#gayety theater

[detroitlib]

Corner of Cadillac Square and Bates with the Gayety Theater and the Gayety Rathskeller & Cafe, and a view of the street. Recorded in glass negative ledger: "D/Theaters-Gayety."

Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library

[random-brushstrokes]

Joseph Sherly Sheppard (American, b. 1930) - Back Stage at the Gayety Theater

[skillstopallmedia]

Musical theater | In the footsteps of Lili St-Cyr

In the 1940s, Lili St-Cyr was the queen of Montreal nights. The bewitching stripper, who disturbed the pious Quebec puritans of the time, kindled the passions of the public at the Red Light cabarets and triumphed at the Théâtre Gayety, rue Sainte-Catherine. A musical will reveal a part of his sulphurous life. The Press saw three excerpts from the show featuring Marie-Pier Labrecque in the title…

[oldmke]

Plankinton Ave. was still called West Water St. when this photograph was taken about 1910 looking north toward Grand Ave., now Wisconsin Ave. Horse-drawn carriages and wagons were still the primary means of transportation and delivery, but the tracks in the cobblestone street to the left of the two employees of the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co. signaled the beginning of the end of reliance on horsepower. Milwaukeeans were already getting about town in electric streetcars. While shoppers might use the streetcar to come Downtown, their purchases would be delivered to their homes by wagons such as Gimbels Brothers conveyance pictured here. The wagon is standing next to the Gayety Theater, which later moved to Second St. Behind the Gayety is the Gimbels store. Photograph courtesy of I. C. Scroggins; information from the Milwaukee Public Library local history collection.

[someenchantedcentury]

A Railway Express receipt for a wardrobe case that Patti Waggin had shipped from the CasinoTheater in Pittsburg to the Gayety Theater in Baltimore, Md. December 5, 1958

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

Nicknamed "Silk Hat Harry," this mugging scene-stealer was one of Sennett's mainstays off-and-on from 1915 to 1932, initially as shifty white-collar villains with slippery fingers or backslapping "best friends."

Joining Keystone for the first time at the start of January 1915 with wife May Emory, Gribbon worked intermittently at the Sennett studio through 1919(serving in WW1 during that time), then returned again to star in some of Sennett's early Pathe releases of 1923-24. Gribbon later rejoined Sennett to star in his Educational talkies, appearing in more than two dozen shorts during 1928-32. Born in New York City, the 6'0'', blue-eyed, brown-haired Gribbon had been a newsboy who pursued a career as a baritone at age 16, and worked with the vaudeville team of Heelan and Helf. He appeared in "Flo Flo" with Stella Mayhew(1904), worked in the 1913 Ziegfeld Follies, played the lead in "Buster Brown" and also worked for the Shuberts and George M. Cohan. Gribbon had been the leading comic of the Gayety Company at the Morosco Theater before his Sennett servitude, and carried many broad stage traits with him, as well as restless heart.

Just over three months after joining Sennett, Gribbon and wife May left Keystone to join Lehrman's L-KO Comedies. The Gribbons rejoined Keystone-Triangle in August 1915 and stayed to make post-Sennett Keystones for Triangle in 1917-18. Harry rejoined Sennett in 1918, left for L-KO, but returned to Sennett in 1919. He then left again for Fox Sunshine in 1919, followed by the feature "Up in Mary's Attic", shorts for Al Christie, Universal's Star and Century Comedies and Norman Manning/Arrow(1921).

After that Gribbon returned to vaudeville on the Keith and Pantages circuits in a song and comedy duo with his wife. He came back to films to work at Mermaid(1923), then Sennett again, followed by another vaudeville stint, and then features. In 1928 for MGM, he had a recurring gag role as a mystified cop in Keaton's The Cameraman, a memorable part as a hyperactive comedy director in Show People and also appeared in Honeymoon.

From 1929 to 1933 Gribbon worked frequently in Warner Bros releases. In 1930-31 Gribbon also made shorts for RKO-Pathe. Relocating to New York, Gribbon made shorts for Vitaphone in 1934 and Educational in 1936-38. He acted in Broadway in plays. In 1943, Gribbon replaced John Alexander in the role of Teddy Brewster in "Arsenic and Old Lace" at the Hudson Theater. By that time Gribbon had developed a serious drinking problem that plagued him the rest of his life. His wife May died in 1948, and in later years Harry was reduced to seeking jobs like emceeing talent shows around the New York area.

When Gribbon fell ill, he relocated from New York to the Motion Picture Home and County Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, where he died at 76. He's interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, pp.509~510 

[handeaux]

On This Day In Cincinnati History

The Gayety Burlesk Theater was sold 5 December 1969 to a parking company. Built in 1880 as a church, the theater presented burlesque shows from 1909 until it closed in 1970. #CincinnatiCuriosities

[linkbumble796]

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Speed Dating Questions

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(1819 – 1892) American poet

Whitman was born on a Long Island (New York) farm to a typically heterosexual family. His father drank too much; his mother suffered; and his eight siblings did poorly except for two brothers. The poet idolised his mother, Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, and credited her with inspiring his poetry. From first to last, his writings applaud sexual love. ‘Song of Myself’, published in 1855, contains Section V, which celebrates the soul through the trope of fellatio: ‘Loafe with me on the grass, loose the stop from your throat, / … Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice’. Leaves of Grass, the title Whitman gave his collected poems, pivots upon this dalliance with a young man in the grass. In 1889, the poet told an interviewer, ‘Sex, sex, sex: sex is the root of it all.’

During the Civil War, Whitman worked in Washington. An outraged Methodist fired him from the Interior Department after discovering a copy of Leaves of Grass in Whitman’s desk, but Attorney-General James Speed quickly found him another position. Speed’s brother Joshua had spent four years sleeping with Abraham Lincoln in Illinois. Lincoln himself had read and admired the second edition of Leaves of Grass. One of the soldiers, Alonzo Bush, wrote Whitman about a friend who ‘went down on your BK, both so often with me. I wished that I could … have some fun for he is a gay boy’ (22 December 1863); ‘BK’ might mean ‘buck’ or ‘book’, but one writer suggests ‘Big Cock’. The death of President Lincoln devastated Whitman. He wrote his last great poem, ‘When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed’, for Lincoln. The poet himself suffered a stroke in 1873 and he moved to Camden, New Jersey, with his brother. The later poems became more abstract and less homoerotic, although Whitman’s health recovered after he swam in Timber Creek with his lover Harry Stafford, Carpenter and other young men.

Whitman may now be the premier United States poet, but his work had to overcome much resistance. Leaves of Grass first appeared in a self-published edition in 1855 with few readers; it underwent multiple transformations before the so-called ‘death-bed’ edition in 1892. Leaves of Grass certainly marked the boldest departure from standard English prosody. Of the five reviews to the first edition, Whitman wrote three anonymous favourable ones. Another reviewer was lukewarm, but the other denounced ‘that horrible crime not to be mentioned among Christians’. The fervently homoerotic 1860 edition with the Calamus cluster attracted little attention and the publisher quickly went bankrupt; the 1882 edition was banned in Boston.

During the 1950s, biographer Gay Wilson Allen established Whitman as the philopietistic poet for what Henry Luce (head of the Time-Life conglomerate) called the ‘American Century’. When the Roman Catholic authorities in New Jersey protested against naming a bridge from Camden to Philadelphia after the poet, Allen certified that Whitman was no queer. New Jersey later added a Whitman rest stop on their turnpike. Gay interpretations outraged traditional Whitman scholars; they excoriated Robert K. Martin, whose Homosexual Tradition in American Poetry (1979, 1998) declared, ‘Whitman intended his work to communicate his homosexuality to his readers.’

Good evidence supports the view that Whitman was an urban sophisticate. He followed theatre and opera and during the 1850s was associated with musical, dramatic and literary critics in New York City; ‘my darlings my gossips’, he called them. Whitman wrote in 1863, recalling these ‘dear boys’ company & their gayety & electricity, their precious friendship’. The poet claimed that contral to Marietta Alboni inspired his work; he attended her every performance in New York City. He encouraged his lover Peter Doyle to attend the theatre regularly; in Ford’s Theater on 14 April 1865, Doyle saw actor John Wilkes Booth assassinate President Lincoln. Whitman was then visiting his mother in Brooklyn, where he wrote his extraordinary memorial to Lincoln, which follows the outline of an opera.

“The Icon History Display was created by a student intern and is not meant to replace a comprehensive search on these historical figures. Content on these biographies was created from the following sources: Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgenders by Keith Stern (2009); The Gay 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Gay Men and Lesbians, Past and Present by Paul Russell (1995). To suggest an addition or change contact us at gss@uis.edu or 217-206-8316.”

Christian speed dating is an out of the box way of meeting Christian singles in laid back settings such as cafes, pubs, churches and clubs. Although the Christian speed dating phenomenon is popping up everywhere, it is still most prevalent in large urban areas of the US, UK, Ireland and Australia.

How Christian Speed Dating Works

A typical Christian speed dating evening goes is like this: An equal number of Christian single women and men appear at an “event” after having registered beforehand. In an effort to get to know as many potential dates as possible, couples spend up to 10 minutes with each other.

After the pre-determined time of the “Christian speed date” is over, the single person would be matched with another single to repeat the process. At the end of the Christian speed dating event, singles hand in a list of the people (if any) they wouldn’t mind meeting again, and give it off to the Christian dating event coordinators. If there is a Christian speed dating match between any two attendees, the organizers forward this info to the Christian speed daters, along with contact information.

Christian Speed Dating Benefits

Christian Speed Dating Benefit #1

Where else can you meet a large number of Christian singles interested in the same thing you are: finding a date.

Christian Speed Dating Benefit #2

Speed Dating Questions

Speed dating does what it implies: It saves time in the search process for a dating relationship

Christian Speed Dating Benefit # 3

The structured interaction helps love shy singles overcome their fears of meeting others.

Christian Speed Dating Benefit # 4

It’s a low pressure and fun way to interact with the opposite sex.

If you have any Christian speed dating questions, feel free to contact us. Are you a single Christian who has tried speed dating? Share your Christian speed dating experiences with us!

Speed Dating Nyc

Christian Dating Service

Whitman Speed Dating Central

Related Christian Dating posts:

[route22ny]

Once I arrived in downtown Detroit, one of the more striking scenes was the National Theater, built in 1911, standing alone and showing the signs of years of neglect.  It closed in 1975.  A current proposal, calling for the theater’s facade to be saved and relocated while demolishing the rest of it, has been opposed by preservationists.  Photos above and below 9/13/2017.

“The National Theatre is the only survivor from Detroit’s first theater district and the only surviving theater known to have been designed by renowned architect Albert Kahn.Located on Monroe Street at Farmer, near Greektown, the National opened Sept. 16, 1911, as a vaudeville house. It was located in Detroit’s old theater district — before the movie palaces near Grand Circus Park were built. The old Detroit Opera House and the Gayety, Temple, Columbia, Liberty and Family theaters were among the venues that once stood nearby, making it Detroit’s main avenue of entertainment.“  (from HistoricDetroit article here)

Excellent write-up and interior photos from 2013 here:  https://afterthefinalcurtain.net/2013/01/24/the-national-theatre/

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2090

Can the National Theatre be saved? [updated 9/28/2017]

[gaypersonalscouple03]

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[ramrodd]

COMMENTARY:

Black folks moved on from slavery in 1862, . Tucker. , White American bigots like you, Trucker Carlson, Pledge Master for White Privilege, need to move on from Jim Crow. And Steyn needs to tend to his First Peoples. He’s not much use to America. 

Unfortunately, they are are in a collective psychotic state of denial about racism.

If, as a white person, you either can't understand or don't agree with Minister Louis Farrakhan's observation at the Million Man March that racism is a mental illness, spend the rest of the day looping this conversation while considering the fact that the people who proposed, promoted, planned and ran the civilian side of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Tucker Carlson has wondered aloud why anyone was taking Bill Kristol seriously, anymore, as the archetech of the Project for the New American Century that served as the template for the enterprise. I said the same thing BEFORE the invasion. And Tucker Carlson was one of the major crypto-Nazi cheerleaders for the invasion. It's like the sainted Mike Kelly, who thought an invason was a fine idea and promoted it along with Tucker and Christopher Hitchens and the usual suspects at FOX News Sunday.

Juan Williams is the only person in the entire Murdoch organizaton with any integrity and he lost his job at NPR because he is a black journalist with the same integrity as John Lewis and he was a threat to the David H. Koch Trust contribution to PBS that threatened Diane Rehm's show. If you want to understand white privilege and the whole #BlackLivesMatter thing, compare and contrast Tucker Carlson to Juan Williams. He's one of my heros. Like Barack Obama, he's the reason I went to Vietnam. He and Paul Krugman are the only two serious in-side-the-Beltway players who understand AOC and totally ignore the crypto-Nazi disinformation campaign assholes like Tucker Carlson and all things FOX/Tea Party-MAGA Hat bigots are trying to tar her with. Her Green New Deal and Lady Trump's Be Best fit together, hand and glove and she, as the person who has grabbed the tourch of JFK's Peace Corps Generation and, with the Freshwoman Class of the 116th Congress, is leading GeNext into the tabula rasa of Democratic Socialism in the dawning of the age of the 19th Amendment.

I think of Mary Travers belting out "The Times are A'Changing" at Newport in 1963 and I see AOC.

When I think of my cousin, "Woody" Wilson, I see him sitting at the Resolute Desk with a MAGA hat on, playing with himself under the desk. There used to be a burlesques house on 15th Street across from the Treasury Building, not the Gayety, but that kind of name and POTUS would retire on a regular basis the to front row of the theater so he could catch the occassional bit of clothing and return it backstage. I did that a couple of times with Fanne Foxxe before Wilbur Mills jumped the shark, so to speak. Before the assholes came to town with Reagan, DC was something of an Adult Fantasy Land. The difference between DC before Reagan and DC after Reagan is the difference between Studio 54 and Tailhook.  I mean, speaking as a hard-wired Eisenhower Republican with a strong Presbyterian Scotts hoosier background, Democrats know how to party.  I mean, again, the difference between MAGA white boys and Capitol Hill Democrats is the difference Wayne Newton and the Beach Boys at the Mall on the 4th, with apologies to Wayne Newton: he put on a fine show for the Young Americans for Freedom and the SBC if it held its conference in Las Vegas.  Except for the MAGA hat, the 28th President would have been right at home in DC during Watergate and before the assholes who came to town  with Reagan came to town.

Tucker Carlson, as the Poster Boy for the MAGA hat crowd, is a spiritually stunted, intellectually dishonest and morally ugly person. And he and Steyn share the mental illness of racism.

[detroitlib]

Corner of Cadillac Square and Bates with the Gayety Theater and the Gayety Rathskeller & Cafe, and a view of the street. Recorded in glass negative ledger: "D/Theaters-Gayety."

Courtesy of the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library

[sharkoman]

Phipps Conservatory in Schenley Park is the building most associated with Andrew Carnegie’s longtime business partner, Henry Phipps. But Phipps — younger, quieter and shorter than Carnegie, himself a famously teeny titan — also built a pair of riverfront skyscrapers facing the Allegheny neighborhood where the two boys grew up. With its distinctive seven-story archway, the Fulton Building (now the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel) remains a beloved Pittsburgh landmark, even if few connect it with Phipps. In 1901, Phipps chose Grosvenor Atterbury, a Paris-trained architect of country homes for the wealthy, to design his five-story New York townhouse. Phipps then commissioned Atterbury to draw up 13-story office towers to flank Sixth Street in Pittsburgh. Similar in design, both were named for inventors Phipps admired: Bessemer, of the blast furnace, and Fulton, the steamboat man. The Fulton opened in 1906, a year after the Bessemer (which was demolished in 1964). Its grand marble lobby featured a store selling graphophones, records and kinetoscopes. Upstairs offices all boasted a river view thanks to the unique arched light court. Phipps’ vaudeville palace, with its long entry through his skyscraper’s riverfront side, lives on as the Byham Theater. Originally the Gayety, it switched to movies in 1930. Ernest Stern, owner of several cinemas, bought it in 1961; four years later, Stern bought the entire Fulton Building from the U.S. government, which had used it since the end of World War II as headquarters for various federal offices. The zombie flick “Night of the Living Dead” had its world premiere at the theater in 1968. #streetphotography #travelPennsylvania #pittsburgh #city  #explorePennsylvania #urbanphotography #pittsburghphotography  #architecture #citykillerz #Pennsylvaniaphotography   #streets #city_captures #street_photography #city #midwest_captures #capturedpittsburgh #Pennsylvania #architecturephoto #onlyinPennsylvania #city_captures #street_vision #citygrammer #Pennsylvaniaarchitecture #city #pennsylvaniaphotography #architecturephotography #raw_usa #cityscape #cityphotography (at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP1oXrKj7AJ/?utm_medium=tumblr

[stepchain46-blog]

That Not-So-Great Street: State Street in Transition

That Not-So-Great Street: State Street in Transition

by Patrick Steffes

Architectural Forum, 1933; highlights added by author

Fully 58 years before the Harold Washington Library Center was dedicated on October 4, 1991, the southern end of Chicago’s famed State Street shopping district was described in a 1933 edition of a national magazine as “horrendous” and teeming with “burlesque shows and midget radios”.

The battle between 1975 and 1991 to design, build, and open a new central Chicago Public Library is closely linked to the decades-long decline in the southern end of Chicago’s famed State Street shopping district, and the seemingly endless efforts to eradicate the more sordid portions of this internationally known retail destination. While a lively shopping, educational and residential neighborhood today, the area of South State Street around Congress Parkway was for decades seemingly stuck in a state of perpetual decline.

Northwest corner of Harrison St. and South State St., 10/26/63, Sigmund J. Osty visual materials (Chicago History Museum), box 2

Typical of the type of businesses on State Street south of Van Buren Street for decades was on the northwest corner of State and Harrison, seen above. Home to both the Funland Arcade (“Art Movies and “Art Books”) and Rialto Burlesque (“Girls Girls Girls”), behind it may be seen some of the extant buildings on South Plymouth Court, including one with a Linotype sign at top left.

With the Harold Washington Library Center turning 25 years old in 2016, Forgotten Chicago thought it an appropriate time to look at the long quest to reinvigorate South State Street, and the long and complicated saga of how the largest municipal library in the United States ended up in the midst of what had once been one of the most notorious urban sections in the Midwest. We hope you enjoy this look at the tremendous changes to South State Street, featuring images unseen in decades, with many that have never before been published online.

The second part of this article may be seen here, and describes the long journey to build what would ultimately become the Harold Washington Library Center.

Calumet412, 1944

In the above image dated from 1944, the west side of the 600 block of South State Street (two blocks south of the future site of the Harold Washington Library Center) features most of the seamier sides of urban life conveniently located in one block: burlesque, “high grade whiskey wine or gin”, tattoos, billiards (with illegal gambling?), and access to loans to pay for it all, presumably in the form of pawn shops. Seen in the images above and below is the still-extant Harrison Street entrance to the subway, underneath the burlesque sign.

South State St. at Harrison St., 1962, Sigmund J. Osty visual materials (Chicago History Museum), box 2

Virtually unchanged 18 years later, in 1962 the former Chicago Theatre was perhaps the dirty little cousin to the other Chicago Theatre about a mile to the north. Ironically, this one-time theatre building was at the time home to a Publix Cafeteria, with the Gayety and grandly named National Theatre both within easy stumbling distance.

Chicago Tribune, 1944

The near-comical prevalence of vice along South State Street was no laughing matter to Chicago’s civic and business leaders and retailers. Sears, Roebuck & Company, at its peak arguably the highest-profile, most influential and most successful company ever based in Chicago, was by far the largest department store chain in the country by the 1920s, and the second largest retailer in the U.S., trailing only grocer A&P.1 By 1963, Sears, Roebuck would be the world’s largest retailer,2 with its flagship store from 1932 to 1983 seen just two blocks north and right in the image above.

The Homeless Man on Skid Row, 1961

In an image published in 1961, nearly thirty years after the map describing South State Street as “horrendous” was published, the 600 block of South State’s “amazing diversity” of burlesque houses, low-rent hotels, and cafeterias were all going strong, as seen in this photograph taken from a City of Chicago Tenants Relocation Bureau publication.

Shown above is also the west side of the 600 block of South State, the same block as seen in the earlier image from 1944. In 2016 this entire block is the home of William Jones College Preparatory High School. The Pacific Garden Mission and its distinctive “Jesus Saves” neon sign above far left was relocated to the 1400 block of South Canal Street in 2007 for an expansion of Jones College Prep, completed in 2013.

C. William Brubaker Collection, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1978

At what would ultimately become the site of the Harold Washington Library Center on the 400 block of South State, little had changed for decades, as shown above in 1978. At that time, this side of the block featured two billboards advertising liquor, a burlesque theater, and a store at the northwest corner of Congress Parkway named “Cheap Willy’s”. Congress Parkway, the eastern end of the Eisenhower Expressway (I-290) was the main western gateway into central Chicago, and would carry tens of thousands of vehicles daily into the Loop, to Michigan Avenue, Chicago’s lakefront, and Lake Shore Drive.

State Street Responds to Outlying and Suburban Retail Competition, 1952-1979

Chicago Tribune, 1952

The dominance of State Street and Chicago neighborhood shopping districts in regional retail sales was unchallenged for decades, but new competition and rapidly growing suburbs and outlying Chicago neighborhoods would bring major changes after World War II. The grand opening in January 1952 of Lincoln Village, at the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and McCormick Boulevard in Chicago near the Lincolnwood border would begin a major shift in the retail landscape of the Chicago region. Designed by prolific retail architect Sidney Morris & Associates, Lincoln Village was the first of dozens of neighborhood and regional auto-oriented shopping centers to open in Chicago and its suburbs over the next 60 years.

Unlike several other pioneering auto-oriented city and suburban shopping centers like Evergreen Plaza (below), Lincoln Village continues to operate in 2016, and is well worth a visit for fans of overlooked landmarks of Chicagoland history and development. For an in-depth look at the history of Lincoln Village, visit this interesting link.

Honeywell Customized Temperature Control Ad, Architectural Record, 1953

In August 1952, just seven months after Lincoln Village opened, Evergreen Plaza, designed by Howard T. Fisher & Associates and Holabird & Root & Burgee, would open at West 95th Street and South Western Avenue in Evergreen Park. Briefly the largest shopping center in the Midwest until Northland Center in Southfield, Michigan opened in 1954, the mall portion of Evergreen Plaza closed in May 2013 and was demolished starting in October 2015.

Although outlying shopping centers would ultimately siphon hundreds of millions of dollars annually in retail sales from State Street and other neighborhood shopping districts, Chicago’s pioneering early shopping centers are often overlooked in the history of the Chicago region. Projects like Lincoln Village and Evergreen Plaza had an enormous impact on Chicagoland development, economics, and infrastructure.

Top: Chicago Tribune, 1958 Bottom: JaNae Contag, 2013

Recognizing Evergreen Plaza’s enormous historical significance, Forgotten Chicago made a concerted effort to rescue as much of Evergreen Plaza’s vast archives as possible. Following its closure in May 2013, we removed dozens of boxes full of thousands of pages of blueprints, business records, marketing material and ephemera from Evergreen Plaza that were left behind in the basements of this once-iconic regional shopping center.

Make No Little Plans for State Street Part I: The State Street Promenade

State Street Promenade, Chicago Plan Commission, 1953

In 1953, the year after Lincoln Village and Evergreen Plaza opened, the Chicago Plan Commission prepared a forgotten scheme that advocated building a nearly mile-long second-level skyway, the State Street Promenade, to connect all of the buildings on the east side of State Street from Randolph (150 North) to Congress (500 South). This expensive, complicated, and unrealized plan may have been prepared as a response to the outlying shopping centers that had recently opened or were in the planning stages.

Architectural Forum, 1951

A more detailed map of State Street in the early 1950s was published, ironically, in an article describing the planning for the massive new Old Orchard shopping center in North Suburban Skokie, announced in 1950. Sponsored by Marshall Field & Company, Old Orchard would open in 1956, the biggest competition up to that time for the dollars of well-heeled North Shore shoppers, and an enormous success that continues to thrive as of this writing. Note that the above map was published before the completion of the Congress / Eisenhower Expressway that would dramatically change the layout of the South Loop in the years ahead.

State Street Promenade, Chicago Plan Commission, 1953

Published 25 years before construction began on the ill-fated State Street Mall, the State Street Promenade was oddly presented in renderings as a destination for both families above left and single women attracting the attention of well-dressed men above right. Depicted as an up-to-the-minute shopping destination circa 1953, renderings depicted a “TV Theater” showing episodes of Milton Berle and Le Chat, presumably a cat-themed café. Note the second floor indoor “Promenade” entrance to Carson Pirie Scott showing their iconic three-part logo, depicted above center.

State Street Promenade, Chicago Plan Commission, 1953

Had the State Street Promenade been constructed, it would have profoundly changed retail and commercial real estate in the eastern part of the Loop. This plan would have also greatly diminished State Street’s greatest asset – the enormous numbers of street-level pedestrians and bustling street life that State Street was justifiably famous for, and the dream of every commercial real estate leasing agent today.

Inland Architect, 1968

The State Street Promenade apparently did not make it past the planning stage, and this scheme is not known to have been covered online or in any books or magazines on Chicago history until the publication of this article. While a limited number of skyways were constructed in and near the Chicago Loop, Chicago’s Pedway system is the modern successor of the State Street Promenade.

The first sections of Chicago’s modern Pedway connecting commercial and civic buildings opened by January 1966,3 centered around the former Brunswick Building at 69 West Washington. The Pedway has been greatly expanded in the ensuing 50 years.

The Economist, 1925

When Chicago’s modern Pedway system opened starting in the mid-1960s, it had been a civic improvement considered for at least 40 years. In the above 1925 scheme, leading local firm Graham, Anderson, Probst & White proposed a “Pedestrian Subway” under Randolph between LaSalle on the west and Beaubien Court and the Illinois Central railroad terminal on the east, with room for a future subway line, as seen above. The accompanying article noted the public safety benefit of such a scheme and that “Pedestrians would not be in imminent peril of being killed by some careless chauffeur as they are at the present time.”

Make No Little Plans for State Street Part II: The State Street Mall

C. William Brubaker Collection, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1979

Beginning at 9:30 a.m. CDT on Saturday, June 17, 1978, State Street would undergo its most radical change to date as traffic was banned for private vehicles along State Street from Congress Parkway to Wacker Drive in advance of construction of the State Street Mall.4 Shown above and below is a rendering of South State Street at the intersection of Madison Street, with the iconic Carson Pirie Scott store visible in images above and below at left.

Inland Architect, 1979

Despite renderings showing a lively mix with throngs of pedestrians and outdoor dining and food carts, the State Street Mall before it was demolished and the street reopened to traffic in November 1996 did not live up to its promise in revitalizing State Street, including the section where the Harold Washington Library Center would ultimately be built between Van Buren and Congress.

The demise of the State Street Mall is long and complicated. For insight by The Chicago Tribune upon its reopening to public vehicular traffic, visit here. The New York Times looked at State Street Mall prior to its de-malling here. Finally, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Art History, Architecture & Urban Planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago Robert Bruegmann discussed on WBEZ in 2011 why the State Street Mall failed here.

The Battle Over Chicago’s New Central Library

Chicago Tribune, 1975

In the mid-1970s, Chicago’s venerable central library on North Michigan Avenue between Washington and Randolph Streets was being converted to the Chicago Cultural Center, and the library began moving to the Mandel Building Warehouse at 425 North Michigan starting in August 1975.5In the ensuing 16 years, Chicago would see no fewer than six mayors, and a tremendous amount of discussion and controversy on where to permanently locate the new central library.

The second part of this article was also published in September 2016, and may be seen here. This article examines the many proposed plans of what would ulimately become the Harold Washington Library Center, as well as what remains of historic South State Street today.

Sources

1. Marc Levinson, The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America, (New York : Hill and Wang, 2011), pg. 113

2. Marc Levinson, The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America, (New York : Hill and Wang, 2011), pg. 257

3. First Outlet in Underground System Opened, Realty & Building, January 8, 1966, pg. 3

4. Building Begins on State Street, Realty & Building, June 24, 1978, pg. 1

5. Meg O’Connor, Downtown library is on the move, Chicago Tribune, August 28, 1975, pg. pg. N_B2

Read More

This article was last updated on Tuesday, September 13th, 2016 at 9:31 am.

Source: https://forgottenchicago.com/articles/that-not-so-great-street-state-street-in-transition/

[unconventional-hero]

Chapter 9-- The Delmonico Ball

Written by “Slug 5″

(In which Jack proves to be a handsome dancer.)

* * * * *

It came off at last, turning the head of New-York’s most fashionable and aristocrats’ society with its brilliancy.

With Mabel Reynolds, especially, it had been the absorbing topic of interest for days. It would be the second ball since her “coming out” party and she was wild with excitement over the affair.

“Only to think!” she had said to her confidential friend, Ethel, as she sat in her room deep in the mysteries of lace and tulle, “That handsome Westerner, Mr. Morningstar, will be there! O, I intend to throw out my most enticing shafts to him. I mean to lure him away from all the other girls if I can.” And she glanced admiringly in the direction of the French mirror as she tossed her queenly head coquettishly.

“O, for shame Mabel!” exclaimed Clyde McClure, who had also dropped in for a friendly chat, “What would the gentlemen say if they knew you were playing at that game!”

“They do know it, you goosie, and expect it too. O, he’s not the first man I’ve gathered into my net!”

“I would blush, Mable, even to think of such a thing. No gentleman of honor, I am sure, could admire a girl for it!”

“O, yes, you are all innocence now, my dear, but first wait until you have entered society and you’ll be as bad as the rest of us.”

To this Clyde made no remonstrance. She felt hurt and shocked; and mentally resolved that she never would cheat her own heart that way.

“O, Mabel,” chimed in Ethel, who had hitherto remained silent, “You ought to try your charms on Mr. Ashton! O, he is the most comical person on earth, the other day when I met him at McClure’s I disgraced myself by laughing the whole time. I never met any one who is so original, did you Clyde?” and Ethel laughed merrily at the remembrance.

“No, I never did, but Ethel, do you know that for all his outlandish ways, papa likes him for he is so frank and good.” Thus the three girls chatted on until a late hour in the afternoon when Ethel and Clyde together took their departure.

But to return to the ball. The doors of the great parlors swung invitingly open, displaying their wealth of colored lights and delicately arranged flowers. The smart looking ushers, radiant in white gloves and splendid livery stand, at their posts and the company, in full dress, has begun to assemble. Mrs. Landhurst in black velvet and diamonds is blooming and bows genially to right and left.

Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, and son are among the first arrivals; then come the Stewarts, Goulds, and Astors. But every head is turned as down the long corridors, with head erect and eye flashing, marches the “lion” of the evening “Mr. Morningstar,” followed by his friend “Mr. Ashton.”

“Oh! yes,” whispers matronly ladies with marriageable daughters, “A millionaire, and handsome. It is rumored that he is the son of an earle!”

“No, no, you mistake, a lord I think!”

“Ah! You ladies rave over the handsome Westerner,” spoke up Mr. Reynolds, who had been hovering near and overheard the remark, “but his-- you cannot deny that his unpolished friend ‘Ashton’ has by far the finest physique!”

“O, and the finest eyes, too; as clear as a girl’s, but then, he is so-- a regular bore-- and uncouth--” and the speaker tosses her head distainfully.

Mr. Reynolds’, be it said, had been enstalled again in Jack’s favor ever since a curt invitation came to him one morning, shortly after the theater party, saying, that “Jack Morningstar would be pleased to see Mr. Reynolds at his room at 10 o’clock, as the writer wished to explain his most extraordinary conduct on the night of the theater.”

Mr. Reynolds had gone. What passed between them no one knew, but since then he had always addressed him as “Ashton” and grasped his hand more cordially at meeting. Mrs. Reynolds, too, it would seem had been taken into the secret; for she now looked at him admiringly as he was about to pass her, on his way to a partially unoccupied corner; graceful, and dignified as a king, but inwardly ill at ease.

“Ah! Mr. Ashton,” she says cordially, and he bows his kingly head very differentially and is about to pass on. But she detains him. “Quite a pleasure to see you among us tonight. Where are you going so fast? One would take you for some noted recluse, you seem to take so little notice of the crowd!”

“In fact, Mrs. Reynolds, I take too much notice of everything. I don’t feel like I or’ter be here. I am sure I never could say any thing to those fine young ladies over there with all them bows and fixins, and those bare arms and necks with the green lights shining all over ‘em! Poor things! do you really suppose Mrs. Reynolds that they hadn’t time to make sleeves in their dresses?”

He spoke so earnestly and his deep, lustrous eyes looked so pityingly at the young ladies in question, that Mrs. Reynolds could not repress a smile. Jack, however, grew confused, embarrassed at having said so much.

“You forget, Mr. Ashton, that this is one of the most fashionable affairs of the season and the young ladies’ dresses are quite becoming of the occasion,” explains Mrs. Reynolds cooly.

“Oh! I beg your pardon. Good evening!” and Jack takes rapid strides across the room and seats himself near an archway of sago palms, conscious that he has said something quite irrelevant, but secretly disapproving of the “bare arms.”

“I know Clyde would never go out among men like that,” he secretly tells himself, while a slight blush suffuses his face. But soon his thoughts are carried onward to other scenes; and he finds himself listening to the magical enthrallments of the orchestra as the rapturous strains vibrate and quiver through parlors and corridors and hall.

He looks up. The company is forming for the waltz. He sees Jim at the other end of the hall with Mrs. Landhurst on his arm. A wild desire seizes him. He is passionately fond of waltzing. In Bozeman he had no superiors; not even Jim could rival him. He is carried beyond himself. He forgets where he is. His feet seem to slip from the floor and he is wending his way across the room and bowing before Mabel Reynolds.

She is startled-- surprised-- she tells herself that he is handsomer by far than Mr. Morningstar with whom she has been flirting all evening-- and hopes that he will not appear so very awkward on the floor-- at least she will not refuse-- she rises gracefully-- coquettishly-- and he leads her to the other end of the hall.

Well for him that she does not allow his interest to flag; but keeps chattering to him in her pretty, clever way until the waltz has begun and they are whirling away down the long corridor in the brightest haze of ecstatic gayety.

Faster and faster he whirls her-- their feet hardly seeming to touch the polished floor-- Mabel almost holds her breath in wonder and bewilderment. How graceful he is-- how lithe-- never in all his life has he appeared to such an advantage: his dark, liquid eyes are alight with pleasure; his broad brow, from which he has thrown the shining curls carelessly backward, crowns his head like a star; and he upholds gently, but firmly the slender though queenly form of the fair girl. He forgets himself; he dreams that he is now in Bozeman again; waltzing in the public hall with Betty, and he gives himself up to the moment’s enjoyment.

All eyes are turned upon them now. The other parties have ceased waltzing; but still Jack and Mabel glide on. Jack quite oblivious of the admiring glances but Mabel noting them with pleasure and is radiant.

Jim is standing among a group of ladies; they are all watching the figure on the floor; Jim, with an oath under his breath. “Curse him!-- what business has he making himself so conspicuous!” he mutters with a frown; “I must stop it-- but-- he is handsome-- I wish ten thousand times that the fellow was back at Bozeman.”

“What were you saying Mr. Morningstar? I was lost in admirations and did not catch your words.” Ethel Landhurst looked up at him inquiringly, and as she did so, she caught the deep look of hatred-- envy-- wickedness-- in his eyes and on his brow; and she involuntarily moved a step backward. Was he jealous of Mr. Ashton she wondered-- Oh! he-- he loved Mabel! The thought went like a dart to her heart.

“Mr. Morningstar” turns. “It was nothing-- nothing, Miss Landhurst. I only remarked that Ashton’s step is rather too high.”

“Do you really think so? Why I have never seen such grace-- such perfectly lovely waltzing in all my life! At least, Mabel Reynolds enjoys it. I do hope he will engage me for the next set!”

Jim mentally vows that he shall not, and grinds his teeth behind firmly set lips. He is mortified; he is angered; and he turns pale as death.

Meantime Mabel, exhausted, begs her companion to conduct her into the open air. Jack leads her to a sociable before an open window where they are partially screened by drooping fern leaves and semi-tropical plants.

“You have given me quite a surprise Mr. Ashton; where did you learn to waltz so beautifully? I had not the slightest idea that you knew any thing about it!”

“Didn’t, eh? Well now that’s strange! It does seem sor’ter awkward to me, bein’s I haven’t tried my hand at it for several months.”

Now that the excitement attending the pleasure is passed he feels embarrassed and “out of place” again; and the hot blood rushes to the very top of his forehead as he finds himself seated by the side of this daughter of Fashion with arms and neck gleaming all rose from the colored shades of the chandelabra.

“Why Mr. Ashton you have made yourself quite the “lion” of the evening! Didn’t you notice that every body was looking at you?”

“A lion! well now, I’m sorry for that! What is it that makes me look fierce? Is it my hair, Miss Reynolds? I’ll have it cut off tomorrow if it is!”

Mabel’s eyes are running over with merriment but she answers quite seriously.

“O, no, pray don’t! It is so becoming. I meant that you were--” a hand is laid on “Mr. Ashton’s” shoulder and a voice at his ear says, “Henry, I am ill. Will you go home with me?” They both turn and see “Mr. Morningstar” standing between the parted fern leaves; his face pale as death. 

[kansascityhappenings]

Ghost tours and other lore in the Kansas City area and beyond

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ghosts, ghouls, spooks and more — if you want to find something to make you rethink your surroundings, a ghost tour is only a few steps away.

Kansas City established on June 1, 1850 is full of lore and tales about the paranormal. The city took part in the Civil War on October 23, 1864 in the Battle of Westport, with Union soldiers having victory over the Confederacy. Kansas City has a long history with gangsters, political upheaval, the Victorian era, trains, a strong immigrant base, and a sharp rise in wealth for the Midwest. Not far from here are equally as bizarre of places from the haunted hotels in Eureka Springs, Arkansas; the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph; and legends about the indigenous peoples who lived here before European settlers took over the land.

Whether these tales are just for fun or have some grounding in science or history, people have claimed to see spooks. People have said orphan ghosts wander at Belvoir Winery, that Civil War soldiers loom at historic houses, and other apparitions roam about the Kansas City metro — often repeating their last moments.

History of ghost lore and science’s inquiry

Wikipedia. Engraving of the Hammersmith Ghost in Kirby’s Wonderful and Scientific Museum, a magazine published in 1804

In folklore, a ghost is the spirit or soul of a dead person or animal that appears among the living. The overwhelming consensus in science is that ghosts don’t exist, and the event being witnessed has some real world explanation.

Ghost lore has existed across the globe for millenniums. Scientific explanations for these events have risen over the past couple of centuries with the age of reason and enlightenment.

The physician John Ferriar wrote “An Essay Towards a Theory of Apparitions” in 1813. He found that sightings of ghosts were the result of optical illusions. Later the French physician Alexandre Jacques François Brière de Boismont published “On Hallucinations: Or, the Rational History of Apparitions, Dreams, Ecstasy, Magnetism, and Somnambulism” in 1845. The French physician argued sightings of ghosts were mere hallucinations.

Jumping forward to a more modern age, Benjamin Radford from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and author of the 2017 book “Investigating Ghosts: The Scientific Search for Spirits” argued that “ghost hunting is the world’s most popular paranormal pursuit” but ghost hunters are far lacking in a clear definition of what is a ghost and proof of its existence. Radford called it “all speculation and guesswork.” He writes that it would be “useful and important to distinguish between types of spirits and apparitions. Until then, it’s merely a parlor game distracting amateur ghost hunters from the task at hand.”

Several academic studies have found that experiences of a haunting are tied to environmental factors, lighting levels, and slight changes in air we might not notice.

There is also the “Stone Tape” theory. It argues if something has enough energy it could end up being recorded into the surroundings, like rock or particularly limestone. This capturing would be similar to how moments are captured in film and then played back.

Popular Kansas City ghosts and sightings

The Belvoir Winery in Liberty was a sweeping lodge in the 1890s. It had several buildings associated with it on a 170-acre plot along Missouri Highway 291.

The Belvoir opened up a nine-room bed and breakfast on the third floor of the main building. Some guests have reported coming across strange unwanted presences and then promptly leaving. If you need a good creepy movie about orphans, check out The Orphanage, a 2007 Spanish film by J.A. Bayona, Guillermo del Toro worked as a producer.

2. Hartman Hardware in Shawnee has also given people goosebumps. The hardware store had a paranormal investigation team come in — one associated with Ghost Stories of Kansas, after the group decided to start a tour of downtown Shawnee. That space was once used as a lodge hall where dances were held.

Aside from Hartman Hardware, within a two-block radius there are stories of a bar lady who likes to cross through the hall of a former salon, a ghost who would mysteriously ring the doorbell of a photo studio, the lingering scent of cigars in a smoke-free business, and sounds of chairs going up and down in the closed old theater.

On another historic note, there are legends about the Quantrill’s Raiders. They’re most well-known for burning Lawrence to the ground during the Bleeding Kansas period leading up to the Civil War; they did a dry run in Old Shawnee.

3. Hanging out at the Muehlbach Hotel is a ghost known as “The Blue Lady.” Described as a blonde in her early 30’s, she wears a 1920s-style blue dress with her hair tucked up into a wide-brimmed hat. Some have speculated that she is the ghost of an actress who once played at the Gayety Theater next door, and she is searching the Muehlebach for a lost lover. Her description sounds an awful lot like Daisy Buchanan from the popular Great Gatsby novel.

4. Longview Farm in Lee’s Summit was built between 1912 and 1914. Loula Long Combs is said to have treated stray dogs with kindness and spent much of her time with her favorite horse, Revelation. Loula died in 1971 at the age of 90. Students at the nearby Longview Community College have reported hearing ghostly hooves on pavement, and catching glimpses of an unknown woman on horseback.

5. Father Henry David Jardine is said to have unfinished business clearing his name. St. Mary’s Episcopal Church is one of the oldest congregations in town — dating back to 1857, before the Civil War. The father helped organize the parish from 1879 to 1886. He also founded two schools and had a hand in the creation of the hospital that would become St. Luke’s. Father Jardine’s death in St. Louis was ruled out as a suicide. He was not buried in a consecrated ground until he was officially exonerated 35 years later. Today eerie noises heard at the church are attributed to Father Jardine, who some say is trying to tell the truth about his death.

6. A Halloween masquerade ball meant to celebrate the night and lavish up with some treats resulted in the horrific deaths of two coal shovelers. It happened in 1910, and according to the legend, a phantom clanking of pipes is heard at The Elms Hotel & Spa around 1:30a.m. — the exact time of the historic blaze.

Frank Nash | FBI Records

7. One of the most horrific moments in Kansas City history has led to a plethora of lore and speculation. The Kansas City Massacre at the Union Station happened on June 17, 1933. The shootout and murder of four law enforcement officers rocked the country. A gang led by Vernon Miller meant to free Frank “Jelly” Nash, but things didn’t go as planned: Nash was killed in the gunfire. Nash had a long history in crime from murders to bank robberies. Some say his body was shattered, but his spirit still roams the station.

85 years into the present, local lore looms about Nash’s ghost. Some say the ghost repeats his last stretch through the station on his way to the lawmen’s car. Some say he is searching for answers as to what went wrong when the gang members went looking for him. People have reported hearing footsteps in the Union Station but not seeing a single person. Maybe the tormented soul still wishes he could be in the bank robbing business.

Charles Arthur Floyd, better known as Pretty Boy Floyd | FBI Records

8. Following the Kansas City Massacre, Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd, one of the gang members involved in the botched shootout, returned to the Armor Hills home of his girlfriend, where he planned his escape. He hid there for a short time before hiding in various spots in the U.S. The house at 6612 Edgevale now has a ghostly reputation, with doors that refuse to stay closed, lights that flicker, and things that go bump in the night in both the attic and the basement.

9. A more recent ghost legend, the Kemper Arena is said to be haunted by the late WWE wrestler, Owen Hart. He died there in 1999. He fell from the ceiling while attempting a stunt. His ghost has been reported to be seen wearing a blue blazer, looking down the top of the arena.

Ghost tours

If you’re looking for a nearby ghost tour, here is a list. If ghosts are not really your thing, many of these tours also have historical highlights.

Kansas City Ghost Tours: The ghost tour begins at Fat Matt’s Vortex Bar, located at 411 N. 6th Street on historic Strawberry Hill. Fat Cat is said to be haunted. It used to house a funeral home and the crematorium is still in the basement. You’ll learn about the history of downtown KCK and visit several haunted locations including a cemetery, a high school, an abandoned church, a Memorial Hall, a fire station, and a theater among many other  businesses. You’ll get out at two locations, including Kaw Point. People are encouraged to bring cameras.

Haunted Ghost Tours in Independence: Visitors will tour the 1859 Jail and Marshal’s Home to learn about the history of the building and some of the haunts there. Part of the tour is in a covered wagon which takes guests around the Historic Independence Square. Guests will be told several ghost stories at the square. The tour takes approximately two hours. The Haunted Ghost Tours benefit the Jackson County Historical Society.

Wikipedia. Portrait of Mark Twain by Mathew Brady, February 1871

Haunted Hannibal Ghost Tours: Includes a bus tour and cemetery walk for those interested in the ghosts of Hannibal. The city is winery-driven and close to St. Louis. The 90 minute driving tour goes  through the historic district. Part of the tour looks at Mark Twain’s childhood and ghost sightings on Main Street. Search the graves of slaves and Civil War soldiers with a paranormal investigation of Old Baptist Cemetery. Tours daily from April through October at 7:00p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the Hannibal History Museum. Kids 10 and under are $7.50 while adults are $15.

Missouri State Penitentiary — Jefferson City: A two hour walking history tour as well as a separate ghost tour at the prison. Guests are encouraged to bring a flashlight and camera. Minimum age of guests is 14. There is also a three hour guided ghost hunt where visitors can engage in a paranormal investigation with detection equipment. The prison was opened in 1836 and held a number of famous prisoners including the assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1967, Time Magazine called it the bloodiest 47 acres in America. It was closed in 2004.

Pythian Castle Ghost Tour — Springfield, MO Tour lasts an hour and a half and includes brief history. Photos allowed. $17.04 (includes tax & fee) when purchased online. Tour must have a minimum of 8 to run. The Pythian Home of Missouri, also known as Pythian Castle, was built in 1913 by the Knights of Pythias and later owned by the U.S. Military. It is now privately owned and open to the public by appointment. German and Italian prisoners-of-war were assigned here during World War II for medical treatment and as laborers.

Wikipedia. Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs, Arkansas, circa 1886

Cresent Hotel Ghost Tour — Eureka Springs, AR: Rumored to be the most haunted hotel in the United States. The Crescent Hotel & Spa is perched high above the Victorian village of Eureka Springs, which is recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It hosts a regular ghost tour that goes down into the no-longer-in-use morgue. Norman G. Baker used the hotel promoting a cure for cancer in the 1930s. The quack doctor’s methods didn’t work.

Basin Hotel — Eureka Springs, AR: At the hotel, the Basin Park Ghost Tour  covers the history of gang activity there and explores how to do a paranormal investigation.  The tour gives exclusive access to the rooftop of the hotel and a view of the underground cave where bootleg liquor was stored.

Wikipedia. Image of the Spooklight taken by photographers in the early 1900s.

The Spooklight — Joplin, MO: Also called the Hornet Spooklight, Hollis Light, and Joplin Spook Light. It is a light that appears in a small area known locally as the “Devil’s Promenade” on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma, west of the small town of Hornet, Missouri.

Even though it is named after a small, unincorporated community in Missouri from which it is most commonly reached, the light is usually visible from inside the Oklahoma border looking to the west. The Spooklight is described as a single ball of light or a tight grouping of lights that is said to appear in the area regularly, usually at night. Several legends exist that attempt to describe the origin of the Spooklight. One of the more popular legends involves the ghosts of two young Native American lovers who are searching restlessly for each other.

Ghost Stories at Mid-Continent Public Library branches around the KC metro:

Mon, Oct 15 at 6:30 pm at Riverside Branch Mon, Oct 22 at 6:30 pm at Grandview Branch Mon, Oct 29 at 6:30 pm at Oak Grove Branch Sat, Nov 3 at 11:00 am at Weston Branch

Beginning Paranormal Research for Teens: Register at any Mid-Continent Public Library branch or online.

Ghost Freakers Ball 2018:

October 27 at the Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland in Kansas City, MO.

If you are interested in learning more about the paranormal around Kansas City, check out this website with the Kansas City paranormal investigators.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2018/10/14/ghost-tours-and-other-lore-in-the-kansas-city-area-and-beyond/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2018/10/14/ghost-tours-and-other-lore-in-the-kansas-city-area-and-beyond/