Ibid. January 6, 1921. 12 Carter Collection. “Chased four blocks by motor policeman.” Springfeld 13 Ibid. Missouri Republican, May 30, 1915. 14 Ibid. “Seneca Camera Manufacturing Company History.” Historic Camera. Accessed September 27, 2017. http:// 15 “Last Rites.” www.historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium/pm.cgi?a 16 “Draf Registration.” ction=display&login=seneca 17 Carter Collection. “Last Rites Held for W. A. Barris.” Marionville Free Press, June 16, 1966. https://fndagrave.com/cgi-bin/ 18 “Carter Teater.” fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=116661202 19 Mahnken, “Ozarks’ heritage,” 2B. Mahnken, Don. “Photographer leaves legacy of Ozarks’ 20 Acorn. heritage.” Springfeld Leader & Press, November 6, 21 Allen, “Oscar,” 43. 1982. 22 Carr, “Living.” Mose, Arthur Paul. “Earliest Motion Picture Houses in Springfeld Came and Went with Rapidity during 23 Allen, “Oscar,” 42-43. 1920s.” Springfeld! Magazine, 10, no. 1, (June 1983): 24 Sue Wyrsch, interview with donor, October 2, 2017. 34-35. 25 Ibid. Oscar Carter Collection, M 93. Missouri State University Special Collections and Archives, Springfeld, 26 Carr, “Living.” Missouri. 27 Allen, “Show Business,” 247. Oscar Carter’s draf registration card. Oscar Carter 28 Ibid. Collection, M 93. Missouri State University Special 29 “5th Annual.” Collections and Archives, Springfeld, Missouri. 30 Allen, “Oscar,” 43. Tompson, James A. “Saga of the Shepherd of the Hills, Part I.” Springfeld! Magazine, 15, no. 3 (August 31 Tomas Allen, e-mail from donor, September 25, 1993): 25-27. 2017. United States Census, 1930, Stone County Enumeration 32 Mose, “Earliest,” 34. District 105-12. Database with images. FamilySearch. 33 Allen, “Oscar,” 43. Accessed September 24, 2017. https://familysearch. org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RZD-82G?cc=1810731 34 1930 Census. Williams, Mrs. Fenton. “Early History of Business in 35 Allen, “Oscar,” 43. Crane.” Crane fle. Stone County Historical Society, 36 Carter Collection. Crane, Missouri. 1970. Wyrsch, Sue. “Shepherd of the Hills” manuscript describing Oscar Carter’s photography trip. Oscar Carter Collection, M 93. Missouri State University Special Collections and Archives, Springfeld, Missouri.
32 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 Oscar’s daughter Agnes (left) and an unidentifed girl at the Carter household in Crane, mid to late 1920s. Oscar used the cellar on the righthand side as his darkroom for flm developing. Photograph on the following page is two women at Roaring River State Park, April 21, 1935. Oscar’s wife, Grace, is likely the woman on the right. Oscar Carter photographs are courtesy of the Missouri State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives.
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 33 34 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 OzarksWatchMagazine.com 35 Kate Wright’s Grandma ELDON, MISSOURI
In the words of photographer Kate Wright
ake of the Ozarks portrait photographer Kate Wright is a legacy; she will tell you Lshe is a professional photographer because of her grandmother Vergie Wright, a widow who earned her living and supported her children by taking pictures in the Ozarks foothills town of Eldon, Missouri.
Kate credits her own career success to the privilege of hanging around her grandmother’s studio during summers and vacations when she was growing up. At the same time, she agonizes in her own career. In this world where everyone has hundreds of pictures on cellphones but prints very few of them, Kate says she takes photographs not just for the people in the pictures but for their grandchildren and others who will be curious about those who came before.
Recently, Kate told OzarksWatch the story of her grandmother, and her own journey to become a professional photographer.
“My grandma’s name was Vergie Grof was doing that right when they were adding Wright. She was quite a looker as a young sound to flm. I have a picture of him lady. She had curly black hair and she standing next to a sound truck and if you was sweet – very nurturing as a grandma. look at it, it looks so old and archaic, but at When I was a little girl she ran the Wright the time it was cutting edge technology. Photo Studio in Eldon, Missouri, but before that she was a nurse, and the family story is He and Grandma met when Grandpa was that she met my grandfather on a train to on his way to a photographers’ conference Chicago. He was the original photographer and Grandma was on her way to be head in the family. of nursing at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. Tat was her career and that’s really He had studied photography all over and incredible to me—she was a professional had been a cinematographer in California woman before she ever met Grandpa. during the Tom Mix era. I remember one time we were watching a late-night movie Anyway, Grandpa told her on that train when I was a kid and my dad said, “Tat’s ride she was going to be his wife. Grandma my dad’s name.” We looked up and it said laughed at him, but from what I have “John C. Wright Jr.” in the movie credits. He been able to piece together, about six or
36 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 I have pictures of aerial shots of Eldon and the Lake of the Ozarks, and I look at them and know it’s Grandma hanging out of an airplane while the kids are of at school and she’s going to come home tonight and cook dinner. Tat was my Grandma!
She spent her career photographing everything from high school pictures to businesses. When the Southwestern Bell building was built in Eldon, she photographed the progress of that. I found four pictures of Eldon taken in four directions of one spot because she was taking pictures of the bracket that held the ladder on the utility truck for Southwestern Bell. And there would be pictures of a wrecked vehicle, but in the back you see Photographer Vergie Wright by John C. Wright, Jr. Te Bucket – an old ice cream shop – or the Photographs with this article are courtesy of Kate Wright, bank that isn’t there any more. Tat’s how Wright Studio, Third Generation, Eldon, Missouri. some history is captured.
nine months later they were married and I remember being a kid in the camera room Grandma became his photography assistant with Grandma. She had this old Century and learned the trade. portrait camera, a big beautiful box of wood with a huge lens on it. It had ground Grandpa got sick and died within eight glass on the back and the image would years of their marriage. Grandma was show up on that glass upside down but she looking at ways to raise two children as never looked at it. She had a six-foot cord a widow in the 1950s: Do you go back with a bulb and she’d stand next to the to nursing? Or do you continue the camera and talk to you. And when it was photography? Tat is what she ended up my brother and me having our pictures doing. taken, she’d say things like “I want you to imagine that you’ve got a trick to play on So as a kid growing up, the way I spent time your brother.” Or “I want you to imagine with Grandma was either in the darkroom you’re thinking, ‘Grandma, I love you.’” helping her make prints, or in the camera Or “I want you to imagine you’re saying, room watching her take pictures, or in the ‘Grandma you’ve got a pug nose,’” which of kitchen at home. It never really occurred course you’d never say to Grandma, but it to me what a big deal it was that she was a would bring out this ornery look, this little professional woman, that she created own sparkle in your eye, and that’s how she took business, that she was raising two kids on your pictures. her own in that time era.
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 37 Her motto was Portraits with Personality hanging out with. I also didn’t realize until and it really, really, really ft her. And I I started doing it myself what Grandma remember as a kid watching her work in did because it was the best way, and what the camera room afer the clients had lef Grandma did because she was legally blind. and I remember asking, “Grandma, how do For example, she got so she couldn’t read you know when to take the picture? How her light meter, but when she went to a do you know when it’s that right moment?” church she knew where to set her camera And she nonchalantly said, “I just wait by the distance from the altar. Te frst pew for the sparkle.” At the time I said, “Tat was so many feet, the second pew was so doesn’t tell me anything! Tat doesn’t help many feet, and that’s how she knew where at all, Grandma.” to stand and how to set her camera.
When I got to the place where I had to do A picture that has inspired me in my that for my clients, I realized she elicited business is a picture of Grandma in a boat that sparkle through those kinds of phrases on the Lake of the Ozarks with her sister. that she used with my brother and me, but My Grandpa took it. You can see the wake diferent for other people. For example, my in the background and the wind in their godfather still remembers what she said hair and they’re looking at each other, not to make him smile for his senior picture. even looking at the camera. What is so She said, “Frank, I want you to imagine special to me about it is, I’ve got tons of you’re getting ready to tackle somebody pictures but I never got to see Grandma in football.” She didn’t say “make a play like that. touchdown,” she said, “make a tackle.” I look at that senior picture today and I can Because of that photo, I don’t take the see that exact emotion he was feeling. pictures just for the people that are paying me or hiring me. I’m actually taking On top of everything else, for as long as I pictures for people who aren’t born yet so can remember, Grandma was legally blind. they can see themselves in that person or She had macular degeneration and as her relate to that person in a way they would sight deteriorated, she used her peripheral never have had a chance to if it weren’t for vision to take and develop pictures. Yet she the picture. Here at the Lake of the Ozarks, became a Master Photographer.* As a kid, I have a perfect garden, so to speak, of when I’d help out in the darkroom, I’d be clients, because that’s why they come to the her eyes. She’d be burning and dodging say, lake. Whether they’re going to be here once a wedding picture and she’d make a couple a year or once in a lifetime, or whether they of prints and then she’d ask me, “Now, can have second homes or whether they live you see the details on the lace better on this here all the time, this area is about families one, or on this one?” And she would make coming together, making memories, her adjustments. enjoying nature, doing things.
I didn’t realize I was learning anything Something else I’ve learned through about photography hanging out with Grandma’s pictures is they have value Grandma, because as a kid you’re just for people even if no personal memory is
38 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 farmer. I look at that picture and I look at that lady and I say, “Tere’s plenty of evidence of your life. Tere’s plenty of evidence that shows you existed. Tere are probably paintings and multiple photos. But this guy, this may be the only thing that exists that proves he ever lived, that he was ever in existence.”
Afer Grandma passed away, the studio was going to be sold. At the time, I was working for the state, but I quit my job, a huge leap of faith. For me, it was basically a matter of saving the building. I had nothing but a memory, a name, the negatives, the old equipment, but none of the clientele, none of the new equipment.
A lot of people assume I just inherited the Southwestern Bell managers took over the switchboards attached.when Eldon Ioperators have awent picture on strike. of downtown business and only had to continue what was Eldon when the streets are nothing but established, but in so many ways it was like dirt. Cars are lined up on both sides, and starting from nothing and transitioning there are people lined up on both sides. I’m from flm to digital and the heavy burden imagining stepping out of the studio and of feeling like you have really big shoes to seeing that. Te frst thing I’m looking at fll. Grandma was a Master Photographer. is people’s clothes. And the cars. And I’m I am nowhere near that, although that is a thinking, ‘Can you imagine the streets goal of mine. being saturated like that, when it’s too muddy to even drive on a gravel road?’ I have related more to Grandma as a photographer since her passing and I have So I show that picture to people and, even tried to do what she did. I know Grandma if they have no relation to Eldon, they don’t more now, trying to follow in her footsteps even know where it is, they’re fascinated. than I did when she was here.” Tey’re drawn in – it’s a historical snapshot; a window of time. Turn the page for a photo Eldon, Missouri.
I have a 5x7 glass negative with a whole bunch of exposures on it. Tere’s a picture *Master Photographer is a designation for studio of a woman with short bobbed hair, in photographers, from the Professional Photographers of a fur stole, probably from the twenties – America. For more, go to ppa.com. obviously a wealthier woman. On the same piece of glass is a guy in overalls, a scraggly beard and a big straw hat – probably a
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 39 Photo of Eldon, Missouri, by Hiram Kilgore, who sold his studio to John and Vergie Wright.
40 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 OzarksWatchMagazine.com 41 Betty Love, One-of-a-Kind Photojournalist SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI
By Mike O’Brien
ike O’Brien, a former Springfeld newspaper staf writer and editor, spent his Mearly years at the newspaper learning from, and in awe of, Betty Love.
During the mid-20th century, the best- mid-1930s, she accompanied Tomas Hart known photojournalist in the Ozarks was Benton as he researched and sketched Betty Love. local scenes and personalities for his epic “A Social History of the State of Missouri” Betty’s renown is threefold: Her timely mural in the state capitol building in photographs have become timeless Jeferson City. classics. Her colorful personality ranged from charming to formidable, as the During summer school recess in 1941, Betty occasion required. And she pioneered began working as an artist and cartoonist the role of women in daily newspaper for the newspapers. As World War II drew photojournalism in an era when almost all to a close, and military needs lef the cameramen were, well, men. newsroom without a photographer, Betty was handed a camera and challenged to put From 1945 to 1975, Betty was a – early on, it to use, fulltime. the – staf photographer for Springfeld Newspapers, Inc., which during those years Photography in those days was heavy, published the morning Daily News, the messy work. Cameras were bulky two- afernoon Leader & Press, and the Sunday handed afairs using 4-by-5-inch sheets News-Leader. of flm in awkward individual frames. Lighting required fst-sized one-shot Betty’s depictions of life began with brushes fashbulbs. Developing flm and prints and pencils. A doctor’s daughter descended was done in dank darkrooms amid acrid from early Greene and Webster County chemical fumes. Undaunted, Betty taught settlers, Betty was graduated from Drury herself to use the equipment and mastered College in 1931 and became an art teacher. the techniques on the job. She presided in classrooms in Springfeld elementary schools and at Jarrett Junior Betty began quickly making her mark, on High and got acquainted with artists who the local newspapers and beyond. She was were spending time in the Ozarks. In the a charter member of the virtually all-male
42 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 Such are the basic facts of the professional career of Betty Love, who died in 1984 at the age of 74.
However, those who worked with Betty or who were subjects of her work remember her as much, if not more, for her personality as her photography. Here are just a few of the stories that still make the rounds today:
Early in her career, Betty was assigned to take a photo of two bartenders who faced charges for assaulting a hotel manager. When they spotted Betty waiting for them outside the courtroom at their arraignment, the men took of running. Betty gave chase, skirt fying, and captured a photo of the feeing pair. When their case later came up for trial, the bartenders again saw Betty on station in the courthouse. Tis time the beefy duo walked straight to Betty, raised their hands in surrender and meekly posed.
In 1948, Betty drew the ire of President Harry Truman over an encounter on the steps of the Federal Building here with a pal of Truman’s, a U.S. marshal named Fred “Bull” Canfl. As a bank robbery suspect was being led down the steps, an ofcer Betty Love early in her career at Springfeld Newspapers, Inc. tossed a blanket over the prisoner’s head Photo used by permission of Missouri State University. to block Betty’s lens. She protested that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protected her right to do her job. Canfl bellowed back: “Te Constitution be National Press Photographers Association damned!” when it was founded in the late 1940s. In 1950 she participated in the second edition Wire services distributed the photo of of the prestigious annual Missouri Photo the hooded suspect and its caption with Workshop (see box on page 45). Betty was Canfl’s infammatory quote to newspapers one of the frst fve inductees into the around the country, greatly displeasing the Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame. president. During several visits to southwest (photojournalismhallofame.org) Missouri in following years, Truman did his best to hold his hat in front of his face
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 43 “The Constitution be damned!” Betty’s most famous photo was seen across the nation.
or otherwise spoil attempts by Betty to the lobby in 15 minutes.” Ten she found shoot his photo. Finally, Betty’s artist friend Long chatting in another wing of the hotel. Tomas Hart Benton coaxed his longtime She cooed: “Senator, I need you to come buddy Truman into making peace with with me for a minute so I can get a picture Betty, and she obtained a memorable of you and those other two fellows.” Long’s portrait of the two together at an area event. face smiled and his arms surrounded Betty in a hug – but his feet didn’t budge. Betty’s power of persuasion showed during the ferce 1968 Democratic primary race for “Now, Ed,” Betty said, her voice rising a Missouri U.S. Senate seat. Incumbent Ed steadily as onlookers tuned in, “you don’t Long tried to pretend that challengers Tom want me to have to go back and tell my Eagleton and True Davis didn’t exist. Betty editor that Senator Long is AFRAID TO was determined to wrangle all three into HAVE HIS LITTLE OL’ PICTURE TAKEN a group portrait during the Democratic WITH THOSE TWO BOYS…” party’s annual Jackson Day gathering at the Colonial Hotel. Te photo of the grinning trio was published on the front pages throughout First she tracked down Eagleton and Davis the state in newspapers whose and told them: “You boys meet me down in
44 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 photographers had failed to accomplish revealing the dramatic close-up photo of that feat. the leopard, with its eyes blazing and teeth bared, Betty calmly noted to astonished Not only was Betty a pioneer in proving colleagues: “You don’t see any bars between that women could succeed in the that fellow and me, do you?” sometimes rough-and-tumble profession of press photography, she also helped Betty and longtime reporter and editor Springfeld Newspapers be among the frst Hank Billings partnered on many aerial to routinely publish color photographs. photo assignments, Hank piloting the small However, because early color printing plane while Betty leaned out a window with processes required days of preparation, her camera. Hank delighted in recounting it wasn’t practical to shoot breaking how Betty would give him “driving” news in color. So Betty at frst resorted instructions as he circled the plane above to composing photos that ofen featured a scene. “Hold it right there!” she would animals, everything shout over the roar from butterfies in of the airplane’s her fower garden to Missouri Photo Workshop was the engine. Or, “Back up, peacocks at the zoo. brainchild of the late Clif Edom and his Henry, back up!” To But one trip to the wife, Vilia (“Vi”). Clif Edom coined the which Hank would zoo turned extra- term “photojournalism” and founded chuckle and reply, exciting. the frst accredited photojournalism “Betty, airplanes don’t major in the country at the University have a reverse gear.” Te zoo had just of Missouri-Columbia. When Betty acquired a new adult participated in the workshop in 1950, Neither was laughing leopard. Betty found photographers from around the afer one 1953 the big cat lounging country documented doings in and fight, however. sleepily at the rear of around Forsyth. Te annual workshop Tey were circling his cage. She clicked continues to attract photojournalists above Grant Beach of a few shots from throughout the world who Park, capturing the with a telephoto gather to photograph the life in a transfer of a retired lens, but wasn’t diferent Missouri town each year. Tis Frisco Railway satisfed. When the September’s 69th edition focused on locomotive for zookeepers weren’t the Miller County community of Eldon. permanent exhibit looking, she climbed Te Edoms, who lived out their years in in the park. When over a protective Forsyth afer retirement, joined Betty swapping lenses on railing and pressed in the frst class of inductees into the her camera, Betty fat against the cage, Missouri Photojournalism Hall of Fame lost her grip on a focusing a wider- in 2005. lens and it fell out angle lens. Suddenly of the plane’s open the leopard sprang to window. its feet, closed the 10-foot gap to Betty with lightning speed and swiped a clawed paw Horrifed that the fve-pound lens could at her face, missing by an inch. When later damage one of the vehicles or houses below
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 45 – or, much worse, hit a person – Betty and fremen in the boat below: “Any one of you Hank feared what they might hear upon #$%^*# look up my dress, I’ll come back returning to the newsroom. Tey were down there and knock your &%#$&* heads relieved when no injury had been reported. of!” But for months they worried every time it rained that a northside homeowner would While Betty could come of as “tough as investigate a roof leak and fnd a hole a teamster,” as her longtime editor Dale punched by a camera lens that fell from the Freeman once described her sometimes sky. salty vocabulary, she also had a gentle, maternal side. For instance, when a new Associated Press photographer Bill Straeder, Catholic bishop was in the newspaper’s based in Kansas City, liked to tell of studio sitting for a formal portrait before visiting the Springfeld newsroom when Betty’s camera, she noticed a loose button a call came inviting a photographer to near the hem of the long black cassock that accompany fremen on an unusual rescue he wore over his street clothes. She pulled mission. Citizens had reported hearing up a chair next to the bench on which the the plaintive barking of a puppy wafing bishop was perched and used a sewing kit up from the concrete-enclosed channel she kept in her desk to expertly refasten the of Jordan Creek near the Frisco depot on button onto the clergyman’s garment. Main Avenue downtown. Te fremen were launching a boat to foat a few blocks Betty had a problem with bare skin when underground to retrieve the dog. Betty assigned to shoot a photo layout at a nudist was sent to rendezvous at a manhole on camp north of Springfeld in the 1960s. Boonville Avenue north of the Public She balked. Her editor, Dale Freeman, was Square. With Straeder tagging along, Betty insistent. Te two – dear personal friends met the fremen, clambered down a ladder but ferce professionals – stood their into the boat and set of in search of the respective grounds. And, depending upon pup. However, it soon was determined who was later telling the story, Betty either there was no dog in distress. Te “barking” quit or was fred. She was gone only one day. was caused by a loose track rail at a street Back on the job, Betty produced artfully crossing that made a high-pitched “Yip! composed photos that showed the naturists Yip!” sound when a vehicle’s wheels passed roaming their private compound. over. During her fnal few months on the Te fremen paddled the boat back to the newspaper staf, Betty was relieved of manhole. Straeder went up ladder frst, then normal duties and was assigned to pore knelt on the pavement to take the heavy through her voluminous fles of negatives Speed Graphic camera that Betty passed up and print those with signifcance to Ozarks to him. Next Straeder reached down to lend history. a helping hand to Betty. Just as her head was about to emerge above ground, Straeder However, on her very last day at work, saw Betty’s eyes narrow. She backed down as the noon deadline approached for a step on the ladder and growled to the the afernoon paper, word came that a
46 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 longtime city ofcial had just revealed “So it really is time for me to retire,” she said, unexpected retirement plans. No other “because it used to be that if somebody had staf photographers were available, so the said that to me, I would’ve knocked him editor reluctantly asked Betty if she would down, put my foot on his chest, pointed the mind walking across the street to City Hall camera down at him and said, ‘Now smile, to snap a photo of the fellow. Betty good- you SOB!’” naturedly agreed. Everyone in the newsroom smiled. A few minutes later, Betty returned. She sheepishly told the editor, “I didn’t get his More of Betty’s photos on the following pages picture.” Why not? the puzzled editor asked. “Because he told me that he didn’t want me to take it,” she explained with a shrug. Find Betty Love’s photos online at the Springfeld- Greene County Library Center (thelibrary.org) and A hush fell over the newsroom. Betty had at the History Museum on the Square always delivered. Her colleagues were (historymuseumonthesquare.org). stunned.
Sharing a moment at Big Springs State Park in 1954
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 47 Betty Love’s photography was as versatile as it was compelling. At left, There’s no better place to be on an October afternoon in the Ozarks than the banks of the White River (1950 photo). At right, Southwest Missouri State (now MSU) Basketball Bears game, December 1951. Note that the photo was taken with a fash, which often caused consternation to players. Betty Love’s photographs are courtesy of Springfeld Newspapers, Inc.
48 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 OzarksWatchMagazine.com 49 Art Song in the Ozarks AN INVENTORY OF SHEET MUSIC
By James S. Baumlin
“ ou can’t write a folk song,” Mrs. Hunter said. Y“At least, not a true folk song.” —Virginia Hunter, quoted in November 15, 1999 New York Times1
In the January 3, 1912 issue of the One day a big feller about 18 kicked the Springfeld (Mo.) Republican,2 a facetious houn and Zeke seen him do it an lit inter letter (signed by one Aaron Weatherman) the feller an shore changed his looks sum. ofers to tell the “True Tale of Dog Song”: Te sherif cum along and rested both the boys and Zeke being a country boy I see by the papers thet a hull lot of talk wuz skeered and blubbrin. Jest when the is goin round bout a Booster song. Te sherif wuz takin the boys into Squire paper says thet this here song wuz writ Johnson’s ofce, Zeke’s Paw saw him and by sum land agent. It aint no such thing hollered to Zeke what wuz the matter. a tall, so I set down an got my dauter Zeke wuz acryin and so when he hollered Selina Aun’s little girl to rite you this back to his Paw, “Every time I come to letter. I disrember the yeer I heern that town, the boys all kick my dog around. song the furst time, but it were long I don’t care if he is a houn, they gotta before the War. I wuz livin about 3 mile quit kicken my dog around.” It sounded north of Forsyth, and my pa and grandpa jest like a song and all the fellers aroun Slater wuz fratin goods from Forsyth to Forsyth sung the song for a rite smart Springfeld. time, till the war broke out an there wuznt time to sing. Te newspaper—and, by extension, its town readership—revels in the illiterate rural Te newspaper’s editors had a vested stereotyping. At any rate, the storyteller is interest in the “Missouri Dawg Song,” since accompanied to Springfeld by another boy, they claimed to have frst “published” its Zeke, whose hound “were a good houn, all lyrics in their issue of December 20, 1911. If right, but Zeke he only fed it wen he thunk their reporting is to be believed, Edward O. about it and thet wuz about wunst a week.” Roark orchestrated the traditional melody, So the dog would rustle food wherever which “Little” Hoover’s “Big” band played he could fnd it, “and the folks got such a at a county land congress. Businessmen grudg agin the houn, thet they wood kick from neighboring counties recognized it as him when they seed him on the square.” an old fddle tune, “Sally Anne” (Lomax, pg. Te author continues: 303), and began singing snippets of lyrics.
50 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 Te performance raised interest in the tune; who had taken a teaching position in Stark Music of St. Louis printed it, and the Bolivar: piece caught on nationally as a vaudeville character-song. Over the months following, It was he who frst arranged the music letters to the Republican poured in from of the “Ozark Houn’ Dog” song, and across the country, praising (or otherwise) the piece when published by the the song’s rustic sentiments, as well as Springfeld Missouri Republican from querying its folk origins. his manuscript, swept the country like wildfre. Roark says that many publishers Te March 19, 1912 issue of the Republican who “lifed” his arrangement bodily reprints the following from the St. Joseph made thousands of dollars from the latter (Mo.) News-Press: sale of the piece, as he did not think to copyright it. Tere appears to be absolutely no end to the possible uses of the famous Missouri dawg song. For, no matter who claims it authorship, Arkansas, North Carolina, England or Germany, it is known, and will continue to be known, far and wide, as “Missouri’s Ozark Dawg Song.” It has gone all over the country, in spite of Governor Hadley’s dictum against it, and it is likely to make the welkin ring in a manner almost to take the roof of, when Champ Clark’s name is presented at the Baltimore convention.
Despite the newspaper’s intensive lobbying on the song’s behalf, the Republican Governor Herbert S. Hadley had rejected it as the ofcial state song (of which, more later). As a candidate for president in 1912, Missourian Champ Clark did take the “Houn’ Dawg” as his booster song—which might have caused the Republican editors of the Republican deep consternation, Tese are the story’s bare bones.3 It’s hard had he won the Democratic nomination. to imagine that any song of any notoriety (Woodrow Wilson won the nomination could warrant 74 separate articles in and the presidency.) Springfeld newspapers and some 214 articles nationwide, but such was the In its July 20, 1913 issue, the Republican attention given to this folk-tune-turned- revisited the song and its arranger, Roark, booster-song-turned-vaudeville-music- score.4
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 51 Te “Ozark Houn’ Dawg” song did make “many persons make changes, thus in efect money for its copyright holders, and the re-creating a song. Tis process, called song’s transit from folksong to art song ‘communal re-creation,’ is one of the things helps mark the distinctions between these that distinguish folk music from other genres. In an essay that seeks to recover kinds” (Nettl, pg. 59). A folksong may an urban/urbane culture of sheet music, evolve slowly over time, developing regional we can begin with basic defnitions. In variations in lyrics and harmonies. A song Folk and Traditional Music of the Western or song-variant may “belong” to a family Continents, Bruno Nettl describes folksong as an “oral” vs. “literate” tradition:
To say that a culture has an oral tradition means simply that its music (like its stories, proverbs, riddles, methods of arts and crafs, and, indeed, all its folklore) is passed on by word of mouth. Songs are learned by hearing; instrument making and playing are learned by watching. In a literate music culture, music is usually written down, and a piece conceived by a composer need never be performed at all during his lifetime; it can be discovered centuries later by a scholar and resurrected. But in a [folk culture,] a song must be sung, remembered, and taught by one generation to the next. If this does not happen, it dies …. (pgs. 3-4)
Te “literacy” of art song—the fact that it is composed, written down, and copied— gives it life beyond the composer’s grave. In recording/transcribing folk music, Vance or clan, to a community, to a region, or Randolph (1892-1980)—who included even to a nation; but it can never, strictly the houn’ dawg in his Ozark Folksongs speaking, be reduced to the sole possession (Vol. 3, pg. 278)—Max Hunter (1921-1999), of an individual. Te houn’ dawg illustrates: and Gordon McCann (1931-) among as soon as the Republican “published” its others, have sought to do the same for an lyrics, the claims of ownership began. Did otherwise ephemeral performance-based it come to the Ozarks from England via tradition. North Carolina? Did it pre- or postdate the Civil War? Was there ever a Zeke, a A second distinction lies in the folksong’s fstfght on the town square, an Aaron anonymity. While it makes sense to say Weatherman? that any song originates with an individual,
52 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 Granted, a memorable performance musical and cultural phenomenon can “belong” to a folk artist, and that worthy of detailed study. Tis kind of performance can be recorded electronically folk music difers from the authentic and transcribed in musical notation: in folk tradition mainly because the efect, it can be turned into sheet music. songs are learned not from friends and But folk-art performance ought not to family but from books, records[,…] and be confused with the unwritten musical trained musicians; because many of the archetype, which remains irreducible to songs were composed especially for city a singular, authoritative, “frozen” text. consumption[;…] because the performer Strictly speaking, there are no copyrights consciously tries to develop certain over traditional tunes, though one can idiosyncracies and to repeat them in an copyright an arrangement of any tune. identical way each time; and because the Roark forgot to copyright his; in an urban style of singing—polyphonic, sometimes culture where money was to be made of with virtuoso accompaniment on banjo, sheet music, he wouldn’t make that same guitar, piano, etc.—may be completely mistake twice.5 diferent from the style in which the same songs are sung in the countryside. And here, again, art song distinguishes (pg. 243) itself from folksong: as soon as a traditional tune is arranged in its harmonies and its Such is the fate of “Sally Anne,” an old lyrics written down (or, ofen, rewritten), its fddle tune arranged and copyrighted and genre changes. commodifed into the “Missouri Houn’ Dawg” song. Folk song becomes art song, copyrightable and commodifed—part of the popular No other local song got near as much music “industry.” Most of the piano/vocal newspaper attention. But back then, any sheet music listed below is not in the style local publication was treated as “news.” of folksong; rather, it’s “parlor music.” Some As Mariam Klamkin notes, “the sheet of it—particularly pieces from the 1920s, music business in the frst half of [the when “Shepherd of the Hills Country” 20th] century was as important, relatively and “country music” were evolving their speaking, as the record industry is today” own popular-cultural identities—is (pg. 4).6 True enough, and newspapers imitative of folk styles and sounds. But played a vital role in that “business.” Web- these copyrighted compositions are “only based archives from 1900 through 1929 reminiscent of the rural tradition” (pg. 243), list some 2,600 ads for sheet music in as Nettl describes the mid-20th century Springfeld papers. (Tis fgure does not “urbanization” of folk art: include music ads in the Joplin Press-Leader, Monett Times, Houston Herald, Neosho Tose who believe in authenticity as Times, and other regional presses.) Lines a major criterion may decide that Temple of Music—pretentiously named, the phenomenon [is] not really folk though the equivalent of a modern-day music. But the role of folk music in multilevel department store—provided all contemporary popular culture is a
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 53 TODAY we will place on sale EVERY PIECE OF POPULAR SHEET MUSIC in the house at 11 c Per Copy NONE RESERVED. Tis is the opportunity to buy sheet music that you have longed for. If you want to get the choice you will have to come early.
And Martin Bros. Piano Co. answered with its own “Saturday Afernoon Music Sale,” as recorded in the October 1, 1909 Republican: “ALL NEW SHEET POPULAR MUSIC TWENTY CENTS PER COPY / Good popular music at 5c per copy. Plenty of the Golden Girl music lef. / We carry a complete stock of McKinley, Wood and Schirmer editions for Teachers use.”
So, the local newspapers made advertising money of the local music stores. And the presses used sheet music to sell papers. An ad in the September 14, 1912 issue reads, components of the local music industry, from instruments to sheet music to IN WOODLAND beginning lessons. A regular newspaper A BALLAD advertiser, Lines ran Saturday sales on Te new song hit to be given FREE music, as in the March 6, 1909 issue of the with tomorrow’s Springfeld (Mo.) Republican: Springfield Missouri Republican
Specials in Sheet Music Here, the Republican is stealing a page We will place on sale every Saturday from the St. Louis Sunday Post-Dispatch, some of the latest hits as well as some of which had long featured multi-week series the older ones at 15 cents per copy. of tunes printed in “sheet-music style.” (If Our stock of sheet music is the largest in you bought Sunday papers over a stretch the city. of ten weeks, you’d own the season’s whole collection: that’s a good deal, when you Lines’s aggressive salesmanship forced calculate a dime’s worth of music for a competitors to respond. Te Black-King nickel’s worth of newspaper.) Still we Music Co. ran its own Saturday sales, as might ask: how could a middling-sized noted in the May 22, 1909 issue of the Midwestern town back then support Republican: three, four, even fve stores fully stocked with sheet music?7 Perhaps the answer is
54 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 that Springfeld, musically-speaking, was orchestras and dance bands. (Te local not your “average” town. Back before Musician’s Union fexed its muscle.) radio and television, when parlor music And, yes, the local stores would stay busy was performed rather than consumed, supplying Springfeld and surrounding Springfeldians were seemingly music towns with the latest music. hungry; I’d go so far as to declare them “music mad.” How, for example, could But when the stock market crashed in 1929, Springfeld have supported the world’s the nation’s sheet music industry crashed largest Boy Scout band—some 400 strong along with it. (No money = no music sales.) at its height (ca. 1926)—a band that Te phonograph had already cut deeply into shared the Shrine Mosque stage with John sheet music sales: instead of printed charts, Philip Sousa and produced Brunswick people were buying records.9 And the phonograph recordings of six marches? phonograph was soon joined by the radio and by television. “Both of these important For an answer, we might look to the city’s inventions helped spread popular songs public schools. In 1921, there were 1,500 across the land” (Klamkin, pg. 5); at the high school students enrolled; of these, 962 same time, “they also led to the demise “were involved in musical organizations—a of the music publishing industry” (pg. 5). record unequalled proportionally by any In efect, the radio (and, later, television) city in the United States.”8 Local historians replaced the parlor piano as the primary give Springfeld’s frst school Music source of family entertainment. A 1929 Supervisor, R. Ritchie Robertson, a lion’s cutof date also allows me a graceful exit share of the credit: from his appointment in before country music overtakes the local 1916 through his death in 1939, Robertson scene. In 1947, “Corn’s a Crackin’” began its virtually lorded over the school music radio broadcast from Springfeld’s Shrine programs. He had help, of course; many of Mosque. In 1955, Ozark Jubilee began the songwriters were teachers at one time. its television broadcast from the Jewell If we could return to Springfeld in 1921, Teatre. For the next half-century and what would we see or hear? It’s hard not more, Springfeld and the Ozarks became to imagine a town flled with music. Most identifed with country music— and homes with children would have band “country” marks a distinctive shif from the instruments: you’d hear their practice as sheet music of earlier decades. you strolled down the street. Many if not most homes would own a parlor piano—a While there are, again, folk elements in late model if the family was afuent, a Ozarks-themed parlor music, the local used instrument if of modest means. Every industry favored “songs of sentiment,” church would have its choir, and some had typically in waltz-time (e.g., “Te Kiss orchestras; every clubmeeting—whether that Makes You Mine,” “My Old Missouri commercial, political, or fraternal—would Home,” “My Lilly of the Ozarks”);10 songs open with a sing-along, so there was always of “Southern gaiety” and nostalgia (“My a need for song books; schools would Childhood Home,” “I Am Longing for My have their fght songs; the big halls and Old Southern Home,” “I am Longing for downtown theatres would have professional My Old Home on the Old Virginia Shore”);
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 55 songs of patriotism, ofen in march-time art music instead of a sticky mass of (“Life in the Ozarks,” “Te Nation’s Song,” sentiment and tired melody. Te most “Hail, Liberty”); hymns and settings of incredible thing was that the composers Scripture (“How Lovely Are Ty Dwellings,” and lyric writers were equally certain that “Christ Ambassador”); and—curiously from they were producing works of art. (pgs. our own distance in time—Chamber of 90-91) Commerce booster songs (“Everybody’s Settin’ Jake in Springfeld,” “Springfeld, Of course, music printed for popular We Are Proud of You”). Ragtime, polkas, consumption—as opposed to the chamber schottisches, and fox trots are scattered arts of a Schumann or Chopin—falls below among the waltzes that, at their best, the so-called “classic” composers. Even invoke the European operetta-waltz style Stephen Foster, America’s frst master of the of Lehár and Sieczyński (“Te Ozarks Are parlor song, fed the “sticky … sentiment” Calling You,” by Will James, fts this bill: of his age. Much of Springfeld’s parlor- active through the 1950s, James is arguably piano music is “sticky” in this way, though Springfeld’s most accomplished sheet I’d wince at the term “dishonest.” It did music composer). entertain, and it does give us insight into the tastes and aspirations of early Little to none of this is the stuf of radio- 20th-century bourgeois society in the broadcast country music of the 1930s and American Middle West. Early titles show 1940s, which belongs neither to folksong Springfeldians’ response to world events nor to art song precisely.11 But, again, (the Great War especially), even as they “country” lies beyond the purview of this express a nostalgic longing for an idealized inventory. antebellum, “Southern” past. Tey also express an abiding love for the land itself. I’ve made mention of the “best” of these A majority of titles serve to romanticize locally produced pieces. What of the rest? Is the Ozarks and its inhabitants. Tey it worth our hearing? Some of Springfeld’s also express a confdence in the city of composers were conservatory-trained Springfeld, in its resources and wealth of professionals.12 Many were accomplished opportunity. In many respects, Springfeld amateurs. Others were of more modest (and the Ozarks generally) is the “hero” of talent. Writing of late Victorian parlor this music. music, Ronald Pearsall warns us not to expect too much from their lyrics, themes, As cultural documents, the region’s parlor sentiments, and melodies. His evaluation songs deserve study. While we might smile of the “drawing-room ballad”—the British at some of the lesser achievements, we can equivalent of American parlor-piano sheet and should lend our ears to this music. music—is frankly brutal: But, alas, sheet music is itself ephemeral. Herbert L. Hoover, R. Ritchie Robertson, Victorian popular music reached a low Allie Criss, and Minna B. Quinn (to name with the drawing-room ballad. It was a a few prominent Springfeldians) produced dishonest medium, cajoling the listeners more than the mere handful of works that into believing that they were getting survive in local archives—donations, in
56 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 each case, from family collections. Much of the inventory consists of titles merely; if any of these survive in artifact, they’re likely to be found in the old music cabinets and piano benches of private homes. As Wayne Glenn notes, local musicians today “proudly display instruments and sheet music that have been ‘handed down’ from one generation to theirs for well over 150 years” (pg. 7). It’s my hope that they’ll join in the search for more of these pieces, so that these might be heard once more.
Editors Note: Watch for James Baumlin’s sheet music inventory in the next issue.
Works Cited
Dauterive, Jessica Anne. “Harry Macarthy and the Academy of Music.” New Orleans Historical Society. Web accessed 14 March 2017. Gilbert, Bodie. “A Short History of Congregational Song in the Assemblies of God.” Assemblies of God Heritage. Vol 28. 2008. Pgs. 32-38. Glenn, Wayne. Ozarks’ Greatest Hits: A Photo History of Music in the Ozarks. Springfeld, Mo.: W. Glenn, 2005. Priest, Daniel B. American Sheet Music: A Guide to Collecting Sheet Music from 1775 to 1975. Des Moines, Hamm, Charles. Yesterdays: Popular Song in America. Ia.: Wallace-Homestead Book Co, 1979. New York: Norton, 1979. “R. Ritchie Robertson.” With Kiltie Love. Web accessed “Hoover Music Company.” Ozarks Alive! Web accessed 14 July 2017. 14 March 2017. Randolph, Vance. Te Ozarks: An American Survival of Klamkin, Marian. Old Sheet Music: A Pictorial History. Primitive Society. New York: Vanguard Press, 1931. New York: Hawthorne Books, Inc., 1975. —. Ozark Folksongs. 4 vols. Columbia, Mo: State Krohn, Ernst C. Missouri Music. New York: Da Capo Historical Society, 1946-1950. Press, 1971. Sanjek, Russel. Popular Music and Its Business: Te First Lomax, Alan. Te Folk Songs of North America. Garden Four Hundred Years, Volume II, from 1790 to 1909 City, NY: Doubleday, 1960. (New York: Oxford UP, 1988). McConnel, Kaitlyn. “Remembering Springfeld’s Boy Scott, Susan. Private email to author, 12 July 2017. Scout Band, the Largest in the World.” Ozarks Alive! Web accessed 14 July 2017. State Historical Society, Missouri (SHS). “Missouri College and University Print Materials, 1836-1986.” O’Neill, Rose. Te Story of Rose O’Neill: An Web accessed 5 May 2017. Autobiography. Ed. Miriam Formanek-Brunell. Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1997. Stout, David. “Max Hunter, Ozark Folklorist of Tunes and Tales, Dies at 78.” New York Times, November 15, Pearsall, Ronald. Victorian Popular Music. Detroit: Gale 1999. Web accessed May 5, 2017. Research Co., 1973.
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 57 Notes
1 See David Stout, “Max Hunter.” Ms. Hunter is the widow of Ozarks musicologist, Max Hunter (1921-1999). 2 Citations from local papers are taken from www.newspapers.com. 3 For a more detailed summary, see Glenn (pgs. 62-64, 77); for the folk tradition and musicology, see Randolph (pgs. 278-79). 4 And the song inspired its share of parodies. Te January 9, 1914 issue of the Oswego (Ka.) Independent prints the following from a student: “every time I go to school, / Te teacher pounds me with her rule. / Makes no diference if I am a fool— / She’s gotta quit pounding me with her rule.” 5 By the start of the 20th century, “songwriting had become a business,” writes Daniel B. Priest: “before, songwriters might sell their work for ten or ffeen dollars. Now, lyricists and composers started their own publishing frms” (pg. 13). Tough Priest is describing New York’s Tin Pan Alley, this same trend reached the Ozarks, with many Springfeldians self-publishing locally. 6 Tough coming afer Tin Pan Alley and the age of vaudeville, Springfeldian Burt Behrman (d. 1999) shows the importance of sheet music to the professional musician. Housed in the Library Center, Te Springfeld- Greene County Library District possesses the Behrman Sheet Music Collection, containing some 5,000 pieces that he had gathered over his career as an organist. To thrive, a keyboardist like Behrman needed talent, a good instrument to play on, a gig, and music—lots of it. What a folk musician carried around “in his head,” a keyboardist like Behrman carried around in albums, folders, and “fake books.” 7 In 1900, Springfeld’s population reached 23,000; in 1910, 35;000; in 1920, 39,000; in 1930, 57,000. 8 I am following statistics given by historian/archivist Don Burns, as cited in the webpage, “R. Ritchie Robertson.” See also Kaitlyn McConnel, “Remembering Springfeld’s Boy Scout Band.” 9 An ad in the October 2, 1927 Springfeld (Mo.) Leader tells the story: “DID YOU EVER NOTICE? Tat when you hear a new song over the radio you can go to THE L. E. LINES MUSIC CO. the next day and almost invariably fnd they have it in stock. Tey’re there now!... Stop in and hear them.” It’s the recording, not the sheet music, that Lines was now pushing. 10 In the June 29, 1922 issue of the Springfeld (Mo.) Republican, Winifred Black writes about “THE RETURN OF THE WALTZ”: Te waltz is coming back. Te dreamy, delicious, delightful, romantic, sentimental, old-fashioned, mid- Victorian waltz—dear me—how glad I am to hear it!... I hope somebody will write some foolish, sentimental, ridiculous words to some of the new waltzes and I hope the girls and the boys will learn them and sing them as they whirl…. Let’s have some roses and violets in the new songs and the new waltzes—I believe the girls will all love them—jazz or no jazz, pep or no pep. For afer all, girls are girls and boys are boys, and down under all the jazz and all the pep and all the rouge and all the brilliantine, there’s the same old human heart, beating warm and true from one generation to the other. What Daniel B. Priest writes of late 19th century parlor music holds for the early 20th century, as well: “Sentiment and hearts and fowers were the guiding moods and, as always, songwriters found a musical outlet for whatever mood was prevailing” (pg. 12). 11 Perhaps we should follow Nettl in describing a “folk music of urban culture.” As Nettl writes, “we may insist that folk songs sung by musicians in the popular music tradition, by professionals who make use primarily of mass media, in styles which may have little to do with any rural folk tradition, are no longer really folk songs…. But perhaps a good solution [is to regard] songs composed in a style derived from folk music by urban song writers and performed by professional entertainers, as the true folk music of urban culture” (pg. 243; emphasis added). 12 Indeed, the city supported two major music programs, the frst at Drury College (est. 1878), the second at Normal School, Fourth District (est. 1905)—soon renamed Southwest Missouri State Teachers College (1919). Together, their faculty and students (and graduates) contributed mightily to the local music scene. Note that the following inventory does not include local school songs, like the “Drury Fight Song,” “Drury Chant,” and Alma Mater.
58 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 Photograph by Oscar Carter courtesy of Missouri State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives.
Sherman the Plowman
By Dewayne Keirn
Sherman arrives bent over by the plow on his back, a tight grip at the handles on his scrawny shoulders, in a cloud of dust behind the large-hooved horse. Without delay he hitches the plow to the horse and plows a quarter of an acre garden under a noonish summer sun. Ten, grimy brows beetling in the day’s glare, he spits and asks for a dollar and two-bits, a two-bits increase. “Can’t,” the woman says. He kicks a clod of turned soil and looks at straight-plowed rows. “A man ought to get it for such a plot as this.” “Tem hens ain’t laying,” she says. “Got no egg money. Been too hot.” He leaves as he had come, only now he has a dollar tucked in overalls and is thinking on a promise that hinges on heat-stressed hens.
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 59 OzarksWatch the Video Magazine
By Susan Croce Kelly
f you want to know how to make a Native American fute, witch a grave, play a Ibanjo, foat an Ozarks River, or make Ozarks wine, grab your clicker and tune in to OzarksWatch Video Magazine.
Tat can’t be right. I have OzarksWatch for Research and Economic Development magazine in my hands. Is OzarksWatch also and International Programs. In 1995, then- a program on KOZK television. Are the two university president John H. Keiser named connected? Baker director of a brand-new Ozarks Studies Institute, an umbrella group that Te answer, Virginia, is “No” – and “Yes”. would continue to publish OzarksWatch Magazine (print) but also look for other Today, OzarksWatch print magazine is ways to increase awareness of Ozarks part of Missouri State University’s Ozarks history and traditions. In 1999, Baker Studies Institute (for more about the proposed the idea of producing a video Institute see OSI Director Rachel Besara’s series to compliment, but not copy, the column on page 77). Te magazine was launched thirty years ago by a couple of professors – Dr. Robert B. Flanders in the History Department and Director for the Center for Ozarks Studies, and Dr. Robert K. Gilmore, Professor of Teatre in the university’s English department and director of the university’s Travel and print magazine. Today, almost 20 years Tourism Program. Teir goal was to keep later, Baker still hosts the show, along with Ozarks history and culture alive. Te print retired MSU director of University Support magazine has been published two times a Services, Dale Moore. year, more or less, ever since. “Dr. Kaiser felt it was really important OzarksWatch Video Magazine, which airs for the community and the students – weekly on Ozarks Public Television (KOZK especially those not from here – to know out of Springfeld, simulcast as KOZJ in more about local history and tradition,” Joplin) is also part of the Ozarks Studies says Baker. “So we started OzarksWatch Institute. Te show was the brainchild of Video Magazine and also the Ozark Jim Baker, currently MSU’s Vice President Cultural Festival, in part to break down
60 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 barriers between the university and the “Te people were wonderful, it was a community. wonderful experience,” says Carter. “Of course music gatherings are a very popular “Tere is a strong sense of place in the tradition in the Ozarks.” Ozarks,” Baker continues. “People like to know about where they are, and with Not one to disparage any of his “children” most media focused on national and world however, Carter quickly adds, “All the news, there are not a lot available. Ozarks OzarksWatch shows in their own way are Public Television and OzarksWatch Video my favorites, although people do especially Magazine are more centered on home.” enjoy our programs about music, Ozarks crafs, and the Ozarks outdoors.” From the beginning, the print magazine has been theme-based; that is, each issue Every video programs opens, as they devoted to a diferent aspect of Ozarks have since 1999, with a folksy shot of two history or culture. Similarly, the video comfortable chairs in front of a frame magazine covers a single topic in each house, blooming dogwood tree in the broadcast, also on Ozarks history or background. Generally one or both hosts culture. introduces the day’s subject and perhaps a special guest. Many of the shows are “Te print magazine and video program shot on location somewhere in the Ozarks; were never more connected than that,” says others are strictly a conversation-on-the- KOZK Program Manager Tom Carter, who porch, and still others are a combination. has been involved with the show since its inception, “ – same name, similar goals, but operating on totally diferent timetables.”
A gray haired veteran of many years at Missouri State University, Carter lights up when he talks about OzarksWatch Video Magazine, and no wonder. “Tis is our most popular local show both in terms of audience response and our ratings,” says Carter.
Te frst video program – and Carter’s favorite – was taped on location at a longtime Monday night music gathering in McClurg, Missouri. Te foot stomping, fddle playing, covered dish evening has OzarksWatch Video Magazine hosts Dale Moore, been attracting musicians and listeners to left, and Jim Baker on the set. the small Taney County community every week for 40 years.
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 61 “What we try to do is to let the people be if not interrupted by the Pledge Drive or stars of the show,” explains Baker. “We other station business. Once the season’s introduce them and the subject, and then new shows have played, they move into let them talk and show us.” a rotation with the old shows, more than 260 of them.” In other words, if you want A few of the show’s more recent topics to know more about the Ozarks past and include profles of individuals and their present OzarksWatch Video Magazine is the association with the traditions of the place. Past segments are available online Ozarks, which naturally enough also through the OPT website optv.org. includes musicians – like the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, and much more Show founder Jim Baker has been a pillar recently, Ozarks singer-songwriter Laura of the program, coming up with ideas for Ashley. Gordon McCann, a noted collector shows and serving as an on-air interviewer and performer of Ozarks music has been for all of the show’s 19 years. For almost as featured on the show. McCann also is an ad long, he’s been joined by Dale Moore, who hoc part of the team and longtime advisor frst got involved with OzarksWatch in during annual planning sessions. 2005. “I had been volunteering with Ozarks Public Television,” Moore recalls. “Ten Over the years, the video magazine has Tom Carter got ahold of me and asked if I looked at subjects ranging from Ozarks wanted to join Jim Baker on OzarksWatch. medicine, to agriculture, to rivers, to an interview with the late, longtime Missouri “My frst interview was with the people at politician Emory Melton, a private cave, the Rose O’Neill Museum,” Moore says. geocaching, bats, aviation, community “My roots are in radio, but I just dove into profles, the monks in Ava, Missouri, who the TV business.” Now retired from MSU make fruitcakes for a living, and, well, and serving as Dean of Online Education at more than 200 more. Ozarks Technical Community College, he has never looked back. So how does the program work? Recently, Moore talked with OzarksWatch Ideas for programs come from everywhere, Magazine (print) about his favorite according to Carter. Viewers make OzarksWatch Video Magazine programs suggestions, interviewees ofer ideas, and and what’s coming up during the 2017-2018 the core group has ideas of their own. A season. big issue for them is determining which of many good ideas to turn into shows each “One of my favorite shows was on graveyard year. preservation and restoration in Taney County. Tere’s a group there called the “Our new episodes are produced during Cemetery Hoppers, and some of them can the summer, sometimes up until October,” divine – or witch – a grave when they’re Carter says. “We generate about 15 new looking for abandoned cemeteries. Tat’s shows every year. Te new season premiers using a forked branch to fnd something in mid-October and the shows run weekly, under the ground. When we were taping
62 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 the show I asked to try.” It worked. Moore Bentonville, Arkansas, and on genealogy. “I later said that as a kid he had been able to just had my cheek swabbed,” says Moore. witch water. [Editor’s note: By the time this print issue is published, Ozarks Public Television Other past favorite programs for Moore watchers will probably have already learned include an interview with Jefrey Fretwell, what Moore found out from that cheek a Native American fute maker in Everton, swab.] Missouri, and an interview with long-lived and much loved fddle player Violet Hensley Stay tuned in for next spring when of Yellville, Arkansas. OzarksWatch Video Magazine will celebrate it’s 20th season, beginning with an Ozarks As far as recently produced, soon-to-be- Public Television documentary that Carter aired segments, Moore mentions one is working on right now. about golfer Horton Smith, who won the frst ever Masters’ tournament back in the 1930s and has been memorialized by a par-3 course in Springfeld that carries his Watch OzarksWatch Video Magazine on KOZK-TV, name. Other shows will be about American KOZJ-TV or see past episodes on the web at video.optv. Revolutionary War soldiers buried in org/show/ozarkswatch-video-magazine. the Ozarks, Crystal Bridges Museum in
Title screen from OzarksWatch Video Magazine
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 63 OZARKS THEN AND NOW
By Kaitlyn McConnell
he blufs on the outskirts of Noel, Missouri, are some of the town’s most Tnoteworthy natural landmarks. The limestone ledges have been depicted visually for decades, proven by this vintage postcard, at left, from the town that also boasts itself as Christmas City and Canoe Capital of the Ozarks. While Noel has evolved with time, the photo from 2015 shows that some things — including the picturesque blufs — haven’t changed all that much.
For more about the Ozarks Ten, check out Kaitlyn McConnell’s website and blog, ozarksalive.com, and her Facebook page: facebook.com/ozarksalive
64 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 Home in the Hills
By Renee Ramsey pennies—preciously hoarded plummeted safely into the rainy day jar hidden behind the door big ben stood on the headboard brashly ticking out time with big hands and little helping hands she hummed a familiar tune while sliding pans of cat head biscuits onto the hot Munsey rack our icebox hummed a tune of its own while at the table spoons scraped the gravy from the Fire King bowl that screen door slammed all the day children’s cherished laughter in and out they played lilac blooms shimmied to the bumble bee’s dance their intoxicating gif through the open window would drif the vibration of wings as June bugs buzzed at the end of strings and cousins waited their turn to walk on tall stilts At dusk, fddle tunes and guitar melodies flled the porch foating on the evening breeze with the frefies On the double bed beneath the double wedding ring quilt afer work was done and love was made peaceful, contented sighs echoed in the darkness
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 65 BOOK REVIEWS
Blood River Rising By Victoria Pope Hubbell Iris Press, October 2016
Reviewed by Evan Henningsen
hiskey stills, cross burnings, chanting Fat, an old timer down by the Osage River Win the woods, and gun-slinging who judiciously distributes one-liner dandies shooting holes through tossed wisdom and short story gold to the beneft pennies give this 2017 Chautauqua Literary of those around him. Ten there is preacher Prize Finalist all the makings of Mark Simon P. Cox whose personal mission is to Twain-style fction and it doesn’t disappoint. “scare the devil out of you, and put the fear Te book describes the very real Tompson- of God in his place.” Crismon feud of the 1920s in what is now the Lake of the Ozarks area. Hubbell, part journalist and part historian, chases the story before her like one of Narrated in part from the boyhood the fox hounds in her book. At times she memories of 86-year-old Hadley Tompson, is hampered in her search for the truth and meticulously feshed out by author by families reluctant to admit both their Victoria Hubbell’s research, Blood River involvement in the Ku Klux Klan and Rising is a formidable snapshot of the the two murders that are the result of the community of Wilcox Bend (now Lake feud. Part true-crime, part Ozark history, Ozark) of the 1920s, a place where and part memoir, the story resonates with vigilantism and bartering continued well an important message from the past to into the 20th century. However, even the the inheritors of the Ozarks in today’s best memories are not infallible, especially increasingly diverse society. when they’re from over half a century ago. Luckily, Hubbell is there to weed out the Tis is Hubbell’s second book on the contradictions and inconsistencies. Ozarks. In September 2017, Blood River Rising was named an award winner in the Te core of the book is based on Hubbell’s Readers Favorite Historical Non-fction interviews with Tompson, his beautifully category. paced language honed sharp from a lifetime of retelling. Hubbell complements Highly recommended her subject’s voice well with her thorough history of events and personal narrative. Larger-than-life characters include Chicken
66 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 James Fork of the White: TRANSFORMATION OF AN OZARK RIVER By Leland and Crystal Payton Lens & Pen Press, 2017
Reviewed by Thomas A. Peters
his is a gorgeous book, flled with Seth McMath posed in front of the newly Thundreds of contemporary and completed Bull Shoals Dam, Truman stares historical photographs, maps, brochure of into space with the vacant expression of covers, postcards, and other images. Te a rest home resident, not the occupant of authors themselves counted a total of 547 the White House.” illustrations, with 345 being contemporary and 202 historical. Te illustrations are Sometimes, as the text fows over some very informative, more than just beautiful metaphorical low-water crossing, the book images of the James River watershed in seems to leave the river and wander of southwest Missouri, making this much down the road a bit. For instance, several more than a cofee table book. pages of text focus on John T. Woodruf’s failed attempt to sustain his Pinebrook Although on most two-page spreads in this Inn upscale rural resort. Te problem 340-page book more space is devoted to is, Pinebrook Inn was in Howell County, images than to text, there is considerable Missouri, miles from the eastern edge of text in this book. Te text is much more the James River watershed. substantial than the type of text typically found in a cofee table book. While the text Te book is a browser’s delight, perhaps meanders quite a bit, and does not always best experienced in short, informative, fow clear and smooth, it contains many ruminative browsing sessions. Tis book gems of information, as well as substantial does not have an overarching thesis, that chert. is argued, explored, and defended, nor is there a clearly articulated call to save Sometimes the fow of the text gets caught the James River watershed, although that up in some stream-of-consciousness eddy. clearly is implied throughout. Te authors seem to be asking questions of themselves, rather than of the reader, about Tere is no index, which is lamentable, some fact they’ve observed about the James because the book contains a lot of good River or related human actions, or inaction. information about both the past and Other observations made by the authors present of the James River watershed as just thump like a pole striking a jon- an ecosystem and as a diverse human boat, such as this comment about Harry environment. Truman: “In the July 2, 1952, press photo of the president and Arkansas Governor Recommended
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 67 Hillbilly Hellraisers: FEDERAL POWER AND POPULIST DEFIANCE IN THE OZARKS By J. Blake Perkins University of Illinois Press, 2017
Reviewed by Thomas A. Peters
here seems to be a commonly held More ofen than not, the real struggle was Tbelief throughout the United States that not between Ozarkers and outside federal Ozarkers in general always have been wary agents, but between local elites, who usually of, and resistant to, federal government lived in town, and poor yeomanry, who programs and personnel. Stated bluntly: eked out a living in the hollers and river Any interloping furriner ain’t good, and bottoms. It really has been an intra-regional guv’ment agents are the worst. Tis confict about economic opportunities distrust of the federal government seems to be encouraged by federal policies and to be entrenched because of the rural, fnancial support in the region, especially isolated, upland nature of the Ozarks, the for agriculture: hardscrabble lives led by many Ozarkers, and settled opinions that are passed down “Te region’s elites capitalized on their within families and communities from one privileged access to federal governmentality generation to the next. and harnessed those powers to advance agendas that hinged on corporate Perkins challenges and efectively dispels industrialization and agribusiness, which, this cluster of myths about the nature of despite rhetoric to the contrary, frequently federal resistance among Ozarkers. Tis spelled increased inequalities and is a very good book about the roots of diminished opportunities for smallholder resistance and rebellion in the Arkansas working families.” Ozarks in response to federal government attempts to efect social and economic Hillbilly Hellraisers is a collection change in the region from the late 19th to of microhistories. Te frst describes the early 21st century. attempts to curtail moonshining. Te basic economic fact was that it was much Dissent, rebellion, and general more lucrative to distill grain down into cantankerousness are well-established moonshine than to sell it as grain, or even modes of social behavior in the entire to feed it to livestock. Ozarks region. But rather than just generalize, Perkins tries to dissect and Resistance to conscription of young clarify what went on locally, and why. Ozarks men to serve in World War I was Usually the reasons are very specifc and widespread, too. Rural small-land-holding rational. families of the Ozarks saw it as a rich man’s
68 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 war, and the conscription of young men with other working people and small placed a real economic hardship on poor producers, especially those who looked and farm families. Because the draf boards seemed to live diferently. Tis was a costly usually were populated by local elites, the mistake, because it inhibited the potential tension was intraregional. “Much like the for a mass working people’s movement battles over rural moonshine in the Ozarks, to deliver real structural changes that conficts that sprang from the World War I might have improved rural opportunities. draf were largely intraregional afairs.” Many Ozarkers’ own fawed assumptions and misunderstanding about ‘others’ all Te federal mandate to dip cattle in order to too ofen failed at pivotal moments to eradicate ticks also played out primarily as counter—and even sometimes contributed an intraregional confict over the type and to—the forces working against small-scale size of agricultural eforts in the Ozarks. producerism and economic democracy.”
Te building of dams generally received Highly recommended widespread support throughout the Ozarks, unless your farm and home were going to be inundated.
Te War on Poverty in the Sixties raised the ire of local elites, once they found out that much of the fnancial assistance would go directly to needy families, with little control by local elites about how the money would be distributed.
Perkins makes a good, strong case, supported by ample facts, for his interpretation of resistance and hellraising among the yeomanry of the Arkansas Ozarks. Every book has to defne its limits, but it’s regrettable that scant coverage is given to hellraising in the Missouri and Oklahoma segments of the Ozarks region, and that we don’t learn more about hellraisers in towns and cities, including angry city mobs in and beyond the Ozarks, as well as rural populist resistance elsewhere. Perkins notes that the rural resisters in the Ozarks have ofen lost their thunder and efectiveness because they, too, failed to make these connections. “[M]any rural populists ofen failed to stand united
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 69 The First Beverly Hillbilly: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE CREATOR OF RURAL TV COMEDY By Ruth Henning Woodneath Press, 2017
Reviewed by Thomas A. Peters
his book either has very little – or Henning also co-wrote some episodes Teverything – to do with the Ozarks. of Fibber McGee and Molly. In the late Paul Henning was a long-time, painstaking thirties he went to Hollywood. He wrote writer and producer for many radio for the Burns and Allen show for ten years programs, motion pictures, and television beginning in 1942, and he considered shows, but he is best remembered for his that one of his crowning achievements. three TV masterpieces: Petticoat Junction, Te sixties, however, were his remarkable Green Acres, and Te Beverly Hillbillies, decade. Te Beverly Hillbillies premiered whose characters Jed, Granny, Elly May, on September 26, 1962. Petticoat Junction, and Jethro quickly entered the Pantheon of based on the small northern Ozarks town Ozarker archetypes. of Eldon just north of the Lake of the Ozarks, and Green Acres soon followed. He Tis memoir was written over twenty worked like a mule to keep his three shows years ago by Henning’s wife, Ruth. Te near the top of the ratings. In the spring of long-moldering manuscript now has been 1971 CBS cancelled all three shows. published as a book, thanks to the hard work of the Mid-Continent Public Library, Paul and Ruth were living within spitting headquartered in Independence, Missouri, distance of the Hollywood high-life, and where Henning was born and raised. these memoirs are peppered with amusing anecdotes about entertainers. For instance, Henning was born in 1911, the tenth of ten at a dinner party in the home of Groucho children. Like Harry Truman, as a young Marx, his wife sat at the far end of the man Henning worked at Brown’s Drug table, and both she and Groucho had other Store on the square in Independence. He escorts. Paul and Ruth later learned that studied law in Kansas City, but afer two they were divorced, but she refused to move years he became disillusioned and decided out of the house because of the wonderful to try his hand at show business. He got closets. Max Baer, Jr. (Jethro) and Sharon into radio, writing and producing many Tate once were a number, attending the programs on KMBC, the CBS afliate in 1963 Emmy Awards arm-in-arm. Sharon Kansas City. One program, Te Comical later was a fnalist to become one of the Grocers, was sponsored by Associated three daughters in Petticoat Junction, until Grocers. Henning and Gomer Cool (great some earlier semi-nude photos surfaced. name) were the two hapless grocers. Eddie Albert (Oliver Wendell Douglas in
70 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 Green Acres) really was a gentleman-farmer for millions of people worldwide. He was who raised vegetables on his large estate innovative in many ways. For example, he near Pacifc Palisades. During the flming proposed the idea of “cross-pollinating” the of Frankie and Johnny in 1965, Donna characters from the three shows, so that Douglas (Elly May) fell in love with Elvis they would appear on two or all three from Presley. She was so twitterpated, she came time to time. Ruth is sweet, but also self- to live with the Hennings for a while to deprecating. She describes herself as “an recover. Paul had rather parsimonious ordinary housewife who happened to have perks in his ofce, but Buddy Epson (Jed) married some kind of genius.” Te book “had a large, attractive dressing room, contains some photos – and an index! employed a manservant who brought in tacos from the farmers’ market, and if Highly recommended you were a guest there, you got tacos and champagne.” Nancy Kulp (Jane Hathaway) and Henning were both huge fans of college football, glued to the tube on New Year’s Day.
When Te Beverly Hillbillies flmed a few episodes at Silver Dollar City, Irene Ryan (Granny) unwound each evening by having someone take her out boating on Table Rock Lake with a shaker of medicinal martinis. Ruth initially was wary of the people and terrain of Taney and Stone Counties: “Te days we spent there weren’t easy for me. Of course, I liked the park (though not as much as Paul did) – and of course, I liked the people – but with moderation.” Paul’s purchase of the entire Dewey Bald Mountain initially flled Ruth with dread, because she thought they eventually would live there. With time, Ruth warmed to the people and the place, and she was proud of Paul for purchasing Dewey Bald, then giving it to the state for a nature preserve. Paul died in 2005, three years afer Ruth, at the age of 93.
Te book is a fun, fast read. Although Paul Henning was not an Ozarker by birth, his three masterpieces helped defne and refne the notion of hillbillies and local yokels
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 71 LANFORD WILSON: EARLY STORIES, SKETCHES, AND POEMS Edited by David A. Crespy University of Missouri Press, 2017
Reviewed by Susan Croce Kelly
n the 1980s two American playwrights and Dramatic Literature David A. Crespy, Inamed Wilson won Pulitzer prizes the book refects Wilson’s growth as a for drama because of the way their plays writer and the work that set the stage, so translated their life histories broadly into to speak, for his award-winning career as our shared American experiences. August an American playwright. Te stories were Wilson’s fertile felds were the black side of written afer Wilson fnished high school Pittsburgh in the years afer World War II. and moved to San Diego to live, briefy Lanford Wilson, on the other hand, reached and unsuccessfully, with his father before into his Ozarks childhood in Lebanon and moving on to Chicago and New York. Te Ozark, Missouri, to create award-winning poems apparently were written throughout plays that generally dealt with his escape Wilson’s life, and according to his longtime from the Ozarks, where he was born in collaborator and director Marshall W. 1937, to Chicago and then to New York City Mason, who authored the book’s Aferword, and New Jersey, where he gained fame as were probably written only for Wilson one of the nation’s foremost playwrights, himself. and died in 2011. Besides the detailed introduction and One of Wilson’s most famous plays, aferword, the bulk of the book is divided “Talley’s Folly,” is part of a trilogy set loosely into four sections that separate the stories in his hometown of Lebanon, Missouri. A in time and place, followed by a selection of Broadway success, “Talley’s Folly” received Wilson’s poetry at the end. a 1980 Tony Award nomination. Others of his more famous plays, like the “Hot l Te stories are lyrical depictions of place Baltimore,” focus on outsiders like Wilson with an overlay of sadness, as Wilson’s himself, a gay man writing in the second outsider characters search for their niche half of the twentieth century, trying to in small town Missouri, Chicago, or New make their way in New York. York. Loneliness is a key element in nearly all of the work. Even Wilson’s humor When Wilson died, he lef his papers to suggests an uncertainty and insecurity the University of Missouri. Tis book, among his characters that makes the reader Lanford Wilson: Early Stories, Sketches, – this reader anyway – want to reach out an and Poems, shares the frst nuggets from arm to ofer comfort or protection to these that treasure trove. Edited and introduced valiant lost souls. by MU Professor of Playwriting, Acting,
72 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 One story, “Te Polar Bear” is a haunting stories “a fascinating portrait of a young tale of a lonely young boy and a homeless artist struggling to make sense of the world man in Central Park. around him and his place in it.”2
In “Green Grow the Rushes,” a solitary Like the stories, Wilson’s poetry is short, young man is befriended on a riverbank by lyrical and def, but always with that edge a young woman, shipped to the Ozarks to of sadness. stay with an aunt until her parents’ divorce becomes fnal. Tey meet, a bond begins to In “Oakwood Gothic,” Wilson sketches the form – and then she is whisked away. life of a house on Harper’s Hill in Ozark, Missouri, which became the setting for the Another, “Uptown in Snow,” suggests the home in his Talley Trilogy. Te poem ends death of a single woman, an ofce typist, this way: alone in her apartment in New York City on a snowy evening. Although we do not “Now people look toward the hill really meet the woman, Wilson paints a to wonder at time – give a quiet shudder vivid picture of her isolated life in her 1950s and turn to the valley to leave the house workplace: “…the rapid staccato snapping alone, unused, unvisited, an awkward of a dozen typewriters keyed in various curiosity quietly overlooking stif-pitched monotones; a dozen carriage the Finley Valley. return bells, now synchronized, now in A patient sentinel of the years quick succession, a dozen single notes from keeping tally of time.”3 all sides of the room. Te girls fitted about the room; to the fling cabinets, their heels In all, the book is well worth the read. Not clicking on the tile foors, to their desks, to surprising, Wilson’s use of language even the water cooler, in and out of the ofce, in this early work, draws the reader in. Te slamming doors and the metal drawers of stories, which are longer on setting and cabinets…”1 character than clear plot lines, are cause for thought whether they are set in the Ozarks, “Miss Misty” is a mostly hilarious story a city, or an unnamed apartment lobby. about two friends helping a drag queen tone down enough – from hair and makeup Recommended to mannerisms and clothing – to get a “real” summer job so she can go to college. Outrageously funny, yes, as Misty works Wilson’s papers are available to the public through the hard to sit like a guy and refrain from University of Missouri Libraries Special Collections and batting eyelashes, but always present is the Rare Books division. libraryguides.missouri.edu fact of Misty’s place in a world that sees her more as a bufoon than a real person. Notes 1 Lanford Wilson, “Uptown in the Snow,” 193. In the book’s Aferword, distinguished 2 Lanford Wilson, Aferward, 243. director Marshall Mason, who directed 3 Lanford Wilson, “Oakwood Gothic”, in Lanford Wilson’s plays for 40 years, calls the short Wilson, 214.
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 73 The Ozarks Studies Institute
By Rachel Besara, Editor, OzarksWatch Magazine & Director, Ozarks Studies Institute
issouri State University and its libraries are keenly interested in Ozarks history Mand life, across the multi-state region that the Ozarks encompass. One result of this interest is the library-based Ozarks Studies Institute (OSI) of which OzarksWatch Magazine is a part, and which helps fulfll MSU’s public afairs mission.
Today, the Ozarks Studies Institute is an those local communities and regions interdisciplinary, region-wide efort to to be shared with the larger world. Tis improve our collective understanding means that as we move farther into the of the Ozarks. Te OSI’s formal mission 21st century, Ozarkiana—information and is, “to preserve the heritage of the Ozarks, artifacts about the Ozarks—will be what its culture, environment, and history by distinguishes the MSU Libraries from other fostering a comprehensive knowledge of academic libraries. Being the home of the Ozarks’ peoples, places, characteristics, OSI is a tangible way for our library to and dynamics.” Our aim is to promote a reach its vision to be the nation’s premier sense of place to residents and visitors alike, institutional source for Ozarks cultural and to serve as an educational resource memory. by collecting – and sharing – existing and new information about our region, past As we move forward, Te Ozarks Studies and present. Tis includes the natural Institute is growing. In the past, OSI was environment, man-made structures, the more narrowly focused on the activities of visual and performing arts, economics, university faculty and programs, and this religion, politics, history, and folklore. continues to be a key part of the institute and its activities. However, the Institute Te Ozarks Studies Institute only recently is now working more closely with other came under the umbrella of the MSU institutions around the Ozarks and with Libraries, but it is a natural ft. While private citizens that have an abiding interest in the past, libraries have been focused in the region. We at the OSI welcome on collecting books and information and are actively seeking collaboration for local audiences, developments in and partnerships with all of those who technology have caused libraries to are devoted to recording and relating the change into centers for gathering and heritage and history of the Ozarks region. disseminating unique information about
74 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 Te institute is using several methods to • Kaitlyn McConnell, Founder and achieve this broad, inclusive approach: Producer of OzarksAlive.com
Speaker Series: Troughout the • Mike O’Brien, retired columnist for academic year, the OSI ofers a variety of the Springfeld News-Leader speakers who address various aspects of Ozarks history and life. For example, in • Todd Parnell, retired banker and October, Blake Perkins visited campus former President of Drury University from Arkansas to talk about his recently published book, Hillbilly Hellraisers: Federal • Tom Peters, Dean of Library Services, Power and Popular Defance in the Ozarks. Missouri State University
OzarksWatch Magazine: Issued twice a As the Ozarks Studies Institute charts its year in the spring and fall, OW publishes forward course, we are exploring beyond a wide variety of articles, photos, and book the items listed above. New anthologies, reviews about various aspects of the rich events, and even the formation of a culture and history of the Ozarks. professional organization are under discussion. From my desk in Meyer Library, Anthology on Sustainability Eforts I am envisioning a bright future for the and Understanding from an Ozarks Ozarks’ past. Perspective: Next spring, the OSI will publish an anthology of articles and essays, past and present, about various issues, opportunities, and perspectives on sustainability in the Ozarks.
Advisory Board: To provide advice and direction regarding future directions and activities of the OSI, an advisory board meets periodically. Current members of the OSI Advisory Board include: Rachel Besara • Rachel Besara, Director of the OSI and editor of OzarksWatch Magazine
• Brooks Blevins, Professor of History, Missouri State University
• Susan Croce Kelly, Managing Editor of OzarksWatch Magazine
OzarksWatchMagazine.com 75 Upcoming Issues
April 2018
Henry Schoolcraf’s Excellent Adventure—Two-hundred years ago, Henry Schoolcraf wandered through the Ozarks and wrote at least two books about his experience. Who was he? What was he doing here? What was the region like in 1818? Let us know. Deadline: December 30, 2017 November 2018 Death in the Ozarks and Ozark burial customs—today and yesterday. Traditions, personal reminisces, cemetery stories, politics of being a small town undertaker. Deadline: June 1, 2018 April 2019 Prohibition and the World of Spirits in the Ozarks—A century afer the US experiment with prohibition, stories of speakeasies, bootleggers, stills, and Revenuers still are told. Share some with OzarksWatch. Deadline: December 30, 2018 November 2019 Ozarks Rivers and Waterways—From jon boats and foating to steam boats in the 19th century to our many lakes and the recurring fghts over damming, our rivers have made a diference. Deadline: June 1, 2019 April 2020
Chroniclers of the Ozarks—French and Spanish explorers were probably the frst, but ever since, people have been talking and writing about our wonderful region. Deadline: December 30, 2020
Submission guidelines are on the website ozarkswatch.missouristate.edu/submissions.htm
Still have questions? Write [email protected]
76 OzarksWatch Fall/Winter 2017 OZARKSWATCH SERIES 2 The Ozarks the magazine of the Ozarks VOLUME VI, № 2 MISSOURI
FALL/WINTER 2017 Kansas City Columbia OzarksWatch (ISSN 1044-8500) is published by Missouri State University’s Ozarks Studies MISSOURI R St. Louis Institute and Library Services. Additional funding Jefferson City for this issue is provided by the Ofce of the Marais des Cygnes R. Lake of the Ozarks Gasconade R. Provost. Eldon MISSISSIPPI R. Osage R. ILLINOIS CONTENTS EXECUTIVE EDITOR Meramec R. Tom Peters Rolla Pomme Farmington KANSAS Stockton de Lake Terre St. Francis R. Neosha R. Salem 2 Author Page EDITOR Lake Lebanon Rachel Besara Black R. Cape Girardeau
3 From the Editor Sac R. Springfield James R. Lake by SUSAN CROCE KELLY Jacks Fork Wappapello MANAGING EDITOR Joplin Eminence Susan Croce Kelly Marionville Ava 4 Picturing the Ozarks Crane Ozark Eleven Point R. OKLAHOMA Current R. introduction by SUSAN CROCE KELLY Table Rock Lake Branson West Plains DESIGN EDITOR Lake of the Cherokees Cassville Bull Shoals Lake Nathan Neuschwander Noel KY 6 Ma and Pa—and Fields Photo Shop Lake Grove Hudson Eureka Springs Bentonville Norfork Lake in the words of their son MAX FIELDS Spring R. BILLING/SUBSCRIPTIONS Beaver Lake Harrison Mountain Home Vicki Evans 10 Pictures in the Mist: Photographs by J.H. Field Tulsa Fayetteville TN Fort White R. Illinois R. Buffalo R. adapted by SUSAN CROCE KELLY Gibson Mountain View Black R. SUBSCRIPTION Lake 14 Mary St. John, Photo Hobbyist Annual subscription rate is $16. ARKANSAS Emilie Burke ARKANSA by SHANNON MAWHINEY S R. CONTACT INFORMATION Maps & GIS Fort Smith Student Assistant 20 Commerical Photographer Harry Morgan Dardanelle OzarksWatch Robert S. Kerr L. Reservoir Missouri State University by SUSAN CROCE KELLY 901 South National Avenue Duane G. Meyer Library 24 Picture This: Photography of Domino Danzero Springfeld, MO 65897 by LESLIE JAMES (417) 836-4525 [email protected] Subscribe to OzarksWatch Magazine via mail or online at OzarksWatchMagazine.com 28 Oscar Carter, Moving Picture Man ozarkswatchmagazine.com by SHANNON MAWHINEY facebook.com/OzarksWatch NAME: 36 Kate Wright’s Grandma FRONT COVER in the words of photographer KATE WRIGHT Accident on Missouri Superhighway 1925 by ADDRESS: Domino Danzero. From the Domino Danzero 42 Betty Love, One-of-a-Kind Photojournalist Family Photograph Collection at Missouri State STATE: ZIP: by MIKE O’BRIEN University Libraries Special Collections and CITY: Archives. 50 Art Song in the Ozarks, Part II EMAIL: by JAMES S. BAUMLIN BACK COVER 59 Sherman the Plowman Photo by FH Field. PHONE: by DEWAYNE KEIRN © OzarksWatch All rights reserved Subscribers will receive two issues of OzarksWatch. Magazines are published in the spring and fall. Cost for a subscription is $16.00 per year. Missouri State University is an equal opportunity/ afrmative action/minority/female/veterans/ Make checks payable to Missouri State University. disability/sexual orientation/gender identity employer and institution. We encourage applications Mail to from all interested minorities, females, veterans, OzarksWatch Magazine individuals with disabilities, and sexual orientation/ gender identity. Missouri State University 901 S National Ave. Springfeld, MO 65897
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