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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1976 A History of the Central Texas School of Oratory, 1919-1961. V. A. Smith Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Smith, V. A., "A History of the Central Texas School of Oratory, 1919-1961." (1976). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2941. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2941 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. I I 76-25,284 SMITH, V. A., 1935- A HISTORY OF THE CENTRAL TEXAS SCHOOL OF ORATORY, 1919-1961. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Ph.D., 1976 Speech Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan 4B106 0 1976 V. A. SMITH ALL RIGHTS RESERVED A HISTORY OF THE CENTRAL TEXAS SCHOOL OF ORATORY, I9I9-I96I A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Speech by V. A. Smith B. A., Midwestern State University, 1957 M. A., Midwestern State University, 1962 May, 1976 DEDICATION The writer gratefully dedicates this study to Fern Smith McGaughy. She has given generously of her time and her memories and has allowed the writer to share all materials relating to both the Central Texas School of Oratory and to her and her husband. Her encouragement and unfailing good humor have been an inspiration. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION........................................ ii ABSTRACT .......................................... v CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ............................. 1 II. BIOGRAPHY ............................... 9 III. FOUNDING, ORGANIZATION, AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCHOOL OF ORATORY AND EXPRESSION AT BROWNWOOD HIGH SCHOOL, 1919-1929 4-9 IV. FOUNDING, ORGANIZATION, AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CENTRAL TEXAS SCHOOL OF ORATORY, 1929-1961 ..................... 82 V. PHILOSOPHY, PEDAGOGY, AND PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ......................... Ill VI. CENTRAL TEXAS SCHOOL OF ORATORY ACTIVITIES, PROMOTION, AND SERVICES ............................... 161 VII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ................. 189 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................... 203 APPENDICES........................................ 211 APPENDIX A. INVITATION AND THREE COLLEGE RECITAL PROGRAMS OF J. FRED M c G A U G H Y ................. 212 APPENDIX B. INVITATION AND THREE COLLEGE RECITAL PROGRAMS OF FERN SMITH McGAUGHY .......... 217 APPENDIX C. LONE STAR ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY PROGRAM .......... 220 iv Page APPENDIX D. THIRTY SCHOOL OF ORATORY AND EXPRESSION RECITAL PROGRAMS ..................... 22k APPENDIX E. ORATORY DIPLOMA ............... 24-1 APPENDIX F. TEN CENTRAL TEXAS SCHOOL OF ORATORY RECITAL PROGRAMS . 24-3 APPENDIX G. FOUR CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT RECITAL PROGRAMS ............ 250 APPENDIX H. FIVE CENTRAL TEXAS SCHOOL OF ORATORY GRADUATION RECITAL PROGRAMS............ 257 APPENDIX I. FIVE CENTRAL TEXAS SCHOOL OF ORATORY BANQUET PROGRAMS . 263 APPENDIX J. SEVEN PHOTOGRAPHS............... 270 APPENDIX K. COVER OF THE HAND BOOK FOR STUDENTS AND COACHES OF SPEECH CONTESTS ............ 282 APPENDIX L. CENTRAL TEXAS SCHOOL OF ORATORY DIPLOMA ............ 284- APPENDIX M. VARIOUS TYPES OF PUBLICITY MATERIAIS ................... 286 APPENDIX N. LIST OF CENTRAL TEXAS SCHOOL OF ORATORY GRADUATES........ 300 APPENDIX 0. FOURTEEN ISSUES OF THE CENTRAL T E X A N ............... 307 VITA .............................................. 3 5 3 ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to authenticate the existence of the Central Texas School of Oratory and to investigate its background, its methods of instruction, its programs and activities, and its impact on the students and the area it served for forty-one years. Information was obtained primarily from Mrs. J. Fred McGaughy, a co-founder of the school with her late husband. Tape-recorded interviews with her and cor­ respondence from her were invaluable as were personal scrapbooks, letters, recital programs, photographs, reference books, lesson plans, school newspapers, school catalogues, textbooks, and publicity materials of various kinds. Newspapers, school annuals, and responses by former students were also invaluable sources of histori­ cal data. The McGaughys received their college training from teachers representing both the Emerson School of Oratory and Dr. S. S. Curry's School of Expression, and were well trained in the two most important speech philosophies of their era. In addition, Mr. McGaughy v studied in Boston at the Emerson School of Oratory and with Dr. Curry in Texas. The McGaughys were active per­ formers and formed the Lone Star Entertainment Company, a group of talented friends who entertained community groups with readings, speeches, and music at no charge. Mr. McGaughy founded the School of Oratory and Expression in 1919 in Brownwood, Texas, as a private school of speech housed in the public high school building. The school presented public recitals at least once during each semester, annual spring banquets, and annual graduation recitals for those students who completed the program. Private oratory lessons with Mr. McGaughy became popular with young people and recitals by his students were well attended by the community and served a vital entertainment and cultural function. In the fall of 1929 Mr. McGaughy established his own independent private school known as the Central Texas School of Oratory. Students from the nearby high school were still allowed to take thirty-minute private speech lessons during their free periods, and Mr. McGaughy could offer lessons to younger elementary children and adults of the community as well. Soon Mrs. McGaughy joined the school to direct the teaching and activities of the Children*s Department. The school continued to graduate students until 1961. Instruction was always individual and tailored to the needs of the student. Resource materials and the recollections of former students indicate that the McGaughys' instruction and speech philosophy placed a strong emphasis on the ethical and moral responsibilities of the speech act. The school published its own newspaper, was reportedly the only school of its type in the National Forensic League, and consistently offered its students and the community many different kinds of speech activi­ ties. The emphasis of speech training was always on the practical applications of that training. Some fourteen hundred students attended the school, over two hundred fifty receiving diplomas. The school served and influenced the central Texas area and is a landmark in the history of speech education in Texas. It may well be unique in the history of regional schools of speech existing in this century. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The history of speech education in America can be traced in broad outline from Colonial times through the establishment of professional schools of elocution in Philadelphia in 1866. From there it advances from the important private schools of expression at the turn of the century, to the college departments of speech, and at last to the speech classes at the secondary level. Private schools of speech are now a part of our past. The National School of Elocution and Oratory of Philadelphia shut its doors in 19^3- The Columbia School of Oratory of Chicago failed to find cultural and educa­ tional needs to fill and closed. Boston's School of Expression and the Emerson College of Oratory have become liberal arts colleges. Although they have been supplanted by other forms of speech education, Bahn and Bahn point out that such schools were an important feature of speech history. ^ "'"Eugene Bahn and Margaret Bahn, A History of Oral Interpretation (Minneapolis: Burgess Publishing Company, 1970) , p . 1 6 2 . 1 2 In the twentieth century the Eastern speech schools produced numbers of teachers who founded schools that in turn produced more teachers. In this manner regional private schools of speech appeared in places far removed from Philadelphia, Chicago,and Boston. Mary Crow states that probably hundreds of these private expression schools p existed throughout the nation in this century. One of those regional private schools of speech was the Central Texas School of Oratory in Brownwood, Texas, which existed from 1919 until 1961. It is the purpose of this study to report the history of that school. The speech profession in America is in need of more insight into its recent past in general and private regional speech schools in particular. Maxine Trauemicht reports that of almost 7 i000 articles published in speech journals only 101 have concerned the history of speech education.^ Further, she finds that only 203 of some "thousands and thousands" of theses and dissertations have been concerned with the historical nature of speech educa­ tion.^ The eminent Giles W. Gray writes that "there still 2 Mary Elizabeth Crow, "Speech Education as Represented by the Cocke School of Expression (1909-1948)" (unpublished Ed.D. dissertation, North Texas State University, 1964), p. 19* •^Maxine M. Trauemicht, "Needed: Historical Research in Speech Education," The Speech Teacher, XXII (November,

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